It's Tuesday, plus World Press Freedom Day and International Sun Day. (And the swapmeet is open through the end of the day, or until I remember to close it, whichever comes first.) What fragrance are you wearing?
I’m in Monocle + Comme des Garçons Scent One: Hinoki for a chilly spring morning. Tea at the moment is Kusmi Tchai of the Tiger.
Reminder: on 5/6, wear a fragrance by Cartier, if you have one.
And for those of you who like to plan ahead, see Scent of the day ~ Friday community projects 2022, where I'll try (but obviously sometimes fail) to always have the next five or six weeks mapped out in advance.
Note: the Cartier Chinese New Year Tea Set from 2021 ("Chinese New Year 2021 tea set comprised of a teapot and 4 porcelain fine bone China teacups") is still available for $1,370.
I do way more than my share of griping about the weather here on NST but honestly, it’s May, and yet it’s 50F and absolutely pouring rain. Sigh. I’m wearing Black Cashmere to warm up, it’s helping. I have a long wet day of running errands including taking Mom for her second booster.
Don’t worry, I do more than my share too. Good luck on the errands & hope your mom has zero side effects 🙂
But you smell good! Actually, you smell great.
If it makes you feel any better, I live in New England, and in my head, I change the little ditty about April flowers to May. 😁
Same weather here. “They” say we will turn the corner next week.
Eh, that’s normal in the Northwest. I expect reliable sun and temperatures around 70 sometime around July 4. (I don’t know why the weather in Canada follows the US calendar, but somehow it always seems to.)
I don’t mind folks grousing about the weather. It’s something I can commiserate with. It’s sneezing season where I am at, and I’ve been hitting the Kleenex hard in the past week or two. At least it isn’t bothering the cats this year, from what I can tell… 🤧
I normally have some itchy eyes and sneezing for a couple of days but this year is bad for allergies here too.
I’m in L’Artisan AdV EdP this morning, from the last of a small decant. That’s a plink!
Listening to Hawaiian slack key CDs and gearing up for my day.
Tea is basic: Taylor’s Scottish Breakfast with a little cinnamon sugar.
Done and dusted, and you do smell good.
L’Artisan Parfumeur Vanilia, half vanilla, half the flowers that spawn it, exactly sweet enough. A work of art.
🙂
That’s one scent I regret swapping away! Now impossible to be found.
I’m wearing Un Matin d’Orage from the last of a manufacturer’s sample. This is the only gardenia scent that I like. I actually recently got a mini of this.
I did not know they made a mini!
Ooh, that sounds tempting! When I was a kid, a woman at church always smelled divine — turned out hers was a gardenia perfume, and my mother hated it. Wish I knew what it was. This was the 70s, on the East Coast of the U.S.
My mother wore Jungle Gardenia by Tuvaché back in the late 60’s, so it could have been that. It was advertised as being a favorite of Elizabeth Taylor, so I think a lot of women wore it. I just took a look on Evilbay, and the prices are eye-watering, so consider yourself warned. 😉
Good morning!
Sotd is Love les Carottes.
The weather is beautiful today, I think I will take a long walk this afternoon.
Currently drinking rooibos with honey.
You smell great, and I envy your weather!
Plink! Did L’Artisan make a frag for Aedes?
Hawaiian slack key is one of my favorite genres of music. Do you have a favorite?
Oops. This was supposed to be a reply to Nancyleandros above.
Ooh, glad to see someone else likes slack key. I like Keola Beamer and Ledward Kaapana.
Deeper Blue Kohala, Slack Key Guitar and SKG Volume 2 are lovely too. Those three are all from Palm Records.
Do you have favorites?
I haven’t listened to enough to really have any favorites yet, but I love the song “wahine ‘llikea” on an album by Dennis Kamakahi. Thanks so much for the suggestions! Mahalo.
Yes — that is a beautiful song!
Yes, before Aedes starting doing their own.
https://nstperfume.com/2008/09/09/lartisan-parfumeur-aedes-de-venustas-eau-de-parfum-fragrance-review/
Ah, right. Thanks, Robin.
I wish someone would bring it back!
Me too! It’s wonderful.
Going back to work after 3 days in a row off. My dad comes back from California tomorrow night and the dogs will be overjoyed to have him home. Wearing no 22 edt today.
Sorry you have to go back Dawn!
SOTD is Le Galion Iris — crisp, clean floral iris with just the barest hint of carrot in the top notes. I don’t get any of the powderiness or musk that’s supposedly in there, nor the lily or rose. On me it just feels clean and crisp and iris-y.
This sounds lovely. A mention here recently of another Le Galion perfume has made me wonder if I could do some more testing of their range, the next time I’m near a stockist…so thank you for mentioning this!
Hey all! It’s been a minute since I commented, but I’ve been reading :). It’s a cold and rainy day here (again), so I’ll be spending my day off inside.
I thunked a sample of Divine EdP, which I’m really liking. Will switch to something else after my shower.
I started a bunch of tomato and cucumber seeds indoors in preparation for planting them in the community garden when it finally warms up, and most of them germinated and are doing well! So exciting. I even bought a grow light kit to make sure they get enough light.
Congratulations on the seedlings! I hope you are rewarded with a bounty of vegetable goodness.
Thank you! I hope so too!
It is so amazing how much biomass can grow from such tiny seeds. Enjoy your veggie plants!
It is! The cucumber seedlings are huge already.
Waves to socks!! And do save me a tomato in August!
Will do, Robin!
Your thunked sample was a Goodie!
Hope that your seedlings grow up and give you lots of yummy veg. 🍅🥒
Thank you! Fingers crossed it goes well!
Alahiiiiine for me today
I finished To Paradise yesterday, I have two books waiting one is A Little Life by the same author, and the other is The Lover by Marguerite Duras.
Spring makeup and outfit today
You smell yummy 😍
I think I do too!!!
The Lover has one of my favourite passages. It’s a description of a dress of faded silk. In fact, the whole book is full of great images and sounds and scents. Hope you enjoy it.
I will keep you posted
Ooh, Duras! I have read a couple (possibly including The Lover but I don’t really remember the specifics, just the dreamy quality) and I really like her novels for their mood and also, they’re pretty short so a sense of accomplishment is achieved without taking years 🤣
After 720 pages of To Paradise something shorter is welcomed
I’ve read A Little Life, but not To Paradise. I’d be interested in your thoughts on how they compare, after you have finished A.L.L.
From what I hear from my book friends ALL is much different than To Paradise
SOTD is the real absolute last droplets that could be coaxed from my travel decant of Hiris. The weather here is divine (cloud/sun and around 60F).
This week is the Galway Theatre Festival, which is essentially a fringe festival. We’ve bought tickets for four shows — they are affordable, the highest price being €15 — and the first is this evening. Yay! Live theater!
What fun! Hope it is great.
Oh, love that! Enjoy it!
I worked a half day today and now just doing some cleaning.
My sotd is Mariah Carey M.
This always reminds me of JadainGA. Hope she is well.
I hope she’s well, too. She used to occasionally comment on my IG feed, but she’s been absent there as well.
I haven’t seen her either!
Yay for a half day of work!
hajusuuri-level sprays of Sintra today!🍊🍨😁
Reek on, She-ra!
Oh, you smell really good!
Love it!
Yesterday started out rainy and cold but we hit the jackpot as day turned sunny, breezy (some might say windy), and beautiful! The sunset was gorg! I’ve seen some pretty amazing sunsets in the PNW and the central plains that rival and often exceed tropical Florida sunsets.
Wearing Tonka Imperiale from a manufactures spray sample. Lovely stuff! Also got an email from Dame stating they have a new vanilla perfume releasing (looking for She-ra with this news, but she probably already knows) soon. Sounds like a limited edition?
For entertainment I’ve been watching all the memes of the Depp vs. Heard trial and it’s enough fodder to last a good long time. Oy! Painful to watch some of these lawyers statements and questions. JD seems unflappable, though…
Facebook Reels is convinced I want to learn all about the Depp v Heard trial, so I’ve seen a surprising number of clips from it. Depp is suuuuper charming, so I hope he isn’t lying >.>
I’m not on Facebook or TikTok, but my Instagram feed is loaded with memes. I think it’s my own fault since I clicked on a single meme and IG now thinks I live to see this type thing. No more clickity-click for me! 😬
Yeah that trial and all the memes are really something.
JD is the one and only famous person I’ve seen IRL. When we were in NYC in the fall of 1999 we waited outside the David letterman studio with a small crowd of about a dozen people for him to come out after the taping. When he did, he was so gracious. A true gentleman. He took the time to sign every autograph and pose for pictures with fans. This was pre cellphones of course. A simpler time. Sigh.
Anyway, ever since that I’ve had a soft spot for him.
I can imagine your excitement! I can’t say I’m Team JD or Team AH because the truth is probably in the middle somewhere. I will say it’s very sad to see him at this dark spot in his life and career now.
Scent: Aerin Hibiscus Palm from a roll-on.
Tea: Upton Mist Valley Estate
Project: Sorting closet and discarding! Way overdue; it feels like a weight is lifting!
Reading: Working on Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Perhaps could use something lighter.
Have a great day!
I love closet cleaning. Enjoy!
Come visit me — loads of potential joy for you over here, with my messy closets!
Oh, loved Station Eleven, but get where you’re coming from. About six months before I moved to Germany in 2015, I read it. And then our first few weeks in Germany we were in this horrible ’60s development of anonymous tall apartment buildings during a heat wave, where no one was outside and the whole area was completely deserted, and we had to do our laundry in this weird laundry room that used weird, non-monetary tokens that had to be bought, and had arcane rules for getting them and putting them into the machines…and it felt just like Station Eleven.
Commando so far today, since I got my second booster yesterday and am going back to bed. I forgot what it’s like!
Maybe later it will be SMN Iris. It feels like an iris sort of day.
Hope you feel better AnnE!
Thank you! It should be over by tomorrow.
Yay for the second booster, even if you aren’t feeling so great right now.
Thanks, Jalapeño!
Joining my fellow Midwesterners in hoping this weather will change. Any day now!
I’m in my old friend Vanille Insensee.
I’m not sure if it’s the weather but I’m feeling very meh about perfumes lately.😒 Maybe I need to dig into the sample stash and change things up.
If your sephora sells Phlur you should test out Missing Person. It’s a your skin but better perfume that I think you would like. It smells a little 90’s musky to me.
Ooh, that sounds right up my alley! I will check it out. And now I have an earworm
https://youtu.be/1WDly1Oc_P4
Yes! 🎶🤘
Hah! I *knew* it would be that song! Good one!
Accidentally dumped about a quarter of a sample of MPG Cuir Fetiche on myself this morning. Thankfully, it smells nice and really isn’t big on me.
Time to sink back into proposal writing. What kind of idiot volunteers for this?
The selfless kind of idiot.
I did the same thing with a sample of Sweet Taboo last week. I’m not even sure how I fumbled the vial, but my shirt smelled good that day.
Haha, thanks, Vee 🙂
I haven’t sniffed ST, but I am glad your shirt smelled good and not overwhelming!
Good luck with that proposal Koyel!! I’m sure you are getting some sort of points from the universe.
Thanks, Robin! I need all the luck I can get. I sure hope I’m getting points from the universe, but also from the higher-ups here at the end of the fiscal year as they start contemplating promotions 🙂 (or whenever that sort of thing happens here; I genuinely have no idea how promotions work here, or even what my “next level” is…hmm…)
Well, once you get that proposal done, worth finding out!
Wearing Comme des Garçons Scent Two Laurel. Odd, but nice.
We are cousins, and I do love that one!
I’ve had horrible tooth ache the past few days . For me, toothache and sea sickness are two truly miserable experiences. I am seeing the dentist today so I hope the cause is located and fixed. I spent part of yesterday darning holes to take my mind off things. My grandmother was an amazing darner and taught me. Sadly, I am rubbish at it. Wearing Bois de Vanille, yum.
Ugh, toothaches are indeed miserable. Hope you feel better, soon!
I hope you feel better after seeing the dentist!
Just the thought of a toothache sends me into a panic.
Ugh, very good luck to you! Hope it is found and fixed quickly and painlessly.
I wish someone had taught me to properly darn. Instead, I know how to knit, and I’ve tried to reconstruct what I imagine darning is from knowing that. I imagine you’re much better at darning than I am.
Hope that you got answers and relief at the dentist!
Kanuka, I’m so sorry you are hurting. I hope you feel better soon. Dental pain is miserable.
Hello everyone. I began the day with AC Rose Anonyme as I was dressed in pink and wanted to match it in some way (this seems to be how I face work and other challenges these days: in pink!) and it has been wonderful company. Now in Armani Privé Rose Milano, which is bright and pretty and I can wear it without feeling I need to “save” it. That’s a good thought to have about some bottles, not all of them need to be treasured!
That was a very rosy day indeed, RA is lovely, I don’t know the Armani but it seems it’s not a favorite of yours.
I confess, I bought it in an airport during a stressful trip, so I should have waited until I could test it more (it was expensive and I could have spent that money on a better AP or any other perfume, if I had had one in mind that day). It is a very pleasant rose, however, bright and clear and cheerful but discreet, and with no white musk base (to my nose, anyway) so I think that by using it freely I can recover something enjoyable from my impulse buy (as well as the lesson it taught me, of course). I do need to focus more on the wearing of perfume, and less on the acquisition and hoarding of it, at least for a while…
Rose Anonyme is my favorite from Atelier Cologne. I should dig out my travel spray! 🌹
Still commando, five days into fostering. I imagine any scent wouldn’t really be that effective anyway, since my bedroom (where the kittens are quarantined) smells very much like a barn. They are adorable little monsters!
Les petites monstres! I wish I could come over and play with them:)
Kittens are such cute little agents of chaos! 🙀
So cute!
I was in Lys Soléia, I like this older Aqua Allegoria but it was a little early in the season to smell beachy so tonight I changed to Berdoues Maasai Mara which smells gourmand and 😋 but not too much, very well balanced.
I’m not ready for beachy scents at all!
I’m wearing TF’s Noir de Noir today, I think of it as rose, but there is a lot more going on.
I couldn’t get excited about the Met Gala last night, because I thought the theme was dumb and so were many of the outfit I saw while casually looking at headlines. But today I’ve seen some amazing things with good analyses on the fashion bloggers Tom and Lorenzo’s website. As a jewelry lover I positive gawked at Michelle Yeoh’s incredible necklace that goes with her stunning jade green gown. But the showstopper imho is Native American model and activist Quannah Chasinghorse and her special Native-artisan made jewelry–wow! Here’s a link if you’re at all curious: https://tomandlorenzo.com/2022/05/met-gala-quannah-chasinghorse-in-atelier-prabal-gurung-red-carpet-fashion-style/
So, our subject is supposed to be perfume, isn’t it. I’m wearing Grandiflora Queen of the Night and enjoying it a lot. A floral scent that isn’t bland, in fact, it’s got some kind of nice spicy element to it that I can’t identify. I must go look it up now.
I posted my comment before I saw yours so Hi House Twin!
That’s a floral I really like, too. Had a sample or split and went right through it. 👍🏼
I’m a big fan of Chasinghorse and the jewelry. The gown, not so much. I’m wondering if she is a related in any way to Quanah Parker who was a war leader and the son of a Comanche chief Peta Nocana and Cynthia Ann Parker, who was a white settlers child that was kidnapped at about 9 years old in Texas. Although, Chasinghorse is Sioux, I’m wondering about her family history. “Quanah” seems popular, although spelled a bit differently, and means “smell or odor” according to wiki.
Poor Cynthia Ann was kidnapped back by whites when she was 33ish and ran away several times in unsuccessful attempts to rejoin her Comanche family. She had a sad and lonely ending. Her son, Quanah Parker, was a huge figure in Native American/White history.
https://www.humanitiestexas.org/programs/tx-originals/list/cynthia-ann-parker
That is such a pretty scent!
Same here — so many people just seemed so far off. I find these Met Gala themes are just suggestions, and people ignore them to wear what they want. I love Quannah’s look — of course, none of the sites I followed picked it up. Grr.
I have to admit that I liked the Statue of Liberty inspired dress worn by Blake Lively…
Quannah Chasinghorse was absolutely stunning in those photos.
Feeling grateful today wearing a recent swap* with a very generous NSTer that arrived on my doorstep before I went to work this morning.
*Grandiflora Magnolia Grandiflora Michel – such a perfect fragrance for this very green and still a little cool spring day.
Oh, nice swap!
I wanted something tame for the office today because we had an in-person departmental meeting, so I went with Lost Alice. I smell like a slice of carrot cake and a cup of earl grey with milk, and that’s fine by me.
Tea this morning was chocolate chai.
Venturing out to a restaurant tonight for the first time since pre-COVID for a departmental dinner with a colleague who is here from Germany. Pretty sure you all know how I feel about it…
I haven’t done any socializing with colleagues, even to one where 2 Managing Directors hosted a few weeks ago. On the other hand, I’ve had a decent number of close family get-together, with another one coming at nephew’s graduation.
Good luck with that dinner tonight! Keep a mask handy, maybe?
I’ve done that with my recent restaurant outings. If I am not actively eating or drinking, I’m masked. Yeah, it’s a pain. But it makes me feel better.
I hope the dinner was good and that you were able to enjoy it!
All the freebies have new owners-to-be.
SOTD = Frederic Malle Superstitious
No IG yet but may post it later. I wore 2 sprays because office!
Can a Spode be a Spode if it’s made in China? 🤔 I got a pair of “refined” cups that was marked Spode. They were cheapish at $7 each (marked down from $12). Regardless, I am having a devil of a time scraping off the sticker residue so if anyone has a surefire method to remove them, please do tell!
You smell wonderful today!
Re: your gunky sticker residue. Have you tried using acetone to get rid of it? Assuming that you can safely use acetone on whatever the goo is stuck on. Failing that, I have sometimes been able to remove that kind of adhesive by using a piece of Scotch Tape to lift off the leftover glop.
I may try these techniques. Thanks!
Those stickers are horrible! You can maybe try a bit of dish soap and water foamed up and let it sit on the sticker to allow it time to dislodge the goo.
I also have a product called Goof Off that I use from time to time to remove over-stuck stickers. It’s in a yellow and red container that looks like an oil can.
http://www.goofoffproducts.com
Oh good. Thanks. Will check Amazon and it may arrive by the time my other stuff gets to Whole Foods – I like the convenience.
Stickers are a struggle. I use a hair dryer to heat the sticker and goo..then peel it off ..or let it sit in rubbing alcohol for a couple minutes..to loosen it..peel it off..then if any sticker is left..rub it off with the alcohol..the 90 percent works better than the more diluted ones.
Ordered!
You smell fantastic!
And very perfumey!😀
You’re right…it’s one of my perfumiest perfumes!
Adding another sticker removal tip: when I can’t find my goo-gone, I spray some Windex on the label and let it soak in for a bit. Then it just wipes off quite easily.
Great tip! Thanks.
This tip is a day late, but a small amount of olive oil may do the trick. I’ve used it to remove stickers on the sides of books I buy from Goodwill.
Song of the Day: https://youtu.be/8AHCfZTRGiI
A local radio station in my area has a feature that they call “First Song First”. They will play the original song, and then immediately afterwards, play a remake or cover that was much more commercially successful. This song was one from last Thursday’s set.
It got me thinking about a possible CP. “I liked the flanker better!” Robin, has NST ever done something like that before?
I am feeling more rested and human today after getting some decent-ish sleep last night. Took care of a phone call and getting groceries this afternoon. It still amazes me how gawd-awful I feel when I am sleep deprived.
SOTD = back in 31 RC EdT.
I love that idea! I have a playlist of covers that run through as many versions as I have of the same song.
You smell fantastic, and I’m glad you got more sleep!
I’ve been surprised by some of the songs that have turned out to be cover versions! For example, Blondie’s “Call Me” is a techno-ish remake of the original.
I hope that you get some good sleep tonight!
Glad you got a little sleep.
I like your cp idea!
Thanks lillyjo! I am feeling much more like myself today and not a mere husk of a human.
That’s a fantastic cp idea!
I saw your note last night about aerating but was probably too late to comment. We don’t normally aerate the garden as it’s not that big, but we have new gardeners in our complex this year who seem to “get it”. I did notice the lawn was just aerated so there’s hope. The soil we have is so clay-like. We’ve done a few things to try to break it down such as sand and gypsum but it’s not been enough. Anything that survives there is usually a bonus. I will get my dandelion remover out and try to aerate and remove some at the same time! Thanks for the suggestion.
There’s a lot of clay soil where I live, too. You could probably make bricks out of it!
Very melancholy … and I also watched the motivational speech of Admiral McRaven.
Glad you got more sleep and you, of course, smell good!
Thank you!
I like the Johnny Cash cover of the song more than the NIN version. And I listened to a fair amount of Nine Inch Nails back in the day.
Scent twins today. I love 31 RC, but always wear it sparingly as I never want to run out.
Well hiya scent twin!
Great idea for a CP! I’m glad you slept better. I’m also a wreck after a bad night.
Very late reply…we did a similar question once in a weekend poll…the problem as a cp is that there aren’t enough! In other words, even more people than usual would be unable to participate.
I’m in Lubin Korrigan today, in my week of randomly pulling samples. Another one of those stupid dabbers that don’t last long, though this is lasting longer than Altruist did yesterday.
I need more sleep. Got up insanely early today to get the kid off to early track practice, and then spent three hours trying to get the Washington State Ferries site to cough up reservations for this summer. They open reservations up for all summer reservations on the same day at 7 a.m., and then their hamster-powered website gets slammed and everyone times out trying to get a reservation because they have a 25-minute limit on their shopping cart and it’s impossible to load all the pages necessary to check out in 25 minutes. It happens every year. Apparently no one cares to fix it. But I am hoping we can actually see my family on their annual summer getaway this year.
I hope you were able to get all of your reservations made 🙂
I had the same thing happen to me this morning and was cursing the site. I woke up before 7am to make sure to get ferry reservations for our summer vacation and spent over an hour when all was said and done. Hamster-powered indeed!
Oh, I hope you got your reservations! Sounds like it was maybe faster for you? I kept getting so close — right to the payment page, with 3 minutes left in the cart, and then I’d get either a 503 error or the cart would time out before the payment went through.
I did finally get mine after about an hour and 1/2.
I kept telling myself that if the reservations were all taken by the time I got through, I could always try 2 weeks ahead of time when they release more spots.
Fingers crossed you get your reservations soon (or maybe you did already?) so that you don’t have to worry about it. Ferry anxiety is the worst!
I should have read further and am so glad you got your reservations!
Oooooh, I *hate* those underpowered websites!
I know! They’re *always* the reservation sites for things like ferries and parks / camping, and they always do something stupid like open up all the reservations for the summer the same day. BC Parks did that back in 2020, but I think after the disaster they had the good sense to replace the system with a new one last year. Washington State Ferries just doesn’t care.
I did get the reservations, after 3 hours and 10 minutes of trying.
I was going to continue SL week, but I was derailed by my small-ish sample order that arrived yesterday afternoon.
I’m in Heeley Blanc Poudre today; I ended up putting on the whole vial. It’s floating very lightly around me. Although it’s a powdery, rice-type scent I think I was still expecting a bit more of SOMETHING. This is definitely an office-safe fragrance.
Odd. I don’t usually think of Heeley as having quiet perfumes. Then again, I’ve only tried 3 of them so that may not be a big enough sample size (no pun intended).
I agree! I’ve tried Bubblegum Chic (not quiet) and have a sample of Cardinal in the wings.
Bubblegum Chic?! That sounds great. And possibly nostalgic?
It’s pretty fun. I have a sample and you only need a bit. Apparently it’s been recently renamed Jasmine OD.
Very interested to read your impressions of these Heeleys! I have tried Jasmine Od (last Sept I think) and it was fun but not the jasmine I was expecting. I have a sample of Chypre 21 and love that one, and I want to try a few more…so thank you!
Another one here with a crummy night’s sleep, I’m hoping tonight will be better. I’m wearing a sample, Dusita Le Pavilion d’Or. I used to sample and if I didn’t like them I’d just let them evaporate, but now I feel like I ought to use them. I think I will run a Zoologist split for Splitmeet and I can put some in the packages as extras.
Wearing Oasis for the first time today to go along with the house inspection this morning. The inspector was very happy with the state of the house, especially the roof. The appraisal happened this afternoon but we won’t get the results for a few days. So far so good.
Oh yay!!! A good roof is a bonus.
The Frederic Malle chatter in the last few days made me go find the rose coffret that I bought a year or two ago. I dabbed on Une Rose and Rose & Cuir, both very nice but not quite FB worthy roses for me.