It's the weekend, and we've got 4 questions in case you have any extra time to spare. As always, answer as many or as few as you like, or just talk about something else.
1. What fragrance are you wearing today?
2. Have you tried any decent scented body products or home fragrances lately? Do give us a short review!
3. Is there a brand you think is releasing too many fragrances? Or one that is releasing too few and you wish they'd do more?
4. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being totally relaxed and 10 being totally stressed, how stressed do you think you'll be over the 2026 holiday period, and what advice do you have for yourself or others to stay chill?
Note: top image is The Marsh Sun [cropped] by James Mann at flickr; some rights reserved.
1. Continuing with the CP and wearing Shalimar L’Essence.
2. Yes. Thanks to Jalapeno, I tried and bought Sol de Janeiro Rosa Charmosa Dewy Body Cream. To me it smells a lot like Delina and/or BBW Covered in Roses. I love it!
3. Not sure on this one.
4. Probably about a 2. Although I like making all the food, this year it will just be my stepdaughter, husband and me so it should be pretty easy and relaxed.
I re-spritzed the Grande Dame today, down low so it’s wafting up gently through my top. I love every bit of this scent, beginning to end but it’s a bit of a commitment.
Just finished one of my last loads of laundry and walked back into the apartment to the smell of lasagna is the slow cooker. So delicious! Also whipped up some acorn squash last night for a good side dish. I love seeing all those frozen bricks in my freezer. ❄️
Out of the blue my recruiter texted me yesterday. She’s going to be in town with her son tomorrow as he is going to the School of Mines here. She wants to meet me. I have no idea why. This will require me to be social during non-business hours and I’m not sure how I feel about that, but I put on my friendly face and said “Sure! I’d love to!” 😅
Busy weekend of packing up. Hope my knees hold out as I make a million and one trips up and down the stairs…
1) See above 👆🏼
2) I want the new Glasshouse candle Dusk at the Kasbah but it’s unlikely to happen.
3) Too many, all around. Or maybe I’m too cheap to order a bunch of samples?
4) I plan on being very chill. The only thing I will miss about the last 6 months is the never ending supply of water, specifically hot water. Will not miss work. Will not miss traffic. Will not miss my neighbors. Will not miss noise. Will not miss the constant racket of monitors alarming, call bells ringing, bed alarms, IV pump alarms, vent alarms, code blue announcements, security alerts, patients yelling/screaming/cussing at me, ad nauseam…I will miss the occasional nice patient who can interact with basic human decency. Yeah, I’m ready for some CHILL! 😀
Happy Saturday, everyone!
1. I’m in CaD Artisan Aftershave & Cologne from Phoenix Shaving. I discovered it when I was looking at the ridiculous prices for the discontinued Rive Gauche Pour Homme from YSL. (RGPH is in my top five fougerès of all time.)
Online fragrance communities pointed in the direction of CaD as an excellent dupe for RGPH, and at $27 for 100ml, I figured I’d give it a try.
Gotta say, it’s pretty darn close! Maybe 85% of the YSL – it’s not quite as smooth and creamy in the dry down, but it’s really good. A somewhat more hairy-chested Rive Gauche.
“CaD” apparently stands for Cease and Desist. The story goes that Phoenix wanted to call it “Barbarsoul,” as an homage to the scent of the famous shaving cream, but the folks at Barbarsol told them to knock it off.
2. The Cedar Balsam candles are back in stock at Trader Joe’s, just in time for the holiday season. I always stock up.
3. D.S. &Durga make some fine fragrances, but I can’t keep up with their copious new releases. Not really a problem, I suppose, but the last time I was in one of their boutiques, there were too many forgettable perfumes. My unsolicited advice would be that perhaps less is more. On the other hand, I wish Chanel would give us a new “masculine” one of these days. (“Bleu” is just not for me, in any of its iterations.)
4. A solid 7 on the stress scale, I’m afraid.