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, October 25, and we’re back from our short beach trip, which was lovely! I’m enjoying another sample I got from the Jo Loves boutique in London in September: Jo by Jo Loves. Fragrantica classifies it as a “citrus aromatic”, which seems about right. Notes include grapefruit, lime, bitter orange, black pepper, vetiver, mint, guiac wood, cedar, and hedione. I happen to like a grapefruit note, though I know some do not, which is good because that is the strong opening accord. I like the way the citrus notes engage with each other, with lime and bitter orange playing hide and seek with the grapefruit. As it dries down, I smell more of the vetiver and mint, which bring an attractive green tinge to the composition. Basically, Jo by Jo Loves smells to me like a spicy, woody grapefruit! It is wholly unisex, in my view, and I think many men would enjoy it as a fresh cologne that doesn’t smell like everyone else’s. I’ll have to ask my son what he thinks!
Next week is Halloween in the US, but many of the parties celebrating Halloween will take place this weekend, when all the young adults can costume themselves, drink, and generally shed their inhibitions. I’ll be staying home, thank you! I do love the actual night of Halloween when the children come trick-or-treating. Our neighborhood goes all out for Halloween; we block off a couple of streets to cars, and it’s a very safe locale, so families from other parts of the city often come to walk around and ring doorbells.
Do you have any scents you associate with Halloween? I’ve enjoyed some of the offerings of Solstice Scents, which can be very spooky, such as their Riverside Hayride. Happy Halloween, everyone!
Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities 
We are back from Norfolk. We visited Norwich. The Norwich Castle Museum was closed as it is covered with scaffolding & I presume repairs to the stonework is taking place. Dogs aren’t allowed at any of the museums.
We did visit the Cathedral. Photos will be on my blog on Thursday. I find ancient ecclesiastical building soothing to my soul despite being agnostic. Dogs are made very welcome everywhere but the Refectory. People with dogs are welcomed to sit in the beautiful cloisters & eat. The streets around the castle & cathedral are full of medieval buildings & repurposed church buildings. Lots of antique dealers to potter round.
We visited both Cromer & West Runton beaches. No perfumed adventures though.
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What a nice visit! I’ve never gone to Norwich, I’ll add it to my ever-growing list of places to visit!
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As with so many towns & cities there were very run down parts. They make me sad.
We stayed fairly centrally in Norfolk. Let me know if you plan to go, the hotel was lovely but in a village 14 miles from Norwich though, do a car was a must
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Thank you!
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I don’t think I own anything spooky. I’ll wear Teo Cabanel’s Barkhane with my witch costume. It’s rather smoky with a bit of oud and other woods and amber. That will have to do the trick.
Glad you’re enjoying Jo by Jo Loves. It’s a bright grapefruit centric fragrance on my skin. Very refreshing.
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Your trip sounds lovely. I enjoy visiting old churches, too. My favorites have been Notre Dame de Paris before the fire, St. Paul’s in London and St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. I admire Jonathan Swift’s writing so I particularly wanted to see the church where he was buried. The historian of St. Patrick’s was there when we were visiting and gave us lots of fun details about Swift’s life and his tenure as dean of St. Patrick’s.
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I enjoys Notre Dame too but my favourite cathedrals to visit are York Minster. The windows are awe inspiring.
The 14th century Gothic Cathedral of Barcelona is the most peaceful ecclesiastical building I’ve ever visited. If ever you’re in Barcelona it’s just off La Rambla in the Barrio Gotic. There was a perfumery nearby last time we went too
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The Barcelona cathedral was beautiful. I’ve never been to York. Must remedy that!
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Take your walking boots & walk round the Roman city walls too.
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York is gorgeous, and so is Bath Abbey.
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Love those! The perfumery has moved to the street where the Palau de Musica is located. Lovely shop, but now you have to make an appointment to visit. Well worth it!
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it’s definitely autumn here now, we were actually cold at my son’s football game tonight (they had their first loss of the season, boo.). I’m happy to be wearing all of my cooler weather favorites – ambers, woods, spices. I’m sure I will be going with second perfumes many days as I continue with my 366 project and have to pick something different each day for official wear, switching to favorites at night. Our neighborhood is pretty busy on Halloween, I haven’t bought candy yet so I am way behind!
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Sorry to hear about the loss! I haven’t bought candy yet either, gotta get on it. I need to choose a kind my husband and I won’t want ourselves, lol. Now that I’m retired, I don’t have an easy way to dispose of the extras. I used to just take them to my office on campus and leave them out for students!
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You have just reminded me that I have a travel size of Jo Loves. I haven’t actually tried it yet, though. It’s in a box somewhere. It came with a little candle which I haven’t lit yet. It’s nice to hear your thoughts on it. We don’t do anything for Halloween anymore as there aren’t any kids in the area. We used to have great fun with little callers, we played our own tricks on them. We dressed all in black and wore masks and wigs and hid outside behind a boulder or hedge and would appear and go “boo” as they were coming to the door. That only worked for a couple of years though as they were wise to us then☺️ Fun times.
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