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Perfume Chat Room, November 17
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Perfume Chat Room, November 17

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
Perfume Chat Room, July 8
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Perfume Chat Room, July 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. 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.

This week, I posted another in the series “Scent Semantics“, which Portia started. Every month, on the first Monday (or as close to that as possible), Portia and I and several other bloggers write posts based on a single word, chosen by one of us in rotation. It’s great fun! The word for July was “cornucopia”. If you haven’t read the posts so far, the links to all the participating blogs are here: Scent Semantics Blogs.

I can’t ignore, this week, the dreadful recent toll of gun violence in the world, between Monday’s July Fourth shooting at a small-town parade, to yesterday’s assassination of Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The toll in the US is, of course, the worst in the world, and this summer has been particularly awful. The assassination of a world leader, whether or not one agreed with his politics, is always shocking, historic, and an attack on the governmental system itself, whether that be monarchy, democracy, or something else. The attack on families at a parade is an attack on all of the freedoms most of us take for granted — like going to a public event in safety. I don’t post about politics on this blog, but I feel I should acknowledge these tragedies.

On a more cheerful note, my roses are having a second flush of bloom lately, and they smell marvelous. I may have to revisit my “Roses de Mai Marathon“! Here are some of them in the early summer:

If you had to pick a fragrance to relate to “cornucopia”, which would you pick? And why?

Perfume Chat Room, April 30
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Perfume Chat Room, April 30

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, April 30 — the very last day of April! Where I live, the April showers have already brought many flowers, including my beloved David Austin English Roses, which are so very fragrant. They will continue into May. Tomorrow, I plan to renew my annual “May Marathon” series of blog posts! This year, the series will be a “May Melange Marathon” with a focus on the May flowers that April showers famously bring. You can expect posts about some new muguet fragrances, some new (to me, at least) rose fragrances, and my favorite green fragrances. Please join the marathon in the comments!

I should note that a blogging marathon is as close as I will ever get to a marathon other than as a spectator. I really, really don’t like to run, though I do enjoy long walks (and my family says I walk very briskly).

What are your plans for May, fragrant or otherwise?