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 23, and I am LATE! My apologies — I was handling a couple of complex issues at work and lost track of time.

This week marked the Summer Solstice in my part of the world, and the Winter Solstice in Portia’s! Crowds gathered at Stonehenge in England to celebrate — I wonder if there is any similar gathering in Australia? With summer in full swing now, I have summer flowers and scents on my mind. My vegetable garden is flourishing (famous last words — last summer, it became an inedible jungle) and I’ve been making a new recipe that uses up lots of fresh herbs: toasted gnocchi with herb brown butter. It has been fabulous, not least because it smells so good and makes the kitchen so fragrant. I may need to pull out some of my fragrances with strong herb notes like basil and rosemary.

Do you have any beloved fragrances with those kinds of herbal notes?