Welcome to our 7th annual fall reading poll! Please recommend a great book to add to our fall reading lists, and tell us what fragrance we should wear while reading it.
(Or, do what I do and record here everything you have read since the last quarterly reading poll. And if you want more recommendations, scrolling through the literature tag will bring up all the older reading polls.)
Or, as always, just talk about something else, and of course, do report your fragrance of the day if you like…
My crown jewel is Frédéric Malle Musc Ravageur—if Tom Ford’s ’90s era at Gucci were a scent, this would be it: sexy, amber-y, and a complete knockout on its own or layered with something else. For a moody, elevated vanilla, I reach for Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille, sweet from tobacco leaf but balanced with ginger, spice, and tonka bean.
— Concetta Ciarlo, beauty shopping writer, quoted in What Do Vogue Editors Smell Like? at Vogue.
More holiday offers from Diptyque: limited editions of Do Son, Eau Rose and Orphéon. 75 ml Eau de Parfum for $255 (the same price as the regular bottles).
Niche line Escentric Molecules has launched Molecule 01 + Cistus, a new variation on 2005’s Molecule 01 (Iso E Super)…
It’s Friday and National Pasta Day, plus the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Our community project for today: wear the perfume you would like to be buried or cremated in. (This was a suggestion from Deva, who did note that it is a bit macabre, but also that many cultures include fragrance materials of various sorts in their funerary rites. I was saving this project until Deva rejoined us, but since it looks like she has moved on to other interests, I’d like to take this opportunity to honor her since her presence here brightened everybody’s day for so long. If it’s too macabre for you, don’t join in, obviously!)
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 do not have any strong opinions on what fragrance I’d want to be buried or cremated in. If I was to be buried, it wouldn’t hurt to throw a vintage houndstooth bottle of Diorissimo in my coffin? I’m more interested in what I’d smell while I was dying, and I think it should be something calming that did not bring up any associations with things I was trying to hold onto or fret over, so I’m going with my old standby Comme des Garçons Ouarzazate, layered over my DIY lotion of ylang and sweet orange for a little uplift. I suppose if I am cremated someone could spray on a refresh…