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 14, and Spring has sprung here at home.
The air is full of lovely spring smells, from the daffodils everywhere to the early pink magnolias, and one of my favorite scents, hyacinth. Now Smell This had the community project this week of wearing a hyacinth scent. My favorite hyacinth fragrance is Jo Malone’s Blue Hyacinth. It smells exactly like the real thing! Another of my perennial favorites, Chanel No. 19, has a strong hyacinth note.
I bought several pots of hyacinths for a spring luncheon I hosted this week, and they still smell wonderful. Some of their predecessors, planted outside after they faded, have come back beautifully in my garden. I’m enjoying the fragrance indoors, where on pot of bulbs can fill an entire room with scent.
I plan to go on a binge of green scents starting this weekend. I have plenty from which to choose, lol. I know not everyone shares my affection for the green scents — if you do, do you have a favorite? Please share in the comments! And happy Spring!
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, January 25, and I’m in snowy New England! Flew up here with one of our daughters to visit my sisters and my niece’s new baby. She’s a cutie, and her sister is a darling. It is very nice to see the snow in the sun.
Here is the new addition to our family!
New baby in our family!
I brought with me a travel size of Jo Malone’s Ginger Biscuit, which has been perfect for hanging out with little children on a wintry day. I hope they associate me with that lovely warm scent!
Do you ever choose a scent on purpose to charm someone other than a romantic interest, lol?
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, January 10, and it snowed here this morning! Since I live in the Southeastern US, this is a rare and exciting event, to be cherished as long as the power stays on and my friends and family are safely ensconced in their homes. We knew the snow was coming, so when I woke up very early this morning, I just stayed awake so I could see it. Our elderly dog Lucy was not so excited. I let her out at about 6 am, just as the snow was beginning; she went out very briefly then rushed back inside. When she went to the door a while later, I opened it for her, she stuck her nose out, and she retreated back into the warm house and her even warmer bed. Color Lucy not impressed.
Lucy, not impressed by snow
As of this afternoon, we’re getting the dreaded “wintry mix” of icy rain and sleet, which means some of the snow is melting but it will soon freeze over again when the temps drop below 32F. That’s one reason why snow and ice are actually quite hazardous here — we might get less than three inches of snow, but then it turns into two inches of ice. And because it’s a rare occurrence, most folks here don’t know how to drive safely in these conditions and the local governments don’t have a lot of equipment to clear the roads. Best to stay inside!
I’ve been enjoying some cozy fragrances, including Jo Malone’s small holiday set of Orange Bitters and Ginger Biscuit. They’re not so Christmasy that I feel out of sync, given that the twelve days of Christmas ended last weekend. We even took down our tree, though I haven’t yet packed away all the ornaments. Maybe today, while I’m indoors and can’t be out in the garden! This is the season we jokingly refer to as “second winter”, coming as it does after “false spring”, when we get a burst of warm days that fool many bulbs into peeking above ground. Luckily, the sudden return of the cold doesn’t harm them. Bengale Rouge will probably make it into my rotation this weekend; it’s a lovely warm fragrance that doesn’t scream “Christmas!”. Perfect for “second winter.”
I’ve also enjoyed wearing the Guerlain fragrance that was a Christmas gift, Après l’Ondèe. I think I’ll be putting it aside until we reach the “spring of deception”, when we’ll get another thaw and unseasonably warm(er) temperatures. It really is more of a spring/summer scent, I feel. What about you? Have you been wearing any holidayish fragrances, gifts or not?
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, October 25, and we’re back from our short beach trip, which was lovely! I’m enjoying another sample I got from the Jo Loves boutique in London in September: Jo by Jo Loves. Fragrantica classifies it as a “citrus aromatic”, which seems about right. Notes include grapefruit, lime, bitter orange, black pepper, vetiver, mint, guiac wood, cedar, and hedione. I happen to like a grapefruit note, though I know some do not, which is good because that is the strong opening accord. I like the way the citrus notes engage with each other, with lime and bitter orange playing hide and seek with the grapefruit. As it dries down, I smell more of the vetiver and mint, which bring an attractive green tinge to the composition. Basically, Jo by Jo Loves smells to me like a spicy, woody grapefruit! It is wholly unisex, in my view, and I think many men would enjoy it as a fresh cologne that doesn’t smell like everyone else’s. I’ll have to ask my son what he thinks!
Next week is Halloween in the US, but many of the parties celebrating Halloween will take place this weekend, when all the young adults can costume themselves, drink, and generally shed their inhibitions. I’ll be staying home, thank you! I do love the actual night of Halloween when the children come trick-or-treating. Our neighborhood goes all out for Halloween; we block off a couple of streets to cars, and it’s a very safe locale, so families from other parts of the city often come to walk around and ring doorbells.
Do you have any scents you associate with Halloween? I’ve enjoyed some of the offerings of Solstice Scents, which can be very spooky, such as their Riverside Hayride. Happy Halloween, everyone!
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, August 16, and I have read that perfumer Christine Nagel has created a new fragrance for Hermès: Hermès’ New Perfume Took Ten Years to Make. It is called Barénia, after a special kind of calf leather, and her intent was to create a feminine counterpart to Hermès’ masculine Terre d’Hermès. The same article states that it is the first “chypre” fragrance launched by Hermès, which actually surprised me. I love chypres, so I’m adding Barénia to my list of scents to try. It is supposed to contain, in a chypre structure, notes of “green bergamot, a roasted oaky wood that was reminiscent of rum; two types of patchouli; butterfly lily; and miracle berry.”
Ms. Nagel has, of course, created many wonderful fragrances, including those she has created as Hermes’ in-house perfumer since 2014, when she joined Jean-Claude Elena there, taking over fully on his retirement in 2016.
Of her Hermes’ fragrances, the only two I own in full size are Un Jardin Sur la Lagune and Un Jardin a Cythere, both of which I like very much. I also like some of her creations for other houses, like Si. She has created m y classics for the brand Jo Malone, including the “Rock the Ages” set which has two of my favorites, plus the legendary Ginger Biscuit, wood Sage & Sea Salt, and Earl Grey & Cucumber. I also like Une Nuit Magnetique, which she created for The Different Company. I’m grateful that Fragrantica’s tools let us search by perfumer, the only way I can keep,track of their prolific output!
Do you have any favorites by Ms. Nagel? Have you tried this new one yet?
Hermès’ “Jardin” series of fragrances; image from hermes.com
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 22, and yesterday was Fragrance Day, per the Fragrance Foundation. Did you wear any special fragrance in honor of the day? I love that Fragrance Day falls in the same week as the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, that seems so fitting given that my garden and others are bursting with fragrant flowers right now. Also, “Paris Perfume Week” is underway, from March 21-24. How I wish I were there! Maybe next year … anyone care to come? It appears there are many events that non-professionals can attend (with a ticket).
I’m still enjoying my souvenir of Paris, Fragonard’s Narcisse, which was its flower scent of the year in 2023. I chose it because on our recent trip, there were daffodils in bloom everywhere we went, including Versailles. Elena Vosnaki of Fragrantica chose it as one of her favorite fragrances of 2023. My heart still belongs to Ostara, for a true daffodil fragrance, but Narcisse is very pretty. It’s light and fresh, with a lot of citrus in its opening. The picture on the bottle shows Narcissus poeticus, a late-blooming white narcissus with a small, red and yellow ‘eye” in its center, and that is what it smells like as opposed to daffodils. More lemony and less musky. A very nice spring scent! It doesn’t last long but I enjoy it while it does.
We are entering my favorite fragrance season, spring. As regulars here know, I love my floral and green fragrances! Of course I can wear them year-round, but the spring is when I really love wearing them, as they blend seamlessly with the fragrant air outside. RIght now, the smell of fresh flowers inside my house is coming from a bunch of sweet pea blossoms that a friend gave me yesterday. I love them! I’ve tried before to grow them in my garden, without success. I just haven’t mastered the timing, as they hate hot weather. I think I’d have to plant seeds in the fall to have any chance. Meanwhile, their delicate blossoms are scenting an entire room; they don’t even look real.
Do you have any favorite sweet pea fragrances? Caron had one for a long time called Pois de Senteur, which they reformulated and reissued in 2021, but I’ve never smelled it. Last year, Jo Malone had a new fragrance called English Pear and Sweet Pea, so I may have to go try that at a nearby department store. Have you tried it? Thoughts on it?
This is the last month of Portia’s and my collaboration, so the last “Counterpoint” unless I decide to resume in January. For December, we agreed to write about Jo Malone’s Ginger Biscuit, first launched in 2013 as part of a limited edition collection called “Sugar and Spice.” The perfumer who created it was Christine Nagel. It was released again this year as a holiday special release, just in time for me to grab some for my daughter’s birthday. Jo Malone’s Global Head of Fragrance, Céline Roux, describes its creation:
“Ginger Biscuit is not sugary sweet at all. If it was, it just wouldn’t be wearable. We have a lot of creamy wood notes in the formulation; you need the elegance of the wood to make it wearable. There’s also some natural ginger, which brings a zingy freshness and balances out the sweetness, and vanilla absolute. When you create scents like this, you need the best quality vanilla so that it is not candy sweet. So, what you get instead is a mouth-watering gourmand.”
1. How did you first encounter Jo Malone Ginger Biscuit, and what was your first impression?
Old Herbaceous: Ginger Biscuit was one of the small 9 ml bottles that came in a holiday fragrance sampler set from Jo Malone several years ago (basically the same set is now available again as a holiday coffret, with some really nice scents). I tried it and liked it, but I liked all the fragrances in the collection! Then my daughters asked to do a fragrance-sniffing session over Christmas a couple of years ago, and my oldest absolutely fell in love with Ginger Biscuit. Of course it had been a limited edition and was discontinued for the time being, available online only for exorbitant prices. I didn’t realize just how much she loved it until she told me of her many searches for a dupe or something that might come close. She rarely falls for a fragrance so hard, so I kept looking myself and hoping to find a stray bottle for her.
Well, lo and behold, someone commented on a Facebook group for fragrance fans, back in October, that they had seen Ginger Biscuit briefly listed on the Saks Fifth Avenue website, though it had quickly vanished. This raised the hope among many perfumistas that it was due to be re-released for the holidays. My city has a Saks Fifth Avenue store and it’s not far from where we live, so I made a rare trip to the mall to ask a sales associate for any information. The lovely woman who helped me confirmed that it would be a holiday release, and said she thought it would arrive at the start of November. I also stopped by Nordstrom, and another lovely sales associate told me the same thing. Both of them took my name and phone number. Just a few days later, the SA from Saks called me and said she had just gotten in a few bottles and would hold one for me. Shortly after that, the SA from Nordstrom made the same call. And so, dear readers, that is how I ended up with not one but two bottles of Ginger Biscuit. We gave one to our daughter in November for her birthday, and she was thrilled. Imagine her surprise when the second bottle appears under the Christmas tree! She’ll be set for life, or at least for several years.
Portia: I’d never heard of Jo Malone Ginger Biscuit before Old Herbaceous told me about it and how excited she and other perfumistas have been about its re-release for Christmas 2023. TBH Jo Malone perfumes just aren’t on my radar. Jin wears the woody number one and I had a couple of bath oils, Red Roses and Blue Agave. They were nice but the perfumes I’ve tried have all been totally underwhelming.
So it was with mild trepidation that I ventured into town and grabbed a small decant from the tester bottle (all samples had gone in the first few days of arrival, the SA was really lovely and even did the sample into my own little decant).
My first impression was. OH! it really is what is says on the bottle. A delightful waft of freshly opened iced gingerbread man wafted out as the SA was decanting. I was very taken but off to another perfume event so couldn’t douse myself.
2. How would you describe the development of Jo Malone Ginger Biscuit?
Portia: HA! I can’t help but smile like a fool when I spritz Ginger Biscuit. It’s just so freaking lifelike. Photo realism in fragrance. Ginger Biscuit smells like a ginger biscuit, or what is much closer to my heart an iced gingerbread man from Pizza Hut. I smell my wafting gorgeousness and am transported back 45 years and more to family events. We had a really lovely one in the next suburb and went for every occasion. The staff knew us, it was wheelchair accessible for Dad, there were banquettes that Mum and I loved to sit in with a chair for Jodie (my sister) and space for Dad. They had all you can eat salad and soda. At the end of every meal as we left the staff would give us kids an iced gingerbread man. THIS IS THE SMELL.
As we move from the top into the heart the ginger remains but less intense. Here the whole fragrance becomes a soft, chewy caramel that’s heavy on the vanilla.
It gets more and more vanilla essence as it dries down and is the softest, merest wash of gorgeous gourmand for hours and hours and hours.
Old Herbaceous: Right out of the bottle, Ginger Biscuit smells to me like a true gingersnap, spicy, sweet, and warm. It smells like a cookie or gingerbread that was made with real ginger and spices instead of artificial flavoring. I don’t usually gravitate to gourmand fragrances, as I find many to be too sweet and heavy for my taste, but Ginger Biscuit stays light and spicy. It is sweet, and there is a lovely vanilla that pervades the whole development from start to finish. A dominant note is said to be caramel, but I smell brown sugar more than caramel. The cinnamon and nutmeg bring depth to the sweetness of the vanilla and brown sugar, just as they do in real baking.
The vanilla persists even after the spiciness fades into the background. I do like a good vanilla, and that is how Ginger Biscuit ends up on my skin. It smells wonderful on my daughter; I enjoy it more on her than on myself, just because of her obvious delight in it. Smelling this light, sweet vanilla fragrance on her skin reminds me of how sweet she and her siblings smelled as babies, a very happy memory.
3. Do you or will you wear Jo Malone Ginger Biscuit regularly? For what occasions or seasons?
Old Herbaceous: Ginger Biscuit is absolutely perfect for the winter holiday season and beyond. Given the associations with gingerbread, I would wear it most in autumn and winter. It would be lovely to wear to a workplace during the holidays, as it isn’t overpowering. If you do wear it to work, you should be prepared to have people follow you trying to figure out what smells so nice!
That said, I don’t see myself wearing it very often, and now it will be a signature scent of my daughter’s, so that makes it even less likely that I would wear it often myself. But I might get in the habit of pulling out my small bottle at Christmas every year! It would be the perfect fragrance for Christmas morning breakfast, when our family tradition is to make cinnamon rolls.
Portia: Honestly? Though Jo Malone Ginger Biscuit is very nice, has excellent memories and smells good I just can’t imagine myself wanting to smell like this. I’ll definitely use up this decant over the silly season but am much more comfortable in Nuit Noel and Exultat for my hit of Holy. Maybe also because in Australia we are usually at around 35C/95f by 10am and thinking more about swimming pools and beaches than roaring fires.
4. Who should/could wear Jo Malone Ginger Biscuit?
Portia: Anyone who wants to smell like they’ve just been baking gingerbread or who loves the idea of smelling utterly edible. Even though I’m not putting my hand up for a bottle I really can imagine Jo Malone Ginger Biscuit smelling wonderful on both the major sexes and anything in between. It would be so nice to hug people over the holiday season who smell of it and I can imagine in the cold northern hemisphere that many compliments and questions about this beautiful scent would come your way.
Imagine on Christmas morning while hugging in thanks for gifts, smelling so divine! It would be the cherry on top of the magic.
Old Herbaceous: This could be happily worn by anyone, of any persuasion. It is as non-gender-specific as baking is. It’s a cozy scent, so anyone who wants to smell warm and cuddly should give it a try. It might attract some cuddles! I know many perfumistas were ecstatic that it has been re-released this year, and I can see why. Wouldn’t it be nice if Jo Malone would release it for every holiday season, as Clinique used to do with Wrappings?
Have you fallen for this or any other limited holiday release fragrance?
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, September 22, and I have SCORED! Last Christmas, our oldest daughter (27) fell in love with the scent of Jo Malone’s Ginger Biscuit from a mini I had, but I didn’t have a bottle to give her and it had been a limited edition. I looked online and the prices were astronomic. I looked for similar scents but none seemed quite right. Then last weekend — tada! Someone in a Facebook fragrance lovers’ group posted that it was being reissued for this year’s holidays and it was available on Saks.com! But by the time I saw this post, it had vanished from the website and other comments said it was sold out.
However, there is a Saks not far from here, so on Monday, I went there and asked if they might have it. The lovely sales associate showed me the tester they had (!) and looked in her computer system, then said it was slated for a “soft launch” for the holidays in October but would most likely show up at the start of November. She said she would hold a bottle for me when it arrived, so I left my name and phone number. Well, just two days later I got a phone call from her, saying that a couple of bottles had just come in and she had one for me! I told her I’d like to come get it on Friday, which she said was fine. So I went this morning and picked it up! There was a brief moment of panic when the bottle was not where she had left it, then a colleague said he had moved it and she found it. Hurray! It is now safely wrapped and ready for gift-giving, either for our daughter’s November birthday or this Christmas. I can’t wait to surprise her with it! FYI, Nordstrom says it also expects to get it for the holidays, if that’s easier for any of you to reach than Saks.
This past Monday, I posted another “CounterPoint” collaboration by me and Portia Turbo; we discussed Caron’s Infini, a late 20th century classic. If you haven’t read the post yet, please do, and share your thoughts in the comments! We’ve mapped out the rest of our posts for 2023, and we’ve got some great ideas, so stay tuned.
Tomorrow is the official first day of fall. Our hot weather has finally broken and we are having cool mornings with comfortably warm, sunny days. The best is yet to come — around here, October weather is usually even better (the first half of September can still be very humid and hot). My husband has just recovered from COVID and is off tomorrow on another work trip, back to Las Vegas this time. Since I couldn’t go with him to London, he kindly brought me back a bottle of Hermès’ latest “Jardin” fragrance, Un Jardin à Cythère. It is really lovely, and I’m so happy to add it to my collection!
I haven’t been buying much fragrance for myself lately, since I have so many bottles and my collection will outlast me long before I use them up. I do still have a monthly decant subscription, which I enjoy since it adds variety and access to some very expensive fragrances I wouldn’t otherwise try (the cost for a decant doesn’t vary). What’s on your mind, fragrance-wise or other?
The intended recipient of Ginger Biscuit, in earlier days.
Welcome to this month’s installment of “Notes on Notes”, a monthly collaboration between this blog and Australian Perfume Junkies! Every month, we pick one fragrance note and write about it, posting on the first Monday of the month — fragrances we like that feature it, what we like or don’t like about it, anything else we know about it, whatever takes our fancy. For February, the note is vetiver.
Okay, I didn’t choose an unknown scent today for Advent. I confess. I knew I was going to have a tough day at work (I’ve been back for less than a week) and some difficult conversations, so I pulled out my fragrance armor: Chanel No. 19, the green witch herself. If you want to read my thoughts on it, please click on the link and it will take you to a “Scent Semantics” post from September, when I wrote about No. 19 at some length.
Stars of “Wicked” production in Boston; image from the Lowell Sun
I’m something of a “goody two-shoes” so one might think I would identify more with the character on the left. But as we learn from “Wicked”, Glinda the Good isn’t as good as she appeared; and Elphaba isn’t as bad as she appeared. But Elphaba puts up a formidable facade, and that’s what I needed today. I think I emerged unscathed.
And you know, I always remember what a long-ago boss told me (TBH, I didn’t like him much, but he did occasionally have some good insights). He had been an airline executive in his earlier career, and he said more than once, “It’s been a good day at the office when no plane has crashed.” He’s right. No planes crashed, or were at risk, in my job today. Onward to the holidays!
Two of my three kids are home for the holidays, yay! One is still in college, so he’ll be with us well into January. The other is fully independent, but arrived today and will stay at least through Boxing Day. The third, another fully independent young adult, will arrive on Thursday. It’s really great to have them home, even just for a short while; they make us laugh. We will go to a friend and neighbor’s house on Thursday evening for an informal holiday party in their backyard, which will really put me in the holiday spirit. I’ll get back on track with the Guerlain samples tomorrow!
Meanwhile, I am mulling over what scent(s) I want to wear on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. I do have Caron’s Nuit de Noel, always a good option. I really like the gingerbread accord and spices in ELDO’s Like This. I also have a set of small sizes of Jo Malone’s special Christmas scents, like Orange Bitters and White Moss & Snowdrop. Fille en Aiguilles would be suitable, as well as Nuit Étoilèes, if I want evergreen vibes. Any suggestions for those three occasions? What will you wear?
Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities 