fraghead

Perfume Chat Room, July 19
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Perfume Chat Room, July 19

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, July 19, and I had so much fun at a gathering this week with Gérald Ghislain of Histoires de Parfums, at a local independent perfume boutique!

Gérald Ghislain, Histoires de Parfums

He discussed how he started in perfume, the backstory of Histoires de Parfums, his life in fragrance, and his newer fragrance line, Olibanum, which launched in 2021.

Histoires de Parfums and Olibanum testers

In Gérald’s words: “While Histoires de Parfums tells stories and spins dreams, Olibanum is all about the scent. If these creations are void of storytelling, it’s simply to return to and focus on the purity of the raw materials. And for an added personalized touch, each perfume has been designed around olibanum, [my] favorite scent.” Gérald now lives in Dubai but he continues to travel widely. His description of renting an apartment in Flatbush, New York, was hilarious. In fact, generally he was very funny and charming. I enjoyed sniffing some of the newer HdP fragrances (2020 and later); my favorite was This Is Not a Blue Bottle 1.6, which is ironic because it features a strong note of yuzu. I have long thought I disliked yuzu because of an unpleasant encounter with it in a Burberry fragrance, but I may have to revisit that opinion. I really liked 1.6 and found it very refreshing in the current heat and humidity. John Biebel wrote a terrific review of it in Fragrantica. As he wrote, it is all about citrus in the opening, then it moves to a fresh flower bouquet, and finally towrd a warmer base of white musk, vanilla and vetiver. It is totally unisex and very winning. Have any of you tried it?

Just some of the fragrance lines at Indiehouse

The boutique’s intown location is quite small, so attendance was limited and about 12 people were there; it was great fun. A wide range of ages and backgrounds, and a very diverse, convivial group. It was a nice reminder of how much fun this hobby can be. This location is focused on niche and independent perfumers more than the original location in the suburbs, so there were lots of interesting products to sniff.

Also this week, WordPress sent me a note that yesterday was the 9th anniversary of my beginning to blog on WordPress (or blog at all, lol). I can’t believe it has been 9 years since I started this blog, but here we are. As some of you know, I started it at a time when my work life was very, very stressful and I was also recovering from a broken shoulder. Fragrance had become a passionate interest of mine, and I had loved reading fragrance blogs (by writers much more expert than I) so I learned how to blog about it as a distraction. I’ve loved “meeting” fellow fragrance lovers here and on other blog sites! Thank you for joining me and the rest of the community.

Any big events in your fragrant life recently?

Perfume Chat Room, July 12
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Perfume Chat Room, July 12

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, July 12, and we are back from New Hampshire. It is hot, hot, hot here! Going up to 94 degrees Fahrenheit today, and even higher this weekend. NST is doing a community project on colognes, and I am here for it. SOTD is Berdoues’ Assam of India, part of their “Cologne Grand Cru” collection and a refreshing blend of citrus and tea. Perfect for a hot, humid summer day. And I love the little elephants on the packaging!

Tea plantation

I have a few Berdoues fragrances, and I really need to wear them more often. My husband has their 1902 Trefle et Vetiver, which is very refreshing. What colognes do you like?

Perfume Chat Room, July 5
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Perfume Chat Room, July 5

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, July 5, and we had a great Fourth of July yesterday with my husband’s family in New Hampshire. We watched a classic New England small town parade, complete with synchronized marching lawn chairs (my favorite). Then last night, we had town fireworks over the lake, just beautiful.

Wolfeboro Lawn Chair Drill Team
Fireworks over Lake Winnipesaukee

We also drove over to the seashore to buy fresh lobsters and see the ocean, where we saw (and smelled) many beach roses in bloom. Of all rose scents in nature, I think that’s my favorite.

Beach roses

For those who celebrate the Fourth, I hope you enjoyed a great holiday! Any special events, or scents?

Perfume Chat Room, June 28
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Perfume Chat Room, June 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, June 28, and we finally got some rain! Like much of the US, we’ve been experiencing an extended heat wave, with temperatures in the high 90s (Fahrenheit) and high humidity that made it feel even hotter. It’s all I can do to water my plants enough to keep them alive!

On a more serious topic also involving the cultivation of flowers, I recently reposted an article by the BBC that was published in late May: This Is Not Okay. The article is about an investigative documentary from the BBC called “Perfume’s Dark Secret.” It concerns the illegal child labor practices of firms that supply jasmine flowers for processing into oils and ultimately into perfumes. The only company mentioned in the article that appears to be taking this issue seriously enough to have real oversight and action plans is L’Oreal (which owns many brands, including Lancôme; its other brands include Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Viktor&Rolf, Valentino, Mugler, Azzaro, and the former niche brand Atelier Cologne). Most others in the supply chain, including major firms like Givaudan and Firmenich, come across as shrugging that this is the responsibility of someone else in the chain.

Now, I haven’t watched the documentary, and I know some of you have. I need to do so. I hope the BBC continues to follow this story and update readers/watchers on any progress made toward the commitments made by all of these firms. Ultimately, illegal child labor is a failure of governance, in this case by the Egyptian government. But we all have a role in the chain from flower pickers to perfume consumers. I don’t know what my personal response to this news will be, but I won’t be buying any new perfume until I figure that out. This isn’t a big step, as I’ve bought very little new perfume this year (trying to focus on and use the many fragrances I already have). I also buy little from these major brands, but I know that most perfumers at every level are getting their ingredients from part of this same supply chain. I need to research which perfumers may not. If any of you have already looked into this, please share what you’ve learned in the comments below. However, this is a matter of personal conscience, so I will delete any comments that seem to attack another individual commenter’s choices if they arise (I know my regular commenters wouldn’t do that!).

Sorry to be a bit of a downer in this week’s Perfume Chat Room, which is normally quite cheery, but I think this is a topic that’s worth discussing. Feel free to ignore it, though, and chat about something else that’s going on in your fragrant life this week!

Child laborer in jasmine field
Child jasmine picker; image from BBC documentary “Perfume’s Dark Secret.”
This Is Not Okay
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This Is Not Okay

Perfume’s Dark Secret, from the BBC: www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68172560

I’m really disturbed by this. No perfume is worth the theft of a child’s childhood.

Perfume Chat Room, June 21
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Perfume Chat Room, June 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. 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, June 21, and it is HOT where I live! 93 degrees with enough humidity to make it feel like 94. Interestingly, the heat revealed a facet of Pelagos that I hadn’t expected. I had applied very small spritzes, one to my neck and each of my wrists, three in all, so very little. I should have remembered that Pelagos comes in extrait strength! Because when I left my physical therapy appointment around 11, it was a bit too much. And it also “read” to my nose as more masculine, whereas when I first tried it, I felt it was truly unisex. I can’t even explain why my perception changed or what note/accord changed it, but here we are.

The good news is that I’ve completely recovered from COVID and my sense of smell is intact. Only my sense of taste was temporarily affected by Paxlovid, and it returned to normal by the evening of the day when I took my last dose. That’s a relief! The bad news is that Japanese beetles have arrived in my garden, seeking out my scrumptious roses, their favorite treat. I have gone to war. In researching the best methods that won’t harm beneficial insects or pollinators, I learned something new — Japanese beetles apparently have some kind of sense of smell and they release a pheromone when they find a food source, which attracts all their fellow Japanese beetles! Ugh.

Are you going through a heat wave? My sympathy if you are. Happy Summer Solstice too!

Perfume Chat Room, June 14
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Perfume Chat Room, June 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. 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, June 14, and I took my last dose of Paxlovid this morning — hurray! As some of you know, I came down with COVID last weekend. As it turned out, my husband had it first and probably caught it on the plane trip home from France, then both my daughters and I came down with it. I was able to start Paxlovid on Sunday evening, and I’m grateful to have had it although it did leave a bad metallic taste in my mouth all week. Luckily, it doesn’t seem to have affected my nose, and I’m told the bad taste stops by the day after one’s last dose.

Meanwhile, I received a free sample of Parfums Dusita’s newest fragrance, Pelagos, in the mail and I like it very much! The name means “sea”, but this is not an aquatic fragrance. Per Fragrantica, the notes are: top notes: Cypress, Oakmoss, Bergamot, Pine, Litsea Cubeba, Clary Sage and Orange; middle notes: Orris, Thyme, Tonka Bean and Jasmine; base notes: Sandalwood, Patchouli, Vetiver, Amyris, Ambrette, Benzoin and Incense. It is more of an aromatic fragrance than anything else, with a strong hint of chypre. Truly unisex, it would smell great on anyone. It comes in extrait strength, which is also very appealing. I’ll have to spend more time with it to share any deeper thoughts, but it’s a winner so far!

Do you have any favorite beach or ocean scents?

The northern coast of Brittany
Perfume Chat Room, June 7
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Perfume Chat Room, June 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, June 7, and we’re back from our trip to France! It was an amazing trip through Normandy and Brittany, where we visited D-Day sites, prehistoric standing stones, landscapes of great natural beauty, and several museums along the way. We also enjoyed many outstanding meals, including our first ever dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant. All in all, it was a wonderful, though delayed, celebration of major birthdays, wedding anniversary, and graduations; this was the trip we had planned for the summer of 2020, which of course we had to cancel. It is also likely to be our last big trip to Europe with the whole family, as our three young adult children now all have full-time jobs, significant others, and more scheduling challenges. So we pulled out all the stops!

I did not come home with any fragrances, but I was able to try some really nice ones in the duty-free area of Charles de Gaulle airport. The Guerlain extraits were so luxurious! I sampled Iris Pallida and Rose Centifolia. Just gorgeous! I also tried Chanel’s Comète and was unimpressed. Quite pretty, but it may have suffered by comparison with Guerlain’s Iris Pallida extrait, which was simply stunning. If I were longing for a powdery Chanel iris eau de parfum, I’d probably be satisfied with No. 19 Poudré, at a much lower price.

We also visited the garden at Christian Dior’s childhood home in Granville, which inspired many of his designs and fragrances. It was absolutely beautiful, and all the roses were in full bloom, including a lovely, fragrant one named “Jardin de Granville.” I wish it were available in the US, to add to my own garden!

Jardin de Granville rose

A big thank-you to rickyrebarco, whose package with Nicolai’s Une Fleur En Mai and another lovely goodie arrived while we were away! They’re both beautiful, and I love them. I’m wearing Une Fleur En Mai today!

We won’t be traveling overseas for the rest of the summer, though London is a possibility this fall, and we may go visit family in New Hampshire in July. Do you have any summer travel plans? Any planned acquisitions of new fragrances? Do tell!

The Musee Christian Dior in Granville, Normandy
Perfume Chat Room, May 18
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Perfume Chat Room, May 18

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, May 18, and we’re in final preparations for our trip to Normandy and Brittany, the one we were planning to take in 2020. This will likely be our last big all-family trip abroad for the foreseeable future. Since our youngest was 5 years old and able to pull his own rollaboard bag, we’ve taken our kids to Europe or another international destination almost annually, riding the coattails of my dear husband’s travel for work. Usually he flies to Europe, works for a week or more, then we have joined him using some of his millions of frequent flyer miles. It costs less take to take our family of five to Europe for a week than it would to take them to Disneyworld! (I know that because one of my sisters used to take her three kids every year to Disneyworld).

1789 map of the provinces of Brittany, Normandy, and others; image by Ty’s Commons.

Now that the kids have all finished college and launched into jobs (the youngest will start his on July 1), it will be more challenging to coordinate schedules. And now that I’ve retired, and my husband will likely follow in a year or two, we need to spend a bit less on travel, lol. But for 17 years, minus pandemic time, we’ve been able to share some favorite countries and discover new ones with our three children, which has been a privilege and a blessing. I hope we’ve shown them enough that they continue to explore Europe and other continents on their own.

Green hot air balloon sailing over fields
Green hot air balloon; image from vistivictoria.com

Thanks to rickyrebarco, I no longer have to try to figure out how to get my hands and nose on Patricia de Nicolai’s limited release muguet scent. Thank you so much! Since we are bypassing Paris, it would have been challenging to find it even in France and even if it hadn’t sold out so quickly. With that itch scratched, I don’t have any particular fragrance in mind to bring home as a perfume souvenir, which is good because I truly have so, so many. I. packed most of them away to make room for the stuff we had to move out of the basement so our oldest could move into that as an apartment, and I plan to sort, organize and catalogue them this summer after we get back. I think my upcoming olfactory adventures this month will focus mostly on food and drink, which are excellent in both regions we will visit!

Have you planned any upcoming olfactory adventures of any kind? Do tell!

Perfume Chat Room, May 10
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Perfume Chat Room, May 10

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, May 10, and I got a facial earlier today, in anticipation of our big graduation weekend. The young woman doing the facial spritzed me with the NICEST smelling toner: neroli. I’ve always liked neroli but it hasn’t been at or even near the top of my list of favorite notes. That may need to change! Do you have any neroli fragrances you would recommend?

Citrus aurantium; image from Wikipedia