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.
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 6, and Portia and I both forgot to post “Notes on Notes” on Monday! October 1 just crept up on us, so we’ll post our thoughts on notes next Monday, October 8. So sorry! The notes in question will be nuts, in honor of the fall season and all the nut-gathering that is going on in the Northern Hemisphere, including in my garden. We have both grey squirrels and chipmunks in our back yard; in fact, I think we have a whole chipmunk city under one retaining wall. I actually like the chipmunks, I think they’re very cute and we had them in our back yard when I was growing up in Connecticut. I don’t like squirrels much, mostly because they constantly raid the birdfeeders and hog all the seed.
So, since we’re a week off in “Notes on Notes”, please share in the comments below any particular nuts you’d like one or both of us to discuss!
What fragrance(s) are you wearing these days? I’m on a kick with my Jardin collection; earlier in the week I was enjoying Un Jardin en Méditerrannée and yesterday, I wore Un Jardin Sur Le Toit and my husband liked it very much, so I’ll wear it again this week!
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, September 29, and I can’t believe September is almost over! Thankfully, we’re about to enter the season of what is usually the best weather here: October. Unfortunately, the warm, dry weather has also brought with it an explosion of ragweed pollen over the last week, though it seems to be diminishing. A week ago, I couldn’t stop sneezing and needing to blow my nose. Not a happy situation for someone who loves fragrance!
Sneezing!
So I’ve been commando, scentwise, for several days. The good news is that it wasn’t COVID, although my dear spouse had it last week, and I got the updated vaccine this week with my flu shot. The bad news is that I haven’t done much in my garden this week in spite of better weather, because I’ve mostly stayed inside to avoid the pollen. This has, however, provided the impetus for me to start using my sewing machine again. I have a very nice Husqvarna Viking Lily machine, one of the last models actually made in Sweden, that I haven’t used since our third child was a toddler (that’s a long time, lol!). But I got it cleaned and serviced this spring, and now that I’m fully retired, I’m getting back into sewing. Just in time, since my older sister’s daughter had the first grandchild in our family this spring! I’ll be traveling back to New England for the baby’s christening in November, so I have an opportunity to try making a small gift for her while getting reacquainted with my Lily.
The one scent I did wear earlier this week, to a neighborhood event, was the Chanel No.5 Eau Première I got on my last trip to Europe with my husband. It is just beautiful, and I’m so happy to have it! I can still smell traces of it on the top I wore.
I think I mentioned that I got a few samples of other fragrances when I went to pick up the Jo Malone Ginger Biscuit for our older daughter’s Christmas gift: the new Dioriviera, Tom Ford’s new Myrrh Mystère, and a couple of Aerin’s Rose de Grasse Premier fragrances. Of the latter, the Rose de Grasse Parfum is really lovely — a strong, beautiful, classic rose with great sillage. I didn’t much care for Myrrh Mystère, but then again, it’s not really my type of fragrance and I think some will love it.
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, September 22, and I have SCORED! Last Christmas, our oldest daughter (27) fell in love with the scent of Jo Malone’s Ginger Biscuit from a mini I had, but I didn’t have a bottle to give her and it had been a limited edition. I looked online and the prices were astronomic. I looked for similar scents but none seemed quite right. Then last weekend — tada! Someone in a Facebook fragrance lovers’ group posted that it was being reissued for this year’s holidays and it was available on Saks.com! But by the time I saw this post, it had vanished from the website and other comments said it was sold out.
However, there is a Saks not far from here, so on Monday, I went there and asked if they might have it. The lovely sales associate showed me the tester they had (!) and looked in her computer system, then said it was slated for a “soft launch” for the holidays in October but would most likely show up at the start of November. She said she would hold a bottle for me when it arrived, so I left my name and phone number. Well, just two days later I got a phone call from her, saying that a couple of bottles had just come in and she had one for me! I told her I’d like to come get it on Friday, which she said was fine. So I went this morning and picked it up! There was a brief moment of panic when the bottle was not where she had left it, then a colleague said he had moved it and she found it. Hurray! It is now safely wrapped and ready for gift-giving, either for our daughter’s November birthday or this Christmas. I can’t wait to surprise her with it! FYI, Nordstrom says it also expects to get it for the holidays, if that’s easier for any of you to reach than Saks.
This past Monday, I posted another “CounterPoint” collaboration by me and Portia Turbo; we discussed Caron’s Infini, a late 20th century classic. If you haven’t read the post yet, please do, and share your thoughts in the comments! We’ve mapped out the rest of our posts for 2023, and we’ve got some great ideas, so stay tuned.
Tomorrow is the official first day of fall. Our hot weather has finally broken and we are having cool mornings with comfortably warm, sunny days. The best is yet to come — around here, October weather is usually even better (the first half of September can still be very humid and hot). My husband has just recovered from COVID and is off tomorrow on another work trip, back to Las Vegas this time. Since I couldn’t go with him to London, he kindly brought me back a bottle of Hermès’ latest “Jardin” fragrance, Un Jardin à Cythère. It is really lovely, and I’m so happy to add it to my collection!
I haven’t been buying much fragrance for myself lately, since I have so many bottles and my collection will outlast me long before I use them up. I do still have a monthly decant subscription, which I enjoy since it adds variety and access to some very expensive fragrances I wouldn’t otherwise try (the cost for a decant doesn’t vary). What’s on your mind, fragrance-wise or other?
The intended recipient of Ginger Biscuit, in earlier days.
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, September 15, and I’m so glad I stayed home and didn’t go with my husband to London as planned. Yes, I missed some anticipated treats like theater and museum shows, as well as some perfume sniffing, but I was here to help our son through some rough post-breakup moments this week, which is all that matters. He’s coping reasonably well, but he hasn’t been sleeping and he has been blindsided by some unexpected surges of grief. Thank goodness, he was already connected to an excellent therapist through university resources, and she has been extraordinarily helpful this week and last.
One of our daughters came over last night and we watched the Barbie movie! It was really fun, and I’ll happily watch it again next week with a close friend who hasn’t seen it yet. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling were both excellent. Apparently, Margot Robbie wears fragrances from Chanel and Calvin Klein, as well as some others; she is no longer a brand ambassador for Chanel, though, as her contract with the house expired last year. She does still wear vintage Chanel outfits, though — in Barbie pink! Perfume.com published an amusing list of Barbie-appropriate fragrances, most of which involved pink of some kind. There is, of course, an actual fragrance named Barbie, launched with the movie this summer. Have any of you tried it?
Have you seen “Barbie” yet, or any other recent movies? At home or at a movie theatre? Any recommendations? Have a great weekend!
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, September 8, and I’m not going to London after all. Nothing major, but one of our kids has suffered a big blow (break-up) and is taking it very hard, so I decided not to tag along with my husband on his work trip and stay home this week, as said kid is at university a few miles away. Not a big deal to cancel, as I get to London most years, and it’s not going anywhere! I wouldn’t enjoy myself much anyway if I was worrying about our son the whole time. Silver lining: the friend who lives there and was going to go with me to a couple of things can use the theater tickets I had bought, which I’ve happily given to her and her husband, and one art exhibit I had planned to see is coming to the US after it closes at the Tate Britain. And there’s probably an October business trip to Barcelona on the agenda, which I’ve asked to extend to include — Paris! We got engaged in Paris, lo these many years ago, then spent part of our honeymoon there and haven’t been back since. It was supposed to be part of a big celebratory family trip in the summer of 2020, which went up in smoke like so many other COVID-era plans.
So now I need everyone’s suggestions on where to sniff perfume in Paris! Please share in the comments!
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, September 1, and some people like to say “rabbit, rabbit” as their first utterance on the first day of the month, for good luck. Why not? Today is also the start of the Labor Day weekend, here in the US, and the official start day of my retirement. The party my kids planned for the occasion took place last Saturday, and it was so much fun! Many old friends came, including the only two people I knew in this whole state when we moved here from the Northeast, other than my husband, and two dear friends who flew in for the occasion. My lovely husband gave me a book about jewelry by Geoffrey Munn, one of our favorite experts on the UK “Antiques Road Show”, called “The Triumph of Love.” I’m truly blessed!
The Triumph of Love; Jewelry 1530-1930; by Geoffrey Munn.
The fragrance I chose to wear was new to my collection, which felt right for starting a new phase of life. It is Widian’s Rose Arabia Lily, launched in 2019. I got it this past February in Barcelona, on my visit to The Perfumery (a must if you are looking for niche fragrances in Barcelona, but you have to make an appointment). Notes listed by the brand are: Mandarin orange, bergamot, lemon, pink pepper; lily of the valley, ylang-ylang, carnation, tiare; ambergris, musk, vanilla, patchouli. It is beautiful and long-lasting.
The weather has improved here, after the super blue moon, but it’s still quite warm. The breeze helps, and it is much better than the temps of 98 degrees with 50+ percent humidity we had earlier in August. I think I’ll still be wearing my refreshing Hermès Jardin fragrances for a while. We don’t have any plans for Labor Day other than to relax, and maybe see the “Barbie” movie. Now I’m making a list of all the places I want to visit in London on our upcoming trip! I’m aiming for a mix of old favorites I haven’t seen in a while, and new experiences. All suggestions are welcome!
Please remember to come back on Monday, when Portia Turbo and I will be posting our “Notes on Notes” for the first Monday of the month. Have a great weekend!
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, August 25, and it is my last Friday as an employee! My official retirement date is August 31, next week. My family is having a “friends and family” retirement party for me tomorrow, and one of my oldest and dearest friends arrived earlier today from out of town. She’ll be here all weekend, and I’m so happy about that! We’ve been friends for 40+ years and have supported each other through many of life’s ups and downs. She is also godmother to our oldest child.
The house is now sparkling clean, and our kids will be over for dinner soon, to see her before the party crowd arrives tomorrow. There’s nothing like a beloved houseguest and a looming party deadline to motivate me for some overdue cleaning. Not my favorite activity, but I do love the results.
So that’s my weekend sorted — how about you? And if you haven’t yet read Portia’s and my most recent “CounterPoint“, please do, and let us know what you think in the comments.
Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities 