January Joy Box

Perfume Chat Room, January 14
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Perfume Chat Room, January 14

Welcome back 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, January 14, and it is the start of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend here in the US. I’m always heartened to see how many groups organize for a “day on, not a day off” on Monday, helping people take part in various service or educational projects. Since my city is expecting very cold weather and possibly snow on Sunday, and we’re still battling the omicron surge, I suspect that many of the activities will be virtual (as they were last January).

One of my colleagues remarked in a Zoom meeting today that the start of this semester feels rockier than usual. I tend to agree; and I wonder whether it is due to the ongoing disruptions caused by the pandemic. I’ve noticed that in addition to more crises, people also seem to have lost some of their ability to get along. Just in the two weeks of work since our winter break, I’ve experienced some truly rude behavior by professional colleagues, let alone students. In fact, the colleagues have been worse, with less justification!

My January has been brightened, though, by the ongoing opening of my January Joy Box from 4160 Tuesdays. Every other day, there’s a new fragrance to try. And then the discussion that ensues on the brand’s Facebook community page is often hilarious! This week, the scents were: Rose Goes to Town, British Summer, and All Made of Flowers. I love Rose Goes to Town, and I like the others a lot.

Have you been able to try or revisit any fragrances that helped dispel any January blahs? Do tell!

Royal Ascot hat of giant roses
Ascot hat of roses; radiogorgeous.com
Perfume Chat Room, January 7
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Perfume Chat Room, January 7

Welcome back 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, January 7, and it is 2022! Earlier this week, my fellow bloggers and I posted our monthly “Scent Semantics” post for January, riffing off the word “luscious.” Check out the posts on six different fragrance blogs!

The numbers 2022 in fireworks
2022 in fireworks; image from parade.com

Like many other Americans, my work week began again post-holidays, but we’re back to remote work because of the massive surge in omicron variant COVID cases. I feel much less anxious about it this time.

Instead of “dry January”, I’m going to make a conscious effort to minimize fragrance purchases this month, since I took full advantage of many sales and discounts before, during, and after Christmas! Most of those were from small or independent perfumers or perfumeries, so I don’t feel bad about supporting them. This month, I’m enjoying the “January Joy Box” from 4160 Tuesdays, which is a box of 15 fragrances, most of them limited editions or not yet in the main 4160 Tuesdays line, to be opened one at a time, every other day, in numbered order. Sarah McCartney started this annual tradition a few years ago, and it is great fun! It’s like a January Advent calendar. Lots of chatter about each fragrance on 4160 Tuesdays’ Facebook pages!

So far, I’ve opened 1) Spellbinder; 2) Cherry Who?; and 3) Dawn to Dusk. Of those, so far my favorite is Spellbinder, which Sarah actually created for an independent US business called Haunted Saginaw (the fragrances are labeled “13th Floor Fragrance Co.”). Here’s the published description:

Rich and luxurious tonka beans infused with superior Madagascar vanilla, bursting with a citrus & slightly earthy opening (Bergamot, Mandarin, Tart Cranberry & ripened Rhubarb) intertwined with a dark forest of woods (Cedar, Sandalwood, Cashmere) into a slightly smokey veil ( Sweet Tobacco, Incense & Leather) sensually merging into a dark floral heart ( Jasmine, Violet, and exotic Ylang Ylang) surrounded by an array of arromatic spices ( Cardamom, Nutmeg & more).

If this sounds like something you must have, it can still be purchased at the Haunted Saginaw website. By the way, Sarah and fragrance blogger Sam Scriven from “I Scent You A Day” published their book this fall, “The Perfume Companion“, and it is great fun. I love that two bloggers I follow, Sam and Neil Chapman of “The Black Narcissus” have both published books in recent years. I love reading their insights, and both books are great for browsing.

On the topic of books, one of my Christmas gifts this year, which I’ve just started reading, is the book “The Scent of Empires: Chanel No.5 and Red Moscow“, by Karl Schlogel. Already it promises to be fascinating to this history nerd!

Have you started off your New Year in any new fragrances, or with any new books? Do tell!

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 →

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.

Fragrance Friday: January Joy!
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Fragrance Friday: January Joy!

I was one of the lucky fans who was able to buy one of the “January Joy Boxes” made by Sarah McCartney of 4160 Tuesdays this winter. The box has several 9 ml sprays of some of her limited edition or other special fragrances, and the idea was that you were supposed to wait until January to open it, to relieve any post-holiday gloom. The boxes holding the sprays are numbered and are to be opened in sequence. It was hard to wait until New Year’s Day, but I did! I’ve decided to pace myself and open one of the scents every 2-3 days, so the set lasts me all month and I have a chance to appreciate each fragrance.

The first fragrance was Temptation, a soft, sweet confection with smooth musks and a note others have described as “sugared almonds”, with vanilla anchoring it all. Sarah has written on the 4160 Tuesdays Facebook page that Temptation is the sub-base notes of Take Me To The River; it has eight notes, and it includes three different musks as well as vanillin. On my skin, it lasts for hours! It doesn’t “carry” very far, but it is delightful and I can’t stop sniffing my wrists. Now that I know its relationship to Take Me To The River, I’m going to try layering it with something else and see what happens.

Sarah has said that her fragrance Take Me To The River was inspired by the Talking Heads’ cover of that Al Green song, as that is her favorite version, but I love this one:

Who doesn’t love Al Green singing his own song, with BB King, Lenny Kravitz, and Sheryl Crow? But if we’re picking Al Green songs, the one that goes with Temptation is “Let’s Stay Together”, that smooth sweet sexy ballad full of soul.

I loved so many of the soul groups and singers of the 1970s — like the Temptations — with their roots in gospel music. I can go for years without hearing one of those songs, but just a few bars can take me back to my childhood, listening to a dinky little Panasonic transistor radio shaped like a red ball. I’ll be quite happy to think of Al Green’s music when I wear the fragrance Temptation.

Featured image from http://www.thenational.ae