the smell of me

This post may be TMI (too much information)...beware!

Tonight, I was sweaty (as is often in my peri-menopausal self) and I wiped my armpits with my hand, and had the Moth sniff (not that he hasn't smelled me before, but I was conducting an experiment)

He said "smells like some of the perfumes you have been sniffing"  He didn't realise it was just my pit smell - he thought perhaps it was mixed with powder or deodorant or something.  I rarely wear deodorant unless work performance makes it necessary.

So, I pulled out Putain de Palaces which I thought was the closest thing that I could think of to me...and what the Moth said after the initial spritz was "you smell better than that."


Now after a few minutes, waiting for the dry down, he says that both Putain and me smell very similar..but that I smell more like a pencil sharpener.  Not as 'powdery" as PdP's drydown.

So yes, I'm a whore in a hotel without the sweetness!


(self portrait 2003)

oh what wonderful mail to come home to

Had a long busy day, and I was up late last night watching the news re: health reform, and then my son needed me to take him shopping (he doesn't drive)..

I finally get home at 7:30 p.m. and look what is in the mail!!!

Thank you SOO much Signature Scent and WAFT by Carol .   You both made my day.  I'll have to kick off my shoes, and check on the animals, but I'll be sniffing soon.

Thanks again!!!!

Estee Lauder 'Beyond Paradise" and Guerlain "Nahema"

So I'm well known at work for being a perfume whore, and W gave me a tiny bottle of Beyond Paradise. It's been sitting on a table in my office with the other four little samples she gave me.

 
I have to say it's not bad.  I was kinda scared of Este Lauder because my Mom puts on too much Beautiful and it gags me.  Plus for some reason I always looked down my nose on Lauder's scents.

I do like the hyacinth and honeysuckle, and the amber pulls everything down so it's not too giddy.

Not something I would purchase, but I think I'll use this tiny bottle up over the spring.

******
I wore Nahema today.  After my scrubber incident w/ L'Heure Bleue, I was concerned, but I needn't be because Nahema is quite a pretty fragrance.  I didn't realize it was a rose scent until a few hours after I put it on.   So hurrah, another Guerlain I like!
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I had to go out at lunch time to pick up paint for my office.  So of course I stopped in at Macy's to look at their fragrance collection.  I struck up a conversation w/the clerk lady - hip looking young woman (early 30s?).   I was asking for Chanel #19 and all I thought they had was a ton of  #5 and Coco Mademoiselle.  I asked about regular Coco (I have wanted a small bottle other then the tiny tester bottle I got off Ebay).  I asked about Guerlains - all they had was Shalimar and I already own a bottle .

So of course I started talking to her about Andy Tauer (she said she liked spicey scents herself)  and L'Air du Desert Marocain, and I happened to have my little decant spray from perfumedcourt in my bag and asked her if she wanted to try it.

She LOVED it.  So I wrote down his name and the name of the perfume for her.  (They did have Coco so I bought a small bottle of it.  And she gave me a sample of Chance)

Good deed for the day!

*****

I'm woefully neglecting my sketchbook perfume journal - it's becoming a scrapbook book of copies of this blog and pieces of perfume boxes, and once in a while some handwriting ramblings.  Sigh.

*****

PS:  Just put some Coco on and the Moth said "that smells really 'traditional' but really good."  We were  both surprised when we realized is was made in 1984 (somehow I forgot that)

L'Aromarine

I have bought a few L'Aromarine fragrances from Smallflower.com- I gave the Tokyo Rose to my BFF Denise, and kept the Orange Santal and Mousse de Chene for me and the Moth. I wore the OS as a signature scent a few years ago, and most recently I poured some of the MdC in my bath - it was wonderful.

I cannot find any reviews of their products - has anyone tried them?  They're not super deep but they are really lovely in their own way.  And best of all they're super inexpensive AND they have cool bottles.

I'm thinking of ordering a Tokyo Rose for myself, and perhaps the Epices.  Or maybe the Vetyver..or..

photo from Smallflower.com

a week or more of sniffs

Monday:  Shalimar - as I drove to work I was thinking that it was the first time I have worn it all day since I started sniffing in earnest...so what notes did I detect?  Shamefully, I couldn't really discern anything specific - perhaps it is because it has such a nostalgic presence in my life.  I'll have to put my Sherlock Holmes hat on and try again.

Tuesday:  Lutens Sa Majeste la Rose - The Queen makes me very very happy, indeed.

Wednesday:  After the death of Daisy, I had to put something on that would bring up my mood, and my first thought was Timbuktu - it did help.

Thursday:  Since I did Shalimar on Monday, I put on Opium on Thursday - ahhh I still love it, and oddly no negative associations popping up from the early 80s (which btw there is a lot about the early 80s that I'd rather not remember, and lots I cannot remember!)

Friday:  I finally took the day off (though I still felt horribly guilty since I have only been at the new job 6 weeks or so - but I had been sick since Sunday and it finally clobbered me).  I didn't put anything on until late at night, when I opened a teeny tiny little package of Lagerfeld's Sun Moon Stars.   A girl I used to know wore it in the early 90s and I guess I bought a bottle then but for the life of me, I have  no idea why. Yeah I know why - because the bottle was cool.  I then, for some reason, sniffed a sample of Lolita Lempicka...and curiously they both smell similar to me.

I had to change my pajamas because even though I washed my wrists, there was scent left on my pj sleeves.

Last week sometime, I also did a very mini-test of two Etat Libre D'Orange perfumes - Jasmin et Cigarette and Putain de Palaces (ooh the skank!). I put some on the Moth and our friend Andrew - they seemed to like Jasmin et Cigarette best.  But I have to do a serious test of these, but I'm kinda afraid to because I don't wanna love two more scents - I'm too broke at the moment!

One last thing - We're watching the movie "Perfume".  Has anyone read the book and/or seen the movie?  I have read the book so I'll see if the movie is as good (or better).


photo from cosmosmagazine.com

not a perfume post

My favourite hen was found dead this morning in the coop.  I'm afraid that I didn't take care of her enough - they are all battling mites and maybe it was just too much for her.

I feel horrible and horribly inadequate, and so does the Moth.  When he went to open the coop and found her, he came running into the house in tears (he's more sensitive than I am about things in general and I love him for it)

RIP my sweetest Daisy.

yuck!

Okay okay, I'm being totally juvenile, but I just had to wash my wrist off, as I just tested L'Heure Bleue.

I feel like Lucy in the comic strips - "Get the disinfectant!  Get the iodine"!

I guess I don't like all Guerlains! ;)

It's a DelRae day

After reading these intriguing posts by Left Coast Nose about Parfums DelRae's Amoureuse and  Bois de Paradis, I had to order samples to find out what I was missing.

I have sniffed them both a couple of times, and immediately I was drawn to Bois de Paradis. The cedar pulls me in and keeps me.  There was something there that reminds me of the 70s and I cannot quite put my finger on it. Is it the honey with the woods? It will come to me, one of these days.

Then today, I took a better look at Amoureuse.  The tuberose at first is a little off-putting to me but as LCN writes :

"Tuberose and oakmoss—those are big, challenging, opinionated smells going at one another. But the results are a symphony."

Oakmoss is not a challenge to me - just about everything I have sniffed that includes it, I usually like.  What I specifically like about Amoureuse is when the jasmine pops up.  The duet of jasmine and oakmoss is incredible! (gosh aren't I talking fancy-like!)

These are both very elegant fragrances - I thought at first test that they were TOO elegant for me to appreciate.  But I think I am able to.  And to tell you the truth, I cannot tell you which one I prefer - they are both stunning.

Thanks LCN!  I would have even known to try these beauties if it wasn't for you!


photo from www.sweetlyyou.com

Post office and another compliment!!!

So, because I have been a little wary re: many folks' wariness about sending perfume samples in the US mail, when I went to our local Post Office this morning, I sucked it up and just asked.

Of course, there were at least 6 or 7 people behind me, and I was feeling kinda guilty about taking up the lone postal clerk's time, but oh well.

He told me that you can send things like perfume and lotions and samples and liquor etc, but it's good/important to tell the post person because they have to make sure it's wrapped up and packaged properly so that it doesn't explode all over the airplanes (of course, he said this better than I am relating.)  And the two little packages I had of perfume samples were fine - he didn't even have to write anything on the packages!

I am wearing L'Artisan Timbuktu today, and postal clerk told me two times that I smelled great!

So I hope my experience calms some of the fears about mailing samples.

Oh, what were in those packages you're asking?  Well to my friend Joan, who was the first person I smelled Opium on, I sent her a little bottle of Opium, a sample of L'Artisan Patchouli Patch, and Kenzo Jungle L'Elephant.  My other package is on its way to my nieces in Cincinnati - samples of La Chasse aux Papillons, Harajuku Lovers Music, Marc Jacobs Daisy and Cacherel Anais Anais.

photo from greenbeangirl74's flickr page

looking for lamps, finding lamps and Halloween masks

Saturday, I was on the hunt for a pair of lamps for my office at work.  I drove to the local-ish Flea Market, and darn, they were closed.

So back into town, and I remember this neat antique shop on the southern edge of our town.  I LOVE rambling around in antique shops - I wish I had been wearing L'air de Rien but instead I had on Lutens Bois de Violettes.

I scored some great lamps, and a bowl that matches a set I have at home, and snapped a coupla photos from the place.

 (cool Halloween masks at the antique store - these were the kind we wore as kids because my mom didn't have enough time to make our costumes and we bought the whole costume, including masks, at Woolworths)

When I entered the room in FAVA (Firelands Association for the Visual Arts - this is the place I'll be teaching pottery next Wednesday, and I needed to get into the studio to assess clay and glazes) my sniffing pal Frieda was there with her son, and she gets up from working on a paper mache airplane for our town's annual Big Parade, and says "what are you wearing, you smell wonderful!"

Now, the thing is, I don't smell it much after the first initial spritz.  So what is in it that I cannot detect?

I wore it again this week at work, and still not much scent...am I wearing it too lightly?  Or can I (and certain others) not detect it.

Throughout the week, I wore Serge Lutens' Gris Clair.  I bought a 8 ml decant after first smelling it at FFs house in in early winter, as I was wowed by it.  But wearing it all day at work, it came off too masculine for me...and it wasn't the lavender because I don't correlate lavender as being a male scent.  I do like it - but I think I'll layer it (which is funny, because I have been snidely commenting to myself while reading other blogs when folks suggest layering perfume because I think why would you spend soo much money on a perfume just to mess with it?)

I was able to score a sample of SJP Lovely from Sephora  and wore it yesterday to work.  It is a really nice scent, but it doesn't haven't enough spunk for me.  I wonder what Covet is like?

My little bottle of Une Rose Chypree came in the mail today from Luckyscent!!! SOOO excited I had to spritz it on me and the Moth, even though I was already wearing L'Iparie .  Also some samples were in the package - Regina Harris - Frankincense-Myrrh-Rose Maroc, Boadicea the Victorious (Pure and Vibrant).  Luckyscent gave me three samples for free (I actually was kinda hoping that they would give me the three I had put into my cart for free!) and all I could think of was TDC's Bois d'Iris (gosh I need to save up money to buy a bottle) so they also gave me Le Labo Iris 39 (which FF LOVES so I'll probably give it to her), and TDC Oriental Lounge.

I am also in the midst of a DelRae test and will probably finish it by the weekend.