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, April 12, and we had a total solar eclipse in the US this week! It was actually quite exciting, even though I don’t live in the path of totality. NASA had live-stream coverage from several locations, and that included scanning the crowds in various venues to show their reactions when the sky went dark. Where I live, the outside light got dimmer and we could see crescent-shaped shadows where the partially obscured sun’s rays were filtered by coming through the leaves of trees (a phenomenon I remember from 2017).

In 2017, I chose Jean Patou’s L’Heure Attendue as my SOTD for that eclipse, the Collection Heritage version by Thomas Fontaine. Sadly, Jean Patou perfumes are no more, having been equally and totally eclipsed by its new owners. This year, I wore Guerlain’s Chant d’Aromes, which I’ve been alternating recently with Diorella. They have several notes in common and I think both can be fairly described as “citrus chypres.” A modern citrus chypre that I love is 4160 Tuesdays’ Meet Me On the Corner, by Sarah McCartney. Interestingly, although L’Heure Attendue is definitely not a citrus chypre, it too shares some of the floral notes that Diorella and Chant d’Aromes have in common. Do you associate any fragrance(s) with eclipses, or the sun, or other natural phenomena?

And speaking of natural phenomena, here are my azaleas at peak bloom recently: