It's our usual weekend open thread poll. Talk about anything you like — the fragrance you’re wearing today, your latest fantastic fragrance discovery, whatever.
Or, ask a question about fragrance, then see if anyone else has asked a question that you can answer…
Note: top image is ciné film [cropped] by jenny downing at flickr; some rights reserved.
We got a one day break from the heat and stifling humidity yesterday (60 degrees and cloudy! Yeah!) so I pulled out the boozy Arquiste for J. Crew No. 57. It was so nice to wear after months of light floral and citrus scents. I’ll be ready for fall when it gets here. No scent yet today, but it will definitely be something light.
Happy weekend everyone!
Love J Crew No. 57. You smell great
Thank you!
I love J. Crew No. 57! So sad it was discontinued. At least I got a bottle of that and one of No. 31 before they went away (and on sale too). I think they overpriced it for their market; it might have done better if originally priced lower.
I’m sad it got discontinued too…And so happy it got discontinued. I took advantage of the close out too and got a 1.7 ounce bottle of 57 for $20 and I think I paid $7 for a rollerball of 31.
I agree about overpricing it. I imagine that most of their customers had never heard of Arquiste before and wouldn’t have realized it was a bit of a bargain compared to their regular line. Of course, I realized it and still wouldn’t pay full price.
More rain, thunderstorms and high humidity. I am testing Guerlain l’Heure de Nuit from a decant. Pleasant but nothing I need to run out and buy fortunately.
I have a decant of that one…I completely agree…nice but I don’t need a bottle
I have a large decant and a full bottle. Yes, I enjoyed it that much. It was discontinued and I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off to get a bottle. I will agree that $280 for a 4.2 ounce bottle was a little excessive.
Hey, no judgement here – I have spent that on things I loved! I think Guerlain charges $260 for 75mls in the Art et Matière collection, so it’s not the worst.
No SOTD yet. We are enjoying some cooler-than-normal temps in NW Arkansas lately. No complaints here! Might try my sample of SL Rahat Loukhoum. Plyushka, I sent you an email about Bas de Soie if you are still lemming.
Lovely cooler weather here too, weird for August but not complaining.
Hi Sapphire! I just sent you an e-mail
I tried so hard to not buy anything in July, but the last week of the month I bought six samples of vetiver scents for next week. I love vetiver, but I only have a couple, so I ordered some samples I’ve wanted to try. I also bought several Guerlain decants during a flash sale. Darn it!
Next week?!? Is it Vetiver week?!!!!
It is! Or Vetiver Friday, anyway.
WooHoo! I think we should have a Vetiver YEAR????
I ???? your new avatar! Sweet
2018!
Oh! What did you get? Have they arrived yet?
They have arrived. I got samples of L’Artisan Coeur de Vetiver Sacre, Encre Noir, TDC Sel de Vetiver, Tom Ford Grey Vetiver, Terre d’Hermes, and Guerlain Vetiver. The Guerlain is the only one I’ve tried before, but when I used up my mini, I never got around to buying a full bottle. I intend to though, since I love it. I can’t do a week of vetiver without the Guerlain.
Mazzolari Vetiver!!
How is it? I really have to try that one.
Fab! Ask Foxbins ????
It’s sort of a golden vetiver–not swampy, musty, or bitter. There is citrus up top and some spices to warm things up, and a few flowers to decorate the edges.
Nice description! It’s one of my favorite vetivers, too.
????
You know you have too much samples when…
…you order a sample, only to discover later you already had it. Haha, happened to me yesterday.
I really need to size the sample stash down. So, from a sample: wearing Iris Nazarena today. Or at least part of today.
I was busy so not paying close attention, but I think longevity was 4-5 hours. Sillage not immense.
But it is a very very beautiful fragrance.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Ummm, yeah, I can relate.
Me three.
Joining the club!
Uh-huh.
…and i spotted JPG Scandal in a store.
I sprayed it on a blotter, but after that I did not have the guts to spray it on my skin.
HolyHoneybeez!!! It is really really REALLY SWEET.
It’s ok to have backup samples so you are well prepared for a future perfume emergency.
I read your comment on Friday about the ambergris in MEM. I will sniff for that note next time I wear it. Such a remarkable perfume, there’s so much to sniff there.
Is MEM the full name or is that short for something? I feel left out. But I want to know and to try it!
Nope, that’s the name.
MEM from Bogue Profumo
Thank you!
I am not exactly an expert on ambergris (or on picking out notes/accords for that matter) But I was able to spot it quite easily, because this year I fell in love with Vetiver Blanc (sultan pasha), and that one for sure has a whopping amount of (real) ambergris in it. I think MEM also uses real ambergris.
I told a friend once about this ingredient and where it came from…she reacted like it was the most horrible thing ever.
Next time i am going to tell her about hyraceum and how in the old days we used to have castoreum and deer musk in our perfumes
Oh, funny how your friend reacted that way about ambergris. It is horrible and wonderful at the same time. Thank you for mentioning that attar with ambergris, it is one of my favorite notes, and I am quite curious to smell it in concentration.
Sample of the day is Soivohle My Heart Sings a Memory which is dense and fascinating.
My fiance has made an offer I can’t refuse–he’ll pay for me to finish my degree–tuition plus housing/living expenses so it looks like I’ll be living in the NY area within the month. I should graduate right before the wedding. Hopefully I’ll get to hang with my fumie friends occasionally
Oh, that is so sweet of him! You definitely have a keeper.
Yay! Super news!
That is so beyond awesome!
How wonderful! Very happy for you
So happy for you!
Great guy! Hope to see you!
Fabulous! Hope to be able to see you.
Wonderful news!
He’s a keeper! What a sweetie.
How cool!
Nice!
Revisited some of my decants/sample sprays last night and early this morning- Arielle Shoshanna, Wilde, Pleasant Promenade, Mosaic, Cuir de Pleine, Figue Fruitee, Lady Vengeance and one other I can’t remember now….all nice …but I don’t need full bottles of any at the moment and that makes me happy!!!
post yoga scent- Dame Bergamot, Jasmine and Labdanum
The owl is back! :-). Thank you!!!
Arielle Shoshana is incredible, isn’t it? It actually is Ari in a bottle and those of us who had met her know what I mean.
You twisted my arm my dear!
Yes, Arielle Shoshana is great…I wanted to wear it one more time before passing it on to a younger family member who is coming home for a week but then heading out…I have a whole bunch of stuff for her to play around with and test out with her friends but I wanted to give them a wear one more time before passing them on….turning a future generation into perfumistas!
And thanks to my incredibly generous friend who sent me so many samples and decants I am able to do so
Although somehow my yoga pictures don’t jive with the naughty sweets that are my “three eyed owl”-LOL!
I see the owl, and I love it – deliciously fowl – like a great perfume
LOL!
YAY! The edible owl is back!!!!
hajusuuri talked me into it
I’m glad that she did. Your edible owl is a bit of whimsy that always makes me smile.
Unrelated question: can you recommend a good source from which I can get some carrier oils? I’m thinking sweet almond or jojoba, but anything would work. I’m getting excited about making my own infused oils!
And I am excited that you are excited
If you are near any place that sells NOW Essentials(health food store/Whole Foods) they are great oils at a reasonable price….sweet almond, grapeseed and apricot are all good if you are looking to make body oils. Jojoba is excellent but a bit pricier. Also, Eden Botanicals has a wide range of carrier oils and I have been buying from that company for years and really love their products….and you could add some samples to your order of floral essential oils…I always say that perfume lovers need to go to the source….tuberose, osmanthus, frangipani, pink lotus, Indian jasmine, Egyptian rose essential oils are extraordinary and I encourage you to try them
Oh, and Now can also be purchased online if you can’t find them at the store….vitacost and allstarhealth sell them at reasonable prices too (especially if you get a discount at vitacost…they often have 10 -20 % off promos)
I would definitely price check as the prices can vary from slightly over 6 dollars for 16oz to almost 16 dollars for 4oz with the sweet almond oil depending on the brand and where you are buying it. If you are using it to make a scented body oil I think the NOW would be sufficient and allstarhealth sells it for the lowest price.
Thank you both for the advice!
Chiming in to say I’ve been wholly impressed with the quality of the carrier/body oils I’ve been getting from Teddie Organics (they sell through Amazon). They have a small selection, but the products are excellent, and not too expensive. The founders do all their own customer service (very nice people), they have a money-back guarantee (handy when I figured out I was allergic to sweet almond oil) and their golden jojoba oil has single-handedly taken about five years off my skin. I started using it as a full-body oil a couple months ago, and my skin is so moisturized and happy. The oils sink in versus feeling like they’re sitting on the top, which I love. The sweet almond was really, really lovely, too…I just finally figured out why I’d reacted to other oil blends throughout the years.
So, assuming no allergies, I’d wholeheartedly recommend both their sweet almond and the jojoba.
Still in the compare/contrast mode today. Wearing Isparta on the left and Sa Majeste La Rose on the right, both from samples from generous NST perfumistas.
Hey, is there anyone who has Olfactif samples they would like to swap? I have the May/June/July unisex boxes, and I wasn’t that interested in most of them.
SOTD Fleurs de Sel. I want to thank everyone for their kind wishes as my niece’s son went through heart surgery Thursday. He came through with flying colors and is doing much better now. We had a super storm on Thursday afternoon, and found out we had a hole in our roof when water started pouring in at one spot, on three different levels of our home! Luckily, I was home and able to mop up immediately, so much so that the experts who came out Friday to see if we needed any remediation (dry wall cut out, etc.) said we were already dry! So only the roof to repair. Have a tarp on for the present, but feeling like we dodged a bullet.
Wow, an expensive bullet at that.
More importantly, so glad the baby did well!
I’m so glad he came through with flying colors. It seems that the younger ones bounce back quicker than the adults. One of my nephews had open heart surgery at 10 months old and was already sitting up and asking for his mommy. He was probably wondering who “Zach” was as the nurses kept calling him by his middle name which we never used.
Roof leaks are the worst but good that you caught it before it did more extensive damage!
Happy for the good news!
Glad to know the surgery went well!
Happy to hear that. Good luck with the roof!
Sorry about your roof, but so glad the heart surgery went well!
Double yay!
Kiddos are amazing, aren’t they? So happy everything went well with the surgery and wishing him the speediest of recoveries!
So happy to hear the surgery went well! On to the roof… Glad it wasn’t worse.
I am so glad the surgery went fine. Wishing him a fast recovery!
Good news on the baby! My best wishes to him and his parents!
Happy to hear the good news about both the surgery and the roof.
Yay – good news x 2!!
Great news about the baby’s surgery. Not so great about your roof, but as you said, it could have been SO much more damaging.
Happy Saturday All! Wearing Bronze Goddess body cream and shimmering oil spray. Definitely a Summer favorite.????
Have a great weekend everyone!
Bronze Goddess is one of my big summer favorites. You smell fab!
Jasmin des anges, forgive the spelling if it’s incorrect, don’t have the bottle in front of me, from a decant from a generous NSTer. Really like this one. I was looking for a bottle but cannot find much about it as far as reviews/purchasing. Enjoy the weekend ????
Hey, is your avatar the Chihuli glass from the Belagio? So pretty!
Yes it is! I went to LV in June.
I love walking around Vegas and looking at everything! Pretty sure I haven’t seen it all, yet.
We went to the new Lucky Dragon casino. Walked – it was during the heat wave and we survived. I could easily spend a week there – so much to see!
It’s amazing how FAR everything is from one another on the strip! I don’t know how they do that–better than Disneyland at making half a block take an hour.
I have special affection for Vegas and get out there every few years. I don’t gamble (or drink, for that matter), but shopping, human-watching, shows, and such keep me busy!
Did you do some sniffing while you were there?
I wanted to visit the Guerlain boutique – have you been? We saw several Cirque shows. Some people won a jackpot at the airport of all places. I think around $1000!
I visited the Guerlain boutique many years ago. . . this last trip, I got lost in a Chanel wormhole! There’s a boutique in one of the casinos with testers of the extraits! I was over the moon, and the sales ladies were nice without being overly pushy.
Hello friends!
Saturday started off sunny and with pleasantly warm temperature that didn’t feel to hot at all. To match it I chose Diptyque Eau des Sens as my scent of the day. It is actually my first meeting with this perfume & I’m very positive about it. I could actually have a bottle or a larger decant of it.
Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.
I think Eau des Sens is such a wonderful orange blossom. Especially enjoy it in the Spring/Summer. The juniper in it really makes it unique.
Have to agree with you. Very nice orange blossom scent.
A question for sniffers south of the border: what do you think of Ulta? I recently went to the Portland branch to scoop up a Stash gift set, and had a general impression of lots of hair care. How does it stack up against Sephora et al?
Ulta has a lot of normal drugstore brands of cosmetics and skin care, which can be really handy if you’re not in the market for high end all the time. They don’t stock any niche fragrances at all and have a lot more celebrity fragrances. Sephora is better for that. Ulta is really good for variety of hair care (I can find the particular shade of Natural Instincts hair color I like) and nail products. Prefer Sephora for fragrance (especially since you can get a sample made of any one of them), Ulta for hair (not into the beauty end so much). Stash does not work for me at all, but Ulta does carry a good range of Pacifica products, which Sephora stopped carrying. Hope that helps.
Honestly, I’ve never headed in there. . .
I have never been to a B&M Ulta but I find their online offerings to be very good and at good prices. Ulta seems to have more discounts than Sephora. And Ulta also has my latest hand cream obsession – Dionis (with goat’s milk).
You get a hand cream enabler pin from me, by the way. I ordered the Cashmeluxe, and it is wonderfully hydrating! Thank you!
Sapphire summed things up well.
I prefer Sephora because they have a better selection of perfume and they provide samples, but I rarely go, because it’s in the mall (((shudder))). I visit Ulta more because it’s next to a bookstore and a Daiso store (and they’re not in the mall
).
Ulta carries Le Couvent des Minimes colognes, but Sephora does not.
But they are quickly becoming a bit obsolete..one is missing (the dupe for DSV) and another is only in the 1 oz size…at one point they were selling for buy one get one so I am wondering if they are looking to d/c that brand…..weren’t they bought out by L”occitane?
Yeah, Ulta’s selection of LCdM has shrunk over the years. I haven’t seen their DSV dupe at Ulta in ages and mine has five colognes and now only in 1-ounce sizes. Mind you, their orange blossom cologne is so potent that an ounce should last a long time.
I heard that they were owned by L’Occitane and it looks like L’Occitane sold them earlier this year.
There might be some LCdM on Ulta’s clearance shelf soon
Le Couvent des Minimes also has its own website and does sales, which is nice.
I will add that I have found Ulta’s points rewards system superior to the freebies you can get from Sephora. It’s one of those things that is free to sign up and you can bump up to another level by spending a certain amount per year. The points equate to cash to spend at Ulta (it’s not a 1 point to $1 ratio but they rack up after awhile!!) I keep a close eye on the promos for 3x or 5x points on certain brands (or sometimes entire purchase) and try to only buy at those times. You can redeem the points on anything at Ulta! I got a bottle of Eau Premiere this way!!
I find Ulta to have most of what I’m looking for when it comes to makeup, hair, and body products. They even carry Nars and MAC now!
But I agree with the other posters…not so great on the fragrance selection :/
Hi Annie. How are you liking Stash? I just saw on the Ulta website that they are shipping to Canada now.
Gail, thanks for the shipping update! Stash does rather live up to the hype, but I will wait for the cool weather to really experience it. The lotion seems pretty nice too. Thanks to everyone for their Ulta feedback, and rats that I overlooked the CdM offerings…
Thanks! Did you try the Elixir as well?
As in the oil? Yes, I did at the store. Confusingly the edp is also calling itself Elixer, and sadly, the wee bottle in the gift set wasn’t the oil as I’d thought. Still, I do love a bargain.
Had to double-check, it is Elixir. Ulta has a free gift of the Elixir with a $55(US) purchase.
So, continuing my week of weather/ element themed perfumes: all the pluies, monsoons, vents, mists, soleils and neiges etc.
Yesterday was La Pluie so it makes sense that today will be Apres l’ondee.
Have a happy weekend everyone. Keep cool (or snuggle up)
What a great idea for a theme! I hope your monsoon was “Un Jardin Apres La Mousson”, I love that one.
Great idea. I love it too.
I love this idea!
This is a great theme!
-My Indian Childhood from the good old days of DS&Durga. This is how, IMO, niche fragrances should challenge our, so often lazy, noses.
One of my favorites! I totally agree. My Indian Childhood smells like nothing else and at the same time really good.
Yes; perfect description!
Robin, if you see this, I wondered if you could have a place on NST where you post approx dates for upcoming split, swap, freebie meets. (Like you have for the upcoming Friday community projects.) or maybe you’ve given dates recently and I have missed them? I just like to plan ahead.
The “upcoming” box (light blue box, depending on what size your screen is it could be in slightly different places but it’s generally just below the “favorite posts” box on the lower right side).
What it says at the moment:
TBA September: Freebiemeet & Splitmeet
TBA October: Swapmeet
Thanks!
Very busy day. Running lots of errands before our 1 week cruise to Orlando and Bahamas next Friday. My birds will go to my sister’s apt today and my dog to a boarding place Friday morning before our departure. Leaving the dog is very painful, since he is very old and fragile. He gets depressed easily with changes. I will take with me a small decant of Chanel No. 19 EdT and some samples from my stash. I am so excited to meet and spend the time we will be in Orlando with high school friends I have not seen in many years. My hubby will visit some relatives and mom one of her cousins. Our idea was to take a longer vacation, but I did not want to leave my dog alone longer. Anyway, 10 days out of the rutine is fine for us now.
Today I am wearing just Florida Water. Something simple since I am trying to return to my perfumes again. Beautiful day in New York! Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Have a great time – your job always sounds so exhausting, you must be ready for a break!
Thank you! This break was really needed long time ago.
My family loves cruise vacations. We have 3 feathered family members that we take to the “bird hotel” aka the boarding room at the shop where they were purchased when the humans are away.
It always takes a week of prep to get everything and everyone ready so that we can go away for a week, then a week to recover when we goet home. But it’s all worth it. Have a wonderful trip!
Thank you Tiffanie! We have just this weekend to prepare everything. Next week I will be working late everyday until Thursday, so even the small luggages we are carrying will be ready by tomorrow. On Friday is just “grab and go”.
I hope you have a wonderful vacation, enjoy!!!
Thank you! We will!
I had another thought… Perhaps sent yourself with perfumes you know you really don’t like, in order to alleviate the perfume ennui… I can send you some Avon Cottillion if you are in need of it
Thanks a lot for your offer Coin-Op. But I am ok for now. Besides No.19 I already packed some samples that I have not tried before. Let’s hope I can find something that surprises me and I like or fall in love with
Enjoy your vacation, it sounds fantastic! You can’t go wrong with Chanel No. 19.
Thank you Gail! Chanel No. 19 has always been my travel companion and as you said, it never fails!
Have a fantastic vacation!
Thank you Flopper! Waiting anxiously for a relaxing and wonderful time!
Have fun on your vacation!
Thank you! Looking forward to it!
Sounds like it will be a wonderful vacation and much needed. I get the pet anxiety. I have a hard time leaving mine even though they are young and stay at home.
Looking for a relaxing time that it is definitely needed. I wish my dog could stay home, but he is on medication for his heart and kidneys and is not easy for anyone to handle him on that. He will stay in a dog place in Manhattan where they take care of medication and it is also a cageless place. He is a rescued dog and has been always terrified of cages. I hope everything goes fine with him.
Have a great vacation!
Thank you!
Have a great time on your vacation!
Thank you!
Hello all! No scent this morning (oops, afternoon!), but I have just returned from a run–definitely will be properly scented after my shower! I wore Lys 41 last night, and likely I’ll return to it today. Such a lovely, buttery tuberose!
I found myself pulling the trigger and bought the cities exclusive sample set from Le Labo this week. Looking forward to trying them, as I’ve been impressed with the quality of the fragrances, even when they aren’t *me*. I need more samples like a crate of Twinkies, but what else is a girl to do with her summer?!
I could have missed a post — what did you end up wearing as your wedding perfume?
No, this is my first appearance post-wedding!
I decided to wear Nostalgie for the wedding day, and I smelled great! I was thinking of emailing Laurie to thank her.
Nice and I’m sure Laurie would be flattered. And congrats! I’m sure it was beautiful
Congratulations!!!
Congratulations!
Congratulations!
Congrats!
Congratulations!
Congratulations!
Thanks, all!
I’m doing some woodworking this morning (wish me luck, since I am far from accomplished in this area), and have run upstairs to the office to check in here, and then spray myself with 10 Corso Como before going back out to the garage and finishing (well, continuing, anyway) my bookshelf project.
Happy weekend, all!
At least you are trying…attempting woodworking never even crossed my mind.
Same! And Lisa, you smell great.
Right? My sister mentioned wanting to take woodworking classes and I was stunned and could not wrap my head around it. She and her husband work full time, have 2 teenagers who need nightly chauffeuring (and her H doesn’t drive), she has a massive garden, and always a bunch of house projects plus yardwork, and knitting and sewing, and cooking all meals from scratch…( Exhausted yet? ) And on top if that, she wants to build her own furniture??
But she is a diehard DIYer and I am absolutely not.
But after all that
go LisaD! Hope it turns out exactly how you want it to!
Here’s the thing. I most definitely do NOT need another project or task on my to-do list. Y’all might remember me mentioning in previous posts that I am trying to clean and purge my house. In general, that mission is going well; I’m giving away a lot of stuff I do not need, and my environment is well on its way to becoming a little more open, organized and easily navigable.
But, books. I love books. And, I want the numerous boxes of books I have been storing in my garage for the past 5 years to be in the house, and accessible. “So, Lisa, buy some darn bookcases already,” I hear you saying. I would, honestly, if I could find some that fit the criteria of being: made from wood; of the correct dimensions; reasonably stylish, or at least not visually obtrusive; and, within my budget. That hasn’t happened, and so I have found some plans for a DIY, simple, customizable, low and shallow shelving unit. Lumber and hardware is now cut, and holes are drilled. Some sanding, staining, and drying, and the shelving unit will be ready for assembly. Fingers crossed!
Your bookcase criteria sound very similar to mine! Real wood bookcases are shockingly expensive, imo. And I want quality furniture, which is not always synonymous with wood, I was surprised to discover! In any case, I have solved the dilemna over the years with a combination of craigslist and hand-me-downs. We also have a funiture consignment shop a few miles away, where the prices aren’t exactly *cheap*, but the items are fairly priced and the quality is usually a bit better than most. I do not have enough skills to be handy enough to build something–I suspect it would take me twice as long that way! Hope it goes smoothly for you!
It sure sounds like a PROJECT!
This could just be a figment of my imagination but my brother has a bookcase that was a canoe or rowboat in a previous life. It looked like a full boat was sawed in half and a base was added to the part where it was cut.
Morning, NST. So, Eric has arrived. He’s small and imperious and at the moment, everyone in the household is swearing at everyone else, including the dear man and me. This will pass, but last night was, it is fair to say, A Trial. Eric may have a heart murmur, but there is NOTHING wrong with his lungs.
I went to bed wearing Carnal Flower, the most inappropriate perfume, by name at least, for my general state of being right now. CF is my big tuberose experiment: I don’t exactly love the note, but I feel I must give it some skin time and learn about, or at some point I might be asked to turn in my perfumista badge. That would never do! I like CF quite well, but I’m happy with my 10ml travel spray. It’s a very….very….ummm… very overt perfume, I find. That’s not a criticism, more an observation. It seems to put all its cards on the table all at once. Just to show I don’t mind overt perfumes, I’m wearing the even more obvious Jungle Elephant today. Heavens, but I love the warm friendly spices and lingering sweetness of the Elephant. It’s perfect for this cold day. I smell as though I live in a spice shop that’s next door to a bakery. Gorgeous!
And in other news, I actually have received an invitation to the launch of Gabrielle, so on 16 August, I will be able to satisfy my curiosity, which I must admit is strongly piqued. Chanel is the single house I love most deeply and consistently, so I really want Gabrielle to be fabulous. My biggest disappointment would be if it turns out to be a pallid pink smell for girlies. If it’s full of osmanthus and tuberose, I might not like it or want to wear it, but I’d like to be able to report in that it’s been done well.
OK, so Alexander has just inserted himself between me and the iPad, and even one-fingered typing is hard now. I’m going to go and sort out the kitten-created chaos in the living room. Be well, all.
Kitten-ish chaos is the best chaos. Good luck to all of you, and hope you have a moment to snap some photos for posterity.
Hello tuberose AND new kitten twin! Carnal Flower was my tuberose starter, oddly enough. That menthol opening kept me coming back and I learned to love the dry down! Today’s tuberose, Le Labo Lys 41, is much more polite, but still very pretty.
In our first week of marriage, Mr. Spicebomb and I got a joint checking account and added a little fuzzy pain-in-the-knickers to our household! Diego is 3 months old and thinks fingers are the best toy ever! I think last night was the first night we slept through the night since he was adopted last Saturday. Enjoy the shenanigans!
I love his name! Diego the kitty. So cute.
I had the same experience with Carnal Flower, and actually wearing it today. The opening is not my favorite, but I really like how it plays out and lasts through the day.
I let Mr. Spicebomb have final word on the name–he’s a white kitty with black spots, very soccer ball-like. So, we were playing with soccer-related names, and Mr. S. said he was like Diego something-or-other, who apparently had a bit of a bad coccaine problem. :-/ Little kitty has his “cracked out” moments, and he *really* likes to be underfoot, so the name stuck! Portland has a really good soccer player, another Diego, with a less colorful character. The hope is that little-one grows into that namesake.
Great that you put so much thought into his name. Very cute!
Mr. G has a bit of a man-crush on the Timbers’ Diego.
Yes, Mr. S. got a bit of a gleam in his eyes when I approved of the name. Clearly some fondness there!
Looking forward to hearing how you like (or dislike) Chanel’s latest. I’ve read a few reviews via FB and it doesn’t seem like it’s won over many.
I always think of Carnal Flower as The Go Big or Go Home BWF. And as it turns out, that is how I prefer my BWFs
SotD = Vol de Nuit EdT
Late last night as I was contemplating turning off the reading light, I realized I was unscented. Horrors! So I reached for my bedside bag of decants and pulled out VdN.
Wore VdN again today in answer to the Saturday Question over at Australian Perfume Junkies: DIOR, Lutens, CHANEL or Guerlain? I’m team Guerlain.
Do check it out and share your fave. APJ posts and comments are always great fun.
Fun! Looks like Guerlain was winning. For me, has to be Chanel. No. 5 EDT was my signature scent when I was in my 20s and I always keep some on hand.
I too thought Guerlain was ahead.
I adore No. 5. I would try more from Chanel if tester bottles were easier to find where I shop, lol.
For me, both Guerlain and Chanel. Guerlain tends to inspire more passion, while Chanel gets more daily wear. In other words: Guerlain would come with me to the desert island, while Chanel stays for the daily grind. If I had to choose. Thank heavens none of us actually have to!
Hah! we are not hurting for choices when it comes to perfume.
I think someone else mentioned over on APJ that they look at Chanel as their work-a-day scent wardrobe.
Yes, Guerlain and Chanel tie for me too. Apart from vintage Diorissimo I’d happily do without the other two.
Team Dior for me. I like or love most of their perfume, and make up.
I need to try more from Dior.
I adore several of the Dior Homme versions, and I always sniff J’adore hoping it will work for me, but it’s a no go so far.
I do not care much for J’adore. However, the new one J’adore Injoy is very nice. You should try it, it has a salt note, which normally I wouldn’t like, but found this one really bright smelling. (I just woke up, hope This makes sense). Also, Dune, even in current formulation is just gorgeous. I think I just talked myself into repurchasing a bottle.
lillyjo, thank you mentioning for J’adore Injoy, I had not heard about it before. I love salty scents.
Guerlain and Chanel about equally for me.
I love my Guerlains, but Chanel No. 5 certainly makes me happy.
Just did a little inventory. Definitely Team Guerlain first for me, then a tie between SL and Dior for second place. More recently I’ve been searching out vintage Dior (waiting for a vintage Miss Dior splash bottle and a recent acquisition of vintage Diorissimo).
One of my earliest perfume memories is Chanel, but currently I only have Chanel No. 19 EDP and EDT. One of most cherished fragrances.
I have not smelled No. 19 in such a long time though I see tester bottles often. Next trip to the perfume counter it will be at the top of my sniff list.
FWIW, the EDP is more elusive than the EDT and Poudre. The EDP tends to only be available where the Exclusifs are available.
oh, thanks hajusuuri, that’s good to know about No. 19. I shall be on the alert.
Tiffanie, are you in Canada?
hi Gail, I’m in the US. **waves**
U.S…I will send her some
Me too. In Vega this morning ????
Ooooh, Vega is a bright Guerlain star.
Wearing Bobbi Brown Beach for now, an unfortunate impulse buy. I’d come across it quite cheap at Winners one day and remembered that I quite liked it several years ago. Too bad that I’d forgotten that over time, I realized that these beachy things just aren’t for me and I never reach for them. I need to find a cost effective way of getting rid of these mistakes. I don’t like having them around, and would love to pass them on to someone who might like them but spending even more to post them out just irks me.
Beachy is tough for me too, and BBB is way over the top. The idea of a beach-like smelling scent is appealing to me but I’ve yet to come across something that works for me.
Ii recently took some bottles to Goodwill (after trying to pawn them off here) and felt like I’d done a good deed. Someone will be thrilled to find them! Or so I tell myself…
I am in the minority I suppose because I like Beach. Now, it’s not a love or anything, but I’d happily wear it some in the summer if I had some!
Every now and then I try something beachy, in the hopes I will be transformed into a blond beach bombshell. So far, no luck with that.
I know, right? It’s $C20/bottle to mail, so we can’t even give it away, as the Rolling Stones say. Maybe dropping things off at a women’s shelter? Did that once for the not-working Natori. BTW, will have a sniff of the beachy stuff sometime, even though it’s probably going to turn me into a blond beach bombshell either.
I’m wearin Tauer Soto la Luna tuberose – I ordered it so I could try to compare some 2 Bros ( dictation – I’m not correcting it). So far I’ve sampled Colonel flower – frock us – I don’t know if I’m any closer – it kind of reminds me Songes a little.
Well, I enjoyed reading this.
I like that Tauer…it lingered on my bathrobe for days…extremely sweet but pleasant….
Ha!
Thanks for the laugh ????
Your voice dictation never gets old. I just love it.
Lol
It’s like some form of mad libs!
Ha! Sounds like a 2 Bros kinda weekend! I have a decant of that one, too, and as an official Andy fan, I like it very much! I don’t reach for it often, but I like it’s fruitier take on the note (and compared to Carnal Flower, it seems quiet and tame).
Which is your favorite Tauer? Today I tried l’eau, and while it is a very interesting take on lemon, it was very fleeting. I ordered a five pack sample from his website and weirdly did not order l’air du desert Marocain.
I love his story and he is so evocative, I was sure I was going to find something that I wanted to buy a full bottle of, but now I am not sure what?.
Oh geez. I struggle with the notion of “favorite” when it comes to fragrances! I own, and love, several bottles–PHI: Une Rose de Kandahar (amazing apricot, rose, tobacco), Une Rose Chypree (crazy rose oriental–hard to describe), ZETA (sadly discontinued lindon blossom scent), and L’air dDM (which I prefer over the newer, intense version). I have several scents in decant or “explorer” sizes, and likely there are more bottles in my future!
I was lucky enough to meet with Andy when he came through town last year, and he is such an original, creative, and kind soul! He sold an exclusive scent while he was in town–super fun Hyacinth and a Mechanic with this wonderful, oily terpentine thing going on!
I say try as many as you can! (Like I say–I’m a fan girl!)
Thanks! I did order a rose chypre- very interesting – and still making my mind up about it – I sniffed it before i read about it – it reminded me of some old town in Texas I visited when I was a kid – then I read it had Texas cedar wood in in – so I like to assume that that old town somehow had Cedar in it and I was picking up on that
What a treat to meet Andy Tauer, how cool!
I was just reading a post about some Tom Ford fragrances on The Black Narcissus and remembered that I have TF samples that I’d not gotten around to yet, so I have Vert d’Encens on one hand and Vert de Fleur on the other. Actually, I have mostly scrubbed off Vert d’Encens as I found it too powdery. Fleur keeps changing so I haven’t decided how I feel about it yet. At first it seemed very green and floral, but now it’s sort of a lightly floral and tangy tobacco, which I wouldn’t have thought possible. I’m not sure how I feel about it. It would smell more interesting on a guy, I think.
I was amused by his reference to Tom Ford “whose perfumes I often quite like but whose psychological depths and validity I often doubt.”
Yup, that would be Neil’s wording
I decided that I like Vert de Fleur. I also had my husband wear it, and to me this is a good unisex fragrance.
Regarding Tom Ford’s “psychological depths and validity,” I haven’t read the article you are mentioning, but I have to say that I appreciated one of his recent moves (but will keep the reference unspecified as I don’t want to turn this into a political debate
)
I haven’t seen them, so that’s good to know, and glad to know Fleur really does work out well on a guy. I may loan it to someone!
I think it’s more my feeling about his perfumes than anything else about him, basically, that the ideas are interesting but the ingredients need more natural complexity in order to have depth and interest. But they are more original than most in the department stores.
Got it, and agree! (from what I can tell, as I am no that familiar with the line)
Tom Ford perfumes often make me feel like I’m stuck in line at the bank next to someone making business deals on the phone at the loudest possible decibel.
They are strong!
This made me laugh.
It’s still hot as Hades here. I was planning a trip to Fumerie, so I didn’t want anything too too, but I didn’t want to go unscented either. I put on two tiny spritzes of No. 22 edt (courtesy of AnnieA) and it was perfect. At Fumerie I bought a bottle of Aedes de Venustas that I had been pining after for a while, and brought home a sample of Lubin Le Vetiver. It’s really nice, and I generally don’t like vetiver. Deva, you should try this one!
Oh no! Isn’t that Lubin line very spendy? I think I could live on just Vetiver based perfumes for the rest of my natural born days…
75ml is $120 at Fumerie. I don’t know if Lubin is at the discounters. The Splitmeet is sometime in September…
Lubin is more reasonable than most these days, and deserves more attention. I’m glad Arielle Shoshana carries it here in the DC area.
Hermes Eau de Merveilles – salty musk and occasional brief moments of wondering, “is that urine?” Cedar (or whatever) is so reliable.
Such a weird, but good, scent. I’m still trying to figure it out.
Has anyone heard about JM Rich Extracts please? There appear to be three and exclusive to London perhaps. Very little info when I google on them too.
http://m.jomalone.co.uk/products/19901/fragrances/rich-extracts
I like Oud & Bergamot but it is quite fleeting on me so I wonder how much oomph this version might have.
yes I had remembered seeing these a while ago….really like the bottles…Not sure if they are more of an EDP version or if one particular note is amped up in each one thereby altering the fragrance slightly.
Interesting, I had no idea these existed. Will have to check if any of the JM stores have them in the US. I like Oud Bergamot but it could be stronger as you say.
I think they might be exclusive to London. They do that with certain fragrances (like Ginger Biscuit which, while it was a LE, got brought back to the London store only for several holiday seasons in a row)
Funny, the regular Velvet Rose and Oud is about the only Jo Malone lasting more than 15 minutes on me. No experience with the Rich line, just one random vote for the very pretty Velvet Rose and Oud dry oil.
Got my Keap candle set. The packing is great and I like their approach to marketing. I still have to test them for real, but so far the fragrances do not promise to be my cup of tea. I wish Diptyque starts to use more sustainable and clean wax …
Oh drat, so sorry they don’t seem promising!
SOTD = Chanel No.5 Hair Mist
I wore it solo today and without the competition with Eau Premiere and L’Eau, it smelled like a lighter powdery version of the EDP! It needs heat and space. For example, I thought 4 spritzes died on 30 minutes when I couldn’t smell it in the waiting area of the auto service place where I was waiting for my tire to be replaced. When I went out after it was done, I was able to smell it again. I re-upped with 3 more spritzes mid-afternoon and that was good for another 4 hours. Verdict: Nice while it lasted but no need to rush to get it. Cute bottle tho. As Creosote said, good old perfume on hair works and truth be told, hair is where my perfumes land anyway with the walk into the mist type of application.
Tomorrow, I will break out the Carnal Flower Hair Mist. I’m pretty sure this is true to the perfume and just as potent. I will report back!
I need to go into the office tomorrow to prep for Monday. Le sigh.
Ugh, sorry to hear about Saturday work. As for Carnal Flower hair mist, I hear it’s potent enough to be worn on the body like an edt and it’s therefore a cheaper way to enjoy the scent.
Heh, the bottle was not easily accessible this morning so I ended up wearing Mon Precieux Nectar which has no resemblance whatsoever to Carnal Flower.
Oh, I think I could spend a lifetime exploring the many iterations of No. 5! I haven’t even heard of hair mist.
Mr. Spicebomb and I went back to the antique mall where I bought my 4oz bottle of edc, and they have another one. . . I couldn’t decide if 8oz of No. 5 edc. might not be more than I needed. The sales lady said they don’t get too many perfume people in, so I likely have time to change my mind.
Come to think on it, they also had a bottle of Estee Super. I couldn’t figure out how old it was, and I haven’t sniffed that one, so I left it there, too. Folks should let me know if I made a mistake!
If you have 8 oz of the EDC, you can bathe in it
Yes, well, I am truly that regal.
Thank you for the No. 5 hair mist report, sounds lovely. It’s nice to know it resembles the edp.
I suspect that my “review” will change like the weather!
After a rainy start, turned out to be a gorgeous day which was celebrated by going to the laundromat.
We’re headed out to a concert (Alphaville! Any 80s geeks out there?) and I’m sweating in a hot, crowded subway station waiting for a delayed A train for what seems to be an eternity now. I’m wearing Robert Piguet Calypso since it was cool enough out for this pretty, powdery rose.
Have a great tkme at the concert! r Calypso sounds pretty too!
Thanks! We’re sitting in the nosebleeds waiting for it to start. I love Calypso. You should try it too ????
Alphaville!
Yes of course I remember them.
I was still in primary (is that the right word) school during the 80s, but Forever Young is a classic!
I hope you had a good time.
It was really fun and the visuals projected on screens were really great, very artistic.
Yes, that was sort of the anthem of my teen years. It was an interesting crowd, largely non English speaking . I don’t think they toured much in the US as this was their first performance in NYC. So probably a larger European fan base.
Jasmin tea scent from Fragonard again today…because I was going to dim sum with a group of lady friends….so much fun when many our group grew up on the food and speak the language. So much food I didn’t even get a chance to try because I got full…
Memo Irish Leather earlier today, and switched to APOM. I love this hobby, I really do.
I love this hobby too for so many reasons.
I also like the Irish Leather. Didn’t expect to!
SOTD is Malle’s Portrait of a Lady from my stash of samples I haven’t tried yet. Spicy dusky musky rose… first impressions are good ones
You smell great!
Sotd was Cristalle. It was cool here today, and agree with CM8 that it really lends itself well to cooler weather. A couple of weeks ago a woman at work complemented me on Angel Muse. She said she used to wear Angel. I’m still new, and she has been very nice and helpful to me. Anyway, today, I had a manufacturer sample of Muse, and offered it to her. She looked at me like I had 2 heads, and said she didn’t want it. It’s, of course fine that she didn’t want it, but I just felt really dumb, and wondered was it an insulting gesture on my part? It was really the look that got me.
Oh, I hate moments like that! Maybe she’s a “signature scent” person and doesn’t experiment with scent at all … but whatever her issue was, her reaction could definitely have been more diplomatic.
Glad that you enjoyed your Cristalle in cooler weather. Sorry to hear about your co-worker’s response….I find it odd as well, given that she initially engaged with you on the subject of perfume.
Total lack of graciousness on her part! If she didn’t want the sample, she could have graciously accepted it and then trashed it later. You did a very kind thing, no insult of any kind.
That was a very sweet gesture, don’t worry about it. Perhaps she felt that since it was “your” scent she would not want to wear it.
Thanks everyone, now I don’t feel like I was the weird one.
Your gift was not insulting or weird at all. Life is weird!
Very rude from her side. Nothing to feel bad about it. You were very nice to offer it. Life…….
Late to the party to the party tonight. Sampling earlier today, playing with the Commodity Cocktail kit. A spritz of rain and a spritz of moss. None of these are particularly special to me but they’re fun to play with and layer. About to spritz something else since that’s worn off!
Thanks for reminding me…younger family member has a large Sephora sample of Commodity Vetiver…I might steal it for this upcoming week’s community project.
Gold and Mimosa are the two I really like. They layer well together.
Today was a bit fractured, perfume-wise. Tested Le Labo The Noir 29 this morning, and I don’t think it’s “me” somehow. It is tenacious (of course), and I wonder if setting it aside until fall might be a good idea. Post shower I switched to copious amounts of Cristalle EDT – mmmmmmm.
Had a great Saturday being out all day doing fun stuff and braving the heat in the under utilized (at least in my collection) SL Fleurs de Citronnier. It was a lovely companion and was especially long lasting because of a thick layer of sunscreen applied under it. My guy and I went out for brunch (chilaquiles and cinnamon roll), went to the movies (Baby Driver), and had a couple beers at a local arcade room/bar. I played lots of Spiderman pinball.
Switched to Amouage Opus VIII after my shower. Goes well over remnants of the SL.
SOTD- Burt’s Bees Men’s Sage Deodorant Spray
Mr. CM8 and I are going to have a ridiculously busy day today- food shopping, laundry, scrubbing the bathroom tub, mopping all floors and mowing the lawn.
Tonight, post shower I will go with my usually Bergamot, Jasmine & Labdanum and then figure out what I have available for next week’s community project…vetiver is not my most beloved note.
What do you use for tub scrubbing? For me that is one of the hardest chores, and it never seems clean enough.
Baking soda…..like a paste…and it takes us about two hours working in shifts
We have hard water so it gets discolored quite quickly. On the walls you can use vinegar which also cuts through the muck.
Thanks, I will give it a try. We have hard water also.
I haven’t tried it yet, but I hear kosher salt does a good job.
Interesting, i wonder why it wouldn’t scratch the surface?
I’ve used my Lush Big shampoo for scrubbing the tub out. It has salt in it so it cleans the tub well plus your bathroom smells good when you are done.
A little late to the party because I was busy yesterday. Forgive me, Donnatella for I have sinned. Last night I got a head start on Christmas shopping and found a 1 ounce bottle of Euphoria and got it for my grandmother. I still haven’t bought a full bottle for me in months. The supposed fun money that I had went to ordering a summer quilt and bed sheets for my new mattress.
Gifts don’t count so you haven’t sinned
Your grandmother will feel so spoiled and happy come Christmas.
Today it’s Noir Epices. At first it smells like a strong screwdriver (drink) then moves to a spicy Youth Dew/Opium to my nose. At first I wasn’t sure, but now I cannot get enough!
Love that one, you smell great.
That is a fabulous progression!
Did a little testing of Berdoues Assam of India and Vanira Moorea this weekend (the 3 eyed cookie owl made me do it!!
but seriously, hats off to chocolatemarzipan8, these are lovely scents!) I will need to pay more attention to the Assam–I really liked the lemony opening but it faded really fast as I did some yard work after applying and was sweating like crazy. The Vanira Moorea was interesting but ultimately not for me. The opening had a crunchy petitgrain note that reminded me of Seville a l’aube, then the drydown was a rootbeer-tinged vanilla that reminded me of JHAG Mmmmm or maybe also Hypnotic Poison.
LOL! Ooo…that means I get an enabler pin
Seriously though, if you have the coffret of samples from Sephora there is bound to be one in there that you like/love….the Assam you should try again in the winter…in the cold weather my skin amps up the sandalwood, but YMMV.
Yes, a pin in your crown!
I will definitely keep it around and try it again in the winter! I wouldn’t have thought of it as much of a winter scent, so I’m excited to try it out and see what happens!
Eldiyen, I think you were the one who mentioned the Kulfi perfume this week. If so, you get an enabler pin. I got my decant yesterday and my gosh, it is so good!. This morning I went all the way to the indian store where always do shopping and I got some Kulfi: Malai and Saffron, 1 pint of each. I could not stop craving for it since yesterday. I hope you already received your perfume. Thank you!
My first enabler pin?!?!?! Yaaayyyy, happy dance!
I’m so glad you are enjoying your decant!! Love it when a perfume match is made!
The situation with the perfume was kindof funny — they did send along my order, but it included just a sample of Kulfi instead of the 5ml oil that I had ordered. Woops! They’ve been very gracious and responsive, though, so the correct item should be coming soon!
The actual kulfi sounds soooo amazing, I must seek it out!
Do you mean Kulfi by L’Aromatica? I love that one! Caradmom heaven!
Cardamom
Yep, that’s the one! It’s amazing, isn’t it!
Windy, cool and cloudy here, wearing NG Or du Sérail.
You smell delicious!
Hello to everyone on a lazy Sunday morning!
I wanted to share a really positive perfume experience I had yesterday. I was on a subway with partner, child, mother-in-law, and just a few minutes before we got to our stop, the train had largely cleared out and I could smell this GORGEOUS rosy, spicy scent. I sniffed everyone, couldn’t locate the source, then realized there was a woman just one seat down from me…I asked if she was wearing a rose scented perfume, and she said yes. I told her how beautiful it smelled, that I’d been trying to locate the source for several minutes. She beamed, and said it was vintage Opium by YSL. Then we had a nice chat about how vintage is so great.
Our stop came up, and we got off, but it was a lovely interaction, and something that could have been weird (telling a stranger they smelled great) turned out to be really pleasant.
Also, bonus for a perfume moment on the NYC subway!
A pleasant interaction on mass transit in NYC involving vintage Opium no less…like a Xmas miracle about 4 months early.
Thanks for sharing.
Vintage Opium! Nice one.
Very few, rare experiences like that in the NYC subway. I wish I could have one like that. I am so glad you had such a nice interaction!
Nice experiemce! You know my commuting tales of woe and they are not necessarily NYC subway-related.
What a lovely interlude! One of my favorite perfume memories of NYC was also on the subway — I was wearing Anne Klein II (WHY did they discontinue it??) in a somewhat crowded subway car; a well dressed, safe-looking man leaned over and asked me very politely what fragrance I was wearing, because it was the nicest one he had smelled in a long time and he’d like to tell his wife. I told him what it was, he thanked me, we both smiled and we went on our separate ways. New York can be an oddly intimate place sometimes, for such a huge, busy city.
Spritzed L’Artisan Thé Pour un Ete from the recent STC sale (darn those flash sales!) and promptly fell in love. FB now on its way. Impulse control? Who, me?
Your impulse to buy is excellent, lol.
There are so many great scents from L’Artisan.
I’m spending some time in AndyLand today. Orange Star on the left and Lonesome Rider on the right.
I love and want a FB of both of these. Aaaargh!
Andyland! Had not heard that one.
Wearing Bottega Veneta and CdG2, and now I need to look for my mini of Knot. So many perfumes so little time …
Why stop at three
????
Haha, you are absolutely right!
Twins in the BV part of your mix!
Yay, and I can directly attest that you smell great! Do you often wear it in summer? I am surprised how well it works.
The weather is looking up (doing a weather/element themed week) and today one of my more successful blind buys: Cartier Zeste de Soleil…a passionfruit zing. And, life mimics art….mowed the lawns for the first time in months and gosh it smelled great. Also, two witch hazel trees in full bloom at the local cemetry, grape hyacinths popping up and two more daffodils. Not sure what tomorrow’s weather will bring….
Zeste de Soleil is fun, kind of cartoonish scent to my nose. It must be interesting to mix it with the real grass scent.
Monday! Whoever is in charge of the working week is being particularly sadistic this morning. The rain is falling in sheets, it’s cold and frankly, I just don’t want to. But I must. Sigh.
The scent to help me through this ennui is Beloved, beautiful at every point of its development, slightly skanky in the opening, fabulously pretty in the dry-down. Maybe its effortless beauty will lift me out of my got-to-go-to-work-don’t-wanna funk. The truth is, I want to stay home and engage in various forms of kitten adoration. The Two Tiger-Striped Terrors (henceforth, TTST) are rioting in the spare bedroom, Eric is yearning to join in but hasn’t quite been accepted as a playmate, though piled-up sleeping has already occurred, and Dakkie is sitting on the dear man’s lap looking severe and statesmanlike, which is quite so achievement for him. I want to be part of whatever unfolds on the Feline Front today.
Nothing is better than pulled up sleeping.
Piled!
Sleeping kitten-pile is sounding promising!