It’s Wednesday. Happy 78th to Helen Mirren; happy 80th to Mick Jagger. What fragrance are you wearing?
I’m in a little dab of Imaginary Authors Memoirs of a Trespasser, and taking points for the fake novelist's "ranch in southern Madagascar".
Reminder: on 7/28, we're off to Africa! Wear a perfume that is named for a place in Africa, or that reminds you of a (real or imaginary) trip to Africa, or that features an African ingredient, or ? Modified from a suggestion by JB.
And for those of you who like to plan ahead, see Scent of the day ~ Friday community projects 2023, where I'll try (but usually fail) to have the next five or six weeks mapped out in advance.
Note: top image is Zanzibar [cropped] by Jorge Cancela at flickr; some rights reserved.
I’m wearing Lubin Idole for the CP, the bottle with the African mask.
Enjoy your day,
Perfect! 🔟
thats right! I have that! you smell great!
Really great choice for the CP plus you smell great but I’ve always been too scared of the caraway in Idole.
Interesting! I don’t get any caraway. I love the spices and wish I got more rum.
Perfection!Also on my radar for Friday possibly!
Twins! I had the same thought about the bottle.
Hi twin!
I’m in Cartier Le Baiser du Dragon, not your typical warm-weather scent, what with all that toasty fireside amaretto and patchouli, but I’m indoors today doing laundry and chores and such so who’s going to complain?
The bottle is so beautiful, so compulsively touchable, and I’ve had it in my hands so much — I can’t believe this was launched 20 years ago! — that the black-painted Cartier logo is wearing off (but the fragrance name, in red, remains as fresh as ever, a tiny mystery which I expect some materials chemist could easily solve).
Cartier has some nice fragrances!
That *is* a gorgeous bottle that fits so well in someone’s hand!
Chanel No 22..I am at the good part, about 20 min in
Another day of mommy summer camp
I made scones this morning, cream & strawberry jam
Paper Palace so far is a good book, but I am having a hard time keeping the characters straight.
I could not get through that book, LTSG.
I think the cover of the book with the pink and all does not allude to what is happening in the pages…which so far is very dark
Very subtle play there, Robin!
Lovely photo, too.
I’ll be playing along today in a tiny bit of Memo African Leather. Usually this is a strictly winter scent, but since we have a heat advisory today, I’ll be staying inside in the AC.
Stay cool, everyone! 😎
Yes, lovely picture. We love Zanzibar.
I will join AnnE in Memo African Leather today. Twins!
Yay for twins! If I ever go to Zanzibar, do you have any suggestions?
Lots and lots of suggestions; Stonetown is a Unesco World Heritage site. It’s one place that truly feels like the place of the spice routes passing each other. The beautiful doors also remind me of Yemen, Oman and Morocco. It’s a style of architecture I really enjoy, probably from living in the middle east for so much of my life.
Thank you!
Imaginary Authors is useful for community projects…so much verbiage 🙂
You’re so right!
I’m wearing Hemingway by Masque Milano, for the rhubarb and ginger, but I’m getting mostly a smoky vetiver.
You’d imagine Hemingway would smell like smoky vetiver rather than rhubarb and ginger, right?
Lots of good smellin’people already posted-my SOTD is Goutal’s Matin L’orage, which is fantastic in the heat. This is a case where the EDP and the EDT smell entirely different-if I smelled them blind I would not link them. The EDT is so fresh-it’s my preffered version.
The EDP is very -round, I guess, and much more vanilla. I wouldn’t describe it as fresh at all, and I might have to wait for much cooler weather for the EDP. But my EDP comes in one of the fantastic round bottles complete with bulb atomiser. I always enjoyed the special bottles from Goutal.
Hope everyone’s day is pleasant-and mosquito and black fly free. Just scratched a bite on my ankle and now trying hard not to scratch it again.
Apparently it is a banner year for mosquitos here in CA–something to do with global warming and the ice pack melting too soon. I broke down and purchased one of those lights/bug zappers. Not very Zen of me, but I love the loud pop and fizz when the wee evils meet their maker 😉 I plugged it in in my office this morning, but I’m not sure it will work in a lit room. So far, no zaps (leans over to scratch a bite on the ankle).
The flies are terrible this year, I broke my flyswatter the other day trying to kill all the ones that sneaked in the back door.
Yes, vastly different, I have the EDT and should wear it at least once this summer as I love it the jasmine and gardenia play so well together while the EDP with the tuberose not so much.
Citronella essential oil works well against mosquitoes.
It’s been a banner year for houseflies here. Fortunately, the cats think that they are a favorite toy to practice their hunting skills with.
I’ve had older relatives suggest a tiny drop of ammonia to kill the itch that comes with a mosquito bite. Sounds horrible, but it works.
It’s what used to be in those After Bite pen thingies, I loved those. Unfortunately the upgraded the formula and they don’t work as well.
Sorry to hear about that reformulation. I had an After Bite “pen,” and could smell the ammonia. It did help with the itch, and now I know why.
I love the photo, Robin.
I am wearing Lush Jungle and L’Artisan Bois Farine. The former is my own idea – the connection with the CP is a bit cheesy, but I like this green woody fragrance. Bois Farine was Hera’s yesterday SOTD. It was created “in the memory of encounter with an unusual tree in the Reunion Island forest”. Both scents are built around woody notes but in very different ways.
We should all be on a beach in Zanzibar right now!
Let’s organize an NST cruise! People would be able to smell us from miles away, like Cleopatra and her scented sails…
This is not a totally fantastic idea…
I’m joining the Sur le Nil crowd today. Then later today I’m hoping to try my new sample of Akro Bake — there’s vanilla, so still on CP, right? 🙂
I’m having to work while sitting in a vacation house on an island with my dad and sister’s family. Actually, it’s not that bad, as they like to sit in the house and I need to be moving / doing something, anyway. The weather cleared up late yesterday, so at least I have nice views while I work. And I can listen to roosters crowing out back, which reminds me of Santorini.
And when you finish working, there you are in a vacation house on an island! Sounds perfect to me.
Oddly enough, roosters bring back a fun travel memory for me, too – they woke us up every morning on Kauai.
Feeling chuffed w my CP choice today, DSH’s Habibi, which to me evokes North Africa. This is a beauty, if you like delicate ouds. The notes are: orange blossom, honey and oud with saffron, jasmine, and champaca.
good choice!
Yes, that one is a beauty!
Ooh I have a sample of that and may go with it tomorrow. Thanks for the idea!
Your SOTD sounds gorgeous
I love North Africa, in particular, Morocco 🙂
That sounds lovely!
Sounds beautiful.
The house is freezing this morning (still no a/c, but we had windows open all night and it got down to the mid-50s here), so I’m in my favorite cool-temp duo, Alba over Le Dix dusting powder. It’ll be much warmer in a bit. ☀️🔥🥵
I had a vintage bottle of Le Dix that I used up years ago. Mine was probably circa 1970. Loved it!
I also have a bottle of the edt, of some vintage or other. Ribbed bottle, tiny black bow, juice still in great shape. Lovely stuff!
I bet you smell wonderful, I have 50ml Le Dix extrait in a midnight blue presentation box but it is very unwieldy to open the bottle so it keeps me from wearing it and I reach for the EDT more often.
Wow, nice! Le Dix is one of my favorite vintages. Bonus: it gets compliments, too.
Hello everyone!
Checking in after my Iceland trip! It was so hard to leave the ~55°F weather to come back to 101°F in Texas, but I was happy to come home to my own bed and little Jicky. It was so beautiful there, even more than I expected. I’m already trying to formulate a plan to go back.
I’m in Antaeus today, just a spritz. I wore No. 19 yesterday and felt like a bit more of Chanel today.
Have a great day everyone!
So glad you enjoyed your trip after all that hard work for school. And you smell great in Antaeus.
Thank you! It was very restful.
Welcome back! Glad to hear you enjoyed Iceland!
Thank you!!
It sounds like you had a wonderful time and perfect to forget about Texas weather, enjoy Jicky’s company.
I definitely thought, “I could get used to this!”
Welcome back!
Thank you!
Welcome back!
Thank you!
Welcome back and you smell wonderful. I nabbed a half-full 100ml Antaeus this week for $20 at Plato’s Closet! I am swooning over it – a blind buy, but I have learned never to pass up a $20 Chanel…
Wow, great find! It’s rather lovely, isn’t it?
I’m wearing Angel Iced Star this morning for a burst of cheerful fruit. I think Lillyjo gets the enabler pin.
Aww yay! It’s a good one.
Surfing the Sample Sea again today and landed on the shores of the Arabian Peninsula. Not quite Africa but a near neighbor. Wearing a good dose of SSS Incense Pure today, and it’s lovely!
Smell well, y’all!
Incense Pure was the only SSS perfume I had a small bottle of. It’s the driest incense perfume that I have come across.
Yes, dry and cold. Worked well for me today! 👍🏼
I’m in Zoologist Chameleon today, which has lots of ylang ylang and is inspired by Madagascar. I meant to dump about half the sample on me, but ended up with 90% of it so I’m slightly reeking. This one works better for me than many others of theirs but I won’t seek out more after the sample is gone. Yesterday I wore LADDM and Monday it was Casablanca by St. Clair.
I loved Helen Mirren as the narrator of Barbie. My partner and I dressed up as Barbie and Ken. I wasn’t a specific Barbie, but I wore a long bubblegum pink linen dress, pink earrings, red sandals, and a necklace with a bow pendant. He wore a beachy outfit for Beach Ken. And we loved the movie! It was actually very emotional, and I cried more than once. I’m an easy crier though.
Kind of random but I wanted to share here that I got caught in the rain on my walk after work on Monday and got soaked. But I did stop to smell a dewy, gorgeous magnolia, which smelled even better in the rain. It’s of the grandiflora variety.
I saw the movie on Saturday and I enjoyed it ! Some people were also dressed up as Barbie and Ken. I just wore a pink blouse and pink sandals and applied a drop of bubblegum essential oil on my wrists. There was a happy and refreshing vibe at the movie theater, something that I needed and appreciated.
I’m so glad you saw it and had a fun time! I loved the energy at our neighborhood independent theater. So many amazing outfits and everyone was having a good time.
Sounds like you had a great time, I’m forever looking for a realistic magnolia perfume, can’t beat nature.
Me too! Magnolia grandiflora smells so wonderful, and to me the scent also has this weird, weird texture — creamy and soapy and astringent all at once. I love FM Eau Magnolia because it captures the texture part along with, I think, a decent amount of the scent part (plus heaps of lemon), but I hear a lot of grousing about how this one *doesn’t* smell like magnolia to most people so I don’t know, maybe it’s just me.
Yeah, truly nothing beats the smell of the real thing. I do like the Grandiflora perfume Magnolia Grandiflora Sandrine. Unfortunately my FM Eau de Magnolia travel spray’s sprayer has been jammed for years so I haven’t smelled it in a while.
A perfume with lots of ylang ylang sounds wonderful for summer. But Zoologist Perfumes don’t seem to work for me.
More often than not Zoologist perfumes don’t work for me either, but luckily this one plays nice.
I am so excited to go see Barbie with my girlfriends this Friday. We are all wearing something pink, but not exactly going for a Barbie look.
I hope you and your friends have a lot of fun! I guess I didn’t exactly dress like Barbie but about as close as I could easily approximate. I don’t own any heels haha.
Beautiful and peaceful picture, Robin!
Wearing Fzotic Pantoum for another hot and humid day. I see myself finishing this bottle by the end of summer. I like the scent and I have been wearing it a lot lately.
B&BW is annoying me with so many Halloween emails and paper coupons over the mail. Halloween items along with the Fall ones are in full display at the stores already. We are facing a heat wave the next couple of days and the least that I need to think about is Halloween! Oh well! I will take that as a sign that cooler temperatures are around the corner and probably that will make me feel better! 😏
Happy Wednesday! 🌻
Oh I would be annoyed too, in the UK stores are a little more reasonable in following the calendar.
I wish it was the same here. August comes and I am sure Christmas items will start showing up. I am waiting for the neighbor’s house to have the Christmas decorations up by next week!🎄🎄🎄 🤷♀️
It’s like the animated Charlie Brown Easter special that shows Xmas decorations in the stores. I thought it was funny when it came out.
Now it’s all too real!
I had forgotten about the Charlie Brown Easter special! My neighbors fall exactly in that category! I wish they could have at least some Halloween decorations! 😆🎃
I had to unsubscribe to them awhile back. The emails were just too much.
I am thinking about doing the same!
Halloween? It is still July…
It is insane!
Halloween! ACK! I thought it was too soon for back to school, let alone that.
I think we are going to reach a point where items for all the seasons and holidays are going to be out all year long!
GAG! 🤢🤮
Now I want to run over to our mall and see if Fall has arrived. Kinda like other repulsive things from which one cannot look away.
🤣
It used to be a lot colder on Halloween day. Maybe this year will be the charm?
Fingers crossed!
Going to visit my grandmother while wearing Hedonist today.
Have a good visit.
Strawberries and yogurt smoothie
I reached for my new little 30ml bottle of Grès Eau de Cologne because that one is a spray while the big bottle I’ve had for some years is splash. I bought this Eau de Cologne when it was released and I’m so glad to wear it again. Tonight I’m in Yves Rocher Nature Millénaire, a rather autumnal scent but it smells great as it is no more than 18C outside.
For some reason this Eau de Cologne is not on Fragrantica. It is citrussy on top, rather sweet citrus with a musky drydown.
Every so often, I come across perfumes that aren’t on Fragrantica as well.
Yes, Fragrantica is not infallible, I found the Grès EDC on Parfumo.
Hi, everyone!! This may sound weird out of the blue… But the red coach bottle and perfumelover67s comment about Hajusuuri liking red bottles made me come up with an idea. If You had to choose one (just ONE!) color You prefer Your perfume bottle/glass/juice to be, which would You pick?
A white bottle! I do not care much about the color of the juice
A good example would be the bottle of Courregès Blanc.
That is a surprisingly tough question for me.
Think fast, Mossy: blue.
I’m going with clear or tinted glass( any color tint) what I really like is a bottles uniqueness. I like each perfume to have a different bottle shape, even if it’s the same brand. I hate what Estee Lauder did to their bottles.
Red, for sure, even though my favorite color is green.
Opaque black, so I wouldn’t have to feel obliged to hide them all in a cabinet.
For looks, I like anything opaque, but admittedly they’re annoying when you can’t see how much is left.
Otherwise, prefer colored to clear glass. Love the pale ombre colors of lots of the Hermes scents, they look so pretty lined up in the 15 ml travel bottles.
Steering away form the cp today,because I was craving an amber/cozy vanilla(oh wait,vanilla!)perfume.
Dior Mitzah.
Just perfect.✌🏻🌹😉🤗
You get cp points no matter what you wear!
I have always but always strongly been drawn to orange/deep orange perfume juice or glass color but with time I have become very drawn to perfumes and bottles that are or have green in them. But that Coach Love 2023 – I am just in love with the bottle and the red color of it. I am thinking of getting it just for the bottle.
Heh, “perfume bottle lust” is very real!
You and me both for love of red bottles!
Continuing my summertime life’s-a-beach theme, I’m in Monyette over Vacation sunscreen. I smell like a smoothie.
You get an enabler pin for the Hendrick’s Flora Adora! Picked up a bottle late this afternoon.
I’m wearing Lubin’s Idole today, twins with Ringthing, but from a travel spray rather than the beautiful bottle.
My flight finally got to Dunedin last night after way too much drama, starting with checking in with my suitcase and finding my admin person had booked a seat only flight, and ending with almost not being able to land because of the wind. We had to go round for a second try, which I didn’t enjoy.
But I am here!
Glad you made it safely!
Oh my! Must have been really really nice to land after that.
When it rains, it pours. I found out this morning that a friend of mine passed away last night. He had had a severe stroke late last week. He will be sorely missed.
SOTD = commando.
I’m so, so sorry. Sending you love.
Thanks Isabella.
I am so sorry, Jalapeno. Sending you comforting hugs.
Thank you perfumelover67. The hugs are much appreciated.
I’m very sorry for your loss Jalapeno.
Thanks lillyjo.
That is so sad! I’m very sorry you lost a friend.
Thank you austenfan.
Sending perfumed hugs, and thinking of you, and Spooky too.
Thanks MossyBerry.
My condolences.
Thank you Hera.
Sending condolences and hugs💕
Thanks allo.
So sorry to hear about your friend, jalapeño 😔
Thank you hajusuuri. He was someone special, and a lot of people recognized that.
I’m so sorry to hear that, Jalapeno. Sending hugs. 💙
Thanks AnnE. It’s been A Day. 😿
Oh gosh, so sorry Jalapeno.
Thank you Robin.
I’m so sorry to hear about your friend, Jalapeno.
Thanks Gail.
So sorry for your loss Jalapeno, hope good memories of your Friend will help you amid the sadness, sending hugs.
Thank you Aurora.
I am so sorry. 🙁
Thanks cazaubon.
I’m so sorry for the difficult time you’re going through, Jalapeño. Hugs.
Thank you ringthing.
Sending you my condolences and a hug, Jalapeno.
Thanks therabbitsflower.
I am so sorry about your friend, Jalapeno. Sending you hugs and condolences. You have been in my thoughts this week.
Thank you Vee. I appreciate that.
I’m doing an Uncle Serge today for a link to Africa. La Myrrhe to be precise. One of the four bell jars I own.
Gosh, I remember getting the first three in one go in 2009, they were only €110,- a bottle back then. La Myrrhe was bought a few years later. But I can’t remember when exactly. I do remember trying Boxeuses and De Profundis as well, but ended up liking LM the best.
After all these years you’d think I’d have bought a bell jar, but no. I think about buying El Attarine every so often.
I’m amazed you never got ISM. Or did you get a decant of it?
I have had multiple decants over the years!
A Bell Jar! I would get LM or ISM. Hard to choose! Both! Nope, too many $$$! Ack, wait til later….but, a Bell jar!!! Unending conversation…must. forget. about. Bell. Jars…. LOL!
Zanzibar! Riffing off JB’s mention of Madagascar, I thought about Zanzibar, because I love saying the name of that island province. I read the Wikipedia article, and it seems that Zanzibar is known for its production of cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and black pepper. When I searched my Fragrantica page for perfumes with those notes, Omnia popped up. So, scent of the day! And, I got a compliment from a friend I had lunch with today. Zanzibar!
Woo-hoo for a perfume compliment!
It feels like Christmas in July with the succession of new red bottle perfumes, even the Britney Spears green bottle looks cute, and finally, the over-the-top Diptyque pseudo-Advent calendar if you are counting down from 49!
SOTD = Serge Lutens Chergui
I had been ensconced in my home so no worries about gassing myself with the 8 sprays! I got this idea from J B and so I am getting points.
And because I wore this not too long ago, I posted a superb owl instead:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CvLZfesRAxB/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
That owl is huge!
It was and I loved it!
Not the creepiest owl you have posted, but this one is definitely unnerving.
You’ve described it well!
Happy Birthday Mick Jagger and R.I.P Sinaed O’Connor.
It’s been a very rainy day but luckily the predicted storms missed me. I am wearing Chance eau Vive to brighten up the day.🌞
Glad that the predicted weather gave you a pass today!
Me too! The weather people had me very nervous!
You smell wonderful!
Thank you!
We had a thunderstorm yesterday, and now more pouring rain. Very sad to hear about Sinéad, so young.
Tears in my eyes… Tears of joy. I’m in Winter Delice from the AA line. Discontinued. Hard to find. My favorite. I live in South FL and it’s hot and humid here but… Oh if I could smell like this for the rest of my life!! I especially love the pine, gingerbread and sugar connection here. Absolute favorite of mine. So happy to have some of it in my new/used bottle I just bought.
Delighting myself in Royal Delight by Creed on one finger right along my Winter Delice. Oh what a stunner. Saving up to get a bottle of this discontinued beauty.
How lovely it is making you so happy!
Still limited in my fragrance choices until the cooling system is installed but I’m going with Serge this week because I have lots of samples from my recent pilgrimage to the Palais Royal boutique – today in Louvre which is not my favorite. On to the next one…
How much longer until you get it installed?
That’s an excellent question😊
The answer is longer than I had hoped. We were waiting for a bid and it ended up being WAY higher than expected so now we’re looking at other options😬
How many goodies did you get?
Several😋
Sarrasins is the highlight!
Ooooooooooh, Sarrasins is GORGEOUS!
My SOTD has nothing to do with Africa but everything to do with where my hand went this morning: Ormonde Jayne Vanille d’Iris. ❤️
Always the right thing to do 🙂