Happy Tuesday, and Happy Elephant Appreciation Day (not to be confused with World Elephant Day, which was last month). What fragrance are you wearing?
I'm using the latest excuse to wear my (only!) elephant fragrance, Berdoues Assam of India.
Reminder: this Friday will be 3 Hour Tour Friday: you're going on a short afternoon cruise but who knows, you just MIGHT get stranded on a desert island. You can take up to 3 perfumes from one brand OR one perfumer. Choose your 3, wear one of them. (From a suggestion by Nozknoz)
And for those of you who like to plan ahead, see Scent of the day ~ Friday community projects 2015, where I'll try to always have the next five or six weeks mapped out in advance.
Note: top image is Mammals-2-123 - Indian Elephant [cropped] via artvintage1800s.etsy.com at flickr; some rights reserved.
SOTD is Mandragore EDT (Annick Goutal)
You smell great!
I LOVE elephants. So majestic, gentle, intelligent and loving. Elephants grieve when their family members pass away. It’s beautiful.
Anyway, SOTD is (again): Histoires de Parfums Ambre 114
Elephants are hard to dislike 🙂
Ahhh… I should have considered that one this morning. I’ll put it in a more prominent place to remind me about it for another day!
Une Rose Chypree is cheering up my chilly, rainy, doing-laundry day.
Ugh, glad the RC is helping!
This is a perfect URC day! Mals, do you realize, it is entirely possible that you are the best smelling person doing laundry today in the entire U.S. 🙂
I was going to say the world, but there are probably women in India festooned in jasmine garlands, etc.
URC is a great perfume! I almost wore it today… I will wear it tomorrow…
Heure Exquise this morning. I didn’t want anything too long-lived because I have a sample order awaiting me at home and I know I’ll want to give everything a quick sniff. Have to go home today, so have been out with the kittens, trying to burn off enough energy so that the car ride isn’t torture for everyone, ha! Wish I could siphon off some of that super-kitten playfulness.
Heure Exquise is sublime
I love Heure Exquise!
Gorgeous!
SOTD is EL Knowing – I’m enjoying the cool weather and my fall perfumes, which seem almost new again after being in storage for the spring/summer.
If only I’d known it was elephant day – I would have worn my Kenzo Jungle Elephant!
It does seem perfect doesn’t it?
Thanks for reminding me about Kenzo’s Elephant Bastett- ive just spritzed, and its wafting around nicely, cheering up this gloomy day for me, and my boring household chores, three cheers for the power of fragrance!
Yes, Elephant is great, and so powerful that my little mini will probably last forever! I’m glad it helped you with your chores.
Beautiful picture and what a lovely idea to appreciate Elephants.
In Café Rose from a sample, having started out in Mimosa and Cardamom. Also tried the shower gel for the Mimosa this am and the bathroom smelt rather good afterwards!
Ah, I should try some of the JM shower gels. Never think to.
Love love elephants! The babies are so adorable ????
La fille de Berlin Today pairing it with TF so vain lipstick
Sounds wonderful – I take it you read the post on Bois de Jasmin yesterday about perfume and lipstick?
Yes! Are you pairing your scent with your lipstick today? Such a cute article
I see from above your in cafe rose- I scared to admit I haven’t tried any TF fragrances yet. I only own a lipstick- which I purchased online
I have really only in the past few weeks started trying them out and am surprised by how much I like some of them. Other than Fleure de Chine am sticking to samples as otherwise this could get far too expensive though! I didn’t deliberately pair scent with lipstick but in a plummy red so sort of works.
Where do you get the samples from?
In the UK I have recently discovered scent sampler and perumista – both worth a Google- which seem to have various size samples for sale.
Scent twins for LFDB! You smell great!
But I am wearing a dark pink drugstore stain on my lips – I found a set of 4 colors that suit me, and I am not buying any more lipsticks until these are gone…maybe then I will spring for some TF tubes – I have seen a couple colors in the magazine ads that I admired, but I am avoiding looking at them in person…reduce the impulse purchase factor, you know what I mean?
Yes I do! That’s why I order online so I can avoid smelling the TF frangrances
TWO whole days and one just to be appreciated! How awesome! What is also awesome is that I thought ‘hey if elephants get a day, what about donkeys?!’ (Because donkeys are my favourite. I would love a donkey 🙂 ) And they do. May 8. Take note Robin 😉
Anyway, today was California Rêverie. So glad I bought a bottle. And now to bed is Geranium Odorata… er.. which I also bought a bottle of… so many sins to confess next week 😮 But- it’s sooo good to be able to spritz lavishly and to totally immerse oneself in a scented cloud and to know that there’s enough left do do it again and again! 🙂
May 8 is not a weekday next year, plus, it’s Mother’s Day in 2016! So donkeys may have to wait until 2017 😉
Lol! They can double up.. Mothers and donkeys day 🙂 🙂 🙂
Or mother donkeys and baby donkeys – I’ll bet baby donkeys are adorable!
Baby donkeys are adorable!
That’s in a donkey age ; (
Donkeys are wonderful, those great floppy ears and those velvety noses.
There was a donkey in the pasture that abutted my parents yard when I was growing up. Besides being scruffy-cute, he would EEE-AWW every morning and night for his breakfast and dinner. He was an adorable rascal named Jasper and loved to roll in the dirt and be scratched behind his ears. I agree that a donkey perfume day should be observed for purely selfish reasons. It brings back great childhood memories for me.
I’m not a donkey fan. Our neighbors had a donkey in their field as a protection animal for their calves, and that thing woke me up Every. Day. At 5AM for 16 months. Would it go up to *their* house and bray? Nope. In the corner of their field that’s closest to our house. Just in case we were maybe a threat, I guess, while we were all in bed asleep. Would come snap at us over the fence when we were doing potentially-dangerous-to-calves things like Getting out of the car or Mowing the grass. Neighbors finally moved the donkey to their remote piece of land in the next county, where he probably should have been all along.
NOT A FAN. (Though I admit that I had no opinion on donkeys before I met that one.)
Mals, I agree they can be loud. I remember being woken up early too. Being a morning person, it didn’t bothered me much. Plus, my parents have a small orchard between the pasture and their house which buffered the noise a bit on our side. I think my older brothers even tried to ride him once. 🙂
Just noticed the Twisted Lily email advertising the new MCG Elephant & Roses. Perfect timing! 🙂
Yes! And a sad elephant poaching story today as well, from Sumatra.
It’s Azemour les Oranges for me today, from a decant that arrived while I was on vacation last week. Lovely bitter-orange goodness, and definitely a Three Hour Tour scent.
I was going to test new things today but I really just want to wear Azemour!
YUM.
I love elephants too! Baby elephants are just about the cutest thing ever. Sadly I don’t have any elephant related perfume. SOTD is Vetiver Tonka.
You smell great anyway! I think I might wear that tomorrow.
I adore elephants, but I didn’t know that there was such a thing as elephant appreciation day. I’m wearing Ce soir ou jamais. It’s cold and rainy here today and this is giving some warmth.
Sitting in a boring meeting this cloudy, cool AM. Much more fun to ponder elephants and other commenters’ perfumes and to catch lovely nutty, sweet iris-y wafts from my sample of SHL 777 Kohl de Bahrein that I’m wearing today.
Lovely! Khol de Bahrein is my favorite from the SHL 777 line.
My favourite too! I will own a bottle, one day, if ever the Aussie dollar climbs out of the massive hole it’s in :-/
Not sure yet today on scent. Since I’m on vacation in cooler weather and not worried about office, I can play a little. Yesterday I sprayed on a sample of Ambre de Merveilles. A store owner followed me in her store to ask what I was wearing. She wrote it down because she thought it was so wonderful. That never happens to me.
I’m thinking today of trying the sample of Slumberhouse Sadanne I got at Twisted Lily. Will let you know how my husband reacts to it.
Well if I’d known about elephant appreciation day, and if it was cooler I would have worn Jungle L’Elephant. As it is, I put on Donna Karan Woman again today.
SOTD is Samsara.
Samsara is such a comforting fragrance.
I agree Jenkr.
It’s cool enough for me to wear my birthday purchase of Indigo Vanilla from EnVoyage. I love this stuff– smooth white chocolate and nonpowdery violet with real ambergris.
IV sounds so nice, I really want to test some of the Envoyage line. I haven’t tried any. Have you tried others Goddessrena? If so, what other do you like?
I love EnVoyage– this is the first I own but I also want Cafe Cacao, Fiore de Bellagio, Lorelei, and Nectars des Iles. Just about everything works with my skin chemistry
I’ll have to get busy with some samples! 🙂
I’m wearing Arquiste Nanban. Still liking it a lot.
Robin, your Scent of the Day reminds me that when I was in Paris, I tried to sniff all the Perdoues colognes, so that I could report back. Nothing of this can really be trusted, of course, as I tested most of these on paper and had tried many fragrances by that point already. But for what it’s worth: Assam was my favourite, followed by Arz el-Rab (this one I tried on skin, the beginning was a bit discordant, but I liked it after 5 minutes or so). The Japanese one (with jasmine) seemed the most synthetic and least interesting to me, and I do usually like white flowers. Selva do Brasil was the greenest to my nose and Scorza di Sicilia had the most citrus.
Ah, thanks so much — good to know I already have the best one.
Sounds like you had fun in Paris!
Absolutely LOVING this autumn weather today. Overcast and cool with a slight breeze. *sigh* Why am I cooped up in an office! I need to make excuses to run lots of “errands” so I can be outside more 😉
I couldn’t decide between Opus IV,V, or VI this morning from the Library sampler. IV is a bit too spicy for an office, so I went with V. Still spicy, but the dry woods notes tones it down a bit.
I’m wearing Dzongkha, which I hated at first, but now I find fascinating, and maybe even–dare I say?–pretty. My nose must be evolving.
On another note, a general PSA for anyone interested: while [naughtily] browsing samples yesterday, I noticed that Luckyscent (no affiliation) has samples of Mohur extrait. I hadn’t seen samples of it anywhere before, but figured there were probably some other people like me who were wishing and hoping for an opportunity to try it someday.
Now, to google pictures of elephants as a quick pick-me-up before I get back to my endless spreadsheet.
Mohur extrait is the best! I am trying to put together a split – please do go to the split meet and sign up for some…. 🙂
When my sample gets here later this week and I inevitably fall in love, I may be doomed to join in 🙂
That would be great!
SOTD is Tauer Zeta.
Yesterday, I wore Blackberry & Bay (pretty much drained my sample), which really is the Jo Malone I should have bought (about two years ago, I bought small sizes of Earl Grey & Cumcumber, which I still like, and White Jasmin & Mint, which I’m not as keen on these days). I’m thinking of getting the body cream.
I also wore Fleur de Chine during the weekend. Such a beauty! Since Canadian splits seem to be a rarity (and I don’t feel I have enough decanting skills to host one), I should buy a decant… but I kind of want that chic Tom Ford bottle!! -$$$-
I’m always glad when people like Fleur de Chine – otherwise I feel a bit odd, banging on about it. And I love Blackberry & Bay, too, especially in the early autumn. I’m pretty sure that if you decide to buy it, it’ll get a lot of wear.
+1 for Fleur de Chine
I believe Victoria at BdJ gave Fleur de Chine five stars! I like it also, although its so expensive my decant will have to do.
Oh I have only recently discovered it and adore it. Just perfect in some ways.
Are they’re any UK perfumista’s out there who’d be interested in doing a split meet?- its so hard to find decant’s of many niche perfume brands here, scentsamples uk are great, but limited, if any one has any suggestions of others, i’d be grateful.
I’m really hankering after Azemour les oranges, but don’t need 100ml, wish PDE still did 50 ml bottles!
Hi mayfly I have just discovered perfumista which is also worth looking at and sent me some samples very quickly. Fingers crossed you find Azemour les oranges!
My SOTD is Santal Blush by Tom Ford. One of my favorites. 🙂
Hi Scentfromabove, I am curious if SB has a strong cumin note? My skin seems to amp cumin and it’s not my favorite note.
I’ve worn Santal Blush and I never noticed a cumin note in it. It does have other spices though. In general, I think it comes off a very clean woody scent.
Thanks girls. I have been searching for an HG sandalwood. So far Box Of Eels is at the top of my list. I tried Santal Majuscule by Serge but it has a pretty good dose of cumin in the opening… I notice that note a lot in this line. I also tried Corso Como and liked it but but prefer BdI. I suppose I should at least order a sample of the Tom Ford before I commit to a bottle.
Yeah, I get heavy cedar, which I like but others may not.
As perfumistas, perhaps we might simultaneously celebrate rock hyraxes, which are related to elephants, and which produce the wonderful perfume ingredient hyraceum aka African stone.
I need to look up which perfumes contain it and wear one of them today if possible. I know I have some of the tincture from La Via del Profumo, which I may play around with, as well.
Does anyone have a favorite perfume containing hyraceum?
Am pretty sure my bottle of Bottleneck Blues from Soivohle has it. It’s a few years old so I don’t know if the current batch also contains Africa stone.
Also a little googling shows that Roxana Illuminated Perfumes’ Greenwich contains it but I wore that for the Friday project
I’ve been meaning to get a sample of that one!
I can’t call it a favorite because the sample is on its way, but PdE Musc Tonkin has African stone absolute as one of 2 listed notes. I’m very curious and, also, if anyone has tried this one: thoughts?
I have some of that. I didn’t really care for it when I tested it, but that was over a year ago so I don’t remember any specifics, except maybe I felt it didn’t really hang together. I’ll give it another go if I can find the sample.
I tried a sample of the extrait when it was a limited thing, and I really liked it. I know they’ve brought it back as an EDT, and I haven’t tried that newer version, so I don’t know if it’s different. I found the extrait pleasantly skanky, but I think my skin plays down animalic notes a bit, so YMMV.
PdE Musc Tonkin is one of the most amazing fragrances of all time! I had the extrait and I also purchased the latest edp. I think they are very similar. It is VERY musky and fairly skanky but it’s the sort of skank I enjoy and I tend to be really squeamish about skank. I find PdE Musc Tonkin to be extremely old school and smells as if it were created 50+ years ago – it’s full bodied, luscious and Sexy (capital S intentional). I hope you enjoy it, it’s unbelievably good, but try it in tiny doses for start.
Thanks for all your thoughts! I’m super curious now.
Fascinating, I had no idea they were related!
Salome by Papillon perfumes has hyraceum. Thanks to a generous NSTer, I was recently able to try it. I liked it–it smelled like flowers and sweat. My partner pronounced it “meh” and my almost-6-year-old didn’t like it at all. I’ll definitely have to take it for another test run.
Thanks, I’ve been meaning to sample Papillon.
Olympic Orchids Dev #1 has hyraceum; that’s a nice one
I have a 5ml bottle of hyraceum tincture that I bought from Mandy Aftel’s website. A little goes a very long way in a blend, so I’ll probably have this little bottle forever. I have one thing I’ve used it in, which I was really happy with. Had I known it was Elephant Appreciation Day, maybe I could have worn it today.
What does it smell like by itself if you care to describe?
She described it at https://freebox.it.com/2015/01/21/surrender-to-chance-surrender-coldwater-canyon-fragrance-reviews/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Sorry. By “she,” I meant Sweetgrass.
Thank you for distracting me from the advent of Fall by thinking of elephants. I love elephants! We (collectively) should appreciate them more by not slaughtering them, etc. Yay, elephants!
Wearing Chergui. Totally unrelated. 🙂
It’s raining… Well, more accurately water very briefly fell from the sky leaving some small wet patches here and there… But it is better than nothing. I spritzed a teensy spritz of Hanbury, but now wish I had gone with Après L’ Ondee. Time enough for that….
Wow. It was a mirage! Well, something wet is on our deck, but sadly it is not rain…. Unless it only rained in the corner of our deck… ;(
So no Après L’ Ondee…
I love elephants too, especially when they’re babies — so adorable!
SOTD for me is Bois des Iles parfum.
You smell divine!
Am in testing mode with BdI, though edt, not parfum. I didn’t really care for it the last time I tried it, which I think was during warm weather. It’s faring better now.
I’m slowly coming to terms with the fact that I like some sweetness in my scents from time to time. I’m using my tiny dabber sample of Keiko Mecheri’s Attar de Roses and when I’m in a certain mood (which I’m realizing is rather frequently occuring), it’s just lovely.
2015 has been, from beginning to end, the year of the rose for me. The obsession continues unabated.
Have a lovely day dears!
Oh, ah, sooooo jealous!! Attar de Roses is just the bomb!!! I huffed down my sample a few years ago, but it always sticks in my mind as one of the best in that genre. Also that the Aerin Lauder Evening Rose was kind of copying….. AdR is sweet, but just the right kind of sweet!
SOTD Kalemat by Arabian Oud
How do you like that?
I’m in Sweet Anthem Emily today; the onset of autumn has me craving gourmands, which is fairly uncharacteristic for me. This is a very pretty almond-milk-honey with some citrus.
I love the picture of the elephant. They are so majestic.
My SOTD is Nest Midnight Fleur.
Wearing Tom Ford Venetia Bergamot from a sample I won on the Posse! Surprisingly floral from something you might expect to be more cologne-like. We’ll see how it develops.
And my husband heard this on NPR this morning – thought it would be of interest to some here. My husband gets migraines from scent, though not as often as those mentioned in this article: http://www.npr.org/2015/09/22/442189543/what-s-that-smell-when-workplaces-try-fragrance-bans
oh dear. re: the npr piece….sounds like banning perfume is coming to an office near you. i am so depressed. truthfully i think the individual with massive sensitivities needs to remove themselves rather than restrict every other persons freedom. i, too, dislike it when someone wears too much heavy perfume but i would rather handle that situation than never encounter anyone wearing any perfume at all! 🙁
I have had sensitivities for decades; my mouth swells and goes numb from synthetic substances and general air/industrial pollution. But a middle ground is possible (for most people). It’s just easier to institute blanket policies than to expect employees to be considerate as to strength or amount of fragrance.
Also, I had one corporate employer admit to me that fresh air is just so expensive, what with heating and cooling costs. Recalculated air is so much more cost effective.
Don’t get me started, software incompatibility is just a hop, skip and a jump away, and I’ll never shut up.
Software incompatibility! Yes, lets not go there – I could go on for ever!
But it’s fresh air that actually gets me during spring/fall allergy season! ;-/
Aghh! I typed *recirculated*. Makes my point pretty well….
Oh! I read what you meant, not what you typed (or stupid spellchecker guessed)! Lol…I had to go back and see what you were referring to…
SOTD = Gurlain Tonka Imperiale
I’m using my Fall fragrances and I am not turning back even though it is getting warmer (hmmph AGAIN).
On a side note, I just got my Aftelier package with my Bergamoss compact. The packaging (the box, the pouch and the compact) feels claasic and luxurious. It did not cost a million bucks but I feel like I won the lottery 🙂
But, how does it smell on you? 🙂
Like a million bucks! I did test this one before I ordered (yes, despite my rotten reputation of blind buying)). It has an airy greenness with “body (hard to explain but hopefully you know what I mean).
Yes, I think I follow. That sounds delightful!
SOTD is Marni Rose. I feel like it’s a nice seasonal transition kind of scent. It’s light and bright enough for summer, but I think the cardamom kind of brings it into fall as well.
SOTD is Un Bois Vanille by SL.
Kerosene Unforsaken this morning. This smells like I thought Terracotta would (but didn’t). There’s toasted coconut on a vanilla/orange custard with a slice of ginger on the side, with a bouquet of jasmine and orange blossoms on the table. Very dessert-like the first few minutes and then less sweet.
I have a decant of Unforsaken. I find it to be a fun and uncomplicated scent to wear. I agree that it is dessert-like. Do you like it?
I do like it, very much, but it doesn’t last very long on me.
I need to get some samples of Kerosene scents…thanks for the reminder…I want to sniff pretty machine before I commit to a full bottle of some other LOTV fragrance.
Hello, everyone! You all smell wonderful! I’m undecided about my perfume for today: it’s a long day in the office, followed by a book launch, followed by the opera (Tosca! Yum!). I’m thinking of 31 Rue Cambon, but what about the gorgeous goldenness of Sublime? Or, should I try to match the story and wear something dramatic? Do I own anything as dramatic as Tosca? Is there a perfume as dramatic as Tosca? But then…elephants! I appreciate both the animal and the perfume, and if any perfume on the planet has all-day staying power, it’s KJl’E.
You know something? I’m usually quite quickly decisive about stuff, but I rather enjoy my morning dither!
Is that Patou Sublime? If so, I’m so jealous. My sister smells fabulous in it, but it was dreck on me. Guess I’ll stick with my 1000 (vintage).
Yes, but not vintage, just something I found & bought. I think I’m lucky not to know the vintage versions, because I like what I have, and don’t want to year endlessly for something unattainable. I must try 1000 too if I come across it.
Kelly Caleche, for some crisp backbone. Loving her this fall 🙂
It is a fall fragrance!
C&E sandalwood EDT. Let’s see if it sticks around a little longer with a spray on the t-shirt?
Oh, I love that one. I get about six hours from it, but I spray liberally.
Incense Extreme Andy Tauer. Arid, smoky, woody incense – perfect on an overcast chilly last-full-day-of-summer day.
A complete 180 from the original Michael Kors Woman tuberose I wore yesterday. I love wearing perfume drag! LOL 😉
Have you tried the new Tauerville Incense Flash? I’d love to know how it compares to Incense Extreme.
Have not tried the Flash, bastet. But IE is as arid a scent as I have smelled, no sweetness at all.
Perfume drag sounds fun. How is that backwards? Manly vetivers have kind of taken over a section of my collection, lol!
Love vintage Guerlain Vetiver, nice tobacco note in there. Sycomore Chanel, too.
Sycomore is my fav, and I often wish I had a whole bottle, but Guerlain Vetiver is the one I wear the most. It is perfect!
Put on Bois d’Argent this morning, the perfect soft start to the day. It doesn’t last long, but that leaves time for post dinner reevaluation.
It’s my husband’s birthday, and my 3 year old grandson fell and broke his collarbone Sunday (smiling for the camera in his sling). Life rolls fragrantly on.
Gosh three year olds are awesome!
I’m enjoying the nice weather we’re still having in the upper Midwest, so I put on JM Vanilla & Anise, which I like in warm temps. I know that before long, it will get cold here, and then I’ll have plenty of time to bring out my fall & winter scents.
Yep, living in the midwest gives us about nine months of fall and winter scent enjoyment!
I’m just about recovered from two days of knock down miserable head/chest cold. Blah! Today is just cool enough to kick off the fall fragrances. My scent this afternoon is vintage Lancome Magie Noir.
Glad you are feeling better.
Thank you!
The elephant is one of my favorite animals! One of my most beloved pieces of jewelry happens to be an elephant pendant and I’m wearing it today. Today I am also wearing the lovely and calming Dark Amber & Ginger Lily from Jo Malone. I used to dismiss the line but they have some great and interesting colognes that are perfect for my fragrance-phobic workplace.