What's your fragrance today?
I'm commando, again, and getting ready to head to the beach. Later I will probably be in Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess again.
Reminder: this Friday, the 25th, wear something by Hermès OR something by perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena.
And for those of you who like to plan ahead, see Scent of the day ~ Friday community projects 2014, where I'll try to always have the next six or seven weeks mapped out in advance.
Note: image is Rose Blossom Time at Chatham, Mass. on Cape Cod via Boston Public Library at flickr; some rights reserved.
It was a rose kind of day today, so SOTD is SL Sa Majeste la Rose applied liberally! I’m also wearing rose earrings and a very ladylike braided updo
Nice!
Rose for me too today!
SOTD: Eau d’Italie Paestum Rose
That SL is on my ‘to try’ list..
Yes! There are so many ways to take rose – bright and fresh, dark and mysterious, gourmand, dry and austere. Sa Majeste la Rose is pretty much just velvety roses and musk on me. On my to buy list are ELDO Rossy de Palma (dark and animalic) and SL La Fille de Berlin (dark and spicy). I also really want to try Tauer Rose Chypree – I have read such great things about it!
I’ll have to retry Paestum Rose. When I tried it, I mostly got incense and no rose.
I tried Rossy de Palma but wasn’t to excited about it. I’ll revisit though.
Tauer Rose Chypree is on my list too! I love his PHI.
SL La Fille de Berlin I also need to try as I love dark & spicy.
One other brand I’ve got on my list is the Les Parfums de Rosine brand and for that I’d like to get samples of all the scents if possible.
I don’t think I can no longer call myself a non-rose lover because some of these are really becoming my favorites!
Oooo, you must look and smell so purdy today! I prefer my rose perfumes like your screen name — rose with pepper/spice!
I know I am replying super late, but somehow I must have sensed it was a rose kind of day, too. My SOTD was Rose Poivree, your namesake! Perhaps my favorite rose ever.
“Silent Grove” – DS Durga because I needed a bit of Linden to lift my spirits.
Can’t think if I’ve smelled that one…love the name.
Today I put on a few drops of DG Sicily from a tiny bottle that I got with the bigger bottle that I bought a long time ago. I am really rationing the small amount I still have. Wish they still made this this one!
I have a few I’m rationing as well…
I’m wearing Amouage Dia. I love that postcard!
And it’s pretty much what it looks like here…although at the moment more hydrangeas than roses.
Are you on the Cape? You lucky duck. Hope you have some gorgeous weather!
I am, and thanks! Today was glorious. Not sure it will be this perfect all week.
Today I woke up with a headache, so I decided to wear the least perfumey perfume that I own. A nice splash of CK One did the trick.
Hope your headache gets better!
They say mimicry is the highest form of flattery so I will spritz myself with CK One….perfect for a hasty trip to the Farmer’s Market on this very humid day. My bottle lives in the fridge, it is quite refreshing cold.
I’m wearing Slumberhouse Pear & Olive — I just came into about 25-30 new perfume samples from generous and lovely perfume friends, and this was one of them.
How do you like it? It sounds interesting.
I was wondering the same thing. This is one I want to try.
I like it! But then I like fruity. It’d say it’s more sweet than savory, but not gourmand-level sweet.
Yes to the pear, but where was the olive? (I tried a sample yesterday.) Pretty and sweet, but not as adventurous as I’d expected.
Pear and Olive is FBW – It’s interesting and wearable. I do prefer it in cooler weather, though. Enjoy!
SOTD is Nectarine Blossom and Honey from a Jo Malone sample. It’s very pretty but I’m not likely to buy a bottle after the sample is done.
Props to Jo Malone, though, for their generous-sized spritzer samples!
We are scent twins today! This is my all time favorite fragrance! It’s a happy scent.
It is happy and very long lasting! Took a shower after riding and am now in Bronze Goddess Creme. Yum yum.
So I’m twins with both you and Robin :-).
Ineke + Anthropologie Poet’s Jasmine, first try from a sample. It’s all right, though I think I undersprayed.
That one’s pretty quiet no matter how you slice it. But I think maybe that’s what I’m in the mood for, gonna go put some on! Thanks
yes, it’s pretty quiet – and evanescent…
I’m wearing my sample of Eau de Magnolia. It’s my fourth or fifth wearing and I cannot decide if I like it or if it irritates me (white florals do that to me sometimes). It has the same feel as Acqua Universalis Forte by Francis Kurkdjian, but I prefer the latter.
Longevity is great, though.
Still dying to try Eau de Magnolia. I might have to just suck it up and order a sample.
I’m wearing Fleur de Liane, one of those bargain buys. I like it on hot days, as it is quite refreshing.
I hope you are having a wonderful time on your vacation!
I am wearing Chanel Coco today. I know its summer, but I needed my Coco today.
Lovely so far, thanks!
I had a crummy day at work after a meeting turned ugly, so I ended my day with punishing run, a shower, and have now doused myself in Coco. I feel better.
Wearing Silences today – about 6 sprays… maybe 8. I can barely detect it now, but I do catch faint whisps now and then so I know it’s still going.
I tucked a decant with a few final drops of vintage chanel #19 EDT in my purse so i can get my galbanum fix later this afternoon when Silences wears away.
I love galbanum, esp. in the summer!
Is it the EdT? I have some Silences PdT (late 70s/early 80s maybe), and THAT stuff goes for hooouuuurrrs, even on my scent-eating skin. Galbanum is like air conditioning.
You know, I don’t know if it’s EDT or EDP or PdT – prob. EDP (??) I got a tester bottle (black round thing) a year or two ago from a discounter site. I’ll have to look when I get home because I just don’t remember.
It seems to last awhile, but I have to really douse myself. Otherwise, I only get a few hours. 6-8 sprays is a lot for me.
Do you know if the Sublime version is different? Better? Stronger?
I love galbanum. We should do a galbanum day!
I agree with a galbanum day!
ha, you guys!
YES GALBANUM DAY! (rubs hands together in green gloaty glee)
I have the Sublime and it is nice but much much paler than my PdT. In fact, it may be closer to the current version of No. 19 than to Silences, which is to my mind even more of a galbanum beast than 19. Lasting power on the EdP Sublime is not great on me – it wears like you say your Silences does. (I tend to have scent-eating skin anyway.) Silences Sublime, as I like to call it, is less galbanum, more flowers, more focus on vetiver, musk and iris in the drydown, very little moss. The original is pretty rose-heavy to my nose, the Sublime not.
That’s not to say that Sublime is bad. It isn’t at all, and it hasn’t had its soul sucked out; it’s an austere floral green in an era of frooty things and deserves some attention. I like it. But the staying power sucks, I say.
I checked my bottle – it’s EDP. Fairly modern, I suspect. I do want to try the Sublime at some point because…well, galbanum and all that.
I had actually applied some Coty Longing from a thrift store bottle because I’m trying to come up with a drugstore fragrance that a teenage boy might buy his mother for Christmas in the mid-90s… the Longing is really too damaged for me to get an idea of what it smelled like. It must GO.
And then I will put on some Silences (thank you, CM). I don’t regularly have synesthesia, but Silences is all color for me: pink rose and periwinkle-gray iris, bookended by silvery-green galbanum and olive-green mossy woods.
Does anybody HAVE a suggestion for a fragrance available in the mid-1990s in an American drugstore, something that a teenage boy might pick out for his mother knowing that she likes perfume and that she used to wear Wind Song but would like a change?
I was a teen then, and the drugstore fragrances that were in my awareness bubble were Sunflowers and Vanilla Fields.
Disclaimer: I wasn’t a particularly aware teen
Wasn’t Giorgio one of those sold in drugstores? I remember seeing it in Walgreens.
Giorgio wasn’t in drugstores in the early 1990s, but drugstores did carry a lot of imposter scents… Smells like Obsession, Smells like Giorgio, etc. They came in aerosol cans (like travel sized hairspray). The Giorgio flavor had yellow and white stripes.
Impulse! body sprays. Yep.
You’re right! They were called Designer Imposters.
“If you like Giorgio, you’ll love Primo!”
My local CVS still carries these. It’s a fairly new store, built within the last 10 years. And it’s in a high traffic area of suburban Chicago. I doubt their stock is from the 90s. These might still be in production.
I remember a lot of Charlie commercials and I *think* that was available in drugstores. Perhaps a Jovan Musk (Jovan White Musk) or one of my girlhood perfumes, Chantilly. My cousin wore Ciara, but I’m not sure if that was available in drugstores at the time. What about Emeraude?
BTW, Silences, to me, is all silvery and green – almost black and white: like a cold late fall morning when the grass is covered in frost and the dawn sun is shining down. I love your assessment that galbanum is like a blast of air conditioning! So true!
I don’t have enough experience with perfume to make a suggestion, but as I recall, Wind Song is little spicy (carnation and cloves).
Revlon Cherish?
Hmmm, don’t remember that one. I like the name… can’t find any info on it. Can you describe it briefly for me?
I don’t know if I ever smelled it, but I worked a second job stocking a drugstore for a few month in 1996 or 97 and I remember putting it on shelves and getting an earworm from it sharing a title with an old Madonna record.
Is this for a piece of fiction?
I think Charlie would be a little too 70’s.
Some independent drug stores (yes, there used to be such things) had slightly elevated beauty sections, with Crabtree and Evelyn type products. Perhaps he could pick pick her one of their EDT’s .
Otherwise, maybe good old Jean Nate.
Yes, for fiction!
Maybe Muguet de Bois? Was that still around in the 90s? I know I bought some for my mom in the 80s for Mother’s Day. Vanilla Fields and Chantilly would work too – though I associate that with older ladies since we always got that as a Christmas gift for my grandmother. I just did a google image search for 90s drugstore perfume and that might give you some more ideas (if you haven’t already!).
Thanks to everyone for suggestions!
I will echo Vanilla Fields, what about Sunflowers? I feel that was in drugstores by the mid-90s.
Oh, and White Shoulders. I distinctly remember buying that in the mid-90s at Long Drugs.
Did the States stock the Yardley range like Panache, Lace, Tweed etc? Panache was the best.
I worked with a woman then who wore Tabu, in it’s 90’s incarnation
Also Revlon Jontue was available then, and Maja by Myrugia or whatever it’s called.
Navy or Incognito? They came out in the early 90s but should have been around for a few years at least. I believe both were originally made by Cover Girl before being bought by Dana. (And possibly Revlon in between for Navy?) No idea which year the change took place.
I also remember CK One, Eternity, Escape, Liz Claiborne, Realities, and Sunflowers being popular then, but my small town Rite Aid didn’t have those. I had to drive two hours to the mall if I wanted something so fancy.
Oh, the fun memories of my teenage years. I probably still have partial bottle of everything mentioned above at my parents’ house.
SOTD = Chanel Les Exclusifs Eau de Cologne which lasted through breakfast and then Atelier Cologne Cedrat Enivrant
I am sitting at a Tim Horton’s in Sydney, Nova Scotia Canada after a leisurely walking tour. Now I am off to explore this teeny tiny town. Who knows what perfumed discoveries I may encounter? (I saw a humongous gray cat in a church graveyard earlier today – not this kind of surprise as long as the gods of vacations are smiling upon me!)
Sounds fun! Hope you find something unusual.
I did ! A steam punk pendant. The necklace part I may end up replacing with something else but the pendant is unusual.
Neat! Vacation shopping is it’s own flavor of treasure hunt. Love it
Hope that you’re having lovely adventures, and thanks again for those lovely SSS samples! Yin and Ylang and I have been getting to know each other.
I did ! A steam punk pendant. The necklace part I may end up replacing with something else but the pendant is unusual.
Eeeeek, not sure how the double-posting happened! Anyhow, glad you’re trying the SSS. Laurie Erickson is very talented!
This vanilla freak would like to request a mini review of the My Inner Island vanilla frag you love so much
I can’t find samples anywhere.
I hope that you continue to enjoy your vacation!
Back home from my vacation, and enjoying a few more days off to wear jeans, go thrifting, and wear all the samples I got in nyc.
This morning, pre-shower, I am enjoying Etro’s Ambra. It is a healthy dose of amber, myhrr, and Vanilla on me. Great fall date night fragrance. I keep sniffing my arm.
Wearing Eau Sauvage today, a perfect spritz for working hard (and hot!). I’ve been craving Paprika Brasil on my Hermes binge. I might have to spring for some.
Used to adore Eau Sauvage, but the last time I tested a newer bottle, there was something overpoweringly synthetic & long lasting that got on my nerves. Wonder what it was…
I actually discovered Eau Sauvage from a vintage mini that I’m scared to run out of for exactly the reason you stated! It sure is lovely though.
My SOTD is my signature scent; Nectarine Blossom and Honey by Jo Malone.
I love the postcards on the SotD posts! Thank you.
I am wearing CB:IHP Wild Hunt, which I soft of forgot about until I ran across the bottle while on my endless cleaning/reorganizing jag. How could I forget a scent I like so much?
I was doing some reorganizing myself, and discovered a small decant of J’Adore L’Absolu, such a pretty summer floral that I had TOTALLY forgotten I even had.
Thank the Boston Public Library for putting their incredible collection online with no copyright restrictions
I <3 the BPL.
oops. I was trying to make a heart!
I’m feeling inspired by the postcard today, so Stella is the SOTD.
I’m perusing my vetiver-heavy scents in these days, so today it was escentrics 03, I normally like it, but it seems more cologne-y and masculine than usual, maybe the rainy weather?
Feeling Nostalgic…. DK Men Unleaded. Love This Bottle and this scent!
EL Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia today. I had such high hopes but it has gone all sweet on me. Too sweet for my taste.
Wearing L’Eau de L’Artisan today, because my boss told me she liked it and I have my annual performance evaluation this afternoon…
Smart move and good luck this afternoon!
Ha, so savvy! Will cross fingers for you.
Thanks, Kindcrow and C.H. -aced it!
Awesome!! Congratulations
In honor of Drugstore Week, I’m wearing some Maja EDT that I picked up at CVS yesterday. I’ve never smelled the old version, so I don’t really have any frame of reference here. I was surprised at how masculine it seemed to me. Not enough that I don’t feel comfortable wearing it, but there is something kind of aftershavey going on.
My father adores this scent. My mom keeps the soaps in the bathroom for him
What’s Drugstore Week?
I was referring to this (it’s at the beginning of the post):
https://nstperfume.com/2014/07/21/avon-flor-violeta-fragrance-review/
Ah! Yes. It sounded familiar but didn’t connect it.
SOTD is Plunder by BPAL. Notes: tea leaf, cassia, cinnamon bark, clove, allspice, sandalwood, tobacco, peppercorn, and nutmeg. It smells like Good Earth Original Sweet and Spicy tea to me, and that is a good thing, in my book. Good Earth Tea has quotes and aphorisms on the tea bag tags. The last one I got said “To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.”
Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Earth_Teas) states that “Good Earth Tea is a tea and herbal tea company. Founded in 1972 under the name Fmali Herb Company based in Santa Cruz, California, it was one of the first American herbal tea companies during the early 1970s. In the late 1970s it began to develop trademark teas for Good Earth Restaurants, and launched Good Earth teas in tea bag form to the California grocery market in 1988.”
Does anyone remember the Good Earth chain of health-food restaurants? I miss those. We introduced my mother to my husband’s (boyfriend at the time) mom and stepfather at a Good Earth restaurant over 20 years ago.
I remember the Good Earth restaurants! They had really good veggie burgers that they made from scratch. Are they all closed now? I no longer live in California, but I miss those granola-y health food restaurants.
I think that they’re all closed
Everything that I’ve seen on the web is written in the past tense. The last time I went to one was in the mid-to-late 90s with some co-workers after an environmental conference in the Bay Area. You can still find granola-y health food restaurants like that in college towns in California (I’m looking fondly at you, Arcata and Santa Cruz), and I’m sure in other states, as well.
Old Spice. Probably ten years old, maybe older. Basically carnations and gasoline for the longest time. Fantastic.
Mmmmm. I really like Old Spice! You smell fantastic!
I like Old Spice, and I would wear it if it didn’t burn my skin. Royall Spyce (even the newer version) is very good, too.
I nicked my Dad’s bottle of Royall Lyme when I was a teen.
Wonder if they still make it.
I’ve never tried Royall Lyme, but I’d like to. They still make it. You can get it directly from the company or from the Vermont Country Store. I’ve heard that the quality went down when the company changed ownership.
Now, I need to see if STC or TPC has a lime sampler …
I’ve never tried Royall Lyme, but I’d like to. They still make it. You can get it directly from the company or from the Vermont Country Store. I’ve heard that the quality went down when the company changed ownership.
Now, I need to see if STC or TPC has a lime sampler …
There was a long stretch of time when my dad’s Christmas present always included an Old Spice gift set, because he’d use it up over the year (aftershave and cologne). It sure doesn’t smell as wonderful as it used to (sigh).
I love Old Spice, a series of high school crushes _and_ my first serious boyfriend (in college, gulp!) wore it and I have such fond memories.
Yes, “fond”… we’ll stick to that chaste word…
I started the day with some Osmanthus lotion from a brand whose name escapes me for the moment (it was one of my Henri Bendel 60% off indulgences), but now that that has faded, I’ve got L’Artisan’s Skin on Skin from a sample on my wrists. Trying to train my nose to pick out leather, and I’m starting to get it.
Wow it’s up to 60% off now? Dang.
Hajursuuri, the Goddess Rena and I went there a few weeks ago, so it could be even lower now, but the pickings are progressively more slim.
Yeah I was in town very briefly when it was at 50% off and couldn’t find anything I really needed even at that discount… but gosh, 60%. Eye-popping!
I received one of my ebay scores yesterday, a 2-oz vintage bottle of Givenchy L’Interdit, still in the shrink wrap. So of course that’s what I’m wearing today. Gosh, this is lovely. It just continues to break my heart what they’ve done to the reformulation of this beautiful scent.
Even though sealed, my bottle has lost about 1/5 of it’s contents to evaporation, and the top notes are damaged a bit, but it’s still beyond gorgeous after the first 2-3 minutes. I wish I’d been old enough to appreciate L’Interdit more back in the days when it was freely available.
I’ve never tried vintage L’Interdit, but I really loved the Les Mythiques version. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Givenchy bottle in an antique store, which I stalk regularly.
I was caught sleeping when the Les Mythiques came out for their brief appearance, darn it, so I can’t compare the vintage to them. From what I hear, though, they did an excellent job with them, so if you loved the Les Mythiques version, you’d probably love the vintage equally.
Are those not still available? I see Les Mythique versions of several, including L’Interdit on strawberrynet.com and fragrancenet.com.
Today’s SOTD is Apres L’Ondee. So pretty, I sure wish I got more than an hour of longevity from it.
It is so pretty but it makes me sad, because I have always loved it and last time I put it on I realised it was too romantic for me. It hadn’t changed, I had. I’m keeping it for my 7 year old who sneaks my expensive stuff all the time despite her healthy drugstore collection and welcomes guests to our house with the offer of a spray of whatever she’s wearing.
SOTD is Beyond Paradise Men, but it was so long ago that I forgot!
I did a stupid thing today.
Again I got my hands on an incredible ebay-bargain (60ml for 13 Euros – can’t resist bargains): Kenzo Jungle l’Elephant. Got it this morning, just out of bed, sprayed it on my wrist and was at first taken aback.
It smells like October, when I harvest my plums and make jam, which I spice up with cinnamon, star anise and cloves. I love it on toast, but on my skin? And in July when it’s very warm and humid over here in Ireland?
I had a shower, my coffee and doused myself with Eau des Merveilles.
12 hours later I’m typing this and I still smell Kenzo spicy plum jam jungle. And smell and sniff and want summer to be over and make plum jam. Good old Hermes shyed away.
Just one spritz, half asleep in the morning, left its mark even in the living room. This is the most powerful perfume I’ve ever had. And I have a skin chemistry which usually swallows heavy scents. I can wear Opium or the original Poison in summer with no bother (for me at least).
It’s addictive this Elephant of a perfume. But I think it’s in the category “how to go to a summer barbecue and lose friends”.
The faint (!) whiff however makes me long for it.
I think the oddballs among perfumes (as among men) are the most interesting ones. But you know that all…
I actually like Elephant. But in half-drop dosage (and I have scent-eating skin, too).
I, too, enjoy Elephant – one of my rare blind buys but couldn’t resist a bargain, either, after hearing so much about it. I love it! but only a tiny bit on the coldest of days, I can only imagine its potency in heat and humidity. Well, at least it makes you think of cooler weather and plum jam . . . .
Celebrating my birthday today by wearing Damarose, which I got for a good price on enableBay.
Happy birthday!
Many happy returns of the day and wishing you a year ahead filled with good health, happiness, and lots of good smelling things!
Happy birthday!!
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday! You smell good
Hope it was a perfect day!
Oooohh, I’m a day late but Happy Birthday!
SOTD is Penhaligon’s Victorian Posy. I bought this at Penhaligon’s on my first trip to London many years ago, so its filled with many memories and lots of wear – only a tiny bit left. A full and rich but dry floral chypre, lots of good green stuff like galbanum, oakmoss, and vetiver and springtime florals with a predominant musky rose note that weaves its way through.
This could’ve been the scent of Robin’s lovely postcard today, but my choice was prompted by a rare-for-this-area local mountain music performance tonight I’m really looking forward to. I wanted to wear something to honor the original source of the music, looked amongst my English scents, and picked this one. It will do just as nicely for the mountain as it does for the garden!
In Ineke Hothouse Flower and enjoying it. Just looked up your review earlier today, Robin.
I’m glad you were headed to the beach — I’m a bit sad because I “should” be at Long Beach Island this week with the rest of the family, but I couldn’t/didn’t make it happen. I may get there sometime in September, but it won’t be the same.
Oh, sorry you’ll miss the family beach week, Joe! I am eating ice cream for both of us, if that helps.
Wearing a spritz of Amouage Interlude. Not exactly mid-summer wearing, but nicely done.
SOTD is Armani Si. I sprayed it on at Ulta today and absolutely love it! It’s very creamy and lovely. Definitely adding this to my FB list.
For the third day straight, I’ve worn no 19 in EDP form. That’s gotta be a new record for me.
I just tried No.19 for the first time at an airport duty free store! I went a little crazy and sniffed on paper everything they had (EDT, EDP, and parfum). I was most taken with the parfum, actually, and very nearly forked over $135 for it without having it ever touch my skin…but then I realized I was about to miss my flight. Next time, though!
I find that no 19 in parfum is the best form then the EDP. The EDT is the most butch out of the three and I find it to be the most crude. All I know at this point, I can’t spend $110 (USD) all the time of 7.5ml of parfum every month so the EDP will have to do.
SOTE is Amethyst by Olivier Durbano. Apart from 30 seconds of something mildy grape-y at the beginning, it’s been an hour of nothing but sandalwood. Well, it’s only been an hour …