It's Fat Tuesday, plus National Grammar Day. What fragrance are you wearing?
I’m in CB I Hate Perfume Black March.
Reminder: on 3/7 we're doing the Picture challenge, edition 10: celebrate Piet Mondrian's birthday by scenting Broadway Boogie Woogie, one of his most famous works. Extra reading: Why Piet Mondrian Broke His Own Rules in a Dizzying Ode to New York at ArtNet. Extra listening: a quick audio piece at MOMA. Extra watching: for background, Piet Mondrian – 'Abstract Painting as We Know It' at Tate, Piet Mondrian: Painting and dancing at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, This Mondrian painting is actually a jazz score from MOMA via Youtube. Extra opt out opportunities: Not in the mood for any of it? Pick one of the colors and use it to choose a fragrance, or wear a fragrance that works for New York City in the early 1940s.
And for those of you who like to plan ahead, see Scent of the day ~ Friday community projects 2025, where I'll try (but usually fail) to have the next five or six weeks mapped out in advance.
Note: the Broadway Boogie-Woogie by Piet Mondrian mug is $15 at The Culturalife.
I forgot to report my tea, which is Upton Nuxalbari Estate Masala Chai Organic. I don’t like it much and am trying to use it up…
Hello.
Sotd Jo Malone Beach Blossom. Feels like JM’s take on Bronze Goddess. Pretty good but doesn’t last long, and if you already have BG you don’t need this one. 😉
I have a true scrubber horror yesterday. It’s Zoologist’s new Beaver Maple edition. Holy molely it smelled so horrific on me. Dirty, filthy, no plumbing, heavily stained public restroom. 😱😭 If anyone had a pleasant experience with Beaver, do tell and I am happy for you.
Is your skin still red from scrubbing? 🤢 Might be a good thing today’s scent is short-lived 😉.
Oh my!
Have you tried the Beaver w/o maple? (I think there is one? I’m behind on this line.) I wonder if it’s just as bad? But I appreciate the warning!
PS Though I am a Zoologist fan, when they are bad, they are truly terrible. I felt that way about, say, Seahorse, Squid, and Hyrax. Absolutely disgusting. In fact I also felt that way about Cow, which many people like and find calming. It made me feel sick to my stomach.
Thanks for letting us know. Another one I won’t have to sample.
We’re cousins today in JM! Can’t help with the Beaver, the Zoologist line doesn’t appeal to me, haven’t tried any.
Zoologist as a house doesn’t work for me. The perfumes start off painfully strong and then drop off to nothing after a couple of hours. So I ignore new releases from them.
Commando before a late shower. I just cut four or five inches off my hair, and it is still almost down to my waist. I pretty much clip it up in my head and don’t look at it all winter long, so I am surprised. Maybe I will cut off some more next time I shower. Spring is coming, time for a change, yes?
Wow, that’s amazing about your hair! I am impressed and amazed. That would drive me crazy to have so much hair. But I just don’t want the fuss, and it sounds like you have a good way around the fuss.
Brush wash clip up ignore it until time to brush wash and clip up again. But I don’t want to go to Paris looking like a grannie in some fundamentalist group or other, so I want to do something. As my sister says, it does nothing for me. My hair is not white, or a pretty silvery grey, but that darker mud colored grey with no shine to it. My hair used to be a dark ash blonde, and this grey color is quite a bit darker than what it used to be, which may be why I am not inclined to pay any attention to it. Odd. Cutting off those oldest scraggly ends sure makes it seem thicker and more floofy, tho. Still long enough to clip up and ignore.
Holy smoke, that’s a lotta hair!
I’m glad I cut the split ends off my hair back in January. It feels so much nicer now.
Lush The Olive Branch body spray. Recently, I’ve noticed I do not use it as often as other Lush sprays. Ir is a rather unusual, hard to describe citrus fragrance – warmer than most citruses, with a bit of candy-like sweetness in the opening and a soapy dry-down.
I am pretty sure I sniffed the shower gel in the store but that’s the end of my experience with Olive Branch!
Happy Mardi Gras !
I am wearing Coty L’Aimant today.
Laissez les bons temps rouler!
Thanks for reminding me I have a beautiful t-shirt with those very words, I forgot all about it!
Joyeux Mardi Gras Barqs, l’Aimant is lovely, you smell great, it’s like a friendlier No 5, at one time I acquired several different concentrations of various vintage.
Happy Mardi Gras Barqs!
Cool and cloudy this morning in LA. I’m in “La Fille de Berlin,” my favorite from Serge Lutens.
I’m not looking for a signature scent – my perfume desires are far too mercurial for that – but if I were, this would be a top candidate. Oh man, it’s soooo good. Probably the sexiest rose in my collection.
Happy Tuesday, everyone.😊
Happy Fat Tuesday Daniel, your assessment of La Fille makes me finally want to open my bottle bought in April last year, I’ve just checked the invoice, I had no lemming, I think it was because of the deal £81.90 for 100ml that I bought it on an impulse. Is it a very dark rose in your opinion?
Thanks, Aurora!
I wouldn’t say that the effect of it is particularly dark or brooding, but be prepared: it’s a rich, saturated, passionate, red rose. Initially, there’s a berry brightness to it that is absolutely mouthwatering. On my skin it eventually turns warm and slightly musky, and that sexy combo lasts for hours. It’s a knockout, (to my nose, anyway.)😊
Can’t wait to hear your impressions!
Thank you so much🙏 for your review Daniel, it sounds delightful, I don’t want my rose perfumes too dark, thus the berry aspect appeals very much and the musk too.
That is a great rose scent.
La Fille de Berlin is my favorite SL rose scent. Smelling wonderful Daniel!
Thanks, Jalapeño! Just reapplied, so I do indeed smell wonderful.😊
It’s my favorite SL, and one of my top five roses.🥀🌹
It’s fat Tuesday today and I will be eyes deep in paczi at work today when I get there. Just finished lunch and put on some no 5 edp today. Not looking forward to a nutritionist appointment tomorrow.
I, too, am in a paczki part of the world and though I have no personal ties to this holiday and I vowed I would not indulge, somehow the siren call of the local bakery down the street overwhelmed me and I was forced, entirely against my will mind you, to have a lemon one.
Enjoy!
I did : )
Celebrating Pączki Day with you!
I don’t know what a paczki is, going to Google. Enjoy them. Where I grew up we have crêpes for Mardi Gras, I often make them on this day but today was spent mostly out of the house, I’ll make some tomorrow.
Polish fried donuts with various fillings.
Thank you Laila, yum.
Celebrating Pączki Day with you!
Robin, the cups above! So perfect for the CP.
Abel’s Laundry Day. It’s brief fits my longing today on Mardi Gras: “Laundry Day was dreamed up on a dark Parisian day, when Abel’s founder tasked their master perfumer with bottling the optimism and energy of spring. The brief was to capture that first day of the season when you throw open your windows, inhale the aroma of freshly cut grass, and take joy in the ritual of hanging your sheets on the line, knowing they’ll dry crisp and fresh. Laundry Day is a metaphor for all that is possible in the change of seasons.”
Wishing all a lovely fragrant day!
Your perfume sounds pretty, I like its name, en français it would be Jour de lessive which sounds a little prosaic😉
Aurora tu as raison! Plus poétique! Aussi lessive-> LESsive comme LesLiesse avec Leslie.
Aurora, you’re right! More poetic [than Laundry Day]! Also “laundry” has a Les as in Leslie in it like [my NST name].
Never heard of Laundry Day but I love the story! I’m one of those who loves to hang laundry outside – I could write an essay on the joy it brings me. I usually start on the first nice day in April and stretch the ‘hanging’ season out til October.
That sounds so romantic and refreshing (plus excellent exercise). I live in a high-rise so my laundry dries in a cinderblock basement with fluorescent lights over the washer-dryers, which definitely would only inspire a fragrance for the old Urban Decay line. 😆
Wearing TF Lost Cherry, for my 2025 use-it-up project. Turns out I have two travel sprays of it so it gives me the go-ahead to finish one with impunity.
Spray away, AnnieA!
Trying Pour Rêver today and notes are below. It’s very nice…reminds me of Bois D’Iris. I have back to back audits tomorrow and Thursday. 😅 🤞🏻 I will be remote so will be wafting some vanilla for these too. 😇 #VanillaPowered
Top notes: candied chestnut, hazelnut, mate
Heart notes: cocoa extract, iris pallida, myrrh
Base notes: rum extract, vanilla, guaiac wood, incense
Your sotd sounds good, candied chestnut especially.
Back to back audits?!? 😵😵💫
Hello, fragrant ones, it has been a minute.
Joining Robin in Black March this gray, damp, chilly day. I smell like wet dirt in the best possible way.
You guys smell wonderful! I have a couple of drops of Black March in a sample that I like to sniff occasionally just for the wet dirt note.
I am fond of it, because wet dirt, but it is definitely not an everyday wear.
Hey twin!! Great to see 2 of us showing up in this obscure old scent.
It is a perfect match with the weather.
Old and obscure – there’s my taste in a nutshell.
I will note that it is still in production, though.
True, although I think the brand is even more under the radar then they were 10 years ago…
I love Black March! I need to get it out…maybe tomorrow.
Hiya spiderplant!
::waves::
Robin my tea is also Masala Chai-from a tea bag. Not as good as my FIL.
SOTD Encens Mythique
Had a great meeting this morning at the library giving us an overview of our genealogical holdings -very interesting show and tell.
Watching Discourse on appleTV and wishing I read the book first…so far so good on E1.
Smelling good!
Thank you! I am glad I got a FB
Ha! I have 2 other chais that I like reasonably well (Art of Tea Tali’s Chai and Numi Golden Chai) and I am sure neither of them can touch your FIL’s chai.
I don’t recognize most fragrances here so I can’t say how wonderful anyone smells usually. But i know Encens Mythique, meaning i can say wholeheartedly that you smell absolutely marvelous!
I am happy to have a full bottle…this is good! I hope they bring it back
I am thinking of getting a BUB as they are reasonably priced on Jomashop for $99.
Encens Mythique = Good Stuff!
why did they discontinue this one? 🙁
Maybe a raw material was discontinued? Or new IFRA regs affected Encens Mythique?
I am wearing Violette Volynka. I am really tired of winter, looking forward to spring and summer. I am interested to get one of the new Hermes shine lipsticks, I was wondering if any of you tried these?
Have a great scentsational week !!
That is a great scent!
12 hours sleep, yummy.
Watched the Kay Graham documentary yesterday. Based on her Pulitzer Prize winning book, which was a great read.
Listening to Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver in the car. She can weave such wonderful threads. I can’t believe I hadn’t read/listened to prior.
Travel news! We cancelled the trip to Thailand and are going to Istanbul and Cappadocia in September. My sister has never been, so it feels right for us.
SOTD post shower will be Encens Sacre from Perris. I bought a few samples from Scentsplit for the first time in almost a year.
Too bad about Thailand but yay for Istanbul and Cappadocia! I loved both places. Was disappointed that the balloon ride we had planned to go on was canceled (at about 6 a.m.) due to strong winds. That was my dream.
We love Thailand also, Calypso.
But we have gone almost every other winter for a long time.
So, this is great for both of us.
I love revisiting places when it’s the first time for my sister. It’s a blend of old and new experiences. Seeing Burma through her eyes with 30 years inbetween visits made that journey even better.
Congratulations on the sleep, apsara.
Nothing better, ringthing.
Where did you see the Kay Graham documentary? I’ve got to see it!
It’s available on Amazon Prime.
👍
Posting this fun fashion tie-in for the CP this week. So if anyone decides to wear YSL, they would be CP compliant!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondrian_Collection
https://museeyslparis.com/en/stories/la-revolution-mondrian
My tea of the day is a chai powdered mix I just got. I love it because it’s spicy and doesn’t have any weird additives (only ground tea and spices). I just add hot water/milk and whatever sweetener I like.
SOTD is Arabie. I want to give a lot of my spicy/warm scents a wear before the weather gets too warm.
Thanks for posting those links, fun to look at all those designs. I was struck by the wedding gown from the 1965 couture collection, hard to believe someone actually wore it.
Thank you for these links Tulipani, I love those shift dresses as much as the colors.
Fascinating reading tulipani! Thank you!
L’ Aimant was one of my first “grown-up” perfumes!
Windy as all get here the past couple of days. My rig is doing a little jig with all the gusts blowing through but it’s actually not as disturbing as you’d think it would be. Kind of like being in a rocking cradle or a stretched out in a hammock an a breezy day.
I’m wearing Kalemat by Arabian Oud for its Smooth Operator-ish style; a gorgeous mix of honey, spice, vanilla, and amber which brings to mind the smoky, smooth voice of Sade, who I’ve loved since forever! 🎼
Today is one of those “milestone” birthdays for me, but I’m on night four of five and not really enjoying it, so I’ll delay the “celebration” until I feel more human. It’s ironic it falls in Fat Tuesday this year! 😁
Wishing you a happy birthday, and celebrate when you’re less overworked! Will rock a berry lip in your honor 😉💄.
Happy birthday, dear Deva! I look forward to hearing how you’ll celebrate!
Joyeux anniversaire Deva💐
Happy Birthday Deva! You smell fabulous!
It is horribly windy here today and we have warnings for tonight. Also, rain/snow mix.
Happy Birthday, Deva! I hope cake is part of your celebration!
Happy birthday, Deva! Enjoy your celebration when the time comes!
Happy birthday Deva!
Happy birthday! I hope you have a wonderful celebration when you feel human again!
Happy, Happy Birthday to you!!
Happy Birthday, Deva! I think you should celebrate yourself the entire month 🥳 and wish you all good things in the year ahead!
Happy Birthday, Deva. May your celebration be fabulous!
Happy Birthday!
Happy Scented Birthday, Deva! Hope you have whatever celebration you want when you can get to it. 🎊🎁🍾🎂
Wishing you a very happy birthday! 💐🎁
I hope T-Rex made you a cake🐶🎂
Very happy belated birthday to you! I hope you can figure out a worthy celebration after your work stretch is done.
We’re eating our breakfast looking out at pouring rain – I hope that slackens off before I walk to work!
The Mondrian leaves me a bit stumped about an appropriate perfum, so thank you, Robin, for the suggestion of 1940s New York. I’m wearing Caron’s Bellodgia, which came out in 1927.
You smell great, one of my all time favorites.
That’s perfect Gaynor!
It’s raining here but I just had a facial and feel so relaxed. I’m wearing White Cube.
Smelling wonderful foxbins!
Just had an apple in lieu of smoothie. Fresh leeks and sweet potato soup on the stove.
Left for the West End early afternoon to see the hygienist for a th
cleaning, it was only six months between visits but I had some staining, my hygienist was very thorough and I developed a headache when I came home which I blame on the vibrations of the machine, drank a strong coffee and it’s already better. Before I left the postman came with my latest acquisition which I confess to Donatella here, an older 100ml bottle of No 22 EDT £104.20, it’s in pristine condition and I’m over the moon because until now I had only the extrait which felt too precious to wear on ordinary days, now I can wear No 22 more often.
Score! Great price in light of what Chanel’s charging now.
Your soup sounds delicious too–am in soup mode, even though it isn’t particularly cold, it’s rainy & dreary.
I feel like you about soup at this time of year, I am going to get fresh spinach tomorrow to make a green soup.
Yes, the price seemed right, sometime ago I had put a bid on a similar bottle which was won for £134 by someone else so I did save quite a bit in the end.
May you be basking and basking in your EDT No. 22!
Thank you Leslie🙏💚, No 22 is really one of perfumery masterpieces.
Aurora you have found gold for the price of silver! 22 is magnificent. Wear it in good health 😀
Thank you so much Lillyjo, I’ve taken my bottle to the bedroom so I can look adoringly at it😃. Wish we didn’t live so far apart so that I could send you a good size decant.
I see my dentist & hygienist every 6 months, too. Glad I don’t have to do it every 3 months like some people I know. 😬
Congrats on your latest perfume acquisition!
We’re twins on the frequency then😀. I chose to go private, in the UK you can get free dental care on the National Health Service so I have a dental insurance like you probably do. On the other hand for regular medical care I have always relied on the NHS, it has its problems but in my case I’ve received wonderful care always including hospital stay, I think it’s partly postal code luck to be honest.
Thank you, very happy with my purchase.
I reached way back in my perfume cabinet and pulled out Donna Karan Gold edp, in the beautiful hammered gold bottle. It’s also a beautiful perfume, mainly lily and amber, and another contender on the Why don’t I ever wear this? list.
It is raining big splashy buckets today, streaming down the windows and flooding basements. At least it’s not snow but I doubt if we’re done for the year.
You smell gorgeous ringthing! And yes, that bottle was gorgeous too. Shame it did not catch on, I would have smelled all the flankers…
I love Gold and will be getting it out soon. Rain here too. Thursday looks like some snow.
Yikes, I hope that your basement is not flooded! Water damage SUCKS.
I’m in Chanel No. 19 Poudre for a touch of green.
You smell really pretty, I don’t wear it enough but love it.
Thank you Aurora! I don’t wear it enough either.
Lovely SOTD!
Suave Mango and Citrus Shower Gel
Jergens Sweet Citrus Body Butter
Hermes Eau des Merveilles EdT
I guess I smell like an orange today and that’s okay with me.🍊
Staying in the house after running errands as it is windy with snow/rain in the forecast. Even some of the rural schools closed early due to the wind having an effect on the buses.
I like the sound of both your body wash and body butter, I’ll check them out. How moisturizing is the Jergens?
I already know how great the Hermes is 😊
Very moisturizing!!! It comes in a tube, so it is thicker than regular lotion. I get both the shower gel and the body butter at the local drug store or supermarket.
Great combo, you smell great! EdM I ❤️!
I want to know what the Mango and Citrus Shower gel did to become Suave 😉
🤣
The newer Suave body wash scents are nice. I just saw a strawberry one I want to try.
You are right. They certainly are nice.
Some of the rural school districts in Colorado closed down today due to nasty weather.
Blowing up a storm tonight, but we don’t seem to be getting much precipitation with it.
You’re getting what I had last night. 🌬️🌀
Also you smell merveilleuse in your layered Eau de Merveilles!
Oh, boy. You are killing me😂
Forgot to list my sotd, it was Clair de Musc, discreet enough for my hygienist appointment and tonight l’Ambre des Merveilles which I continue to get to know better, I love its gentle woody drydown.
It’s a terrific, cuddly winter perfume.
Oh yes, perfect for those remaining winter day. Like many JC Ellena it doesn’t shout but it has that wonderful aura of his perfumes, smooth woods.
Happy Fat Tuesday! And for those of you with Polish heritage like me, Happy Pączki Day! I’ve read that in Poland pączki are symbols of good luck and, thus, it is not only rude to not eat them on this day (celebrated in Poland on last week’s Fat Thursday) but is risking one’s barn to be empty and one’s fields to be eaten by mice. So it’s customary to eat as many as you can and, statistically, 2-1/2 are eaten by every Pole on this celebratory day!
Enough of the history lesson! I had a delicious one filled with poppyseed (you can get them here with all sorts of fillings) and we’ll have 2 more for dessert later. Last nite we split one filled with chocolate ganache. Yum! 😋
Blackberry is a favorite note of mine and each month I choose a different fragrance with that note, so my SOTD is JM Blackberry and Bay. Fruity yet tart and green with a cedar note, it says ‘almost but not quite Spring yet’ on a gloomy, chilly, rainy day.
Hope you eat something delicious today! 😋
The chocolate one’s are my favorite.
Had a pulled pork sandwich for lunch today, so that was my yummy thing! I bet that a bakery somewhere in northern Colorado makes paczki, though…
I have never heard of them so haven’t had one, but they certainly sound yummy.
SOTD = Puredistance White
So good 😊. I will wear a color on the Boogie-Woogie each day to cover the rest of the week.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DGy64LaRUZr/?igsh=d2MwNTdwZndjcW0w
Looking forward to the other colors.
Snoopy!!
It’s a windy and chilly Fat Tuesday here. Had some heavy rain last night that cleared the salt off the sidewalks. Dark clouds have been creeping in for the past couple hours and are glowering outside. It’s been a good day to stay indoors.
SOTD = back in Azuree. The very far drydown from yesterday was still scenting my pajama sleeves this morning, so I re-upped.
I’m getting heavy rain tonight.
I think Azuree is similar to Cabochard if I remember correctly?
Azuree is reminding me of Aromatics Elixir and/or Wrappings today. I’ve never noticed floral notes of any kind in this.
Teflon kitty just sneezed all over my flannel shirt, and it was rather gross. Had to use a couple of Kleenex to wipe off the cat snot. 🐈🤧
You’re getting a lot of weather in Colorado, Azurée is such a great perfume, you smell élégante.
March is typically a rather active time of the year for Colorado weather. Lotta things can happen here.
Thank you for the perfume compliment!
Sampling Drunk Saffron today and it’s fabulous on me. Unfortunately, I can’t purchase it because there’s no more room on the 2 shelves of a bookcase that are dedicated to perfume and to make room, I’d either have to get rid of perfume or get rid of books and both options are way too hard 🙁
You could lay a book down and put a perfume on top of it. Just sayin….
Good one Lillyjo😂
🤣🤣🤣
I suppose if I made a stack of books on top of the bookcase and then put the perfumes on top of the stacks, maybe….
My car service guy called me this morning to tell me I was overcharged 50 dollars yesterday and he was crediting my card. Woo-hoo!
We had an inspection today at work and luckily they didn’t show up until it was time for me to punch out. 2 good things in 1 day!
My sotd is Chloe Nomade Nuit D’Egypt.
Fifty dollars toward perfume?
Good thinking!
The good times are a-rolling for you today, for sure! Whoo hoo! 🎉
So happy for you Lillyjo on both counts.