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 31, and I’m back home from our quick trip to New England. It has warmed up here quite a bit (temps in the 60s) so I’ve been able to resume some gardening. I planted cool season vegetables this morning, and now we’re getting a gentle, soaking rain as expected, so I feel very productive!

I caved recently and bought three new fragrances, partly as consolation for having a much-anticipated trip canceled. Since most of our travel is based around my husband’s work ()which takes him to many interesting places, when that work schedule changes, so does our travel. No complaints — I’ll go with him on another lovely trip! And our trip to Vienna at the end of February is still on — whew!

I’ve been watching Parfums Dusita’s Cavatina and Rosarine for a while and had samples of both, so when one of the online discounters had them both for a significant price reduction, I bit. The third fragrance I bought was the 2021 Les Légendaires version of Guerlain’s Jicky eau de parfum. I already had an earlier version of the eau de toilette, which I love, and I recently learned that Jicky was to be discontinued entirely, so I took the plunge and bought the 2021 Jicky edp. I like it very much! Right now, I’m comparing the older eau de toilette on one wrist with the newer edp on the other wrist. I still prefer the opening stage of the eau de toilette — it has more citrus up top (bergamot, lemon, and mandarin orange) than the edp, which gives it a lively, fresh burst combined with the rosemary and lavender. The opening notes of the 2021 edp are lavender, bergamot, and rosemary, but the combination smells muskier to me than the edt. Within an hour, though, the two smell almost indistinguishable from each other (and they smell great!).

When I wore the 2021 edp the other day, on its own, I liked the opening but missed the lemon. After a while, the middle stage had almost an animalic tinge which I didn’t like much, and which wasn’t reflected in the list of heart notes (fougère accord, rose, pelagornium, woody notes) but that didn’t last very long and the drydown stage was lovely. It lasted a long time, too, about 12 hours; still detectable on my skin when I woke up the next morning. Fragrantica has a very nice review of it here: Guerlain Jicky Eau de Parfum: A Marvel in a New Dress.

I’ll be interested to see what happens with the rest of the Les Légendaires collection; I’ve noticed that more mainstream outlets like department stores and airport duty-free shops only carry a few of the scents, and others are popping up for sale among the online discounters, which is often a sign that a fragrance is on its way out. I’m very happy to have the ones I’ve already bought: Mitsouko, Vol de Nuit, L’Heure Bleue, Après l’Ondée, and now Jicky. I’m intrigued by Chamade, as it has so many notes I love, but I have a bee bottle of that and I’m on the fence. Some commenters have said the 2021 version is much better than that, but not outstanding on its own. Thoughts?