Perhaps, like me, you're finding the mall especially trying lately. Maybe it's that my family had a recession-friendly homemade Christmas in 2009 or maybe it's because I now have a breastfed infant to accompany me, but the shopping trips I've made during the last few weeks have turned me into a sweat-soaked, cuss-word-using, stroller-ramming fanatic. Our visit for the annual Christmas photo happened to fall on Pet Day and the woman in front of us spent half an hour and more than $100 on many, many photos of her dog with Santa. Afterwards, I felt like spray-painting anti-consumerist slogans on mailboxes....except I didn't have any paint and the craft store was at the other end of the mall. 'Tis the season for none of the elevators to work and a shopping cart to be abandoned in the last parking space and for the exact Zhu Zhu Pet you need to be sold out when you're not even sure what a Zhu Zhu Pet is. (Here.) On Monday evening, as my children looked on with alarm, I collapsed into an incredibly rare seat in the food court and vowed with a grimace: Enough. Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. I will go home to make a donation to MSF/Doctors Without Borders, warble along festively with Yoko Ono and spray on something beautiful that I already own.
In truth, I love this time of year and the smells I associate with it: pine, mandarin oranges, mulling spices, incense, smoke, peppermint, wet wool, candle wax, lemon and brandy sauces, latkes or donuts frying in oil. Despite this, I find I don't wear holiday scents that jingle those bells: Etat Libre d'Orange's Noël au Balcon, Parfumerie Generale's Un Crime Exotique or Serge Lutens' Fille en Aiguilles, for example.1 Most "Christmas in a Can" fragrances are too rich and heavy for me, and while I enjoy some spicier, chewier favorites in the deadest frozen darkness of a Canadian January, I find these don't work for my "Serenity Now!" moments of the dying year. Instead, I crave still, airy scents, perfumes balanced between cozy warmth and contemplative coolness. I read with approval Angela's recent list of "calming, centering" fragrances for braving the mall and I particularly second one of her several excellent suggestions: Jean Patou's Moment Suprême is my favorite olfactory aid for special circumstances — or indeed, any circumstances. If Santa isn't prepared to bankroll a bottle of that discontinued wonder for you, please find below a handful of recommendations for holiday zen. My wish for all of my fragrant friends today, regardless of faith practiced (or not practiced): Peace be with you.
Caron Pour Un Homme: Along with Le 3eme Homme/The Third Man and Yatagan, this is one part of what I have always blasphemously called Caron's Holy Trinity of Male Fragrance. Plainly stated, Pour Un Homme is a chord of lavender and vanilla. But what a chord! There is something endlessly mysterious and yet soothing about its simplicity. It stirs none of the restless passion of the equally beautiful, but more ornamented Guerlain Jicky. Wearing Jicky, I feel like I've either just fallen in love or just caught the flu: the sweats, the shivers, a warm flush and the goosebumps, all at once. Meanwhile, it would be impossible to sweat wearing Pour Un Homme. New facets of the warm and fresh notes in this Caron classic appear only as you focus on them. Pour Un Homme is the reflecting pool of the fragrance world, the most limpid scent I know. (Years ago, in a poetry workshop, I vowed to one day use the word "limpid" without feeling like a complete fool. Perfume makes all things possible!)
Kenzo Amour: The advertisements for this scent featured a turtledove. How perfect is that? (Mercifully, no five golden rings of bling for the house of Kenzo.) Amour is one of my favorites from a favorite brand: an innocent cloud of vanilla and rice steam, tinged at the edges with something like a haze of cooled incense ash. It would be an ideal scent to accompany the hypnosis of falling snow.
Cartier Must de Cartier Pour Homme: This reminds me a little of Serge Luten's Bois et Musc — a weightless, lung-expanding cedar given a feline warmth and glow by animalic notes. Both naughty and nice, it has the rare kind of short-range radiance that would be sensed only as the target leaned in under the mistletoe.
Heeley Cuir Pleine Fleur: Yes, I'm still wearing this one to bed. Heeley makes beautifully textured perfumes and Cuir Pleine Fleur's sueded leather is one of the best examples in the line.
La Via del Profumo Hindu Kush: Dominique Dubrana's all-natural "new age perfume" is the closest thing on this list to being a conventional choice for the holidays. On the profumo.it website, Dubrana comments that this fragrance was designed to contrast "peace, silence and meditation" with the bustle, noise and profusion of the marketplace. It seems to inhabit the borderlands between the chypre and oriental genres, and features notes of incense smoke and aromatic woods as well as ginger, pepper, nutmeg and cumin. I do not think of myself as someone interested in the eastern mystics, as Dubrana's "olfactory psychology" indicates I should, but this is my favorite in his Scents of the Soul line and the one I would reference if I managed to scrape together the funds for his personalized perfume service. In a similar vein, I recommend Tabac (also from La Via del Profumo) and Aesop's Marrakech. Please comment if you've tried Dubrana's "anti-stress perfume" African Night or his Tea of the Isles, which is supposed to evoke "winter and Christmas memories, family and home".
1. I make an exception for Christopher Brosius' hyperrealist Gingerbread from CB I Hate Perfume, which is so stunningly specific that it makes me smile every time I put it on.
Note: top image is i'm a star by realSMILEY at flickr; some rights reserved.
Lovely post Erin! Stories like that of trips to the mall are why I do 95% of my Christmas shopping online (still got to go to Target and a few other places for chocolates and stocking stuffers!). I’ve only tried Kenzo Amour of your recommendations, and I get play-doh aout of that one, which makes it a no-go for me. Just checked your other Winter post and I definitely agree on the Tibetan Moutnain Temple – just got a sample of that and think a very cheap full bottle is in my future. And I love the photo!
No credit for me the photo – Robin always does a great job finding images for me. Wow, I’m impressed by all of you who manage all your shopping from home! I’m always skeptical when the figures for online shopping come out because everyone I know does at least half their shopping through the internet now. Are online perfume nuts more likely to e-shop and hate the mall? Somebody should research this…
I don’t get Play-doh out of Amour, but I certainly see how you *could* – I think a lot of people, like Marina from PST, found it very bland. But yes, that Top Ten of Winter list has a lot fewer subtle scents on it, LOL. That Pacifica has to be one of the better deals in perfume – hope it’s in your stocking!
I am happy to say that I have done all of my shopping online. I have a lot of downtime at the office and loathe shopping in DC, so online shopping is the way to go.
I haven’t stepped into the mall to shop since the day before Thanksgiving and thus far have 90% of my Christmas shopping done.
While I have been wearing Nuit de Noel quite a lot lately, Christmas is also my time to wear heavenly spicy, woodsy, incensy fragrances without wondering if it might perhaps be too much.
I’ve found that layering CdG Zagorsk with Nuit de Noel brings out an entirely new dimension to both. Pine-y incense and Old World Christmas. Fabulous.
Haha, the whole time I was reading this post, I was thinking “Zagorsk!”
I think maybe that was the sleeper scent of the Incense series. Avignon and Kyoto stole most of the limelight at first, but I know a lot of perfume lovers who are loyal Zagorsk fans.
Congratulations on staying away from the chaos! It’s what I should do, rather than complain. Nuit de Noel is obviously a wonderful choice for this time of year – I wish I could find my decant! – and that layering suggestion sounds like just the ticket.
The mall? Not a chance. I have gone virtually 100% online shopping this year. (Hmm, maybe I should give our UPS man a gift.)
Anyway, right now the best zen scent is DSH Cardamon & Kyphi. The cinnamon and spice are holiday-like and comforting, and then it transitions into an exotic, lovely insense base.
I recently re-tried Cardamon & Kyphi (thanks, Daisy!). Love cardamon in my food, but the pure scent in perfume is a bit much no my nose – but that drydown IS gorgeous! My earlier sampling in the fall have all been at bedtime, thus missing the best part. On me, it’s more of a dark, spicy amber.
I sometimes get something diiirrrrty from a pepper and cardamom combo. A sizable bit of smut is usually fine by me, but blended with an amber base, I could see how it could be overwhelming…
The only trouble for me is that I end up worrying whether my packages will arrive on time: Canada Post and our customs are sadly below international standard for reliability and timeliness.
That’s one of the DSHs I would like to have tried. Piment et Chocolat is very Christmas-like, but it’s a little dense for wear for me – I feel like it would be very nice in one of those Frederic Malle or L’Artisan diffuser thingies….
No wait! It’s DSH Tamarind/Paprika I was thinking of. I always get those DSH scents confused because there are so many of them. Viridian sounds like it would be good for this time of year, too.
DSH Gigembre is pretty nice too. Her new winter scent, December, was lovely though a tad smoky for my tastes. I tend to think of Viridian as a spring scent but I’m not sure why.
Really smoky scents sometimes conjure “bratwurst” for me, so I’ll check out Gingembre. Thanks for the rec.
I also just tested Decmeber too! It opened for me with some nicely done pine which only lasted for a few minutes and then dried down and remained smelling to me very much like a tin of very nice loose black tea – assam? something like this. It made me think of Kevin b/c I think he stated a while ago that he is always in search of a nice tea fragrance.
I just actually tested Viridian yesterday! It smells to me a lot like Chanel Cristalle got a tad mixed up with something else green and floral like Chamade or Temps d’Une Fete. It’s a nice green.
Oooo, lovely. Doesn’t sound particularly holiday-ish, though – for some reason I thought it was a deeper, forest-green type scent. Will check it out.
What a lovely article, Erin!! I also assiosiate Christmas time with scents of pine, incense and oranges, mandarins. During the month of December I am rocking all my orange, neroli blossom and candied mandarin fragrances. Anyway, my most favorite perfumes are either gourmand (Sweet Oriental Dream, Ambre Narguille, Chinatown) or I also adore beautifully-blended musks. Now with musks, I have to say that Montale is the master of gourgeous musks. He is the king of musk to me. Some people will say that their most beautiful fragrance ever is Doblis, some will say Chanel No.5. To me the most beautiful, perfect scent is that of pure, angelic musk. So by stating that I will be wearing my Roses Musk, Ginger Musk and Musk to Musk during this very special time. My Montale’s musks are blended to such perfection they are almost regal, aristocratic I should say… I also always love Clair de Musc by Lutens’ and it also deserves a lot of my attention during this special, holiday month!!
Hmmm, Chinatown, that is a very interesting suggestion! *Erin scurries off to her perfume cupboard*
Sadly, I have not tried the musks from Montale. I find the size of the line a little daunting and have only ever gotten around to the ouds (and only about a quarter of those!) They sound lovely.
Erin, the musks from Montale are just…. so gorgeous, oh my!! They always take my breath away, they are so elegant, so beautiful with so much sillage, without beying cloying, ever. They remind me of himalayan mountains, the snow tops, the silence in the middle of the winter in some Siberian village… so calm yet so mysterious and just enchanting. Blended to perfection, really. With any Montale musk, you don’t need any other extra notes. It’s the most beautiful, angelic perfume in itself. But then again Montale has so many choices You can pair that5 beautiful musk with a touch of rose or fruit if You like…. gorgeous!!
Well, I don’t think a recommendation can come higher than that, so I must try them!
Erin, you also mention something about donuts frying ib oil… By the way can someone suggest a fragrance that smells very simular to yummi donuts? Please don’t think I’m crazy but I adore gourmands so much. If I can have my apple pie topped with cinnamon and vanilla ice cream (Ambre Narguille), then I wanna have a perfume that smells like my favorite donuts!! Thnx for any suggestions:)
I guess it depends on the flavor! Now don’t think I’m an unpatriotic Cancuk, but I’m maybe not the best person to ask since I don’t eat donuts very often at all. I do like the homemade ones my mom makes very occasionally and I notice that Fendi’s Asja reminds me of those tasty treats…
Odonata9- I agree with the mall statement. By the time I get out of there I need supplemental oxygen!
Erin- This is also my favorite time of the year. I love the smell of nutmeg, cinnamon, hazelnut coffee and bayberry candles. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating a bayberry scent, I think I’ll resort to rubbing bayberry candles on my pulse points. Do you think it’ll work? LOL! As for fragrance, last year in my sample order from Luckyscent, I received CdG’s Red Carnation and it took me a minute to get used to it, but now I associate it with the holidays.
Hey, if it works, let us know and I think you’ll be responsible for a lot of high-end candle sales! I just smelled the new Frederic Malle Saints des Saints candle on Tuesday – gorgeous. They were sold out of the Jurassic Flower (magnolia) one, but maybe I could smear myself with the tester…
Dolly2, my husband loves bayberry candles. Do you have a favorite brand? I’d love to get him a new one.
Sorry it took me so long to get back. It was that dreadful thing called work. I don’t particularly have a favorite brand. There was one that I loved as a child that we got in a holiday shop when I was a child, but for the life of me I can’t remember it. Yankee Candles are pretty good.
Thanks, Dolly2!
Great description of the mall Erin!
I bet it’s the one at the corner of Queen Street. I have murder on my mind everytime I go there!
I have to try Cartier Must and Caron pour un Homme. I have not have much luch with Caron in general, but I think it’s time for me to revisit this one.
I wish I could get the baby sufficiently bundled to feel comfortable to head down to West Queen West – lots of cool stuff, better food and I wouldn’t have to listen to Wham!’s “Last Christmas” eighty times…
By the way, Pour un Homme is much more accessible than either Third Man or Yatagan. And the feminine Carons are such a crap-shoot now…
Erin: Your shopping woes sound like pure hell. I can’t imagine dragging a baby to the mall with all the ambient noises and stimulations. I was already disinclined to shop at our sad mall years ago, and once my girl showed up end of November 2007, that was it. I became and remain a devoted online shopper. Although I will occasionally scrounge through the giftie isles of a drugstore like CVS, etc, for cheap stocking stuffers & chocolates, etc.
Normally I love rich, deep fragrances to help stave off the cold and dark. But this year is entirely different. I’ve needed to chill out particularly b/c of year-end work and we are all sick with colds, so soft and fuzzy is the goal. The two biggies for me have been Annick Goutal Mandragore Pourpre, which manages to be spicy with anise and ginger and other goodies enough to be festive, and yet almost aromatheraputic b/c it is light and effervescent. Also the AG Vanille Exquise which is just a bare whiff of warm vanilla and guaiac wood to keep me warm – its kind of like a light cashmere shawl. I’ve also been wearing Shaal Nur (;-)) b/c it is so contemplative and warm, and lots of vintage Emeraude to bed b/c it is so warm and fuzzy.
Happy Holidays & Happy New Year & Happy & Healthy thoughts to all!
Ann, please get better! Those November/December colds have a tendency to drag on so long, they just suck. Best of the season to you and yours, and I hope the Shaal Nur, AGs and Emeraude get you through to the work break. I will go put on some Shaal Nur and send you pyschic support. 🙂
Thanks!! Best to you too! 😉 Enjoy that SN!
I’ll come back to this later, but my holiday scent this year is my new Arabie – what better time of year to smell like dates, figs, and booze?
I also have the pungent, blast-o-chamomile with a honeyed drydown of smell bent’s The Bi-Polar Express to sleep in. If one does not like the smell of chamomile, especially the blue Roman variety, it would not be good. But it is very relaxing.
My stress level is low – very light shopping this year, since I am not going home for the first time and none of us really need anything. No big mall panic, just enjoying the lights and bustle.
Oh Tama, I am so with you on Arabie! I enjoyed this post!
So am I! Thanks, C.
Tama, Arabie is a fave of mine and with the date drydown, it has always reminded me of an exotic Christmas cake, the kind I’d make if I was an ambitious baker.
When we lived out west, two years we did not go home until after December. It was sad for me because Christmas is a very big thing in our house and with my mother, but it was also less stressful. I was just thinking today of going out on Christmas Day to buy a very spicy lunch from the only open eatery in our neighborhood, run by a very enthusiastic Muslim gentleman. We did that both years and it was really nice, actually.
It will still be fun. I usually spend Christmas with my stepmom and sister, and I will miss them. But my mom is thrilled, because we have never spent Christmas together since I was about 7. I am still taking time off, but will just do relaxing stuff. This was an intense, busy year.
Guilt about spending time with different branches of your family is so often part of the stress of the holidays, isn’t it? I’m happy for you mom, admire your attitude and am glad you’ll get a rest.
I love Kenzo Amour. It is comforting isn’t it? I never really thought of it that way. I like to wear this in mixed company since it is very inoffensive.
Bulgari Black is my weird comfort scent. I get tea and vanilla out of it.
Perversely, I like to spray the incredibly springlike Envy all over. It makes me feel hope in this sad economy, and is great for realizing though skies be dark and the winds cut though you-it’s not gonna last 😉
Envy! mmmmhmmmm
Amour is good for a lot of situations, I agree. And I think Luca Turin called it “Bvlgari Black without the rubber”, so it’s not at all weird that you find both comforting.
I love Envy (a lot more than spring, really, which is quite rainy here.) So I like your brand of perfume perversity!
well huh. That explains a lot. 😀
I find Black really comforting too. Edgy but safe. It’s been ideal in the cold weather too.
I know what you mean. I wore it a lot during both my pregnancies – the drydown is lovely.
Once we get through the holidays, I really like to wear a lot of my green fragrances, esp. Chamade, to make it through the dreary cold winter. The greens make me hope for spring!
Chamade is such a wonderfully cheery scent!
Oh, I love Amour. At first, it reminded me a lot of Hypnotic Poison and I didn’t quite think I needed to own both, but after taking it for a test drive all by itself, I notice the nuances more and just find it instantly comforting and calming.
For my own holiday season survival lineup, I’ve been alternating between Musc Nomade and Sweet Oriental Dream depending on how much comfort and snugglely warmth I’m craving, but also putting a serious hurt on decants of Messe de Minuit, Ambre Narguile, Minuit Enchante, and Zagorsk as well. I layered a bit of AN over Zagorsk when we were putting up decorations and it was fantastic. Prada EdP is also really relaxing to me, too, and the Infusion d’Iris even more so.
The Noel line from AG is really tempting and I keep saying every year I need to pick some up, but am about maxed out from holiday shopping again this year. Speaking of which, I think we did about 95% of ours online since I can’t drive, we don’t have a sitter and the kiddos aren’t a bit suspicious to see boxes coming and going given my swap/decant activity. 😉 We also live in a small city where selection isn’t that great, so if I want to find an exact item, online is the way to go. Yay for the interwebs. I ordered some Pocket Coffees for friends from Germany, and of course just had to add a couple things for myself to make it worth it since I’m addicted to Yogurette and my usual US site was sold out. My local gourmet shops haven’t even heard of them so I’m thinking I will have to take some up there to see if they’ll start stocking them on a regular basis as shipping for them wasn’t cheap. But chocolate and perfume can pretty much get me through anything, even the hectic holidays.
Warmest holiday wishes to everyone and may you find that special bottle you’ve been longing to obtain all wrapped up and waiting this magical season. I have it on good authority that my Siamese found an awesome deal on the smaller (and no longer available) size of Chantecaille Frangipane so there will definitely be a very fishy Fancy Feast waiting for her under the tree. She always seems to find the perfect presents. 😉
Zagorsk again! Clearly I need to get on this train. Messe de Minuit is such a Christmas scent, too – do you have the old formulation/bottle? (If so, I’m jealous…) My lemming bell is also ringing on the AG Noel line (the room spray) and your Yogurettes. Perhaps I should teach my cat Gary how to use PayPal….
Erin, Zagorsk is wonderful. Probably my fave in the Incense series.
I’m working from a decant of the Messe so I don’t know if it’s older or new. I wish I did as I’ve been considering investing in an fb. It is beautiful. A perfect blend of spice and incense with an almost seductive solemnity about it. I fell hard. 🙂 How would one go about trying the older and newer? I’d really like to know which I have…
Perhaps I should send Diva, the Siamese, for a visit to show your kitty the ropes. She gets into too much trouble if I don’t keep an eye on her, and when she climbs into an empty packaging box (from a perfume purchase, of course) I’ve left about and curls up with a purr to fall right asleep like my little co-conspirator, it’s too cute. And since she’s always climbing all over me and sometimes ends up smelling like what I’m wearing, I use that as a justification with Mr. Ab Scent. “Look, sweetie! Diva obviously *loves* Fracas and I’m almost out. She’ll be so disappointed.”
Apparently my lack of Frangipane in the fragrance wardrobe got to be just intolerable for Her Majesty, and add that to the find on Evilbay and here we are. I call it even considering I have to open up those ridiculously fishy cat foods she likes as a treat now and then. But I’ll do so on Christmas morning since she went to all that effort to make me smell all tropically beautiful and all. 😀
The old Messe has a very strong note of what most people interpret as “mildew” or “mould” – sounds delightful, doesn’t it? 🙂 It is a gorgeous scent, though, just rather odd. From what I understand, the new formulation is much more lemony and dusty. It might be beautiful, too – it sounds *beautiful* – but I haven’t tried it.
Diva sounds like a great mentor. Gary is a female (never let your husband and child name your pet!) and she is quite diva-esque herself…
What’s a mall?!? 😉 I’m another of the confirmed internet shoppers, although not very much of that even.
A very interesting list, and I haven’t tried one of them! My favorite Zen scent has to be SSS Incense Pure although Guerlain’s SDV can fulfill that mission at times. I also love to sniff a bit of Wazamba this time of the year, but a little of that goes a long way!
SDV, definitely, which is why I’m wearing it today. I nearly wore Zagorsk, but once my stress level goes beyond a certain point, many of my favorites run the risk of giving me a pounding headache. So instead, I reached for the simple yet lovely SDV.
That was yesterday’s SOTD and the inside of my gloves still smell faintly of it. Yum! Today was vintage Mitsouko, but I almost think it was too cold and icy today for it. I should have gone back to the SDV. And we both know about scent glue skin…
Awww, you don’t want to ruin a great scent with a bad day or bad weather, agreed. Hope tomorrow is better!
Not ruined, but something about Misouko’s oak moss and bergamot makes it seem fresh and almost cool to me – better suited to a little warmer weather. We had an ice storm here today!
Yikes! Hope you were snug inside and just got to admire the beauty of it.
Hey, Incense Pure and Wazamba – two scents I’m embarassed to say I didn’t try before reading this post. I’ve been after samples of both of those for a while…
Erin – if you’d like, email me at rappleyea11 at yahoo dot com and I’ll be happy to send you a sample of Incense Pure. Unfortunately, I only have about 1/4 ml. left of Wazamba or I’d send you some of that too.
That’s very kind of you! Once I dig out from under my unopened emails and wrapping paper, I’ll send you a message with my list for swap.
I share your love of Caron Pour Un Homme. Also the word “limpid”. 🙂
When once, for my sins, I marked student papers, I was always on the lookout for unusual vocabulary, usually used with a flourish (and often incorrectly). So I’ve been sitting on that “limpid” for years… 😉
There’s a great scene in one of my all time favorite movies – Bull Durham – starring the word ‘limpid’.
I don’t remember that! (Off to dig up my DVD of Bull Durham…)
I love Caron Pour Homme. Earlier this fall, it took me through a stressful family time. Erin, I don’t know much about babies, but I would think Pour Homme would be very baby-friendly, too!
I’m glad the stress is over (?). It *is* lovely and restful and baby-friendly, too, I think.
Stress is over. It was a death in the family. The Caron was a real comfort!
Sorry to hear of your loss, H. Glad to hear that the Caron helped you through a hard time…
Thank you for a very nice article. You have praised Caron’s masculines before and I see I’m going to have to listen to you and try them.
I recently tried Tom Ford Italian Cypress, and liked it very much, not necessarily for the Christmas theme value, but it is pretty darn piney.
I’m afraid I haven’t tried that, but I’ll have to get to it, as a number of friends have recommended it to me. Pine, you say? I’m in. 🙂
My holiday zen fragrance is Coco Chanel EDT. I’m usually not a big amber fan — except for this time of year — the spiciness is so marvelous with floral notes. YUM! (I’ve tried to shop locally this year & it’s been working out okay — probably because I’m wearing Coco at the time.)
It wasn’t until very recently that I really realized how different all of the concentrations of Coco are. I’ll have to get down to my local Chanel counter and re-sniff the EdT. I own the EdP, which I find quite rosy and glowing. I could see how it would be very festive!
Who said Coco? I love Coco! All of the concentrations are indeed very different. I do prefer the edp the most but the edt is wonderful too. It has a transparency that I like when the weather is a bit warmer.
Well I’ll have to put in for the Land Downunder! Christmas is in the height of summer here and is completely bound up in the Australian psyche with heat, long holidays, the beach, and a strange Anglo Saxon residual thing of plum pudding, roast goose/turkey usually juxtaposed with prawns and lobster in a vain attempt to make the food fit the summer! Then we often have all these ‘Christmas in July’ things because we miss out on cold snow and sleigh bells!
So you guys are in Ambre Narguile while I’m in Pampelune or a drippy white floral or Pulp! My beach holiday town is already filling up with our tourists. The cicadas come out now and create a deafening chorus that is so quintessentially Australian summer that I think I’d miss it more than anything if I ever have a proper winter white Christmas.
So thinking of you Northern perfumistas in a beautiful snowy winter!
G’Day! My good friend from work is an Aussie and we had a lot of fun mangling Eurocentric Christmas carols last year, trying to make them sound “more Austrailian”. Part of the reason he loves Canada is the snow, but I have to say I wouldn’t mind a little Pamplelune, prawns and beach weather right about now. So enjoy your cicadas and my best wishes to you for a fragrant, sun-soaked Christmas!
Cicadas are pretty deafening where I live too (Canberra) but the weather has been cool and wet, so I’ve been prolonging my winter scents. I’m in Chanel No 19 at the moment, which I find calming in a bewitching sort of way. I’ve never agreed with the ‘stilettos in the boardroom’ interpretation of Chanel No 19. To me it is witchy rather than bitchy. I happen to know that Father Christmas has a Chanel ‘fragrance wardrobe’ gift set ready for me (okay, I bought it myself), so I’m stringing out the last drops of the No 19 parfum that I bought c. 1989 until I can get my hands on the new.
We are happy the rain – our dams are full! – but we have not been flooded like some regions, so it’s easy to be happy …
You know, I REALLY love the LT/TS guide and Tania’s reviews, but I have always felt that the No. 19 review might be one she will eventually regret. Witchy rather than bitchy is a truly wonderful way of describing it. My fave concentration is the parfum, which reminds me of Emily Dickinson’s comment on beauty: “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”
Oh that is marvellous! Thanks.
I couldn’t get past your opening paragraph where you admonish someone for bringing their pet to “pet day,” and spending money for photos. Clearly, you’re annoyed, but I can’t figure out if it’s because someone actually brought their pet to “pet day,” or that they spent a lot of money — or was it that they were just in front of you in line? Consumerism? This is a blog that touts lines like Amouge and Serge Lutens – which are by no means cheap, so I can’t think that consumerism is what your ire is about…why not get in the spirit of Christmas and embrace the fact that there are all kinds of people in the world, including people with dogs?
The whole article was meant to be light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek, and particularly the anti-consumerist bit, but I’m sorry if I offended you. I adore dogs and actually donated to the SPCA on Pet Day, which we attended by accident. I know many people love their dogs as if they were their children, and that’s great by me — but, frankly, I think it would be silly to spend that much time and money on numerous poses of your kid with Santa! So I can’t take that part back, Grinch or no. 😉
My 8 y.o. daughter took one look at the queue to see Father Christmas, and decided, ‘Actually, no … ‘.
Plenty of expensive lines are approved of on this blog, but plenty of less expensive ones too. There is lots of help and advice about how to source bargains, samples and splits, and lots of good humour and sharing. Over several years of reading NST I have observed that fragrance is often the only expensive thing that many readers actually buy. Their one indulgence, and their hobby too. Dogs can generate consumerism too, no?
My daughter got to the *front* of the queue, took one look at Santa and said: “NO!” I explained how much her grandma wanted a picture of her on his lap, though, and she performed bravely.
Thank you for your very kind and thoughtful comments on the community here at NST. I think we would love to write more frequently on bargins (and would love if they were available). I know many people (including my husband) find it silly the amount we spend on this one luxury. And pets do generate consumerism – in my family, we make a stocking for the dog and cat and my husband probably finds that silly, as well!
Fussing over the pets is one of life’s little pleasures, though! 🙂
Yes, and we buy presents not just for the pets, but for my children’s special toys!
I did quite a bit of shopping online, but not all of it. What I do, however, is try to have my shopping done before Thanksgiving. I never quite make it, but I usually get about 75-80% done by Turkey Day, and that really eases the stress. I was late getting started this year–I usually aim to begin in about September, but I just couldn’t get motivated until early November. What is very stressful this time of year is work. At any given time, we may have half our people either on vacation or out sick, leaving the other half to do twice as much work. After pulling double duty all day at work, I have absolutely no energy to go to a mall.
The suggestion about layering Zagorsk with Nuit de Noel is intriguing. I do not have any Zagorsk (my sample is used up), but I do have a FB of Avignon, and wonder if that would work. I will say that after testing the Incense series, it came down to a choice between Avignon or Zagorsk, and I very nearly bought both. If I ever buy another from the series it will be Zagorsk. Kyoto was too dry and masculine smelling for my taste, Ouarzazate was entirely too fleeting on my skin, and Jaisalmer unfortunately reminded me of the dentist’s office–not a pleasant association for me at all.
I really admire your organization, getting so much done so early. I should really shop for the adults in my family in the fall. I find my daughter changes her mind a lot before Christmas, though, and I think I’d have trouble getting her to focus on what she’s going to ask for in November.
I am a little worried Avignon would “eat” most soft, velvety, nutty scents, like Nuit de Noel. But then you’d just smell like Avignon, which is still a good day in my books!
I don’t have children of my own, just a lot of nieces and nephews, so I can shop early. I don’t have to worry they will find where I have hid the presents, and I don’t worry about what they want. I just buy stuff I hope they will like. Even getting some of it done early really helps ease the stress.
Do you really think Avignon is much more aggressive than Zagorsk? I thought Z was more tenacious than A and had better lasting power on my skin (although A lasts reasonably well). I also thought it was more incense-y. Avignon has a note I perceive as candle wax, rather as if you were in a church and they were burning both candles and incense at the same time, which I suppose they do? I rather like the candle wax note, which I would categorize as strange but not weird, if that makes any sense.
I don’t remember how long Zagorsk lasted, but it certainly wasn’t shy while it was around. But for some reason Avignon is HUGE on me. Maybe this is a personal phenomenon. I liked both, and I love Kyoto, but for some reason, I’ve never owned a bottle of any of them.
I shop almost exclusively online these days – thank providence for the internets – just so I can avoid the mall crazies and the traffic and the noise and the STUPID INANE SECULAR CHRISTMAS MUSIC (uh, sorry, that one really saws my last nerve).
I do love spicy things at Christmas – Alahine is my default setting for Christmas Day, and several of those DSH holiday things are lovely (Festive, Gingembre, Epices d’Hiver). For peace, though, I want Mariella Burani, or vtg Emeraude. Or Lyric Woman.
Mals, I wore Lyric Woman to a holiday party just this evening. It was perfect!
🙂 I’m with you there Mals… anything to avoid that stupid, insance, secular Christmas music (which they don’t play much here in Switzerland, but still…)!
Hey, Lyric Woman! Mals, you are a genius. I’m going to spray it on right now. And I’ve never tried Alahine, so I’ll have to remedy that.
Alahine is gorgeous. My sample vial is almost gone, and I may have to spring for at least a decant next quarter. It is one of those that could be dangerous to wear to work–because I would be too busy smelling myself to get anything done.
Ha! And I love it when people come in and ask: “Are you…. smelling yourself?”
Enjoyed this Erin! You inspired me to spritz some Heeley on. I really want to try the CBIHP Gingerbread
I inspired you to wear a Heeley? Then my work here is done 🙂 Thanks, Carlos.
Stopping by late to say that your recounting of the mall trip made me smile, and that I’m going to find those charity requests on my desk tomorrow and Get On It.
Thanks, M! As I wrote, I’m not a mystic and I don’t believe in karma, but once I made myself calm down and just enjoy my little ones, a lady appeared out of nowhere to help me to my van in the cold with the mall cart and kids, which almost made me cry it was so kind. So I went home, donated to MSF and added a few of the things I’d bought to a charity hamper I’m preparing for a needy local family. It felt good.
Loved your post, Erin! Those Via del Profumos (and a FB of Mecca Balsam) are very, very close to the top of my to-buy list.
While I’ve been wearing some of my winter favs, I’ve also been unaccountably drawn to florals. I guess there is something more Zen-like about florals than stimulating spices or heavy amber, or maybe I’m just in the denial stage of winter. 🙂
I finally got some of that L’AP Fleur de Narcisse 2006, which is PERFECT for sleeping (perhaps “hitting the hay” and the new-mown hay scent of narcissus are made for each other???). And today I tested PdN Violette in Love, which is the best violet I’ve tested so far, accented with raspberry but dry, not sweet. Love it!
LOL at hitting the hay! Very good. And zen and denial have a lot of similarities, right? Just enjoy your flowers! Maybe you could break out that decant of Vamp à NY: it would be a very warming floral on those chilly winter days.
You are psychic, Erin: I also got a decant of all three Love New York scents recently. Definitely aiming for a Zen-like state of winter denial!
Well, a few of my friends claim I am a witch… but in this case, there is a perfectly normal explanantion. I just remembered you’d gotten decants from the comments to my Vamp review. 🙂
Nice post 🙂 My perfume collection is still pretty tiny, and there’s nothing in particular that I wear during the holidays, but I remember sampling Santal Blanc this fall and how it reminded me then of Christmas. I’ve hoarded that sample and have been wearing it recently. Something about the creamy sandalwood goodness that’s got a holiday feel about it. It’s really comforting without being boring.
Thanks! You know, this list-making exercise is fun, but very artificial and one of the most artificial parts about it is that I try not to duplicate scents too often, just so I don’t bore you all to death. I find Santal Blanc truly comfortable and contemplative and so I’d already written about it recently in the “5 perfumes to wear to bed” post. It’s favorite of mine any time of year, but it’s especially nice now.
Erin – Love your intro, especially the part about the ZhuZhu pets!
No time to go to the mall, even to think about it. In our area, you wouldn’t know that our nation is in a recession anyway from looking at all the crowded parking lots.
Christmas came early this year – I received a bottle of Bois de Paradis from a lovely swapper enabled by the Fabulous Miss March on her Posse site. Grazie, Mille Grazie! I’ve sat on the fence on this fragrance for the longest time (a familiar comforting scent that brings back tons of memories but a strange scent for a perfume); however, it happens to be a highly suitable fragrance for wearing while decorating a Christmas tree, which I plan to do this weekend. I’ll also be wearing it to the company party and the family Christmas dinner as well.
Cheers!
Lucky family and Christmas party-goers: you will smell great! And on the toy topic: you practically live under a rock until your kid goes to school and then you start learning all these things. Somebody on our list asked for a battling ZhuZhu pet, apparently called a “KungZhu” and I was like: “Whhaaat?!?” I asked my daughter what it was and she just shrugged and was like: “It’s this hamster. You know. A ninja hamster.” Oh….. of course.
LoL! Last year, my then 3yr old said he wanted Diego’s Rescue Center for Christmas, so I got that for him and he was thrilled. On the same order, and on a hunch, I also ordered a talking Buzz Lightyear, and upon opening the wrapper, exclaimed that that was “My Favorite!” He still plays with it and wants to bring it with him everywhere.
This year, he wants Lego’s (super-)Hero Factory. Well, there are 4 figurines waiting to be assembled….
Hey, we have the talking Buzz Lightyear, here, too and he has been such a hit that he now talks very slooooowwwly because his batteries are almost dead! Good luck with the figurines!
ZhuZhu pets (12) and vampire teeth are on our 7 year old’s wish-list. I actually got her a stuffed mouse-house, and may have to go for at least 1 zhu zhu pet. Oy.
Can’t believe no one has mentioned it, but Theorema is my Christmas scent … lovely bitter orange and spices. Also love CB’s Gingerbread, and have been known to spritz on Fresh’s Fig & Apricot this time of year (not as good as Theorema, but that stuff is hard to find…).
I hope you do not have a specific zhu zhu pet to track down. If your child has an interest both in small rodent pets and vampires, perhaps she would enjoy the old Bunnicula series (including Howliday Inn and The Celery Stalks at Midnight) by James Howe. I used to love those books when I was younger.
It *is* odd that Theorema never came up. It’s not my personal favorite, but it has so many fans and you’re right that it’s just perfect for the season.
Where in the DC area can I find Jicky? I want to try a sample spritz.
When my vial of CB I Hate Perfume’s Gingerbread arrived, my dog sniffed it, and then very tentatively tried to take it in his mouth like a treat. LOL.