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 6, and my birthday month has begun! I love the month of September. Because I grew up in New England, where school usually starts after Labor Day, and because I was born in September, I always associate the month with new beginnings. It is also the month when the heat usually (finally!) breaks and we get some respite from the heat and humidity of August, even here in the Southeast. It’s still hot enough that when I wear fragrance (which I do less in the extreme heat), I’m still choosing “summery” fragrances. Today it is Les Parfums de Rosine’s Bulle de Rose, which I bought in a travel spray when we visited Paris this past February. It’s very light and pretty, but tenacious, which in this case I view as a virtue.

Last week, the New York Times published this nice article about perfumer Christine Nagel, in connection with the launch of her latest fragrance for Hermès, Barénia. Apparently it is the first chypre fragrance Hermès has launched in several decades, and I do love a good chypre, so it’s on my list to sample during our upcoming trip to London.

I’m guessing that synesthesia may be a useful trait for a perfumer, though one would still have to have a highly sensitive and trained sense of smell.

Speaking of highly sensitive “perfume people”, I’m sure many of you read “Bois de Jasmin”, the longstanding fragrance blog by Victoria Belim. She’s a wonderful writer and has recently had a book published, a memoir of her roots and family in Ukraine (“The Rooster House”). Victoria has recently returned to Ukraine, where she is trying to help meet the needs of the people who have stayed in spite of the ongoing war. I’ve been following her updates on her Facebook page. She is in Poltava, which recently suffered a major missile attack that killed dozens. Victoria is safe, though shaken. As I look forward to my own hedonistic travel, I’m thinking of her and so many others in war zones, hoping for peace.

What are you looking forward to in September or later this fall?