Welcome back 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 14, and it is the start of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend here in the US. I’m always heartened to see how many groups organize for a “day on, not a day off” on Monday, helping people take part in various service or educational projects. Since my city is expecting very cold weather and possibly snow on Sunday, and we’re still battling the omicron surge, I suspect that many of the activities will be virtual (as they were last January).
One of my colleagues remarked in a Zoom meeting today that the start of this semester feels rockier than usual. I tend to agree; and I wonder whether it is due to the ongoing disruptions caused by the pandemic. I’ve noticed that in addition to more crises, people also seem to have lost some of their ability to get along. Just in the two weeks of work since our winter break, I’ve experienced some truly rude behavior by professional colleagues, let alone students. In fact, the colleagues have been worse, with less justification!
My January has been brightened, though, by the ongoing opening of my January Joy Box from 4160 Tuesdays. Every other day, there’s a new fragrance to try. And then the discussion that ensues on the brand’s Facebook community page is often hilarious! This week, the scents were: Rose Goes to Town, British Summer, and All Made of Flowers. I love Rose Goes to Town, and I like the others a lot.
Have you been able to try or revisit any fragrances that helped dispel any January blahs? Do tell!
Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities 
Hi OH,
So interesting about your colleagues and students not being able to do close quarters politely any more.
Those 4160 boxes sound super fun.
Very little to report really but we did do a night at a hotel overlooking Sydney’s Hyde Park last night. Dinner with friends in Koreatown then dessert in Chinatown. They’re called that but Koreatown is only about 120m in a bit of an l shape. Chinatown is much more substantial and been in the same spot for decades, maybe even a century.
Portia xx
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That sounds like so much fun! NYC has an area we used to call “Indiatown” that was only a few blocks, not far from Chinatown that was much larger, and Little Italy, also quite large. So much good food!!
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NYC also has a Koreatown, half a block or so. Jin found it and we dined there. He tries EVERY cities Korean food if we have time.
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So I’m not the only one who’s noticed that people are less courteous than previously. There’s an air of impatience and exasperation about a lot of people lately. Who knows, maybe I’m a bit like that myself without realising? Though I really hope not. A lot of this week has been spent clearing out rubbish and unused items and clothes. I have packed my perfumes away, apart from 3 bottles and a small box of samples and decants. It will be interesting to see how I get on in my reduced circumstances 😉. SOTD is Franck Boclet Cocaine, gorgeously tropical.
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That Fragrance sounds fascinating! I like Franck Boclet Cashmere a lot. I’ll have to try the Cocaine one as I love tropical scents.
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I think it’s a combination of people feeling stressed out, and their social skills atrophying. I can’t believe we’ve been dealing with this for almost two years!
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How long will you have to live with the limited set of perfumes?
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I was craving something fresh this week and wore Eau de Lancaster this week and Biagiotti Roma, that i wear mostly in summer.
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I’m not familiar with those, though Roma pops up in various mentions. Isn’t there another Biagiotti fragrance that is something of a perfume unicorn, and hard to find?
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I’ve been wearing woody fragrances, Lutens’ Bois Vanille today. I had not worn it in a while and had forgotten how wonderful it is. It is very similar to a new fragrance I just bought, Jorum Studio’s Pentimento. I had seen Pentimento mentioned very favorably by hajusuuri and some others so got a small bottle. It’s quite lovely, has a tobacco note that Lutens’ Bois Vanille lacks, but similar in tone.
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I’m very intrigued by Jorum Studio! Also, I love Scotland.
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Me, too! Both my husband and I have lots of Scottish ancestors and Scottish DNA according to ancestry.com (if one can trust their tests). I’ve been wanting to visit Scotland for ages. We went to Ireland for our 25th wedding anniversary and we loved it. Wonderful country and wonderful trip.
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I love Ireland too — we were able to take a trip there in 2019, before the world closed down. I’d love to go back! Do you know what part of Scotland your families came from?
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My family is from the northeastern coast of Scotland, north of Inverness. It looks quite remote on the map, so no wonder they came to America! And my dad’s side of the family comes from Alsace. I do love being a tiny bit French, too!
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That’s an interesting human observation! I hope, it’s like with walking after being bedridden for a while: it’ll take some time to get everyone’s public manners back into tone. Thought, I wouldn’t blame just pandemic: there was enough happening in the last several years to contribute to the distraction of our society. Anyway, let’s hope for the best.
I decided that I finally wanted to test Memo perfumes at home (there are too many of them, so on those several occasions when I saw them at a store, I couldn’t decide which to put on skin), so I got one of their discovery sets. The first three: interesting to test, but I don’t need them as a bottle.
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I ordered the Memo discovery set also. I’ve liked a couple of the Memo fragrances and thought I would do more in depth sampling. Twisted Lily had a free shipping offer, too, so that tipped the scales for me.
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Which ones have you tried?
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Inle, Sintra and French Leather.
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