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, March 19, and I’m delighted to say that I got my first COVID vaccination shot yesterday! So far, so good; my arm is just a little sore. As hoped last week, my husband and I were able to go on Sunday to my “happy place” full of daffodils; as expected, they were magnificent! And inspired by Undina’s question on her blog, Undina’s Looking Glass, about photographing perfumes, I took my bottle of Ostara with us and took pictures of it in several locations among the millions of daffodils. I will say that I got some puzzled looks from other garden visitors, and one actually asked me what I was photographing as I crouched down to get closer to the flowers and the bottle! He laughed delightedly when I told him.
I’m sad to say, though, that I just found out that one of my favorite fragrance bloggers, Kafkaesque, has recently learned that almost 200 pages worth of her blog content has apparently been appropriated by an “author” in England who self-publishes books on Amazon. She is understandably very upset and angry, as she was never contacted for permission or informed of this use of her writings. Her blog is notable for her extensive knowledge of perfumes and her long, detailed explorations and analyses of them, and I have learned so much from her. She paused writing for some time but the blog was (and is) still up and available to read, and she resumed posting after the November 2020 elections. If you’re new to reading fragrance blogs, hers is very interesting and I recommend it. I don’t always agree with her take on scents, but I always admire her passion and knowledge!
In other news, I was touched to see a lovely article in this week’s New York Times about the late Carlos Powell, aka YouTube’s “Brooklyn Fragrance Lover.” I rarely watch video reviews of fragrances, I much prefer to read about them, but by all accounts, Carlos was a beloved and friendly member of the fragrance community and is missed by many. I really enjoyed reading more about him.
What are you looking forward to this weekend?
Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities 
I admit I did not realize that kafkaesque was writing again – but what a horrible situation. I can’t even fathom how someone could think they could lift another’s content like that.
I’m wearing Sonoma Scent Studio Wood Violet today for Favortie Friday. It’s warming up enough now that I’m pulling for the spring flower perfumes!
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I’m bringing out the spring ones too, including the florals that are the bulk of my collection. Even my fall and winter fragrances tend to the floral, like spicy roses.
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Love the daffodils photo! That is one thing I really miss here in Florida. I’ve never seen any daffodils here, probably too hot and humid overall for them. I have followed Kafkaesque for many years and she is so knowledgeable about perfumes. The crazy thing is that the plagiarist is a retired minister! The Reverend Thief I’m calling him. I feel great sympathy for her because she does so much research and puts so much work into her blogs and articles.
Finally, congratulations on getting your first vaccination! So happy for you. I will have reached full immunity after my second shot next week so the first thing I’m doing is going to my hairdresser. My hair is scary. I look like someone on a ‘;people of Walmart’ video. LOL
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OMG, I’ll be right behind you with a trip to the hair salon! It has been a full year since my last haircut, I had it done just before everything shut down here in the 3rd or 4th week of March. Silver lining: I normally get highlights to camouflage some greys, and a blowout, and I haven’t been doing that so my hair seems very healthy without all the interference.
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Haha, what’s this People of Walmart? Is it a Thing?👀 Enjoy that hairdresser visit. I can sympathise with you on the hair front, I’m a bit like a shaggy sheep at the moment.
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Love your photo, how cheerful is that? My own daffs are mostly out now too, though not nearly so plentiful as where you were. The weather has been very spring like all this week and I’ve done a very small bit of pottering in the garden. I’m not blessed with green fingers unfortunately. It’s more a case of trying to keep the weeds under control. Good that you haven’t had a reaction to your vaccine shot. Onwards and upwards. It will be some time before I’m called as I’m not in a danger zone either work or health wise. Had wonderful news from my daughter today, she’s been accepted into Uni for a Masters degree, plus a summer job that she was pinning her hopes on. Things are looking up for her after a few very grim years.
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Wonderful! Congratulations to your daughter! This pandemic has been so, so hard on young adults in terms of “launching.” My two daughters moved home with us: one after she lost the TWO jobs she was working, the other after college graduation (which wasn’t a live ceremony) because she didn’t yet have a job (she did get one, as a co-teacher). We’re just now seeing a slight uptick in the job market here, so fingers crossed for my oldest.
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Congratulations on your daughter’s acceptance into the master’s program! If you’re not in the US Walmart is a huge store that sells just about everything under the sun at lower prices than most other stores. It stays open quite late (or it used to) and people have been known to show up to shop in their pajamas, in bedroom slippers, in what looks like their underwear and other inappropriate clothing for being out in public. Some of these folks have wardrobe problems, showing too much skin accidentally, etc., I think it was a website or blog that someone started with photos of some of the more egregiously dressed Walmart customers and it was called “people of Walmart.” That phrase engendered a spate of memes, etc. Often the people parodied have very bad hair, their hair in curlers, hair with bad dye jobs (that’s me right now) and funky haircuts. I’m staying away from Walmart until my hair is done because I don’t want to end up a ‘bad hair at Walmart” meme. LOL
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Aha, yes, I get you now. It’s not only Walmart that hosts those particular fashionistas. I’m not in the U.S. but I have seen much the same here at times, it’s like an alternative fashion show.
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Happy for your daughter (and for you: I can only imagine how hard it is to watch when something doesn’t go well for your child).
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I’m very happy for her. She has made some very big life changes in the past year and things are improving for her.
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Inspired by your photo shoot, I plan to venture to the park closeby to see if mimosa is still blooming and if yes, take a picture with a perfume bottle 🙂
I hope you react well to the vaccination. I don’t know when our turn comes (it goes slowly here, under the hospital’s’ capacity because vaccines are coming in slower than expected. But hopefully we’ll get there eventually.
I didn’t know about Kafka’s predicament, but it’s extremely unpleasant. I can’t believe anyone would do something like this.
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The daffodils are out here to. Sadly I never smelled Ostara, sounds like a nice scent.
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It really is, it smells exactly like yellow daffodils. Very polleny.
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