Perfume Chat Room, March 6
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Perfume Chat Room, March 6

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 — I’ve been known to write on this blog about biryani, one of my favorite dishes to eat and one I am still learning to make! (If you have a great recipe for it, please share!). 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 March 6, and I am with my family on a spring break holiday in Jamaica, for our first visit here, coronavirus be d—ned! Scent of the day is Montale’s Roses Musk, a soft rose fragrance that goes well with the tropical but temperate climate here. What is your SOTD? Have you been to Jamaica? What scents evoke the Caribbean or other tropics to you?

Perfume Chat Room, February 28
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Perfume Chat Room, February 28

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 — I’ve been known to write on this blog about biryani, one of my favorite dishes to eat and one I am still learning to make! (If you have a great recipe for it, please share!).

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 February 28, and tomorrow is Leap Day, a rare event in the calendar. My SOTD is supposed to be a “unicorn”, following the Now Smell This community project, which has defined a “unicorn” scent as “a perfume you suspect no one else (or almost no one else) on Now Smell This owns, or something that you very rarely see worn or mentioned.” If I still had any, I would wear the unicorn scent I wrote about some time ago, L’Iris de Fath. Alas, it is such an expensive unicorn that I had the rare privilege of trying it once, but I don’t have any more (I did, however, put a drop on a ceramic scent disc, which still smells faintly of it). Continue reading →

Scent Sample Sunday: Sylvaine Delacourte Dovana
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Scent Sample Sunday: Sylvaine Delacourte Dovana

Sylvaine Delacourte is the former perfume creative director of Guerlain and current owner/founder of her own eponymous perfume brand and line. She has issued three themed collections of fragrances: the Vanilla Collection, the Musks Collection, and the Orange Blossom Collection. Dovana is one of the Musks Collection, and it is described as a “tender musk.” All of the Musks Collection are at 20% concentration, i.e. eau de parfum strength, and all are unisex.

The brand’s website says that Ms. Delacourte wanted this collection to feel like “olfactive pashiminas”, with a signature softness. Continue reading →

Perfume Chat Room, February 21
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Perfume Chat Room, February 21

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 — I’ve been known to write on this blog about biryani, one of my favorite dishes to eat and one I am still learning to make! (If you have a great recipe for it, please share!).

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 February 21, and tonight I will have the privilege Continue reading →

Scent Sample Sunday: DSH Heirloom Elixirs
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Scent Sample Sunday: DSH Heirloom Elixirs

My Valentine’s Day gift to myself was a subscription to Dawn Spencer Hurwitz’ Heirloom Elixir subscription for this year, all six releases. Dawn describes the origins of the idea:

Over the past few years we’ve had multiple requests for a “Subscription Service”… one that would automatically introduce you to a new DSH Perfume on a regular basis, filled with surprise and excitement.  With our creative new collection of Limited Editions, Heirloom Elixir, we felt that this was the perfect pairing of ideas to make that request a reality.

At the end of 2019, I took advantage of her end-of-year sale and bought the 2019 Complete Collection of six fragrances she released that year. They are, in order: Continue reading →

Perfume Chat Room, February 14
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Perfume Chat Room, February 14

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 — I’ve been known to write on this blog about biryani, one of my favorite dishes to eat and one I am still learning to make! (If you have a great recipe for it, please share!).

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 February 14, Happy Valentine’s Day! What scent are you wearing? I’m in Papillon Perfumes’ Bengale Rouge, and I’m in love with it. You?

Featured image by Voth.

Perfume Chat Room, February 8
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Perfume Chat Room, February 8

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 — I’ve been known to write on this blog about biryani, one of my favorite dishes to eat and one I am still learning to make! (If you have a great recipe for it, please share!).

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 February 8, Continue reading →

Perfume Chat Room
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Perfume Chat Room

Fragrance friends: the sudden farewell of Australian Perfume Junkies has left a number of perfumistas wondering where they will find a place online to “hang out” with other fragheads. Portia and Val the Cookie Queen will be posting sometimes on A Bottled Rose (yay!), but Portia won’t be hosting weekly SOTD threads or Saturday Questions as on APJ. So I am humbly offering here a weekly “Perfume Chat Room”, where any readers so inclined can list their scents of the day(s), ask each other questions, give a “Weekend Update”, and generally take the conversations in whatever direction they want.

Retro cocktail party image

As at APJ, taking sides means never taking offense, always keeping things respectful and light, sharing information and opinions, and remembering that in fragrance, as in life, your mileage may vary. In other words, agreeing to disagree. YMMV. Welcome!

Vintage Avon fragrance ad, 1960s

Avon calling! Image from http://www.avon.com

 

Godspeed, APJ

via Welcome Back APJ

It seems so recent that we were rejoicing in the return of a beloved blog and fragrance lovers’ community, Australian Perfume Junkies, after the site was hacked. Now, sadly, its founder Portia has decided to end the blog at the end of this month. It has clearly taken a LOT of time to manage, although along the way Portia has shared many fun outings that readers vicariously enjoyed, and even a wedding to longtime partner Jin. I especially loved the Saturday Questions, and everyone’s updates on “thunking”, and earning “enabler pins”!

APJ was one of the first online perfumista communities I found when I went down this rabbit hole; thanks to Portia and friends, it was always a  kind and welcoming one. I will miss APJ, but I hope to keep seeing some of its regulars online, here and on other blogs I enjoy like Now Smell This, Bois de Jasmin, and Undina’s Looking Glass (I read and enjoy several others too, but these are the ones where I’ve found the most conversations with repeat commenters).

Thank you, Portia, for hosting those conversations and sharing your encounters in life and fragrance. Thanks for pleasant memories. I wish you and Jin the very best, and good health and happiness! I hope you might occasionally post an update on your doings and still drop by other blogs once in a while. Stop by here any time! Au revoir.

Fragrance Friday: Eat More Flowers
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Fragrance Friday: Eat More Flowers

Today is the last day of January, and I’ve been enjoying my January Joy Box from 4160 Tuesdays all month. Such a creative idea, to create a sort of post-Advent calendar of goodies to open in January, when the holidays are over. I’m taking my time to absorb each of the 10 numbered fragrances, and I’m not writing about them in order — just as the fancy strikes me!

One that I truly love is Eat More Flowers. In addition to the 9 ml spray that came in the January Joy Box, I actually have a full bottle, having ordered it when Sarah McCartney (the nose and owner of 4160 Tuesdays) offered it in the fall. It is a glorious floral, made at parfum strength — the vavavoom sister of Eat Flowers, which was launched in 2018. In addition to the notes of Eat Flowers (top notes: linden blossom, neroli, lemon flower; heart notes: rose, iris, tuberose, lily, geranium; base notes: musks, white woods, cabrueva), Sarah added rose and violet leaf absolutes, and orris butter. As she writes, “Wear it, and you’re walking barefoot, deep into the blossoming glades of a spring forest.”

Her inspiration for the original Eat Flowers was a poster from 1968, which hangs in her studio:

Poster titled Eat Flowers, from 1968.

“Eat Flowers”, 1968.

Sarah describes Eat Flowers as “a swirling floral aura of lightly blended petals, with cedarwoods, bergamot, linden blossom and a soft amber base.” Eat More Flowers amps up the floral notes — truly, “Flower Power.”

The orris and violet leaf notes are the strongest, to my nose, and they are gorgeous. The violet leaf absolute creates an aura of deep green around the royal purple robes of orris that surround the other flowers. A non-sugary sweetness gilds the composition, which I think comes from the linden blossom and its ability to evoke honey. And if you want to really “eat more flowers”? The young leaves and flower buds of violets are edible. In fact, you can include them in this recipe for perfumer Ezra Woods’ “fragrant flower salad”, pictured above and below.

Flower-based salad and recipe by perfumer Ezra Woods.

Ezra Woods’ fragrant flower salad; photo by Julia Stotz for The New York Times.

Eat More Flowers has good longevity, several hours even on my dry skin. I find it to be almost linear; it does change over time as it dries down, but not dramatically.  The orris and violet leaf carry straight through the composition once they emerge, which they do very quickly from the start. It’s also a perfectly acceptable scent for most settings, as it doesn’t overwhelm its surroundings. If you like flowers and floral scents, Eat More Flowers may be just the bouquet for you.

Featured image by Julia Stotz for The New York Times: A Perfumer’s Fragrant Flower Salad.