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, January 3, and it is 2025! Happy New Year to you all! We had a more social New Year’s Eve than usual, which was nice. We had two casual parties to go to, both of the drop-by-if-you-can type, and both close by — the second one was next door. So we socialized, had a drink at each party, and were home before 10:30 pm. We did stay awake until midnight and enjoyed seeing replays of the fireworks from around the world. Wow, Portia, those fireworks over Sydney were wonderful! And I loved the fireworks in London, too. I hope you all had enjoyable New Year’s Eves! Did you wear any special fragrances? I wore Hiram Green’s Arbolé, which I find I’ve been craving lately. Kafkaesque had a long review of it when it first came out, though it wasn’t really to her taste. I’ve realized I am sometimes very drawn to patchouli, based on my reaction to both Arbolé and SJP Stash, though I’ve never thought much about it and wouldn’t claim it among my favorite notes. It does play nicely with rose, though, which is one of my top favorites. If you have any patchouli loves, do tell!
Our next international trip will be to Vienna, Salzburg, and of course Barcelona (where the European office of my lovely husband’s employer is based). I can’t wait to see Vienna and Salzburg! We’ll be there the same week as the famous Vienna Opera Ball, though of course we’re not attending that. We are, however, going to see an opera at the Vienna State Opera House the weekend before the ball. We plan to take in museums, concerts, palaces and cathedrals all week. Do any of you know of any particularly excellent perfumeries in Vienna you would recommend I visit? And if you were going to the Opera Ball, what fragrance would you wear??
Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities 
l’ve always wanted to see all the wonderful museums in Vienna, especially the Klimt museum.
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l’ve always wanted to see all the wonderful museums in Vienna, especially the Klimt museum.
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It’s on our list! I may have to take one of Atelier des Ors’ “Klimt” fragrances. I love Choeur des Anges and Nuda Veritas.
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I have to comment as I was actually in Vienna for Christmas, and did an Instagram post from the opera. My perfume was Puredistance Warszawa which smells like old school elegance to me. I love it! What are you thinking of wearing?
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Wonderful! In theory, I would wear Amouage Gold Woman, but I’d have to make a travel decant. I could that with a Travalo, I guess.
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Hope 2025 treats you, your crew and the S&S readers kindly OH, that we all have a safe, comfortable year and that all are as satisfied with the happenings and ourselves as we can be at the end of it.
We were right in the midst of the Sydney celebrations. Our friend had given us tickets to the Sydney Opera House: House Canteen for the night. All inclusive area, entertainment and food. We only had to pay for drinks. It was a very chill event, some bands, a DJ and beautifully costumed roving entertainment. We had a table for the four of us, a view across the harbour to the bridge and it was perfect. Those fireworks shook the whole harbour.
Vienna is my favourite city that I’ve ever visited. Hope you love it as much as I do. We always stay right near St Stephens, almost everything is walkable from there. Shonnbrun is a bus ride away. I was asked to be a part of the Vienna Opera Ball back in the 1990s because one of my ballet school buddies was a principle at the ballet there. Unfortunately I was already booked in London. Missing it is one of my very few life regrets.
There are a few perfumeries in the main shipping area specializing in niche plus loads of Douglas and a couple of Sephora. There were a couple of beautiful olde worlde hole in the walls but last visit I couldn’t find them. Do not go to Vienna Hermès, you have to book and there are timed entries, the selection is better elsewhere and the staff are all hideous. If you only do one museum get to the Belvedere, and the one tour that I take everyone on is the Sisi Palace tour. Jin’s favourite is the Naschmarkt and we always wander through, grab some food and coffees. They have a fun flea market there on Saturdays.
Sorry, that was a lot but I get excited when people go to Vienna.
Happy New Year,
Portia xx
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How wonderful!! We are staying near St. Stephen’s too, while in Vienna. What an amazing story, to have been asked to take part in the Opera Ball! I’m disappointed for you that you didn’t get to do it! I didn’t know you had gone to ballet school, how cool!
I definitely won’t go to Hermès, we have a boutique in our city if I feel the pull (which I mostly don’t, since I can easily get the Jardin fragrances I love without going there). The only time I’ve ever made an appointment to try perfume was at The Barcelona Perfumery, which is the only way you can visit, and it was well worth it. It’s a tiny store full of treasures, and the appointment is one-on-one with the owner, who was very nice to me. I’ll look for the olde world holes! Thanks for the museum and palace tips too. We’re going to cram in as many of those as we can.
P.S. I’m about to email you, so please watch out for a message from “thewisekangaroo”!
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O M G! Got the email, replied, squealed and jumped for joy.
What wonderful news.
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Vienna sounds fabulous! What a joy to be able to visit so many great cities. We had a low key NYE at home, had an “Eve Eve” party the previous night which was fun. A couple of inches of snow here and cold – possibly the coldest temps of the season so far. Yesterday I only wore my Olympic Orchids Amber Labdanum oil – with the cold comes dry skin and it was a lovely addition to unscented lotion. Not sure what today will bring, although I’m copying Portia’s decant project – I collected all of my spray decants together and plan to thunk as many as possible this year. Sadly, too many of them have significantly evaporated so at least I’ll get one more wear out of them. All part of continuing to thin down my collection, which is insane. I adore SJP Stash and have had a couple of samples of Arbole which I also enjoyed. Patch in certain perfumes is great – not so much in others, on my skin.
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I know you’re a fellow Stash lover! I should follow your and Portia’s examples and thunk decants all year in 2025. For the most part in 2024, I’ve been buying discovery sets if I buy anything, with a few notable exceptions.
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Happy New Year! Your travel plans are so exciting, I shall live them vicariously. Not sure when or if we’ll get away again.
Patchouli scents? Voleur de Roses, Reminiscence Patchouli, Armani Prive Rose d’Arabie, TF Purple Patch, 4160T Court of Ravens. Pretty much headshop 70s patch with a bit of rose chucked in.
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