It's Friday, plus World Nature Conservation Day and National Milk Chocolate Day. Birthdays: Beatrix Potter, Marcel Duchamp, Malcolm Lowry, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Our community project for today: 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.
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.
It's too hot for anything else, so I'm ending the week how I started, in Hermès Un Jardin Sur Le Nil.
Reminder: on 8/4, for Louis Armstrong's birthday, scent a song. If that's too hard, wear rose for La Vie en Rose? Or wear something by Lanvin (he had a half empty bottle of some sort of Lanvin cologne on his dresser when he died).
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 Entabeni - Limpopo, South Africa [cropped] by Fyre Mael at flickr; some rights reserved.
I am up early for my last few hours on this godforsaken project.
SOTD is 19-69 Kasbah.
All aboard the Marrakesh Express!
Glad your project is almost done.
All aboard that train! 🎶
I’m not familiar with your scent, so I can’t comment on that, sorry.
Ditto ringthing. It will be good to see it in your rearview mirror!
Congratulations on finishing your project!
Hurray for the end of that dratted project!
Half points, I think, in vintage Estée Lauder Knowing parfum, based on a flower called pittosporum which grows, among other places, in parts of Africa. Other than Tauer L’Air du Desert Marocain, which I didn’t feel like wearing, it’s the closest I can come to any link to Africa. Actually I should get quarter points at most because I have no idea what pittosporum even smells like: I wouldn’t know it if you whacked me across the chops with a bouquet of the stuff.
But never mind all that: the vintage Knowing is so good! A sophisticated, magisterial chypre: it’s one of those scents that make you stand a little taller with your shoulders squared, ready to face anything.
We have a beautiful pittosporum here that has small yellow flowers that smell like lemon-pollen, almost like mimosa but with added lemon. It is not strong if you were to pick a branch but wafts on the air. It is also known as lemonwood and was part of the traditional perfumes. It is quite a large tree but can be clipped and makes a nice pot plant on the balcony or as a tall hedge. Very hardy.
https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/pittosporum-eugenioides/
If you crush the leaves they smell of lemon-turpentine
I had planned on the Tauer today too, and gave it up also…too darned hot.
It’s 93 degrees here and the Tauer is absolutely gorgeous on my skin… LDDM reads as an amazing amber in the heat for my extremely dry scent devouring skin. 16 sprays and I received five, yes five, compliments at work
Oh my! That’s spectacular.
Twinning with Robin in Un Jardin Sur le Nil. I wanted to wear Idole again today but I have to take my mom to the doctor for a regular check-up, and it’s too hot for Idole.
Hey twin! Hope the appt went well.
Hope that your Mom is OK.
Morocco seems to be popular with perfumers. So I am joining those of you who already took an imaginary trip there with SL Chergui. Good thing it is cool enough for it today.
Yes…Morocco seems to get 85% of the Africa love.
Good morning!
Like Robin, I started and ended the week in Jardin sur le Nil.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Hey twin! We are in good company today.
I was going to do Timbuktu, but ultimately I decided on Safari.
Great choice!
Why didn’t I remember that for this week?
Oh Safari! You smell great.
Happy Friyay!
Eager to see what everyone is wearing today.
SOTD!
Nishane Afrika Olifant.
Animalic spicy leather!Good stuff!
“Afrika Olifant” is in fact the correct afrikaans spelling of african elephant,which gives me a slight thrill as afrikaans is my first language.
Other choices for today I considered:
Shalimar
Aqualis(too many choices,I mean Blom,Kruger,Namaqualand and Brenton are all very well done!(
Something local from Apartment,Wick or Frazer Parfums.
Serge Lutens/Andy Tauer/Hermès…I don’t need to explain!
Lol!
Have a good Friday all!
🇿🇦✌🏻🤗🌹
There was a Dick Francis novel set in South Africa, where one one visitor kept saying “olifant” excitedly…
Haha!That’s a fabulous anecdote
Which one was that, AnnieA? I thought I had read them all, but that doesn’t sound familiar.
It’s apparently Smokescreen, from 1972…
Off to the library!
JB thank you for sharing the beauty of your continent with us!
There is so much beauty here,despite all the challenges.In a way I am glad that most of Africa is still very much a mysterious unexplored continent.Plus we keep a lot to ourselves that the world don’t see unless you come and explore.🤗✌🏻🇿🇦
The lotus has to push through the mud to show its beauty. There is always a struggle.
I can understand wanting to keep things to oneself.
Great choice! Have a great weekend!
In CSP Vanille Coco, both of which grow in Africa.
Perfect.
Twins with Robin, for the same reason — it’ll be too hot today for anything heavier. When will autumn be here?!? 🍁 🥵
Not soon enough.
I am not yet ready to give up being a summer person, but I’m getting there!
I am almost there too!
I’m getting close too! My sister jokingly said that my “Scottish side is coming out”. She may be right!
Seconding what Robin said!
Wearing LADDM today since it was pretty much inspired by the Maghreb desert. It’s going to be in the upper 80’s or low 90’s today and need something on the dry side.
We hit low 90s, now thunderstorms.
Dzhari which has a date note and is named for a type of wind in Libya
I love a date note. Is that another from DSH by any chance?
It’s from Phaedon
Thanks!
Apartment Now Wait Here, since I bought it in Cape Town last year. Wonderful memories!
Yay!That one is pretty.
I’m in African Orchid by Olympic Orchids, which was the first perfume I thought of when I read about the CP. I love this one.
Oh perfect, and another one I forgot!
Brilliant match!
Hello all!
I’m getting points in El Attarine today. Morocco is high on my travel list, though it might have to wait a few more years! I don’t see this one listed on the Serge Lutens website so I’m really glad I splurged when I did. I can’t tell what they’re doing over at Uncle Serge’s but it’s pretty sad. El Attarine is just heavenly and I would take it over most of the other bell jars.
Have a great day everyone!
You smell fabulous! I love El Attarine and have a backup bottle. SL seems to be constantly reshuffling scents into different packaging. Hopefully El Attarine will be back some day.
Yes I hope so! I actually think you sold me my original decant, was back in the day. I just treasured it till I could afford a full bottle. Definitely regret not getting a back up but maybe you’re right….
Yep, you smell like heaven.
The first sample I bought was because of your review! I absolutely loved it then and still do.
I’m wearing my sample of Gallivant Accra today for the cp.
Stay well and keep cool today, if you’re having a heat wave like we are in NYC!
How it is?
I’m one of the – presumably many – ones of us who did actually go with Timbuktu. Not that I had a choice actually: I think it’s the only Africa-themed scent I at least have a sample of.
Well, that works! Plus, it’s such a great scent.
Tauers first, and my first Tauer: Le Maroc pour elle. I hadn’t worn it in ages and the top notes were “interesting” but the drydown is as gorgeous as it ever was.
Off to Bruxelles tomorrow to meet up with a friend.
Such a beautiful jasmine, that one.
Hope you have a fun weekend!
To me it’s more about rose and spices and thank you!
Interesting! I always think it’s fascinating when different people get different notes from a scent. Magic shape-shifters. ✨
More and more daffodils are beginning to pop up here. Always reminds me of you. Have a happy trip
I missed the daffodils in my part of the world this year, I don’t know what happened but they had gone before I had been able to greet them. So please give your New Zealand daffies a big wave from me! And thanks I think it will be good.
Safe travels, and enjoy the time spent with your friend!
I don’t think I’m anywhere near Africa in Vero’s Rozy VdE which I found last night while surfing the Sample Sea. I remember trying it when I got the spray sample and didn’t care for it at all. Now, I’d say I’m enjoying it very much. I’ve had this sample for years so who knows what magic happens to perfume samples that sit unloved and forgotten in a dark corner? Or, maybe my nose has done a complete about face? Anyway, will re-up now and enjoy it for the rest of the day.
Fun find! I have to admit, Rozy is not my favorite (by a pretty good stretch) but I haven’t tried the VdE. I do keep trying it though….
It’s funny how the 3 concentrations are like 3 totally different perfumes. I know the Onda EdP was a big NO for me but I loved the VdE. I never tried all the iterations but wish I did. I have FOMO I guess, but it’s too late for that.
I definitely have that too. Doesn’t help that now luckyscent has some of the line now. So tempting. 😂
I’m trains with ringthing today, I’m wanting to wear Idole, but it’s too darn hot (again.) Like so many places in the world right now. 🔥 I plan to wear a bit later when I’ll be staying home in the AC. Today it’s Geranium Odoratum again. This one helps me feel cool! 😎
Make that “twins”
I like the idea of a scent train…first class
This!
😄 Excellent!
You smell lovely, that scent makes me think of a spa in a dewy garden!
Ooh, what a pretty image! 🩷
Autocorrupt strikes again!
😄
Twinning in sur le Nil, with a side of Tauer Maghreb. Too darn hot today.
Cooler next week! Maybe it will give me strength to finish the spice rack that I started making for the back of the pantry door. This will alleviate so much space in my tiny cupboards!
Are you making that spice rack from a kit? Sounds pretty cool!
We are quadruplets at least…probably more, I’ve lost count 🙂
SOTD is African Leather.
Thanks J B for this great CP idea, I had a lot more to wear than I initially thought. And thanks for telling us about ELDO’s connection to South Africa, I never would’ve known or thought to research the name. I learn so much on NST!
Ooh, I forgot about that connection. Cool.
My pleasure!
I myself forgot about ELdO for the cp!The embarrassment!Lol!
Yes, I did love this CP! Had I been home I would have had so many more, but then it’s a surprise how I could relate even the samples I had waiting at my sister’s. 🙂
I’m twins with Austenfan in Le Maroc pour elle, just a tiny spray because it’s powerful. The wooden cap on my bottle was stuck and I had to run it under hot water for it to loosen. The liquid is dark brown but still smells fantastic.
IIRC, your Le Maroc pour Elle is vintage, right?
I think so. I bought it second-hand. The bottom sticker says Lot o12, and I think he switched to plastic caps a while ago.
SOTD = Scents of Wood Plum in Cognac
CP points because … there are woods in Africa …
https://www.instagram.com/p/CvP7Sn5OwWp/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Still too hot to cook! I am WFH today and I had no choice but to microwave soup. Later, I will venture out again to see what I can get from Wegmans. I am trying not to heat the place any further.
For those on Instagram, I’m curious to know if you have tried any of the work from home at your spare time jobs? Thanks.
Wegmans! The holy grail of grocery stores.
I think I might pick up a pizza on the way home so I don’t have to cook.
I ended up opening a can of spaghetti Os. Lol
I ate a LOT of those one semester in college! So much that I couldn’t look at a can of Spaghetti-Os for a while afterward.
It was cheap, tasty, and filling.
I made some udon this afternoon. That was about the only thing which sounded remotely appealing other than frozen dessert treats like ice cream or sorbetto.
Do you mean using instagram as a part time job? Or just having a part time job on top of a full time job?
More like having a part time job, with or without a full time job.
I had such a nice cafe meeting with Gaynor yesterday and she showered me with perfume samples ( including Vol du Nuit and Ormande Jayne Woman, two I have never smelled but always wanted to ) and a beautiful bottle of Dustin Pavillion D’Or. it reminds me of Chypre Mousse. I am wearing Sarah Baker Leopard for the CP ( one of the samples ) and have just looked up the notes…it has everything,. Might switch to Kenzo Elephant later .
All beautiful scents! And Elephant…perfect.
I’m glad you had a nice visit.
It was so nice to sit and talk about all sorts of things, including perfume of course. Thank you for the perfumes you gave me, I’m wearing Le Jardin de Monsieur Li this morning.
I wonder what you will make of Ormonde Woman. It’s quite a distinctive scent.
In person perfumista meetups are the best!
Yes!
Yay for perfumista meetups! Wish I could meet you both as well.
Despite it supposedly not being dedicated to the animal, I’m in Le Lion today. Because I am a big cat fan. Lions were my first love as a kid…I wanted to visit Africa from the time I was little. Someday, maybe…. I’ve aways joked that my perfect day would start with joining the BBC crew of Big Cat Diary.
It’s not hot here. It’s actually been sunny, but I’m hearing distant rumblings. A short squall might blast through. Getting louder with each rumble…
Great pick with Le Lion!
I think your rumblings are heading my way later tonight.
All the exclusifs are going up in price on August 1, so maybe you need a bub of le lion?
It’s a beauty.
Hi all! I was going to go with Jardin Sur le Nil today, but Tannina mentioned Aromatics Elixir yesterday and I wound up craving it. After my recent breakup and in the face of an unexpected, possible new (long-distance) connection, I just want to feel… *womanly*. Like, grown-a$$-woman womanly, and this fits the bill for me. Thinking I need to take a break from the beachy fragrances and get this and Sous le Vent back in serious rotation.
Aromatics Elixir is *very* craveable indeed!
Love Aromatics Elixir, and it is still easy to get hold of.
I picked up a bottle of the Perfumers Reserve when that was happening, so that’s what I roll with, but I think I have a wee sample of the original somewhere around here…
Does that one have the gorgeous brown bottle?
Sailing away from Zanzibar, I arrive at Madagascar, seeking vanilla per JB’s suggestion. SotD Chloe Vanilla Panifolia, one of my Plato’s Closet blind buys. It’s an airy, crisp vanilla and if I think fast, I think very good office-safe scent. The bottle is lovely and the sprayer is excellent. I’ve really enjoyed this CP, and everyone’s creative takes. Happy Friday! Chez Mossy we are enjoying garden-fresh tomatoes, green beans and yellow squash this week. Also a few cucumbers to cool me off. A garden surprise was, when my tuberoses bloomed, they just weren’t…all that. No narcotic, heavy waves – I had to stick my nose on the flower head to smell anything!! What a surprise. My shaggy old potted sambac jasmine beat them hands-down in diffusing tropical fragrance around my yard. Well.
I used to get cut tuberoses from the farmers market, and I found that they didn’t smell much during the day, and turned on the glory at night. I wonder if yours might be the same?
Yay for garden produce! Everything in my garden is behind schedule, but I harvested my first five (5) beans the other day. Ho hum, stashing them in the fridge and waiting for another five…
Oh shoot! All that work.
I’m going to give them another chance next year, but Isabella idea may be right. I did not smell them at night!
Serge Lutens sample grab bag….Poivre Noir! I like it but I think I like CdG Blackpepper better.
Was going to say it was cheaper too, but I’d have to investigate, who knows these days.
For today’s cp, I’m joining those of you this week who are dreaming of a night in Morocco in LAdDM. Since it shares similar earthy/spicy notes to my favorite (and I know pyramus loves this one, too) d/c YR Nature Millenaire, I layered the LAdDM over the Millenaire body products and . . . Mmmm good! 👍
I’ve never been to Morocco but I imagine some nights might be hot like it’s been here the past 4 days but I can’t imagine they’d be as humid. I’ve only gone out when necessary and I can’t wait for tomorrow; storms later tonight will finally bring relief for the weekend. It’s been ghastly 🥵.
Depending on the weather later, we may get to one of our favorite outdoor concerts; tomorrow we hope to get some much-needed gardening done and maybe get to a nearby village fest. If we’re really adventurous this weekend, we might take a ride to Pierogi Fest in Indiana; one of my favorite foods from my Polish heritage but, somehow, not one I long to eat in midsummer heat! Last night we went to a wonderful indoor classical piano concert at our library, and that just might suffice for 🎶 this weekend. Wishing everyone a wonderful one ahead!
Pierogis are delicious, but yeah, I can’t imagine them as a summer food. Especially with melted butter and sauteed onions.
That’s how I like them, too. Yum.
We just bought pierogis at Costco here in Montreal because we were craving them (despite the heat and humidity). Will serve them with cool sour cream.
Love pierogi! We live next door to a Ukrainian cathedral, and they sell amazing pierogi every Saturday.
Very curious on where in Indiana has a pierogi fest! I lived there in late elementary school / high school, and eastern Europeans seemed hard to find.
In Whiting, IN. Apparently it’s grown tremendously over the years and offers much more than pierogi; take a look at the website, it sounds like a blast and has been featured in the Chicago news every year. I’ve wanted to go for a long time; we may take a ride tomorrow. Here’s a link:
https://www.pierogifest.net/
joining many. of you with LADDM, which is lovely, although i am not a great fan of amber scents. At least i smelled nice today, which was my 60th birthday.
A russian patient that i had to converse with help of google translate made my day, when she said via translate: you are very beautiful. (i am not really beautiful, but it was so kind of her….) And my coworkers gave me some nice presents (including a cleaning woman for a day, a Miss Piggy wig including the snout) and prepared a great lunch buffet. Great day! Have a. nice weekend you all!
Happy Birthday! 🎂 And what a nice patient!
Happy Birthday, tannina!
Happy birthday, sounds like a wonderful day! Wishing you a wonderful year ahead (and wondering just where one would wear a Miss Piggy wig complete with snout?🤣)
Amber hasn’t traditionally been my thing either, though am appreciating it more the longer I’m a perfumista. Wishing you a happy birthday!
Happy birthday and here’s to a new decade!
Happy birthday!
Happy Scented Birthday tannina!
Happy Birthday, Tannina! 🎂🎁🎉🌹🍨
Happy birthday to you!!
Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday!!! 🎂🎉
Happy Birthday, tannina! 🎉
Happy Happy Birthday to you, tannina!💐💃
Happy birthday! What lovely presents 🙂
Happy birthday! Miss Piggy with a snout! I love it!
Happy belated birthday!
Adding my belated birthday wishes!
I am wearing Safari today for the cp. It’s very hot here but storms tonight will remedy that.
Considered that, but just couldn’t pull any trigger…it’s 90 deg with about 85% humidity. Just can’t deal. The coming weekend looks much less miserable, thank goodness.
Yes.. next week looks to be pleasant.
I might get storms here sometime tomorrow. We shall see. ⚡🌩️⛈️
Yeah.. the weather can change on a dime.
Sounds like Summer to me! 😏😉
Same here, I hear thunder and the rain is coming soon.
Hopefully nothing severe.
Even though I never got along with Safari (although come to think of it, it may have been Jungle L’Elephant), I bet you smell wonderful.
I bet it is Elephant. Safari is really misnamed imo. It’s very soft and floral powdery. I think it also has galbanum.(sp?)
Joining the Hermes Jardin Sur le Nil crowd today. I also have weather that is too stinking hot and humid for comfort. The A/C has been running much more than usual this afternoon to keep things comfy.
Like therabbitsflower, I can’t decide if I like Sur le Nil or not.
At one point, Teflon kitty splooted on the sofa arms to cool off for a bit.
I loved Sur le Nil until I didn’t. I’m pretty sure I have away my bottle.
This one is a head scratcher for me.
So far, the only Jardin I have really like was Un Jardin en Mediterranee. And it’s been long enough that I would need to smell it again to be sure that I still like it.
I’m not looking forward to the A/C bill.
Pretty sure mine is going to be stupid expensive for July.
Wearing a spritz of Kenzo Jungle L’Elephant for the CP. I am working from home today, so since the air conditioners are running at full blast I am enjoying L’Elephant greatly.
Another horrible super hot and humid day. Hopefully, we will be back to more bearable temps on Sunday.
On my third cup of iced coffee and a slice of tiramisu.
Happy Friday! ☕️☕️
Does a third cup of coffee count as “triple strength”? 😉☕☕☕
Ha! Yes! 😀 Where is Bear?
If he is out there I wish he would pop in.
See, I think you’re going to join the “dark” side soon with your dropped hints of wanting it to be cooler …
I think my days as a summer lover will come to and end soon. For the past 2 years my tolerance for very hot and humid days has diminished greatly. I will be joining you sooner than expected on your liking for fall/winter temps.
Traitor! Lol 🤣
My heat tolerance is not what it once was either. I mainly hate winter because of snow. If I only got half of my average I wouldn’t mind it so much.
Lol! We barely got few inches of snow last winter, so except for some very cold days here in the city, it was not that bad. I was liking it actually! 😳😀
I don’t mind heat half as much as the humidity. It’s really gross here today.
Humidity is what is ruining summertime. Otherwise, I would be very happy with the heat and lower humidity.
You smell wonderful, it never occurred to me to wear l’Elephant this week 🤦♀️
I’m having a very nice time visiting my mother, very relaxing and pottering about doing some small things for her around the house that she can no longer do herself. Catching up with Kanuka yesterday was lovely, and it was a nice winter’s day for wandering about.
I see plenty of people in Le Jardin sur Le Nil, and I’m in Le Jardin de Monsieur Li – not in Arica, but still in a garden 🙂
I’m glad you are having a nice time.
And your garden smells lovely 🙂
SOTD is Alaia (meant to evoke a scene from the designers tunisian childhood). I like wearing this in summer, it feels cool and abstract to me.
I always wanted to try Alaia.
Oh, great call…yet another one I never would have thought of!
I copied Robin and dug out my bottle of Timbuktu today.
Oh good you found it.
🙂
I got a long-overdue haircut today so I wore just a couple sprays of 4160 Tuesdays Both Sides of Clouds.
Happy Friday everyone!
Happy Friday Gail!
Thank you, lillyjo! Hope you had a good one too!
Yay for the haircut! Bet you are feeling great now!
Sure am! It was a year ago, almost to the day that I went to her last. I did have a quick trim in Florida, but there was no finessing my mop then! I was glad to get in this week.
I’m in AdV’s Grenadille d’Afrique for the first time today, thanks to a sample from yasmina. It reminds me of Timbuktu but more suited to my taste, with the aspects I like dialed up and the ones I don’t dailed down.
I was going to try a new-to-me tea from Rwanda today to go with the CP, but ended up having a bunch of small fires to put out at work, so I decided to save it for when I could really enjoy it and just made a quick mug of earl gray instead.
We were tea siblings today! I had a Vanilla Earl Grey.