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, March 14, and Spring has sprung here at home.
The air is full of lovely spring smells, from the daffodils everywhere to the early pink magnolias, and one of my favorite scents, hyacinth. Now Smell This had the community project this week of wearing a hyacinth scent. My favorite hyacinth fragrance is Jo Malone’s Blue Hyacinth. It smells exactly like the real thing! Another of my perennial favorites, Chanel No. 19, has a strong hyacinth note.
I bought several pots of hyacinths for a spring luncheon I hosted this week, and they still smell wonderful. Some of their predecessors, planted outside after they faded, have come back beautifully in my garden. I’m enjoying the fragrance indoors, where on pot of bulbs can fill an entire room with scent.
I plan to go on a binge of green scents starting this weekend. I have plenty from which to choose, lol. I know not everyone shares my affection for the green scents — if you do, do you have a favorite? Please share in the comments! And happy Spring!
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, March 7, and we are about to leave Barcelona after a week in Vienna and Salzburg. While in Barcelona, I stopped by the Cathedral, which is as magnificent as always.
The niche perfume scene in Barcelona has changed in recent years. I was sad to learn that the legendary Perfumeria Regia on the Passeig de Garcia has closed as of the end of 2024. The business is now completely online. I haven’t found out what will happen to the Perfume Museum that shared its location.
The Basilica Galeria, which had a huge lower level devoted to niche perfumes, has changed location and has a much more modest collection of fragrances for sale. It felt as if they’re not restocking. I was happily able to buy two discontinued Ann Gerard fragrances by Bertrand Duchaufour, Rose Cut and Ciel d’Opale. Both are lovely.
El Corte Ingles, the big department store, still carries Chanel’s Exclusifs line at their big store in the Placa Catalunya. They also have No. 19 and Cristalle eaux de toilette, which generally seem to be more scarce even in Europe. I also noticed that Guerlain’s Les Legendaires line seems to have been pruned, in terms of what one finds in stores. I was happy to see that The Perfumery is still going strong, in its location near the Palau de Musica.
We visited Montserrat for the first time — what a beautiful and interesting site! I can’t imagine how people imagined, all those centuries ago, that they should climb those heights and build a basilica. I can’t imagine how they did it, either.
The Black Madonna of Montserrat
Altogether we’ve had a wonderful trip, and my husband’s company, which is what takes him to Barcelona for work, scored a huge success and everyone is happy. But I’ll be glad to get home to house, garden, kids (all young adults) and our elderly dog Lucy. Time for my garden to wake up!
How was your week? Any new fragrance discoveries? And hugs to alityke, whose DH is undergoing serious medical treatments.
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, February 28 (I started writing this on Friday but haven’t posted until Sunday!), and we have arrived in Barcelona after a week in Vienna and Salzburg. While in Vienna, we stopped by a truly lovely niche perfume boutique called Le Parfum, suggested here by a reader.
Le Parfum boutique, Vienna
While there, I tried two scents by an Austrian brand called Estoras. It’s “story” is that the founder’s grandfather, Prince Antal Esterhazy, went on an adventurous road trip with his friend Count Laszlo Almasy (“the English Patient”) to be the first to cross the Sahara desert in a regular automobile. The first three scents launched by the brand, all in Eau de Parfum format, are meant to evoke some of Prince Antal’s adventures.
The two I tried were Port of Alexandria and Shadows of Giza. I liked them both, with a slight preference for Shadows of Giza because it is more floral. Top notes are bergamot, hedione, wet stone, and basil; middle notes are iris root, white musks, and tea leaf; base notes are leather, patchouli, violet leaf absolute, moss, and amber. It is a musky, floral, leather chypre, while Port of Alexandria is an aquatic, salty, woody scent. Both have excellent longevity of several hours. Both are well made, interesting scents, but not superior to the many I already own. Their price is 230 euros for 100 ml. The third scent in the line, which was out of stock, is Chasing the Horizon, described as woody, spicy and ambery.
Now that we’re in Barcelona, and not changing hotels, I’ll probably do some shopping as well as actual tourism. I’ll be interested to see what Chanel fragrances El Corte Ingles carries these days. They used to have the whole Exclusifs line at their big store in the Placa Catalunya.
I can highly recommend Vienna and Salzburg as destinations! This was our first visit to each, and we loved both cities. In Salzburg, we stayed at the Hotel Schloss Leopoldskron, where the exterior lakeside villa scenes were filmed for “The Sound of Music.” What a lovely setting!
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, February 21, and we are on our way to Barcelona and Austria! I’m so excited to see Vienna and Salzburg. We have tickets to two music events (an opera and a concert) and a healthy list of museums and palaces to visit.
Last Friday, I failed to post here — my apologies! Valentine’s Day. Having bought myself Rosarine, I was given it by my husband for Valentine’s Day instead of roses, and I bought him roses when they were marked down the next day, lol. Gotta say, it was a nice bouquet. And my spring bulbs are starting to peek up, despite the recent freezes.
First daffodil is up!
As always, I took the opportunity to check out the duty free perfumes in the international terminal. I tried the 2021 version of Guerlain’s Champs Elysee , and the newish Barenia from Hermes. Champs Elysee was lovely, but I have plenty of Guerlain to last me a long while. Barenia is intriguing. Whenever I try it, the opening smells a bit fruity to my nose. I guess this must be the unique “miracle berry” note that is listed as a main feature. I’m not familiar with that Berry, but it’s real. Apparently it gets its name because it makes sour foods taste sweet.
The fruity phase doesn’t last long, maybe half an hour, then the fragrance becomes more floral, with a woody undertone. As it dries down, the woodiness becomes more evident. Barenia is very pleasant but I don’t feel the need to own it. Have you tried it? I’m looking forward to trying some new scents in Austria, too.
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, February 7, and the gardening frenzy continues! I’ve moved a few of my roses that were in large pots, bought a couple of new (fragrant) roses, and have been pruning like a madwoman. Luckily the weather has been fine, and it’s a great distraction from the news to be outside digging and pruning.
Next Friday is, of course, Valentine’s Day. Having bought myself Rosarine, I graciously offered it to my husband to give me for Valentine’s Day instead of a rose bouquet, lol. I may have enough new rose fragrances soon to do another “Roses de Mai Marathon“. If not, I can fill in with posts about my new actual rose plants.
Are you hoping/expecting to get any fragrances or fragrant items for Valentine’s Day?
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.
Guerlain’s Jicky; image from Fragrantica.com
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?
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 Saturday, January 25, and I’m in snowy New England! Flew up here with one of our daughters to visit my sisters and my niece’s new baby. She’s a cutie, and her sister is a darling. It is very nice to see the snow in the sun.
Here is the new addition to our family!
New baby in our family!
I brought with me a travel size of Jo Malone’s Ginger Biscuit, which has been perfect for hanging out with little children on a wintry day. I hope they associate me with that lovely warm scent!
Do you ever choose a scent on purpose to charm someone other than a romantic interest, lol?
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 Saturday, January 18, and we are expecting snow again next week! I do not expect Lucy to be any more impressed with it than she was last week, lol. While she can in fact learn the occasional new trick, her opinions on the weather have hardened over time.
Lucy, not impressed by snow
I took advantage of yesterday’s and today’s mild weather to go out and spread more mulch on my plants as protection against the upcoming cold.
However, the Big News in our family is that my niece had her second baby last weekend! She’s just adorable, and I’m looking forward to seeing her and her sister soon.
My new great-niece!
Sadly, last week also brought the funeral of a beloved minister, the former Rector of our church. We couldn’t be too sad, though, as he was almost 90 and had lost his dear wife several years ago; he missed her very much. They had been sweethearts since toddlerhood. Also, he was one of the most joyful people I’ve ever met, and the service was filled with love and laughter. Even the Bishop told some funny stories! At the end of the church service, we all went outside to the tune of “When the Saints Go Marching In, one of the late Rector’s favorites, and the whole extended family was given Mardi Gras parasols of purple, green, and gold to wave over their heads. What a send-off it was!
Usually I don’t wear a favorite scent to funerals, as I don’t want to associate sadness with a special fragrance, but this time I wore L’Heure Bleue, the newish Les Legendaires version of the eau de toilette. I’m glad I did, both because the funeral was much more cheerful than I expected, and because it’s just such a lovely scent. I enjoyed it for several hours, and it really did develop over that time, from cool flowers and anise through spices and carnations to a warm, resinous vanilla. If you like Guerlain fragrances, I highly recommend trying the Legendaires line, I think they’re very well done.
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 10, and it snowed here this morning! Since I live in the Southeastern US, this is a rare and exciting event, to be cherished as long as the power stays on and my friends and family are safely ensconced in their homes. We knew the snow was coming, so when I woke up very early this morning, I just stayed awake so I could see it. Our elderly dog Lucy was not so excited. I let her out at about 6 am, just as the snow was beginning; she went out very briefly then rushed back inside. When she went to the door a while later, I opened it for her, she stuck her nose out, and she retreated back into the warm house and her even warmer bed. Color Lucy not impressed.
Lucy, not impressed by snow
As of this afternoon, we’re getting the dreaded “wintry mix” of icy rain and sleet, which means some of the snow is melting but it will soon freeze over again when the temps drop below 32F. That’s one reason why snow and ice are actually quite hazardous here — we might get less than three inches of snow, but then it turns into two inches of ice. And because it’s a rare occurrence, most folks here don’t know how to drive safely in these conditions and the local governments don’t have a lot of equipment to clear the roads. Best to stay inside!
I’ve been enjoying some cozy fragrances, including Jo Malone’s small holiday set of Orange Bitters and Ginger Biscuit. They’re not so Christmasy that I feel out of sync, given that the twelve days of Christmas ended last weekend. We even took down our tree, though I haven’t yet packed away all the ornaments. Maybe today, while I’m indoors and can’t be out in the garden! This is the season we jokingly refer to as “second winter”, coming as it does after “false spring”, when we get a burst of warm days that fool many bulbs into peeking above ground. Luckily, the sudden return of the cold doesn’t harm them. Bengale Rouge will probably make it into my rotation this weekend; it’s a lovely warm fragrance that doesn’t scream “Christmas!”. Perfect for “second winter.”
I’ve also enjoyed wearing the Guerlain fragrance that was a Christmas gift, Après l’Ondèe. I think I’ll be putting it aside until we reach the “spring of deception”, when we’ll get another thaw and unseasonably warm(er) temperatures. It really is more of a spring/summer scent, I feel. What about you? Have you been wearing any holidayish fragrances, gifts or not?
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 