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, May 19, and we are back from our Bermuda holiday. Sigh. It was so beautiful and relaxing. Luckily, I had the foresight to take yesterday and today off work also, so I can ease back into regular routines and hold on to some of the vacation vibe a bit longer.
Last weekend, we had a fabulous visit to The Bermuda Perfumery in St. George, home of Lili Bermuda fragrances, and we had tea with our friends in their garden. The next day, Mother’s Day, I was served a lovely breakfast by my family and was “given” the Lili Bermuda fragrance I had chosen the day before: Bermudiana. I had tried Mary Celestia, whose back story intrigued me, but the fragrance wasn’t as interesting as the story, and it didn’t seem to last on my skin.
I was able to do more reading than usual on this holiday, and I read more of Bermuda’s early history. I had known before that it was first inhabited by English sailors whose ship, the Sea Venture, on its way to re-supply the struggling English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, had been blown far off course by a hurricane and shipwrecked at Bermuda. Apparently the true story of this adventure provided Shakespeare with the inspiration for “The Tempest”. What I hadn’t fully realized before is just how desperate the conditions at Jamestown were, by contrast with the plentiful lushness, safety, and beauty of Bermuda. No wonder there were a few mutinous uprisings during the ten months that the crew and passengers of the Sea Venture were on Bermuda — many of them didn’t want to leave their newfound paradise for a settlement they already knew was in trouble — insufficient supplies, attacks from Native Americans, disease, etc.
On our way home, I picked up another Lili Bermuda fragrance in the duty-free shop: Pink. It is a very pretty floral, and I look forward to getting to know it better. I’m counting it as a supplemental Mother’s Day gift, lol! Speaking of Mother’s Day, I was very touched by the number of local people who wished me a happy Mother’s Day while just passing by on the lane that led to the beach. Bermudians are famous for their old-fashioned manners (you do NOT get on a bus or request help or information at a counter without first greeting the person with “Good morning”, or “Good afternoon”), but this was next-level courtesy.
I’m already planning some more “perfume tourism”; I will tag along with my husband on one of his work trips to London this fall, and we hope to take our family to France next summer, as a delayed graduation/anniversary trip (we were supposed to go in the summer of 2020). A new “Perfumer’s Garden” is about to open at Versailles, sponsored by Maison Francis Kurkdjian, and it looks gorgeous. Gardening AND fragrance — two of my loves, together!
Did you do anything special for Mother’s Day?
Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities 
Wooh, you were all sorts of spoiled. Just fabulous. That sounds like a really lovely holiday. I’m badly in need of some sun, the weather here is fairly abysmal so far.
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Yes, I was! The weather here at home is rainy and grey, but the rain kept my plants alive while we were gone, so no complaints. I’m ready for sun again, though!
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Bermudiana and Pink sound divine. My son and his family got me some lovely flowers for Mother’s Day, which was great as they are cheering me up after my surgery. The surgeon said everything went well and she got all the margins of the cancer with no trouble. And I chose the new Cire Trudon tuilieres candle and a bottle Nicolai’s Violette in Love for my Mother’s day gift to myself. 😉
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Nicolai’s Violette in Love is gorgeous! I’m loving it. It’s a very fresh violet scent with lovely citrusy top notes, violet, rose and other flowers mid note and a bit of woodiness in the base notes.
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I like all of the Nicolai scents I’ve tried, I should look for this one.
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Congratulations on the successful surgery! Will you have to do any further treatment like radiation?
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The doctors are recommending radiation, especially if they find any type of invasive cancer cells in the pathology report. I spoke with the head of the University of Florida radiation oncology dept and he made me feel better about it. Thanks so much for sharing your experience with me. It helped me a lot :-))
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As a radiation oncologist i can assure you this is nothing compared with chemotherapy.
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Thanks, Tanja! That makes me feel much better!
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So pleased your surgery went well. I hope you aren’t in too much pain & your wound in healing well.
DH is home after his op, far more quickly than expected but is needing lots of analgesia & IS NOT following discharge advice. I’m sure you’re behaving better ❤️
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Thank you for your kind words! I am doing everything I’m told. Not taking any chances! Surprisingly the pain isn’t too bad. I have 3 days worth of good painkillers and I think I’ll be fine with Tylenol after that. I’m just so relieved the surgery is over.
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I hope he does well in spite of not following instructions!
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So glad the surgery went well. Hope you are recuperating nicely.
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Thank you!
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I’m glad it’s behind you. I wish you a speedy recovery. Enjoy all your perfumes – old and new.
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Thanks!
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Sounds like you had a wonderful holiday! I think I’d be in culture shock adjusting to so much politeness but could get used to it. Excited to learn about the perfumer’s garden in Versailles!
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What a great trip! I loved Bermuda and would like to go back someday, not for work! And lucky you – London and France. Our next international trip will be spring of 2025, Case Western’s football team will travel to Ireland to play a couple of games against club teams there and parents get to tag along. In the meantime we are just beginning the design process for a kitchen renovation. The previous owners made some strange functional decisions and I have never liked it – we thought about “refreshing” but the functional issues convinced us to forge ahead with a full redo. Wish me luck. DH does NOT like chaos. At least my son will be at school for most of it so our food quantity needs are much lower! Have a great weekend! (Oh – wearing Stash today again as I was in a rush and paralyzed by indecision. “Dumb reach”!)
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I’m excited to hear more about the kitchen project as it unfolds! Having recently done a major rehab of several rooms (not the kitchen, thank goodness, as the rehab had to be done while all three of our young adult kids were back living at home), I wish you luck, and patience. We’re happy with our kitchen overall (after we redid it in 2006 or so), but we’re slowly replacing appliances. Love our new Bosch dishwasher! Our large old Maytag refrigerator is still going strong, but I’m thinking of replacing it in a year or two (after our son graduates) with a counter-depth fridge with French doors, to have more space between it and our island.
Ireland is great — we’ve only been there once, but we loved it! There are some great perfume stores in Dublin. Cloon Keen Atelier is in Galway, that would be fun to visit.
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I have a Bosch dishwasher. It’s fabulous, love it!!
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We replaced the old failed dishwashers in both of our houses with Bosch after having one in a rental condo many years ago. They are so nice!!
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We last renewed our kitchen 23 years ago & I’m still traumatised. When I retired I had the downstairs loo remodelled to have a proper wardrobe for coats & shoes & had the washing machine/dryer put in there. I bought a dishwasher, a new fridge freezer and range.
What I’d really like, if I won lotto would be a total redesign & extension downstairs & to push out into the garage.
DH would fight me in about the garage tooth & nail though.
If I sold all my fragrances it might cover a kitchen refresh. Not going to happen though!
I wore La Chasse au Papillons today. First scent since DH came home
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It was nice to read about your vacation. And I’m extremely envious about your London trip: I’m not sure any real vacation is in stars for me this year, let alone going to Europe. But I’ll read your report!
I think I tested LB line years ago, but I didn’t find anything I loved enough to buy any. Enjoy your “gifts” 🙂
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Wow, such a nice holiday. We had rain and cold temps all week
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I’m sorry you’ve had yucky weather! We’re having it now at home, but yes, last week in Bermuda was glorious weather most days, and what rain we had was brief.
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YAY for holidays and having an excellent Mother’s Day.
Perfume Tourism is a thing.
Portia xx
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I’m an avid practitioner!
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