TGIF! And it's our Halloween Special. Today's community project: wear the fragrance that would match your fantasy Halloween costume (or your real Halloween costume, or one you've worn in the past).
What did you pick? As always, do chime in with your scent of the day even if you’re not participating in the community project.
My favorite costume when I was young was my fringed red cowgirl outfit, complete with red hat and red wig. I distinctly remember this costume including red cowboy boots, but the photographic evidence proves otherwise...I appear to be in black party shoes. Today, I'm in Keen slippers and Tauer Perfumes Lonestar Memories, and remembering my days on the range, gathering candy.
Reminder: next Friday, 11/6, will be Enabler Pin Friday: bestow a pin on someone who convinced you that you just had to try (or buy) a fragrance. And of course, wear the fragrance!
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.
Totally forgot about the theme today, but I am wearing Silver Factory (Bond no. 9). Happy Halloween everyone! 🙂
Love that one.
THat’s a nice one.
You smell divine!
It has little to do with the theme, but I’m wearing Seville a L’Aube. So much talk about orange blossom yesterday made me crave this one. I have several orange blossom scents, but this one feels the most appropriate during the fall and winter.
FWIW I am dressing up for Halloween tonight as we have a costume party to attend. I’m going as a furry little bat!
I love bats- so cute! 🙂
You smell lovely and great outfit idea!
I love bats too! I was a member of Bat Conservation International for a while. Save the bat!
Great costume Robin! Too cute!!!!
Happy Halloween everyone! I don’t have anything for the theme today- I am in Shalimar EDT (which to some people is not the real thing)
Have a good weekend ahead!
You smell great, and it’s closer to the real thing than my cowgirl outfit 😉
I’ve never celebrated Halloween so my SOTD has nothing to do with it. I’m wearing Amouage Gold while testing By Kilian- Love, don’t be shy on my left wrist and BK’s Liaisons Dangereuses on the other wrist. I had actually meant to order BK’s Sweet Redemption but these silly names had me confused I suppose.
Happy Halloween to all those celebrating! I love your outfit Robin, and doesn’t our memory play funny tricks on us?
Yes! I didn’t remember the red wig either. I’d say I was wise to trade the wig for the boots.
By Kilian names are too much, lol.
They are horrifically silly. I always have to check by the notes what I’m supposed to be wearing.
Yes, it’s impossible to remember!
I get all the By Killian names mixed up too. I really enjoy Liaisons Dangereuses.
I’m intrigued that you are also wearing Amouage Gold – it seems like it would be hard for any other perfume to compete in that league.
Liaisons Dangereuses is the only one of those L’Oeuvre Noire Collection names that I can keep straight, probably because I wore it for the Perfume Posse seven-day signature scent challenge. (The challenge was to pick one perfume and wear it exclusively for seven days straight.) I cracked and had to go commando the last two days but nonetheless fell in love with this perfectly balanced rose-plum scent for fall.
I hope you’ll report back on this experiment!
I was already wearing Gold before I decided that I wanted to try my new samples as well. And you are right, neither of them even comes close.
Love, don’t be shy is actually a very interesting fragrance. A refined gourmand. Liaisons dangereuses is not my thing, really. I find it quite dull to be honest. I will try it again, without it having to compete with the timeless beauty of Gold.
I wore Nina by Nina Ricci for that challenge. The 1987 Nina. It was very easy, which wasn’t a big surprise as I’ve worn it for over 20 years. Still, I do prefer a little change in my fragrances from day to day.
I don’t celebrate Halloween either. But if I was I be in Passage d’Enfer, which is what I am wearing today.
And that works nicely for Halloween!
I am also wearing Passage d’Enfer, as I have been for most of this week. Halloween-wise, I am attending Met Opera HD screening of Wagner’s Tannhäuser tomorrow and I think Pd’E will be appropriately medieval for that occasion as well.
Appropriately medival is a great description! 🙂
Adorable Halloween photo, Robin!
I admit to being an adult who sometimes watches cartoons, and my Halloween costume this year is Louise from Bob’s Burgers. There’s an episode where the kids find some ambergris, so I’m wearing AbdesSalaam Attar Ambergris Tincture. I guess I don’t really think straight ambergris smells that good, though, so I’m also wearing Prada Candy because candy is really what Halloween’s all about anyway, right?
Yes, candy!
I love Loiuse and BB – great costume idea. 🙂
Oh, that sounds like a great layering combo.
Adorable. Also, I now want to see that episode.
Genius!
Yes! I love Louise, and that episode was great.
Great layering idea, indeed!
Ah yes, the faintest ink is better than the best memory 🙂 Being an historian by profession we were always told to be wary of using oral histories as fact. I remember one woman recalling the house she grew up in in detail yet when we found the old plans it was nothing like she’d said! Lol.
Because we dont do Halloween (or not when i was young anyway) I went with an All Hallows Eve theme. Mandragore today for its witchy mandrake, then MdO Oud tonight in our very wet n stormy Friday night here. It has a nice earthy vibe reminiscent of graves and cemeteries 🙂
BTW forgot to add though Robin, that pic is too cute. You rock the little fringed cowgirl look 😉
So true about the faintest ink!!
It’s fascinating to learn how fallible memory can be.
And just in case anyone wants to read something interesting on this topic:
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/520156/memory-is-inherently-fallible-and-thats-a-good-thing/
Thank you for the interesting link!
By the way Perthgirl (I feel compelled to call you Perthie, but only if you were amenable to that of course) – what historical era was your specialty? I’d love to know.
Lol. Perthie is fine by me 🙂 It actually feels a little wierd sometimes not using our names as I guess in a way I consider you all friends. My perfume friends who I dont know at all! 😉
My background is actually Cultural Heritage, with an architecture specialisation. It encompasses many things under the umbrella of preserving the past for future generations, so things like materials conservation, interpretation of objects/data etc in a museum type context, folklore and oral history, the way technology alters the ‘facts’ of history, as well as lots of traditional mostly Australian/West Australian history.
I worked for the Govt and various departments researching buildings and places for conservation.
I guess my interest in perfume went from just interest to obsession because of its link with the past- its ability to capture and create memory and to capture a whole slice of time and place in a freeze-frame moment on a social and cultural level as well as just an individual one.
Wow – all of that sounds fascinating! If you ever start a blog, do let me know, because I am genuinely intrigued. America (and New York in particular) does not have the strongest history of preserving buildings relating to our cultural heritage, and that has always concerned me, and though I am always concerned about the validity of stated “facts,” I hadn’t considered the influence technology might have.
May run off to the internet now to do some reading.
Thanks Perthie! 🙂
Perthgirl, I know what you mean about names: I quite often have to stop myself signing off my posts. However, I’m posting here mainly in response to ihadanidea’s abbreviation to “Perthie”, because it resonates with an experience I had on my first trip it Australia, way back at the beginning of time. I found that many things were affectionately shortened to an -ie/y form, more than at home, it seemed, but my most bewildering experience was talking to a friend of my sister’s about her “hissy at the hossie”. I must have looked puzzled, because it was kindly translated for me as “her hysterectomy in hospital”. I felt very ignorant and humble, just a poor Kiwi lass from the hills behind Whangarei, you know…but Perthie you shall evermore be.
Another Australian chipping in here. Hissy at the hosie is marvellous! But I’d say that while adding ‘ie’ to everything used to be a common Australian trick of speech, I notice it less now, along with a lot of older Australian slang. The gradual influence of language received via TV and the Internet from overseas might be one reason for this. Or maybe older tricks of speech survive in regional areas and I don’t hear them. I’m in the city.
Hi, AnneMarie. And I must say this occurred some 40 years ago, when I was a mere gal. I agree with you about the general homogenisation of language, culture, everything. I’m old enough to feel some small regrets for the loss of local idiosyncrasies, but my young colleagues relish the globalised life. I try to, but I don’t get as far as “relish”, exactly, more like interested acceptance.
🙂
Waterdragon, your writing is charming and I’ve wanted to adopt quite a few of your idioms for my own purposes, so you may be doing more than you know to preserve the local verbal idiosyncrasies.
Glad to know that Perthie suits.
Love the costume! I’m wearing Black Cat, from Velvel & Sweet Pea. Its lovely cacao note seems perfect for Halloween!
Now that I know there’s a perfume called Black Cat, I must know more!! Other than cacao, what’s it like?
Hi! The three main notes I smell are cacao, blood orange and vanilla. There is also myrtle and ylang ylang.
On me, it’s like a soft, orange-chocolate scent. Very nice at this time of the year! The lasting power is short (it’s an all-natural fragrance), but it’s ok for me.
I’m sorry: I made a spelling mistake. The fragrance house is named Velvet & Sweet Pea.
The Janet Jackson song is now stuck in my head 🙂
L’arte di Gucci today, but very lightly (light enough that it will fade by the time I have my job interview later today).
In my head, I’ve decided I’m Ava Gardner.
Also – adorable picture Robin! Delighted to see your face, even if it is from a few years ago…:)
Good luck with the job interview!
Thank you!!
Hope it went really well!
Good luck wishes coming your way for a successful interview 🙂
Thanks honey!
By the way, I met a pretty woman at Sniffapalooza and I was convinced it was you at first, and actually approached her asking “Are you Deva from NST?” She wasn’t, but she was (also) very nice! Apparently you have a perfume-loving doppelganger who lives in Atlanta.
Aren’t you a kind-hearted gal! However, I feel for my doppleganger. It’s not easy hauling around a forehead THAT big 😉
Very good luck, and thank you!
Thank you!
Good luck!!!!!
Thanks dear!
Also – today, I am having a sudden, urgent craving for Obsession…or at least the Obsession I experienced in my youth. It was the 90s, but I still loved it (until a boy I liked said I smelled like an old lady.)
I’m guessing Obsession has changed, but I’m wondering how much. Anyone have an opinion?
Best of luck to ya!
Thanks hon!
Good luck with your interview!!!!!!
Thanks Ann!
Yum, L’arte. Good luck!
Thanks Mals!
Knock ’em dead at the interview Ms Idea 😉
I trust that if this is the best job for you you’ll get it!! 🙂
Thanks! My main concern is that my commute for this would be almost two hours, so we’ll see. But no matter what, the support from all of you is so appreciated!
Go get ’em!
Thanks Floragal!
Adorable cowgirl and perfect perfume match up. 🙂
This year I’m going to be a sorceress (who happens to be 6 months pregnant). Thought it would be the perfect opportunity for the hemlock-based OJ Woman, but I did not enjoy the sample a couple of days ago. I’ll try again for the Halloween party tomorrow. Instead, today I’m in Coromandel.
Congrats! I am 30 weeks today. Glad you can enjoy perfume while being preggers. I am A pregnant Cleopatra for Halloween
Congrats to you! A pregnant Cleopatra sounds fabulous. I couldn’t bear to wear perfume my first trimester (only L’eau d’hiver on good days), but that stage has passed for me.
A pregnant Cleopatra is somehow perfect- like after she met Caesar!
Congratulation to you both!
And why shouldn’t a sorceress be pregnant? You’ll rock it!
I remember painting my stomach as a pumpkin when I was pregnant. Lots of double takes. It was really funny.
We were discussing halloween costumes with co-workers this morning. Someone brought up a picture of a guy with a beer belly deessed up as a half avocado (the belly being the seed) and someone else remarked that it is a perfect costume for a pregnant person.
Ha, both cute ideas. 🙂
That’s brilliant, I love it!
sotd is Diptyque Essence Insensee Mimosa (about 12 sprays) it’s a very pretty and delicate scent. better than the new Jo Malone Mimosa imho.
I totally forgot about the Halloween theme, so I’ll give an imaginary answer: If I had the time to figure out this costume and I & was actually going to a costume party, I’d be Daenerys Targaryen (Khaleesi/Mother of Dragons) from GoT and I’d wear PdE Musc Tonkin
OR I’d be Druscilla from Buffy and I’d wear Roja Dove Diaghilev
Can you tell me a bit about RD Diaghilev? I’m obsessed with all things Ballets Russe, so a perfume inspired by Diaghilev intrigues me!
RD Diaghilev is Opulent with a capital O. It’s an old-school chypre with a similar vibe to Mitsouko in extrait. It’s leathery, animalic and balsamic. Dry and plush with assertive sillage. Takes no prisoners and I love it. Ridiculously expensive tho’
I may have to track down a sample!
Agree, it definitely smells like one imagines the classic Guerlains must have smelled like in the early 20th century. Sous le Vent is another one that might have served as inspiration. Definitely worth sampling. Probably even worth the $1,050 price tag, although that is entirely hypothetical.
Great costume/perfume matches!
I agree with you about the EI Mimosa being better than the Jo Malone. I only got to test the Jo Malone from the magazine strip. It was OK, but the fresh creamy mimosa part went too fast. I like cardamom, but I felt it ended up being more of a cardamom/musk scent. Otherwise, I actually think it would be a nice masculine for a guy who was looking for something different and sexy/cuddly.
Living in the country, we never celebrated Halloween, but if I could have had a costume, it would have included a cowboy hat, badge, six-shooter (with caps), and something with fringe. Maybe I’d have stepped in a cow patty for my scent. As it is my SOTD is Orange Sanguine, just because I came across it yesterday and have missed it.
I went with Azemour today and will wear all black, for an orange-and-black Halloween theme.
Totally forgot the theme – sorry! I have never really celebrated Halloween but do remember a funny picture of me as a child dressed up in some form of scary outfit I can’t quite remember. Anyway, totally off theme today I’m wearing Café Rose, and really enjoying it – it definitely does have an exotic coffee feel, and slightly reminds me of the very rich and sweet coffee you sometimes get at the end of a meal in Cyprus – jammy yet definitely caffeinated (which really works in the strangely warm but wet day here in London).
Your description is lovely. I spritzed Cafe Rose once while rushing through Nordstrom and quite liked it. I’ll make a mental note to give it a thorough testing soon.
Thank you – hope you enjoy it when you try it again.
It’s another really good Tom Ford. Not as good as FdC, but very good 🙂
So cute! I love the cowgirl costume.
I am wearing Thierry Mugler Angel Sucre. It’s getting me in the mood for some Halloween candy. It’s also what I wore last night when my daughter and I went to a play. I can still smell the remnants. I really love wearing this, so I’ll give myself a few more squirts in a little while
I was surprised to love this one, but love it I did.
Robin, how cute you are! It’s been over 30 years since I dressed up for Halloween, but today I am wearing Byredo’s Mohave Ghost
Great idea with the Mohave Ghost 😉
Yes, good thinking.
1) Am wearing a sample of supposedly one of Marie- Antoinette favorite perfumes, Black Jade. This kinda matches my costume in a meta way: I will be wearing a robe polanaise but based on the work of Yinka Shonibare tomorrow at a fancy dress party. I used yards and yards of Vlisco fabric, and will be wearing a powdered wig.
2) Here is a link to Mr. Shonibare’s work. Please scroll down about 1/3 way down to see the dress:
http://www.jamescohan.com/artists/yinka-shonibare-mbe/
Love your costume – and the perfume to match!
How do you like Black Jade? I have a sample of it but haven’t really worn it yet.
Oh, that sounds FABULOUS!!! Enjoy!
I would love to see your finished creation! I also love Black Jade. I think it’s wonderful in the fall and winter.
Super cute photo! Taking into account today’s theme plus my mood, I would say my I would make an outstanding Headless Horsewoman this Halloween.
I am in the creepy and dark woods of SL Feminite du Bois, (well, not really creepy and dark but I need a bit of effect, right?) and about to run my enemies to ground!
Also, when I walked onto my porch when returning spin class today I got a nose-full of dead animal emanating from under the house. Ugh!
OK you just made me suppress a giggle at your description – thank you for a much needed laugh! Hope the day improves…
Ha, FdB crossed my mind, too. Perfect for the witching hour!
Haha, nothing worse than that smell! FdB is a serious contender for next bottle purchase. The color of the juice is lovely!
I don’t remember most of my childhood, and I stopped trick-or-treating when I was 9, so I have no idea what I wore as a child on Halloween. Really, I have no fantasy Halloween costume at all. I don’t give out candy, and I sort of ignore the holiday. I do remember a Halloween in the last few years when it fell on a Friday, so for casual Friday I wore an orange shirt with my city’s logo, green jeans, and brown shoes. I told everybody I was a pumpkin (I’m a really round person). But, since I really don’t like either the taste or smell of pumpkin…. Anyway I decided to wear Theorema.
High from another “round person”!!
I have never smelled Theorema but know in my heart I would love it. It has such a cult following but I would be setting myself up for certain heartbreak since its no longer available.
Enjoy your day whether you celebrate Halloween or not 🙂
Actually, I was able to get a mini of Theorema off of ebay quite cheaply last month. It may not last long, but at least I will have tried it. I did notice a couple of other, full-sized bottles available, although I didn’t look at prices.
I am wearing a bit of vintage Magie Noire which feels very appropriate both in name and smell even though my current costume is grubby putterer.
LOL!
You smell wonderful, like the queen of all witches. I wore Magie Noire in my twenties, and was thinking that it would be the one perfume really perfect for today.
Gorgeous!
Yeah, Magie Noire is witchy in the best possible way!
Wow, your post just brought back a lot of memories! I loved MN back in the day 😉
A while back, I worked for a software company, and we always had a Halloween potluck, decorated the office, and everyone dressed up. Some of the costumes I wore were: Minnie Mouse, Raggedy Ann (won for best female costume that year), a jailbird complete with ball and chain, a pirate (the most fun because I could say “Arrgh!” and “Ahoy mateys!” in a weird voice once in a while) and Elvira (had a party to go that year, but toned the costume down for the office). Not sure what scent any of those characters would have worn, but today I am in ELDO Like This, as I do get kind of a pumpkin -y orange vibe from it.
Oh wow, that sounds like fun!
My first “real” (post-college) job, I was an accountant for the Orvis Co, which among other things sells hand-tied flies for fly fishing. My two colleagues and I dressed up as some of the best-selling flies – “Woolly Bugger” and “Crazy Charlie” and “Banger.”
Lol! Love it.
🙂
One year our management decided to ban Halloween costumes, so half of us were nerds and the other half were uptight managers.
Lol!
Good one! ????
Sample of the Day is Dark Horse. BOOM! Cinnamon!**
Later today Dark Horse will canter through a flower garden then trot into the guaiac woodlands. I like how this fragrance transforms through the hours. It’s perfume magic.
**If I were to choose a costume this morning I’d be a spicy Atomic Fireball. 😀
I really like Dark Horse!
Dark Horse makes me say, “Whoa!” I like it, too. I’ve never tried anything else like it.
I like the idea of just wearing Dark Horse as a costume and if anyone asks you just say mysteriously, “I’m a dark horse.”
Ha! I needed a costume “idea” for a party tonight. I’ll put my Dark Horse sample vial in my pocket for luck. Thanks!
Forgot about the theme this morning, so am wearing 28 La Pausa, a perfume from the swapmeet. It is going to work well as an office scent, in a trust-fund baby/working at a non-profit sort of way. There’s a lot more vetiver than I remember from testing it, veering into Sycomore territory in fact.
So, my fantasy costume is Miss Scarlet from Clue. As it turns out I may actually get to wear it — a friend of mine has a shiny green strapless dress from a wedding that I could borrow. Sadly I lack the figure and the ’50s perfume to go with it — she’d probably wear Rochas Femme? Maybe I’ll go with Agent Provocateur instead!
Tabu would work too. 🙂 (Though I much prefer AP myself.)
Ah yes! Alas I don’t have any Tabu either.
Rock that dress, Miss Scarlet!
Today I am masquerading as a well put together woman of fashion. I am wearing Cartier La Panthere and still cannot decide whether I like it or not. I am still in my yoga togs so just philosophically masquerading……
I’m in ELd’O Like This today, love the delicious ginger-pumpkin-coffee blend.
Perfect! That is what I plan to wear tomorrow!!
Halloween is traditionally not celebrated in Estonia, but our daughter is fascinated with the idea and two days ago, she made us “dress scary” for a dinner in Sevilla. I bought a black velvet dress from Zara and a golden crown/mask and painted my lips red for the Evil Queen. My scent selection was limited, so picked A la Nuit – a beautiful jasmine always seems appropriate for a queen, evil or not.
Awesome! Were you the only ones dressed up (which would increase the awesomeness)?
We were very much the only ones and it was a pretty posh restaurant 🙂
Wonderful!
I’m sure you all carried it off with perfect aplomb, and your little one will have a vivid and joyous memory to take forward with her.
Love it 😀
I love, love, love Halloween! My very favorite costume as a kid was Batman. My mom made it for me, and I have now passed it along to my child. She couldn’t care less about it. 🙁 I also enjoyed being Raggedy Ann and a bird. My daughter has been a spider, a cat, a chipmunk, Totoro (twice) and this year is Elsa. I made them all except for the Elsa. So psyched for trick-or-treating tomorrow.
Anyway, as an adult, I tend to cycle through being Little Red Riding Hood and a unicorn. Those are both kind of fairy tale, forest-y, woods-y things, so today I am in Vagabond Prince Enchanted Forest. Love the combo of blackcurrant and pine on a cool fall day.
My mother used to make all my costumes. I’m not sure I appreciated it at the time, but it’s really such a special gift for a child!
I love the idea of Missionista-Batman. Too cute. And I bet your little one makes a great Elsa.
Batman costume and a bat lover? Hmm…not sure what to make of that. Can someone say, batty? 🙂
Batty for bats? 🙂
Sarrasins. Under the jasmine bush, an entire underworld. And it’s purple, like the ink in a long lost alchemical manuscript.
After a week of ‘perfumes a witch would wear’ , I’ve realized that I love the dark, mysterious, dense and intricate perfumes anyway, rather than the clean, the fresh the pretty or the youthful. Old ladies rule!!!
Such a happy picture. Thank you for sharing this bit of your childhood, Robin.
A truly great jasmine! I think I appreciate both genres with a certain preference for the more complicated or baroque!
Well, I love colognes, might have forced a little here…
Life would be impossible without colognes! Do you have a favourite? Mine is Eau de Guerlain. I’m still really keen to try the Institut Très Bien colognes as well; they got such great reviews in The Guide.
Must take a sniff at these, will keep my eyes open. So far my absolute favorires are the straightforward Eau de Cologne Impériale and Eau d´Orange Verte.
Right now, it’s a tough choice it’s either the original Lolita Lempicka or L’Air du Desert Marocain. Both perfect choices for today.
What an adorable photo! There’s a picture of me somewhere dressed as an angel (my brother was a devil). I remember the tinsel halo itched like crazy.
So today’s Halloween-inspired fragrance is total fantasy. One of my favorite movies is The Wind and the Lion, which takes place in Morocco during Teddy Roosevelt’s presidency. It has the most fantastic performances by Sean Connery, Candace Bergen, and Brian Keith. The cinematography is stunning. Anyway, I am wearing Cuir Mauresque today, and flowing robes, and eating goat roasted over a fire in the desert.
This sounds like a great movie – I’ll have to look it up.
I love that movie.
Thank you so much to everyone I swapped with. Every single perfume I received was a total winner and I was able to get rid of a bunch of stuff too. Today I’m wearing La Via del profumo Hindu Kush received as a mini in the swap. HK has exactly the same beautiful sweet spicy incense dry down as my beloved Trayee. I think I’m going to get the 33ml bottle of Hindu Kush. Even with shipping from Europe added, its half the price of Trayee and every bit as good in my opinion.
Thanks to you for the Oud Palao sample! It was so kind of you and I’m enjoying all the extras.
A little PSA here for anyone who may be interested: When I tested the Oud Palao, I was like: I’ve totally smelled this before. Sillage: gorgeous. Tobacco: well done. Spices & woods: check. So…. it turns out that Diptyque’s OP is a dead-ringer for the Sonoma Scent Studio Tabac Aurea… with some oud on the side. I can’t stress enough that if imitation is the greatest form of flattery, then Laurie Erickson should be very flattered (or annoyed!), and Diptyque really owe’s her a big thank you, b/c I have a feeling that more people will end up knowing about OP than about the gorgeous Tabac Aurea. No kidding – if I’d put on a small wee dab of oud essence and put on a regular spray of Tabac Aurea, they would have smelled completely the same. I’ll also state that the very, very far drydown of TA is better and hangs on longer than the OP which is still nice- but a little powdery at that stage and smelled like cherries? Whatever. Everyone should go get a sample of SSS Tabac Aurea.
Love TA. Love it.
You’ll have to do one of your smack down reviews of them both.
Good to know. Glad I held off on that Oud Palao sample on ebay that was tempting me. I’ve already got SSS Tabac Aurea and love it.
I know – me too – I haven’t worn mine in a long time, but I think it will be perfect tomorrow for being outside all afternoon.
AnnS, thanks for this post. I am heading inside to test Oud Palao. I have had SSS TA in my cart for several weeks since Laurie has had her shop down for remodel. I think now I know which one will come live at my house.
No Halloween for me, really. Although my sister had that same cowgirl costume that Robin has on in her picture. I was so jealous of her, I remember it more that 50 years later. She was Annie Oakley, as I recall.
Living in Southern CA has turned me towards the Day of the Dead. I find it much easier to remember those with joy and celebration and have come to embrace it.
In more recent years I’ve also participated in Day of the Dead rituals, which adds meaning and remembrance to the fun festivities.
Unfortunately can’t get SSS in the U.K, and would love to try many of her perfumes, especially TA, so will give PO a sniff, thanks!
Hey Merete,
I just got your package with the Trayee decant and SSS sample. Thank you so much for sending them. I was emptying my Trayee sample into the decant you sent and some got on my fingers. So I was able to compare it side by side with Hindu Kush. And it is definitely a uniquely beautiful bird, it has a kind of medicinal sweetness and slight aquatic note where the initial spray of HK is quite green and vetiver laden. Turns out I love them both and they are really not all that similar except for the incense. Thanks again!
Also, Tabac Aurea is going on my try list so thank you for the comparison with OP, AnnS!
Reciprocity is called for now that I have your address! I’ll send you a sample of TA from my own bottle. 😉
You da best!
La Via del Profumo is the real thing!
It’s really fabulous isn’t it? The kind swapper also sent a mini of Chillum which is the most gorgeous scent. I believe they use genuine Mysore sandalwood in that one.
I haven’t dressed up for Halloween in many years. I still remember the disappointment when I was still in elementary school and wanted to dress up as an Ancient Roman with toga and sandals etc. my mom didn’t want me to be half naked though so had to wear a t-shirt underneath and a winter coat since it was cold. Really took the fun out of it!
So I’ll make “take two” my fantasy costume, done right. I’ll wear Unum Lavs to go with the spirit; for some reason I imagine the ancient world smelling of incense all the time.
Sensible moms do take the fun down a notch. But cute story and Lavs seems perfectly Roman.
Yeah, sensible moms. Mine used to make me wear a coat too.
The last costume I threw together for my boys was a Viking costume, which was pretty easy to mock up: long-sleeved shirts three sizes too big (for tunics), snug sweatpants, their black farm boots with faux fur on the tops, vinyl vests, and faux-fur “capes.” Then belts and armbands made with duct tape, big pot lids for shields, an old curtain rod for a spear and a plastic sword from an old pirate costume. The hardest part was the helmets (milk jugs, brown paper, masking tape, newspaper, duct tape, and more faux-fur trim).
Best part? they didn’t need to wear coats, because they were warm.
This is my idea of a perfect Halloween costume. I love the idea of combining frugality, practicality, and creativity. Not just going to a store and plunking down money for an outfit. Good on you!
Great photo! Apparently I liked to dress up as a hobo, for no reason, when I was young as there are many photos proving such. I think it was any excuse to wear my Mork suspenders.
My favorite Halloween costume was c. 1996 when I dressed up as Florence Frightengale.
No perfume today secondary to some tummy troubles, but my fantasy costume is Violet Beauregarde and in that honor I showered with Lush Don’t Rain on My Parade (violet and blueberry juice).
When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a hobo. I had no idea what it really meant, but I thought at that time if I was a hobo I’d get to travel all over the place on trains and have a dog.
I don’t think I knew what a hobo was either but I liked the getup.
Yes! Hobo was a fave for me too. I thought it was so fun to draw on the 5 o’clock shadow and carry the pouch on a stick. I wonder if that has any meaning to kids these days? I think we only picked it up from Bugs Bunny cartoons…
I liked making the pouch too and it was definitely a Looney Tunes influence. I don’t think you see that these days as it’s not very PC and kind of makes homelessness cute, I suppose.
Definitely a response to the Great Depression.
My great-grandpa (who i never met) was a hobo during that time. Rode the rails. Must have been some life.
I mean, the Hobo look and popularity in bugs bunny cartoons.
I now abolutely must buy a bottle of Don’t Rain on My Parade.
SOTD = Guerlain Spiritueuse Double Vanille
I’m dressing up a$ Donald Trump at the Iowa State Fair so I can let my wig down and be casual, slightly sloppy and won’t be judged if I pig out at the party. I’ll be wearing a button down shirt, suit jacket, blondish wig and will have home-made campaign buttons and oversized $100 bills to hand out to gain supporters. My eyes will be in a perpetual squint and my lips pursed. I will also have rude comments with which to answer any questions that anyone could ask of me.
SDV is smells both rich and inappropriate (because of its booziness).
Hilarious!
Extra points for creativity!
Wicked funny 😉
Hahaha! I hope you have prepared insults for women (and men) who wear weird perfumes.
“You’re fired!” and “I’m rich” can cover any situation 🙂
True that 🙂
Don’t forget the odd tan on the face 😉
Oh yes. Not quite Oompa Loompa, but definitely orange.
Your costume is both horrible and great. the true spirit of Halloween!
I totally forgot what the theme was for today, so I’m wearing Safran Troublant.
My nose wanted to wander off today from the challenge, so I’m wearing RL Safari. I need to rest up for tomorrow b/c we have a “trunk or treat” all the afternoon tomorrow, and then regular trick or treating in the evening. I get to chauffeur the Queen named Elsa all around our fair woods, lol. I think that means I am a cartoon reindeer ?
Yes, you are Sven 🙂
😉
Sometime in 4th or 5th grade I dressed up as a Hershey bar (I’ve always been a chocoholic) so I am wearing Musc Maori today
Ha! 🙂
Not dressing up this year. Wearing TF Tuscan Leather just because i wanted to – and am SO glad my phone/internet is fixed now, after two days and two Verizon repair guys.
Many Tom Ford clothes would work for Halloween (and I’m a fan)… You smell great.
Howdy Robin! That picture is priceless. I remember dressing up like a ballerina when I was very young, probably 5 or 6 years old. Mostly because I had the costumes from my ballet recitals, I was happy wearing them and remember feeling very glamorous, for a five year old, in my tutu and sequins. Anyway, I chose Moulin Rouge today which is as close as I could get to a dancer within my perfume collection, not owning Rosine’s Ballerina. Happy Friday everyone!!
Happy Friday Petunia!
Thanks Nebbe!
I can’t remember a single one of the costumes I wore as a child, probably because that was back in the day when you looked around your house, put together what you found and voila! costume!
In my early 20s, however, I found a beautiful 1920’s silk dress with gorgeous lace overlay and matching shoes in an antique store. I added a few long strings of “pearls” and I was a flapper for that year’s Halloween party (today, I’d probably say I was Lady Mary!). I’m wearing Frapin’s Speakeasy in tribute. Rich, boozy, smoky, with a bit of leather, it smells just as I imagine a speakeasy would.
The dress and scent both sound great.
I don’t know anyone who celebrates Halloween so in honour of Robin’s costume I’m wearing Tokyo Milk’s Bulletproof. This is a recent discovery for me and wearing it reminds me of chocolate covered coffee beans…the melting dark chocolate flavour underscored by a gritty, coffee aroma. It also carries the scent of cedar…a fabulous dry, dusty wood. I used to love L’Occitane wood soaps – especially the almost black cedar soap. It was shaped like a polished stone and lovely. Bulletproof has a fantastic lasting power but it is one of those perfumes that doesn’t really develop in the dry down. As far as I can tell the notes stay the same from start to finish but soften and fade. This is one of those wrist pressed to nose perfumes: the type of perfume you catch yourself inhaling at various random times throughout the day…waiting at the traffic lights, while shopping for dog food, while waiting for the kettle to boil….it’s an unexpected treasure, like something you’d find hidden in a dusty corner of a dimly lit junk shop.
Must try that – I LOVE chocolate coated coffee beans!
World might stock it?
I think Kanuka is right, Gaynor. I’m sure I’ve seen it at World in Britomart. They’ve got this irritating habit of not keeping the same stock at all the World stores, but if you ask, I’m sure they’d fetch a sample down for you.
By the way, my Kiwi friends, I was just invited to World’s launch of Nanban at the Ponsonby shop, complete with lecture by Carlos Huber. I can’t attend, as it happens, but I’m happy to know that Nanban is in A-NZ. It’s had a lot of love here on NST, so I’ll make an effort to go soon and sniff.
Bulletproof is an excellent choice for Halloween 🙂
So many fun memories of Halloween as a kid. I’ll have to ask my mom what pictures she has of us kids as they’d be neat to see.
I’m waiting with baited breath for the split of Mohur Extrait I did during the split meet, and so I’m wearing Mohur today – not the extrait, but it is similar and so… I wait.
I can’t decide. On the one hand, witchy perfumes like SL Feminite de Bois, Lancome Magie Noire, and SIP Magazine Street are whispering incantations from the perfume cabinet. On the other hand, there is candy in the form of Angel Sucree and S-Perfumes 100% Love. I’ve been thinking about the delicious rose chocolate truffle of 100% Love all week, but wind has turned this sunny autumn day unexpectedly cold, and I may need heavier warmth.
I ended up with Magazine Street because of the fruits and spices. The right after I put it on, I thought about MCG Exultat – incense and violet. Maybe tomorrow!
Do you get any magnolia from Magazine Street?
Hello, all. I don’t know anyone who celebrates Halloween here, though there are probably some extra fun parties around. However, I think I’m considered too old and senior to be invited out by the younger staff members…bless them, if they only knew!
I had no idea what to wear: the day is bright and golden, and I’m in my favourite soft jeans (you know how they get just before they finally disintegrate?) and a white shirt: doesn’t feel Halloween-ish at any level. I think I’ll wear a rich sweetie and pretend I’m giving out handfuls of lollies to hopeful kids. Rahat Loukoum again, just YUM.
I’ve worn that several times this week and I’ve found that it doesn’t last very long on my skin. I’ve also worn Louve and been comparing the two…I love the almond notes. Louve is definitely the longer lasting of the two but the opening of RL is more appealing, maybe.
Glad you are able to write so quickly after your operation…I’m guessing it went well.
Thank you, yes, the surgeon is thrilled with his work (Hmmmm!). Actually, I am too, but I’m not telling him that, because he keeps telling me! I have perfect distance vision, and just some problems finding a comfortable distance from my Kindle and the computer monitor, a tiny bit of flicker in my peripheral vision –that will settle, apparently. I’m all good. My vision is much clearer now than it was even with my contacts in: colours and shapes have more clarity. That’s super. Only trouble, really, is that before every night, I have an urge to remove my contact lenses, and fishing around in my eyes is definitely undesirable. And sore! Thirty-eight years of habit is hard to break!
So glad to hear that things have gone so well. I once tried to remove a contact I wasn’t wearing – I can vouch that it’s indeed definitely undesirable!
Second that. I occasionally have these moments when I’m not sure whether I’m wearing contact lenses or not. Considering that I need to wear -7 contacts, it’s a puzzle how this confusion can occur. But it does.
A whole group of us at work decided to dress up as construction workers, hard hat and all!
The only thing that I could find to fit this ensemble was a small sample of Fat Electrician. Scary, since I don’t like vetiver, but it is Halloween after all…
Halloween is not traditional here, we also have what we call All Hallows Eve, so in Honour of Poe and his ghostly bird visitor I’m in Frapin Nevermore. What a stark, cruel beauty it is.
We do not wear costumes round AHE, but we do in February, and as a kid my favourite was Little Red Riding Hood. I think it would be so cheeky now with Petit Fracas????.
Happy Halloween!
Haha, lovely costume 🙂 we used to dress up when we were kids and cowboys and indians were among the most popular choices! we don’t really celebrate Halloween so much where I live, but if I’d to pick a costume, I’d probably be either dressed as some member of the Rocky Horror Picture Show crew (I love the movie!!!) or as a giant red lobster 😀 😀
Oh, and today I’m wearing Andy Tauer – Reverie au Jardin, I think it would go nicely with my Rocky Horror costume
Or a B52s rock lobster….those gals were cool!
Love the B52’s ❤️
I’m wearing my costume right now because this afternoon the children of other employees are coming in to trick or treat. I’m Professor Minerva McGonagall (academic gown, witch’s hat, plaid skirt, and cat earrings). Douce Amère because it’s adult and eccentric and wormwood is probably used in a lot of spells.
My sister and I both want to be Maggie Smith when we grow up, but she wants to be the Dowager Countess of Grantham.
The Dowager Countess is amazing. Wish i could drop knowledge on my peers the way she does, all dry and to the point, and still be invited to everything.
I love your idea – she transforms into a cat, too! So fitting.
We don’t do much for Halloween in my part of the world, but I’ve been invited to a Halloween party tonight. I think I can look reasonably vampiric in a long black dress and lots of make-up, but I’m quite undecided on perfume. Coven would be perfect in both name and smell, but Rose de Nuit would be equally appropriate, and a dry, churchy incense would also be good.
And now having read all your comments, I’ve got even more avenues of possibility 🙂
Haven’t done the costume thing since childhood. But I do have what I consider the perfect Halloween scent: Must de Cartier parfum.
First, it sprays on orange in colour, then the top notes are wonderfully full of galbanum witchiness and finally, the dry down is chocolate/vanilla.
I understand why Turin describes it as “stale Russian chocolate,” but for me that sweetness just means Halloween candy, the best of which in my childhood was tiny, tiny Jersey Milk bars.
Love Must de Cartier! The parfum and the reformulated EdT (not the awful original edt)
We can split Turin ‘ s share of Must if he didn’t want it!
My dad sewed all of our Halloween costumes when i wasa kid: princess, Sleepy time Care Bear (yup, 80’s baby), lamb, bunny, panda.
Cause i am oldest i usually got to choose and my brother would get the hand me downs. I forgot about that perk until just now 🙂
In final stages of a cold, so no scent today. My costume is “healthy person.”
What a sweet dad!! And hope you will be a “real” healthy person soon.
Thank you Robin!
He is a super sweet dad 🙂
The sweetest thing.
No costume for me unless I can think of one to match my scent! Ideas welcome. SOTE is vintage Cabochard, parfum on one arm and EDT on the other, from the set I finally let myself buy off the bay after thinking about it for a month.
Enjoying that wonderful feeling when you have been eking out a tiny supply of perfume and finally get an FB and can splash with abandon! You know that feeling?
Late to the party, oh my! My DH’s office party theme this year is “mash-up,” sonIm going as “Winnie the Boo!” A ghost carrying a hunny pot. Bah-dum-DUM. 🙂 Wearing a honey-scented body cream, since I didn’t have time to get to Body Shop for Honeymania (if they still make it.)
Have a fun weekend, everyone!
Haha – love the idea!
Not costume related, but I do have a scary story today, of having succumbed to perfume terror after mals86’s Le Temps d’une Fete story: I now have ordered two backup bottles of Honore des Pres Sexy Angelic. This is maybe madness since who knows how long the all-naturals will even last, but adding the second backup was super cheap, between a very big discount and no additional shipping charge. Plus I’m going through the first bottle very fast. I know, I know, still a tale of madness. (We won’t even mention the decants I have.)
Does it make any difference that the bottles are 50ml not 100? Not really? Oh. 🙂
Sounds like a very smart, well considered move to me…and 50 ml x 2 is positively frugal
Whew!! Very relieved it does not sounds TOO crazy, thank you for the moral support 🙂
If you’re happy, CH, then we’re happy.
🙂 Y’all are too good to me!
I am not dressing up for Halloween, but my friend is. She is going as Joan Holloway from Mad Men, and will be wearing Vintage Shalimar. She has put a lot of thought into this costume and I think it will be fabulous.
One of these years I will pull myself together as Tia Dalma from Pirates of the Caribbean. Gotta work on the wig.
I was wondering what perfume I’d wear with it when lo and behold, on the back of my right hand was AG Mon Parfum Cheri par Camille (thanks to allgirlmafia!). Strong plum-patchouli. That seems appropriately powerful. 🙂