It's Friday and happy National Carrot Cake Day. RIP Paco Rabanne. Birthdays: Charles Henry Turner, Gertrude Stein, Alvar Aalto, Mabel Mercer, Simone Weil, Nathan Lane.
Our community project for today is Edition 8 of the Picture Challenge. Wear a perfume that matches the image, which is detail from Women of Shangri-La, 2002, by Yayoi Kusama.* (You can see the entire installation if you scroll down here; I cannot post it for copyright reasons).
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.
According to Kusama, “Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity. When we obliterate nature and our bodies with polka dots, we become part of the unity of our environment.” The quote made me think right away of Comme des Garçons Ouarzazate, so that's what I'm wearing.
Reminder: on 2/10, wear a fragrance with rose, if you have one. (This is a repeat from 2016).
And for those of you who like to plan ahead, see Scent of the day ~ Friday community projects 2023, where I'll try (but obviously sometimes fail) to always have the next five or six weeks mapped out in advance.
*Extra reading: Yayoi Kusama at Wikipedia, Dot on: The rise and rise of Yayoi Kusama at Thames and Hudson, 'Determined to have her story told': Retrospective casts new light on Yayoi Kusama's seven-decade career at CNN, Yayoi Kusama: the world's favourite artist? at The Guardian, The Infinity Experience With Yayoi Kusama at TheViewDeck.
Note: top image is detail from English: Yayoi Kusama Exhibition via Wikimedia Commons, some rights reserved.
I am going against the environment today, not very Yayoi like, in Songes. The feels like is 13F outside and I smell like the heated skin on the beach.
Today is the perfect day to curl up with the book but I have errands and meetings with friends.
It’s crazy out there! We are lucky, we are currently at 25. Agree it’s the perfect day to curl up with a book.
I had no idea what to pick for the cp, so I’m in Coco edp. Joining others who’ve worn it this week. Omg, it really is so good.
Just a single spray because I’m meeting a friend for coffee. I’ll re-up again later. We are -8 here this morning.🥶 Hopefully my car starts. The weather is supposed to be warmer already tomorrow, so this cold snap will be short lived.
I’ve been looking at flights to Florida this week, and it looks like a spring trip with my girls to see my parents may actually happen!🤩🤞 Flights for spring break week are crazy expensive, but if we shift our dates a bit they are about a third of the price.
I thought I picked an easy artist but maybe not so much?
Good luck getting your car started, and getting to Florida!!
Thanks Robin! The car started.👍
Hiya, scent twin!
Hey there! You were one of my inspirations for today! We smell great, don’t we?
We sure do! And probably well into tomorrow, LOL.
Wearing Eris Parfums Scorpio Rising. Another sample that is thunked!
Freezing temperatures and high winds have arrived. Right now it feels like 10 degrees and it is just the beginning of the cold wave.
Having my second cup of coffee and going out for lunch later with some coworkers to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
Happy Friday, everyone! ☕️
Have a fun lunch!
Thank you, Robin! We had a nice time!
I was thinking the women of Shangri-La might smell like roses,so I am in Lush Rose Jam.So yummy.And a perfect segway into next week’s cp!
Happy Weekend!
My standby weekend as per usual for the first weekend every month.Lovely rain falling now,that heatwave is gone!
🌹✌🏻🤗
Here it’s bitter cold…and windy. Send your heat wave here
Stay warm!XO’s
You smell great, of course!
Thank you!🌹
Glad to hear that your heatwave has broken!
I’m twinning with Robin today in Ouarzazate which will be gone by this afternoon when my young perfumeista in training is coming over, bringing two other friends! I’m excited! We’re sampling independent perfumers today, Imaginary Authors, En Voyage, Zoologist, Bourbon French and Hove. And it’s also turned into a tea party so I’m baking a pan of cookies, if I can remember how to make them. I’ll be giving away samples and possibly making decants.
Your young friends are very lucky! And you are doing the world a service by helping educate them about perfume, and making cookies to boot! Well done!
Thanks! Last time it was Chanel and Guerlain classics, Coco edp was the one she liked best 😊 As for the cookies, they will take what’s left home so I’m not tempted.
That sounds like so much fun! Which Hove scents do you plan on showing them? I have a soft spot for that little House!
I have Fascinator and then some samples….Tea Olive among others. I love to go there when we’re in NO.
I love Tea Olive! I don’t remember Fascinator..
Fascinator is very mossy and green, I love it 😊
I love Fascinator!
No wonder you’re feeling excited! It’s great to be able to share a passion with enthusiastic beginners.
Hey twin! Save me a cookie!
Oh what fun
enjoy!
Indie perfumers, and freshly baked cookies for perfume newbies? That’s taking Friday to a whole new level!
Gosh, your gathering sounds wonderful.
In truth I don’t really feel that artist, so I’m just doing my own thing for no CP in I Profumi di Firenze Terra Di Siena, dark and earthy and herbaceous. (There’s a brief, hallucinatory moment at the top where it smells exactly like a freshly opened can of mixed nuts, so strange.)
You are not alone! Sorry everyone!
No CP points for me: I layered the drydown of Vanille Havane with vintage Shalimar EDT and it is such an amazing combo!
I’ve never tried any of the vanilla-centric Shalimar flankers, but this combo got me looking into them now.
I love Shalimar Madagascar version.
Ooh, your layering combo sounds amazing!
Tea by Commodity. This is the worst yet. I’m smelling the alcohol base and nothing else. It may have gone off, since my discovery set is at least six or seven years old. I’m looking forward to the ease of roses next week.
I’m looking forward to roses too 🌹
Ugh.
I’m wearing Masque Milano Lost Alice for Yayoi Kusama’s quote: “ I, Kusama, am the modern Alice in Wonderland.”
And I am packing up for a short weekend getaway to snowshoe with our youngest son and his wife. Hoping it’s not too cold out there!
That’s a good choice.
You smell wonderful! And your weekend getaway sounds fun. I hope you have a great time❄️
Thanks!
Great Quote
I laughed when I found it!
Snowshoeing? I am intrigued! Never done that.
Perfect! Hope you enjoy your getaway!
Today I am wearing Yvresse for the bubbly quality that is reminiscent of the many circles and dots on Kusama’s work.
Great call, I like it!
Great choice!
That quote made me think of the polka dots inside the Vent Vert box.
I sadly don’t have any Vent Vert, so I’m in vintage Balmain Ebene instead.
Six degrees and I’m heading out for a badly-needed haircut. At least the sun is out!
Yikes! Hope that you stayed warm after your haircut!
I’m going with AS Friday today, as the packaging seems a fit, somewhat. Glad to see this week end, but at least I’ve finished everything I was supposed to get done, as well as some surprise projects.
I think it’s a good fit.
I did not get done quite everything I was supposed to get done, but I came reasonably close
I’m wearing Bel Rebel’s Bubble Gum because bubbles are similar to polka dots. Oh! and they can end up on your face, your hair and pretty much anywhere you can imagine.
I’ve never tried the Demeter or Moschino takes on bubble gum, but on me this one really does smell exactly like Bazooka and it’s so fun! It takes me right back to my childhood.
Robin, thank you for this cp. I’d never read about Yayoi Kusama in depth, and I find her fascinating.
Definite CP points for this!
Yay!
A realistic bubble gum note in perfume is so much fun! Especially when paired with an indolic jasmine.
It really is! What perfume has bubble gum and jasmine?
Heeley’s Bubblegum Chic did. Unfortunately they renamed it with a moniker that was a lot less fun and a lot more cumbersome. Don’t recall what it is at the moment.
I was afraid you were thinking of that one – I sent you my sample. Tuberose is my nemesis and unfortunately it was just too evident in this one for me to enjoy it.
I’m so glad someone liked it! It was not the biggest hit ever around here
It was fascinating to read about Kusama’s life in these articles, about her influences, tenacity and obsessions but one of things that caught my attention was the time limits put on visitors to her shows…45 seconds per room in one gallery, 30 seconds in another. The reason being that most people just take photos of the installations and post them on instagram. And a lot her audience is via instagram. So, an art work that has to capture attention immediately, make its statement in the moment, and, I suppose being recognisable to millions …but also replicated and copied in various iterations ( like the dots) , so Angel.
Too hot here, though it’s only about 28C…everywhere is drying off, brown lawns, melting asphalt on the roads, crispy washing on the line. Will wear CDG peppermint later
CDG Peppermint is such a happy scent. I hope it cools you down!
That sounds like a very disappointing way to visit an art show.
I’ve decided to join the Hirshhorn and try to see this exhibit:
https://hirshhorn.si.edu/exhibitions/one-with-eternity-yayoi-kusama-in-the-hirshhorn-collection/
However, it’s possible all the tickets are already booked — no way to tell. It’s worth supporting anyway, I guess. They had a marvelous Laurie Anderson exhibit last year.
That Laurie Anderson exhibit was incredible. We went to DC just to see it. (Well, and because DC is close to the in-laws, and because Ockeghem Teen is also a US citizen, though she won’t admit it, and we thought we should show her the other capital city. But mostly to go to the Hirshhorn for that Laurie Anderson exhibit.) Mr. Ockeghem got to see a series of lectures she did for his alma mater and really wanted to go, as did I.
Excellent choice, I like that way of approaching it.
Brutally cold today and wearing Prada Infusion d’Iris today. Bought a backup of Infusion d’Iris yesterday from fragrancenet.com. it was cheap enough and don’t need a monster bottle of it.
Darned cold here too tonight, gave me a bit of a headache to be out in it.
Happy Fri-Yay! Happy 🌞-day! Bitter cold for us here in Chicagoland but I don’t mind because we have had 🌞🌞🌞🌞for several days in a row! I wasn’t imagining it, our weather person said we’d had the cloudiest January in the history of Chicago, so this was a most welcome start to a new month – blue skies and sun shining on glistening snow.
Looking at the detail in this week’s cp picture with perfume eyes, I saw raspberry and rose along with iris and violet. But the somewhat dark edginess to the detail said the fragrance I chose would require a bit of that, too. My immediate response was the original Anna Sui in that beautiful dark somewhat goth purple-black bottle with its raspberry-tinged rose and shadowy powdery iris notes (and I smell violet, too, though not listed as a note). Looking at the full image, I can see the other notes of orange, apricot and green accord reflected in the colors there, so I am very pleased with my SOTD choice and I’m claiming lots of points today!
Not much on the agenda for the weekend – pizza 🍕nite tonight and looking forward to the Grammys on Sunday, because . . . Trevor Noah – ❤️ that guy! Have a good one!
That is such a good perfume match. I used to have that perfume but I don’t think we get Anna Sui here anymore. Glad you some sun.
I’m the same way… we’ve had very very cold temps but it’s been sunny. Vastly prefer to a bit warmer and gray.
Kudos for all the effort you put into matching perfume to this CP!
Excellent and yes, lots of points.
I’m sampling LAP Iris de Gris today and finding it to be a lot of fun. Started with a reaslitic sugar snap pea note up front — a bit of a vegetal bite, but tamed with some sweetness — and a watercolor iris note in the background. After an hour or so they switched places. This is a lovely spring scent and feels like it has a sense of humor. T I wish LAP had an option in the 10-30ml range because I am smitten with it, but also can’t see wearing it more than a few times each Spring. I guess that’s what splits are for.
I’m on an Assam kick, so today’s tea is F&M’s regular version.
Hey Vee, I’ve loved reading about your impressions on the LAP potager series this week, and was secretly hoping you’d get around to Iris de Gris.
It’s the only one I’ve sampled from the series. I’m just as smitten as you are. I’m seriously considering a full bottle, so keep your eye out during the split meet!
LAP ensnared me with Instagram adds for their new mimosa frag, but of course when I clicked through they were out of those samples, so I ended up getting the Potager ones instead (which, in fairness had been on my list to try for awhile). I expected this one would be my least favorite, so it is a pleasant surprise to find I like it as much as I do. (I’ll email you re possible coordination for the next splitmeet)
Oooh! Yes! I’ve been wanting to try the Potager scents, so I’ll be looking forward to both of your splitmeet offerings
I love assam! Currently drinking Ssam Breakfast from Westholme Tea Farm on Vancouver Island.
Assam Breakfast!
I grew up on Red Rose tea bags, so when I think of “tea” generically, that is still the flavor I think of. Itheir blend must have been assam-heavy, because whenever I have assam now I think “ooh, now THIS is TEA”
I really liked Iris de Gris too!
I assume that those L’Artisan Potager scents only come in 100mL jugs?
SOTD = 4160 Tuesdays Oakmossery custom-blended with Orris
It is so good and the bottle is gorgeous!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CoNQbtbO5LS/?igshid=Zjc2ZTc4Nzk=
I’ll take points for the CP. if you look at the picture closely, there’s a dotted pear on the table. You can see it by clicking the scroll down here link in the Intro to today’s thread.
I once went to see a private collection. The family had two Kusama artwork, both giant pumpkins. One was sitting in front of French doors leading to the yard and the other one was in the yard, along with other artwork. The home had many art pieces. I suppose if you have the money and would like to invest, art is a good choice.
Today, I woke up late enough to still make a train but the cold and blowing wind told my body that maybe I should just work at home. I listened to my body 🤣.
Yay for listening to your body!! You made the right choice.
Struggling in cold weather running for the train is just not it. No thanks!
There are now art investment funds out there. CAVEAT EMPTOR.
Smart thing, staying home today! IIRC, the trains are not at their best when it gets really cold.
I am trying Mitsouka for the first time thanks to a generous NSTer. I am really enjoying it. It reminds me a bit of Zoologist Civet. I am wondering if anyone can tell me how it compares to the new EdT version that came out in 2021.
I am wearing Byredo Bal d’Afrique today. I will be with my mother running lots of errands today and this scent calms me down
Stay chill Barqs!
Total fail on the CP. I have seen a documentary about the artist, but even so I have to say I don’t feel a connection to her art.
So this week has been “grab whatever the hand wants” which it turns out was mostly Tom Ford scents: London, Plum Japonais, Oud Wood. Oud Wood was the first scent I bought when I fell down the rabbit hole, and I still love it.
Wow — that’s an intrepid choice for a newbie down the rabbit hole. Love it!
I mean back when you bought it.
TF Oud Wood is Good Stuff!
Yes it is.
More warm and humid weather today, I’m a bit over it. I love the warmth during the day, but because it’s so cloudy, the temperature it’s not dropping much overnight. With that and the cat, I’m feeling tired this morning.
We keep Phaedra in at night and let her out when we get up. She has recently enjoyed early morning hunting success with cicadas, and is now howling to get out at about 5am.
Perfume-wise, I’m thinking about Annick Goutal’s Chèvrefeuille, it’s perfect for warm weather.
I love that she’s enthusiastic about her hunting success.
Mine would give anything to go out and beat up the neighbour cats, but no luck.
Chèvrefeuille is so lovely.
The only Kusama art piece I’ve seen in person is this 1960 painting at the LACMA:
https://collections.lacma.org/node/188228
I LOVED it. It’s very unassuming but I was completely hypnotized, to the obvious point where the security guard came to chat with me about it! It doesn’t bear too much resemblance to her famous works now.
I have nothing for the CP though. I did mostly Guerlains this week: Samsara on Monday, Mitsouko yesterday, and Encens Mythique today.
Well it has her polka-dots but none of what I usually think of as her trademark, the bright eye-popping colors.
OMG — it’s giving me the shivers! What IS it about it — the eye tries to form patterns but fails, tries again. I can’t look at it for very long. 🤯
Ditto! Did you read the description explaining it? Incredible!
That artwork kind of reminds me of those “Magic Eye” posters that were popular in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.
I have a poster of that, but in blue, on the wall right next to the desk with my computer. It is very soothing, and I like the idea of “infinity nets”.
About to meet with a banker, so wearing the fiscally-solid Chanel Paris-Venise.
Love the scent,and the reasoning!🙌🏻🙌🏻👍🏻🤣
Excellent. Hope it went well and the perfume did its job.
Cold again here this morning, so I’m wrapped up in YSL Caftan. Have a good weekend!
You too cazaubon!
When I look at that photograph what I most notice is the red staring woman, who almost seems to look accusingly over at the violet woman. So I went with Red and that led to Baccarat Rouge. Not that creative really but it’s true. I almost wore one of the weird cherry-dominant scents that are in my sample packet from Luckscent–no fewer than three! I guess there’s been a mini-trend of cherry notes in perfumes for the last couple of years. Cherry also has sort of the same pop art feeling or upbeat appeal as Kusama’s dotted artworks.
Great choice!
I’m staying the heck away from cherry scents. I tried Lost Cherry and it was meh on me. Beyond that, I love cherries but I find they don’t translate well into scent / flavour — turns into cough drops or syrup.
Cherry notes have not played nicely with me in the past. I will still try to sniff the 2 latest TF cherry perfumes, though.
Another gusty stormy day here. Slashing rain and wind making leaves and branches (and sometimes entire trees!) jitterbug all over the place. Not as cold, so thankful for that! Almost lost hold of the door when opening it to let out T-Rex, who almost went airborne. 💨
Slept very well and woke very late. Works for me! Currently wafting Smoked Ambergris from SmellBent. Perfect scent for locale and weather. Happy weekend!
Yeah, crazy windy up here right now. Smoked Ambergris IS perfect.
Happy weekend Deva, and hope your weather improves!
Hello fragrant friends, long time no post. I’m in Tauer’s glorious LADDM because my husband is out of town and I’m wearing all of his least favorite scents
Yesterday, for example, was Hermes Ambre Narguile. Yum!
A friend used to eat only salads when her gourmand husband was out of town…
Ha! I’m kind of doing the opposite. My husband is pretty healthy, and makes sure we don’t just sit around eating massive portions of trash all the time. Now that he’s gone, I have a long list of tasty stuff I plan to stuff in my face. I kicked it off last night with a pupusa, pastelitos, and some Mexican sweet cakes. Tonight, I’m thinking tteokbokki. I’m curious to see how much weight one can gain in one week of eating poorly!
Hello! You smell lovely!
*waves* thank you! and I am glad you are able to work from home! (it’s raining down here in CA again, too!)
I do the same thing when Mr. allo isn’t home – out come the indolic jasmines!
😆 It’s not that we don’t love them….
It’s great to hear from you! I love that you’re enjoying all the perfume and all the food with such delight!
Thank you, Holly <3 I am!
Nice to see you, Koyel, enjoy your time by yourself.
Enjoy the alone time!
1) SOTD to match artwork: Molecule 4 (Javanol based) – clean, almost citrusy, and woody as interpreted digitally.
2) Cold outside, but rains have returned! Working from home today, thank goodness!
I like that!
I went with Marni for the polka dots on the bottle even though I only have a mini that sadly doesn’t have the dots. I enjoy this scent but don’t love it enough to seek out a full bottle. Oh, and after looking up the going rates for full bottle on eBay, I’m glad I don’t love it!
Marni sure wasn’t around for long, was it?
Oh, good call, plus you smell great.
Not sure why but first scent that came to mind when seeing the photo was Insolence. A swirl of colors. Insolence is known as a swirl of notes. So there you go.
Had to have headshots professionally done yesterday. Crinkly eyes. That’s all I see. But, amusingly, the silver streaks in my (un-colored) hair aren’t at all visible. Go figure.
Ugh, the last time I had headshots done for work was the worst. It didn’t help that they were set up by the mean girl in my group, and engineered to ensure that I looked awful and that the photographers would take absolutely 0 time to position me correctly. And hence, still sticking with my headshots from 9 years ago.
In L’Ombre dans L’Eau in preparation for Rose week.
Somehow I ended up with a few bottles of this and though I really enjoy it, a bottle or 2 will definitely be in my swapmeet line-up, along with another rose I’m ambivalent about, Byredo’s Rose of No Man’s Land.
You smell great — I’m sure I will wear that next week.
I’m wearing Pd’E Cri de la Lumiere because my decant just arrived. I feel like this is thinner than the sample I had it launched, but the culprit could be the dry air from due to the intense cold outdoors. Or perhaps because I’ve been sniffing that all-natural DHS perfume.
OF COURSE, I have to print and scan a form, and my printer’s down, which means a trek to the library or Staples or something. 🥶
Here’s something cool (figuratively):
https://www.jennyboot.nl/
Ode, an homage to Vermeer’s Girl with a Peal Earring, was on the front page of the NYT today heading an article about a Vermeer exhibit at the Rijksmuseum. Note also the portrait with the giant Chanel No. 5 bottle. 👀
Wow, gorgeous photos! Really amazing.
Very cool, thanks for the link!
Bundled up in a flannel shirt today and heavy wool socks. Wind chills are in the single digits right now. As predicted, the cats have been camped out on the heat vents and the kitty cat heating pad today. I decided to match my perfume to the cozy clothes I am wearing.
SOTD = vintage Coco EdP, courtesy of springpansy. It smells a little different from the sample that I had before she sent me a smidge, but nothing radically changed. Maybe Coco gets added to my FB wishlist?
I’m wearing a fleece-lined camisole under a sweatshirt plus sherpa-lined sweatpants and wool socks.
Coco has been getting a lot of attention here , and I haven’t smelled it in decades and can’t remember a thing about it!
To greatly oversimplify Coco, it is a spicy amber perfume.
Sounds like you are perfectly geared up to face the Arctic Blast!
You smell lovely! Coco has definitely captured my heart lately❤️
Coco is one of the perfumes that I have done a complete 180 on. Couldn’t stand it when it came out. Now I am totally digging it!
I don’t know if I had ever tried it but I definitely had a preconceived idea. It just goes to show (me) that it’s always worth giving a scent its due sniff! Reminds me too of Angela revisiting No. 5, which I have also fallen for anew. Perfume springs eternal!!!
We got a funny letter from Peco explaining the high energy bills this month. Hello, I know why my bill is high
Some somewhat lazy CP points here: SotD is Shiseido Koto.
Even lazy CP points count
Thunking Shangri-la today. I forgot I even had it. We had minus windchill this morning but also sun so it felt not as bad as expected.
Yay for your perfume thunk!
I wore Ambrette 9 today, an easy choice.
One of those weird weather days, my car had frost on the windows in the morning but by afternoon, the sun was blazing and I considered using the AC in the car. It was glorious to have the sun out.
Spent the last weekday of vacation getting ahead on work tasks but I could not resist a little side trip to Sephora. I tried Phlur Tangerine Boy which was amazing on first spritz but faded fast. I tried Phlur Missing Person which reminded me a lot of the Egyptian musks I wore so much 20 years ago.
Winner of the testers was Angel Share which reminds me of something I tried in the past but cannot out my finger on it.
I could not swing doing the community project this week but looking forward to using a series of rose fragrance samples next week.
A/c, that is amazing! It was not a/c weather here.
I will have to try Missing Person, I like Egyptian Musk.