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 5, the first Friday of 2024, and it is Twelfth Night!
Ross Valley Players poster, 2018
Twelfth Night is traditionally the night before Epiphany, the day the Christian church celebrates as the time when the Magi, or Three Kings, arrived in Bethlehem to see the newborn Jesus. The tradition holds that they brought gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh.
The Three Magi, following the star of Bethlehem.
I hope you’ve all had a wonderful holiday season, no matter what you celebrate. Have you discovered or received any new fragrances? I’ve been wearing Papillon Perfumery’s Bengale Rouge a lot as the weather has gotten colder; it is just lovely, especially in the drydown, and very cozy.
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, December 22, and the winter solstice has arrived! In this hemisphere, the days will slowly get longer and the light will get stronger. To be honest, I don’t feel the dark days of winter as I used to when I lived in New England, when it would be truly dark by 4 pm in December. Since we’re at the western edge of the Eastern Time Zone in the US, and also in the South, it still doesn’t get dark until after 5 pm here. The real cause for celebration in our house is that our new refrigerator is now in place — hurray! A lovely countertop “fabricator” was able to come and cut just enough from the countertop to squeeze it in between the cabinets. It’s a great improvement and a much better fit than the old one.
As Christmas is only a few days away, are you planning to give any fragrance gifts this year? I have the back-up bottle of Ginger Biscuit for our older daughter, and I finally thought of something for our second daughter. She loves Miss Dior Blooming Bouquet and isn’t looking to branch out, but she has a tendency to “save” Blooming Bouquet for dressier occasions. So I’ll give her a gift set of Philosophy’s Amazing Grace Ballet Rose, which share some of Blooming Bouquet’s notes and smells similar but isn’t as expensive, so she can feel free to wear it often. I hope she likes it! Our son is well-supplied with the Chanel Eau Paris-Edimbourg, since he got some for his birthday, so I won’t seek out another fragrance for him.
I’m late posting my contribution to December’s “Notes on Notes”, but do read what Portia has written about frankincense, traditionally said to have been one of the gifts the Three Kings brought to the newborn Jesus, and I’ll add my Note after Christmas. Right now, in the Christmas story, the Magi are still en route, following the Star, not knowing exactly where it will lead them or what they will find. To all who celebrate Christmas, I wish you a very happy one.
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, December 15, and yes — I forgot to post last Friday. So sorry! Well, the refrigerator saga continues — the new one got delivered this morning, and it turns out it is 1/2 inch too wide for the space where the old one was, despite my multiple attempts at measuring. However, we think we can deal with it by hiring someone to adjust the kitchen counter on one side, so we’re keeping the new fridge. Right now, it’s sitting in the middle of our kitchen floor, plugged in and running, but empty until we can move it into place. Luckily, our plan was to keep the old one anyway and move it downstairs, so we still have a full-sized, functioning refrigerator. Never a dull moment around here!
We’re very happy that our son is home for his university holiday break, and he has a job lined up for post-graduation! We’re all happy to see the end of this difficult semester for him, and end on such a positive note. Christmas preparations are in full swing, and the tree is up and decorated. If you celebrate Christmas, how are your preparations going? If you celebrate Hanukkah, which ends tonight, I hope you had a blessed and peaceful holiday.
What smells do you most associate with the winter holidays? For me, it has to be the scent of evergreens. Pine, cedar, balsam — I love them all.
Metropolitan Museum of Art Christmas Tree and Creche
Rabbit rabbit! 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, December 1, and I managed to avoid making any fragrance purchases in the weeklong “Black Friday” sales that were swamping my inbox! I’m patting myself on the back because some were quite tempting. Undina’s Saturday Question last weekend was whether one had bought any fragrance items during the sales, or planned to, which elicited some confessions, lol. I used the sales to get ahead on some Christmas shopping for family members and to buy a new refrigerator.
I feel very productive this week: I’ve gotten ahead on some volunteer work, I went to three workout classes at our local YMCA, and I’ve gotten quite a few plants and bulbs planted, including moving an entire climbing rose. I hope all this activity will help me drop the pounds I gained over Thanksgiving, just in time for Christmas! Also, our son who will graduate this spring got a terrific job offer, which he has accepted and which is located in our city, so he’ll be close by. It’s a happy close to the very tough semester he’s had this fall. We’re very proud of his patience and resilience!
Here it is, December 1, and I haven’t decided whether or not I’ll do another “Scented Advent” series this year. I think if I do, it won’t be every day, because I’ve got a lot of tasks to get done. These include clearing out the lower level of our house so our oldest daughter can use it as an apartment while she applies to graduate school and saves on rent with the goal of buying housing sooner. I do have so many samples and decants that I have plenty of material with which to generate content. Maybe I’ll just do it on Sundays … stay tuned. And come back on Monday for another Portia/OH collaboration!
We put up our tree last weekend and it smells wonderful. We still get a real tree, though my DH wants to revisit the issue of an artificial tree. Maybe for next year … So many holiday preparations going on all around us! Hanukkah starts next week and this Sunday is the first official Sunday of Advent. I need to get out my Advent wreath candles and buy the actual wreath. That is a Christmas tradition I do love.
Are you getting ready for any particular holiday or holiday traditions?
Advent wreath with candles, including Gaudete pink candle
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, November 25 — Black Friday! I hope all who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday had a wonderful, peaceful holiday filled with love and food. I’m still recovering from the excellent meal we had (mostly cooked by me, I love to cook). Thank goodness, we ate in mid-afternoon, which provided time to go for a short walk after the feast and delay dessert. No evening supper was necessary!
I haven’t bought any fragrances for Black Friday although there are some nice discounts available, including among independent perfumers like Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, whose coupon code “cheer20” gets you 20%% off, and Scent Trunk, which has 30% off site-wide, deducted in your shopping cart. We did, however, order a new refrigerator (!) that I’ve been eyeing for some time now. The very large one we’ve had for 25 years still works fine, but we don’t need that much capacity any more and I’d rather have more floor space. We also need a fridge for the bottom level of our house, which will temporarily become an apartment for our oldest while she gets ready to apply to and attend graduate school (fingers crossed). Saving on rent will help. That level of our house has its own private entrance into the back garden, so she can come and go as she pleases without disturbing us.
It’s beginning to smell a lot like Christmas here, as my husband went and got our Christmas tree and put it up with our son’s help. It’s a Fraser fir, and it smells lovely. We haven’t put anything on it yet, as its branches still need to come down a bit. It was so sunny and warm here today that I spent most of the day outside, doing some late planting of daffodil bulbs and cleaning up perennials. It was a good way to work off some of yesterday’s excesses! I did make an effort to have mostly healthy side dishes, like sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts. The dressing (what I call “stuffing”, but I bake it separately) was loaded with minced veggies and turkey sausage; and the cranberry chutney featured both cranberries and diced apples along with real ginger. Yum!
If you celebrated, how was your Thanksgiving? If you shopped, how was your Black Friday?
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, November 17, and next week brings Thanksgiving in the US. I love Thanksgiving! I like to cook, and it is a holiday that’s really all about food and family. All three of our young adult children will be with us, as usual, and I’m especially looking forward to our youngest being home from college for a few days (although his college is near by, he lives on campus during the semester). The weather here has been mild, though cloudy — very good for planting. I have some new roses and daffodil bulbs to plant (two of my top favorite flowers), and I’m making progress. I choose roses based in part on their fragrance, so I’m looking forward to lots of rose scent in my garden next summer. Since Thanksgiving is also all about gratitude, I may also do a special post on “What Went Well”; I invite you to join me in reflecting on what went well for you this year.
We gave our daughter her longed-for Jo Malone Ginger Biscuit for her birthday last week and it was a big hit! She had guessed we might be getting it for her, because she texted me that she had heard it was reissued and when she got my non-committal reply, she thought I probably had already bought it, lol.
On Monday, I’ll be posting November’s “Counterpoint”, a 2023 monthly collaboration between me and Portia Turbo of Australian Perfume Junkies. Last week, we posted our other project, “Notes on Notes”, focusing on oud. All good things come to an end, and since those were a 2023 project, November and December will be the last of the collaboration, but I might continue with one of them. Let me know what you think!
Next week also brings “Black Friday” and its many sales, some of which have already begun. Macy’s is having a 50% off sale on some Guerlains and others in the 1 oz. size, I noticed, and significant markdowns on larger sizes of other brands. Are you eyeing any particular fragrant purchases next week, or watching any particular websites for discounts? If you find any great markdowns, please share in the comments!
Carding Mill rose growing through Annabelle hydrangea, Summer 2023
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, November 10, and tomorrow is Armistice/Veterans Day. As the granddaughter, daughter, and wife of veterans (both British and American), I honor their service.
Earlier this week, Portia of Australian Perfume Junkies and I published our monthly “Notes on Notes”, this time on oud (or oudh). Please add your thoughts in the comments, on those posts or here!
My retired life has become something of a social whirl this month, starting with the family christening that just took place last weekend. It was such fun, the baby was perfect (of course!), and I loved spending the weekend with both of my sisters (the baby’s grandmother is my older sister). I stayed with my other sister, who sings in three (3!) rock bands, and she took me to see the Taylor Swift concert movie on Saturday. It was SO MUCH FUN! She and I and her friend were among the few adults there, surrounded by a sea of little girls aged about 8-11, and a handful of saintly mothers who had shepherded groups of children there. Some of them were even game enough to wear sequined tops, which is apparently a thing. My sister and I wore sequined scarves, just for the spirit of the thing. Honestly, the movie was great fun, even if you’re not a Swiftie (which I’m not). The stagecraft alone was spectacular to see, and I was surprised at how many of her songs I actually knew from the radio. My favorite video of that song, though, is the YouTube video of a Dover, Delaware patrol officer lip-syncing to it:
Cracks me up every time!
What fragrance did I wear to the concert movie? Diptyque’s Eau Rose! Going all in on pink. I really enjoy that fragrance.
NST’s Community Project this week is to mark author Neil Gaiman’s birthday today by wearing a fragrance that refers to one of his books or characters, or evokes other fantasy fiction. So my SOTD is the new eau de parfum release of Fath’s L’Iris de Fath, since it is a fragrance unicorn and a unicorn is featured in his book “Stardust” (later made into a delightful movie). I had the joy of trying the extrait de parfum a few years ago, at Jovoy Paris‘ boutique in London, so I was eager to try the eau de parfum, which is more affordable (not actually affordable, I hasten to say). I was able to buy a decant in the recent NST splitmeet, and it arrived about a week ago. I’ve finally worn it — if you like iris fragrances, this is a stunner! Perfumer Patrice Revillard discusses his creation here:
Do you have any favorite fragrances that include iris as a note?
Stained glass window by Louis Comfort Tiffany; Magnolias and Irises, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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, November 3, and I’m on my way to New England for a family christening! Our niece had her first baby this year, the first grandchild of this generation. The baby is my older sister’s first grandchild. I made her a bonnet from silk and lace from my sister’s wedding dress; I’m quite pleased with how it turned out, given that it’s my first real sewing project in many years.
I’m excited — I took part this week in a NST splitmeet for the first time! I’ve received my 5 ml of Jacques Fath’s L’Iris de Fath eau de parfum from the NST splitmeet; haven’t worn it yet because I’ve been so busy this week and want to give it my full attention. Some of you may remember how I swooned when I got to sample the extrait de parfum when it was first released, at the boutique Jovoy Paris, in London. I am so, so tempted to buy the eau de parfum but I’m trying to behave myself and not rush into an expensive blind buy. Splitmeet to the rescue!
Portia and I will be posting a new “Notes on Notes” on Monday, so please drop by and share your own thoughts!
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.
I apologize for not posting last Friday! I was helping one of our daughters pack and move all day Thursday and Friday, and it just got away from me. Earlier this week, I posted Portia Turbo’s and my latest “Counterpoint“, which I hope you’ll read if you haven’t yet. This month’s Counterpoint fragrance is Diorella. You might also like a past post I wrote about Meet Me On The Corner, Sarah McCartney’s Diorella-inspired fragrance for 4160 Tuesdays.
The roses I grow are having another flush of bloom, now that the weather has improved, and they are so fragrant! I’ve been especially noticing the fragrance of “Winchester Cathedral”, a beautiful pure white with a lemony rose scent, a lot like Jo Loves’ White Rose and Lemon Leaves, and “Princess Alexandra of Kent”, whose fragrance really does smell like perfume. Both are English Roses by the late hybridizer David Austin, who spent his life bringing strong fragrance back into modern roses by crossing them with heirloom roses. Winchester Cathedral has performed admirably all year, starting this spring, but Princess Alexandra has been the proverbial late bloomer. I’ve had her for a few years now, and never got much from her in the way of bloom, but I think I’ve finally figured out what soil amendments she wants in her pot, so she’s doing much better. I have high hopes for her next spring!
Winchester Cathedral rose
I’m excited — I took part this week in a NST splitmeet for the first time! I’ve requested 5 ml of Jacques Fath’s L’Iris de Fath eau de parfum from a kind NSTer. Some of you may remember how I swooned when I got to sample the extrait de parfum when it was first released, at the boutique Jovoy Paris, in London. I am so, so tempted to buy the eau de parfum but I’m trying to behave myself and not rush into an expensive blind buy. Splitmeet to the rescue!
Do you often take part in splitmeets? What has been your favorite “split”?
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 13, and I’m looking forward to the delivery of a new embroidery machine! I’ve wanted one for years, and the Online Marketplace That Must Not Be Named had a great half-price deal on a high-end Singer machine this week for Prime Days. My always-generous husband agreed that could be my big Christmas gift, and it is on its way to me! I have a lovely sewing machine, bought 23 years ago when I thought I’d have more time to sew, which I’ve recently taken out of storage and am re-learning. The new machine will sew AND embroider, though I think I’ll mostly use it for the embroidery function. Yes, this is one of the hobbies for which I have more time in retirement!
Speaking of which, I visited a big chain bookstore yesterday for the first time in a while (I mostly go to a couple of small, local, independent bookstores) and saw a novel called “The Scent Keeper”, by Erica Baumeister. I didn’t get it, because I’m trying to use the Libby app to read more from our public library system instead of buying more books, but it piqued my curiosity. Have any of you read it?
I’ve been enjoying NST’s “community project” this week, which is to wear scents that remind you of India. It turns out that I have more of those than I would have expected, and some are true favorites, like Un Jardin Après la Mousson and Bengale Rouge. Some that I’ve worn this week I have had for ages but hadn’t opened yet, like Berdoues’ Assam of India, a lovely tea scent, and Jean Patou’s Sira des Indes, which Portia Turbo and I both wore yesterday, by sheer happenstance. Wearing Bengale Rouge reminded me again what a genius Liz Moores is — it lasts a LONG time, and it is a delightful shape-shifter. The final stage is truly “your skin but better”.
Assam of India smells to my nose just like a cup of black tea with lemon. I bought it a few years ago for a ridiculously low price when our local Anthologie store had it on clearance, but I hadn’t opened it yet. So this week’s CP was the perfect excuse! And I’ve always loved the parade of tiny elephants on its packaging, so I’m glad to find that the scent is also delightful.
Berdoues’ Assam of India; image from olfactif.com.
Have you recently tried any scents you’ve had for a while but hadn’t worn? I’ve learned not to open every new bottle of fragrance right away; I leave them sealed until I’m ready to really WEAR them, in hopes that they will keep longer.
Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities 