It’s Hump Day plus National Margarita Day. Birthdays: George Washington, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Horace Pippin, Edward Gorey, Kyle MacLachlan, Steve Irwin. What fragrance are you wearing?
I am still on vacation (we head home tomorrow) with my one fragrance, the not-very-steampunk Guerlain Terracotta Le Parfum.
Reminder: 2/24 will be Steampunk Friday... do whatever you like with the steampunk theme. Suggested by JB and seconded by a bunch of other readers. (And if you need inspiration for this project, see JB's comment here.)
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.
Note: top image shows menswear from Alexander McQueen, Fall/Winter 2009.
Coromandel, for me-both the EDT and EDP. Each offers something different-think the EDT is my fave, but the EDP has some deep notes that are pleasing. Never tried the parfum.
Cold and clear and sunny here-wind has a brutal bite. Like this for the next week-def long underwear weather lol.
You smell great! Love Coromandel, I am partial to the EDP myself, I get more of the white chocolatey notes on it.
Thanks again hajusuuri for the chance to try all the Coromandel variants!
I am curious if I have the EDP or the EDT version. I purchased Coromandel and 31 Rue Cambon approximately 8-10 years ago. I have looked all over the bottle and cannot find anything that indicates which one they might be. At the time I probably paid about $150 a piece for them and so I would guess EDT, but not sure.
It should be written very faintly on the back of the white label. the reformulation happened in 2016, so there is a chance yours would be the EDT.
I am guessing it is EDT. I don’t have any white label on the back. Maybe I did and took it off. I thought for sure it would say on the bottom, but it doesn’t.
I should have clarified, I meant the back of the white label that says ‘Coromandel Chanel’. You can see it through the bottle. It should indicate the concentration. Here’s an image to illustrate: https://i.imgur.com/iynjGbQ.jpg
Oh, thank you. What is interesting is my Coromandel says Eau De Toilette and my 41 RC just had Eau.
I’m glad you enjoyed them!
The parfum is fabulous. I wear my Coromandel parfum sparingly.
You smell wonderful!
Thank you all so much
On this cold morning I’m in L’Artisan Parfumeur Vanilia. It’s perfect.
It’s a lost classic now, right?
Steampunk reminds me of Luca Turin’s review of Penhaligon’s Hammam Bouquet (3 stars):
“A hammam is a Turkish steam bath, and this is a classic Edwardian (actually late-Victorian) unisex fragrance, with plenty of lavender and rose on a background of woods. The original formula must have been great in a languid sort of way, but the modern version feels a little harsh, no doubt because many materials are no longer obtainable or affordable.”
So I think a dandyish, rosy, masculine-ish fragrance with some real sandalwood would fill the bill, but I can’t really think of anything. Does anyone know of one?
In the meantime, I’d suggest Penhaligon’s Sartorial by Bertrand Duchaufour — a futuristic rendering of the rigourously traditional art of bespoke tailoring.
I’ve heard that Hammam Bouquet has been reformulated again recently and the latest version is an improvement. Perhaps worth a sniff?
Thank you for sharing this review, I have Hammam Bouquet, vintage, might wear it this week.
Good call!
I believe you have the bottle of Mugler Les Exceptions Orient Express. I would consider this steampunk as interpreted by moi.
I am really not familiar with the steampunk theme.
I am wearing Paco Rabanne Metal for the CP, I hope it makes sense. I find it quite futuristic and at the same time, it takes me back to my teenage years.
I am not familiar with it either so don’t feel bad 😊
I think that sounds perfect! Plus lots of steampunk imagery involves actual metal…steam pipes & the like.
I’m in Hermes Voyage and Hermes Cuir d’Ange this morning, for the cp. The article that J B posted yesterday talked about the popularity of violet and leather, and I’ve been thinking about wearing CdA for a few days now, so there ya go!
It’s warm and humid out today. I will need to swap out winter for summer fragrances soon.
Making homemade croutons today – still trying to clear out the freezer. Sometimes I think my peeps and I just pass food around to each other, cuz we’re all trying to reduce the volume of stuff in our little freezers!
Homemade croutons sound delicious! Do you bake them to get them all crispy?
Yum, homemade croutons! I used to make them, back when I felt like cooking.
I love homemade croutons! I don’t think I’ve purchased croutons in at least 20 years.
POAL today
8 sprays
Can you smell me from where you are? lol
Yes, and I’m in heaven!
Did you try the had cream? It’s pretty spectacular, too
I haven’t, but I heard that the body oil is just as good as the perfume
Can you smell it now? I did the 8 sprays one day last week and I was able to smell it most of the day.
Yes, I really can ! Ha!
Yay!
😇
Also my neighbor said to me, I knew you went out this morning because I could smell your perfume in the elevator. So, yes, it’s definitely there even though I don’t smell a thing 🤣
LOL. I haven’t had compliments on it yet. Still waiting.
I will compliment you 🥰
SOTD is Hermes Violette Volynka!
The delicate scent of violet was a popular floral in perfumery in the late 19th century. Here it is contrasted with the rich aroma of thick, weathered Russian leather recovered from sunken ships… quite fitting for the steampunk theme.
Nice fit pfsh!
This morning I grabbed Si Lolita from the box of minis.
I get Si Lolita and L de LL confused and always have to look up Jessica’s review
Zoologist Cockatiel today, from a sample I got recently. So far, I like it, though not enough for a FB. I figured it wouldn’t be too out of line for a dentist appointment, though I may have put on a bit much. Not CP compliant, though.
House twins. I am in Bee today.
Hope the dentist was quick and painless!
The dentist was a bit interesting. I got booked into a call at work at the same time — fortunately one where I could just listen, so I figured I’d listen during my appointment. But then apparently I somehow hit the camera button as they were getting me set in the chair, and everyone got to see me at the dentist.
Slightly embarrassing, but I hear there are a couple stories that are worse than mine. 
LOL! That’s actually such a good story that it seems worth the slight embarrassment.
I’m in Eau des Merveilles.
They called off school last night before we even went to bed. My teenager thought I was kidding. Nope. This is her third or fourth snow day this year, I’ve lost track. Only one of them has been warranted imo. I mean this is wisconsin after all and it IS going to snow in the winter. Good grief.
On the bright side it means that while I am at work somebody else gets to do the shoveling.😈
We have about everything shut down over here in South Dakota. Blizzard warnings until noon tomorrow. Nice to be retired in a townhouse where someone else clears the snow.
I bet! Once our youngest heads off to college I am thinking we should look at a condo.🤔 we shall see.
If you can, try to find a townhouse or condo without a HOA.
Good tip. I will admit to knowing absolutely nothing, this is the third house we’ve owned, so that would be new territory. I thought they all had HOA’s?
I think some of the older communities do not. However, it seems that almost everything built after 1995 or so has a HOA. Things vary greatly from state to state, though.
My brother’s house is the same age as my townhouse and he does NOT have a Homeowner’s Association. I envy him!
We do have an HOA, but it has been reasonable and they do a nice job with lawn service, snow removal and garbage collection plus insurance on the outside of our structure is covered.
I hope she enjoyed the shoveling!
Lol. I doubt she had to, I just looked outside and we’ve had barely a dusting.
No school here too. So far it’s mostly been sleet/ freezing rain. The worst of it is supposed to come this evening.
Yeah, sleet here too. They already called it off for tomorrow! Which means a 5 day weekend because Friday was already a no school day.
Where is this storm headed? Hopefully not to NYC
I’m going with Jolie Madame today, inspired by pfsh’s sotd. Thanks for the inspiration!
I love Jolie Madame, you smell fantastic.
Wearing some vintage Shalimar edt right now. I might be wearing either Infusion d’Iris or Theorema today.
Smelling fabulous, Dawn!
I found a brilliant pick for the CP, she said modestly. Mauboussin Histoire d’Eau because of it’s funky bottle. It’s both retro – looks a bit like R2-D2 – and futuristic as it’s made of clear plastic. Plus it smells great, I haven’t worn it in much too long.
You smell wonderful, love Hd’E.
I am wearing Chanel Cuir de Russie and drinking a large cup of black tea.
Cuir de Russie is lovely! The first perfume that made me really go down the rabbit hole.
My two favorite things. You smell great!
twins!!!
A wfh home day, in ELO Rien. It’s been a while since I’ve worn it so I’ve started off with one cautious spritz. Probably my steam-punkiest scent these days, with a ferocious leather top note. If I remember correctly, the ELO Vierges et Toreros I ended up giving to a friend had had a note of machine oil, so that would have taken first prize.
I may have to search out the scent you gave away – I live the scent of machine oil.
That’s a great pick for the CP.
Love that top note in Rien!
I’m another one in Jolie Madame today, which fits my interpretation of the CP.
Hi Twin!
Leather, iris, violets, smoke–I’m wearing Cuir Cannage for the CP today. We have “winter mix” today, with snow in the forecast for later, but not much accumulation. There is a wind chill warning, too, and when I went out briefly it was windy and it felt very cold. So I will stay inside today and read or do some painting. I have nowhere near Calypso’s talent but I am having fun.
You smell fantastic.
Aw, how sweet of you to say that. FYI, tomorrow I am starting a new class with the same teacher: sketching! I am pretty sure I lack all talent at that, but she seems to be a good teacher, so at least it will be fun.
For absolute sure I have no talent at sketching, but I bet it is fun.
Wind, rain, hail here. It was quite a night, the house was rocking. Still windy but not quite as violent. I’m testing DS & Durga Pistachio, which starts off quite nutty then dries down to a lovely vanilla wood creamy scent.
I hope your weather today is more peaceful. Would you say the pistachio perfume is very sweet? It intrigues me.
No, it really isn’t very sweet. There is some vanilla and woody creaminess, but I would definitely not call it a gourmand.
Thanks! That actually makes me more interested. Very sweet and my skin are a bad combo.
Pistachio sounds nice, a sample is in my ever-evolving luckyscent cart.
Stay warm! My in-laws are driving down from Canada and hit a batch of bad weather
-23C and blowing snow in Montréal. Hope your in laws made it through to NYC!
I’m in Sana Jardin’s Revolution de la Fleur on a gorgeous 80 degree day. The sun is shining, flowers are blooming and I can tell that allergy season is starting any second now.
Hoping everyone facing severe winter weather stays warm and safe! And that everyone who doesn’t is also safe today.
Ugh! Too early to think about seasonal allergies!
In Rose Amazone today, its opening is just like Kelly Calèche and that’s fine, tonight it’s A*Men Tonka, very like Angel in the drydown but more powdery.
Just like Kelly Caleche sounds quite lovely.
Oh yes, KC is lovely and elegant with its zingy citrus opening and Rose Amazone should be more popular, it gets forgotten.
I’m under the winter storm warning until tomorrow morning. Fortunately I have today off. I was scheduled for jury duty tomorrow morning but I called and asked to reschedule. They said ok, but I won’t be allowed another request. I feel bad but I am scared to death of ice covered roads. I’m punishing myself for being a chicken by tackling a box of paper’s from the basement.
My sotd is YSL Champagne. I might try some samples later.
I am surprised they did not cancel jury duty for all! I hope the sorting and shredding (or piling for shredding) was fruitful!
I filled one trash bag and started piling because I got sick of the noise. I found my mom and dad’s marriage certificate! Also some more old pictures I didn’t know existed.
The lady on the phone said it would be business as usual tomorrow.
Glad that you aren’t out in the weather!
Me too!
Something about today’s picture has been bugging me for a few hours, and I just figured out what it is. Those models look like the ‘droogs’ from “A Clockwork Orange”!
Cold and rainy weather here today. Yesterday’s wild weather was confirmed to be an EF-2 tornado up in central NJ. There have been only 5 other February tornadoes in history here.
SOTD = Rose Jam EdP. I followed lillyjo’s example from yesterday.
Almost twins! I did use the Rose Jam shower gel today.
So we are scent siblings or cousins today! IDK, what would you call it when people use the same perfume but different formats?
Maybe it’s like a niece/nephew of your twin sibling? 😂
I used Rose Jam shower gel as well.
I have to find my bottle of this. The shower gel was great until it wasn’t anymore.
I haven’t yet brought out my little bottle of Rose Jam shower gel this year. I usually have some for the depths of winter (aka February and March).
But this year I am currently using Good Karma… Everybody Needs Some. If you are a patch-head, then this is something you should check out.
There was a time when I swore I would never wear patchouli…
I have Good Karma – it’s red-orangish if I am not mistaken.
Yeah, if someone would have asked the 13 year old me about patchouli, I would have said “Yuck!”
Times change… 🤣
Interesting! I read the book but never saw the movie.
Never read the book and could stomach only a few moments of the movie. It’s not for the squeamish!
Seriously. I saw it more than 20 years ago and I still had a visceral fear response when I saw today’s picture! Kubrick really knew how to get inside his viewer’s head.
SOTD = Herve Gambs Hotel Particulier
No one other than me mentions this line – it is wonderful. I never saw a stockist in the U.S. I got my bottle in Lisbon.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Co-65bEu0p5/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
I am taking steampunk points because it is a brushed metal bottle. W00t!
I would have never heard of this brand if not for you. Don’t you have another perfume by them too?
Very cool bottle.
SOTD is a sample of LAP Mechant Loop. This has a “foresty brown things” vibe to it. Wood, sandalwood, resiny myrrh, fresh hazelnuts, I don’t get the list honey or praline notes per se, but I do get a licorice note that is both minty and sweet, so the honey and praline might be hiding in there. Not creamy enough to be a wood pudding — maybe more of a wood lollipop. It seems steampunkish to me, but I’m struggling to put my finger on why, exactly.
Tea today was a pot of F&M’s Rwanda single origin tea. It’s extremely malty. I ended up adding a bit of honey to balance it, which I rarely do because I like my tea to have a bitter bite.
Same with liking tea with a bitter edge. But I do have to have a touch of sweet in chai whenever I have that.
My chai gets lots of milk (and apparently my preferred milk is on the sweet side), so samesies.
How is spooky kitty doing?
Test results came back negative for Bad Stuff, like diabetes and thyroid issues. She’s still being a little picky about her food. But she loves stealing treats from under Teflon kitty’s nose… 🙄
Goood news on the test results! The picky eating can be so frustrating! It can feel like there is no rhyme or reason, just whims.
You smell great, Vee! Agree with Wood Lollipop.
Yesterday I got my recent FB purchase from Luckyscent and had asked for more samples from Thomas de Monaco. I got another one of Raw Gold and of Eau Coeur, plus their brand new Grand Beau, and it’s another hit too! I doused myself with it last night. DIdn’t wear it today because I had PT but put some on once I came home this afternoon. It smells just like a gin & tonic (or maybe only like gin) when it goes on, but then branches out in some interesting ways. It’s got wood, something salty, and pine, and is supposed to conjure up a pine forest on a cliff overlooking the sea. It is NOT aquatic and not really like a cologne or fougere. It includes tuberose, of all things, and I believe this is why I like it, but it’s a gentle tame tuberose that lightens things up and makes it just have an enticing air. I’m not getting much of the sea, to be honest, but I really like this a lot. It’s a bit woodsy but not cedar-y, a note I don’t much care for. I do recommend trying it–along with the other two.
I stopped at the grocery store after PT but, naturally, forgot my list, which had only two items. I bought a fair amount of other things but, also naturally, forgot precisely those two items. Sigh.
It’s unpleasantly warm and humid here with tree pollens starting to cause offense. I should not complain when others are dealing with snow, ice, and bad wind, but golly we would love to delay the start of summer a bit–Will we really be running the a/c every day now until sometime near Christmas?
On the wallpapering my kitchen front, I may take advice from here and NOT do new wallpaper but have the old paper smoothed over or removed in some places and then painted over. I’m poring over pages of interior design ideas. It seems that gray in kitchens is a trend that is fading now, and guess what the new color trend is: Griege! Are you excited? It does not excite me one bit, but I must be practical since I’ll probably be selling this house within the next five years or so.
But would you hate grey/griege for the next 5 years?
I’m not sure. I think if I go on the somewhat more creamy, warmer, side it will be ok, and maybe thinking about new hardware will make it more appealing too. I’ll probably get all of the cabinets painted, too. It’ll be challenging to figure out nice but rather neutral colors for both the wall and cabinets: which should be lighter and which darker? I’m starting a Pinterest page. I never saw the point before but now I can use it.
I repainted my upper cabinets creamy white and the lowers are a deep forest green. I figure that seemed sufficiently modern and would appeal to a lot of buyers should I decide to sell.
Raw Gold has been tempting me. Is the new sample you got the one that is from the “second” release; so that, if anyone fell in love with it, they could get a bottle of the same scent they sampled? I like your description of Grand Beau – glad you found another winner.
I don’t know about the second release issue, but you’ve got a good point there. If I find out more I’ll post it. They are expensive scents, but if I were to splurge on one that would be the one I want.
I got the idea from Luckyscent’s description of the current item.
Grand Beau sounds excellent!
If you are selling in five years, then paint seems like a good move instead of wallpaper, but I’m with Jalapeno on choosing another color if you don’t like griege. Five years is far enough out that the griege trend will be waning by then anyway. So if you can’t predict the future of kitchen color fashion, you might as well go with a color that makes you happy.
All the furniture catalogs I get in the mail now have everything in greige & cream.
I am another vote for picking a wall color that makes you happy. Cabinets are different since they’re so much more expensive to redo.
I’ve read that muted blues are also a thing now for kitchens, and I can recommend a paint color that combines grey with blue: Benjamin Moore’s Wedgewood Gray. It also has some green undertones. We have it in our master bathroom, but I’ve seen it in other settings. The great thing about it is that it shifts over the course of the day and the changing light in the room. Sometimes it looks more grey, sometimes more blue (but a very soft, muted blue), sometimes more greyish aqua. So if greige doesn’t excite you, check it out!
No CP today. Had various errands, which in the end turned out to be better done tomorrow, so for those I had thought EL Tuberose Gardenia was the thing. I’ve enjoyed it all day; might have to go with it again to finish up the needed tasks. I am still waiting for my inspiration for Friday – but I have some of y’all NSTer’s ideas to fall back on! Wow the weather is crazy – 72F and raining here. 8o
Since you’re allowed to interpret the project however you like, I’m sure if you put enough effort into it, you could come up with a justification for another day of TG
Nothing steampunk here. I layered Kiss Me Intense with Elie Saab L’Eau Couture. Bitter almond meet sweet almond.
My morning gathering was canceled due to snow (and wind) so I logged into remote work early. Got to test the new desk chair, which is a big improvement. Could see the snow swirling around outside…it almost looked like swirling fog at times. Still coming down. What’s best is the deer tend to visit and they’re so fun to watch as their heads and backs get covered in white while they snack on the feed. We had 10 right around dusk.
Yesterday I wore Angel Muse, which has kind of a steampunk bottle….maybe.
Wow, 10 at once, that must be greatly entertaining.
SOTD was Cristalle — not very steampunk, I’m afraid. But I enjoyed it!