Happy Hump Day! It’s also National Fruitcake Day, the International Day of Epidemic Preparedness, plus the third day of Christmas and the second day of Kwanzaa. What fragrance are you wearing?
I'm taking community project points in Aedes de Venustas Copal Azur.
Reminder: on 12/29, wear a fragrance with myrrh, if you have one. Suggested by Kanuka.
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 frost on the holly [cropped] by liz west at flickr; some rights reserved.
No points for me but I’m happy in CSP Vanille Café, warm sweet coffee with lots of sugar and cream.
Broke a tooth yesterday, nothing catastrophic, no exposed nerves so no pain, but I’ll have to get it fixed because there’s a sharp edge that my tongue invariably finds. It’s always something!
Oh no! Hope you can get it fixed quickly without too much pain (mouth or wallet).
My husband works for Blue Cross so we have excellent health insurance, as you would imagine. Dental is covered for 80% (up to a certain limit), so we’re good.
I wish I worked for Blue Cross!
Hope they will get your tooth patched up quickly & painlessly.
Wow that’s awesome!
I’m testing the various versions of 4160 Tuesdays Hush Hush: edt, edp & parfum. Will report back later with a comparison.
That one sounds so lovely.
It’s really nice, violets and iris with just a hint of tobacco and papery smell.
Ooh! That sounds delightful.
2nd that!
So I definitely prefer the parfum, it has the most potent powdery violet smell. The edp is second with the edt a distant third. In fact I can barely smell anything where I sprayed the edt, unfortunately that’s the version they are going to sell commercially.
Oy! I haven’t yet tried the EDT …
I also think my nose is not working all that well at the moment, so don’t rely too much on me. But I do definitely prefer the parfum.
This sounds really nice, but where can you purchase it? I am having trouble finding it.
I think it’s so new the distributors haven’t even received it yet. I ordered my bottle months ago as part of the crowdfunding initiative and just received it. I think it should be available at US retailers in the spring.
Thanks. I will look for it later this year.
I saw there was a link posted today to an article written by someone suffering from anosmia. I’m dealing with that too getting the virus for the first time two weeks ago. At first my sense of smell was completely gone and now it is partially gone. I’m trying my best to stay hopeful that I’ll make a complete recovery. Interestingly for some reason I can now kind of smell musks in perfume and have been wearing my most musky fragrances and sniffing them often on my wrist even though I don’t smell all of the fragrance notes like I used to.
Everyone is different but when I had COVID in October, I was very annoyed to discover that my sense of smell disappeared almost completely, and it was exactly as you describe yours. It did gradually come back after a couple of weeks of near-nothingness, and now seems to be as good as it ever was.
On the other hand, not to worry you but my husband also lost his during an earlier bout, in May I think, and still hasn’t gotten it back. (For him it’s a blessing: he tolerated my mad obsession with fragrances for decades and now he doesn’t have to any more, so it’s win-win: I get to wear what I want when I want, and he isn’t bothered by it.)
I bet yours will return. Most people do get it back, although it can take months sometimes.
Thank you for sharing your experience. That makes me feel hopeful I’m sense of smell will return as good as ever. Fragrance is such an important part of my life not just for perfume but for cooking, enjoying food, and everyday smells. I for instance I could smell when it was going to rain or snow before it did.
I think most of the people who have had really long term anosmia (like the person in the article) are people who caught very early variations of the virus, in 2020/2021 mostly.
These days long term loss is much more rare.
Looks like pyramus lost hers for a short time but mine was even shorter…about a day or so, then back to completely normal.
For me it is going on two weeks so far. I wish it was only one day. My sense of smell has always been extremely good and it’s disconcerting to be without it. I keep reminding myself it’s still early on and telling myself it will come back fully until I believe that’s a certainty.
Fingers crossed!
Sorry you’re experiencing this. I think I remember reading about someone trying to re-train their nose by sniffing different perfume materials and doing perfumery smelling exercises? (I don’t actually know what those would be.) But perhaps this is an avenue to research
Hello.
Sotd is Youth Dew. Layers of bath oil, body lotion, body powder and deodorant! The next town can smell me.
I have been indulging myself in eating A LOT of yummy foods these few days. I don’t dare look at my scale in the bathroom. My last dinner was an awesome Korean barbecue, loads of juicy, oily pork. It was gooood.
Oh my goodness, welcome to the club. I can’t even believe what I ate between Saturday morning and Tuesday night.
You smell wonderful!
I was doing pretty good on not indulging until my husband and I decided I should have a birthday cake for my 65th birthday yesterday. I can’t resist white cake with white frosting. Neither of us eat sweets very much so this is a very rare thing for us.
Happy belated birthday!!!!
Thanks so much!
I am in Amber Oud today, and I actually smell a little Oud in it. Trying to get in the mood for 2024. I try to have a sort of theme for each year, since actual goals seem a little rigid. Last year, of course, my “start of happy retirement” theme got derailed by “OMG, liver cancer!” Adorable hubby’s 10 month treatment regimen, and his phenomenal recovery from chemo and surgery brings me to the present moment, tired but optimistic.
I wish I had written more about that whole process, so I am thinking my theme for 2024 will be “Capture the Moment”, a phrase lifted from someone I follow on Substack. Draw, write, record, photograph, whatever I can do to make more of a record, you know? Hope everyone is having a recuperative holiday! Now off in search of a new lip color. As my ash brown hair goes grey, so many lipsticks that I thought suited me are now going contrast orange. Ugh. I need a blue based pinky taupey mauve color with no yellow, no green, in it. Wish me luck!
What a great idea for a theme.
My goal for 2023 was to get back to a regular yoga practice, and boy did that fail spectacularly. But it’s my main wish for 2024 too. I need to hire someone to come over a few times a week and make me do it, LOL…
House call yoga instructors should be available to all of us, not just the denizens of upper Hollywood…
Wishing you and your husband a happy, healthy 2024!
Seconding wishing your family best of health in 2024.
And good luck on your lippie search!
Thanks! I got a Clinque lip balm crayon style pencil in Roomiest Rose, which is an odd name, but whatever. It feels good, and is still a little more yellow than I would like, altho it seems to be changing back to a more mauvy tone over time… hope your holidays have been exactly as exciting as you wanted. 🙂
Hopefully you can restart your happy retirement this year
Good on you for your theme! Not that yours is exercise based but there is an article in the Wall Street Journal where a house purchase comes with a year’s worth of personal training, a sauna, a salt wall and something healthy! Me, I would just go for a personal chef even if it’s once a week.
What on earth is a salt wall? That’s a new one on me.
From Google:
“Salt panels are part of spas for massage and therapeutic purposes. These panels detoxify the body and help absorb negative energy during a massage.”
I kinda sorta knew that Himalayan salt is good but never knew that one could make it into a wall!
So, like, do you rub up against it? Just soak up salt ions floating through the air? Get salty vibes? So confused 😂
Love the theme, and I hope for continuing good news for both of you.
Happy Hump Day! I’m still wafting a faint trace of Tauer’s Sundowner from last night before bed. Not sure just yet what I’ll wear today. Enjoying my second cuppa joe before we hit the road. I’ve been up for an hour now and the dog is still in bed under 20 pounds of covers. When the kibble hits the bowl, she might peep out and see if it’s worth dragging her regal bones into an upright position today. What a life! 👑
Christmas afternoon I got 50(!) as in FIVE OH emails from the contracted hospital consisting of work that needs to be done prior to starting on the 8th..! Merry Christmas to ME! Gah! Pretty sure whoever sent them needs to get a life. I’m going to continue to ignore them until I can’t ignore them anymore! 😉
Cheers all! 🎄
What??? 50 is insane. Good luck with the avoidance techniques, if you need advice just ask 😉
And happy trails!
Good to know I have you as a resource, thanks! 👍🏼
What could possibly require 50 emails to explain, not to mention on Christmas day, for which you will likely not be paid? I agree on ignoring to the maximum.
Effing ridiculous stuff, that’s what…and you can bet your bippy I’ll be getting paid!
50 emails is insane. Good luck with ignoring.
It’s working well so far! 😎
If you get paid for doing all the pre-requisites, great. If not, maximum ignorance is best.
What she said! I would go into to the first day of work and tell them you had some sort of network problem and couldn’t read the emails, but now that you are clicked in, happy to, once you get your computer access…
Exactly!
💵 Come to mama! I will be getting paid, have no fear!
A wealth of myrrh-containing fragrances awaits on my perfume shelf — I could do an entire 7-day stretch, and might. But right now I’m enjoying Under My Skin again, and planning what to do with a Fumerie gift certificate received for Christmas. I’ve never visited them in person, despite living in the same city — was always too busy working, and then the pandemic hit. From a perusal of their website it looks like they did well at Christmas — many things show as sold out — so I’ll wait a bit before heading over.
Do they carry Francesca Bianchi? 😇
I wish! But no, doesn’t look like it. That would have been a no-brainer for sure!
You should go to the store, it’s nice and you can sniff to your heart’s content for free.
I’m glad you are back safe and sound, Robin! Wearing Dune today at the suggestion of CM8. I’ve been on a gourmand-wearing streak, so it’s nice to change things up. Dune is one of my top 10, along with about 20 others. 🙂
You and me both with the top 10 🤣. You smell great in Dune!
Smelling gorgeous today, and we have the same kind of top ten list!
Love Dune!
CP points in Aramis Calligraphy Rose.
I am supposed to prepare and submit the home page of my website by Monday, and I am still stuck at the wireframe of the whole website (essentially a drawing showing the website layout). Choosing what will go on the about page is not so easy as it may seem… And I have not even started writing a code or a copy for the home page.
It is a good thing that the course is actually self-paced, so the deadlines are not strict.
Oh, and we also ordered a new stove. Dual fuel (instead of the old gas one). This should make us more prepared both for power outages and potential gas cut-offs.
👏 on forging ahead. Is the content “that” important for this assignment if the whole idea is to be able to code a more complete website? I know nothing about coding.
Content is not important at all. They want us to use what we learned earlier (including coding, SEO, hosting) and create a simple static website, and they use a portfolio website as an example. We are allowed to just repeat the steps the instructor makes. But I think I need a stronger online presence for my business, I want to actually make a real website. Plus making something you care about is more interesting than just copying.
I have a silly brain that gets easily overwhelmed and complicates things, so I kind of struggle with it. I have to remind myself to keep things simple. But I will get there.
Dune is always good!
What brand of dual-fuel stove did you get? I need one of those!
Hansa. We also considered Beko and Gorenje. As far as dual range go, this one is prretty simple – four gas burners and electric oven.
Congratulations on the new stove, very wise.
Thank you. The old gas stove is over 20 years old, and the oven door kept breaking over the years (it does not close completely). The last straw happened a few weeks ago, when the glass broke.
Fingers crossed everything goes well with delivery and installation.
Good luck with the website & new stove! I was excited to have gas available in my new Montréal apartment, most only have electricity, and there are a surprising number of outages for such a large city. Gas is a nice safety feature.
My recommendation: Pop in some placeholder lorem ipsum so you can focus on the design and coding. Even use stock images that might not be right, but in the right palette. Then circle back and dither over the text and final image selections.
May I ask: What are your goals with this class? Personal development? Build a website for your own business? Career change?
Thanks for the advice! I have already uploaded the wireframe and begun looking at different website designs and samples on Figma.
The goals are hard to define. I suppose all three but putting them in the order of importance: build a website for my own business > personal development > career change.
I have been interested in coding for a long time, and when the chance to learn it appeared, I thought the opportunity was too good to miss. Even if I did not know (and still do not know) how I am going to use this knowledge. I have a vague idea of finding work where I can use both my linguistic and coding skills.
Started with day with Al-Rehab Green Tea, which has become my easy reach. It’s about gone, so I have to work out what’s up next. Not sure what it will be, but an antidote to cloudy weather is in order.
The husband is off to California to sit our daughter’s cats over her weekend getaway, and then they move her from the Los Angeles area to San Francisco. I’m on my own with our cats for 10 days. I wasn’t looking forward to that much solitude, but I’m coming up with some projects that are just so much easier with no one around.
My current project is culling my book collection. I’m feeling ruthless about it, so I’m hoping it’s really productive!
Enjoy your kitties.
I have to do the same ruthless culling with all my stuff …
Good luck with projects. I prefer those kind by myself as well. However, I often feel ruthless until I look at each specific book/clothing item/perfume/whatever I’m trying to “curate and then…it’s harder.
Christmas day was spent in Lyric, yesterday was Gris Charnel and I am thinking of Epic today. I seriously need to vacuum but I just don’t want to but I can’t ignore all the tufts of dog hair. I got a $50 Ulta gift card for Christmas. Clinique is having a sale going on at Ulta. With the sale and points multiplier, I got a bottle of Happy. I couldn’t justify the 50ml or 100ml so I got a 1 ounce bottle.
Smellin’ good and congrats on the Happy purchase!
Enjoy your new bottle, Dawn.
I love the Holly and Berries picture!
SOTD = Francesca Bianchi Sticky Lips
👄 and I am awarding myself points because somewhere in the kitchen sink notes must be myrrh, right? Right!
https://www.instagram.com/p/C1XWsXjROfI/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
I went to Wegmans yesterday and it was like a ghost town – very few people, and somehow, the shelves look empty 🤷🏻♀️. I kept trying to justify it, thinking that people are still full from Christmas and have a lot of leftovers, but still! I also stopped by Home Goods and the same thing with a lack of people although the shelves were somehow overabundant with … valentines stuff.
Anyway, I hope everyone had a good day celebrating Christmas or the equivalent!
When I arrived at the supermarket yesterday I was literally the only person there. It seems like my lack of organisation/ shopping pre-Christmas has some knock-on benefits.
Ha! So true. I try to be organized but holidays make me less so.
Hello all!
Last night I wore Galaad by Lubin for bed and liked it so much I put it on this morning too. Color me surprised when I saw the poll today–there’s a slug of myrrh in here.
Pretty lazy day so far. I got about halfway through cleaning my closet out yesterday and hoping the gods of cleaning give me inspiration to finish!
Have a great day everyone!
You have a great day too. Good luck with the clear our.
Luckily for me I have a myrrh perfume which is helpfully called Myrrha and is perfect for our mid-summer temperatures of 12C (53F)…so much for cooling down on the deck with a glass of wine wine while grilling sausages on the BBQ . I wore my down jacket for my walk around the cemetery yesterday and even the rabbits nibbling at the grass next to the graves looked a bit wet and miserable. The big holly trees in the oldest section have the smallest of green berries now and many of the heritage roses are past their best. It’s interesting looking at the plantings: white roses on the graves of women and children, deep red and crimson roses on the men’s. White for innocence and purity, red for leadership and authority. It’s very gendered.
That’s not very summery, how depressing. Our weather is not great either, if that’s of any comfort.
That is crazy Kanuka, it was 49 here! Rainy and miserable, but still, 49.
Myrrhiad for myrrh week. Still have all the “kids” here including the real kid (7 month old grandson) and it’s so fun and so exhausting and so messy. 😀 😀 😀
I had a sample of Myrriad before. I liked it very much.
It’s delicious. Kinda gives me Shalimar vibes.
Aw, what fun…a 7 month old must be a blast.
Thanks. He really is very fun.
I hope you’re having a great time with your kids of all ages, especially the littlest one.
I think I can do a week of myrrh. I knew I had a few, but the notes section on Fragrantica shows a few more.
I think I’ll wear Caron’s Parfum Sacré post-shower, but I’m unwittingly already ahead of the CP. I can smell a trace of last night’s sample of Sideris, which Fragrantica tells me has myrrh.
Love Sideris!
Claiming points in Jo Malone Myrhh & Tonka, I really like this one.
I’ve had an annoying cold for 9 days and finally feel up to getting out. I’m mentioning this because of the anosmia conversation above. I had a couple of days of fever and a consistent cough so I took a covid test, which was negative, but I lost my sense of smell for 4 days…not from stuffiness, either. I put on Yosh Ginger Ciao one day with 8 sprays which is a lot and couldn’t smell it at all and couldn’t smell food either. Thankfully it’s back to normal but I’ve never had that happen with a cold.
And if you’ve read this far, can someone tell me the name of the reasonably priced vanilla perfume on Luckyscent that I’ve seen mentioned lately? Thanks in advance!
Maybe Divine Vanilla? Sounds like covid to me, despite the negative test.
Thanks for the perfume rec!
I had the latest covid booster a couple of months ago, maybe it was a mild case. I was a lot sicker when I had it last year.
I am pretty sure it is Divine Vanille by Essential Parfums. It is very reasonable priced at Luckyscent. I recently had a sample of it and though most people really liked it, I found it more cinnamon smelling than vanilla. I didn’t dislike it; just wasn’t what I was looking for in a vanilla perfume.
Thanks Kris!
I’m wearing Cuir Cannage today, but it has gone sweet on me and so I might change it. I’ll wear myrrh tomorrow and Friday. 2024 is coming really fast!
It really is!
It’s been stormy all day, quite mild but very windy, apparently it’s worse in Scotland. I wore SJP Dawn during today and tonight Dior Homme Intense.
Windy here too, but dry.
I have a ton of myrrh scents but of course didn’t check the theme this morning before I sprayed. Will add some SL La Myrrhe later today.
This might be my favorite myrrh fragrance. I’m sure you smell great anyway, but any excuse that one has to put on La Myrrhe is one I will take!
I’m in Oud Palao.
Christmas was calm, a bit tiring mentally.
I hope the New Year treats you well lucasai.
Go easy on yourself Lucasai!
I hope 2024 brings more peace and joy, lucasai🌸
And you smell fabulous in Oud Palao😊
We were supposed to meet friends for dr La this evening but one of them is down with the flu, so no go. And I just got my hair cut, and it looks unusually good, so I think I will go put on some kind of bold lip color (maybe Bobbi Brown Your Majesty) and another spritz or three of Wrappings and look fabulous just for the heck of it.
It is miserably dark and rainy here today, payback for the fabulous sunshine and mild temps we enjoyed on Christmas Day.
“We were supposed to meet friends for DRINKS.” Ugh. I really do not want a bigger phone but I am getting fed up with keyboard mis-hits. Autocorrect is bad enough without my thumbs adding to the trouble.
I do like the autocorrect feature because I almost never manage to catch it before I hit Post Comment.
I would love to look fabulous just for the heck of it. Do it up and enjoy!
I am very far from myrrh today. I am wearing Gucci Envy. I finally was able to find it at a decent enough price.
I’m working tonight but have the next 2 days off. The Doctor called in a muscle relaxer for my back. I really hope it works.
I hope it works!
I won’t be able to get to the pharmacy until tomorrow so I will still be sleeping funny tonight.
Popping in again briefly, since it’s crunch time for me now. The packers were here today dealing with the kitchen and pantry. Right now, the only rooms left are the guest bedroom and the master bedroom. Those are *mostly* done.
Teflon kitty was NOT pleased with her house being upended. She spend a good amount of time hiding from all the ruckus.
IDK how long it will take me to drive to Colorado. Depends on the roads and the weather. But I will say that a UHaul is not nearly as much fun to drive as a Toyota Corolla is.
Won’t be posting until I have Internet in my new digs. But I will try to lurk when I can. Keep calm and waft on, NSTers!
SOTD = dust.
Safe travels to you and Teflon kitty, jalapeno!
Safe travels my friend.
Be safe Jalapeno!
Safe travels, Jalapeno!
We will be thinking of you Jalapeno!
Hope your drive goes very smoothly. It will be great to get to Colorado and settle in. Hugs!
Good luck on your journey!
Safe travels to Colorado.
I’ve been smelling wonderful today if I do say so myself in Jo Malone Myrrh and Tonka. Yesterday’s myrrh perfume was Serge Lutens La Myrrhe, which I love once the aldehydes burn off.
You smell wonderful!
Thank you!
I’ve been wearing Diptyque L’Eau Trois the last couple of days. It feels perfect for the time of year.
I don’t know that one but I am sure you smell wonderful!
Last night I slept in some LouLou, and today was another throwback to my teenage years: Samsara. Both still fabulous!
Now I need to go read up on myrrh scents on Fragrantica.
It’s been cold and rainy so all I want to do is curl up in bed.
Well! I haven’t got a single FB of anything on the Frangrantica myrrh notes list. There are definitely some in my sample collection, but it’s a disorganized mess right now. Not sure if I’ll summon the will to hunt them down.