Happy Almost-Friday and happy Mole Day! Birthdays: Johnny Carson, Pelé, Anita Roddick. What fragrance are you wearing?
I'm wearing Hermès L'Ambre des Merveilles. I suspect I'm not the only one who doesn't want anyone around me to think anything about my fragrance, and in fact I wear fragrance so lightly that usually nobody around me even notices. I do also suspect we're a small group, though, and also, no points for me today!
Reminder: on 10/24, wear any fragrance you like and tell us what you’d like people to think of you when they smell it on you, OR, wear a fragrance and connect it with a fellow reader who “enabled” you to get it or who you know likes it/has mentioned wearing it. Both of these projects were suggested by allo.
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 from the Hermès campaign for Spring/Summer 2025.
In honor of Anita Roddick, I am wearing The Body Shop’s Madagascar Vanilla Flower Perfume Oil in one of those rounded little clear 15 ml or 30 ml bottles with the plastic dauber caps. For me and for millions of mall rats everywhere, Dame Anita helped introduce us to quality fragrance products at affordable prices. I’ve owned many of TBS perfume oils over the years and they are long extinct but continue to have a dedicated and passionate cult audience and are so cute and collectible. My sister loves TBS products too so I often hunt for them for her at flea markets and thrift shops.
And in a rare instance of hitting two marks with one bottle, I have been enabled in my Madagascar vanilla love by our very own Hera, who swapped me the bottle.
How lovley!
TBS is such a key part of my scented bath and body memory as a child too!
Their Smoky Poppy that I bought a decade ago was decent — very affordable version of Opium, I think. A recent post by Luca Turin also made me think of the Body Shop mix and match set I carried in my gym bag 25 years ago — the idea was to mix scents from various families. I used it (obviously, I guess) after the gym.
I am wearing Sacred Scarab today, enabler pin goes to hajusuuri again. It smells so good, I guess I just want people to think I’m cool and edgy when I wear it (really pulling that off in my jeans and hoodie!)
You smell wonderful! Another “pin” for me!
Day 4 of Musk Week, and I’m in Musc Ravageur, from Frederic Malle. Not just a favorite musk perfume, but one of my most worn perfumes PERIOD.
When I first smelled it years ago, I thought I could never wear it – it was way too bold, and I couldn’t imagine calling so much attention to myself. Now I spray it liberally. Go figure.
Happy Thursday, everyone!
I love reading about your Musk week, Daniel. I’d love to smell this on anyone else. Wish people would wear nice fragrances around here but that’s never going to happen. You smell great!
Carole, I’d LOVE to smell Musc Ravageur on someone else! Never have. In fact, despite the attention that perfume is getting these days – a hot topic/popular with young people, etc. – I rarely smell perfume on others.
Here in Los Angeles, I occasionally catch a whiff of a crass, faux citrus cologne at the gym, but for the most part my social world is pretty much fragrance-free. I suspect most people are wary of bringing too much attention to themselves via perfume. (Depending on the perfume, that may not be a bad thing.) Of course, I’m not frequenting nightclubs or bars where all the young folks are hanging out – maybe it’s a different story there.
Daniel, I love your musk week and your detailed and interesting descriptions of these vintage scents. You are very organized in your perfume choices and I think that setting aside a week to do a deep dive into a particular note is a profound and thoughtful way to experience the fragrances and note the differences and similarities of each one. and to ponder these delightful vintage musks that are no longer available due to allergy restrictions and other issues. It also makes me realize what great choices were available back then to most people for very little money.
Oh, thank you, Denise! Tomorrow’s musk has a direct connection to YOU, so you can probably guess what it is.😊
In Zara Romance D’Iris. Enabler points to Kris. I recently purchased a full bottle and today I lavishly sprayed on it for the first time. A very nice, lovely, office friendly iris perfume. It doesn’t last too long on my skin, but since it is a big bottle I can spray as many times as I want, if I am at home.
Happy almost Friday! 🌞
Yippee and you are one of my enablers today. I have been wondering what you thought of Romance D’Iris so I am glad you wore it today.
I really like it! It is one of those no brainer iris perfumes that I need many times.
It actually reminds me of Chanel Comete but for the fraction of the price.
I agree. It is very similar to Comete.
Romance d’Iris also has that cool magnetic cap on the bottle.
As does Leather Jardin.
I love those magnetic caps.
Vintage haul day 3: Jil Sander No. 4. I can’t place the year of this bottle precisely: it isn’t from 1990 but no later than the early 2000s because the construction is still very complex and nothing important seems to be missing (2010s and ’20s reformulations were of course detrimental). Anybody who remembers Estée Lauder Spellbound or, less likely, Alfred Sung Encore from the 1990-91 — all three came out within a year of one another, so there was clearly something in the air — can guess what this smells like: massive tuberose hung with all sort of ornaments like a Christmas tree, in this case spices, ylang, then amber and sandalwood. Little bit of oakmoss, not enough to make it a chypre, but it’s so gorgeous that I can forgive it that.
I fell in love with No. 4 after an NST swap. I’m not sure if it’s an older bottle but I certainly found out what I’d been missing all these years.
I miss that vintage version. I went through a bottle of it, back in the day (and it would have been the 1990 version). I have a recent bottle; it is still nice, but not quite what the original was.
Robin, I love your SOTD and the photo you chose for today’s SOTD. I loved the ads for Galop, and for Kelly Caleche, too.
I’m in Cologne Indelible, thanks to an 80 percent off sale at CCO. Might have been even more discounted-if you buy two items there’s additional savings. I understood the pricing when it was FM at the helm of a private company-it made sense they’d pay more for their ingredients since they were a small company. When EL bought them out and the prices went up a lot more I was less than impressed. These are some of the fragrances I want to wear every day and I just couldn’t at those prices (plus we paid 15 % more in tax). I wonder if they overshot the mark on the pricing-almost the whole line was available at really reduced rates this summer.
Hermes does better fashion campaigns than many other brands. As well they might, ha.
I’m afraid fragrances in general are just getting way more expensive. I suspect it is going to get worse.
This morning I’m re-sampling Regime des Fleurs Falling Trees. I associate the Regime des Fleurs Line with Vee, who included a vial of Little Flower in a gigantic swap we did back in 2021 when I was on the hunt for a rose scent that wasn’t too much rose (if you get what I mean), so I’m claiming a point. Falling Trees is fantastic — it’s not an evergreen forest scent, but evokes more of a dry autumn deciduous forest, with petrichor rather than the amber-y note in Dryad. Deserves further investigation.
Meanwhile, I saw allo and carole’s late-night suggestions related to my current obsession (damp, mossy, pine/cedar evergreen forest) too late to respond there. Fille en Aiguilles is too sweet on me, allo — sadly, the SL dried fruits note comes through on me as candied rather than resinous. But I’ll have to try Bois d’Hadrien as carole suggested — I love several of the Goutal edts, especially Eau d’Hadrien, and have been meaning to check out the bois version anyway. Thank you both for chiming in!
Your forest fragrance hunt sounds fun and I imagine also occasionally frustrating, especially when you smell something that’s almost right but not quite. It reminds me of trying to find the perfect lipstick color, the one that fits perfectly with one’s coloring and makes the face light up.
Yes, exactly! I found such a lipstick only once — Party Alice by Bobbi Brown. It was d/c’d before I knew it. Since the pandemic I’ve mostly given up lipstick, although Merit Beauty has a couple of shades that work for me.
I’m sorry about your bobble brown lipstick😞 and thank you for the Merit Beauty idea😊
SheriG, I find Bois d’Hadrien pretty perfect. I love the entire Goutal line, so I am biased. Bois has a certain spiciness, the same way a tree smells slightly spicy. I wore it this week and loved it. It did remind me of the SL scent, but it does not have that sweetness. The citrus is lime and it’s not overwhelming. I think I smell a trace of incense, too. It last a long time on me and isn’t overpowering. I think it’s really beautiful, and I think fragrance net has some left-not affiliated, just enabling 🙂 I wish I could send you a sample-you’re not in Canada, are you?
Not in Canada, although lately I wish I were on a nearly daily basis. Not far from BC, though — Oregon. I’m alternately talking myself into and out of a blind buy of it. 😆
The talking-into just won. 😂
Did you get a bottle? I hope you enjoy it!
I have tried NE in EDT and EDP. I far prefer the EDT. Much fresher, and has a pine note. If you look at Undina’s perfume blog she did a blind test of NE and the SL scent Fille en Augilles. Might be a fun read for you:)
Did you ever try AG Nuit Etoille for a forest scent? The Edt and EdP are noticeably different. I prefer the EdT, with its more prominent pine needle note. There’s also something that brings to mind sun warmed rocks.
No, never ran across either formulation. Looks like the edt has been discontinued (and I generally prefer the Goutal edts over the edps too) and probably the edp has been refo’d like everything else. But I’ll do a little research to see if the edt can be had anywhere — you never know!
Good call.
Robin, your comment made me think of Persolaise’s 10 Top Reasons he wears perfume and also a short interview with JCE where he says that perfume is worn for 2 main reasons: to show ourselves to others (he uses the word seduce but he’s speaking in English and I suspect he means that we want to draw others in, could be for sex, of course but more generally to attract others). And that we wear fragrance to protect ourselves. I imagine he’s saying in part that we wear it for ourselves, to have a personal experience without involving others.
I’m wearing Dune today, inspired by Jalepeno and lillyjo. I didn’t like Dune at first sniff but it has definitely grown on me and today it reflects some of the complexity I feel about life right now, both the joy and the helplessness.
I love this info about JCE. I like his two main reasons and especially the “wear fragrance to protect ourselves” comment. So often I wear fragrance for courage or comfort. Those are definitely forms of protection.
Dune is a weird one! And I mean that in the best possible way. Glad I have a small bottle of it even though it is very mood specific for me.
It is definitely a weird one and not an everyday easy fragrance by any stretch.
I would say I wore perfume that way…to draw others in, when I was younger. I can’t believe now how much Coriandre I used to wear! I used to buy in splash bottles and literally splash it on.
Now I wear it because I want to smell it. And I am mindful of the fact that at least half the time I smell something out on the street, I can’t believe how much fragrance the person is wearing — they have the sort of sillage that gets in the back of your throat and stays there.
I wore a lot of Coriandre too!
Wearing Infusion d’iris today. It’s cold and rainy today and not game for Cheirosa 62 today. I would rather veg today and not go to work today but I do have tomorrow off.
Yay, hope tomorrow is a restful day Dawn.
Pierre Guillaume Indochine. Reminds me of apsara (we seem to share several perfume loves), Deva and I’m sure there are others. I had tried it earlier, thought I didn’t like it, retried thanks to posts about it here and discovered it’s wonderful! Such a lovely light spicy fragrance and perfect for autumn weather although very wearable any time really.
In other news (which for me is often family, fun or food), I made a delicious NYT recipe for apple crumble Tuesday (which happened to be National Apple Day) and for the first time, didn’t peel the apples. I grew up on an apple and cherry orchard and have spent A LOT of time peeling apples. Well, I can report that it’s just as delicious without peeling them. And a huge time saver.
Recipe:
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018638-apple-crumble?unlocked_article_code=1.vk8.J2kA.w6mBUbcKtkL0&smid=share-url
I love Indochine so I know you smell gorgeous!
That’s right, I knew I was forgetting someone who had mentioned it. It was you!
DITTO
Indochine is lovely! I wore a it on a first date years ago and got the best compliment from my date when we hugged—you smell yummy! It still makes me smile.
That’s wonderful!
You smell beautiful and so did that apple crumble!
And yes, Robin, you are not the only one who prefers that no one notices their perfume. I always wear it pretty lightly and just for me. And I hope that if people do notice, that it’s enjoyable!
I completely agree!
🙂
Two people inadvertently enabled me to buy my scent of the day. Tip my hat to pl67 that mentioned it on her list of iris scents and LesLiesse because I know she loves this house. SOTD is Blanc de Courreges. This is a beautiful scent and VERY inexpensive. I thank you ladies.
Beautiful and budget-conscious ! Well done you!
Thanks!
Glad you like it, Kris. You smell great!
I do like it.
In bed with a fever, coughing and laryngitis. Happy Almost Friday and be well!
Sotd Guerlain Encens Mythique thanks to Kris!
In honor of my friends Steffi, Gail and Janice who left us way too early.
I hope you feel better fast, LesLiesse. I am finally just about well from some potent virus that kept me down last week.
Lovely to wear your fragrance in honor of your friends.
Feel better soon, LesLiesse!
Hope you get well soon!
I hope you feel better soon-I like a brew of lemon, black pepper, tumeric to which you add hot water. Let it cool a few minutes and add honey to taste. 🙂
Get lots of rest and be well soon!! You’re smelling lovely, even in bed.
Ouch! Feel better soon!
Feel better soon! Keep resting!
Feel better soon. Did you check if Covid?
It’s funny I was enabled by you and pl67 and you both used me today😊
Oh ick! Sounds like you’re having a rough time. Hope it isn’t the flu.
Ugh, so sorry!
SOTD is Silky Woods. I am sending enabler pins to the usual suspects who discovered this one in 2021.
Cool today and I am going to go over to the trails by the ocean and walk outside instead of inside at the gym.
I have a new and hopefully wonderful volunteer role at the Los Angeles Public Library teaching English as a second language.
My work with the Red Cross that started last January during the fires has wrapped up.
And I did order Deixis from FZOTIC. What can I say? I’m a fool for amber and resins.
Your new role at the library sounds great, and so rewarding. I hope it’s fun.
I love Silky Woods and have a travel size of Deixis (thanks She-ra).
Your library role sounds exciting! I recently asked the local library if they were looking for volunteers and they said they only hire high schoolers during summer vacation. Eh? Maybe the one I went to was too small but anyway …
I’m keeping an eye out for Deixis to return in the travel size.
Best of luck at the library!
I wear fragrance for me. If I’m wearing something big, it’s usually at home or at night, not to work. A great compliment for me is when someone hugs me and say, “ you smell wonderful.” If they say it from a meter or two away, I worry I’m choking out the place. I’m a chronic under-applier.
Not CP compliant but trying Alluring Fig. I love the photorealistic fig opening. The vanilla dry down is just ok. Be well.
I also wear perfume for my own personal enjoyment. If someone else likes it, that’s a bonus.
I am wearing a little bit of Iris Ganache, enabler pin goes to hajuusuri, so kind of her to send me samples several years ago. I managed to find a small amount and will enjoy every single spray.
I like to think I smell like an airy cloud of vanilla and doughy iris and that people around me find it comforting 🙂
I know I would find it comforting.
Woo hoo! I have to note this!
The strong winds made it too dangerous to walk at the cemetery, park and forest yesterday; a lot of trees are down in all my usual spots. It was the worst weather we have had here …since I arrived 25 years ago. Today looks more settled and the sky is blue. I’m wearing Daim Blond today and will venture out later to see how the cemetery is doing. I expect there will be broken branches everywhere.
Be safe Kanuka!
I can’t even imagine that kind of wind. I’m sorry for your awful weather.
Does NZ ever get hit by typhoons?
Wow, that sounds intense. I hope the cemetery is not wind-sacked!
I’m in my version of a “clean” scent, which is Pre de Provence soap in Provence (herby and woody and soapy field in Provence fresh) topped with Jil Croquet Fresh Morning perfume (bergamot and rose).
That sounds like such a nice mix! And summery.
I’m running late this morning for no particular reason, so I’m hurrying by to say that I’m wearing Chamade, always a favourite.
Chamade is gorgeous, Gaynor. I love its green opening and also how it changes completely (to my nose) as it dries down. It’s so beautiful.
I am wearing Xerjoff Irisss to go in the back yard and cut things down before it starts raining in earnest this season. Mother Nature really does not like it when I prune, the roses I cut down to the ground last month have new shoots and leaves already.
Ugh, I need to do that too but not today!
Wearing 4160 Tuesdays Over the Chocolate Shop, inspired by cazaubon. She’s a wealth of knowledge on the brand and she even graciously answered all my questions, no hesitation. I miss her presence here and hope she returns some day.
I hope she is doing well.
Same.
Yeah.
SOTD = Astier de Villatte Delhi
Nice, very nice! This perfume reminds me of Deva. I’m not quite certain if this was the one specific perfume she loved and talked about but eh, lovely nonetheless! I got my travel size from Aedes de Venustas.
In other news, I am “getting ready” to make musibi-sized poke rice. I have the mold and I’ve asked about procuring salmon (from Wegman’s sushi counter). I now just have to find seaweed, furikake flakes (I think this is how it’s spelled) and rice. Getting there! I may also make Spam musubi but still need the rest of the ingredients in addition to the mold.
I’ve gotta to go Astier de Villatte. I tried so hard to find their perfumes at Liberty — they have perfumes on two levels, but no dice on either, and then walking the rest of the store with my kid I found the housewares and hoped they’d also have the perfumes…sigh.
LOL! Sounds like my shopping trip to Fortnum& Mason — I had no clue there was a biggish perfume section.
You did spell “furikake” correctly. 😉 Weggie’s has one of my favorite versions of it. Sadly, it is far more expensive on Amazon.
Wait, you don’t have a Wegmans? I was just at Wegmans yesterday but did not think to get the seaweed related stuff. At one point, and I may have to ask for it, they were selling cooked sushi rice.
No Wegmans here in Colorado. 😢
If there was, I would have bought some of their Halloween shopping bags. Love, love, love the Weggie’s bags that I brought with me!
Lush Ginger today — enabler pin to Gail. I tried to smell it all over Europe last fall, and got sniffed at by a Paris Lush associate who claimed she’d never heard of it. Thanks to Gail for sending a sample, and I now have a FB.
You finally found it!
Love it!
We were supposed to have a District Manager visit today, so I wore Libre Platine. She never showed up, but I still smelled great! A special thanks to LesLiesse for my sotd.
How is your new manager working out? I haven’t heard anything recently about him. I take it that you and your son got to keep the hours the same as before.
I’m trying to get through the learning curve of working under someone new. He has changed quite a few things. One of them being my hour’s which have been reduced. My son has been able to keep his hour’s. The reasoning our different positions. I’ve been trying to become more personable so I can more easily address the schedule situation.
Oh, no. I hope he didn’t reduce them too much. Hopefully, you will be able to get them back at some point.
Yay for not having to deal with the bigwigs today! Have you tried the latest Libre flanker, Vanille Couture?
I did. I only tried it once and got a menthol top note. I didn’t care for it, but will sample again sometime.
I’m not sure that becoming more personable would make you more effective. No. 19 will though, just sayin’
Mole Day = Avogadro’s Number for the win!!
Today was the last day for mild and sunny weather. Clouds started rolling in around dinner time here, 5pm-ish. Might get a touch of rain later on tonight. Might not.
SOTD = commando, but wearing scented lotion/body butter in the usual spots.
I know you like scented lotions. Have you tried the ones by Jergens that some of us have been using? They have some good ones!
I would like to try some of the Jergens lotions, but I need to use up some of my lotion/body butter stash first!
Pulled out my heavy-duty hand lotion earlier today.
Have you gone through “the purge”? I have, to a certain degree. I gave myself a grace period of 2 years unless there’s an expiration date, in which case, the period only lasts for no more than a year.
I haven’t needed to do “the purge” yet. Most of the time I use lotions up on a regular basis, since I moved to a much drier climate.
Just need to put a pause on new lotion purchases for a while.
Poor TK will be missing her sunbeam!
Yeah. But she does have her kitty heating pad as a substitute. She’s snoozing on it as I type, underneath a flannel pillowcase. Very cozy!