It's Monday, the last day of May, and if you're in the US, Memorial Day. Also, Walt Whitman’s birthday and World No Tobacco Day. What fragrance are you wearing?
I'm in Diptyque Volutes, with thanks to Angie who passed on the bottle she didn't love.
Reminder: on 6/4 we're doing With A Little Help from My Friends...wear a perfume that you received from someone else, either here at Now Smell This or elsewhere, or that you never would have tried if someone else hadn't recommended it, or worn it, or reviewed it. Adapted from a suggestion by Jalapeno.
And for those of you who like to plan ahead, see Scent of the day ~ Friday community projects 2021, where I'll try to always have the next five or six weeks mapped out in advance.
Note: top image is Flags decorate the graves of U.S. service members on Memorial Day at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial in Madingley, England [cropped] by Beverly & Pack at flickr; some rights reserved.
Yesterday I wore Beautiful, with the matching body lotion (because it got so COLD, I had to turn my heat back on), that a Beautiful NSTer sent me during a freebiemeet. It lived up to its moniker. Once the initial sprays dried down, it was a cloud of exquisite sweet-ish floral-ness. I kind of want Estee Lauder to put that line on their ad copy. I have no idea what I am going to wear today. I am going to have to noodle on it and let y’all know tomorrow. Have a nice holiday (U.S. friends)!
It really is beautiful. That was my wedding day perfume.☺️
Wouldn’t it be great if perfume ad copy sounded like a person rather than a bot programmed to write poetry?
I’m in Jul et Mad Aqua Sextius today.
Packing for my holidays. Leaving tomorrow.
Have a great trip!
Enjoy your trip!
Do you have go-to fragrances you pack for vacations?
Enjoy your vacation.
Have a fun and safe trip!
It’s coolish out, grey and verging on rain, so I’m toasty in vintage Halston Catalyst for Men, just a bucketload of cinnamon and cloves (without smelling like a Christmas pomander thanks to clever engineering — it’s secretly a lavender fougere). The packaging probably ranks as the greatest ever for a men’s scent — it looks like lab equipment, all beakers and test tubes complete with stands. It’s just great.
Soooo beautiful! You smell fantastic!
I watched all the Netflix episodes of Halston yesterday. It was so good. The perfume episode was great and I can still see the original bottle on my mother’s dressing table.
Hmm. I ditched the series after not particularly enjoying the first episode. Your response suggests that I should give it another try!
This sounds terrific.
Hello everyone! My SOTD is W by Banana Republic. Lovely, fresh, and green.
For anyone into skin care, A few months ago, I started using Japanese skin care Hada Labo’s Arbutin Whitening Lotion (more like a toner) and Arbutin Whitening Cream. The products have Arbutin for brightening and hyaluronic acid for moisture, the cream is marvelous. More like a whipped-gel texture, and absorbs easily. Three weeks in, my skin is dewy and brighter. The best part? Both products are under $20. That’s a steal!
I discovered a buckwheat waffle recipe that’s healthy and delicious! I halved the butter and it turned out beautifully. Recipe link below.
https://cookieandkate.com/gluten-free-buckwheat-waffles/?fbclid=IwAR1mmwcQxi1EhOWKcigi5rYYbprwCIZCX_pMF-Re-XNtJQbrUaN5eclzH3w
Is the arbutin line the shirojyun line? I like the Gokujiun Premium lotion a lot. Must investigate this!
It is! I posted the Yesstyle link below. My skin is hydrated and skin tone is more even and brighter. I definitely noticed a difference. 😀
https://www.yesstyle.com/en/rohto-mentholatum-hada-labo-shirojyun-arbutin-whitening-lotion-170ml/info.html/pid.1077867386?cpid=1065835174&utm_medium=Affiliates&utm_source=shareasale&utm_term=1670810&aid=1670810
Ooh! I will check out those products. I’ve been getting into skincare lately. Remind what vitamin C serum you use….?
I like Timeless or Dearskin. Both are effective and affordable. Dearskin, I purchased on Amazon.
Timeless is having a great Memorial Day sale. I love their Vitamin C, and Peptide serums – Q10 Serum With Matrixyl 3000 & Hyaluronic Acid, and their Matrixyl Synthe’6 Serum.
Nom, waffles!
I have about 4 cups of buckwheat groats I need to use up. Grinding them up into flour has been one of the options I’ve considered, and pancakes or waffles would certainly be part of how that would get used! I just need to talk myself into taking out the food processor and being ok with a fine dust of buckwheat settling onto everything. 😀
We had buckwheat waffles for breakfast yesterday. So good!
They’ve become my favorite. Healthy, tasty, and lots of nutrients.
I have not had buckwheat waffles, but my husband makes big batches of banana walnut buckwheat pancakes and then we eat some, freeze some.
That’s what I am going to do. Too labor intensive to make them on the fly…
Au the blue Blvgari. Have you all watched this Jeremy guy on YouTube? He’s a good looking German who tells women what sickening sweet perfumes to wear. He told a story of seeing an attractive woman in Coco Mademoiselle, and how had she not been wearing such a “fresh” perfume he would have found her more attractive. You know, something sexy like Juicy Couture or Poison girl. As if CM isn’t heavy, and as if her prime directive in deciding her personal scent was what juvenile scent would sexist German hot guy have her wear to prove her worth? The worst part was all the women squeeing over him and then going out to buy those fruitchouli things. If he were an ugly guy they would have been shrieking at him instead of fawning like teenagers circa 2006 over Zac Efron.
Wow, I bet that woman is happy she chose Coco Mademoiselle the day she ran into him!
Lol. I’ve never once in my 47 years bought a perfume because I thought it would attract a man. I wear what I like. It’s sad seeing young woman spending so much thought on attracting a man. All you got from me was clean and groomed. If you didn’t like the package oh well. It sounds so much rougher dating today. I remember it being super fun. I also remember men always commenting how they liked that I never wore makeup. I did, but not much.
Dating sounds like so much work today! OTOH, I remember wasting rather a lot of time waiting for the phone to ring before even answering machines.
I was doing it prepandemic. There sure are a lot of questionably employed older men in trusses and balding demanding a laundry list. Mostly they showed up 20 years older than their stated ages and told me they don’t like short hair. Let me tell you I was looking good with my favorite shorts and a good tan game. I can overlook a few pounds and a few years, but they wanted long hair and a better income than I have. I used to have a minimum of 3 dates per week in my dating days and plenty of interested parties. It’s too depressing to spend my free time on. I probably won’t get married again anyway.
There are some NST veterans here still who may remember me from my online dating years. I met my husband, the wonderful Mr. Spicebomb, on Match after 2-3 years of looking for someone. I learned a lot in that time, including how to stick to my priorities and to practice not take it personally when things weren’t a good fit. I’m grateful there was a way for me to meet people I literally would have never had occasion to meet otherwise. In that way, I feel like dating today is better–we’re not limited to the folks already in our social circles!
I remember, Marjorie Rose! That’s a great point.
Baby Dumpling, you might meet someone with common interests while doing something that you love — or be very happy on your own (as I have been). Just be sure to go for what you really want.
Lol?
I would never have described Coco Mademoiselle as fresh. He must be noseblind
It smells really thick and dank to me. But he’s super hot, so buy what he tells you to buy!
Noseblind is a perfect word!
I HAVE seen him, and got some sick enjoyment out of it in a cringe-humor way. Ridiculous.
What ever happened to Katie Puckrick? Her reviews were great, and she was funny. I might go watch that guy again, because I’m trying to resist buying used sheets from 1985 on eBay.
Good morning.
Wearing No.5 in parfum, easily my favourite version of the scent.
Drinking green tea lightly scented with orange blossom water.
No 5 extrait is lovely. Saving up some pennies to get a bottle.
Green tea with orange blossom water! I am inspired!
This morning’s perfume was Ubar. It’s amazing how tastes can change. When I first tried Ubar, it smelled like bug spray layered with some flowers and didn’t like it. Now I love it and have a bottle. I was thinking of Sarrasins but don’t want to scare people at work so it’s Shalimar Ode a la Vanille right now.
It is amazing how tastes change.
I love Ubar, but I agree it’s an oddly challenging scent. That first hit of lemon sparkle can be A LOT!
I expected to love Ubar, and all I got was bug spray! Maybe I should revisit it.
I remember Ubar had a lot of a certain note that’s unbearable to me.
Based on your experience, I’ll try it again if I come across a sample or better yet a new bottle — does one dare to hope that note’s been reformulated out? ?
Yesterday I wore Philosykos, which is such a gorgeous scent. It made me so happy. We went to the farmers market and bought the most amazing purple cauliflower which looked like a jewel! When roasted, it gave off floral notes and was sweeter in taste than regular old white cauliflower.
Today I’m wearing Provision’s Maitri perfume over their Manifest body oil – it’s a vetiver/ incense/ vanilla kind of day for me. I would be grading, but my neighbor has been using a leaf blower for what seems like 6 hours and I have a headache and can’t concentrate.
I hope everyone has a great day!
I’ve seen that purple cauliflower but have never tried it. Interesting! Sadly, our farmers market is not on the capitol square this summer.☹️
And I’m with you on leaf blowers! I was just complaining to my colleagues about them the other day. Hope your neighbor is done soon and your headache goes away!
Leaf blowers are my bane, and some of the garden apartment complexes now use giant riding leaf blowers in the fall that can be heard for miles. ?
Riding leaf blowers!!! I did not know.
May you spared!
I should go ahead and admit that I cannot get my husband to give up the leaf blower. I think those things are abominations. But a riding one…geez.
I’m in Safran Troublant after seeing it mentioned recently. The day is starting out cool and overcast, so it’s perfect. My other half is cleaning the car this morning. I just love a clean car.?
We watched the movie Arrival over the weekend. I know this was a big hit a few years ago, but we missed it. It was really good, Amy Adams was great. The ending really threw me for a loop though, didn’t see that coming and I found myself feeling quite emotional over it.
Also, my splitmeet packages are ready to go! Will head to the PO in the am.
You smell great in Safran Troublant, and if you liked Arrival, you should read the short story it’s based on (Story Of Your Life by Ted Chiang), which is even better — no spoilers but the aliens are *completely* alien, incomprehensible in ways it’s difficult to get across in a commercial movie.
Fico di Amalfi. I think this was a sample someone on the parfumo website sent me as a goodie. It’s nice, but I don’t need more.
I own half a gallon (not really, but it’s a huge bottle) of Fico di Amalfi. It’s one of my go-to hottest-days-of-summer scents. It only lasts a few hours, but it is fresh and inoffensive when everything else feels like too much. Which, I totally understand would make some people say “meh” and move on!
Wearing Lush Cardamom Coffee, sent to me recently by a generous NSTer, who knew it would match nicely with my daily flavored coffee. I have been wearing it a lot. Thank you!
Another cloudy and still cold day. Doing some cleaning at home now and then I will work from home for the rest of the day, despite being off for the holiday. I may need to take the day off tomorrow, so I need to get some work done today.
Happy Monday, everyone! ?
You smell nice! And le sigh on “I may need to take the day off tomorrow, so I need to get some work dome today.” — ain’t this the truth.
I’m so glad you’re continuing to enjoy Cardamom Coffee! ?
It’s officially Bronze Goddess weather here, so I’m obediently wearing it and feeling both bronze and goddesslike. Taking my son to Salt Point and Kruse Rhododendron State Parks today, hoping to beat the heat with some coastal breezes and also hoping to beat the crowds by heading north and away from the civilization centers. We’ll see…
Oh how lovely…hope your plan worked!!
It did! Except, of course, for the wild-card-that-ought-to-be-predictable-by-now that is a 5-year-old’s variable and sometimes rather unfortunate behavior. There were rhododendrons and ferns and soft salt air and grumpies (his) and a few tears in the car (mine) and then take-out pizza and popsicles in the hammock at home before bedtime, so I guess we can call it a success.
I would call that a huge success.
No SOTM, yet. Poking around in my pajamas still. It will be hot today, and hotter tomorrow, so may follow in the footsteps of others above and choose Fico di Amalfi or Bronze Goddess. I feel like I can’t smell anything on my skin these days after 30 minutes, so I might be rude and wear something bigger. The cats don’t mind!
How nice, hope the day stayed relaxing Marjorie Rose!
We did a very long bike ride and now I am wiped out.
10 delicious hours of sleep.
Chilly and foggy this morning, but it will burn off.
Groceries
Laundry
On line training which I could have done yesterday instead of binging on Halston and Charite and a book.
Oh well.
Found a bottle of Eau Duelle behind the Chanel perfume elixir so will enjoy that.
Botox starting to do it’s magic on day four. Should look great for starting day of project at company of many fragrances.
10 hours!! Jealous.
Wearing Splendiris which I am not enjoying at all. So I added Stairway to Heaven ( the BK fancy Pour un Homme) which has changed things alas not for the better. The weather here is just gorgeous and I will be out enjoying it after I’ve had my dinner.
Sorry layer #2 made matters worse, but hope you did get outside!
SMN Eva for me today. Pulled about a million weeds yesterday and am feeling it! Time for some pilates magic.
Pilates the day after intense weeding sounds like a double down on sore muscles. I hope you soothe yourself with some tasty tea or a long soak or both afterward!
I admit it sounds counter-intuitive, but increasing the blood flow to sore muscles through gentle stretching and working the surrounding/supporting muscles helps me with post-gardening soreness a lot. I work with a pilates trainer, and as long as I give her the rundown on what I’ve been doing to myself, she is able to craft a session on the fly that uses the right support muscles to soothe the sore spots. She’s really magical that way.
I cosign this! I take my weightlifting fairly seriously, and I have found that movement helps me heal far more than stillness most of the time. Making it healing rather than adding to the problem is about managing intensity correctly.
SOTD is Amouage Lyric for Women from a sample. I’m still in the early stages, but not loving the spice. I’m finding that cinnamon doesn’t work well on my skin. Yesterday was Vanilla Galante, which of course is beautiful, but up against the Vetiver Tonka I wore on Saturday, I’ll take the VT. Not that it necessarily has to be a competition. I found the VG a bit thick/syrupy for my taste.
VT is such a lovely scent – one of my favorite Hermessences. I also found VG a bit too cloyingly sweet.
One of the most interesting and completely unconventional films I’ve ever seen is Peter Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old. It’s composed of painstakingly and loving restored archival World War I film footage from the Imperial War Museum, from the times just before and after, and from 1960s BBC interviews with veterans. It is their voices you hear throughout the film in place of traditional narration.
One of the curious things about the interviews was the nostalgia many expressed when asked to reflect on their time in the service. I’ve thought about this a lot and believe it is partly due the longing of the old for their lost youth and the way our memory works. Also, as the contextual footage makes clear, many had come from, and usually returned to, destitution and lack of place in society. As soldiers, they at least knew where their next meal was coming from and belonged to a group that was taking some responsibility for them. Perhaps, too, the ones who had survived to the 1960s and were willing to be interviewed were not the most traumatized.
I’m thinking about this not only because of Memorial Day but also having just read about the abjectly impoverished childhood of the great English watchmaker George Daniels in All in Good Time: Reflections of a Watchmaker. It’s an expensive book, but you can read most of the first three chapters for free on the Amazon Look Inside preview. His story is inspiring and a great reminder to practice gratitude and kindness.
Wearing vintage EL Beautiful because GateGirl reminded me of it, and it’s one I wouldn’t have hunted for ebay without many positive reviews and comments on NST and elsewhere.
You smell wonderful! I have vintage-ish Beautiful and a mini of the vintage parfum, and it is always a delight.
It is!
I would love to see this film. Is it airing on PBS?
I saw it several years ago in a theater so I’m not sure. Worth looking for!
Thanks so much for these reading and viewing suggestions.
I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts!
They Shall Not Grow Old is a mesmerizing film.
It’s like nothing else! And the addition at the end in which Jackson explains how they made it is fascinating and moving in its own right.
Thank you, I read about They Shall Not Grow Old ages ago and forgot all about it, now I will make an effort to find out where I can stream.
I’ll have to track this down. Several years ago I watched the BBC Great War series over a series of increasingly grim-feeling weeks and it cracked something open in me, some deep wellspring of tenderness for those young men who suffered so atrociously and whose story was glossed over in about three sentences in my history classes in grade school and high school.
Yes
Wearing Essential Parfums’ The Musc. It pulls very ginger-y on me which is perfect for a hot day.
I’m wearing D600. I went out earlier and the streets are empty, everyone must be going to the beach. I will stay home, read, and maybe take a nap.
You smell great! This one was a Hajusuuri-enabled purchase for me.
I remember this!
Hello!
The weather is nice here today, so I’ll be able to get out and enjoy my flowers. 🙂
My bedtime scent was CSP Vanille Abricot. Thanks to a couple of lovely NST people for sharing that with me. 🙂 So I’m inadvertently on project.
Was gorgeous today, wasn’t it?
It was a very pleasant afternoon. I got out and planted various herbs and flowers. The ground was about as soft as it gets, thanks to all that rain, so it was relatively easy to dig in my herb garden, which actually has herbs in it again now. (lol!) Some of my lilies have buds now, too. Many of them ended up there in the herb garden last fall.
Hello fragrant friends: staying close to home and feeling thankful for our soldiers. I have watched the 1970’s “World at War” series many times and it never fails to move me. I don’t know if it’s readily available on the various streaming services? Really enjoying my Shalimar Philtre from the Splitmeet! I admit I was secretly hoping it would be like the vintage edt, but it is Shalimar and love at first spritz. I am excited for the drydown. It seems to have a lot of body so far!
I have never seen all of it, I should do that.
SOTD = Olfactive Studio Violet Shot
It’s from my travel spray. Were it not for Lucas and Undina and out epic swap-split last year, I would probably have not tried this!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CPjGsulBR_P/?utm_medium=copy_link
One of the rants:
I may have mentioned that I needed to get a new computer because my old one was too old to upgrade to the oldest of the Mac OS still supported. It was an easy transaction and I also decided to repurchase a Microsoft Office license because the one I have was from a good over 10 years ago and I did not want to bother looking for the original box. So, I tried to install it for an hour and I even followed instructions! I finally used the chat feature; wrong move because almost 2 hours later, I was not further along and I just said I will try again on the weekend. So two weekends went by and I decided to try again. Still no luck but this time, I decided to have Microsoft call me. Over an hour later, I was able to get the installation started. My rant — if buying the license off-the-shelf required different instructions, why the h-ll weren’t those instructions included in the box to begin with or included online? And I had to enter the long license number 3 times! Over 4 hours and then it still took another 4 hours to download and install. Not sure why it took so long to download but I am glad it’s done!
I’m glad it’s done. After all that, I’m surprised you didn’t throw it out the window in frustration!
Thank you. Believe me, I was tempted to do that!
I’m not into hot dogs and steaks and burgers so I’m celebrating the holiday in a fine way with flautas de pollo and a top shelf frozen margarita—with salt, if you please! Luckily I only have to drive five blocks to get home and it’s a straight shot.
My SOTD is St Clair Scents Eve. I had read about her prize butter before but learned about her perfume forays here snd on other blogs. This one has turned out to be my favorite and a real go-to scent for me.
Celebrated like a true Texan!
A good flauta would trump many a steak I’ve cooked 😀 Salud!
Every time I read one of Your comments, Calypso, I see the lil picture (or avatar??) Of Your kitty and every time I am breathless how gorgeous that kitty of Yours is!!!!!
It’s a bank holiday in the UK too but it’s Spring Bank Holiday as our memorial day is in November and sadly not a holiday for some reason.
I started the day in Yardley Iris but as it had faded this evening I sprayed Olène.
I bet that Yardley Iris was very pretty while it lasted!
Oh yes, it is a pretty scent with a great lavender note on top and not too powdery.
I’m working tonight, and no surprise that it is busy.
My sotd is Prada Candy Night that I sprayed at Sephora earlier.
Go, lillyjo! Your pulling a holiday shift is inspiring. I don’t know Prada CN, but I bet you smell great!
Thanks! It does smell pretty great. A lot of benzoin like the original, with added chocolate. I’m slowly talking myself into getting a bottle.
I need to sample this. Notice the small s ?
Lol, well it’s a good price right now. I think it’s discontinued because even sephora has it on sale, but not as much as FN
It’s very warm and humid here, and I’m in Shalimar EDC from the watch bottle I found in a little ramshackle antique shop down in Seabrook, TX. My sister noticed it before I did. I could not believe my eyes when it saw it: crystal stopper, labels still on it, and it’s about a quarter full. It’s just over 7” tall, not sure how much juice was in it. I removed the stopper and got a nose full of hairspray, but bought it anyway, of course. The top notes are gone, but it still has quite a growl! ❤️❤️❤️
https://www.instagram.com/p/CPjDZS5Bgg_/?utm_medium=copy_link
Had fun at the sister reunion on Friday/Saturday, and we made more headway in the clean out of my dad’s house. We hit some rooms that hadn’t been touched yet, and I brought more photo albums home to get digitized. Found both film and sound tape. I’m kind of jazzed about the sound tape; there has to be some voices of grandparents and great aunts and uncles on them. ??
Hooray for thrifting find: lovely bottle! I love to give these beauties a chance….also, good work work on getting the family records preserved!
Thanks! It has been a labor of love.
What a great find!
Yay for a happy reunion!
The voice tapes are a real treasure.
I was amazed, truly. And I owe you an email! ?
Hooray for the sisters get-together and for the antique find. I have a lot of pictures that I may digitize. My brother just texted pictures of dad – he used to go on vacation with my brother and family.
Do you think you’ll do the work yourself?
Nah. Need to decide when and how to get it done.
What fun, all of it! So happy for you.
Thanks Robin! It was nice to finally see kinfolk.
SOTD ended up being 6 spritzes of OJ Tiare. I like this one in the warm weather!
I am reading Jeeves and the King of Clubs, and and one of the characters wears “Turkish cologne,” which I decided to look up. I found this BBC article about the history of traditional Turkish kolonya and how it’s now being used as hand sanitizer during the pandemic. Interesting to think that the tradition of welcoming guests by pouring kolonya into their hands would have effectively served the same function.
Kolonya comes in many scents including lavender, lemon, fig blossom, pistachio, jasmine, tobacco, rose, and magnolia, depending on where it’s produced. I want to try them all!
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20200407-turkeys-unique-hand-sanitiser
Thanks for this link! I love the BBC’s travel and “Reel” features — such a breath of fresh (and informative) air in the midst of the relentless news grind.