It's Monday and Juneteenth. What fragrance are you wearing?
I'm wearing a tiny drop of Le Labo Lys 41.
Reminder: 6/23 is National Let It Go Day. Wear a perfume that works in the way the day is intended...that is, that helps you let go of negative feelings from the past. OR, wear a perfume you've been hoarding, OR, thunk (use up) a bottle or sample, OR, come up with some other creative take on the theme of letting go.
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 Balloons [cropped] by Shaun Fisher at flickr; some rights reserved.
Hi All,
Happy Juneteenth.
Wearing Lancome Tubereuses Castana from decant. Weirdly addictive sweetness. Gooey and thick. Strange. Can’t decide if I love it or hate it.
Hoping to have this thunked by Friday for CP.
House is clean, laundry done and hung, this weeks Trivia Q&A finished and sent, been to dinner with DH and now going to watch some TV before bed.
Very good day.
Sounds like a good day, Portia.
It really was ringthing. X
I think you smell great. Thumbs up on a nice productive day!
Thanks Cazaubon, getting the chores done for the week makes me very happy. Today I’m sitting in a clean house having a cuppa and about to start folding the laundry.
Robin, excellent timing with this CP. While I was away for a year, some of my decants evaporated and some are close to evaporation. So I want to finish the ones that are almost empty.
SOTD: Comptoir Sud Pacifique L’Eau du Gouverneur – thunk!
Well-thunked!
Sigh for the evaporating decants, but very good that you are using up what’s left of them this week with the CP.
YAY for the thunk
Ugh, I do hate that! (But you smelled great today.)
Hermès Rocabar. Conifers as far as the eye can see.
I’m blaming you for keeping me up all night on Saturday reading your blog..you should write again.
I love hearing that, and I loved writing the blog, but I honestly ran out of things to write about. Everything I could get my hands on seemed increasingly to be decanted from the same few limited vats (it’s even worse today!), and it was getting ever more expensive to get samples in Canada, with diminishing results — my last order from Luckyscent, in 2013, cost $66 for 16 samples (yes, I kept track of such things), and I bet I liked two of them at best. So I just let the blog die a natural death at the end of that year. But thanks!
Yikes!! That’s expensive!! Nonetheless I really enjoy your writing style and I will definitely go back to reread
What’s the name of your blog?
Just click on his username.
Must smell like Cape Breton Island then, that’s exactly what I think of it.
I’m in Cape Breton – and I think it does smell like conifers, rock roses, salt and seaweed. Pyramus can I please ask- what’s the name of your blog?
Oh, how wonderful! We went there in 2017. I love the combination of conifers, roses and sea air too. We have that in Quebec on the Gaspé peninsula. I love it so much we camp there every year.
The Gaspe is famously gorgeous, with excellent food to boot 🙂
Wearing a sample of Eau des Merveilles, which doesn’t seem to be vastly different from the Elixer des Merveilles I already have.
I’m really excited about next week….will be a full week of Escada for me!!!!
today is Philosophy Living Grace…I bought a 15ml bottle dirt cheap because it is supposed to be a dupe for Gap Heaven. While it isn’t I have to say it’s extraordinarily lovely so much so I am tempted to purchase a full bottle because it’s quite affordable.
Naughty naughty me….I just ordered a 4oz bottle with 32 oz body lotion and 32 oz hair shampoo/shower gel for $79. I think I will be MIA when I need to report to Donatella 🙂
Donatella WANTED you to have that set.
Ahaha!! I just couldn’t resist!! Given the cost of fragrance these days I thought it was a great deal.
The body lotion and shampoo don’t count you know. 😉
Oh my friend you just made me laugh!! It also won’t count once the minis start using it!!
You make me laugh out loud.
I still have my bottle of Gap Heaven. It’s roughly half full. It is nice.
Hold on tight to it!! It’s gotten more and more expensive. It has such deep significance for me because I wore it in my first date with hubby in 1995 , it was the only fragrance I wore during our year of dating and it was my wedding day scent. So I am always on the lookout for dupes.
I’m wearing Kitrea by Maria Candida Gentile. I don’t like it, but it may be the hot and humid weather. It may be better in cooler weather. This CP is going to be useful. I can definitely find samples to use up.
Bummer about the Kitrea. I’ve been wearing it a bit in winter here and it’s lovely. Like remembered spring.
Today I am in Neroli Portofino-
Good vibes only fragrance
Accompanied my daughter to get her palette expander at the dentist 🦷
Reading The Switch by Beth O’Leary
Ow! I’m glad those palate extenders didn’t exist when I had my braces at 13.
You smell great, hope things go well with the dentist for your little one.
Love NP – still have body cream, which is fantastic. Sending good wishes to your daughter – orthodontistry can be painful but worth it in the end 🙂
Wearing a tiny drop of Monyette Paris and heading out into an unseasonably cold and blustrous day for four nights of camping in the Sierras with Little Biscuit — our first trip of the year, and alas it’s going to be more of a bundle-up one than a relax-in-the-sun one. Still, looking forward to a week away from work and the panoply of life stresses, and a chance to hug some giant sequoias and reconnect with the place that will forever be home to me.
Have fun! I love campng and am really looking forward to our trip on the 9th.
Enjoy your time away.
Bundle up and relax! Hope you both have a wonderful time.
I love Juneteenth. Americans take a millisecond to get the historical record right and something to truly celebrate. So hella happy Juneteenth (that’s Oakland style)! My city is bursting with celebratory activities.
As for ‘let it go,’ not a personal strength. I hold hold hold on. Mulling what that might mean in perfume though. Looking forward to seeing what others come up with.
SOTM? I’m debating between Unter den Linden and Ananda. For my moonlighting work (offices are closed for my ‘day job’) I am Zoom interviewing someone about beach safety. This topic was assigned to me. Trying to figure out how to frame an article so it doesn’t just read like a list written up a million times already. My hope was that the doctor I am chatting with would bring a fresh take to the subject. I kid you not, when he emailed me his consent to the interview, he attached a write-up on the topic written by ChatGPT! 😂🤣😂 Definitely pleased I can be doused in perfume and he will be none the wiser 😁
I hope you can ask him about the dangers of getting sand in your sandwiches, the number one killer of beach fun. And the best way to empty sand from your shoes and socks without causing a medical, stress event.
Well, he did not have a sense of humor. Sand disasters with food and socks were sadly beyond his ken. I feel my silk purse-making skills (as in from a sow’s ear) will be heavily relied upon.
Haha, none the wiser. 😉 I am a “hold hold hold on” type, too. I think I have enough hoarded bottles to wear one every day.
Holding on to perfume? You go girl! That is a hold I can get behind. Marie Kondos? Not needed here. (Sniffs around looking for a clear play to put her iPad down).
😂😂😂
That’s just like me at my desk! Can’t find my notebook for the empty decant bottles rolling around, blotters, full bottles, pipettes, samples, etc.
Not a personal strength of mine either.
For years, a yoga teacher where I used to go would say at the end to take one negative thought and put it in a bubble and let it float away. I used to roll my eyes (our eyes were shut so it wasn’t as rude as it sounds) but eventually I started doing it and of course it does help, just like many things I am inclined to roll my eyes at.
So now when I hear let it go, I think right away of bubbles.
Not a bad association. But in the process of narrowing it down to just one, I worry I’d be flooded with negative thoughts and only one floaty bubble. (Is that the equivalent of an eye roll on my part? Okay. Okay. I’ll give it a whirl 😉 )
LOL…glad to hear someone else is as cynical as I am.
But yes, it is hard to believe some of these bubbles don’t just sink under the weight of all the negativity.
Wearing Eau du Ciel in a vain attempt to get the weather gods to cooperate and give us some rain. I cleaned out my fridge yesterday and rearranged my Goutals. I had kind of forgotten how very many I own, all bought at the beginning of my perfumista life, when I bought more bottles than new knickers 😉.
My knickers obsession started well before my current perfume adventures… but now the perfumes far overshadow the knickers. Nonetheless I could still go for two months without doing laundry…
Excellent, I think I might manage two and a half! I do own more perfume though. Even if I don’t seem to be adding much to my collection these days.
Bravo! I think we are at the same stage of perfume collecting.
Are your Goutals kept in the fridge😀?
Most of them. Some (Petite Chérie) are apparently quite fragile.
My beloved Calyx Prescriptives and Ecume de Rose also lead a cool existence. Both of those turn easily as well.
Thank you, It’s a smart move, I do think the Annick Goutal perfumes have a reputation for not keeping well, oh yes Petite Chérie especially. I keep some of my vintage perfumes in the fridge like Joy parfum and Dior Eau Fraîche, although maybe it’s not necessary.
Eau de Ciel was one of my first Annick Goutal and perfume loves.
It’s very pretty and wistful.
Kyoto for me today; the incense is a reminder to me to breathe and let things go, and reminds me of the calm of temples in Japan.
Just received my soaps from Monsillage this morning, and a sample of their Eau Fraiche. I’m looking forward to trying them — enabler pin to Hera. 🙂
I like your take on the CP, I may copy you for Friday. Kyoto is wonderful stuff.
tell me more about the soaps
The wrapped soaps smell wonderful — I got violet, vetiver & orange blossom. At first sniff, I really like the violet; there’s a nice depth to it. Sounds like it’s a favourite of a couple of other people here. You can see all the soaps at https://monsillage.com/collections/savon-soap.
I think I may follow ockeghem’s lead and go with an incense choice. Let it go has been the main theme of the last three years of my life.
I love the concept of letting go , but I struggle with it. Even memories-couple of my friends are astonished by what I can remember. Did you choose an insense scent?
Today I’m wearing SL Louve, but for Friday I think I will go with CdG Monocle Hinoki since I’m very close to finishing it… and I can let the bottle go. 🙂
How do you feel after the “Letting It Go” stage Cazaubon?
Did Louve fit the bill for today?
Louve was great, got a compliment from DH too. 🙂
I’m feeling good about my years of letting go, still have further to go with it, it’s a work in progress, but it’s helping me feel more relaxed in life.
I have been putting off getting in the shower but about to get in. Still in no 19 but after my shower, I will be wearing Les Annees 25 Bid after it. I have such a hankering for it.
Hope it hit the spot Dawn!
Commando thus far, getting ready for an afternoon of 1:1 advising meetings with incoming first-year students (all on Zoom). They are an interesting bunch!
Think I will thunk my Madie Travel spray today. A weekend task involved going through a folder of old mail-order receipts, keeping only ones related to major purchases. I found my LuckyScent receipts and remembered that I’d purchased some samplers that I have never really investigated, so perhaps the rest of the week will be spent on that.
I did get out for a walk this morning, before the day heated up. I am trying to reset my exercise routine, which has atrophied horribly these past few months.
Mine has atrophied too. I swear I will do yoga tomorrow.
Boy, I hate using that last bit in a decant or bottle because, maybe the perfume has now been reformulated/discontinued/doubled in price…not sure how I’m going to wrap my head around letting go! In that vein, I have a near-empty decant of Zoologist Sacred Scarab that I’m hoarding a bit, so I’m wearing it today. So glad a lovely NSTer sent it to me as the notes didn’t appeal to me on paper but it smells wonderful. If anyone is interested, Zoologist has released a Sacred Scarab attar only available in the US, it’s on their website.
Oh, and PS – has anyone tried Tiger yet? I would love to know your thoughts.
Yes, I am trying Tiger right now. I was not impressed the first time and that remains the same. It has a sour rubbery smell that won’t go away and seems to lack depth and complexity. I am not sure what I’m smelling but I’m disappointed. In my mind, tiger would have more feline grace and fluidity. I don’t like vetiver as a note which may be why I don’t care for this one.
I agree about Sacred Scarab. Harvest Mouse is the latest one from the line that I have really loved. Even though I am a Zoologist fan there are many I don’t like at all (Squid, Seahorse, Cow, and the sweet ones like Nightingale). I also liked Chipmunk a lot and got a travel bottle in the recent split meet.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/apr/10/seven-types-of-ambiguity-review-hugo-weaving-elliot-perlman-cast?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Completely unrelated but I have just been watching this Australian thriller/ mystery called Seven Types of Ambiguity with Hugo Weaving and Susie Porter. It’s quite bendy and twisty and well acted and you might like it if you are still looking for something to watch.
Oh wow thanks! I would watch Hugo Weaving doing commercials for laundry detergent!
Thank you, Calypso! I was afraid that Tiger was bound to be disappointing, it’s such a gorgeous animal and could be interpreted many ways. I wouldn’t have gone with earthy vetiver but what do I know. Big change from little mammals, rodents and birds!
I like Harvest Mouse enough to have a travel spray at the top of my endless wishlist. We dislike many of the same ones except Cow.
I totally get your fear of finishing an older bottle in case it’s not the same next time you buy ringthing. It’s a very perfumista problem.
Love the Let It Go CP. Need to think about that. Meanwhile, I’m in the ever lovely Osmanthe Yunnan thanks to a lovely NST friend. Our day started out pretty wild. We have a narrow lane in front of our house that is tricky for larger trucks and the driver of a service truck for the house next door got stuck in the lane with one end pushing on our fence and his other end in our flowerbed. Ugh, but not too much damage. It can only go up from here.
oh no-your poor plants
Oh, glad the lane is ok.
That sounds pretty alarming . Glad it got sorted
OUCH!
Hope it did only go up from there!
I have just been reading a bit about Let it Go Day and Thomas Roy and his 80 special days of the year and now feel inclined to Let Go of Let it Go Day…so total success on the letting go CP front with four more days until Friday. So, I will do a celebration of winter, and dark skies, and the longest night of the year. Starting with Chypre Mousse.
Also, what is Hoodie-Hoo? August 22 holiday is Southern Hemisphere Hoodie- hoo Day? Can’t wait!!! Whatever it is.
You smell interesting and wonderful.
I love the solstices. Will be heading out to the Gaspé peninsula on July 9th to see the dark skies, which I love. You probable get that every night due to your lack of light pollution but for a big city dweller it is an exciting event. Hoping for no cloud cover.
LOL…I think you win, and it’s only Monday!
I utterly failed to investigate, have never heard of Thomas Roy and his 80 special days of the year, and now sort of afraid to go look.
Smoothie is fresh strawberries and yogurt and it’s delicious
I have some samples to let go but today I was in Lush Shade, I was excited initially by this scent but now find it too simple and linear but things improved this evening with By Terry Flagrant Delice, a gourmand but still fresh fig with almond or rather almond milk as the description lists and indeed it doesn’t smell of coconut like many fig scents do. It’s a neck and neck with Premier Figuier as favorite but PF has a green note I especially like.
Fig in perfume is ace.
I agree, especially in the summer.
Back from a trip to Alsace, now wearing Memoire d une Odeur, that i received just today (a used bottle for a good price). Perfect for a warm summer evening.
Oh, I love the Alsace. Such a pretty area. It must have been really hot.
I love Alsace, too! We have a trip already planned for summer of 2025. 🙂 (We go there every 10 years to celebrate our anniversary.) I’m thinking we may try a cycling tour this time; a friend of mine did it recently and loved it.
Happy Juneteenth to everyone who is celebrating!
Thunk a bottle? What’s that? 😆 I can’t remember when I ever have. I’ve come close on a couple, when I swapped decants or made a lot of extras from a bottle. This was mostly when I was new at the game, before they started reformulating and discontinuing everything. Now I only swap or split as much as I won’t use.
I think I will play the “helps you let go of negative feelings from the past” project. Today I’m wearing a new contender, Porter sa Peau. This is a lovely skin scent, and as the name suggests, helps me feel okay in my own skin. Which I don’t, many days. Still after all these years. 🫤Well, I think the odds are that I will have a little more time granted to me in which to learn this.
It is not easy to be comfortable in your own skin, isn’t it? There are always ups and downs, and sometimes it feels like there are more downs than ups… Based on my experience, talking to someone helps, and perfumes are self-care too. And here you can do both. 😊
Thanks, Glannys. This is the place for both. ❤️ Thanks for your kind words.
I’m in Tubereuse Criminelle, and I get way more hyacinth and things like that than tuberose. Thinking about a discounted bottle of carnal flower. Trying not to buy things-always fantasizing about reducing my collection 🙂
LOL. I get wintergreen gum from Tubereuse Criminelle. I fantasize about reducing my collection too, but who am I kidding.
lol-wintergreen is the scent our cleaner puts out in the office to reduce the smell of fuel, so the opening is verryyy familiar to me 🙂
SotD L’Instant de Guerlain pour homme eau extreme. (I have batch 4X01, no black frame around the bottle.) Maybe some contrarian CP points as a warning against letting go? I’ve seen it and thought: “ehh, I’ll never wear that enough.” But today, that patchouli-spice-cacao-tea blend is making me feel all mellow-fellow and glad I have it in waiting. I seldom think men’s perfumes are perfect for me, a woman. But this is one that I’d think would just smell great for anyone. Creed Royal Oud is another such scent that come to mind.
My husband wears the regular LIDG, I don’t think we ever tried the extreme on him. Sounds lovely!
Mr. Mossy does not wear scent, but will tolerate a spritz for research purposes. I’ll try this on him, per your recommendation.
Gucci Guilty Pour Femme EdP today. I let go of the lame rollerball it came in and decanted into a spray bottle. Much better application, projection, everything.
It’s amazing what sort of difference a de-rollerball can make to a perfume.
I’m wearing Le Galion’s Sortilège, the re-issued version from a few years ago. It’s got that vintage feel that appeals to me.
Even the name sounds vintage — I always liked that name 🙂
SOTD = Tauer Dark Passage
If ever there is one I am hoarding (!), it is this one. I really shouldn’t have to since I’ve managed to acquire four of the travel sprays…
Has anyone encountered problems purchasing kindle e-books? I’ve tried several times and so far have had no luck.
I tried to be productive today and succeeded in getting my haircut ✅, went to Trader Joe’s ✅ (not crowded at all) and got my train tickets ✅(I buy the 10 trips). Speaking of train tickets, once we go to 4 days per week or ::: shudder::: everyday, it would be more economical for me to just get the monthly ticket. No one officially said anything but there are rumblings. Le sigh …
As to masking during my train commute, I will likely continue to do it at least through mid-July. Thanks for those who provided input!
I’ve had no problems at all buying e-books for Kindle from Amazon.
When I try to buy an ebook on Kindle through the Amazon app (on my phone), it won’t let me. I can only purchase it through the website itself. Are you trying to purchase from your phone?
I hope you don’t have to go back to a full in office week.
Wearing Shalimar Tonka Millesime for the first time, thanks to a sample received from a very generous NSTer. Beautiful! I don’t find any similarities to the original EdP or EdT, my favorite versions of Shalimar.
The CP this week fits perfectly my wearing of samples lately. I am sure I will thunk some and I will keep discovering new to me scents. So much fun!
It has been a very quiet day at home. Not looking forward to being back to work tomorrow. But at least it will be a short week.
Having now a cup of coffee and a big portion of Four Milk Cake.
Happy Monday! ☕️ 🍰
I don’t know what four milk cake is, but I would like to sneak a bite.
Here some info:
https://www.africanbites.com/cuatro-leches-cake/
Is it anything like Tres Leches?
The only difference is that Cuatro Leches adds caramel (dulce de leche) to the recipe.
Happy Monday!!(although mine is basically done and dusted,it’s almost 10pm and I’m all snuggly in bed)
SOTD!Dior Tendre Poison.I’m summoning Spring like really really hard…haha!
Mossyberry:to answer your question from Sunday,yes,I renewed my leasing agreement after I discovered who actually owns my apartment!(Lol,funny but loooong story).
Renovations will defo be finished this weekend,I’m getting paint samples tomorrow to decide between either “champagne” or “dove” grey.(I’m already all for champagne,just because!Haha!)
Hope everyone has a great great day!
XO!
🌹🤗❣️
Noted – and thinking you’ll be glad you stayed! I’m one who plans/hopes never to move again, and one of my BF’s is renewing her long-time lease under a new owner. Champagne sounds lovely; I think my hall could use an upgrade!
I don’t see you as dove grey. Champagne definitely seems more your style.
Reminiscence Dragée today.
I was overly productive this weekend and am tired but made very good progress cleaning up my cluttered closet which has enabled me to access more of my perfume stash and Dragée was liberated. 🙂
Yay for liberated perfume!
She-ra, if you see this, I think an email I sent to you was returned. Can you send me an email at robin at nowsmellthis dot com? Thanks!
Just emailed you. Please let me know if you don’t get it. I am at gmail where I am sherainsocal. 👍🏻
Day 1 of the “Painterly Discombobulation”. The entire first floor has been upended. The painters moved all the furniture into clumps in the middle of each room. They also removed some blinds from a few windows. They aren’t quite finished there, so that continues tomorrow.
Also tomorrow is the laundry room, both guest bedrooms, and the guest bathroom. After that is the master bedroom and master bath.
Hopefully everything will be done up either Wednesday or Thursday.
I will be on cat wrangling duty the entire time. Mr. Jalapeno works from home in the basement, which is not getting touched. Lucky him.
SOTD = drying paint.
Hopefully it’s short-term pain, indeed! I’m sure the results will be worth it.
Good luck with the cat-wrangling!
Cat wrangling has been easy so far. Let’s see what the rest of the week holds…
Chuckling at your SOTD. It will be great once they get done!
The funny thing is that the paint isn’t bad smelling at all. Mostly wet dirt. The stinky interior paints of yesteryear are long gone.
That’s a lot of room’s. Hopefully they get done on schedule. The kitties must be very confused.
Teflon spent most of today under the bed. And Spooky refused to eat her gooshy food (aka wet cat food) until after the painters had left for the day. So they were both freaked out.
I’m wearing Chanel no 18 today. This sample is nearly thunk and I still can’t make up my mind about it. It feels like the oddball in the Les Exclusifs range, although it smells a tiny bit like Egoist to me. It also sometimes reminds me of Chinese medicinal oil!
I have a dabber sample of 18. I enjoy it but sometimes think it would be overpowering if I sprayed it. I see what you’re saying about Egoiste.
We had an unseasonably cool day with rain; more tomorrow. I wore Prada Infusion d’Iris absolu.
We are about to start a heatwave here. This backwards weather is something else.
I love the Absolu. You smell wonderful.
I stopped at the gas station tonight and the attendant asked me if I had ever seen the movie Alien. I said the 1979 movie? Yes. He says ” I swear you could be that lady’s sister, you really look like her” I was so flattered I think I blushed. I then realized that the only way I look like Sigourney Weaver is because I worked all day, went grocery shopping, had my sweaty hair pulled back so it Frizzed just so. I look like I just fought an Alien and lost! 🤣
Anyway… wearing Kayali Yum Pistachio from a sample. I still like it.
Maybe he was hitting on you?
Ha! I don’t think so, but who knows?