Happy Almost-Friday, and happy National Wildlife Day. Birthdays: Mary Renault, Richard Wright, Beyoncé. Update: RIP Giorgio Armani. What fragrance are you wearing?
Freddie Mercury reportedly fell in love with Japan on Queen's first tour there, in 1975, and became a lifelong collector of Japanese woodblocks, ceramics and other items. In honor of his kimono collection, which included at least 50 kimonos (only a few of which he wore on stage), I'm in Diptyque Oyedo.
Reminder: 9/5 is Freddie Mercury’s birthday. Scent a Queen song, or honor Freddie Mercury with your fragrance in any other way you see fit.
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 shows a kimono Mercury wore on stage in 1976. See: Kimono worn by Freddie Mercury on stage sells for staggering £57,000 at auction at the UK's Daily Mail. More reading: The Japanese gown uniting Freddie Mercury, the Jedi and Bjork at BBC; The Queen of Kimonos at Cabana.
Hello.
Sotd is Guerlain Oud Essentiel. Typical oud-rose and some suede, still pretty though.
Bringing my doggo to the vet for her monthly injection. I always give her extra treats when we get home because poor thing gets stressed out seeing the doctor. The front desk informed me it’ll be a new doctor today so fingers crossed!
Good luck!
Thank you!
Hope that your dog’s vet appointment went as well as possible with the new vet.
The new vet was a nice young gentleman. He was very patient and calm so she wasn’t the slightest bit stressed! Such a relief.
Today I’m scenting “Don’t Stop Me Now”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHi9mKq0slA
I only discovered it a few days ago, but it’s already made its way into my Top 5 Queen songs. It’s one of the happiest and most energetic songs I’ve ever heard!
To match the mood, I layered Maria Candida Gentile Hanbury with Profumum Roma Acqua Viva.
That is one of the 4 Queen songs I actually keep on a playlist…it’s a really good driving song. I am sure you smell great … Hanbury is so lovely and I assume the other brightened it up 🙂
What are the other three, if you don’t mind sharing?
And how many speeding tickets did you get listening to this song driving? 🤣🚀
Bohemian Rhapsody, We are the Champions (which I often skip, sometimes I like it and sometimes it annoys me), and my favorite Queen song and the one I will scent tomorrow, Somebody to Love.
Two later Queen songs that I do like and not sure why I don’t have them on this list are Crazy Little Thing Called Love (great video with Mercury doing Elvis) and You’re My Best Friend.
There are a lot of VERY popular Queen songs that I just don’t like…Killer Queen, We Will Rock You, Another One Bites the Dust, etc, and then there are tons that I just don’t know. I never owned a single Queen album back in the day.
ps I have only had one speeding ticket that I can remember and I had no music on and was doing about 35 in a 25, what a dumb ticket I wasn’t even having fun!!
But I am old and quite possibly have forgotten older speeding tickets 🙂
Wearing Kiehl’s Musk Blend today. I could find a way to make this fit into a Freddie Mercury theme if I tried hard enough. If Freddie Mercury loved Japanese fan, I can do Kyoto. Listening to Queen II today. I think that Queen II is Queen’s best album and either A Day at the Races or A Night at the Opera is a close 2nd.
Borrow from ringthing below, you are nearly twins!
Hi NST 👋
Today I am wearing Kiehls original musk. It’s the closest thing I have to the original Cabot musk oil from the 70s, which is what I was wearing when I first heard “Keep Yourself Alive” with my high school boyfriend. That song cemented a love for Queen that lasted forever although I admit, I do prefer their earlier music. Sheer Heart Attack, turned up really loud, is a great housecleaning motivator.
I do think that Queen’s early stuff is much better. When they started adding synthesizers, something got lost.
Cabot musk oil! Wow! I once had a couple of small Cabot oils and I had to look them up. American brand IIRC, small company, prolly long out of business. I’ve never heard anyone mention them before.
I’m in Agar Ébène today, for no reason other than that I love it. My favorite Queen recordings are Fat Bottomed Girls, Bicycle, and Under Pressure, and I’m at a complete loss as to scenting any of them. However, I believe I have a very, very good fit for the CP which I’m saving for tomorrow. Stay tuned!
I had thought of matching Fat Bottom Girls to a big based bottle. I thought of a different song to do tomorrow though.
Oh, that’s brilliant, and I have just the bottle for it — thanks for the idea!
Fat Bottomed Girls was so much fun to sing along to on the radio back in the day!
Still is! I love the heavy bass line especially.
Wearing Armani Prive Iris Celadon in honor of Giorgio Armani.
Coffee and more coffee and a slice of peach lavender pie.
Happy Thursday! ☕️
you smell great!
Thank you, Apsara!
You have the fanciest sounding treats!
It is so simple. I made the pie with the peaches and lavender we picked up at the farms. It is very tasty!
Peace lavender pie? We are all coming over immediately! Wow. I wouldn’t mind a fragrance with those notes.
You are welcome to come!
A scent with peach and lavender notes would be very interesting!
Thank you perfumelover67. And I meant peach of course, not peace, but let’s throw peace into the mix too! Peace pie.
😊
But was your coffee triple-strength coffee?
Lol! It was regular strength!. Triple strength reminds me of Bear. Hape he is doing well!
I learned a lot from those articles you gave links for, Robin–Thanks! What a stunning collection of kimono he had, and he really looked fantastic in the one shown at the top of the Cabana article you mentioned. Something I find interesting is that he (and others mentioned in the articles) were preceded (I think) by David Bowie who also had a specially designed cape-kimono and loved Japanese design. Bowie must have been an influence in other ways too through his uses of makeup and gender-bending performances.
I am glad too to be reminded of some Queen songs–maybe will try to choose one to help me find a scent for the CP tomorrow. But today I’m wearing my brand-new purchase from my visit to Le Labo yesterday–ta-da–Poivre 23, London, from the City Collection! I’ve lusted after this one for several years now and finally went for it–just the small bottle. The Osthmanus is very good too–I bought one of their (ridiculously priced) samples of it. The SA told me that Gaiac is doing well–it’s quite interesting too and one I had never paid attention to.
Congratulations on your new perfume!
Enjoy your new bottle!
Whoo hoo, new perfume!
I learned a lot too. And it tickles me that he had a Hiroshige in his dining room…a lovely one, on a bright yellow wall.
Have never been a big Queen fan, but Japan for sure.
Am a wearer of kimonos and yukatas at home.
A few sprays of vintage Mitsouko.
Vintage Mitsouko is the best!
thank you! it’s quite lovely.
VC & A Bois d’Iris today.
An autumnal iris for you today?
Yes
Mammogram today, something I dread as I am super uncomfortable – you think with all the people we send to space we would have a better invention for this test…end rant.
SOTD Ormonde Jayne Royal Elixir to match the song Killer Queen!
See what I did there? lol
I see what you did there!
Good luck with the test!
I already had the test, glad it’s over !
Yay.
re L’Essence—here’s Jennifer from allfeisty’s take. She’s not a pro like Victoria from BdJ, but she’s a longtime fan of the perfume:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10zm2RJuOX0
Apparently Guerlain is going to release it again in special holiday packaging; she doesn’t yet know if it’s going to be uber-expensive
or geared to us mere mortals.
Thanks for the link!
Ditto
Hope you remembered to take some Advil before your mammogram today!
I’m wearing SL Bois de Vanille layered over Shalimar, just for fun.
How is the combination?
It’s great! A 3:1 ratio…mostly Shalimar with a dash of BdV
Yardley Iris layered over BBW Magic in the Air.
I don’t think any of the resident BBW enthusiasts have mentioned Magic in the Air before. What’s it like?
I just read about Giorgio Armani’s death, so I’m wearing Myrrhe Impériale.
It’s not in any way a shy perfume, it also fits with my view of Freddie Mercury.
I had already put on my perfume before I heard. Don’t have a lot of Armani though. He was 91, a good life!
I’m wearing Perlier Imperial Honey, because I’m a sucker for honey notes. It’s really nice, like sweet rich amber honey, and has lasted all morning, and it’s also cheap as chips. As to my Queen CP connection, well, queens are imperial, so I’m compliant.
Sounds wonderful. I love honey notes as well so will hunt this down.
A queen bee! I don’t know that fragrance but I bet you are positively buzzingly fabulous smelling.
I grabbed SL Fourreau Noir today and am thoroughly enjoying it.
So glad!
I’m wearing Samsara edt today.
I’m being super lazy today.
I’m going to meet my new manager tomorrow and am feeling a little nervous. 🤞he’s nice and doesn’t have a perfume allergy. Lol.
You smell wonderful!
I will cross my fingers for you too lillyjo!
Hope it all goes well for you!
Just a quick post to let you know we reached our KY destination safely. Luckily, yesterday morning the rainy, stormy weather was behind us when we left IL, then it was overhead during the night while we slept in IN but cleared out before we left. The rain and storms moved on to KY in the morning but cleared out before we arrived to warm temps and bright 🌞. My SOTD, appropriately enough, is Dame Perfumery Monsoon 🌧️.
Happy National Wildlife Day 🦁🦭🐯🐘
Glad you made it safely!
Always nice to know you’ve reached safe harbor. Take care, Laila!
Glad to hear the weather cooperated with your comings and goings!
How long are you in KY Laila?
Wore Encre Noir yesterday and Cuir de Lancôme yesterday—I’m really enjoying my shoulder season scents. We’re getting ready to head north to the cabin for the final visit of the season and close up for the winter. We seem to take ( and bring back) so much stuff you’d think we were embarking on a polar expedition, so my perfuming will be limited to a very few samples and small decants, some of which I hope to use up. That’s if I wear any of them; yellowjacket season is upon us and I really don’t want to attract their attention. At least we’ll have a functional propane fridge this trip (our first trip up the old one lit just fine but wouldn’t cool a single degree) and I won’t be making daily boat trips to the marina to buy ice blocks!
Cuir de Lancôme was today. Duh.
Oh, enjoy your last visit of the year!
Late today! Teflon kitty’s other medication arrived at the vet, so I went and picked it up this afternoon. I also did a grocery run and my second workout at the clubhouse gym. Then my brother came over to pick up his new computer that I had delivered to my apartment for safekeeping while he was on hitch.
SOTD = my only Armani perfume, Armani Code Pour Femme, to say goodbye to Giorgio Armani.
Glad the clubhouse gym is working for you! That’s very convenient. If my gym was any farther than it is, I would go less, for sure.
The only downsides of the clubhouse gym are a) it’s small, and b) sometimes people can rent the entire clubhouse for events, and thus the gym is not available. But it’s a start!
Gotcha! I have a great YMCA less than 10 minutes from my house, luckily — nice gym, nice pool & sauna, great yoga program, reasonable monthly rate.
But getting started is 75% of the battle!
Oh, I have not seen Armani Code for years! I bet you smell fantastic!
Thank you Kris! It was a bit much for the warm weather today, but I know it will shine in cooler weather.