It's July, and we're officially in the dog days of summer (the summer reading poll is coming up next weekend). Meanwhile, we're whiling away the time with our same-old open thread poll.
Talk about anything you like — the fragrance you’re wearing today, your favorite scented after-sun product, whatever.
Or, ask a question about fragrance, then see if anyone else has asked a question that you can answer…
Note: top image is Untitled [cropped] by Rosmarie Voegtli at flickr; some rights reserved.
ps meant to add that I am behind on comments again! I have not looked at Friday’s at all. I will catch up on Sunday night.
Hello!
Today still not in the best of moods, wearing Fille de Berlin for some rose then probably switching into Noir de Noir later:).
Tea is Bengal Spice 🍵
116°f today oof. They are saying it is going to get up to 122-130°f in some parts of the Mojave this week. It’s all about a/c and lemonade.
Hope everyone has a lovely Saturday! 🌹
Stay cool 🥤
I can’t even imagine that kind of heat. How does the AC even keep up?
I really don’t know lol
Even for this South African those temps sounds CRAZY!
Sorry your mood is not great Omega!
Yeesh, making me realize I will never leave the Pacific NW! I would melt. (Yes, I’ve gone soft; I lived in the Midwest and the East for a long time and used to survive.) Hope you’re keeping cool and that your mood improves!
Thank you, the PNW is lovely.
Wow that is heat! Stay cool, Omega and hope you feel better…heat really does affect mood.
It does and some other things lol thank you!
Love Bengal spice tea!
It is one of my top faves.
Bengal Spice is wonderful.
I hope all the lovely rose scents helped to lift your mood. Stay cool!
Thank you!! ❤️
I came here to complain about how hot it was at work today but our little heat wave has absolutely nothing on you guys where you are. My co-workers were all getting grumpy and snippy (not at guests); I can’t imagine what the mood must be like over there. Our poor little a/c just couldn’t keep up.
I’m really hoping for some relief for you, Omega. Stay well!
Thanks so much ❤️
Hope you get to feeling better soon. You certainly smell good🌹
Thank you, appreciate it!
You smell wonderful but I’m sorry you are dealing with such heat! Hope you are feeling better soon.
Thanks ringthing ❤️
Hello everyone!
Waiting (studying) outside my testing center for the final. The class group chat has been melting down over some technical issues. I’m hoping by going in person the problems will miss me completely.
Thought very hard about heading up to my friends’ in Dallas to avoid Beryl, mostly because if my power goes out for more than an hour I will melt. I have an in person class the day after landfall though and I’m worried they won’t cancel it. Luckily have some water from the last storm, and always have lots of cans of food.
Trying to be above it in the ethereal L’Ether d’IUNX. I haven’t tried the Passage d’Enfer Extreme but this must be close, just without a lily note.
Stay safe everyone!
Good luck with the test. I hope you keep power!
Thank you! I ended up evacuating to a nearby friend’s. Been a bit of a mess as usual.
Hope the test goes well, and that Beryl doesn’t wash away the Texas coast.
It wasn’t great but it could have been worse!
Stay safe!
Thank you. 🩷
Fingers crossed for the storm and your final! Good luck!
Thank you! Could have been better on both but not terrible. 😅
Good luck with everything!
Thank you! 🩷
Good luck w/ your final and the storm!
Thank you! 🩷
Good luck!
Made it to the other side somehow. 🙏
Good luck! Beryl go away!
Seriously. She’s done but the damage is not.
Hope Beryl is not too bad!
I’ve seen worse but about half the city lost power. Just crazy.
Hope that your exam went well, and that Beryl doesn’t mess things up horribly for you.
I ended up driving to Dallas for a few days. But I’m not sure what my house will look like when I’m back
Moderate temps, intermittent rain, humidity not bad for Michigan’s temperate rain forest. 🙂 I am in Light Blue, which I bought purely out of bottle lust. The blue and white porcelain reminds me of my mom. The scent on me is a light, serviceable sweetish cologne -ish scent, which adorable hubby finds “pretty” if pressed but otherwise ignores completely. A win, since it avoids the “What is that? It smells a Lot!” Category. LOL. My summer is less stressful than last summer. Hope others are muddling through with the support of good friends and good smells, as well!
I liked that bottle too. Yay for a less stress summer!
Such a pretty bottle! Liked the Italian Zest better, though, and it’s residing in my fridge as we speak.
I have the Italian Zest too, you’re reminding me to wear it when it finally gets warmer.
That is a pretty bottle and glad your summer is less stressful!
Definitely some bottle prOn with your SOTD yesterday.
🙂
After a relatively mild winter so far,a cold front made landfall in Cape Town this weekend,which usually means us folk up north need to get the electric blankets and thick socks out!
I have an emergency case tomorrow-a lady got a golf ball to the eye,should be interesting.Starting at 8 so I’ll need to be up around 5:30!
SOTD!
Margiela On a date.Lillyjo,I really love this one!
Happy weekend guys and girls!
XO’s
Yikes, golf ball to the eye doesn’t sound like fun. Hope the case is less traumatic than anticipated and you get the rest of the weekend to enjoy non-work related activities.
Thanks!
I won’t go into graphic details for the faint of heart people,but it sounds pretty hectic with a poor prognosis sadly!
Oh my. Thank you for the lack of details.
😉
I can imagine. I once had a patient in the ER that got in a fight with a woman who armed herself with a broken bottle. The outcome was not good for her left eye. 🙁
Oy,I can just imagine!🙈🙈
I appreciate the lack of details, too!
Did you buy On a Date? There is something about it that reminds me of the 90’s. I haven’t figured out why yet.
I bought a 30ml yes,it was 15% off so yay for that!It’s a fun fragrance!My 90’s were JPG Le Male and basically just that!🤣🤣
I’m spending the day (and maybe the whole weekend) in SMN Eva, a very lovely concoction of lemon, orange blossom and black pepper. Fragrantica says it also has vetiver, but if so it’s amazingly well blended with the other ingredients. Love love. It’s very hot here, but so far staying below 100, for which I’m extremely grateful.
Love love love Eva too. We are at 93 right now so I will also express my gratitude for less than 100 🙂
Hmmmm…I keep seeing SMNs I want to try. Looking forward to October. 🙂 Eva sounds wonderful.
Really couldn’t decide today so used the last of my original Omnia bottle. Thunk! Whenever I can’t make up my mind I usually go for this one, Un Bois Vanille, or BoE. Can’t go wrong with any of these in any situation. I have a BUB of Omnia in the wings, thankfully!
Hoping those in Beryl’s path stay safe, and electricity and water systems aren’t impacted. If push comes to shove, it’s always best to grab kids, pets (and perfume!) and skedaddle out of the way. 🌀
We’ve been very lucky here with temps but this week they have started steadily climbing. That sun will blister you in about 20 seconds flat! Even the pronghorn are over it. They come into the campground regularly for a bit of shade and some cool succulent grass that is kept watered in all the loops and around the buildings. Everything else is dry as dust…Happy Weekend! Hope the US folks had a nice long holiday weekend. We are packed, but a mass exodus starts Monday. Can’t wait! 😂
Can’t go wrong with Omnia!
It’s so funny how if a holiday doesn’t fall on a weekend, we just keep on taking day’s off until the weekend ends. ( well not me.. but a lot of people)
Not me either, although I never minded much because I didn’t have kids. I prefer time and a half to kids and holidays. 🙃
Been keeping an eye on the drought map here. My area is back in moderate drought now, alas. Probably the same for where you are at.
Hope you get a random rainstorm.
I did! I actually had 2 decent rain showers yesterday afternoon. The air smelled so good afterwards.
Fingers crossed for more.
Having a euro cup party. Wearing Shalimar
Have fun!
It was! We won’t be around for the final so it was nice to host today
We were watching England/Swiss at work. There was one guy at the bar who was absolutely glued to the tv the whole time. He didn’t say a word until after the Brits won in penalty kicks. Then he said in a thick British accent that they’ve never won in PKs before so it was a big deal for the country. I had no idea he was a Brit until he spoke, so now it makes sense. lol
Awww! We had an Irish family over and I have to say, there were praying for the Swiss to win 😆
LOL!
Ninfeo Mio , a nice Sunday scent
I’ve procrastinated long enough and am about to spend way too much time on the phone with AT&T.
It’s 75 here and cloudy. I am wearing Mugler Aura.
Good luck with your call, I hope you’re not on hold forever. A camper here was dissatisfied with his reserved site yesterday so got on the phone with the reservation system to change it. 45 minute wait time. He decided to just stay in the site he reserved.😆
The hold time wasn’t too bad, but I did get “disconnected ” lol.
You smell wonderful. I almost used my Aura body cream today post-shower, but Azuree called my name.
I used the lotion too. I wish I had the shower gel.
Ohhhh those dreaded calls! You are smelling wonderful today.
I hate making phone calls too. Psyching myself up to do a couple of them tomorrow.
Long week and haven’t been able to drop in much. I did wear 4711 yesterday for the CP…figured I’d go with the original.
Here’s hoping the worst of parenting by myself is over. I spent two hours a day in the car this past week, getting Ockeghem Teen to camp and back and getting home to frantically work in between. And I got her cold and another infection and couldn’t sleep for a couple of nights. And work has been just nutty lately, with a major blow up on Wednesday when a different group did something we’d warned them they shouldn’t do, but they did anyway without telling us. It blew up, as predicted (sigh). And somehow I lost my fob for the garage and gate while walking and clearing my head in the midst of all of this; no idea how I didn’t notice it falling off the keychain. That has to be the nadir, right?
Trying to relax and get caught up today. Summer has arrived, but at NW temps (28 C). And there’s much less driving in the next three weeks. So things are looking up! SOTD is Frau Tonis Linde Berlin because the lindens are finally blooming here.
Hope you can get the maximum amount of R&R this weekend!
Hope things slow down for you this weekend and you can relax this weekend!…that’s an awful lot of entropy
When I was in Berlin a couple of weeks ago, I walked by the Frau Tonis store. It was empty and I was too intimidated to enter, but they did have some blotter cards outside to sniff and take, and I happened to pick up the linden one! It was so lovely and surprisingly strong.
Yes, I do like that scent, and bought a BUB the last time I was in Berlin. I was okay in the store the last time, but then I think I made it clear I was in to get that one bottle and maybe smell one or two other things.
Good morning!
I’m sitting on Sunday morning in a cloud of different perfumes. As I can’t spray any perfumes on my skin now (the medical diagnosis is that my skin has got more sensitive because it’s aging along with the rest of me), I spray on my clothes, and perfumes linger. My left sleeve is The Hope from Thameen, my right sleeve is Immortal Beloved from Ys Uzac and the front is last night’s Le Participe Passé from Serge Lutens.
Time to put this top in the wash and start again 🙂 .
Gaynor, busy week and I may have missed the beginning of this story…were you getting allergic reactions?
It is hot hot hot here so I decided to stink up the house with a liberal application of EL Tuberose Gardenia. Bertie Wooster is on my lap like a small furry blanket but I don’t have the heart to move him. He’s purring.
Love your scent and I am guessing Bertie Wooster must too.
Aww… sweet Bertie Wooster.
Aww, Bertie Wooster sounds like a sweetheart.
Bertie sounds so cute:). And really like TG, great white floral.
Aw, lap kitty Bertie!
Wearing a sample of Highland Lilac, which has already burned off in the high heat and humidity we’ve been having. Will respritz now that I’m inside under the AC.
Staying inside is the way to go right now!
Taking it slow today around the house, a little bit of tidying up, will do more tomorrow. I spritzed Lancôme Aromafit which mixed very well with the Eau de Rochas from yesterday on my shirt and tonight I applied LVEB l’extrait (already a bottle to report to Donatella), so it’s a complete Lancôme day.
It rained most of the day, still on the cool side, some sun this evening.
How do you like the LVEB extrait please? I think someone else confessed that one to Donatella too. Is it very oud-y? I am generally not a fan of oud and saw it listed as a note.
Hi She-ra, Oh no, oud is non-existent to my nose, it is a floral and much less sickenly sweet than the original, it is primarily irissy.
I agree. I didn’t smell any Oud when I tested it.
Thanks, Aurora! I am always leery of oud.
She-ra, I bought bubs of L’Extrait. The oud is not detectable. I guess what it did is ground the fragrance, tone down the sweetness and add more heft (if that’s possible on a beast like LVEB). I also smell a bit of extra warmth in this version. I like it very much.
Thanks, happy888cat! I shall have to seek this one out and try it.
It cooled off a LOT today. Currently at 67 after an afternoon shower rolled thru. I am enjoying the coolth while it’s here.
Trying Orchid K by Ella K Parfums today. Notes are below and it’s described as a Floral Fruity Gourmand. The opening has that synthetic sharpness from iso E…will see how it wears…several reviews on Fragrantica complain about the amount of Ambrofix used. Reminds me of a high end version of B&BW Bonfire Bash so far.
Top notes are Marshmallow, Petitgrain and Pink Nerium Oleander
Middle notes are Black Orchid, Magnolia and Wild Rose
Base notes are Ambrofix™, Sequoia and Vanilla
She-ra, I found the Zara Parfait d’Orchidee to be a rather boozy vanilla with a woodsy, slightly smoky/incense-y far drydown. Definitely a cool weather perfume for me! It was too much for summer weather.
Mine is coming Monday. Can’t wait to try it.
Thank you, Jalapeno! That description is right up my alley! Can’t wait to try it.
I hope that you both like Parfait d’Orchidee!
Heat wave! Eau Dynamistante on on arm and D&G italian Zest on the other, both straight from the fridge
Stay cool!
You smell fresh at least😀
I couldn’t do the CP yesterday cuz I visited a friend & we tested many samples, decants, & bottles we’d accumulated through swaps and I wanted to let each one play out and ponder their evolution but near the end of our sniffa she brought out some semi-vintage Bandit and I did one spritz mid-arm and that Bandit began to methodically hunt down and slay every other fragrance on my arms one by one to eliminate all the competition.
So…today I’m playing catch up, and Robin’s great summer CP has inspired me to bring out my big weird bottle of what I *think* is vintage Chanel Eau de Cologne. And it is the ur cologne, a perfectly suspended blend of high quality citrus with a touch of herbs, very clean, minimalist, linear. Why am I not sure what it is? Well, one day years ago I was at an antiques & collectibles fair and a lady had a big generic liquor decanter style bottle (at least 16 oz) with stopper that was half filled with a pale light canary yellow liquid. Ever hopeful, I pulled out the stopper and sniffed, expecting to smell booze but curious about the color (not really a booze color). To my happy surprise, it was a cologne. Superb condition, top notch ingredients. very old-school French, etc.
“What IS this, I asked.
“Oh, it’s a perfume. I think it’s a Chanel.”
“Not a Chanel bottle though. Tell me more.”
“A friend who owned an antique store dropped a huge Chanel bottle and it broke and half of it spilled but it was good stuff and he didn’t want to waste it so he poured what was left into empty bottles and gifted each of us a bottle for Christmas. And I don’t wear perfume so I’m selling it.”
as she talks, I keep sniffing and mentally crossing off all the Chanels I know (and also other classic French houses) off my mental list, and sniffing madly all the while, and it strikes me that she might be telling the truth.
“That’s a good story. And you’re right, it does smell like quality ingredients and like a very nice French cologne. How much?”
“$5.”
There were at least 3 oz left, so now I have the big liquor decanter, which remarkably hasn’t leaked/evaporated, and I decant some into a spray bottle from time to time and spray with wild abandon and ponder whether it’s really Chanel, and conclude that the story this vendor told was too weird and convoluted not to be true. And in the end, the proof’s in the pudding, and this crisp cool citrusy OG French cologne smells fabulous.
Also, I thought about going into a Chanel boutique to test it against current Eau de Cologne, but figure that with reformulation, it wouldn’t smell the same anyway so might not clear up the mystery.
So that’s my CP, a day late.
That is indeed a *very* good and fun story – and I too think it is true.
What a terrific story!!
Love this! Great experience 😊
Great story!
Love that story!
Awesome find!
SOTD this Saturday is La Douceur di Siam. This is a very pretty floral scent.
I haven’t tried that one, sounds like a lovely rose:).
Kept my fragrance light today with more Gardenia (I still have 2 bottles left from a long-ago BBW clearance splurge), but tomorrow I think I am going to go with Goldea, the amber one, not the rose one, altho I think I have that too.
Like I mentioned above, stinkin’ hot. The ones who feel it the most are our back of house guys/gals. Keeping them hydrated is important.
Stay cool eveyone and safe from Beryl!
I like the Goldea scents, you smell great. The rose one is lovely and I also like The Roman Night:).
101 degrees today. At least the water has been turned back on, even if we do have to boil it before drinking. So wonderful to be able to take a shower! SOTD is Chanel Paris-Deauville, by far my favorite of this family of scents.
I was doing laundry today in preparation for an upcoming trip through the Northwest Passage — from Greenland across to Alaska — and it is so hot here I can hardly bear to touch my insulated pants and wool sweaters, lol.
That trip sounds exciting!
Glad you were able to enjoy a shower, the trip sounds great!
Whoo hoo for having your water back! Keep thinking cool thoughts about that trip; it sounds incredible.
After a several days of citrus scents that didn’t really stand up to the heat, I went with Cartier Oud & Santal today. Many thanks to a generous NSTer for this decant, I’m loving it.
I’m so tired of the heat, it has completely obliterated any semblance of any activity/exercise routine that I had. And I simply can’t bring myself to work out in AC at home…. no thanks!
I’m ready for fall already as well. 🙂
This has been my worst exercise week of the year too.
Happy weekend!
Sotd, more like Sadness-otd is Do Son edp. I dropped my brand new 10ml travel spray on the floor and it shattered to a million pieces. I dabbed the splatter on my wrist and neck before cleaning up. I guess the only silver lining is that my room smells gorgeous…😭
So sorry that happened, your room must really smell great.
Oh no! I am sorry to hear that! Such a nice scent too:(.
Aw, what a bummer!
*moment of silence*
Happy Sunday! It was so cool and beautiful yesterday and overnight, typical July weather returns today.
I found a travel spray of Ex Nihilo Viper Green, which came from one of you. Omgoodness it’s so good, packed full of galbanum, which is perfect for a bright summer day.
Viper Green, what a cool name. I immediately thought of a green, Dodge Viper lol. Lots of galbanum you say? Sounds great:).
I’m enjoying it, love a green floral, but it disappears quickly.
Oh, no and that is so pretty.
Wearing Cruel Gardenia today in more swampy heat and humidity.
I find gardenia does pretty well in the humidity. I haven’t tried that Guerlain yet. It seems to be a powdery one, which I like. Might have to sniff it out:). Stay cool!
I like CG a lot!
I have a sample that I treasure
Hello,
Lol, it’s hot but what else is new? 118f 🫠 haha
In a better mood some today, thanks for all the good vibes! Wearing Spigo 1920 for an interesting lavender. I like the glass color for this bottle too 💜 . It is like a lemony, spiced lavender that fell into a basket of dryer sheets. But lovely and soft sheets lol.
Tea is Lavender from Buddha Teas to pair with the scent lol. All very good, if one likes lavender:).
Sunday already! Hope you all have had a good weekend!
Hugs to everyone! 🌹
I can’t even imagine trying to function when it’s 118 outside! Glad your mood has improved, I’ve been pretty crabby all day lol.
Glad to hear that you are in a better frame of mind today.
I can’t even conceive what 118F is like! Sounds hellish.
Hot here, but the usual hot, not worse. I am hoping we get some vestiges of Beryl in the form of rain and cooler temps.
I wore Clean Reserve Skin yesterday for haircut and highlights. Today I am in Solinotes Tonka for a day of housework and catching up on office stuff.
Hope everyone is staying protected from the heat.
Fingers crossed for cooler temps…we are definitely hotter than usual for June.
Nice quiet Sunday. Summer is roasting even the most heat loving folks to the edge of their tolerance. Mass exodus today, and then a mini-mass influx. And so it goes…
Wearing Shalimar Body Creme straight out of the fridge today. Wishing everyone disgruntled by the summer heat a cool refreshing breeze! I’m so happy I have A/C in my camper. I really dithered about spending the money but it has saved my bacon this summer. 🆒
Shalimar Creme from the fridge, count me in, that sounds wonderful.
Gracious yes, thank goodness you got the a/c!
Smart decision on the A/C!
Currently in Theorema today and about to go for an aimless drive.
Aimless driving, one of my favorite things!
I wore Mitsouko today. I find if I limit myself to one wear a month, my allergy is not triggered. So pretty! I defrosted my chest freezer today, something I have been thinking about doing ever since Christmas, so that’s a win for my new me—-non-procrastination program! I really am going to do a severe bottle reduction exercise one of these days. When is the next swap meet?
I should tackle the perfume cupboards,it’s wayyyyy overdue!!Plus so many plans to reorganize and store them in new categories etc!
For She-ra and Jalapeno-My Parfait d’ Orchidee arrived this morning. Since I hadn’t put any perfume on yet I decided to spray with abandon. Probably not the best idea😊 I can see it for cooler months as well. I do really like it though so will see how it settles down today. The temperature and humidity will be picking up this week. I would not choose this scent for that type of weather.
I am noticing a lingering scent. I am guessing it is the benzoin, but not sure.
Glad to hear that you like Parfait d’Orchidee, even if you gassed yourself out with it!
Did you get any boozy vanilla?
I think it will be gorgeous in winter…
Maybe it is the boozy vanilla I am smelling on the dry down. In fact, I have had it on all day and though I sprayed a lot, I can still smell it. I think it smells like Atelier Vanille Insensee tonight.
I got benzoin in the far drydown. So it sounds like maybe we were opposite twins?
Happy Monday everyone!
A sunny day that feels like July in the Midwest. I’m wearing Un Jardin Sur le Nil, one of my favorite summer perfumes.
Some of those Jardins are perfect for July!
Does anyone else just get mad when you finally test a “hyped” fragrance and it’s just meh???…
Two days of testing two perfumes ended with a double-meh.
Versace Pour Homme Dylan Blue and Bleue de Chanel.Luckily these were free samples with purchase,but I won’t revisit ever again!
Happy Monday!
I am guessing we all have simply because we have different tastes. I have heard people rave about something that I thought was meh or couldn’t stand.
Happy Monday J B!
Maybe we should do a “Meh”….Friday CP?Or have we already?I think my biggest irk nowadays is smelling one designer fragrance after the other…and another and another,but then they all end up smelling basically the same?Maybe my nose is just not as fine-tuned as I thought.Lol.Okay,rant over!🙈
The thing is that most people don’t want to wear their meh perfumes another time!
I recently tested YSL Babycat, and thought this is what people are going nuts over?
I actually like Dylan Blue. I think it’s the best of the “blue’s” that I have tried. (Not for me, but foe men.)
Haha!And I’ve been hunting down Babycat myself,would love to smell it as well!Sometimes I buy too much into the hype created!
It is very similar to Bvlgari Black. I found it sickly sweet.
Yep, I’ve experienced the Hyped Perfume Letdown. Annoying!
At least you didn’t pay for your “Meh” samples.
Wearing Embruns d’Ylang and wishing I were at the beach. 😎
We’re both enjoying ylang ylang today!
It’s a promising morning here, it’s just starting to get light and it’s a clear sky – cold, but sunshine is not far away.
I’m wearing Amouage Beloved, another favourite that I haven’t worn for a while.
Beloved is so pretty!
It’s a gorgeous Monday here, with bluebird skies and temps in the mid 80’s. Perfect summer weather. Too bad these kind of days are few and far between. It’s gonna get hot, hot, hot by Thursday. Glad I got groceries today.
Found out a couple of my friends back in NJ have COVID again. Rotten luck.
SOTD = hanging out in Smell Bent Pepper Ylang today. It seems to be one of the perfumes of Summer 2024 for me.
PS. Thinking of the NSTers in the Houston area, and hoping that everyone’s OK.