Welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.
Today is Friday, January 22, and I am late! I apologize — our spring semester began this week and I taught a new course for two hours this morning, so I was a bit distracted. I really do need to set up these posts in advance for automated posting, but I like adding in stuff about what actually happened this week.
A LOT happened in the US this week; we have a new President and VP, and we had inauguration events that started on Tuesday and continued much of the week. My son went back to his college dorm this week; we will miss him so much! We got spoiled, having him home for the last two months. I don’t know what our dog Lucy will do, although she still has four humans here to spoil her. She has a particular soft spot for the youngest, though.
One of the Christmas gifts we sent off with him was a restock bottle of Davidoff’s Cool Water, his fragrance of choice for the last few years. I chose it for him at his request for recommendations, because it is a quality scent but very affordable when he has to buy it himself. Created by Pierre Bourdon, it was launched in 1988 and is widely thought to be the progenitor of many (if not most) “aquatic” scents. Top notes are listed as Sea water, Lavender, Mint, Green Notes, Rosemary, Calone and Coriander; middle notes are Sandalwood, Neroli, Geranium and Jasmine; base notes are Musk, Tobacco, Oakmoss, Cedar and Amber. However, it has been reformulated over the years, so I’m not vouching for that note list! It’s enough to say that it smells fresh, clean, and summery, with a youthful vibe but not so much that only the young can wear it.
What has your week been like, in fragrance or just regular living? Are you sticking to any New Year’s resolutions? We are doing a Sober January in this house — so far, so good!
Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities 
I am on day 22 of my year long project – and have settled into “favorite friday”, “sample Sunday” and “mini Monday” as secondary goals – as long as supplies last! Today is Eau des Baux, lots of sprays. I’ll need even more this weekend as our water heater died last night so no hot water until Monday evening when the new tankless system will be installed. (The upside of spending a little extra on the new system is that I can finally use my overlarge bathtub – the old tank didn’t have enough capacity to fill it. Have a great weekend!
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I love overlarge bathtubs! We got a tankless water heater several years ago when we built and addition and it’s great. I hope you like it! So sorry to hear it’s coming because of the old one dying, ugh. We’re still in plumbing demolition hell here but we finally seem to have the right contractor.
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I don’t bathe often and we only have a shower, but sometimes in winter I would really like a bathtub.
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In my “previous life” I lived through months of no hot water in summer (not by choice), and it was not fun, but even a couple of days in winter are tough. My sympathies. But the upside of being able to use your bathtub should give you strength 🙂
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Just enjoying feeling like I can breathe again with the new president and VP installed. For 4 years I woke up every day with a feeling of doom and dread about what Trump might do that day. Thank God that nightmare is over.
I fulfilled my main resolution for 2021, to get my covid 19 vaccine shots. Husband and I got our first Moderna vaccine dose on Tuesday, Jan. 19. My arm was really sore for 3 days and I felt rather flu-ish one day but that was it. Basically a piece of cake. Our county was very organized and the shots were given by EMT’s. Hard to complain when a very handsome young man gives you the shot! I had a much milder reaction than I had to the pneumonia vaccine or the 2 Shingrix vaccines. Looking forward to the second dose on Feb. 16.
I’m enjoying some new fragrances I bought in 2020 that finally arrived from Europe, Bois 1920 Centenario and Christian Provenzano Iris d’Orient. Iris d’Orient is divine, a buttery orris with spices and musks. So gorgeous. Reminds me of Prada Purple Rain, but more spicy. Looking forward to Ormonde Jayne’s One.5, hopefully arriving tomorrow. I had a chance to get it on sale so I took it. I ordered some Mizensir samples but they are backordered from Luckyscent. Hope everyone is well.
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I’m so glad to hear you got your first shot and are scheduled for the second! I have read that the Moderna vaccine provides a high level of immunity even after just the first shot, so I’m sure you are relieved. I’m not in the right category for vaccination yet, so I’m still exercising a lot of caution, and may be more cautious for a while with this new variant making the rounds. Iris d’Orient sounds gorgeous.
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We will still be very careful after getting the 2nd vaccine. WeI’ll keep wearing our masks everywhere and washing hands often. There is still a 5% chance of getting Covid 19 even after the shots so I’m not taking any risks. There are a few nutty anti-maskers in my area so care is needed.
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My post ended up in spam I believe.
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I’m so sorry this keeps happening! I have comments set so that someone who has previously had a comment approved shouldn’t go into spam, but I’ll have to dig deeper to find out what the issue is.
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WP just can’t believe that in this day and age someone is still writing several paragraphs of real words in comments. Of course, it must be spam-robot! Grrr! I tried to find a solution but couldn’t. Please share if you figure it out.
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No worries! I’ll just let you know if it happens again.
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We are still in lockdown and curfew and are only allowed to meet just one other person, so it’s pretty, quiet here. Today I am wearing a sample of Civet, before it evaporates. Will do some cooking for the weekend and make a libanese orange cake too, so I got enough to do.
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The orange cake sounds delicious — your kitchen will smell wonderful!
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I’m glad it’s a weekend. I slept in, though some crazy automated soliciting system kept calling (to add an insult to injury, it didn’t even work properly, and all it was saying in 5-6 seconds of silence was “Goodbye”).
During the week I was testing many new (for me) perfumes. Not sure if I like any of them – but I’ll keep testing and maybe write something about them.
I need to get out of the bed, eat and take a picture for my post tomorrow – I just need to figure out the best spot for that: it’s quite gloomy today.
I’m sorry you miss your son. I understand that this is an expected life progression with kids leaving parents’ house, but the separation period after each period together must be tough for parents. Give a pet to your dog: for her it’s even harder (in a way, of course) because she doesn’t know why he’s not around any more.
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You’re right! Lucy will be confused for a while. Luckily for us, our son goes to college nearby, but we try to leave him be as much as possible so he gets to have that independent college experience. The proximity has made weathering the pandemic easier, though. And he’ll be back briefly in February when he gets his wisdom teeth out.
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Our doggos were confused when our son left for college and they would go absolutely crazy with happiness when he came home for weekends. Lucky for us he hated his freshman roommate so he came home a lot the first year. It was only a 2.5 hour drive.
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