It’s Tuesday and National Banana Split Day. Birthdays: Leonard Bernstein, Sean Connery, Wayne Shorter, Martin Amis, Elvis Costello. What fragrance are you wearing?
I'm in OG Dior Eau Sauvage.
Reminder: on 8/28 we're doing "the exception to the rule"...wear a fragrance that you love despite not generally caring for fragrances of its kind, or its brand, or its main note, or whatever...you come up with the rule and the exception.
And for those of you who like to plan ahead, see Scent of the day ~ Friday community projects 2026, where I'll occasionally manage to have the next five or six weeks mapped out in advance.
Note: the Pomponette Teapot ("...Pomponette collection invites the breakfast table to play dress-ups: teapots wear crowns, handles bloom into soft constellations, and porcelain begins to whisper") by Maison Balzac is $98 at Borderfree.
Hello.
Sotd is LPRN Parfum.
Going to the doctor later as I have stupid conjunctivitis on my right eye and it’s very uncomfortable. I trued OTC antibiotic drops but they didn’t work. Boo.
Feel better soon! Boo is right!
Thank you SmokeyToes!
Ugh! Hope their big meds will get rid of it quickly.
Got prescribed some strong antibiotic eyedrops. Fingers crossed.
YUCK!! I hope you don’t wear contacts.
My dry eyes have not allowed me to wear contacts for the past 20 or so years. Maybe that’s also why I got the infection, not enough tears to wash micro dirt away?
I had a recommendation from an eye doctor to take flaxseed oil capsules for dry eye relief about 10 years ago. Seems to work for me, but it takes between 3 to 6 months to see results. Maybe they would help you?
So sorry to hear this, happy888cat. I hope the doctor offers some relief.
Thank you DeniseH. The doctor kept scaring me by saying go to the ER if things don’t improve in 5 days. She repeated that 3 times. Scary!
Hello!! Oh that’s such an easy CP for me. Throughout my perfume loving journey of over 25 years, since a very young teen, I have always fallen for “oriental”, spicy, woody, gourmand (20 years before it became so notorious like nowadays), unique. Another thing that has always been me is powdery, iris, lavender also patchouli and such. I have NEVER liked light and fresh floral fragrances and that’s what I had always steered away from. Always banal and boring to me no matter the perfume, no matter the brand. When I turned to collecting Chanel exclusively things like Coco, Coromandel, Jersey and even Chance seemed like a very natural choice for me and just very me. Exceptionally well blended each and every time. Things just got even better when I began ordering all these Chanel perfumes and samples. Some of my absolutely favorite Chanel perfumes, ones I reach for most often include Chanel 1932, Beige and Gabrielle parfum. These are the kinds of perfumes that represent a fragrance profile I would normally consider banal and boring. The lists of notes provided for them, if I was to see those written for perfumes from any other brands, I guarantee I would have never fallen for them.
1932 may be a sparkly jasmine when done by other houses would have been another flat, boring fragrance. Beige list of notes if not done by Chanel, would have been a “tropical” generic mess. Gabrielle’s white floral, solar notes produced by some other perfume brand would have been so boring it wouldn’t even be worth a mention.
But because Chanel literally sprinkled some magic into them, I cannot stay away from my bottles. I remember smelling 1932 for the first time and I almost had to hold on to the nearest dresser, I almost fainted because of how gorgeous it is. Trying Beige I couldn’t I thought I was smelling magical fairy dust and I felt like I was the Queen B offered a golden flower pollen. Gabrielle in any dorm but especially pure parfum or L’eau gave me a glittering, shimmering refreshing quality that I always tried to chase after by always looking for different Tea perfumes and I never found it elsewhere. So drop dead gorgeous. It’s like so many of my Chanel fragrances are such a huge exception to the rule it’s crazy.
Another two worth mentioning are Chanel Rivera from a sample I almost forgot I had. Sprayed it. Reminded me of a floral meadow. I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was, the other one super-not-me of a fragrance: Chance Eau Tendre. This has to be my most despised fragrance profile ever: girly pink, the most of a fruity-light-floral ever created. Actually it is such a polar opposite of what I normally like I never worn it as a scent of the day yet. I remember I bought a used bottle and when the package came I put it on the kitchen table. I went to the bathroom and when I came back to the kitchen my Mother opened the package with my 7-year-old Daughter already, and my little one was already wearing it on Her wrist exclaiming how beautiful it is and She wants it to be Her perfume. She has sometimes worn a tiny spray on clothes or in hair ever since and when She returns from school She still smells so good. “Problem” with Chanel perfumes is that they really use highest quality oils and ingredients. All these pastel pink or fruity florals, light and fresh flower notes are executed with such precision they are out of this world when done by Chanel.
This is great news because I have still yet to find a single Chanel perfume I do not like. I believe the only ones I havent tried yet are Bel Respiro and 28 La Pausa, Chance Eau Vive and Chanel Deauville and Biarritz.
Chanel is one of my favorite houses, I love seeing your thoughts about the perfumes! There’s something that speaks to me and they work beautifully on my skin.
I first wore Cristalle edt (my first grown up purchase, I had to muck out a lot of horse stalls and baby sit for that one) and No. 5 (first gift from a boy), as a teen, both were instant love. Then eventually No. 19, and 22, and Cristalle EDP.
In the 1990’s I started exploring Orientals like Coco, which took me in a completely different direction from my usual floral or citrus scent profile. Eventually, when I tried Coromandel, it was practically a given that I’d adore it, and I do. Although I don’t wear it nearly often as I’d like (scent phobe coworker).
Surprise loves, Jersey, Misia, Chance, Beige, and Gabrielle. I decants for now as my perfume collection is quite large and I have similar scents to Misia (Bvlgari’s Pour Femme) and Gabrielle (Hermes Jour de Hermes).
When those bottles are drained, I’ll revisit my to buy list. 🙂
First of all sorry for the long posts and that I ramble but it’s like perfume is such a passion of mine I want to “get it off my shoulders”. Thanks for Your time reading, everybody!!
I just wanted to say this: I have a handful of different lady friends in real life that share a passion for perfume with me. Among any social group I belong to, I have to proudly say, I’m considered a fragrance expert/freak. If one of my lady friends gets a new perfume, two other people run to me to report this haha
And please I do not judge or try to compare, this isn’t comparison but rather I’m sharing something with You, something my real life lady friends also know and noted on. I am a landscaper and when I leave for work, I wear hard labor worker uniform. Within the first hour of my work I am sweaty, covered in dust and dirt. But every morning I wake up I take pleasure in: showering, brushing my hair when putting a little dab of powder on. And the perfume, of course. Some lady friends, well one is a stay at home Mom one is a cosmetologist and they both told me this: they have their more expensive, more special perfumes and cheaper fragrances for every day like Sarah Jessica Parker and such. My cosmetologist friend wears Sarah Jessica Parker Lovely for work and says She would feel bad wearing Her favorite Chanel perfumes for day-day life. They wear their Chanel or Tom Ford fragrances when going out only. They smile about it though because with me it’s different. For me each and any time I come out of the shower is that special occasion to wear my favorite perfumes. I do not wear perfumes with different activities: each wearing of mine is based only on what I want to be wearing that time. The only perfumes I use are the ones I love: and they are all special to me. How many times I left my house to go work landscaping and mowing grass in a cloud of Chanel #22.
Anyways I have a day off today and I am headed grocery shopping. Today I’m in a mood for Gabrielle parfum again. Therefore it’s CP compliant. Hate the general perfume profile, love this Gabrielle fragrance so much it hurts.
I love your musings! I identify with that as well, a dab of something fragrant just makes the day seem more special. I’m fortunate to have overlap with my friends, we all love books, perfume, food, and skincare. None of which are inexpensive but so enjoyable.
There’s nothing wrong at all with letting your perfume freak flag fly!
In honor of National Banana Split Day I’m in CSP Banane Vanille. No surprises here.
I’m looking longingly at my ambers, orientals, incenses…but for whatever reason I’m just not ready for them. A boring but necessary day of domestic chores today. I did make a triple berry compote and it’s to die for! I dialed back the sugar, amped up the lemon juice and zest, and I could just eat it by the spoonful! I wish I could find a perfume that smelled like this tastes- mild sweetness with a huge POP! of tartness and brightness that’s like being hit upside the head with a sunshine stick. 💫
Excellent choice!
You are on a compote roll!!
Got a big grin reading “being hit upside the head with a sunshine stick”. 😁😁😁
I’m not usually one for big fruity fragrances but Eris Delta of Venus was love at first mango sniff!
Great pick. I will be doing a fruity floral this week for sure.
Can’t wait to see your pick!
Delta of Venus didn’t go overboard with the fruit. Nice balance between acidity and sweetness in it.
That’s a great way to describe it. I don’t find it cloying and that’s probably thanks to the balance.
Wearing Clinique Happy. It looks like I have no choice but to throw out my bottles of Happy except 1 mini and travel spray since they have gone bad. I am a little sad about it but mostly ok. I hate the fact that Happy goes bad so quickly.
Sorry Dawn! I always had that problem with Calyx.
My sotd Chloe Nomade Absolu. It sort of fits the CP because, believe it or not, I’ve not tried any Chloe fragrances except for a few in the Nomade line. This is unintentional, I don’t have anything against Chloe but over the years I’ve just never read anything about Chloe to prompt me to seek the brand out until Nomade came out.
I liked Love, Chloe, but otherwise it is not a brand I pay much attention to either.
I’m wearing La Perfumerie Moderne Desarmant, the most beautiful lilac fragrance. This house made such good scents, I was sorry when they went out of business. Also, I have my scent picked out for Friday so I feel like I have accomplished something today.
You are way ahead of me!
RIP Dolly Parton. I can’t believe it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/arts/music/dolly-parton-dead.html
I know! So sad, and such an all around lovely, caring person. Not expecting this at all. 😢
I just saw this too. She was a great one.
I am so sad, I just read about her passing. I adore her music, and her contributions overall to the community. She sure left the world a better place where and when she could. RIP Miss Dolly.
Rough news : (
I can’t believe it either. 🙁
I actually cried when I heard the news this morning. She had cancelled recent events due to health problems so although it was shocking in one way it wasn’t a total surprise. She had also been grieving the loss of her husband who died last year after 59 years of marriage. Her talents and accomplishments from such humble beginnings are legendary, but what I especially loved about her was her ability to often poke fun at herself and her very generous philanthropy. Although she had so many hits, my favorite Dolly moment is her live tv performance of a Christmas hymn I had only recently discovered, Mary Did You Know (on YouTube). The reverence and awe in her voice was breathtakingly beautiful. Truly a role model not just for women but for any and all, no matter where you come from, you can do it!
I was shocked when a friend texted me about it at lunch. But she hadn’t been feeling well recently and had to cancel some events.
The world lost someone special today.
oh no! RIP beautiful lady inside and out.
Oh, not Dolly! What a legend. What a loss. So sad.
Our awful heatwave continues. I’m trying to stay focused by wearing what is certainly one of my top 5 favorite fougeres, Rive Gauche Pour Homme. Unfortunately discontinued, and unfortunately ridiculously expensive on eBay. Ah well. I use it sparingly.
And you smell amazing!
Hi all, I’m home from UCSF, my procedure went smoothly and I’m thankful there’s no nausea or pancreatitis.
The nurses loved the cookies, and my SOTD was De Ma Mere by Shelley Kyle, with amber, bees wax, and linden, something soft and unobtrusive. I’m off to take a little nap. Have a good day all!
Good news, have a lovely nap.
Very happy to hear your good news. I did think of you this morning!!
Yay! Good news!
Glad to hear this, SmokeyToes. Many hugs. Your SOTD sounds yummy and also, it is so sweet of you to always bring homemade baked goods, baked with love, for your nurses.
Glad to hear that everything went well for you this go-round. More hugs.
Fantastic.
Great news, SmokeyToes!
Still on the forgotten train here with Izzy Sayan Kumquat.
This line went away a couple of decades ago. Kumquat is *definitely* in the first wave Angel idiom. I don’t love Angel and I don’t much like this, not sure why I hung onto it for so long.
I feel sure I was drawn to the citrus promise of its name and it does have a sweet citrus component, but also a whole lot of somewhat acrid cocoa.
Well kumquat + cocoa sounds delicious to me too, but I don’t love Angel either….
Greetings friends. It’s been two weeks, I think. Fresh strawberries. For a blood test earlier today I wore Clarins Eau Ressourçante, the original version as it is unobtrusive and tonight Shalimar parfum initial l’Eau which is terrific as usual, the opening grapefruit is especially refreshing in summer and always seems just right.
The idea of bloodwork always scares the daylights outta me. Hope you get good results from your poke.
So sorry, it’s an unpractical phobia to have. Thank you, it’s a yearly test and is usually fine.
It’s the whole needles and stabby objects thing. I have to do some mental gymnastics whenever I have a shot or a blood draw. I can’t even watch Teflon get her vaccinations.
Hey Aurora!
Hi Robin👋
Another lovely day here with storms arriving tomorrow. In late August here nature is usually turning brown and dry after a summer of hot sun but with the overabundance of rain we’ve had my world is surprisingly very green.
The 🌞 of recent days and the world outside my window put me in the mood for a citrussy green scent, so my SOTD IS YR Verte Envolee with lemon and a green accord layered over my favorite summer body products, BBW Country Chic. And just because it’s Teapot Tuesday, the Verte Envolee has a black tea note and I’m wearing a favorite ‘tea-shirt’ that shows a collection of teapots ‘playing dress-up’ and decorated to reflect the different varieties of tea.
Happy Teasday!🫖
Been envious of your lovely weather lately!
Oh that sounds like a shirt I might need 🙂
SOTD = Chanel Allure Por Homme
Lemon tea 🍋 🫖- love it!
So for what it’s worth, my Wall Street Journal subscription is expiring on September 9. I got an email about it earlier in the month and decided to flex my muscles in terms of negotiating down from $464 down to something. Lo and behold, after I was firm with not wanting to pay for subscribing again at 3x my usual rate, I was offered $99 for the whole year! Talk about a “bonus”!
That would be “Pour” Homme …
Great work hajusuuri!!
We have to do the same as you here with the Chicago Tribune. They jack up the rate so you have to call every few months and threaten to cancel your subscription and then they lower the rate substantially. But it all repeats itself later and you have to do the same again. Ridiculous!
Excellent negotiation skills!
Nice job, I’m so proud of you, hahaha!
Hiya NST!
I was AFK yesterday due to some things that happened Sunday into yesterday. Long and crazy story, so I will try not to ramble on.
I had a combination CO+smoke detector malfunction Sunday night when I was on the phone with my brother. It wouldn’t stop yelling about non-existent smoke in my apartment. Yes, the stupid thing was talking. I could temporarily silence it, but that wasn’t a sustainable option. Calling the fire department seemed like a massive over-reaction. And of course, the rental office is very definitely closed.
What to do? Stay up all Sunday night into Monday morning, silencing the broken detector until I can call maintenance at the rental office? That’s ugly.
So in desperation, I got my ladder and removed the detector from its mounting bracket. Then I took it outside and set it on my deck, hoping to get enough sleep before Monday morning.
Monday morning arrives, and I am awakened to the sounds of heavy footsteps outside and someone pounding on my door. I stagger out of bed, opening said door to firefighters in full turnout gear. Two more are on my deck. And there is one maintenance guy in the crowd as well. Someone else had heard the detector and called 911. Meanwhile, I am barely conscious, sans glasses and with an epic level pillow perm. Cringe.
Later on, I find out that 1) the office has an answering service for just such events, and 2) I should have called the non-emergency fire department phone number for this. The detector was completely fubar-ed. Not even the kill switch could shut it off. The previously mentioned maintenance guy told me all of this when he was putting in a new CO+smoke detector. A different make from the one that went crazy. Seems the apartment complex has had a lot of issues with the first model.
Technology really sucks when it doesn’t work.
SOTD = the smell of a good night’s sleep last night.
Wow, sorry you had to go through all that! We had a similar incident with one of our smoke detectors but Mr. Laila was able to silence it; he took it off the wall and I think he took its battery out.
The detectors I have now come with sealed batteries, so there is no way to remove them. I think that is becoming industry standard.
Poor Teflon kitty was a wreck on Sunday night. 🙀😾
I feel your pain. Our CO2/Smoke detectors went off yesterday afternoon shouting up a storm while I was working on a grant application on deadline. Then it went off again about 20 minutes later. Total false alarms. Our more delicate cat simply vanished for a couple hours.
Just had another false alarm a few minutes ago.
Fortunately our replacement detectors arrived today.
Yeah….
My brother and I have been having complaint conversations recently about how things like smoke detectors and light bulbs don’t seem to last as long as they used to.
I feel sorry for animals subjected to smoke alarms. I can’t imagine how much more painful it has to be for them.
Talk about not lasting as long as they used to – we had only installed new detectors just a few months ago!
Turns out this problem is endemic with the make we got. Sigh.
Oy vey!!! Time to do some research.
What a nightmare, those things are piercingly loud!!
Yes they are. Not good!
Gosh, I guess it’s good they didn’t show up in the middle of the night and break down your door???
I guess the soundproofing in these apartments is pretty darn good! I didn’t hear anything after I put that detector outside…
Good lord, that must have been rather harrowing all the way around. Pretty sure I would have taken a hammer to it. You’re very patient! 😅
I wanted to take a hammer to that wretched thing for sure. But the rational part of my brain was telling me to preserve the evidence. Glad I did, since it made my life easier.
Goodness, what an adventure. Glad of your good night. I recall an incident with my smoke detector.
Smoke detectors can be one of those items where you are “d@med if you do, and d@mned if you don’t” sometimes.
Good to know that your building neighbors are looking out for you!! Even if the result was a bit embarrassing.
All’s well that ends well, right?
But yeah, I could have done without that whole incident.
For the CP, I’m wearing the original Kenzo Flower. I don’t usually go for plasticky scents where I can smell the artifice, both of which are true for Kenzo Flower when i wear it, but the powdery, almondy, vanilla, heliotrope, subtle florals and clean white musk somehow really work for me. Bonus is that it’s cheap as chips and I also love most of its flankers that aren’t too floral and or fruity.
Kenzo Flower is weirdly likable in my book.
They really did some lovely flankers…there are a couple I wish I’d bought when they were still around.