It's Friday, International Lego Day, Data Privacy Day, and Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette's birthday. Our community project for today: wear a fragrance to mark Colette's birthday. (You could wear a fragrance inspired by Colette or one of her characters? scent a character? scent Leslie Caron in the movie Gigi? Or wear Guerlain Jicky, which Colette is said to have worn.)
What fragrance did you pick? As always, do chime in with your scent of the day even if you’re not participating in the community project.
I'm in vintage Robert Piguet Fracas.
Reminder: on 2/4, to welcome the Year of Tiger, wear a fragrance that projects or inspires power, bravery, self-confidence and ambition.
And for those of you who like to plan ahead, see Scent of the day ~ Friday community projects 2022, where I'll try to always have the next five or six weeks mapped out in advance.
Good morning and TGIF!
Half CP point for me as I am in Petit Fracas.
Currently drinking English Breakfast tea with a splash of milk, no sugar.
Hey half twin!
I’m doing Mugler all week and there is nothing Colette-adjacent about any of his scents that I own, so no points for me in the tremendous B*Men — rhubarb and all its greens, licorice, and woody vanilla, so strange and compelling.
I do have a (possibly apocryphal) Colette story for you, though! Once she travelling in the U.S. and spotted a cat on the sidewalk. After chatting with it for a few minutes, as cat lovers will do, she returned to her companions and said, “Enfin! Quelqu’un qui parle francais!”, which means, “At last! Someone who speaks French!”
Wonderful anecdote about Colette!
Well Mugler was french,so there is your ultimate tie-in to the CP,you defo scored points!?????
? I love it!
Points for the story, plus, you smell fantastic!
I love that story! Ha! My entire Facebook feed is full of posts about the new White House cat, Willow. She’s so pretty!
That is a pretty kitty! Such lovely green eyes. ?
❤️ your Colette story! Thank you for sharing.
This story is perfect!
After PT I will be blasting myself with Coco Mademoiselle Intense to fight winter apathy. You know, when anything beyond lying around eating cheese sounds like a burden. Happy Friday NST!
Lying around eating cheese sounds amazing right now!
2nd that.
Yum! I’ll join in for that! ?
Happy Friyay!!
SOTD for me can only be Guerlain Jicky parfum.I am in a cloud of soft lavender-vanilla and loving it,have not worn Jicky in ages!
I have a weird golden bottle Jicky parfum,it’s one of those flat square-ish bottles,am yet to find someone with a similar bottle!I bought it on the last opening day of a fabulous perfume shop that closed down years ago,and splurged on vintage Mitsouko and Jicky.
XO’s
Happy Birthday dear Colette!
Gigi and Cheriè(the Michelle Pheiffer movie was pretty good!)are iconic!
?❤️?
I somehow never tried Jicky but your description makes me want to.
It’s sometimes wonderfully vintage,sometimes it smells fresh and modern.But always unique,and will always be in my collection!
Perfection… the parfum is just perfection 🙂
a firm favorite!!
Oh, you smell AMAZING. I had this earlier this week from one of my splits, and I had forgotten how wonderfully fresh yet beautiful Jicky – and how modern! YSL Libre has a bit of the herbal/floral magic within, and weirdly, so does Carol’s Daughter Lavender/Vanilla body butter, which has that musk component to ground the floral sweetness.
Thank you!
I need to smell Libre asap!
I so wish Carol’s daughter was still available in South Africa,I was obsessed with the Vanilla hair products!
The Vanilla products are AMAZING and leaves your hair with the most wonderful aura of scent.
Ugh, shipping to SA is NO JOKE!
Is the Jicky parfum really different from the other concentrations? I don’t think I’ve ever seen the parfum in a brick & mortar store where I am at.
Hey there, good-smelling twin! 😉
I’m wearing Jicky, although I have a mini of Tocca Colette that I could have worn. Jicky is too good to pass up though.
Yes it is! Glad to see so much Jicky today.
Yay for Jicky twins!I might do a Guerlain week soon!
I’ll bet I have three weeks’ worth of Guerlains — do I dare?
I did not do my homework for this cp. I copied Robin’s scent choice for yesterday. I am wearing Chanel Boy.
Boy is more of a spring/summer scent for me. I can barely smell it.
Yep, I had to reapply multiple times yesterday. It needs some humidity.
I still love it. It’s on my buy list for spring.
Happy birthday Madame Colette! I discovered both Colette and MFK Fisher at a young (some might say too young) age, and both have been outsized influences in my life ever since, role models not just as writers but in shaping my understanding of what it means — for me — to be a woman. They both taught me that a woman is entitled to both her opinons and her passions, and doesn’t owe the world a confession, apology, or explanation for either. That convention is a stricture that blunts the human spirit. That one should be kind and decent, but beyond that not give a fig whether people like you or approve of you. That the poetics of existence are rooted in ideosyncracy. That creativity is tough, meaningful, hands-dirtying work that, like gardening, brings forth things that nourish our deepest places. That life should be engaged with through all five senses, together with all one’s fire and ferocity and cleverness. That periods of uncoupledness and solitude are just as important, and often far more gratifying and rich, than the times one spends in a relationship. That even though the world can take away the people and things that are critically important to you, you can still meet every morning with your own strength and dignity intact, and that in the care and attention to the simple matters of daily life you can build a realm of beauty around yourself that nothing can take away.
I thought about wearing Galop today in honor of this picture of femininity, my picture, that I owe to Colette and a few others — a lush, full-blossomed, deep scarlet femininity that’s interfurled with toughness and the grace of sheer strength and independence, the opposite of ladies-who-lunch politesse. But I was in the mood for Jicky and really, it’s perfect for Colette, and just as perfect for my portrait of a woman who is a creature of high ideals and earthly pleasures and enviable independence, who didn’t borrow her fragrance from a man but took it and made it entirely her own.
Vintage Fracas, I have to say, is also perfect!
I love this,and we both smell fabulous!!
??????
We really do, don’t we!
Oh wow, I love what you wrote about your favorite authors as role models. I agree completely! Colette has an astonishing sensuality to her writing. I mean that both in an erotic sense and in the sense of her subtle evocations of sensory experiences. Virginia Woolf is similarly great at the latter-not so much the former.
I love the everyday-ness of the eroticism of Colette’s writing — it isn’t there to titillate, rather it’s interwoven into the tapestry of human experience, one more layer of richness, one more opportunity to be surprised by ourselves and by others.
? for sharing your beautiful post today. Well said! And I totally agree with your thoughts.
LOVED the line about not owing the world a confession, apology, or explanation.
That I grew up to be someone who understands this at my core makes me feel that I’ve had at least some small success in life!
Happy Friday, everyone! SotD is vintage Jolie Madame parfum, in honor of the coming blizzard! I love to wear this one when there’s new snow; it feels like a fur wrap to me.
It’s also my entry for the CP, since it’s was created by Germaine Cellier, the nose for Fracas. I could see Colette wearing this one.
I hope everyone in the storm path manages to keep their power and heat! And that your forecast is better than mine: 17-27” snow, temp 14F, winds 28mph. This is shaping up to be a real doozy of a nor’easter! ?
We’re getting that same storm in eastern Canada, but with winds gusting to 100 km/h, so that should be fun.
Vintage Jolie Madame was my mother’s signature scent for decades. When my father threw her out (and boy is that ever a long story), the first two things she bought when she settled down in a new city were an imperious cat she named Duchess and a bottle of Jolie Madame. It represented liberation of a sort to her. You smell great!
I had to work out the math , oh Heaven help you! ? I hope you don’t have to venture out for any reason.
That’s a great story about Jolie Madame and your mother. Now, whenever I wear it, I will feel like a Duchess. ?
I bet the vintage is outstanding! You smell wonderful.
It’s been one of my favorites since first sniff. Thanks, Gail!
Great choice in Jolie Madame; I was almost going to choose that one for today, too! Stay safe!
I will, Laila, thanks. And you, too! Ewhast dids you end up choosing?
Nice. I love vintage Jolie Madam. You smell fantastic!
It is special, isn’t it?
My forecast isn’t as yucky as yours by a long shot: 6 – 9 inches of snow (I’ll believe it when I see it); 40 – 45 mph winds tomorrow; and a high temp of 23 degrees F tomorrow.
Close enough! Take care. ?
Gonna hunker down tomorrow for sure!
I chose Caron Tabac Blond in extrait, as it was developed specifically for those women of independent spirit that Isabella describes so well above. I also just now realized that young Leslie Caron could have portrayed young Colette nicely, so there’s a name tie-in too. I haven’t worn this in a very long time — there are only about 2 mls left in a tiny screw-top bottle sent by a very kind NSTer years ago, and I have no idea now whether it’s vintage or more recent — but it is truly beautiful.
Truly. Mine is almost gone as well.
So sad what’s happened to the Caron house, isn’t it?
It’s a crime. I was introduced to that house just a little while before The Great Decline, when it was sold and subsequently debased. Tabac Blond was once a fragrance worshipped by many.
Oooooooooooooooh, that Tabac Blond extrait sounds wonderful.
It truly is. I wish I could hope for more someday, but vintage has become scarce as hens’ teeth, as they say, and even the extrait version now being produced has been pronounced “bland” by some. I should probably try it since I’m in Portland where there is still The Perfume House and which might let me test it … but I probably won’t. There are so many gorgeous, complex beauties easily available (Paracelsus among them!) that chasing after the dregs of something long-gone seems … I don’t have the right word in my vocabulary. Silly? Useless? Something along those lines, but with a dose of sadness thrown in.
I’d want to sniff the current extrait for myself, just for my own education. Sometimes I am far too curious for my own good.
I love Tabac Blond — I have a bottle of the extrait that isn’t particularly vintage so is probably post-much-scorned reformulation, but it’s terrific to my nose. Somehow warmly come-hitherish and coolly rebuffing at the same time.
Ah, you make me think that I should give the current version a try despite misgivings. A short tale: I had discovered vintage Tabac Blond EDT (sometimes referred to as “lotion”) thru STC. They also had vintage Caron Violette Precieuse available, so I tried a sample of that and fell deeply in love. Found a bottle of the current formulation and promptly bought it. What a shock to discover how very BAD it was! Bad as in completely unwearable. I’ve seen several reviews since that confirm Caron is no longer what it once was, and it makes me very, very sad.
After shower, I will be wearing Bengale Rouge again because it seems Colette was a cat lover. And BR references a cat. A stretch, but we do what we have to.
Yay for getting our car back! Some sensor in the passenger seat had to be replaced, and it took the techs awhile to figure out what the error message meant so they could replace the right part. These safety features are wonderful, but cars certainly are intricate, delicate creatures nowadays. Then had to wait in quite the line at the car wash. My goodness cars get dirty here in snow country.
Dinner out with friends tonight at a local place. I’m already tasting the tenderloin sliders with carmelized onions.
Lol, yes cars do really get dirty here. I just had mine hand washed on my birthday and that lasted all of 2 days I think.
Your dinner sounds delicious, enjoy!
A stretch works fine for the cp 🙂
Hope it was a wonderful dinner out!
No CP points today. SOTD is Chanel Coromandel.
Have a great weekend everyone ?
Coromandel is lovely.
Happy birthday Colette ??
I don’t wear any fragrance today but I’m burning Diptyque’s Feu de Bois, perfect for a cold day ?
That does sound lovely! I have been burning my summery Salta candle to get rid of all the winter cooking smells.
Spending even more time in no 5 but in Eau Premiere. Tomorrow, I will be picking up Jake’s ashes but have to get through work today.
You smell wonderful. I wore that earlier this week.
My deepest condolences on the loss of your beloved pet; sending you a big ?.
Sending hugs — that’s a heavy errand. I hope you can have a wonderful weekend to balance it out!
My niece, Jane, has arrived! And everyone is doing well. I’m a little miffed that I can’t go visit right away because of continuing Covid concerns (I’m annoyed with Covid; not my sister), but I will meet her eventually.
I’m wearing MFK Amyris Femme Extrait. Just because.
Hooray! So glad to hear everyone’s doing well!
Congratulations !
Wishing you a wonderful visit with your sister!
Aww, Jane! Cute! Enjoy seeing her soon.?
Hooray! How is the new mother doing?
Wonderful!
Congrats to your family on the arrival of Jane! I love that name – it was my mother’s name and speaks to me of strength and inner beauty.
Congratulations on the safe arrival of your new niece!
Wonderful news! Congratulations to all!
Congratulations!
Oh yay, welcome Jane!
I’m in 1899 by Histoires de Parfums which wasn’t inspired by Colette but is at least connected to the France of her era. It’s quite nice, I like this line in general.
Is that the Hemingway? Nice with cinnamon and juniper for a cold day.
I have not read anything from Colette, but at least watched the movie with Keira Knightly. I imagine her to be a bold and fearless type of women, so i wore Salome in her honour. I think she would have liked this too, this perfume is a force of nature. Thankfully i remembered to apply just one tiny spray…
Dinner will be pasta with tofu bolognese and a nice Riesling to go with it.
I will be over at 7 for dinner!
You would be welcome
Good pick!
Ahhh… the cat allowed us to sleep in a little this morning. Yesterday he passed his post-tooth-extraction checkup with flying colors, so dry food is allowed again. So he doesn’t have to pester the humans for every bite of food, yessssssss!
SOTD is In A Scent, which was created by Edward Bess for the store Colette — sadly the store closed a few years ago. Note include “saffron, smoke, and blue plum”.
Nice CP reference!
I completely missed that one! Sounds nice.
Glad to hear that your kitty is doing well, post procedure!
Wearing Le Lion in an attempt for CP points through Colette’s reported love of cats. I could have gone with Tocca Colette, but Le Lion seems more in keeping with Colette’s strong persona.
Drinking Clippership Buttercream Pu’er tea today. Another that I probably won’t replace once I finish it. It’s tasty, but I could make a similar blend from two other teas I have, so this one seems redundant.
You smell wonderful.
In answer to your question, yes, you just missed 30% off selected Beauty from Bergdorfs – I believe it lasted through end of day yesterday. There’s always a next time, I’m sure.
I’m wearing the Oil Perfumery version of Le Lion. My reasoning was the same as you!
Le Lion is perfect on both the cat and strong persona fronts! It’s become my go-to comfort scent lately — cozy and soothing but, as with all the Chanels, it seems, with a wonderfully spine-stiffening, bucking-up quality to it.
Today I am wearing Noix de Tuberose ? will see what I will wear tonight when I get off work and shower.
I first thought it was Lutens,then I remembered,Miller Harris right?
Miller Harris is Noix de Tubéreuse, Serge Lutens is Tubéreuse Criminelle, Tom Ford is Tubéreuse Nue, L’Artisan Parfumeur is Nuit de Tubéreuse — it’s impossible to keep them all straight!
Haha!Exactly!
Plus the Lutens “in my mind” while reading Noix de Tubereuse was actually Une Voix Noire…getting my V’ s and X’s crossed!??♂️??♂️??
Yes!! It does sound like it could be SL by the name, doesn’t it?
Good morning. And I thought I was so clever posting that Colette with a cat photo on Instagram yesterday. I love it–the way she makes sure to hold the kitty so he (she?) is facing the camera squarely. And now I know, thanks to pyramus, that the little lion was probably more than just a pretty face to her.
My Colette pick is entirely conjecture–Bois d’Ascese: smoky woods and a hint of churchy incense. La nuit, tous les chats sont gris!
Oh dear. My comment about the photo was dead on about the one I posted, but not as much the one here! Similar is not the same–but as the saying goes about grey cats at night. . . .
https://www.instagram.com/p/CZQRpZgJdFk/
That’s a great photo — love how she’s posed the cat!
Ah, I like that one!
I’m a CP failure as per usual in SSS Tabac Aurea, applied last night before bed and still going strong.
Today is my Monday, but I won’t whine (much?). Hope everyone else who lives a normal life has a fabulous weekend!
Regardless, you smell wonderful. Tabac Aurea is one of my favorites from the line!
STRONGS!??
https://lireditelle.wordpress.com/2017/08/30/ce-que-lon-connait-moins-de-colette/
I liked these photos of Colette surrounded by perfumes from the period she operated a beauty salon and created her own brand of perfumes. She also liked glass paperweights and I like this image down below. I like the fact that like many women Colette had a kind of multi-hyphenated career path depending on circumstances. Journalist, performer, literary author, beauty parlour…it seems very real and self-supported rather than the type of author’s life where you can devote yourself wholly to writing while everyone else caters to your daily needs. I am wearing Vierge de Fer. First, because she writes about the Lillie’s in her mother’s gardens ( and all the Lillie’s are in flower here at present) and, second, because of being an Iron Maiden in a positive sense.
For music lovers: Roseanne Cash, The summer I read Colette.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-2vRUVuhCkY
https://www.google.com/search?q=colette+paperweights&rlz=1C9BKJA_enNZ934NZ934&oq=colette+paperweights&aqs=chrome..69i57.6968j0j7&hl=en-GB&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=NXmuovH3aykABM
Thank you for the photos and French article. And you smell magnifique in Vierge de Fer!
Thanks for posting these links! Now we know that Colette was a Big White Flower lover who disliked synthetics — perhaps Moon Bloom would be a good one to wear in her honor!
Oh thank you — somewhere I saw pictures of Colette in her salon ages ago, and had forgotten them.
SOTD = Powell’s by Powell’s
I’m on theme as Colette is a writer and writers write books and books are sold in bookstores!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CZSMbn0udNh/?utm_medium=copy_link
We were promised snow this weekend and we already got a light dusting preview. I got my provisions yesterday as I want to just hunker down. I hope I don’t lose power!
At Wegmans yesterday, I wanted to buy (and did) squid ? tentacles as they’re good air-fried. When I got to the counter, a woman had just picked up a bottle of disinfectant and I am not sure if she started spraying. She asked if I needed help and I said yes. She was about to open the refrigerated case and I asked if she was going to change her gloves. She said she just changed it to start cleaning and I pointed to the disinfectant bottle that she held prior to her offer for help. It was a very short stand-off but she was annoyed and not happy but she changed her gloves. I was trying to discreetly watch her to make sure she doesn’t sabotage the squid! So, if you were me, what would you do?
Ha! I need to try Powell’s!
And yes- you did the right thing. Who wants disinfectant on their food? When I worked in a deli I never handled food using the same gloves as cleaning.
I don’t know what that woman was thinking!
Two things:
Yes, the person at Wegman’s should have changed gloves between disinfectant and food handling. That’s Hygiene 101 there.
Lost power for a few minutes last night! Talk about annoying. The only possible reason I can think of is that someone hit a power pole or transformer.
If I was sassier, I would ask her if she were to be buying the squid, would she ask herself if she should change her gloves.
The mini power outages annoy me!
I would absolutely want fresh gloves.
I’m super wishing all of you in the snow path keep power!
Thanks, lillyjo!
Happy (Extremely Sunny) Friday, y’all!
1) SOTD: Already did Jicky earlier this week, so I am in Neon Rose from Floral Street. It’s actually a lovely, herbally greenish rose, really fresh and grounding while being a real rose–something that the young Colette may have worn while going around with Mathilde “Max” de Mornay.
2) I finally buckled down and bought a Pilates reformer- I was doing mat work and going in for Reformer work as needed. But HSN was having a sale on their beginner Reformer so I bit the bullet. According to my instructor, I can do a lot of mat work on the Reformer, and she will teach me how to do this with proper cueing. I can also continue to do weight training as well- it’s complimentary.
3) Boo to the porch pirates who stole my BBW package- it was going to go to a neighbor who liked my body spray fragrance!
A pox on those porch pirates!
Ugh I hate them!
Boo to the porch pirates is right! Thieves (and liars) are the worst!?
The absolute WORST! It wasn’t even for me, but a neighbor!
Knock on wood, we do not seem to have porch pirates in my town yet, but packages are getting misdelivered at a crazy rate lately, and people are slow to bring them to the right address.
I was going to ask google what a Pilates reformer was and decided I did not need to know 🙂
I’m still thinking of an appropriate perfume for this morning. We’re going to the city art gallery for an exhibition of Hilma af Klint’s paintings. I hadn’t heard of her until the exhibition arrived, and have learned that a lot of her work was inspired by spiritualism. We haven’t been to an exhibition in ages – nothing to do with Covid, just a sad excess if apathy.
I think an early Guerlain or Caron would fit, Fragrantica tells me Narcisse Noir dates back to 1911.
Oh nice! I spent a fun hour last weekend trying to pick a Hilma af Klint painting for our next picture challenge, so you will be prepared when I finally pick one!
Grabbed a decant at random and am now in L’Autre Oud, and will be for the rest of the day, and maybe the night. Nice, but not yearning for a full bottle.
That’s one of the oud + rose ones, isn’t it? So many to choose from!
My sample of Olivine Atelier Gigi perfume oil would have been perfect for this cp. Unfortunately it’s gone, so I’m in another Chanel. Eau premiere this time.
Friday is my day off, but it’s turned into my get &$#@ done day. Laundry, cleaning and groceries. Then I have the weekend to enjoy with my family. Plus I love heading into the weekend with a clean house. Win win.
My son fell last evening and dislocated his shoulder. Again.? We spent the better part of the evening in the ER. This is the third time and fortunately he was able to get in to see an orthopedic surgeon on Monday. Thankful he could get in so quickly. Hopefully he can get in for surgery asap.?
Sorry to hear about your son’s fall – sending positive energies his way for speedy healing!
Thanks Laila, positive energies much appreciated!
Oh my goodness! I know what your son is feeling. My shoulder dislocated 4x; I finally had the surgery.
Wishing him the best of luck and hope he can get in asap!
Thanks Gail! I hope so too.?
Oh no! I’m empathizing too, since I’ve had both shoulder surgery and hip dislocations. It’s just some of the worst pain ever. Best wishes for his surgery!
Ugh, yeah, pain! His surgery will be arthroscopic, so I’m hoping less pain….? Thanks for the wishes!
Sending healing vibes to your boy!
We had pretty much the same Friday,getting $&@* done!I usually do a morning Fri run of the boring stuff,handing in laundry,car wash,basics in the grocery department.All set for the weekend then!
Thanks johanob! Yeah, it’s a good feeling to be all set for the weekend.
Oh no! I wish for your son’s recovery- falls even when standing can be harmful!
Yes! Right inside the house, who’d have thunk. Thanks for the recovery wishes!
Ack! Sorry to hear about your son’s fall, but glad to hear that he was able to get an appointment with the surgeon so quickly. Wishing him all the best with that.
Thanks Jalapeño!
FWIW, Mr. Jalapeno had arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder in 2020 for other issues, and he healed up very quickly. The worst part for him was the PT.
Oh thanks Jalapeño! This is good to know! I hope he heals quickly too.?
So sorry this happened. I recall you mentioning he needed surgery before. Is this another one because he hurt it on the fall?
Thanks hajusuuri! No, he hasn’t had the surgery yet….had been putting it off.☹️
I’m so sorry! Hopefully Ritchie will be able to get his surgery and recover soon!
( trying to give a bit of a laugh, I know this is worrisome and very glad he is home while having to deal with this)
Thanks lillyjo! Yes, I’m glad he is home too, and wasn’t home alone when it happened.?
Scent twins with Robin today in Fracas. I haven’t worn this in forever.
Friday…big sigh. I want to sleep in this weekend, but probably won’t get to.
I just haven’t been feeling… fun?… enough for Fracas. Maybe if I wear it, the fun will come?
Hope you get some sleep this weekend!
Hey twin!
Greetings from Chi-Beria – it’s been the coldest week we’ve had thus far this winter. Today the temps are in the teens and another 3 inches or so of newfallen snow adds to the already-existing snow blanket. But the ?is shining now, and I’m grateful we live near Lake Michigan – the lake/effect snow we received this a.m. is light and fluffy and beautiful and the ? is shining. Although I love the Atlantic seacoast, I’m glad I’m not there today, that nor’easter sounds brutal! Hope you all stay safe!
My SOTD for today’s cp is Rochas Tocade, which I think perfectly suits the character Gigi. A beautiful rose/vanilla, in a long ago review Jessica described it as a floriental with a gourmand leaning, and I completely agree. Its name translates to ‘whim’ or ‘caprice,’ – both the scent and its whimsical bottle say ‘insouciant’ to me. Definitely a fragrance the free-spirited, carefree Gigi would have worn, yet it’s very cozy and comforting on a cold mid-winter day.
This week I will be focusing on these words of wisdom from my favorite yoga teacher: ‘What you resist, persists. Surrender and let go!’ Hope you can let go of something negative so all the good can fill your life. Wishing everyone a great weekend and week ahead!
We are expecting more snow, but I think not nearly as bad as other places. And it was actually warm enough to walk after dinner tonight, so we had a peaceful walk in light flurries.
I knew right away what I would do for this week’s CP. I’m honoring my favorite book by Colette, Chéri. I must have read it 20 times (and it gets better as you get older). The opening page describes the 49 year-old courtesan Lea waking up in her boudoir with her handsome 29-year-old lover Chéri. He is dancing around in the room demanding to wear her pearl necklace. The entire scene is so marvelous and evocative. The book is beautiful, intriguing, and sad. (I know there’s a movie from 2009, but I haven’t seen it. I need to find it!). So anyway, I am wearing Boucheron Initial. I have a tiny bottle of the EdP and it’s gone a bit off (it’s over 15 years old), but it’s still gorgeous and complex. Honey, florals, patchouli, wildflowers. Spicy too. It’s a crime it’s discontinued. But the real point is that like other Boucheron bottles it imitates a jewel, in this case a beautiful white pearl pendant. It’s perfect!
“He was standing in front of a pier-glass framed in the space between two windows, gazing at the reflection of a very youthful, very good-looking young man, neither too short nor too tall, hair with the blue sheen of a blackbird’s plumage. He unbuttoned his pajamas, displaying a hard, darkish chest, curved like a shield; and the whites of his dark eyes, his teeth, and the pearls of the necklace gleamed in the over-all rosy glow of the room.”
Ah, swoon!
I love that scene too — how Chéri is so frolicksome and petulant, and Lea so calm and worldly…
I have not read it in years, and I really should. Thanks for the reminder!
Now that I finished landscaping for the day and just took a shower – wearing my best perfume: Jardin Nocturne.
Oh and in between cleaning yards I had been actively looking for a nice violet perfume. I ended up finding (and buying) a discontinued if I understand correctly – Histoires des Parfums Blanc Violette.
Just reread and saw your perfume is discontinued. Money saved, but. I love Calypso Violet and Beekman came out with Violet perfume. That could have been a body spray or home spray, too.
Bee by Zoologist feels like there is violet in there, but I am probably wrong.
Hmmm Calypso Violet? Must check it out. I gotta do some research on Beekman too then.
Bee doesn’t smell like violet to me per se but I know what You mean – it has that same sheer feel.
Went with Jicky, the vintage EDT, and thunked my little decant in the process. I think it’s time I finally buy a bottle.
Have to tell you how ridiculous I was this morning when I couldn’t find one of the Solstice Scents samples I just bought earlier this month. I’ve got a bunch of perfume and bubble wrap clutter under the end table at my side of the couch, and there are decants and samples all over my end table. I turned the whole area odder searching for a sample, then I finally stick my hand between the couch cushion and arm, and there was the sample! At least I found it and got some clutter thrown away and better organized as a result.
Yay on finding your sample! All I ever find in that spot is old popcorn.
All I ever find are Legos.
?
I get lots of cat hair/fur, and the occasional crumpled up receipt.
Ha, I get my fair share of popcorn and other food bits there too! But usually, it’s our small remote control for our Firestick that gets lodged in the cushions.
? Remote controls are always problematic!
Hmmm, how about Cuir Ottoman?
Also sampled Masque Hemingway this morning – appropriate for a “woman of letters”, no?
A wonderful vetiver, but then I have a lot of wonderful vetivers… *sigh*
How many is too many??
More frustrations with technology today. For some reason, my phone has not rung when a couple of phone calls came thru today. But my text notifications are working just fine. That thumping noise you hear is me banging my head on a wall… ? Rackum frackum bannerfoot!
Some half-hearted snowing so far today. It’s really hard to believe that accumulating snow is going to come from this. ⛄ But I don’t have to go anywhere tomorrow, so I will stay inside and enjoy all kinds of goodies.
SOTD = Alien Le Gout du Parfum (The Taste of Fragrance) EdP. I’d thought about Womanity in honor of Colette; however, I just wasn’t feeling it. So I decided that pyramus had a good idea and went with a Mugler in my Perfume Wardrobe.
Oh, how aggravating, can you change the ringtone for texts.
I bet you smell great, it’s a rarity now too.
The Taste of Fragrance Alien has a lovely caramel note up front that eventually dissolves into the familiar jasmine amber of its parent. I kinda wish the caramel would hang around a little longer, but that’s the way of top notes.
A friend of mine had that issue with her cell. She has an IPhone. There is a tini mute button on her phone that she hit unknowingly. We fixed her phone in just a few minutes. I suggest you Google or You Tube it. Good luck!
Every so often my phone just does that. It doesn’t help that the area I live in is notorious for bad cell service.
Tech woe twins. I hope you can get it sorted out quickly!
We’ve been having issues with the sound on the TV since we got here. All of a sudden there would be a high-pitched screeching instead of the sound from the show. We were told to switch the internet feed off to watch regular cable but for streaming (YouTube, Peacock or Netflix) we need the internet on. That worked for YT and Peacock but not Netflix. My hubby just figured out that it was a sound setting that had to get changed; no Dolby 5.1. I’m not terribly technically savvy so I’m glad he figured that out. No one could have told us that though and save all the aggravation!
I will find out later tonight if my phone is still acting up when my brother calls. I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s one of those things that just happens every so often.
And, of course, the ring tone always works perfectly when I get a spam call! ??
My phone just went through an OS upgrade although I don’t recall it ever having reset the settings.
No software updates here. Mr. Jalapeno has complained about the same thing happening to him every so often, and his phone is a different make than mine.
I used to have a salted caramel body butter that I would layer with The taste of fragrance. It really brought the caramel out all day.
I’m looking forward to what the far drydown of this one will be like tomorrow morning.
My phone does that too, at random — I’ll suddenly get a voicemail from a call six hours earlier that never rang through, for no good reason. Frankly, I don’t know why people find technology so entrancing. How many years has Microsoft Word existed, and *still* you’ll go to add a space between two paragraphs and it’ll decide that you also want the font size drastically increased and the text turned pink…
There’s a reason why I have LibreOffice installed on my laptop as a backup. It’s to undo the random crap that MS Word does. ?
Mercury is in Retrograde, Jalapeno.?
The snow is getting icy here.
There’s that. Then there’s the fact that my cell phone is a darn cell phone.
The snow/sleet/maybe rain mix is really wet here. No Champagne powder snow at all.
Great photo Robin, she looks like a cat herself.
In Vivienne Westwood Boudoir for La Vagabonde, sadly discontinued this perfume.
But at least you have the Vivienne Westwood perfume and are enjoying it!
Ah yes, thank you, I’m glad of my back-up mania in this case (sometimes I’m sorry about it), it is powdery but unusual and modern.
Another one I have not read in years…I need to start a Colette binge this summer.
I could follow you in a Colette summer binge, La Vagabonde is a favorite.
Jicky EDT for me!
+1.
Sotd is vintage Jicky Parfum from a beautiful little bottle I found at an estate sale. It is such an incredible fragrance, so rich, unique and complex.
Whereas with a more recent version of the EDT I get a challenging whiff of something akin to…please excuse my graphic description…the bad breath some people have that comes from the gut…the Parfum is perfection.
Oh, and I meant to add that I have a special affinity for Leslie Caron because my mother named me after her. I don’t think she necessarily followed her film career; the name just captured her imagination when it was floating in the late 50’s/early 60’s zeitgeist.
That’s a sweet story.
I’ve never smelled Jicky. Which became Kicky in my spell check.?
That’s a rather awesome spell check switch!
Here’s something…
2 weeks ago Mr. Grumpy pants at work had his last day and said he was retiring. I didn’t say anything, have just been holding my breath before I started dancing. Sure enough I found out today he changed his mind!
My sotd is/was No.19 Poudre. I copied the Chanel idea from someone earlier in the week.
Noooooooooo!
He was messing with you. Sorry, lillyjo.
Well Phooey on Old Grumpypants!
No. 19 Poudre was totally the way to go under the circumstances. Great strength with a light touch will be required as you continue to deal with MG.
Thank you to each and everyone of you who left such touching messages about my girl, yesterday. I read them several times and cried feeling the love.
My sweet dog wouldn’t even drink for me yesterday. She survived the night and the vet crammed us in. She got fluids, but that’s it. She was barely awake when she went. A friend found a traveling euthanasia vet and I’m calling her, just to be ready. I can’t expect her to drive to my house with the 2 feet of snow and 50 mph wind. Just ? she’s ok through the weekend.
I did like pyramus, a TM week. Another Muse with Angel lotion for my baby.
Thank you all for your kind words, thoughts, wishes and virtual hugs.
Oh Honey, You are touching my heart right now. Huge hugs and prayers go to You and Your Girl. I am so sad right now – I feel like crying with You. My heart goes to You!!
Sending you and your doggie lots of love. It’s so hard letting them go. Nima has been gone a year and I still miss him and his funny ways.
It sucks so much being in that situation, when you know that the end is near for your beloved furry friend.
More hugs.
Praying with you AnniePerfumes.
Stay safe from the storm.
I’m so sorry. The love you have for your sweet pup is incredibly moving. I’m sure she feels it, even now, as a great comfort.
Oh, I missed that sad news. I’m so sorry!
I’m so sorry about your sweet pup!
Just read this now. I am so sorry. Sending ???.