Happy Iced Tea Day! What fragrance are you wearing?
I'm wearing Masque Milano Russian Tea. And my tea at the moment: Upton Ji-Hong Supreme Organic. I'm pretending it's iced.
Reminder: this Friday, 6/12, we're looking at literary connections...name a favorite novel, and wear a perfume that fits the novel or a character in the novel. The summer reading poll will follow on Saturday.
And for those of you who like to plan ahead, see Scent of the day ~ Friday community projects 2015, where I'll try to always have the next five or six weeks mapped out in advance.
Coincidentally, I was wearing Pierre de Lune (Armani Prive) when i read the iris post today. Now im back in MPG Ambre Doré, which Ive been wearing for the past 3 days and is my current Very Favourite Amber.
I do not even have a VFA — I should try Ambre Dore.
I’m wearing Annick Goutal Mandragore Pourpre today. I love this warm, soft spicy scent.
My tea I’m drinking right now is Harney & Sons Tropical Green. I’ll add some ice to it since its Iced Tea Day.
Pretty sure I had a tin of that once…then mixed it up with the coconut one, which I think is Bangkok or something? Too many teas to keep straight
I love Mandragore Pourpre! It’s one of my “chill out” fragrances. I think it has very aroma therapeutic properties. It was in heavy rotation for me a few years ago during a stressful time at work.
I take the chilling out literally, as my AG is in the fridge…
Back to work today after two days of jury duty (during which I was merely a placeholder, thank goodness), and I’m in Chanel 19 EDT, my Very Favourite Iris (adapting perthgirl’s VFA above).
Congrats on not being chosen
No 19 is my fav iris too. Then AdP Iris Nobile edp.
Scent twin! No 19 is my VFI too. Maybe my VF of all things…
No 19 is not only my VFI, it’s my Very Favorite Vetiver too.
AND high up on the Very Favorite Greens, given that Greens are at the top of my Very Favorite Perfumes list.
No 19 is wonderful, always.
Recovering from the flue, wearing Cristalle to lift the spirits.
If any perfume could help, Cristalle would be the one to do it. Feel better soon!
I think so too!
Cristalle is a breath of fresh air!
Feel better! You smell great
Thank you!
Working from home today so I can pack for my business trip. Currently in Terracotta but I might wear something different for my flight. Right now, I’m trying to decide what fragrance I want to take with me for an all-day conference tomorrow. So many decisions when I really should be getting back to my PowerPoint presentation.
Hope it all goes smoothly!
Thank you!
SOTD is Nicolai pour Homme, one of my favourite lavenders!
Tea is a mixture of Palais de Thes and Damman Freres flavoured green tea. Not great but it will have to do at work.
Do tell! I love lavender and love Nicolai but never registered this one.
It’s been discontinued for a while and it’s quite a complex lavender scent. There is a brilliant review of it on BdJ.
I thought it was similar to BK A Taste of Heaven.
It’s greener and more complex. There is no lavender (that I’ve smelled) that’s like it. A thousand pities that it was discontinued, but I’m assuming that it didn’t sell.
I see. I can’t even locate a bottle for sale, so I think I’ll save myself the yearning and not even read BdJ’s review. More space, time and money for other perfume!
I have never tried anything from Damman Freres — are they good?
I think I prefer MF for flavoured teas although Damman has some excellent earl greys and flavoured oolongs ( their chestnut oolong is gorgeous), but DF has great quality unflavoured tea and is way less expensive than MF and their shipping is half of what MF charges.
I know this isn’t strictly about fragrance but I’m always looking for new perfumed teas. Is “MF” Madame Flavour?
Mariage Freres
Thanks!
Thanks (too)!
They’re pretty good, slightly cheaper than MF, *and* have good-looking canisters.
I really like the brand and agree with all you say. Mind you I like MF as well.
I’m wearing Womanity. I’ve just purchased a travel spray and I’m very, very happy with it. It’s been on my list for a long time and might in fact be my favourite fig – I love the smell of figs, but even great fig fragrances can get a bit… boring. The saltiness of Womanity keeps it from becoming too fruity and milky and nice.
And tea, later, will be Mariage Freres Iskandar.
I really like Womanity. It is the only fig so far that I do like.
I was going to wear Carven today, but ended up reaching for JM Lime Basil & Mandarin to combat the heat and humidity today. Every time I wear it, I wonder why I don’t wear it more often. It really is nice on a hot day.
I love Russian Tea! I’m wearing Violette Fumee and drinking the not-so-good office coffee.
It is good, isn’t it? I actually bought a full bottle (although I would have preferred a smaller one).
I’m the only one that just “likes” it.
I’m wearing Infusion d’Iris edp, in honor of the article yesterday. This is my only Iris. Someone mentioned that the Yardley Iris is a good soliflore, as is the Crabtree & Evelyn Iris. I’m going to see if one or the other is available, and purchase. I’m not in love with the Prada, but I want to see if it’s just that version, or if I don’t like iris notes.
What about Chanel No 19, do you like that? It’s not a soliflore, but there’s lots of iris going on.
I haven’t worn Chanel No 19 since I was a teenager, and don’t remember how it smelled.
In No19 Poudre- made me reach for after reading the post about Iris.
SOTD is Orange Sanguine, for a hot day. Very pleased with it today.
I got a sample of this recently. Perhaps I will try it out tomorrow.
Love that teapot and teacup! SOTD is Limited Edition (David Yurman).
Berså by Stig Lindberg for Gustavsberg
Any tea day is a good day
After seeing the iced tea day post, I decided to wear Five O’Clock au Gigembre.
I’m having lunch with ladies who lunch today. Happy day – I’m the guest speaker about the library. SOTD is Oscar de la Renta Esprit d’Oscar. It seemed like the right frag for dressing and mingling with the ladies. I already know there’ll be some good frags there: No 5s, Aromatic Elixirs, other biggies. I entertain myself with the lunch portion by trying to figure out what I’m smelling. So it will be fun. Take your fragrance to lunch day!
Esprit d’Oscar is such a pretty, relaxed scent.
I’m wearing Mona di Orio Tubereuse today. It’s smelling green and quite rubbery this morning and strangely refreshing!
Getting warm here so I’m in vintage White Shoulders which is a summer rotation scent
Just saw you got a job – congratulations!!!
I was going to go green today, but I was feeling a little frazzled this morning and grabbed Montale Full Incense hoping it will calm me down. My current tea is Tealyra Yunnan Bi Luo Chun.
I slathered on some Bronze Goddess body cream, and I am now dreaming of being on a beach vacation, sipping (Long Island) ice teas!
I threw on a bunch of Feminite du Bois today because I just don’t care what anyone else thinks/how warm it is – I love this and need it today.
Simply a divine fragrance…I wear it all seasons. Love love love.
It’s hot and sunny here today. In yesterday’s article on iris, someone mentioned enjoying Chanel 28 La Pausa in the summer, so I’m draining the last few drops of my decant as my SOTD. So far so good . . .
I finally remembered that CSP Bois de Filao is the fragrance that I layered with Prada Infusion d’Iris. Still works. By layer, I mean one on each wrist.
I like Masque Milano Russian Tea. It seems poised at the perfect intersection between incense, amber and leather.
I may like Monecristo even better. I feel like I’ve smelled it before, not another perfume, but something in the 1970s. Maybe the combination of a particular men’s cologne, cigarette smoke and hormones. I’d like to have both – cursing those large, bulky bottles.
Interesting — I like BdF but haven’t got any I don’t think.
It was an impulse purchase that didn’t totally work out – but now I know what to do with it!
Ah, good.
This morning I wanted to wear Ma Griff in honor of Madam Carven, but ended up matching my mossy green canvas trouser/ white shirt combo with SL A la nuit. Am I alone in matching fragrance with what I’m wearing?
I do it most of the time, but I call it ‘harmonizing’ rather than matching.
Clothing is a primary factor in choosing which scent to wear. Or, in reverse, some days when I really want to wear a particular scent, I will choose my outfit around it.
Definitely not alone, although I do have fagrances that I can wear with almost anything (Cristalle and Lumiere Blanche, for example). I very much enjoy combining the two, as Laila says, it’s not always about matching: sometimes I use perfume to dress up a casual outfit or give some edge to a feminine look with a masculine scent, etc.
ugh, applied self tanner to my legs after showering this morning, and now it’s all I can smell. Finally found one without glitter, and it smells less awful than others, but still. May have to shower again before bed!
Forget about scented laundry – making self-tanner not stink should be a first priority for the fragrance folks…
I am one of the few people who actually likes that smell. When I layer self-tan with Bronze Goddess, it almost smells like summer
I went with Byredo 1996 today. Yummy.
I went to Starbucks this morning on my way to work, and when I was checking out, the barista at the register said to her coworkers, “Someone smells like nag champa”. I didn’t say anything but I think it was me.
I love the smell of Nag Champa! You smell great
I burn it in our apartment
I like it too. I don’t have any at the moment, but I burn it at home as well. And come to think of it, I kinda do smell like nag champa.. just very expensive nag champa..lol.
I actually bought Spiritual Sky Nag Champa oil within the last year and I love it!
I don’t think I’ve tried anything from Spiritual Sky. Do you get it online, or did you find it in a store?
I got mine from Amazon. There have actually been a couple of niche versions now discontinued which I never got to, (I think Memoir Liquide and Ava Luxe?) but I remembered this one from years ago.
Spritzed on Ferre as I was running out the door. No time for indecision…
After a very hot week here, I’m in Hermes Eau d’Orange Vert for the first time of the year. However, I still can’t actually smell anything, so it’s more a mental consolation than anything.
It has been hot as Arrakis here in Portland (95F! WHAT!) and was dehydrated and sick from the sudden blast of heat. Am wearing a thorough spraying of 4711- head to toe after the shower- and then tiny daubs of Garafano (Santa Maria Novella) on the pulse points. Like a cool, comforting hug.
Am drinking a reviving iced hibiscus tea, flavored with ginger slices!
And someone makes a Dune reference. Perfumistas are the best.
Honestly, at first I was going to reach for a sample of a Kilian’s Oud and Rose combo- very ‘Spice’ as it were- but wanted something thoroughly Caladan, so 4711/Garafano it was!
Thumbs up!
Bonus points for the Dune reference!
Huzzah!
4711/Garafano is perfect counterpoint- it’s like Caladan in bottles.
Hah.. I’m reading Dune right now
I was unaware that today is a celebration of tea. I am drinking the office’s coffee maker pods of Earl Grey tea.
By coincidence, this morning I tried a sample of the new Guerlain Aqua whatever light tea fragrance. It is now gone, which I really can not complain about because these are not meant to be long lasting scents.
However, I did find once I sprayed it, that it was too synthetic and annoying, and less interesting than an actual cup of tea. How hard can it be to make a decent tea scent?
We agree on Teazzurra
Mouson Lavendel “With the Mail Coach” as is says on the bottle. Anyone know what that phrase is about?
Google searches turned up this interesting 2007 article on German perfume and cosmetic marketing by Uta G. Poiger, “Beauty, Business and German International Relations.” For Mouson Lavendel, see the paragraph at the top of page 63, as well as more on later marketing on page 68:
http://www.werkstattgeschichte.de/werkstatt_site/archiv/WG45_053-071_POIGER_BUSINESS.pdf
It doesn’t explain why the mail coach specifically; perhaps it’s related to Frankfurt’s history as a business and transportation hub?
On a lighter note, I also found this post on Sorcery of Scent with Helga Tiemann’s charming illustrations Mouson Lavendel ads of the 1960s.
http://sorceryofscent.blogspot.com/2010/02/helga-tiemann-german-perfume.html
There is also an artwork by Claudia Olendrowicz referencing Mouson Lavendel and a more recent Frankfurt-related perfume, 069:
http://www.brunodilecce.com/risorse/documenti/olendrowicz.pdf
What fantastic research! Backed up with that much information, delving into vintage becomes a project as fraught with meaning as history itself.
The Poiger piece is a great article. I highly recommend reading it. Spoiler alert: part of the punchline is that Mouson and the company behind Nivea products both adjusted their corporate structures and/or advertising methodologies to maximize profit in the Nazi context. This involved exiling Jewish executives, advertising in Nazi Party brochures, and promoting their product as part of the Nazi imperialist vision. Quoting the article here: “One [Mouson] company leaflet from the ‘sixth year of the war’ looked forward to fulfilling all desires ‘of the women of Europe’ for Mouson Lavendel with the stage coach through exports ‘after the final victory.'”
I guess the stage coach represents both backward-looking xenophobia and the future desire to take over the world, or at least a lot of Europe.
The Sorcery of Scent post is delightful, and shows a non-aryanist slice of the company’s history. Interestingly, the Poiger article also mentions Theodor Heuss. He was Helga Tiemann’s subject as well as the husband of another German woman designing advertising materials for German cosmetics, Elly Heuss-Knapp. (See the lower part of page 63 in Poiger).
That Olendrowicz art work, or at least its caption, certainly suggests that the stagecoach/Frankfurt/modernity connection is alive and well, at least in one artist’s imagination as of 2013!
nozkoz, I’d love to learn how you find all this material. It’s spectacular. Thank you so much!
I kept trying various Google searches until I found something interesting. There’s an element of luck, always: in this case, that someone had done such relevant research and that the whole paper was online.
I start with the obvious search results, such as Wikipedia, ebay, basenotes and other perfume blogs. That often helps me find more more effective search terms. I wouldn’t have spent much time on it, but Mouson’s 1920 Alt Englisch Lavendal listing on basenotes piqued my curiosity about when and how the mail coach came into it.
Early on, I had thought it might relate to a 19th century essay by Thomas de Quincey entitled “The English Mail-Coach, or the Glory of Motion.” However, the essay doesn’t mention lavender (the whole text is in the Gutenberg Project and can be searched), so that wasn’t it. Mainly, I had to go beyond the first page of search results.
I also found some potentially interesting articles on the history of mail in Germany, but they are behind pay walls.
I also found the Poiger article interesting because it addresses the exotic (e.g., oriental) figures found in so many 1920s perfume ads, which seem to disappear for a while after that. I love looking at old perfume ads on ebay, too.
Denyse Beaulieu often analyzes the cultural context and implications of perfume on Grain de Musc. She has an interesting post on the Jean Patou Colony perfume ads, for example.
Yes, it’s fascinating that this little lavender cologne has such a fraught history and is inspiring conceptual art nearly a century after its launch. How do you like the scent, by the way?
Thank you so much. I’ll be checking back at Grain de Musc, and getting a few more ideas from you, too, I hope….
When I first got interested in perfume, I flinched each time I heard the word oriental. Then I got used to it, and that fact occasionally provokes a flinch now, when I think of it. So I flinched my way through Poiger’s fascinating discussion of racism and imperialism in perfume imagery. I enjoy looking at vintage ads while smelling/wearing the associated scents. Learning about them is more challenging at a few different levels, but I’m glad for the opportunity.
I love the scent. It’s a resinous lavender. (By ‘resinous’ I mean that it reminds me of what happens when I tincture used tea leaves and then let the alcohol evaporate. Something I have personally named ‘a resin’ is left behind on the leaves, or takes longer to evaporate, and it shares some physical and odor properties with the usual resins like labdanum.) Anyhow, the lavender lasts all day, it’s herbal and pretty in excellent proportion, and it reminds me of green glass, the artsy kind, not beer bottles.
Today I felt… I think I want to say compromised, wearing and loving it. Not by the smell experience, but by the physical liquid that I put on my skin and inhaled all day long.
Would you like to try it? Please feel free to drop me a line via gmail, where I can be found under alederberg.
Thanks, leathermountain! If I don’t decide to pick up a mini on ebay, I’ll be in touch. Yes, after I found the article I almost hesitated to answer your question, but it’s worth thinking about.
SOTD is Hermes Rose Ikebana. It is quite pretty, even with tea and peony, which are usually dealbreakers. I had started looking for my next scent after about 10 minutes, but the drydown isn’t as fleeting as the opening. If anyone needs a rose office scent, try this.
I’m also on a beach (in my dreams) wearing Caudalie Divine oil, and a bit of Terracotta le Parfum, drinking a pina colada.
Come sit with me then! We’ll chat, and smell divine!
Chatting and drinking. Some of my favourite pastimes.
Another literary pairing for me today: Annick Goutal Le Chevrefuille paying homage to The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. My son can’t get enough of Tigger, and I can’t get enough of this gorgeous honeysuckle. I’m just glad I didn’t have to float up a tree on a balloon to acquire it…
Love it!!!!!
When my daughter was about 3 years old, she was crazy for a plushy Tigger stuffed animal. We still have it. She’d grasp it by it’s neck, swing it around, bounce up and down. Hoo hoo hoo hoo! The “Tigger” movie is very cute too. BTW – LOVE AG Chevrefeuille!!
Love AG Le Chèvrefeuille, and adore Winnie-ther-Pooh. My favourite charachter is Eeyore. Wonder what he would wear…..
Silences
Cute.
Or Rien!
This just made my day!
Wearing Guerlain Tokyo today. It has some green tea, so almost fits iced tea day! Drained the last of my sample, which is such a satisfying feeling.
I was tempted to buy that one. There was a review somewhere (The Black Narcissus???) that sounded great.
Ferrying my son about today, knocking off some of those doctor appointments… wearing Le Temps d’une Fete. I’m drinking iced coffee instead of tea, but I make a gallon of sweet iced tea about every two days. Sometimes more often. (The CEO can put away a serious amount of iced tea when he is working on the farm in the summer.)
I hope that’s going well, mals.
So far, so good… no reaction to the metal patch test. One more check on his skin tomorrow; MRI (thank goodness THAT’S local) on Friday. Thanks for the good wishes!
That’s great news!
SOTD is Paco Rabanne’s Metal. Memories of me as a young flight attendant buying this at Charles de Gaulle airport in the late seventies, wearing an unfortunate Saturday Night Fever style polyester uniform that reeked of cigarettes and coffee.
Great sensory image!
oh boy, plane coffee is the worst!
Overcast but warm here today (odd weather for this area), which somehow seemed to call for Anaïs Anaïs. Good call – I haven’t worn it for ages, and it hits the spot perfectly.
Plus, peach Snapple for afternoon beverage. (Morning was Twinings Darjeeling).
Wearing Sycomore. I got samples of it and Carven Vetiver during my New Orleans trip, and have been trying to love the CV for the price differential, but it ain’t happenin’.
Good on you for trying, though! Then you don’t have to wonder what if….