At last. Twelve days off in a row, with no work (o.k., a little work), no family to deal with, and no obligations more taxing than making dinner and taking the dog for a walk. My whole daily routine will change. I’ll wake later, dress more comfortably, maybe nap, and spend more time reading.
Of course, my perfume routine will change, too. Instead of an office-friendly spritz in the morning, I can wear whatever I want, whenever I want. What will it be? Undoubtedly a smattering of fragrances from these categories:
The Big Personalities: With no officemates to offend, I can go wild with the powerhouse perfumes, the sort of perfumes you smell on your sweater for days. Guerlain Shalimar, Jean Desprez Bal à Versailles, Guerlain Samsara, Rochas Femme, Comme des Garçons + Daphne Guinness Daphne, and Frédéric Malle Portrait of a Lady are a few delicious perfumes with assertive character that aren’t exactly crowd pleasers. But hey, I’m already anticipating a few evenings watching old movies while wearing a pineapple-festooned 1940s dressing gown and expedition-weight long underwear (it gets cold in my TV grotto!), so I won’t exactly be a crowd pleaser, either. But I’ll certainly please myself.
Sybil of the Perfume Cabinet: One real beauty of spending days near my perfume cabinet is that I can switch fragrances the moment one wears off. For the holidays, I can flip through all my seasonal favorites — Tauer Perfumes Une Rose Chyprée, L’Artisan Parfumeur Safran Troublant, Caron Nuit de Noël, and Laura Mercier Minuit Enchanté — only having to settle on one for the duration of a dinner party or a drink with a friend. The rest of the day is fair game.
The Special Ones: A good stretch of leisure time means hours of being able to lift my wrist to my nose (when I lift that nose from a novel, that is). Why spend precious drops of my half-dram of Lanvin Scandal on a day I’m pounding on the computer’s keyboard, rushing to meetings, and snarfing Subway at my desk? No way. I’ll anoint myself with Scandal — and Jean Patou Joy parfum, Chanel Bois des Iles parfum, Caron Parfum Sacré parfum, and Lucien Lelong Indiscret parfum, to name a few treasures of which I have barely a teaspoon — as I read PD James’ Death Comes to Pemberley (can’t wait!) and finish my stack of New Yorkers. I also plan to use up my tiny bottle of Christian Dior Dioressence concentré pour le bain.
The Lost Ones: Buying decants of perfume is smart, especially when you already have enough perfume to fill a kiddie pool. The downside is it’s easy to lose the anonymously-bottled decants. Having leisure time means I can poke around in the ceramic box that holds my decants and choose a few of the overlooked to wear. Guerlain Dandy Arsène Lupin? How did I ever forget that one? The same is true for Kenzo Jungle l’Eléphant (see The Big Personalities, above), Chanel Coromandel (ditto), and Christian Dior Homme Eau Noire.
What about you? Do you change your perfume routine when your daily routine changes?
I waited until I had a day off with no errands to run before I tried the tiny sample of Apres L’Ondee that a general swapper sent. I also waited for a free day to try my small decant of Bois des Iles. I was actually a bit intimidated sampling them, although I didn’t end up loving either one of them.
When I go on vacation, I try to wear one scent the entire time I’m there so I can associate that smell with the place. Though I wore AG Le Jasmin when I was in Egypt for a week, and when I smell it now it doesn’t really bring much back – I think it was just too fleeting.
On my days off spent at home, I tend to reach for the heavy Serges… Arabie, Daim Blond. I love the whifs of scent I catch from under the covers when I’m laying in bed reading.
It sounds like we have some of the same strategies: wait for uninterrupted time to enjoy a beautiful, new perfume; wear the same fragrance for a trip; and bring out the heavy hitters at home.
Yes, and now you’ve made me feel like re-sampling Samsara
Samsara is one of those perfumes I could easily live without, yet every once in a while I crave some.
I whip out Rochas Femme and Caron En Avion when I don’t need to leave the house for a while. I’m a little too reserved to go anywhere wearing more than a tiny drop of Femme, and En Avion needs a while to evolve and settle down on me. It’s also a fun time to break out as many samples as I want and put them on every available patch of skin. Enjoy your time off!
I really do love Femme, but I know just what you mean–it takes a big personality to pull it off well in public if you wear more than just a little.
I tend to wear my most luxurious perfumes when I’m alone. A little Amouage Lyric, and I feel like a goddess all day. Often, I tend to use perfume as a tool to craft others’ image of me. Clean, professional, feminine fragrances for work; unassuming but fun florals when I go out with the girls; or super sophisticated scents when I’m at an awkward family reunion and need to be assured of my own good taste
Being at home alone is a good time to wear something just because I love it, and it feels like a part of me.
I love your last sentence, that being at home alone is the perfect time to wear something that feels like a part of you. What a great feeling!
I agree with you, Lyric and Epic Woman get a lot of wear during the holidays along with Ambre Narguile, Spiriteuese Double Vanille, and Elixir des Merveilles. Which I’m going to put on right now. We spent the morning cleaning out the garage and it sounds like just the thing to go with a cup of eggnog this afternoon.
I just sampled Ambre Narguile for the first time a few weeks ago while on a work trip in Moscow… the only thing that kept me from buying it on the spot was the fact I heard all the high-end brands were a lot more expensive in Moscow. It was stunning
Sounds like a bottle might need to be in your future!
Those are such lovely, rich perfumes! I find myself wearing my vanilla-based fragrances more when I’m home, too (your mention of SDV prompted that). And now I’m aching for some eggnog…
I like it with a dollop of rum and a little scoop of Bluebell Homemade Vanilla ice cream floating on top with fresh grated nutmeg.
That is so decadent! Oh well, January will be here soon enough…
My daughter and I have an agreement; she may throw out any New Yorker > 6 mos old.
On break from substitute teaching, I’m indulging in the civet monsters, BaV, Intimate, My Sin, Shalimar. saving up my Miss Balmain mini for???
I had to give myself permission not to feel like I have to read everything in the New Yorker, or I’d never get through them. So, I end up skipping articles here and there that aren’t tantalizing, and often I skip the fiction after reading the first few paragraphs.
Civet is perfect for personal time!
Labdanum 18 (which my spell check really wants to be laudanum) is one of my favorite comfort scents and it has a noticeable bit of civet.
I like that one, too.
Oh, don’t throw out old New Yorkers – drop them off at a doctor’s or dentist’s office. Much better than ancient copies of People!
I give all mine to a friend on a fixed income. It’s terrific, because we can talk about the articles together, too.
Yes! Yes! On those days alone, I wear far more perfume, and those perfumes are the more assertive ones. I have the Pemberley waiting for me on iBooks! P.D. James once said something along the lines of (I’m paraphrasing here) “reading murder mysteries and fairymtales allows us control . . .” Wearing perfume when alone does something similar.
So wearing perfume while reading mysteries is the double whammy of happiness!
Oh I am looking forward to that P.D. James too! I’m saving it up for our holiday in Hobart. It is cool there even in summer and we stay in a house high over the city almost on the mountain. One year I found that SSS’s Femme Jolie (now d/c, sadly, but I have two bottles) works beautifully there. The cool mountain air draws out the cedar and downplays the fruit. (FJ is similar to Feminite de Bois.)
Great post, thanks!
Femme Jolie is my favorite SSS fragrance. I’m glad I bought the larger bottle while I had the chance.
Yes, mine too. I seem to be one of the people who can’t deal with something in the base of many SSS perfumes, but FJ is fine.
Is it dry cleaning fluid? Tabac Aurea smells like a sweater just back from the cleaner to me.
Hmmm … no, dirtier than that, but not in a good way. Hard to describe.
Nice! (The book, the vacation, the perfume, all of it.)
Hobart as in Tasmania?
Yep. I grew up there.
Now Anne Marie you know, from growing up over here, that we can have very hot summer days (not in succession admittedly) and that we hate having our weather rubbished by the peoples of the north island. Enjoy your stay!
Sorry-not that you were rubbishing it at all- I have a massive, summer head cold and my brain isnt working all that well.
No worries Debbie. Sorry to hear about your cold; very bad timing!. Hobart does indeed have hot days, but in my memory the really hot weather did not arrive until February. Christmas Days were nearly always seemed cool when I was growing up. Anyway, Canberra is WAY colder than Hobart in terms of frosts. I had NEVER felt so cold as when I first came to Canberra.
Hope you are feeling better soon!.
On time off, it’s nice to be able to wear something like Youth Dew without being told I smell like an old lady.
How funny… I was just going to post that I wore Youth Dew today! I love it, but it *does* have a big personality, and it doesn’t really fit my work style or my usual weekend routine.
I find I use a dab of the bath oil more than the spray cologne because it’s so much easier to wear.
Excellent point. I should have included Youth Dew for exactly that reason!
I know what you mean. I sprayed on some Ysatis the other day. When my roommate walked through my fragrance trail, she started laughing and asked where the old lady perfume came from. I was left mumbling defensively about philistinism, and now I’m a little more careful about my big eighties scents.
I sympathize with you. Once I showed a friend my perfume collection and let her try a few things. I found out later she’d complained to another friend that she came away from my house “smelling like an old lady.” You can bet that was the last time she came anywhere near my Serge!
Serge, an old lady fragrance? Well them I’m ancient. I just adore to pay almost $200 for his Violette when L’Artisan has one cheaper at $165 for 50 more mL’s. But that’s the ISTA in me. Never let anyone play in your juice, they all come away jealous!
Yes, I learned my lesson! (And am very jealous of your Bois de Violette.)
Ysatis is great stuff! And hardly old ladyish, unless the lady in question wears plunging necklines and crimson lipstick on a daily basis.
I’m with you. To me, it’s an in-your-face sexy fragrance.
I used to always wear Ysatis. Loved it. I never thought I smelled like an old lady.
I agree!
AmyT, I know the feeling
but I managed to learn to take it as a compliment 
I adore most of these old lady scents and I wear them often at the age of 38 
That’s the right attitude! Those people who call perfumes “old ladyish” are the same people who’d look at a Jackson Pollock and say “My 4-year old could do that.”
YES! Thank you for pinpointing the type for me! (I enjoy a lot of modern art AND modern fragrance!)
You’re welcome!
I love to experiment with different scents when I’m alone – and these cold, dry months arr perfect for playing with the heavy hitters! Hmmmm…DH is out hitting golf balls…maybe a trip to my stash is in order!
Good plan!
I have a children’s bookshop so in the shop I wear bright, sweet things like Lolita Lempicka and Angel which kids seem to like – they also like Katy Perry’s Purr. At home I wear much heavier things – like Cinnabar in the winter, so very warmimg! I also adore Samsara, (would love some of the ‘first edition’ of that) and Un Bois Vanille. My Xmas present to myself was Chergui – perfect to wear while relaxing and catching up on some reading.
Kids like Angel?!–how interesting.
It does have an almost edible quality to it, I think.
Of course the perfume sounds great, but a children’s book shop? That sounds wonderful!
I know! I wanna go.
Since I spend my weekends almost completely solo, I split my perfumes into “work day” and “weekend” scents. Unfortunately, the weekend scents don’t get as much wear as I’d like, though, since I also feel semi-obligated to test on weekends, too–you never know when a scent might not be suitable for public or just plain awful, and you wouldn’t want to give the false impression of enjoying it!
Weekend scents for me tend to be louder or on the more masculine-end of unisex. MJ Bang, Bulgari Omnia and Black, Tea for Two, my lovely vintage Shalimar.
Interesting that you put Une Rose Chypree on that list. . .I’m just sampling this week, but I haven’t found it to be as strong as others have described it. Am I missing something or maybe because it’s a little vial, I’m not getting the full power of a spritz?
Oh, I should say that Omnia is a weekend scent due mostly to its inexplicable male-distractability quotient. I just don’t want to be responsible for the over-wrought hormones of my male students to go into further overdrive!
That could be scary!
I bet spritzing does boost Une Rose Chypree, if for no other reason than that more comes out. It’s a big fragrance on me, at least, and it lasts a good, long day.
My experience of the scent so far is sort of difficult to describe. . .
It starts with an earthy (orris root?) greenness that almost reminds me of crushed wild mint–not a toothpastey peppermint, and not really mint at all, but that sort of sharp, fresh, vegetal feel.
As it settles, it becomes an herbal, spiced rose, but with very little of the sweet, “high pitched” rose notes that I usually associate with rose scents. This warm floral feel sticks around, with moments of green spiking through to my awareness throughout the next several hours.
It is not “big” in the way I experience, say Angel, of which a single drop seems to invade my awareness for hours and hours.
I would love to hear how my “newbie” experience compares with more experienced noses! When my opinions vary from what seems to be the community consensus, I have a hard time evaluating if it’s just a difference of opinion or a difference of familiarity!
(suddenly wishing I had an emoticon that showed a big nose taking a sniff. . .maybe we should design one?)
: 8{ <—nostrils!
That’s a hilarious emoticon!
I like your description of Une Rose Chypree a lot. I smell a little neroli at the outset, too. And the part that smells “green”–I want to attribute it to something else, maybe the fresh part of rose plus citrus plus ylang?–but I don’t know. Such a nice fragrance. I do love it.
Ah, neroli. That’s a note that I’m not able to identify yet. So much work to be done for a new perfumista! *dramatically places hand to forehead looking forlorn*
;8} <— winking sniffing nose?
Those nostrils haunt me!
Your experience of URC sounds identical to mine. I get a lot of green too, as well as a very dry spicy rose. I would describe it as ‘steady’ rather than big. It grips my skin tenaciously for hours, but the first blast out of the sample vial is not as strong as as I would have expected from a fragrance that lasts that lon, if that make sense.
Oh, good to hear! Yes, when I think “BIG,” I expected something with greater sillage. Tenacious, though, that DOES describe my experience. It is actually rather soft, but certainly tenacious. And really, I think I’m falling for it!
Majorie, i expected UCR to be a power-house from the comments made about it. On me though it is much softer than both Incense Rose and Orange Star. Also, on me, it lasts less long and I guess it is less distinct. I definitely need more than one spritz when I wear it. Even others describe it as subtle on me. Despite that I adore it. Incense Rose has something too cold about it, and I’m not sure Orange Star would be very versatile…though, I think my future may hold a bottle…
I completely coated myself with Bang yesterday – it is quite comforting and cozy with all that pepper.
I love whole days at home because I can schedule my shower for any time, thus easily allowing for TWO scents of the day!
And I like to take a bunch of samples on longer vacations. They’re easy to pack, and the extra leisure time allows me to sniff and ponder.
You aren’t afraid to smell like something awful while you’re on vacation? Most scents for me are merely boring, but there are the ones that I really dislike, and I would be nervous to discover one on vacation, away from all my scubber toiletries!
No, I take a LOT of samples, carefully packed in a little box. If I don’t like one, I just don’t wear it again!
Good thinking on the timing of showering!
Angela, I share your sentiments all together!
I am a lucky person who works from home, so my big change in wearing fragrances comes from my regular but not everyday visits to the University. Other than that, I am free to do what I wish. Please don’t hate me
This sounds ideal, dear Warum!
So good to see you, Haunani!
Missed you.
Lucky you! I used to work from home, and I loved it, for perfume and other reasons.
Yes, it is really great. I can get a bit marginalized because I am not at the department all the time, but it is OK. I am not very ambitious.
I love it that you admit that. After all, someone else can make all the hard decisions.
Of course this SHOULD have no impact on career opportunities, but I think only Washington could be more of a political hot-bed than university departments!
Great post, Angela! I love days off and time with the Big Personalities, Sybil and the lost ones. Today, I spilled a 1mL sample of PG’s Papyrus de Cyane all over my hand and down my arm. I simply ran my hand all through my hair. Wow! I’m walking in a galbanum tinged cloud of Mousse de Saxe. Gorgeous, but my coworkers would cluck in disapproval. Not a scent for pop perfume consumers is PdC. I’m sure I’d draw the old lady comment, but it is an amazing scent to me.
I’m glad to have time and scent space to indulge. I may have to spring for a FB of this; I’m on my fourth sample. Enjoy your collection to the fullest. Spritz with abandon, and be well.
Four samples? You’ve definitely earned a bottle, I’d say!
I love your parting words. They’re worthy of being tattooed somewhere.
Hi Angela and perfume pals. I’ve got time off now, too. I teach in an art department, so, theoretically, I could wear anything I want to work. (I smell a lot of head shop patchouli in the hallways.) “Big” is o.k. in my book but “intimate” isn’t. Fragrances like Femme and Enlevement au Serail–Too Much Information: I don’t want my students knowing me that well
So, yeah, my perfume rotation changes during vacations. I also like to test things, revisit samples, etc. during vacations and on weekends. Today I went to the Lush store in Macy’s and bought a solid version (cheap) of Breath of God and I’m wondering if I would wear this to work. It might fall into that “intimate” category.
Happy new year, everyone.
Oh, you’re so right about Femme! Jub 25 and Fille d’Eve might fall into that category, too. What perfumes blend well with turpentine, I wonder? Maybe By Kilian Incense Oud.
I adore Incense Oud. I think it has become my favorite fragrance from that line.
I used to work at an art college, and it reminds me of the studios. It brings back lots of memories for me.
Ah, turpentine smells so good on it’s own. But I’ll have to try your “layering” suggestion!
Why not? Painters need to wear something fragrant that can stand up to oil paints and turpentine and the fresh wood of newly built canvases.
The Tauer Incenses might work – they already smell like “crystal varnishes” (per my Mom), especially Incense Extreme.
I loved your categories, Angela, but I had to chuckle at your Sybil of the Perfume Cabinet comment about changing perfume during the day. Perfume either lasts all day on me or for two days through a shower (i.e. Une Rose Chypres). I’m lucky in that I work in what was the uber-large living room of an old house with only one young man. And he has terrible sinuses and can’t smell! lol! So I can pretty much wear whatever I want. Given that, weekends and time off are usually spent testing so that I’m not stuck at work wearing something I don’t like. And of course it will not wash off of my scent-glue skin!
BTW, Samsara has slowly but surely crept up into my top ten list of fragrances after winning a couple of vintage-ish bottles on the auction site. I think the older stuff is much softer and more refined than the newer version.
I have the opposite problem, not much lasts on me. There are days when I can easily wear 3 different scents without a problem.
I hope you pack around lots of sample vials for refreshers.
You’re lucky! Some things burn right off me. I guess it’s a blessing and a curse–if you love a fragrance, it’s great to have it stick around, but then again it’s nice to reapply for the lovely fresh topnotes or try something new.
I read the opening statement and blind bought the Caron Daphne x Daphne. Can’t wait. I know I’ll love it I know I will because I love the other ones. Trying to decide on a nice violet. Maybe not the season but so intrigued by the smell L’Artisan had one and so did Serge, anyone else have a good one? I’ll try not to lose my email this time. Thank you
Another violet scent?
Balenciaga Paris is a somewhat greenish violet. Actually, it reminds me of a mini bottle of violet perfume my grandmother gave me when I was little.
I also seem to be falling into the rose+violet trap these days! I recently bought FM Lipstick Rose, which has noticeable violet notes. AND, I got a sample of AT Rose Vermielle, which is another rose+violet scent, although it is sweeter and more “rosey” to my nose.
Great choices! Miriam has some violet, too, as does Guerlain Les Meteorites.
Violet? I heartily recommend Lutens’ Bois de Violette. It is pretty wonderful.
I second that.
I, too, have been wearing my in-your-face, touch of skank fragrances with happy abandon. I’m surprised nobody has yet mentioned Bakir, or Patou’s L’Heure Attendue, both of which are majorly skanky, and absolutely wonderful worn with cashmere! I have a tiny bit of Bakir in a little atomizer — probably many years old now, and it’s the parfum. One spritz on my wrist and I can distribute that on my neck and inside my elbows and it stays for hours. I’ve also doused myself with Youth Dew (the oil), and Bal A Versailles, but I should include the disclaimer that I frequently wear Bal to work as well. So far, nobody’s complained. Yet. And I will sometimes wear Femme to the office, but with a very light hand.
You’re a risk taker! And you smell great.
I love L’Heure Attendue and forget about it too often. Thank you for the reminder.
Great post, Angela! Sounds like many of us share your habits. I grinned at your mention of Portrait of a Lady, which I also reluctantly restrict to days off work. And enjoying more than one SOTD or spraying the same fragrance every hour to replay the top notes — these are among the benefits of staycation!
Yes! Replaying those topnotes is fun. I do that, too.
Timely topic, Angela! Days off are also great for favorite masculines – e.g., Egoiste and Knize Ten – that are too forceful and quirky for work. Not to mention Timbuktu.
Ah, that’s true. But I did wear Timbuktu to work, on days when I really needed a clear head. I don’t know what others thought, though.
There’s something almost monastic about that fragrance. I bet they all got a lot of work done!
Ha ha! Maybe they did! I know it helped me buckle down.
Good point. I love both of those fragrances (and probably have worn them to work, actually, although I hope I played it easy with the sprayer).
What a great 12 days you have planned! I just read Death Comes to Pemberley! You’ll have to report back, let us know what you think of it.
I spent Friday-today pleasing myself, watching old Bollywood and Kollywood videos, blasting El O out of the house with Tamil and raga music ….soaked myself to the bone with Diaghilev yesterday, Parfum de Therese the day before and vintage Ubar the day before that! I think he cannot wait for tomorrow! LOL!
enjoy your holiday!!!!
You’ve been living well! You’ve inspired me to add some dancing into the mix of naps, reading, and baths. And Bollywood, too, dang it. I just rented the 1930s “Design for Living” and the new “L’Amour Fou” about YSL. I spent a few hours catching up with a few friends at my neighborhood bar, now it’s movie time.
I hadn’t heard of Death Comes to Pemberley – but I’ve always been very fond of PD James (she’s so deft, you get plot and characterization all nested together, and the characterizations inform the plot development – such a master). MUST find this thing.
I have been easily distracted with so much to do around Christmas, I’ve been only wearing Alahine and Parfum SAcre the past few days. Perhaps will get back to sampling or investigating the decant box in a day or two…
What great perfumes to choose, though, if you’re limited to two!
So far, I’m loving Death Comes to Pemberley, but mostly, I think, because I love seeing my old friends from Pride and Prejudice. In this book, PD James sticks with Austen’s early 19th-century style of lots of description and narrative summary, rather than dialogue and hello-you’re-right-here action. She introduces some new characters and paints them well in an Austenesque way, but Austen is so hard to beat! Austen is so funny and subtle at the same time. Still, I love seeing what has happened to Mary and Kitty, and how Lady Catherine de Bourgh shaped up, etc.
I am assuming you are familiar with other books by PD James? I am unfamiliar with her (although I have seen the movie of Children of Men). Any book recommendations for someone who might want to try her out?
I’ve read a few here and there, but I’m no PD James expert. Maybe someone else here would have a good recommendation.
Children of Men is quite different from the usual PD James canon – I recommend any of the Inspector Adam Dalgliesh mysteries, if you like mysteries. Darker than A Christie, not as immediate in plot as Elizabeth George.
Dark is good! Thanks for the suggestion!
Of the Dalgliesh mysteries my stand out favourite is Death in Holy Orders. Another one I would recommend is Original Sin.
She is a good mysterie writer.
I will look those both up at my library, thanks!
I have read everything except “Death Comes to Pemberley”, and I just re-purchased “A Taste of Death” to read again. I never re-read books – there a re too many to read for the first time! – but that is one of my favorites of all time. P.D. James is one of my favorite authors, and she is SO OLD now – I am terrified that she is not immortal.
I’ve read the P.D. James already and was disappointed. It’ll be interesting to see what you think. I would say the main problem is that you can’t combine a lot of wittiness with a dark murder mystery. And btw, I have just soaked myself tonight in Nuit de Noel, loving it!
I’m loving seeing the Pride and Prejudice characters in a new story, but I’m not sure I’d recommend this novel for someone who’s not a P&P fan. You’re right–some of Austen’s fabulous wit is lacking. There’s not much romantic tension, either. But, like I said earlier, I’m having a good time imagining the post-P&P lives of the Bennett sisters.
The romantic tension of P&P is one of the things I love most about the book! That, and Austen’s wry humor.
Exactly! My two top reasons to read Austen, too.
As my alias suggests I am a huge admirer of Austen’s work. She was such a great observer of human nature, and far less gentle than some people seem to think.
She had such a great feel for the classic story, and she could draw a character like no body’s business. She had to have a little sass, I’d think.
I’m accustomed to the dark murder mystery style of James, so seeing how she combines the sparkle of P&P ought to be interesting, at least. I can see that it might not quite work, or how if you were expecting more sparkle, the darkness might be overwhelming.
I’d love to know what you think of it once you’ve read it. Be sure to let me know! We can compare notes.
My boyfriend is taking me to Paris to ring in the New Year (!) and I’ve vowed to only wear french perfume while we’re there (neither of us have ever been, so we’re particularly excited). I’m thinking of bringing with me the following: FM Musc Ravageur, SL Chene, Chanel Cuir de Russie, and Guerlain Angelique Noire. Le Labo is considered french, too, right? I may add Vanille 44 to the list. So excited!
congrats Bookgirl, it sounds wonderful
great plan on perfumes to wear 
enjoy 
Wow! That sounds divine! The two guys who own Le Labo are French, so it seems like they count. Are you going to buy a bottle of perfume while you’re there? You could wear it every day, and it would always remind you of Paris. Maybe Bois des Iles parfum? (Just got a nice-sized sample and am loving it.)
That’s the second reference to BdI parfum. . .it’s really creating an itch that I might need to scratch! From where did you get your sample?
It was a gift from someone whose mom bought it in Paris.
I was in Paris in November and I didn’t take any perfume with me – instead and smelled and sprayed like a madwoman. There is serious perfume shopping to be done and I wanted to be “clean” going into stores.
Do you have any specific perfume destinations in mind? You’re going to have such a wonderful time!
Did you end up coming home with new perfume?
I restrained myself to a sampler set from Fragonard (Eau Fantasque has been a favorite of mine for years), but my list was definitely padded since I was finally able to smell the Serge Lutens line and I was introduced to L’Artisan (I live in the sticks and have only just begun to dip my toes into the world of “serious perfume”). But I have to try scents repeatedly before actually making my purchase. Paris really is perfume heaven though. And pastry heaven. And champagne heaven. *sigh*
So, the NEXT time you get to Paris you’ll have lots of possibilities for full bottle purchases….
I love wearing Nahema when I’m at home. I once wore it to the office – huge mistake! I felt over-exposed the entire day.
I get that. Nahema is so lush and romantic and emotional! Not how I want to appear at work. But it sure is gorgeous.
I work from home on Fridays, so after the kids have gone to school and the husband’s gone to work I douse myself with a “grand entrance” perfume and sit in my home office and enjoy sillage to the rafters. Most people have “casual” Fridays; I have “Mitsouko” Fridays.
or should I use my new one? :8}
Yes! Mitsouko Fridays sound terrific.
I work in a food environment, so am contending all day with aromas of cheese and salami! I find it best not to try and compete with an unpasteurised Stilton, so eschew most scents. If I do wear one, it’s a short lived cologne that wears off by the time i get to work. So my days off, and those spent at home or on holiday, are an absolute delight for perfume ‘a porter’!
My current favourite to liven up this grey weather is Tubereuse 40. Wonderfully long lasting too. Another joy is Musc Ravageur layered with its accompanying body lotion. I only wear URC (which is receiving a lot of mention in this thread) occasionally, as it is not an ‘everyday’ scent (on MY skin at least.)
I used to work at a barbecue restaurant, so I know what you mean. Not much harmonizes with brisket that you can’t eat with brisket, too.
I work in a hospital and doesn’t wear perfume at all at work. In the evenings and weekends I spray with abandon and wear anything I like! Try to limit myself a bit when I have choir practice though, I don’t wan’t to play havoc with anyones vocal cords.
Thinking of reading Death comes to Pemberly, but am a bit hesitant since I’m a big Austen-fan…
You’re very considerate!
So far, I wouldn’t say Death Comes to Pemberley is close to Austen’s standards, but it’s fun.
I think after loving Guerlain so much, I love Rafums de Nicolai, one of the founders is a niece to Mr. Guerlain himself. Is this correct. I cannot get enough of Sacreblue both regular and intense versions. The Intense Version has. A difference I’ve noticed is that the Intense has a little blue sash wrapped around the neck of the bottle (the intense), and the regular does not. Got them from two different companies. One at Beauty Habit, one at Lucky scent. And the box had not been sealed from lucky scent. So I’m scared to say…or ask…could one be fake? Gushing tears follow. I really don’t think that this one is going to bother me so much because anyway its my new signature scent. I love LOVE ME TENDER, by PdN, too. You get that sweet burst then it dries down into a hay filled July day at the creek or river. It’s everything to me in one scent. Sacrebleu, and to Emily that sent me the samples, you are getting some props. You actually chose my scent for me. I thought it was one of the Guerlain’s. Almost. Love love love is in the air. I feel this fragrance. May be too much for an office but I stay at home.
Yes, Patricia de Nicolai is in the Guerlain family. Isn’t that line wonderful? I like Sacrebleu, too.
Both Beautyhabit and Luckyscent are reliable places to order fragrance, and I’m almost certain you didn’t get a fake from either place. Parfums de Nicolai’s packaging isn’t as slick as that of a lot of companies.
A little late to the party, but what a fun post! I am furiously trying to decide what monster to wear today……