El Corte Ingles

Perfume Chat Room, March 7
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Perfume Chat Room, March 7

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.

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. 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!