It's Friday the 13th and World Softball Day. Birthdays: W. B. Yeats, Dorothy L. Sayers. Our community project for today: wear an incense fragrance, if you have one. (This is a repeat; thanks go to ringthing for the suggestion!)
What fragrance did you pick? As always, do chime in with your scent of the day even if you’re not participating in the community project.
I'm in Comme des Garçons Ouarzazate, which I included in 5 perfumes: incense fragrances for summer.
Reminder: 6/20 is Brian Wilson's birthday (and the summer solstice). Scent a Beach Boys song, or honor Brian Williams with your fragrance in any other way you see fit. (For lillyjo, who asked for another music cp.)
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: top image is Funeral Ritual in a Garden, Tomb of Minnakht, ca. 1479–1425 B.C, facsimile painted at the tomb in 1921 by Charles K. Wilkinson, via Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain. "This facsimile painting copies a section of wall painting in the tomb of Minnakht (TT 87) in western Thebes. The scene depicts a garden surrounding a building with a large pool in front of it. In the lowest register, two men stand in front of small offering tables. Each man pours a libation with one hand and holds a brazier with burning incense in the other."
I’m not a huge incense fan but I do have and am wearing Demeter Incense, which is warm and sweet and inoffensively smoky.
Out of curiosity I went to the Demeter website and learned two things: it’s no longer in production, and a 15-mL mini splash now costs a (to me) shocking $15 U.S. When I first discovered Demeter they sold 10-mL minis for $3, and I would order like a dozen at a time: then those were phased out in favour of the current 15-mL bottles for $5. Fifteen bucks ($20.50 CAD) seems like a lot!
They have gone up.
But still arguably the best fragrances you can buy for 15 ml / $15??
Or somebody tell me something better, I am maybe forgetting something.
You’re not wrong, of course, but I always thought of them as something you could unthinkingly buy a handful of, and if you didn’t like some of them, no harm done, but that isn’t true any more: a dozen would cost me $250, which is real money. Demeter is an extremely good deal. no doubt about it: I did buy that one-ounce bottle of Jasmine recently for about $40 CAD and it was totally worth it, but I wouldn’t have bought a whole bunch of the minis, which might be for the better.
All of that is true, but still think of them as one of the last bargains in fragrance.
I wish they still had displays in drugstores the way they used to, I’d probably buy a few minis if I didn’t have to have them shipped.
Hello and tgif!
My incense sotd to ward off Friday 13th bad juju is V&R Good Fortune Elixir Intense.
I was planning to wear Seville a l’Aube but then I couldn’t bear using it because it’s now become too precious. Silly, I know, to hog something that will turn but alas.
With luck you can try it during different weather/a different season and it will behave itself again.
I’m meeting the CP challange in Timbuktu, imho one of the best incense fragrances for spring and summer.
Challenge!
It is so beautiful, PriscillaE. I still have about 1/5 of the bottle.
I didn’t think of Timbuktu for this CP, it’s such a good one!
Timbuktu is an excellent choice!
I am wearing Comme des Garcons Zargorsk for the CP. Very appropriate for this not so hot, but still humid day.
Happy Friday! 🌻
Hi twin! Couldn’t find Kyoto but found Zagorsk.
We smell great, twin! I almost reached for Kyoto, but changed my mind at the last second.
I’ve heard that you might have a stormy weekend?
We have a forecast of light rain for tomorrow and a cloudy day on Sunday with temperatures in the mid 60s until Wednesday. Then temps will be back to the upper 80s. Summer is waving hello! 🔥🔥🔥
Not really a great summer incense, but then, it’s chilly and overcast here this morning, anyway: I’m in CdG Avignon, which was the first of my two CdG bottles I picked up this morning.
Yay for Friday! Have a great weekend, everyone.
If the weather calls for it, why not.
Avignon is my favorite of the CdG incense scents. You smell heavenly. 😇
Enjoy your weekend, ockeghem!
Happy Friday and my day off at last. For the CP, I chose Bond 9 Andy Warhol Silver Factory, a fun, fizzy incense. I could easily do another week of incense. Loving next week’s CP too, I will have to listen to the Beach Boys and see what I can come up with. Enjoy the day everyone.
ringthing, I could go on for a long time on incense also.
On that note, no pun intended, I will join you in Silver Factory.
We smell wonderful!
You guys really do!
It’s a cool and grey day over here, if no rain yet, and I’m wearing a spritz of Encens Mythique.
I wore that yesterday. Love it so I know you smell beautiful!
Twins today!
Couldn’t find my bottle of Kyoto and wasn’t feeling Avignon today so it is Zagorsk today.
Still on topic 🙂
Perfume logic is the best kind of logic. 🧐
Early SOTM is Ancient Resins body oil. Post-shower I’ll probably go with Kyoto for its calming vibe. Not sure why but I feel a bit agitated today — maybe some heavy-duty house cleaning will help? 🙄
Yuck but yes, play some loud music and just get into it. It’s a healthy way to work off some agitation. Wear loud perfume, too 😉
Good luck get rid of the agitation SheriG!
**whispers** I too like to clean house when I need to take the edge off an anxious day. Tidying the perfume cupboard helps me a lot. 😆 Hope you are feeling better!
Hope you are feeling better now, SheriG. I’ve pulled out the vacuum a few times as a way to get rid of that “twitchy” feeling.
Thanks all! Good to know I’m not alone, and I do feel much better now. 💕💖
It’s a chilly overcast day here, and my SOTD is Hermes Sur Le Nil-soap, fragrance, and the dry oil. I remember this from about 20 years ago-I had a sample and couldn’t imagine how rich I’d have to be to own the scent. I’m not rich but I do own the scent lol. I really like it, and the body oil is great, in case that information is of interest to anyone.
That’s so funny! When I get richer I will get another bottle of the body milk, which I love for summer.
My extravagant lemming is a 200 ml bottle of Chanel Eau de Cologne. 🍋💛
I hesitate to even look at the price. That whole series was so comparatively reasonable when it launched…
All the Hermes soaps and lotions I’ve lucked into trying have been beautifully true to the scent in a bottle. 💖
Shower gel for the day is Lush Rose Jam.
Lotion for the day is Weleda Pampering Wild Rose Body Lotion.
Incense for the day is FM POAL. It is too warm for it today, but I didn’t care. I wore it anyway. It really is beautiful!
That’s a great-sounding combination, Kris.
It really is a good combination.
That’s some rich layering! 😍
👍
I loved Weleda Wild Rose body oil. I bet the lotion is just as good. And great layering.
Oh, nice. I believe Kanuka told me about the lotion. I was not familiar with the brand, but I really do like it.
POAL is beyond beautiful. I pulled out my sample to wear this evening. Thank you for the inspiration. 😍
Hope you have a nice evening planned.
Everything came up roses for you today. 😉🌹🌹🌹🌹
Of course!
You’ve definitely got a rose thang going, Kris. You smell marvelous.
We’ve had cool weather this week, so I’ve been able to enjoy some incense perfumes I don’t normally wear in summer.
My SOTD is Tom Ford Shanghai Lily — definitely not a summer scent, with its spices, white flowers, and incense.
I plan to change into Goutal Encens Flamboyant later.
Glannys, the EF was my second choice for today. I do love the fragrance but I find it doesn’t suit my skin. I like your description of SL:)
We will be scent twins later on, I am wearing Encens flamboyant right now.
Shanghai Lily is lovely, I haven’t tried a lot of TF’s, but I really liked that one.
Shanghai Lily is such a beautiful fragrance, Glannys.
Tom Ford has discontinued some wonderful things. 🥲
Well, not just Tom Ford, to be fair. But Shanghai Lily is wonderful – such a beautiful smoky spicy floral. It’s not an everyday scent for me, but when I wear it, I enjoy it a lot.
True. But itlooks like there has been a lot of product churn at TF in recent years.
Whoops. Missed a space up there.
Spices, white flowers, & incense. YOu smell lovely, Glannys. Those notes make me think of Donna Karan Gold, so that’s my SOTD to comply with the incense. I love all incense fragrances.
And even cloves in both SL and Gold.
If it hadn’t been so hot today, I might have worn Bois d’encens, but instead I am wearing Goutal Encens flamboyant.
Twins.
Triplets (just sprayed it!)
Quadruplets!
I looked up the NST best incense for winter and saw Black Cashmere included and I have a small decant given to me by Waterdragon some years ago so I’m wearing that at the moment. Later, I’m going to test some samples Gaynor gave me. Yesterday, in the graveyard I saw a daffodil about to open. Very early given we haven’t reached the shortest day yet.
I was thinking about Waterdragon the other day. I hope she’s doing well.
I’m afraid I’ve lost touch with her since her retirement five years ago.
I also was thinking of Waterdragon recently and hope that she’s doing well. I just loved reading her entertaining posts.
A daffodil! That does seem terribly early.
I have a lot of incense fragrances, I like the note a lot. Today it’s church incense in the form of La Liturgie des Heures. It was neck and neck with Messe de Minuit but Jovoy was easier to grab.
I love those perfume names, perfectly evocative.
There are too many good incense, I had a tough time choosing and could easily do another week. Ultimately went with Encens Mythique.
Has anyone tried both Lutens l’Eau froide and Dans le bleu qui petille? All the talk about l’Eau froide yesterday has got me very curious, but I already have Dans le bleu which sounds like it might be very similar.
Hope someone will chime in, I never tried any of the Matin Lutens.
I’m in a few sprays of Kyoto today. It’s from a sample given by a lovely NST’er.
I love incense perfumes, it’s possibly my favourite category of perfumes in general, so it’s hard to pick just one, but as it is a crazy hot day today in DC area, I would have picked one of my summer staples, Providence Perfume Co Tangerine Thyme, or the original version of L’Artisan Eau de Jatamansi, both sadly discontinued though well represented in my collection with extra bottles, but as it happens, I found a bottle of Strange Invisible Perfumes Aquarius, from their Zodiac collection, on my desk, and that’s what I’m wearing right now. It’s a beautiful incense centric blend of herbal notes, lavender, rosemary and sage, plus neroli and frankincense base. I took it with me on a recent work trip, since it is such a nice travel friendly size, and I loved wearing in it hot weather, so it looks like it could become another summer scent staple for me. And it’s still in production!
Sorry, it was supposed to be a standalone post but somehow it ended as a reply!
No need to apologize. Your sotd sounds amazing; perfect for a hot day!
Aquarius sounds divine!
When I walk in my neighborhood I like to run my hands across rosemary, lavender, and sage bushes growing along the sidewalks. 💜
Based on your description of Aquarius, I had to check out the Perfumes of the Zodiac at Strange Invisible Perfumes.
I am an Aquarius but I did end up several of these Zodiac perfumes and they are all very nicely done. My husband likes his Gemini scent. I think these make great birthday gifts, and they are reasonably priced by SIP or any other standards, they are $90 and the mini bottles are very portable.
[CALYPSO, hope you will see this, you accidentally put this under the 5 perfumes article, and I have copied it here and will delete it there, hope that is ok]
Calypso says:
13 June 2025 at 1:44 pm (Edit)
I was going to wear Indigo Smoke but then I read Robin’s linked post about incense perfumes for summer and went with Passage d’Enfer. My bottle is quite old, with the red label and old kind of cap, and smells fine. I would classify it along with SL L’Orpheline as a “clean” or light incense scent. To be honest I enjoy the heavier, more syrupy ones, but it’s true they’re not so great in warm and humid weather. Which we have, with thunderstorms continuing.
Sick kitty is at the vet for tests and diagnoses. She is the absolute worst cat at being put in a carrier that I’ve ever had. I needed to have a male friend help me and he wore leather gloves and had to throw a blanket over her to get enough hold on her to shove her into a carrier. And did I mention that she is HUGE and HEAVY, definitely part Maine Coon. You would definitely think she’s a feral cat from her behavior this morning, though otherwise she is tame, playful, and sweet. She is having some rather gross physical symptoms that I won’t mention, so I hope she’ll get a quick diagnosis of something relatively easy to treat.
poor sick kitty, I hope she is better quickly.
Aw, poor kitteh. Hope the vet gets some answers for you quickly.
Sending get-well vibes to your sick kitty from my three 😽😽😽. Thought you might enjoy the Zits comic strip beginning June 9, but be sure to read ahead what happens through June 12. 😹😹😹
https://www.usatoday.com/comics/?content_id=zts01&pubdate=20250609&feat_name=zits
LOL, those were hilarious, and so true! I laughed and chortled!
I had to check that link out as well. ZOMG, those were funny! Especially since Teflon used to act like that.
Gosh, Robin, how did I manage to do that? Thanks for catching my error and fixing it.
Sick kitty is back from the vet after several treatments, with two medications and special G-I food which it appears she loves. Nothing major seems to be wrong, which is a big relief. Thanks everyone for the well wishes. Apparently she was an angel at the vet’s office, ha ha!
Laila, I’m about to check out your links.
Wonderful news! Hopefully, the medications and change of diet help.
Good news about your sweet kitty! Glad she loves the special food, since it can be expen$ive.
No worries, and so glad kitty is better!
Maine Coons!!! Those cats are magical. I hope you get some clarity on your kitty soon.
My 2 sisters are Maine Coons. They know how special they are. 😻😻
Good news about sick kitty. Glad you enjoyed the Zits comics. How timely they were!
FREEBIE ALERT
For NST regulars – CONUS.
30 ml Jo Malone Intense Dark Amber & Ginger Lily. A few sprays used.
I have a larger bottle of this one.
Call dibs here, please.
Dibs please. Thank you.
Pl67 it’s yours!
Email me at
Vivienne dawt elliott1 in the land of outlook dawt com.
Two nectarines. I chose Coudray Iris Rose this morning, a very elegant blend but the packaging and bottle and sprayer of this brand is absolutely dismal, I’m all for pouring more money in the perfume itself but still those elements should still be adequate. Tonight for the CP is Encens Flamboyant which smells exactly like a church in Provence.
I want to smell like a church in Provence!
😀
Encens Flamboyant smells like a church in Provence? Wow! 😍
Definitely 😀 and that’s why I adore it.
I like all those Coudrays. Good stuff! Pretty bottles!
Agree the perfumes are all lovely, but out of 3 sprayers only one works properly hence my criticism.
sotd = White Shoulders 💮🤍
more like big white flowers in a teeny tiny bottle!
The vintage mini was still sealed, but about 10% had evaporated, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s still good, an everything but the kitchen sink perfume, full of well blended florals. I hope the dry down is good.
For comparison I’ve got fresh flowers on my kitchen counter- gardenia, plumeria, carnation, and jasmine. White Shoulders blends in perfectly. Reminds me of Ysatis and beloved Oscar by Oscar de la Renta. 😍
Happy Lucky Fri-yay the 13th, perfume people! You smell marvelous.
God do I ever love a kitchen-sink fragrance. They really don’t seem to make those any more: everything is simplified and stripped down. When I open a vintage bottle and get about a hundred things going on at the same time, I’m in heaven. I bet you smell fantastic!
Glad to hear that your mini still smells great! How’s the drydown, or have you not reached it yet?
The dry down was woody and resinous with a bit of amber I think. I need to test again and wear a bigger dose of White Shoulders to get a better sniff.
I’m wearing Bois d’Encens, a lovely incense that I think works in any circumstances.
allo – if you see this, I was catching up on NST from earlier this week and saw you’d been in Burford. Small world – I visited there in April! We were staying with distant cousins of my sister-in-law’s late husband a few miles from Oxford, and they took us to lunch in Burford.
A majestic incense!
SOTD = Chris Rusak Io
Incense! And on CP!
https://www.instagram.com/p/DK2mYUgR9oc/?igsh=OXpmc3pxeXF0bTAy
In other news, something from the Wall Street Journal this time around: how to understand your employees’ mindset. Not dilute if everyone can read it:
https://www.wsj.com/business/c-suite/employee-retention-satisfaction-8e04ffb8?st=emYVQn&reflink=article_copyURL_share
Song of the Day: https://youtu.be/oLS57N4kUN0?list=RDoLS57N4kUN0
I stole this idea from the radio station I usually listen to, LOL. It’s a good choice for Friday the 13th.
It’s not every day I discover I have slept thru an earthquake. Small one of magnitude 2.9. No aftershocks. My brother didn’t notice anything either.
SOTD = repeating in AG Encens Flamboyant and Korres Mastic body butter. I have scent twins today!
Excellent musical choice! 🎶 That intro is so much fun.
I’ve slept through most earthquakes and even miss a lot of the daytime ones too.
It’s an awesome song! I wanted to share it today.
I’ve been in a few bigger earthquakes that freaked me out. Not a fan of those.
Wow, glad you and your bro are ok. Probably best you slept through it, might be pretty scary if you were awake and anticipating it!
It’s kind of funny, actually. I was awake for a bigger earthquake last summer in Utah, and was more surprised than anything.
Did you see my note yesterday about Lesliesse?
Yes, I sure did. Thanks for the update.
Twins😀, glad you blissfully slept through the earthquake, I experienced only one in NYC in the eighties and thought it was thunder.
Today’s quake brings my tally up to 7. The first 2 happened when I was a baby, so I have no memory of those.
I love incense as a fragrance note in scent but it’s not one I’d ever wear in summer, mine are all cold-weather fragrances, so this took some searching. But I found one I thought would work on a lighter scale than the others, from a mini GWP I’ve had a long time but never worn.
SOTD for this week’s cp is YR So Elixir edp. It opens on a bergamot note with a floral heart of jasmine and rose and a base of patchouli, incense and tonka bean, and I’d say it’s a good one to wear in warmer weather.
Although as it turns out it’s a cool, rainy 57 degrees where I’m at today, spending the weekend in WI. We’re headed to Chippewa Falls tomorrow for the annual Leinenkugel summer kick-off fest. Started more than 20 years ago, we went to the first one and many more since. We love Leinie’s and beautiful Chippewa Falls❤️!
Happy weekend to all 🍻!
How funny–I have a close friend here who is from Chippewa Falls!
Super late! I do not care for Friday the 13th.
I wore Cinnabar for the cp today.
I felt pretty opulent.
Have both Cinnabar and the OG Opium. They were quite affordable when I picked them up.
Oooooops. That should have been for lillyjo!