1. What fragrance are you wearing today?
2. Do you consider yourself a perfumista, and if so, what stage are you? (Click on the link to see the four stages Angie identified. I later added a fifth: rampant cynicism.) If you’re male, do you use the term perfumista or something else?
3. About how many new fragrances do you probably try in an average week?
4. What holy grail fragrance are you still looking for?
5. Read any good books lately?
6. What’s the funniest show on television this year?
Answer as many or as few as you like. And my answers:
1. I’m wearing two from the Ego Facto line: Poopoo Pidoo & Prends Garde à Toi.
2. Stage 5!
3. Probably about 15 or 20.
4. The perfect green jasmine + incense.
5. I’m on a mystery kick lately (I generally go on a mystery binge about once every 3 years). I just finished the latest (and reportedly last) Inspector Wexford book from Ruth Rendell, Monster in a Box, and I’m in the middle of Karin Fossum’s When The Devil Holds The Candle.
6. I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking you!
Note: image is Lichen Stone Rose Oxford by geishaboy500 at flickr; some rights reserved.
648 Comments
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Happy Friday Robin! I love polls like this….
1. Vintage Chanel No 19 in extrait-found my old bottle from college. Wearing it is like running into an old friend. Love love love this one.
2. Stage 5
3. About 3 new scents per week.
4. Not looking for my HG, it’s Fendi, the original from 1986. I’ve been stockpiling bottles.
5. Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan and Good Germs Bad Germs by Jessica Snyder Sachs
6. Modern Family
I have not even heard of Modern Family! Will google it. I’ve been wanting to read that Pollan book though.
How many bottles of that Fendi do you have, just out of morbid curiosity??
I really enjoyed the MP book, have his new one on my “to read” list. He lectures all the time in the Bay area. It’d be interesting to hear him speak.
My collection of Fendi is: One 1/4 oz bottle of pure perfume, seven bottles of spray, and several minis.
Yeah 7!
….
7 is impressive!
1) I’m wearing today L’amoureuse. But on my left wrist there is an extra spritz on Bois D’iris by TDC (lunch time perfume spree to the niche perfumery around the corner. I’d rather skip lunch during the break than resist temptation).
2)intermediate perfume mania – with some cynicism already.
3) New? 1-2, in average. this number is lowering down. November last year it was like 6/7…
4) I think the real perfumista never settles with ONE HG. I’m still looking for the perfect woody, the perfect honeyed, the perfect floral, the perfect leather, the perfect rose….. But I found many scents that come close to my ideal. I can’t help but tweak each formula in my head, BTW. There seems always to be room for improvement!
5) Yes, les lettres de madame de Sevigné. thousands of lovely pages from another era..
6) No television. My whole country (Italy) would be way better without. In the evenings I go out, read or love my husband instead of getting angry at a TV screen..
So jealous that you can go to a niche perfumery on your lunch break! To do that, I’ve got to get on a train to another city.
And I meant like a holy grail in one particular category, LOL…I can see I wasn’t clear. No way would I settle down to one scent!
Yeah, but think how broke we’d be, if we could pop out to the niche perfume place at lunchtime. I should just work there & cut out the middleman.
True!
I’m jealous to the nth degree. In order to visit a niche perfumery, I’d have to get on a plane and fly several thousand miles.
But I can smell the pikake flowers through my windows.
Pikake? Wow, then I am jelous! If you new how much I cherish my small and frail gardenia bush: to my nose it is way more lovely than any of my perfumes!!! Pikake must be wonderful!
My First Post, LOVE the blog!
1. Today I’m wearing Rose de Siwa edp by Parfums MDCI (first try out of a batch of samples arrived yesterday from LuckyScent)
2. I’m in Stage two: Beginning Perfume Mania
3. I have seven fragrances to try this week!
4. I’m searching for the perfect Rose: I have a scent-vision (if you’ll excuse the term) of a just rained on red rose cut at its most fragrant, haven fallen in a bed of moist bark mulch in a garden where the grass was cut the day before. Crazy?
5. Reading Hot Planet (I’m a hard sci-fi fan)
6. The funniest show on television this year is 30Rock! I am Liz Lemon.
I think you should add a category to your Perfumista rating, namely, “addicted to checking NST ten or more times daily.” ; )
Hi Dee, and welcome! So glad you like NST.
So is Rose de Siwa even close to the HG you’re looking for? Which, btw, sounds wonderful. I can think of grassy-dewy roses, and mulch-y roses, but no scent that is both.
The Rose de Siwa is nothing like what I’m looking for, but I’m really enjoying it just the same. I get a powdery brightness from it that feels girly rather than sensual. That perfect HG is something I’m hoping to stumble on as I explore the universe of scent… recommendations?
Diptyque L’Ombre dans l’eau for the rose/grass thing. Love it!
Another very grassy rose is the Paula Dorf Zita. Discontinued, and don’t know if easily found or not. And then for mulch, possibly Frederic Malle Une Rose.
I’ve had my eye on the Frederic Malle Une Rose, and I’ll add the others to my list–thanks!
Welcome! This is a fun group, so enjoy!
Thank you Rappleyea!
1. Diptyque Tam Dao
2. I love perfume. I am a HUGE fan of it. But because I am far too lazy to take notes on it, I can’t consider myself a perfumista. Also, I hate “-ista” as an ending almost as much as I hate the word “diva” (because it is always used to describe plus sized women; I’m a pretty quiet plus-sized woman and don’t like the image of a “diva”).
3. Varies. Some weeks, none. Some weeks, dozens.
4. This jasmine scent that I smelled in China. This super evil Communist Party Secretary had bought it in Paris. It was both pure and white and deeply seductive at the same time. She refused to tell me the name.
5. I’m re-reading The Tower of Babel by John McWhorter. It’s a light read about language. I have issues with fiction.
6. 30 Rock, now and forever.
OK, OK. I’m Stage 3. Mostly because of the bank account thing.
Oh, now I want to smell that jasmine scent!
I just finished Monster in a Box, too! Seeing that you had made me think what a small world it is. I prefer Ruth Rendell’s non-Wexford books and her writing as “Barbara Vine.” If you’re on a mystery kick, may I recommend Louise Penny’s “A Brutal Telling” – it takes place in an artsy little village near Montreal and the descriptions of food are mouth watering.
I realized the other day that there have been new perfume releases recently that I hadn’t jumped on getting – I thought “I can wait.” My interest hasn’t abated – now I realize I’m edging into stage 4 perfumista-hood. I am no longer looking for an HG scent.
Today I’m wearing SL Bois de Violette.
I will look for that mystery, thanks!
SOTD: Bois 1920 Come La Luna.
books: am ALMOST finished Mantel’s A Place of Greater Safety! Whoo! Must read Sevigny, on the list.
Question: I’ve got several carded samples of J’Adore Dior and Miss Dior Cherie. I don’t like ‘em. But if YOU do, pls contact me at MUA (same unimaginative screen name) and I’ll send them to you, free to good home.
That’s been on my reading list forever! And bought The Giant O’Brien a couple years ago but haven’t cracked it open yet. Bad me.
I loved The Giant O’Brien. Greater Safety is looong and a bit taxing but she’s great. Someone else noted they’re reading Wolfe Hall. That’s next for me.
1. Guerlain No 68 (Guet Apens) on my left wrist and Guerlain Attrape Couer on my right – I’m comparing the two to see how similar they are. Not very, until the far drydown, if you ask me. Of course, they both share a certain Guerlain-ness about them.
2. Stage 3 – obviously!
3. Depends on my mood – I’d say 5 – 10, but some weeks I don’t try any and I wear what I have.
4. I’m still looking for my HG citrus, rose, and vanilla. Unless Vanille Galante counts as a vanilla, then I already have it.
5. Last good book – The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor. I think that it’s considered a YA book, but it’s very good – I’m reading the sequel Seeing Redd right now.
6. Hmm… I rarely find sitcoms all that funny unless they’re seriously bent – a la Arrested Development. I think that the only sitcom I watch regularly is 30 Rock.
Eh, most of my faves are YA. I’m an escapist at heart.
My theory is that a good story is a good story – I got into reading them so I’d have something to recommend to my students that I’ve actually read and found that I really enjoy the stories. They are usually quick, easy reads, too – perfect for a rainy afternoon or a day at the beach.
I read lots of YA. Partially because I have a YA in the house, but also like reading them — very satisfyingly plot-driven, usually.
That’s what I like about them too – the fact that the plot-drive everything. Plus, I like to just read fun stuff sometimes. I used to go through tons of mysteries and sci-fi, but I’ve slacked off of some of that. Too much time on the internet probably.
I also have a YA, but she doesn’t like much of what I read. My niece’s tastes are more in line with mine. They’re usually fun, easy reads that don’t require much thinking, perfect in my over-stressed life. When things are calmer, then I revert to the classics, mainly British or Russian…but I haven’t had a calm period in a good long while.
I love YA, particularly Neil Gaiman.
Lots of good YA stuff out there. And since I have YA nieces and nephews, I usually get recommendations from them. Has anyone read The Book Thief?
I’ve read and loved The Book Thief. Highly recommend.
Actually, that’s one of the few I have on audiobook. Agree, it’s fantastic.
please forgive my ignorance, but what is YA?
Laken, it’s young adult fiction.
thanks!
1.) Annick Goutal; Eau de Monsieur, tied with Eau du Fier as my favourite Goutal ” cologne”.
2) I would not consider myself as a perfumista at all. I just have an outrageous number of bottles of fragrance. But I am not at all obsessed about trying everything new. I find I work my way through different houses, almost one house at at time. Have sniffed almost all of the Goutals, own loads of those. Same goes for Patricia de Nicolai.
But brands like Amouage, By Kilian, MCDI I simply don’t consider. I am not willing to spend a fortune on one single bottle.
3) Not that many.
4) A perfect jasmine, one that actually smells like the flowers. Not possible I know.
5) A Biography of Darwin
6) It’s currently not on but my favourite funny program is QI by the BBC.
I love QI as well!
Isn’t it brilliant. I absolutely adore Stephen Fry. My favourite episodes are the ones with Johnny Vegas. ( the one about rabbits and food, and the one called fight or flight)
I’ve seen a bit of QI on YouTube, but so far as I know they don’t show it in the US. Wish they did. (if they do, somebody tell me!)
1. Cartier Les Heures Treizieme Heure. Is it just me, or is this the spit of Le Labo Patchouli 24?
2. I refuse to go beyond stage 4. There’s always a new house or a new scent that catches the heart, just when you think everything is an endless rerun of everything else.
3. Sometimes none, sometimes about ten. This week, six.
4. Someday, the perfect, complex woody amber will be born for me.
5. On a Philip Roth kick lately, Just finished Patrimony, which was as delight.
6. Mock the Week makes me laugh, but unless you’re in the UK, that will mean nothing to you. It’s a bunch of comedians being rampantly cynical about the things that have been in the news.
Haven’t watched MTW since Simon Amstell left the program. It can be brilliant and very random!
Sorry, was thinking of Buzzcocks. How stupid of me.
I have not read Philip Roth in years, won’t say how many. Must get on the ball.
Nina – YES!! I’ve got it on one hand and XII on the other and I thought the exact same thing. Thanks for confirming.
Happy Friday to All!
1. Today I am at the office and wearing EL’s PC AY-AY. I have layered it on top of EL’s Knowing body lotion and I am still on the fence if I like it this way…
2. I am in Stage 2: Beginning Perfume Mania
3. I have called a halt to buying samples until after Christmas but I do find myself going to the mall and always spritzing at least tow “new ones to me” on each arm before I leave.
4. I’m searching for the perfect Oriental for evening wear – something just dead sexy. Used to be Magie Noir but the re-formulation (sob!!) has me on the hunt for a replacement HG
5. Reading a trashy romance novel by Kathleen Woodiwiss
6. “Two and a Half Men” on TV still makes me laugh. Don’t watch much TV…except FoodTV
Yeah, it’s about time for me to break out Judith McNaught’s “Whitney My Love” for it’s annual reading.
Hello norjunma1!
I was afraid to admit that I am re-reading the “Flame and the Flower” for at least the 20th time…it’s my all time fave – LOL! I will have to check out Judith McNaught’s “Whitney My Love” – thanks!
It’s the best! I love McNaught’s stuff, but WML was what turned me into a dedicated smut addict for life! It’s the best regency cinderella drama out there. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to check out Flame and the Flower!
I’m a devoted fan of smut!! Flame and the Flower is a great romance story—read it several times years ago.
You should do a Monday Mail! Sexy orientals would be a great topic.
I just love these sorts of polls:
1. El Attarine
2. Stage 4
3. About 10-ish
4. I’m trying to find a vanilla to love. Nothing too sweet or too strange either….Felanilla and Vanilia do not work for me….
5. Not one
6. I’ve been in love with Coronation Street forever
I will have to google Coronation Street too!
Really? It’s a British soap that’s been on the air for about 60 years.
Ah, probably not shown here then.
1. Theorema!
2. 2.5. I don’t know which Lutens weren’t nosed by Sheldrake, but I’ve read Turin’s blog and I now know that a having a signature scent is on par with translating the Voynich Manuscript.
3. About 3.
4. At this point every category is open for me.
5. Just finished Vanora Bennet’s Figures in Silk and Phillipa Gregory’s The White Queen. Two fascinating and related takes on the War of the Roses.
6. Community is coming up fast on 30 Rock and the Office.
I love The Office. Don’t know why 30 Rock doesn’t work for me, but it sure is popular here!
(and yay on the Theorema!)
1. I’m wearing Estee Lauder’s Knowing today.
2. Stage 1
3. I try about 3-4 new ones a week.
4. For now I’m looking for perfect rose.
5. My good old friend – Pride and Prejudice
6. The sitcom, big bang theory. It’s hilarious. =>
Yay! Another Big Bang Theory fan! I heart Sheldon.
I keep hearing it’s geekalicious. Must watch….
YES. Big Bang Theory is SO funny AND adorable. My husband has a PhD in EE so I may be slightly impartial. LOL [He's actually the coolest nerd I know.]
Oh I love Big Bang Theory. One of my fav eps was when Penny accidently shot a paint ball gun at Lenard and Sheldons sofa, and to take Sheldons mind off of it Leonard confesses that Sheldon’s fav chinese restaurant that they get takeout from every thrusday has been closed for years and Leonard has been putting another chinese resturants food in takeout boxes from the other place that he bought tons of when the place was going out of business.
I would hate to know how many times I’ve read P&P. It’s on my iTouch now so I read little bits of it whenever I’m stuck waiting in line somewhere. Surprised I don’t have the whole darned thing memorized by now.
Me too, Robin! And watched the movies – the Colin Firth version and the newer one with Kiera.
The best set-down of an undeserving man ever committed to paper. I heart P&P!
And I thought I was the only one.
Well you can tell by my username that I am a P&P fan too! I must know whole sections by heart, but still keep rereading it. I love the 1995 tv serial the BBC made of it. Have never watched the movie.
If you’re referring to the Kiera Knightley version from a few years ago, don’t. They butchered it. The majority of the dialogue was just gone. So depressing.
From the few clips I watched on YouTube I have to agree. 2 hrs. just can’t contain the brilliance of P&P.
But I do think that Emma Thompson did a *brilliant* job of adapting Sense and Sensibility. I own it and have watched it over a dozen times.
Agree, I liked that S&S.
I can’t get this comment where I want it. The S&S adaptation by Emma Thompson is brilliant. Especially that Colonel Brandon!
1) Not a damn thing. Suffering a bad cold and don’t see the point–obviously I apply for purely selfish reasons.
2) As always, circulating between stage four, two and three. But mostly four.
3) Oh, god, it depends. Traveled recently so I had to pare it down and I’ve kept going with that for awhile–maybe four or five?
4) I just want more vintage Bois des Iles in parfum please. And could the sandalwood be magically allergenic while you’re at it?
5) Reading Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible right now–a random pick up from the used bookstore after seeing it and not picking it up for years. Absolutely fantastic.
6) Can’t believe no one’s mentioned Glee. Oh my god. So funny. And I was a Jazz Choir high schooler and acappella group college person which makes it even funnier. LOVE love love Jane Lynch in anything, but she’s finally been given some room to play on this one and I’m so happy about it!
Oh, I loved Poisonwood Bible! Great book.
Sandalwood is the only one we can’t blame on IFRA though, right? I mean, we used it all up. Bois des Iles in vintage extrait is truly one of the wonders of the world.
I’ll have to give Glee a try, haven’t yet.
Seconding Poisonwood Bible! I think Kingsolver is brilliant, and if I could write like any author out there, it would be her. Le Carre second.
I just re-read The Poisonwood Bible for the third time. What a gripping story.
Yep. Just yer average postcolonial capitalist tragedy, that sandalwood thing. Not that IFRA is unrelated to those sorts of problems… When I finally got my paws on some vintage Tabac Blond and sniffed it my feeling was, “Ah, that is so beautiful. I am satisfied.” When I got my hands on the BdI it was “Oh my god. I must have more of this!”
Poisonwood Bible… in my top 5 list of all-time great reads.
Amending my third answer — read the question wrong. That’s how many I wear, not try. Try? Gosh, maybe one or two a week on a good streak. Or ten in one week and then nothing for months…
Oh dear, mine will be dull! 1. Nothing yet, I was feeling uninspired. But I have several samples in my purse, so will likely dab on something eventually. 2. Actually, I don’t. I love perfume, I really enjoy this blog, and I have a great time trying new scents, looking for a handful to make me happy, but at the end of the day, that’s really all it is for me. 3. I think I have around 300 samples or so, and I’ve been at this for maybe a year and a half… so I guess on average, that puts me at about 4/week, but I’ve slowed down a good bit now that I have a solid foundation. 4. Still pretty much all of them! I have my sharp green (#3), my honeysuckle (AG) and my mimosa, but the rest I’m still working my way through. Odds are, I’ve found several but haven’t recognized them as such yet (the mimosa I found in probably my first batch of samples, but hadn’t sampled nearly enough to know it). 5. Other than what I’ve been reading to my kindergartener, I haven’t found much time for reading since I started this perfume insanity…more’s the pity! 6. I’m at least as clueless as you. Other than a football game this past Sunday, I haven’t had the tv on in probably a year, maybe longer.
I don’t think I had time to read at all from the time my son was born to the time he was old enough to read his own books. Now it’s great because he recommends books to me! Or we listen to audio books in the car and find things we both love.
My kids are less the trouble than my husband and his ridiculous schedule…it was like being a single mom of 3 rather than married with 2, and the 3rd was in college but living at home. :O Hopefully things will settle down now that he’s lost his job…he can carry the bulk of the housework and I might find some time again.
1. Finally did put one on, and chose CdG’s Kyoto. The first 30 minutes or so were pure bliss, but beyond that, the frankincense just gets to be too much for me. The coffee was brilliant though… anywhere else I’ve found a coffee note to be either very fleeting, or sweetened up too much, or both. Would love to find a good coffee frag, since I love the smell but can’t drink the stuff.
Dawn Spencer Hurwitz Cafe Noir , about 95% naturals , excellent coffee scent !!
1. Rose Muskissime (seems like I have worn this the last couple of poll days – I promise I wear other stuff in between). I was seeing if it could dampen my lust for Balkis and it actually kind of does. Just doesn’t have the jam.
2. Hmm – kind of 2.5 – I really don’t pay that much attention to who made what, really, but although I still do sample quite a bit I am beginning to buy and becoming more discerning. Far from cynical, still. Usually. Sometimes.
3. An average week, maybe 5.
4. Still kind of looking for that perfect honey/vanilla/tobacco/spice. Havana Vanille is close, Back to Black is close, Tabac Aurea is close. Naked Honey fulfilled an HG. l’Air du DM simultaneously created and fulfilled one. Always looking for perfect tropicals, but there are lots of really nice ones.
5. Reading Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club). Just finished a string of bodice-ripper demon/vampire trash novels that kept me sane during the final stages of joblessness when I couldn’t concentrate on anything but junk-food books.
6. I don’t watch much comedy. I still think South Park is funny.
On #4, you tried the Tom Ford? I’m sure you did, but just in case…
I haven’t tried Tobacco Vanilla (or Vanille or whatever) on skin but on paper it was a bit too sweet. I’ll give it a shot but if it is anywhere near as tooth-cracking as Black Orchid it will be a no.
It’s pretty sweet. So never mind.
TV was pretty sweet, but I was in the mood for gingerbread so it was all good. Honestly, I thought Tabac Aurea was far more complex and interesting.
Tama,
When you find the HG Vanilla/honey/spice/tobacco please let me know. It is the perfect combination!! I really like Back to Black, maybe even love, but not HG. Havana Vanilla really did not wow me.. may be someday..
Tara
1. Bulgari Black.
2. Somewhere between “strong interest” and “beginning perfume mania” (although “rampant cynicism” is quite familiar.)
3. Very few. Between the name and/or bottle and the official list of notes, most new frags can be dismissed as “not for me.”
4. I’d like to sniff (not so sure about buy) the classic Guerlains in vintage extrait. (Ambitious much?) And I haven’t identified a HG yet, although I already know I want a reserve bottle of Dzing!
5. Thanks to the movie “Inglourious Basterds,” I’ve been inspired to reread Colette’s WWII-era memoirs. Recommended.
6. The Daily Show.
Only remember Sido & My Mother’s House, but there’s another, isn’t there?
1. Paestum Rose
2. Stage 3 (I now own 40 or so bottles and 100 samples. Totally in the Goutal/L’Artisan/Lutens phase. And yep, Mitsouko still smells “old lady” to me.)
3. 3 or 4
4. Looking for my perfect incense
5. re-read Neuromancer for the 10th time.)
6. Definitely Glee.
I love Paestum Rose! And that’s 2 votes for Glee, will have to try it.
I’ve only gotten to watch Glee twice but it was lots of fun,.
1. Mitsouko. Just because I dress like a software engineer doesn’t mean I have to smell like one.
2. Somewhere between 2 and 3. I liked Mitsouko immediately and still don’t get Shalimar. I’m avoiding the really expensive niches as long as there are so many classics to check out from the discounters. I haven’t tried any Balmains yet and Target carries Jolie Madame.
3. No average weeks. Sometimes I sniff at the perfume counters until I can’t distinguish anything, sometimes I just revisit the existing collection.
4. Midnight Mass in a bottle: incense, beeswax, and snow.
5. The Custom of the Country, by Edith Wharton.
6. I mostly watch old movies and the History Channel. Red Dwarf was very funny in its day.
I love your description of “MIdnight Mass in a bottle” – I’d love to smell that.
Ditto that! The very idea has me swooning. (Even if I am the Catholic the church never wanted.)
Hmm, I’m Reformed Catholic. One year for Lent, I gave up being Catholic, and I never picked it back up again.
Boo- that literally had me LOL! I always just say that I’m “outside of the box” on religion.
I’d just call that ‘extremely dedicated’ catholicism…
Haha, me too!
ROTFL @ Boojum!
miss kitty, you are ever so funny : D
Try CdG Zagorsk…seems to me that was how many people actually described it.
Zagorsk and Avignon are both on the list of candidates that I want to try, along with Messe de Minuit. Passage d’Enfer seems to be mostly quick-fading pine, but I still have half a sample to try again.
I think Guerlain should use your comment in #1 re Mitsouko for their new marketing campaign. Funny & smart! Yes…
Yay Red Dwarf!
Great book! Love Edith Wharton.
I imagine you’ve already tried this, but… have you checked out Etro’s Messe de Minuit? I mean, it does translate to “Midnight Mass.”
Was just expounding way down on the list about how this is my favorite fragrance. No snow, but lots of incense. I’ve got the Catholic-church-smell obsession too.
Well, you could refrigerate the incense to get the snow effect.
I have to say, for as many issues as I have w/the church, I do really love the ritual of it. I could never be a Protestant.
1. Prada Amber Pour Homme. I just love the incense in the drydown. It’s soapy, sweet, and spicy. I like it!
2. I am a new perfumista. I’d consider myself stage 1.5.
3. On average, 2-3. This week, like 20. I was on a bender, okay?
4. I love leathery/smoky/musky smells. I’m looking for the perfect tobacco-smoky scent. I keep hovering over the “puchase” button on a bottle of Serge Lutens Chergui, but I REALLY think I should smell it first—but but but I WANT IT!!! Anyone know where I can get a sample?
5. Yeah. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safron Foer. Right now I’m re-reading (for like the fifth time) East of Eden by Steinbeck.
6. This year? The Office. Of all time? ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT! (word Cynthia).
Oh…and the the Prada isn’t described as having incense…it just smells like it to me—and I’m quite new at this.
Would think The Perfumed Court would have Chergui?
Love that Prada
You are right, my dear! Thanks! I ended up getting Chergui and Aedes de Venustas. Maybe I am in stage 2 after all…
If you stopped at only 2 samples, I don’t think you’re *quite* there yet….or maybe you’re past it. LOL! Trying to remember ever ordering fewer than 5, and usually more…but that’s bc I’m cheap and want to make the shipping worthwhile.
Happy Friday!
1. Terre d’Hermes
2. Four, pretty much. I try to focus on fragrances that cost less than $100, and that I can find easily on-line, since I don’t have alot of time/income/stores available that carry The Full Monty.
But I love reading about every new thing that comes out.
3. About once a month I will sniff my way through the stores in the local mall.
4. The perfect floral
5. “The King Must Die” by Mary Renault (so atmospheric, it’s like being in ancient Greece); “Firewall” by Henning Mankell (love those depressed Scandanavian detectives); “The Wars of the Roses” by Alison Weir, and I am having a real hard time keeping track of who is Yorkish and who is Lancastrian …
6. Family Guy – is it so wrong to be in love with a sexually conflicted matricidal animated toddler? Because I love Stewie Griffen.
Favorite Family Guy moment ever: “That was…’Me, Farting’…by Chopin!” Love Stewie!!
Love Henning Mankell! Did you watch the series w/ Kenneth Branagh?
Ohh I love “The King Must Die” one of my faves…
Ooh, fun!
1.) Nothing yet– thank you, scent-free workplace. Trying to decide between Madragore and Paestum Rose for when I get home. (Both new, and thank you, Janice, if you’re reading this.)
2.) Yes, i’m obsessed. Level 3. So embarrassed by myself.
3.) The last few weeks I’d say I’ve been trying around 14 or 15 things a week. One as the SOTD, one on my wrists at night to sample.
4.) Not ardently looking for anything right now, but would happy with a good musk (not white musk), weird rose, or incense scent.
5.) Just finished “Delicate Edible Birds” by Lauren Groff. Highly recommend it, and I don’t even like short stories. (Always feels like eating appetizers for dinner–enjoyable, but something’s missing.) Reading “Murder on the Orient Express” right now–haven’t read any Agatha Christie since I was in grade school (I was a weird kid), and I’m enjoying it.
6.) Tie between Glee and Big Bang Theory. New Adventures of Old Christine surprised me by being so funny, and I used to hate Julia Louis Dreyfus.
My grandma used to pass down her Agatha Christies to my mom, and I’d read them all. I need someone to start handing down good mysteries to me again, because I’m too much of a book snob to seek them out myself, but they’re a fabulous guilty pleasure (along w/the YA novels I somehow have no problem seeking out myself, lol!).
Glad you’re enjoying them!
Chose Paestum Rose today, BTW. At first it wouldn’t spray and I had a mini-panic attack. I got it to work, though, all is good.
Whew – crisis averted!
Aww – Ms Kitty – ’scent free workplace’ must be like your own personal hell.
EXACTLY!! I had actually said at one point in time that if I ever had the option to work in such a scenario, I would turn it down. I just didn’t know ahead of time, and actually wore fragrance the first couple of weeks on the job. There was a very subtle conversation that was had “around” me that let me know that one of my coworkers is allergic. (I don’t think she really is, but what can you do?) I love my job, but I do spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to have my own practice, where I can wear whatever I want.
I think I’d be willing to trade you. Hating and having no respect for my job is MY own personal hell. And I’ve been living it for 13 years (well, as of next Wednesday).
Hating and having no respect for my job is what I just went through recently. I was surprised at how deeply I was hating my job. I felt so negative about it I just about just walked off the job. Luckily that stage has passed, but I can’t help wonder if it is the right job for me. Given the current job situation I will have to stick it out, but I keep my eyes open for possibilities and oppurtunities.
I did that for ten years, can’t imagine doing it any longer than that. I hope something will turn around for you.
You deserve better than that.
Laken, that stage comes and goes every few years for me. I try to find the parts of it I like and focus on that, but there are times when that is nearly impossible. Then, I just have to get up and go, and get through the day, and hope it’s one of the shorter stages.
Hi everyone-
1. D&G Masculine
2. I think we (that is, my husband and I, perfume is our little project together) are stuck in limbo between Stage 1 and Stage 2, but we are certainly at the point where perfume ad copy usually makes us laugh or gag.
3. Maybe 2, on average? I go through sampling binges at Luckyscent, then nothing for a few weeks.
4. I’d like to find a nice saffron based scent.
5. We’re working our way through The Emperor of Scent; we read books to each other, and The Perfect Scent, along with the advance excerpt of Pefumes The Guide in Allure, is what started it all for us.
6. No idea
Oh saffron — you should try the Montale Velvet Flowers fragrance. It is pretty and saffron, floral, vanilla.
Eau D’Italie’s Baume du Doge is a good non-floral saffron to try (it’s hard to find saffron without rose in particular). I’m not a fan of LAP’s Safran Troublant — way too sweet — but it is nicely done, and you might also give Theo Fennell Scent a try for lily with a saffron twist.
1. What fragrance are you wearing today?
Jasmin et Cigarette. And also dabs of Shalimar EdT on one hand and Lady Vengeance on the other. (I couldn’t choose just one!)
2. Do you consider yourself a perfumista, and if so, what stage are you? (Click on the link to see the four stages Angie identified. I later added a fifth: rampant cynicism.) If you’re male, do you use the term perfumista or something else?
Yes, and I’m at 3.5. I mostly know what suits me, but I still dream of branching out. Also, I’m sick of the whole ZOMG Mitsouko! ZOMG Mitsouko! thing. I vastly prefer Shalimar.
3. About how many new fragrances do you probably try in an average week?
Not many, because I think I’ve tried just about all of them by now.
4. What holy grail fragrance are you still looking for?
It would have bright, citrusy topnotes, a creamy, rose-heavy heart with some jasmine and vanilla, and an incensy-musky base. Basically, a hybrid of Joy and Shalimar
5. Read any good books lately?
Just a bunch of scholarly articles for my social work classes.
6. What’s the funniest show on television this year?
I don’t follow many TV shows, but when Eric Cartman sang Poker Face on South Park last week, he completely redeemed late-00s popular culture for me.
There is some blogger who swears – can’t remember who! – that either you’re a Mitsouko person or a Shalimar person, but you probably won’t be both, although you could be neither.
I don’t love either, but Shalimar is closer. Shalimar Light, however, is beautimous.
Hi C – I like Mitsouki and Shalimar, though I’m more likely to actually wear Mitsouki. Shalimar is like bedtime fragrance….
1. BNTBTBB Ladyboy – yum, there’s the banana I was looking for.
2. Fluctuating between stages 3, 4 and 5.
3. Usually one a day, and two on Sunday. While wearing something, I compusively sniff dip sticks in other sample vials.
4. Such a hard one, but I’m probably looking for the perfect balance between citrus top notes and creamy floral base. Slatkin Persian Lime and Mimosa was close, and it would be fine if they just brought that back. But one with champaca would also be nice.
5. I thought you’d never ask! JG Farrell kick lately, with “The Siege of Krishnapur” and currently “The Singapore Grip”. He was a genius who we tragically lost too soon. Also re-reading Rian Malan’s nonfiction “My Traitor’s Heart” about South Africa.
6. I don’t have a TV.
Banana! I’ll have to write that one down…
It’s mostly in the beginning and it’s *ripe* banana, but veddy, veddy interesting.
Erin – I’m contemplating springing for a bottle of Ladyboy – what’s your opinion on the lasting power and sillage?
Both strangely good, although not outstanding. I would recommend proper spraying, but then on me it lasts most of the day and has great projection for something so deep-voiced. After today, I’m a believer.
I have never read Farrell & keep meaning to. What should I start with?
Um, I guess the Siege, because that’s what I started with and haven’t finished the Grip yet (and had trouble with Troubles). Well worth perservering through the slow start…
Thanks!
Happy Friday!!!!
1. SOTD is my good old love, Bal a Versailles. It is so cold and gloomy here right now it was just the ticket!
2. Perfumista? Technically yes, I suppose so. But I hate labels. I like to think of myself as an informed collector….Before I went perfume crazy, I already had about 25 bottles of perfume from here and there over the course of my early adulthood. But I am defintely at Level 4. I know what I like, and I have begun swapping off my copious samples of things that I just know are not me. I won’t go out of my way to sniff things that won’t hold my interest, and most of my funds are expended buying backups of my favorite fragrances. My goal in 2010 is to buy one fabulous and maybe spendy bottle of something really outstanding each quarter. I have not tried enough to be at Level 5 yet….
3. About 1 -2 new each week.
4. HG? Gosh. I would love to find another bottle of vintage Magie Noire for a song. I would love to have a storage vault for all my vintage and current stockpile of Chamade, which is my HG of all HGs… and I would love to get my hands on some AG Heure Exquise eau de parfum, which is very hard to find….
5. I recently read Los Alamos by Joseph Kanon – great writer. And Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty, and Ines of my Soul by Isabel Allende. I am just starting to read Road to Los Angeles by John Fante.
6. I am biased about funniest tv (esp. as I am a rabbit ears gal), and mostly watch Sesame Street these days. I think Arrested Development was and is the funniest tv ever created. Period. When I “grow up” I want to be Jessica! LOL.
I’ve always wanted to read Lonesome Dove. Did you like it?
You know it was really “rough” and violent in some parts, but I did really enjoy it. I was impressed that most of the very long book was dialog driven! The female characters may seem a bit lacking by modern American standards, but then at that time I suppose being a woman on the frontier was not so much fun – few good choices, etc. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our current world (USA) that I enjoy reading how hard it was to do anything — being a settler, a women, etc. You can only imagine how hard life was then – so wild and dangerous — someone could just show up one day, get totally pissed at you and kill you. It reminds me that US history was not always so rosy and that when we look at other places in the world full of troubles – the Middle East, Africa, etc – we need to remember that we all struggle with really hard times and lawlessness at different points in history. I read it right after I finished reading (again) the Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. I enjoy reading novels about hardship and human struggle from other places and times. If you can’t spend the time on the novel, the TV movie of it was fairly close to the novel.
I was practically forced by a friend to read LD and I loved it. I even cried at one point (not the part everyone thinks) and was completely wrapped up.
Happy Friday, indeed!!!!
1) Andy Tauer Reverie au Jardin
2) 3 transitioning into 4. I haven’t gotten to the point where I’m journalling about fragrance, but I can definitely see why I may need to….
What’s wrong with “perfumisto”?
3) Averaged out, I’d say 2 – 3 a week.
4) The perfect Carnation scent.
5) Nicole Krauss’s The History of Love – rereading it a second time…..it’s clever and beautiful.
6) Glee is the only show in a long time that I have laughed out loud watching. It’s funny, charming, uber cheesy, and Jane Lynch is diabolically delightful.
I LOVE that book. It’s so beautiful.
yeah….I love it too – but I guess that’s obvious if I’m reading it again.
I don’t know why I don’t like perfumisto. and have heard ‘perfumeo’ and don’t like that either.
probably because “perfumisto” sounds a little bit like the name of an obscure Italian Liquer or a fancy-schmantzy Asian soup……but I draw the line at “perfumeo” – that’s just wrong.
Marko, have you tried the CdG Series Red Carnation? I like that one a lot.
I am wearing L’ Imperatrice 2day! I LOVE it! I guess Im at stage one. In an average wk, probably 2 or 3. Im pretty much a sweet oriental lover so my holy grail/ the best of the best would have to be my precious Flowerbomb, Lolita Lempicka, Amber Ylang Ylang, Sensuous, and Black Orchid. If anything Hermes Ambre Narguile is the one HOLY scent I have sadly yet to try! Someday! Ive been ready a collection of Edgar Allen Poes work. Brilliant! The funniest show and greatest ever has to be THE OFFICE! Next to fragrance, its my greatest addiction!
I adore The Office. Liked the British one best, but like the new one too.
1) 31 Rue Cambon from a decant. I am trying to figure out how to justify purchasing a full bottle of this stuff. Why oh why don’t they offer it in smaller sizes? With so many other bottles of perfume, how would I ever get through 200ml??? And I’m not much into the split idea cause I’m a sucker for owning the bottle and the box…anyway, getting off track.
2) Yes, definitely a perfumista, and I think I’m in stage 3, but not staying there very long…inching over to stage 4. Exhausted from trying so many different scents, and almost ready to pare down to the ones I love.
3) Another characteristic of stage 4, not wanting to try samples. I’m sampled out! Still own so many that I haven’t even tried yet. Find that I’ve been foregoing sampling and just enjoying what I have. Last sample I tried, though, was Liaisons Dangereuses – interesting! Really liked it. Might be worth purchasing in those travel bottles.
4) I’m so fickle – not sure I look for HGs, though I seem to have stumbled onto a few that I love. Don’t think I’d go out and buy up every bottle in sight for fear that they’d be discontinued, though…
5) This is embarrassing, but I’m actually reading the 4th book in the Twilight series – Breaking Dawn. My sister-in-law kept telling me how much I HAD to read these books, so I dove in. Mindless entertainment and quick reads, but they won’t win any Pulitzers. Last book that really blew me away was The Kite Runner. Incredible book.
6) Don’t watch much TV except for Amazing Race, Ugly Betty, and Desperate Housewives. Otherwise, we do Netflix. Ugly Betty can be hysterical – love Wilhemina’s lines the best. Never watched 30 Rock, but sounds like I should!
If you host the split, you get to keep the bottle and the box … just saying.
You beat me to it…..
That’s because we’re enablers-in-training.
Oh I’m sure Ruth has your 14K pin with its first stone in the mail! LOL! She’ll award you stones as you progress. You get extra stones for enabling HER!
Speaking of R… where IS she? She’s missing another open poll day! Or did I just miss her, hopping around the thread in search of new posts?
Poor Daisy — she’ll come roaring in here (again) late to the party… Better late than never!
Oh, and Rapp — we’ll talk about DSH soon!!
Boo – I was wondering the same thing about “our Daisy” (that reminded me of Keeping Up Appearances – speaking of TV comedies!). You haven’t missed her – I’ve been through here a couple of times this afternoon.
Ann – great! I can’t wait.
LOL Rapple – I’d already mentioned KUA in response further down the thread. Such a great show!
MY PEOPLE! another poll I’ve very nearly missed! This whole taking care of home and hearth thing is really starting to be an inconvenience!!!
So…anyone interested in a split??? Never decanted a fragrance before, but I’m sure I can figure it out. Just sounds so messy…and would hate to waste any juice!
Oh, and forgot to mention having to LIE to the post office personnel when they ask if there are any liquids or hazardous materials in the box…ugh!
I think that the standard answer is just “no”, but if you have to add insurance, say it’s jewelry or something like that.
I have a few *ahem* tips I don’t mind sharing outside of the public realm…you can message me on MUA w/your email and I’ll happily share.
Ditto what Boojum said–find me on MUA. I also have some advice on decanting the Les Exclusifs, having had a minor disaster with one myself.
1. MPG Ambre Precieux
2. I must be heading into stage 4 since I’ve been casting a cold eye on the perfume collection and am considering culling the herd.
3. I don’t think I have an average. On those rare days that I go into the “big city” I might sniff 5 or 6. Otherwise I probably sample 1 or 2 each week.
4. Looking for an HG warm, spicy carnation
5. I’m always reading good books! Probably like a lot of posters, my book collection outnumbers my perfume collection. I just finished Sarah Waters’ excellent “The Little Stranger” and and Elaine di Rollo’s rollicking “A Proper Education for Girls (blurbed as “a Victorian Thelma and Louise”).”
6. I don’t see much TV, but I think Big Bang Theory and Modern Family are both funny and kind of sweet. Mr. Aparatchick watches Glee and he’d choose that.
CdG Carnation – obvious, but I love it. And I don’t even like real carnations – lol.
Now, see, I DO love real carnations! And CdG was close but not quite right.
It’s odd, isn’t it, how we can feel differently about the scent and the real thing? I like carnation scents, but I’m meh on real carnations.
I’ll give Cdg a whirl. I’ve also heard good things about DSH carnations. Has anyone tried that?
I’m trying the CdG Red Carnation for the first time today. It’s really good!
DSH does beautiful carnation…I smell it in Parfum de Grasse , my HG floral . A little clove-y , a little waxy .
She has several on the “essense oils” side of the site, but Oeillets Rouges is just flat gorgeous. Too bad it’s $135 for 30 mls. Yes, you read that right: $135. One ounce. Ow.
Ooh, what fun, R.! Love reading everyone’s answers. As for me, let’s see now . . .
1. “Mystery Vintage #2″ in a short vial from a dear friend and fellow perfumista in Portland. We’re trying to figure out what this one is. We are both completely stumped. Her bottle is small, label-less, and has no shape that identifies it as coming from a particular house. It, unfortunately, is a study in gorgeousness: tangerine and neroli to start, flipping into the dark green of (real) oakmoss, galbanum and a big, fat dose of vivid vetiver, then stretching out into a warm haze of smoky benzoin and spicy tonka bean. (If that sounds familiar to anyone, please let me know what this IS!!!)
2. Stage Four. Never want to reach Stage Five.
3. Three or four a day on average, so probably a couple of dozen a week. Busy weeks, not nearly so many.
4. The ultimate floral oriental chypre leather sandalwood incense, The One That Has Everything: the most beautiful floral notes, the right touch of dark fruit, the sultriest and most subtle spices, the creamiest oakmoss, the richest base notes, the smokiest, headiest, sweetest incense. Yes, all in one bottle! A few have come close: Attrape-Coeur, Enlevement au Serail and Promesse d l’Aube from Francis Kurkdjian, Le Parfum de Therese and vintage Diorama from his father, vintage Belle de Rauch, Chanel Cuir de Russie and Bois des Iles (both vintage, s’il vous plait).
5. Michael Cunningham’s The Hours and Ian McEwan’s Atonement. Read the book, see the film. ;-D
6. Don’t own a television anymore (going on ten years now) and much the happier for it.
Atonement depressed the toothpicks out of me. Glad I read it, though.
Mystery Vintage sounds fab (even if not very me)!
Oh yes! I read Atonement, then suggested we read it in our book club. Everyone hated it but me. I thought it was an interesting character study…but yes, depressing!!!
I watched Atonement last year and kind of liked it… I wanted more of the war/historical fiction part. So I tried to read the book…but then it just got so depressing I couldn’t take it anymore. I will try it another time.
A really good good book in that WW2 Europe time that is a real brain treat is the book Hopeful Monsters by Nicholas Mosley.
I really liked Atonement, but I agree it was very depressing.
I adore Atonement (and all of his books) but for some reason did not love The Hours. Maybe because I loved Mrs. Dalloway so much? Don’t know. And didn’t watch the movie.
1. Chanel Pour Monsieur
2. Stage 5: Rampant Cynicism & consider myself a perfumisto
3. 2-3 (Though being in Stage 5 the stat is dropping down sharply as we speak)
4. SL ISM
5. “Paulding Farnham: Tiffany’s Lost Genius” by John Loring
6. Big Bang Theory
That’s several mentions now for Big Bang Theory, which I’ve never heard of. Obviously I need to watch it, whatever it is.
Same here. That and Glee. Haven’t heard of that, either.
Glee is a great show! Initially my sister got me sucked into it :-p I would describe it as a misfit version of High School Musical and with more Broadway + Top 40 hits.
My favorite episode so far is “The Rhodes Not Taken”, in which Kristin Chenoweth guest stars as a alcoholic high school dropout trying to reclaim her former glory by rejoining the school’s glee club. The “Maybe This Time” rendition is just fantastic:
http://lnk.nu/viddler.com/12dc/
I think you can watch whole episodes online. Just Google it and I’m sure there’s an official link.
Just wiki it and you’ll get the lowdown. Hilarious is putting it mildly
Big Bang Theory and Modern Family are must sees. Glee for Jane Lynch’s character.
1. Un Jardin en Mediterranee. It’s a warm, sunny day here in Texas.
2. I’m not crazy about the word perfumista, but ok, sure. Stage Three, I guess. I’m financially challenged, so not acquiring a whole lot at the moment, but not ready to pare down, either.
3. 1-5.
4. I don’t believe in HGs. I just want to experience as many things as I can.
5. Currently reading I Dreamed of Africa by Kuki Gallman, which describes lots of smells of different places in Kenya (among other things).
6. I mostly watch old movies and travel shows. And Mad Men. Funny shows are not my area of expertise.
I LOVE Mad Men. I want to wear those great dresses to work and have the booze filled credenza in *my* office, as I am the boss!! They mention Joanie wearing Shalimar in season 1.
Booze-filled credenza, eh? I’ll settle for the occasional lunchtime Stinger. I don’t remember the Shalimar reference, but it fits. I also see Joan in Youth Dew.
Peggy wears something that is completely wrong for her and makes the people around her slightly uncomfortable.
Betty wears something new and expensive.
That’s as far as I’ve gotten. I’d love to know what Don wears.
The episode in season 1 when Joanie is going out in that great black dress where her roommate confesses her love (and the big guy has a heart attack after being with the twins…) The roommate says to Joannie really quick and fast when they are getting ready something like: Shalimar? And Joannie says: Too much?
Don Draper just wears his indomitable man musk! And maybe some old spice he has from back in the day when he was in the military.
I see Peggy wearing something simple, but aspirational and smart. Maybe a Dior? But she can’t afford that. Hm. Maybe some old Coty Muguet des Bois? Or White Shoulders?
It’s “1960, I am SO over you” :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9w_zoCN0Qg&feature=related
Mad Men is genius! I don’t understand why it’s low viewership.
1. Rochas Femme
2. Yes, Stage Two
3. One or two
4. I have holy grail notes rather than one HG fragrance, and find different facets of them in different perfumes. Leather, for example; I enjoy the different aspects of it in Bal a Versailles, Dzing!, Bandit, Kelly Caleche, and Miss Dior (and another is always welcome!). I think I’ve found my tobacco HG in Tabac Aurea.
5. Right now I’m reading “The Duchess of Windsor: The Secret Life”. Besides the detailed history of the abdication scandal, I am finding the descriptions of the confusing and volatile political situations around the world in the early 20th century very interesting. Also almost finished listening to the audio book of “John Adams”, which I recommend.
6. Hmmm, that’s a poser, because I don’t usually watch series television. Every once in a while I catch “Two and a Half Men” in reruns, which I like, and the funniest past show was “3rd Rock from the Sun”.
Isn’t it a rule here @ NST to follow Rochas Femme with the words: “that slut”? [Or as I prefer to say: "that wench".] I’m just sayin…
It’s That Slut Tocade (also Rochas). But I guess That Wench Femme would work.
Oh that’s right! I got it mixed up. *Blushing*
“That slut?” Please, I prefer “trollop”!
Another I’ve been meaning to read (the John Adams). But tempted to just watch the mini-series instead
The mini series was spectacular.
We liked it too. Superb casting, for one thing.
I’ve seen the mini-series too. It is very good, but historically inaccurate. For the straight dope, read the book!
YIPEEEEEEEE!
i am stage 1 sometimes 2
i try maybe 10 frags
using kelly caleche !!
reading midnight children , salman rushdie ????( hope spelling is ok)
watching the good wife ,soooooooooooo good!
woopsie holy grail ………… i really want to find a great gourmand and femme fatale perfume without rose in it , like tom ford black orchid but darker without sweetness , something like that .
Have you tried Fille en Aiguilles by SL? Tried it and liked it!
thank you i will try to find it online !
“….what else is in the teaches of peaches? huh? what?”
LOVE your name (and the song that goes with it!)
thanks i know is a great album !!!!!!!
a wee bit on the borderline but great : )
1. Pascal Morabito’s Or Black
2. I don’t think I ever find myself in a context that requires describing myself as a perfumista… most people who know me already think I’m pretty weird, and that subsumes this obsession among the others.
3. One or two, depending on what’s around and available. I don’t try everything that’s out there.
4. Something that sits in the back of the room growling quietly.
5. Sure: Terry Pratchett’s “Unseen Academicals” is the last one I finished. I also read Chandler Burr’s “The Perfect Scent” and decided it wasn’t a very good book.
6. “The Big Bang Theory”
Terry Pratchett has to be one of the funniest novelists ever.
I keep hearing that…must get around to trying one. Which is the best to start with?
The first couple of books in Pratchett’s series are The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. But those two are more episodic than the later volumes. So I guess I’d recommend reading The Colour of Magic to get the basics, then maybe to skip forward to either Wird Sisters or Guards! Guards!.
Of course, to the true Pratchett fanatic, this is heresy. Read them in order… You can find the list here.
Thanks so much!
wyrd sisters is a must, Granny Weatherwax fan here
great #4 answer!!
1- Bois des Iles
2- I have no idea, I am on all stages at once. However, I raise my level of awareness so that my passion would not consume itself, in other words, I am trying not to let my desire to possess and know the smell turn me into testing-maniac, I am trying to give it space and time. If that means smelling/buying fewer, so be it
3- 3-5
4- perfect modern leather
5- Derrida, “Archive Fever”
6- No TV
Love your answer to #2!
Seriously–I think I need to print that out and paste it to my credit card as a reminder.
Perfect modern leather :
L’Artisan for Bottega Venetta Intrecchio #1
awful name , great scent . It’s a room spray , but….great on skin too !!
Thanks, I will give it a try.
Wearing today: Tom Ford Amber Absolue
Stage: I’d say about a 4.5
Samples per week: 5-6
Holy grail: not really looking any more, as I have so many fabulous scents, but I’m always up for the ultimate incense
Best book lately: Les Deferlantes by Claudie Gallay
Funniest show: Kamelott, a French comedy short
I’ll look for Kamelott, thanks!
Oooh, fun!
1. Philosykos, because I had a job try-out this morning, and for the interview on Monday I kinda overdid it with the Baume du Doge (which is not as subtle as I remembered!), so I tried to redeem myself with a gentle crowd-pleaser. I know, I know, I probably shouldn’t have worn anything (perfume, that is), but I couldn’t stop myself.
2. I guess I’d consider myself a perfumista,* but my current status combines elements of pretty much all stages (including jaded cynicism). My knowledge is quite extensive in some areas but piss-poor in others… I tried and loved Cartier XIIIeme Heure, for instance, then I started reading about the initial patchouli blast and thought, huh? There’s patchouli in there? Sigh.
*Footnote to #2: “Perfumista” is NOT a feminine word! In Spanish, a follower of any person or movement becomes an “-ista” (Sandinista, Fidelista), and the word is masculine. I know “perfumista” is a made-up word and I’m a pedantic git, but it still bugs me to see people write “perfumistO”!
3. Depends on whether I’ve just been to NYC or dropped a bundle at TPC. So, anywhere from 0 to about 15.
4. I’m not really looking for a HG at the moment. There are a lot of notes I thought I liked but actually don’t (smells I love in “real life” but not so much in perfume), which has certainly cut down on the HG hunt — don’t need an anise, thanks! I suppose I’m always looking for fabulous incenses — or fabulous anything, come to think of it.
5. The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins. I’m a 19th-century literature freak, and Collins has just bumped Trollope as my favorite English author. The Woman in White is the most spellbinding thriller I’ve ever read, and the characters are incredible.
6. I don’t have TV, but don’t worry, I find plenty of ways to waste time and kill brain cells on the Internet!
The Moonstone is also really good. Have you read that one yet?
Yup, just finished it! Next up is No Name…
I like “perfumister” for the guys…
that’s nice!
That’s great — puts the “mist” in “Mr.”! But maybe it’s the “perfume” part that bugs the guys? Colognista, anyone?
I wondered whether Lily Dale referred to Trollope or spiritualism.
I’m a 19th-century literature addict too. Not so secret vice: Charlotte M. Yonge. (Louisa May Alcott had Jo reading The Heir of Redclyffe.)
I loved Woman in White, and Moonstone! But still like Trollope better. Nothing beats the Barchester series.
I have both The Woman in White and The Way We Live Now on my bookshelf and I cannot wait to read them!
I spent a couple of years on a Trollope binge, but his female characters started to irritate me. His crotchety old ladies with hearts of gold are wonderful, but every younger woman is a dithering idiot who makes dreadful choices unless she has a man to guide her. Collins’s women, though, are smart and sassy and independent as hell (and his villains are pretty cool too — I love Count Fosco!).
I need to read both of those Collins books again – it’s been years and I loved them. I am not much of a re-reader, but now and then…
Love your pedantry! That makes it so much easier for me when I convert my male friends…
1. Kate Moss Velvet Hour – not half bad for a celebuscent!
2. Perfumista for sure – I recently started a blog, partly to stop me spending any more, and also to channel my random perfume musings in a more family-friendly direction. I was at stage 3 till very recently, but have since toppled over into 4 and lost the urge to sample and spend as relentlessly as before. Paring back will follow in earnest now, I sense.
3. Currently none, due to No 2, but it was a 7 a day habit for most of the summer – I was even given the nickname “Queen of the MishMash”.
4. I think I have a HGS in Guerlain Plus Que Jamais. But a drop dead sandalwood would be nice.
5. Percy Kemp “Musc”!
6. The Thick of It – the most swingeing political satire ever to be screened on British TV.
Keep blogging, you’ll be stage 5 before you know it
Flittersniffer, I’ve noticed that your mishmashiness has been on the decline. I was worried about you, but now I get it! I think I’m just behind you in the Stage 3 to Stage 4 transition.
drop dead sandalwood :
Aftelier Pink Lotus…you’ll never see sandalwood the same way again !!
Carol – the “pink lotus” scared me off of trying that one, but you’ve changed my mind! ~D.
for good or evil….
1. Escentric 01
2. Stage 5
3. I tend to sample now in stages – when I get a chance to frequent a big perfume store (mainly when I go to France a few times a year)
4. Not looking anymore (I kind of think the best was in the past unless restrictions are lifted in the future)
5. I tend to read several things at once – right now Stoker’s Dracula, Wharton’s Custom of the Country, Fisher’s The Art of Eating, Brillat-Savarin’s Physiology of Taste, and there’s a couple others in the bedside pile – thrillers by Greene and Ambler.
6. In the UK, my favourite comedy shows are ongoing ones – Peep show, The Thick of It and also the quiz show Have I Got News For You.
I’m reading The Custom of the Country too.
I adored The Art of Eating. Would like to read more of her things…have only read 1 other.
Oops…make that 2: How To Cook A Wolf, and Long Ago in France. Both great.
And then looked at a list, and realized I’d read way more than that. And that I need a new memory chip.
1. Oh man this is kind of embarassing but it’s only the Victoria’s Secret “Sweet Daydream” Eau de Toilette. I love it cause it smells JUST like this kiddie perfume that my sister’s French exchange student gave me as a present when I was in 4th grade.
2. I consider myself a perfumista -in training.- So probably stage 1! (I’m also that one poor college student and perfume tends to be expensive so…)
3. On average, 0. But for the 2 weeks a year that I’m in NYC, I get my nose on as many as possible!
4. A signature rose fragrance.
5. “He’s just not that into you” by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo.
6. I don’t have a TV at college but I love The Office
Well, I am down with some of the Vikki scents and often wear ‘Dream Angels Heavenly’. And Love Spell is one of the very few scents that has Tamarind as a note, I remember looking it up and realizing ‘Oh! so that is what I was liking the smell of so much’. (I grew up in the Caribbean and would often eat sweets prepared with Tamarind)
On the flip side one of my favourites is Feminite Du Bois and at the moment playing with a Dzing sample. I like dem Chanels and I think my next purchase will be some YSL Paris so it is an eclectic taste I have.
I look at it as sometimes just wanting a good hamburger or a even just a hot dog and sometimes going out for a good steak or some lobster.
Hey, if it smells great and brings back happy memories, that’s all that matters!
1. Miller Harris l’air de rien. Man, I love this stuff!
2. I know it’s probably derogatory, but I’m rather partial to “frag hag”. I cycle between stages 4 and 5.
3. Maybe 1 or 2, depending on the week. I tend to be really choosy with what I sample.
4. A truly dry and little bit dirty musk.
5. I finally got around to reading “The Shipping News” by E. Annie Proulx. I highly recommend it.
6. The Office.
The Shipping News is very good.
Loved Annie Proulx’s writing style!!!
3rd that! Or 4th. Anyway, great book. Didn’t love the movie though.
Me too! Once I got used to it. Great book!
I mainly like the term “perfumista” but I must say “frag hag” is more amusing. I must use that term just to see the reaction I get.
1. By Kilian A Taste of Heaven
2. Male, I like ‘isto tho! Stage 5
3.4-5
4.So many scents make me happy, can one have a set of HG’s ?
5. The Coral Thief by Rebecca Stott
6. Glee!
Oh, absolutely…I need one HG for each category. Did not mean a single, signature scent at all!
1) Robert Piguet Fracas. I’m startled to find that my tuberose dislike is rapidly falling away; I’m liking it.
2) I think I’m transitioning between Perfume Mania and Connoisseurship. Though I did, um, _just_ do “Vent Vert for cheap!” thing. But that was a moment of weakness.
Except, of course, that I’m (successfully) resisting buying bottles of Ivoire, Bandit, Fracas, Cravache and Visa. And Tubereuse Couture. And Bois Blond. And Harmatan Noir. And Patchouli 24. And New Haarlem. And Yerbamate. And Vetiver Tonka. And Tihota. And Burning Leaves. And Un Lys. And Dzing!. And Luctor et Emergo. And Extract Of Limes. And Just Breathe. And Sutra Ylang. And Dzongkha. And Black Orchid. And Green, Green, Green, and Green. And Jasmin 17. And Kyoto. And, hey!, Parfumerie Generale has something new!
Okay, fine, Mania. Tempered by a determination not to commit financial suicide. But it has been seven weeks since my last Perfumed Court order. That’s a good sign, right?
3) I usually try a couple of new things a week, not counting sniffing without applying. Just lately, I’ve been running after the parts of the perfume family tree that involve Germaine Cellier and/or Piguet and/or Balmain, so I’ve been trying one new thing almost every day.
4) I don’t have a single holy grail, but I search for the perfect scent in certain categories. I want the perfect orange, for example. So far I have almost totally failed.
5) I’m re-reading _Nassau Street_ by Herman Herst, Jr. for the nth time. It’s about stamp collecting. I no longer collect stamps. That doesn’t matter; it’s like sitting at the dinner table with someone who can tell great stories, for hours and hours.
6) Big Bang Theory.
Fracas was my entry-level tuberose too! And now it’s one of my favorite notes.
1. Comme des Garcons + Stephen Jones
2. Not really, but stage four, I don’t use any term to describe it—I would just say that I hyave an interest in perfumery and scent.
3. Two.
4. Several vintage Carons, Guerlains, and the reconstructed Cotys: some early vintage Tabac Blond or En Avion would really make my year, but I wouldn’t turn down any of the Guerlain chypres in vintage. I can’t get enough oak moss and banned musks.
5. Several—I really enjoyed Wolf Hall and I went through a tear of the Louise Penny and Donna leon mysteries.
6. Other than Project Runway (sometimes) and some other reality pap, I don’t watch much tv.
I read 2 of the Donna Leons recently too. Can’t decide yet if I want to read them all. Also tried another Italian series, can’t remember the author already but the protagonist is Aurelio Zen.
Fun!
(1) Champaca by Ormonde Jayne. I’m living with it to see what I think. So far it’s underwhelming.
(2) I’m not a big fan of the word “perfumista” but I suppose I am one relative to everybody else I know. I’m somewhere between stages 3 and 5, with the ad copy frequently inducing a lot of eye rolling but still having the occasional bout of purchasing everything in sight. I’m really, really trying to pare it down, but sometimes my desire just gets away from me.
(3) No more than 5. I need to live with them for a while, unless they immediately revolt me.
(4) I think my HG is Guerlain’s L’Heure Bleue, but if that’s the case why do I feel like I “need” so many others? I always feel like if I had a “true” HG I wouldn’t need so many other perfumes. I have a serious case of perfume infidelity.
(5) I’m reading Wolf Hall. I always read whatever wins the Booker Prize, and this is highly enjoyable despite the fact that I didn’t think I’d like it at all.
(6) Sadly, no idea.
re. This HG question, however: I have been searching for a beautiful soft oudh. Although I love Montale’s line, I’m thinking of something with much less of an oudh-y slap in the face. It seems like a number of options are coming out or have recently come out, so I’m happy about that.
If you’ve got $400 burning a hole in your pocket, Kilian’s Pure Oud is beautifully smooth.
Sadly I rarely (okay, never) have $400 burning a hole in my pocket! But I will sample some all the same. Thank you!
10 Corso Como!
Robin, I thought I would love 10 Corso Como, but all I got was this plasticky nastiness. It occurs to me that maybe I got a bad batch or they changed something in the formula. A friend of mine who remembers the perfume from a few years ago agreed with me that mine didn’t smell at all like she remembered. Maybe it’s time to try it again…
I’m kind of hoping I will love the L’Aritsan Al Oudh, which may be soft enough to not knock people over. Unfortunately I’ve been banned from a few offices while wearing my favourite Montales.
I was going to suggest watching for the LAP oudh one when it comes out. Just tested 10 Corso Como yesterday? the day before? this week, anyway, and was also sadly disappointed. It started out nice, but then some awfully sour note takes over and lasts a very long time before fading out. Usually I’m complaining that scents are too sweet; not this one!
Ok then. Another soft oud: Tom Ford Oud Wood. But expensive!
Tom Ford’s Oud Wood seems really nice – I haven’t smelled it on skin yet, though.
Trish McEvoy Precious Oud is lovely , and gets no love on the blogs .
It got no love from me because I could not get a sample!
I always used to read the Booker too, but around 6-7 years ago I stopped…they weren’t as consistently interesting to me. Probably that’s about me and not the Booker.
Perhaps it’s not just you, Robin. I’ve heard consistent reports from various sources that often the Booker prize winner isn’t the best of the lot and is, in fact, quite overrated. Not that I can personally attest to this, but I thought it an interesting insight, nevertheless.
They went through a period where they made a few odd choices. (That DBC Pierre book, as I recall, was one of them.) As with anything, the books are hit and miss, but in general more of my “favourite” authors are represented on the Booker list more often than on any other lists.
The other interesting prize, to me, is the James Tait Black prize, which is chosen by Scottish university professors and graduate students without the aid of any sort of interfering busybodies. They usually choose good books, too.
Could be, but I think people have always said that…I think my reading habits have just changed. I don’t read as much new fiction as I used to, and I’m not as willing to read something that’s “hard going” as I was when I was younger. The internet, and the way it parcels out small bits of information, has made me a lazier reader, maybe? Or it’s something else, I don’t know.
Tastes change, I suppose. I don’t think you’re missing much by not keeping up on the Booker, anyways!
Let’s see..
1) encre noire edt
2)yup, I am..stage 2 I’d say, but my sample-sniffing has calmed down a lot lately..
3)this week, for example,nothing. Last week…3..dpends..
4)not looking for any HG..figured out that something that’s HG this week..mostly changes next week.
5)started one just this week: “Dogs that know when their owners are coming home”, by a biologist named Sheldrake..looks really interesting, about the strange capabilities of pets..telepathy and thigns like that
6)not watching much TV lately..
What an interesting sounding book – just added it to my Amazon wishlist!
1. Bond No 9 Nuit de Noho
2. Stage 2.
3. 1-5
4. A scent with coconut that is not sweet and has lasting power
5. The Rape of Europa (non-fiction account of the fate of Europe’s art during the Nazi years)
6. Flight of the Conchords – working my way through Season 2
I love FotC’s “Hurt Feelings”. Cracks me up!
Adore FOTC, so sad they’re not going to do a 3rd season!
1. Navegar by L’Artisan Parfumeur. Seeing what I think of a sample.
2. I’ve got stage 2 written all over me (beginning perfume mania), though I can identify with some of the traits of the other stages, like the overall appreciation of scent in general.
3. One or two
4. No holy grails for me at this point!
5. “Laura Rider’s Masterpiece” by Jane Hamilton. It’s a fun, light novel and a departure from her weightier books.
6. Top Chef provides me with moments of unintentional hilarity!
Thanks for a fun poll!
Oh, and what are you thinking of the Navegar?
I’m finding it pleasantly unisex and “forest-y” (well, forest-y except for the citrus). My first impression reminded me of walking the trails at a particular state park that I like. I’m not picking up on all the notes that LAP mentions, though, like rum — which sounds great, but I can’t smell it. All in all, nice but probably not FB-worthy for me.
Wait, are you trying Navegar or Navigateur? (and really, it’s ridiculous for them to have two perfumes w/ such similar names)
1- NarcissoRodriguez (EDT)°C
2- Stage.1 I love perfumes but I can’t aford most of it
3- one
4- Looking for a good long lasting summer fragrance, since we have 9 months of hot weather with 35°C
6- LOL! a tvshow just Jokes
It’s hard to keep up, money-wise. But boy do I envy your weather!
though most of good perfumes r expensives, I do have some Collection, but they all good for winter, cool, cold weather. (Addict, pure poison, Alien, Angel, NR, euphoria, chanel No5, allure, Armani Code,…
I hate having long Hot summer, and it’s hard to have the perfect fragrance for this kind of weather.. any suggestion for a not heavy long lasting summer fragrance?
Bvlgari Omnia Crystalline, Chanel Cristalle Eau Verte?
How about Le Labo’s Bergamote 22? It’s lovely.
Yuck – we have a long, hot summer here, too. I’ll second the Chanel Cristalle Eau Verte and add Le Labo Fleur d’Oranger, Estee Lauder Jasmine White Moss, EL Tuberose Gardenia, EL Pure White Linen Breeze, Marc Jacobs the original, CKOne Summer, Pucci Vivara, Mac Naked Honey (an LE, so I don’t know if you’ll be able to find it), and Lubin Gin Fizz (vintage, I haven’t tried the new one), DKNY Be Delicious, and Hermes Vanille Galante. I also love L’Occitane Bergamot Tea, but it doesn’t last very long.
This is fun!
1. OJ’s Tolu
Oopps I hit enter before I was finished!!
2. I think about 3.5. Definitely not 4 because I still have a hard time identify certain notes..but I’m working on it.
3. 4 or 5 either from the store or samples I haven’t tried yet.
4. Vanilla, they all seem too bakery to me or either smokey. Maybe I just wont’ find an HG vanilla and just declare Shalimar my HG vanilla, but for me Shalimar is so much more than vanilla.
5. I’ve recently read The Help by Katherine Stockett which was great, and am reading Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, and I loved Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, but that book takes a time commitment.
6. So far the funniest things I’ve watched have been reruns of The Office.
Happy Friday everyone.
Hi Tara – I avoid most vanillas b/c I don’t want to smell like cake or nice candles either. Except Shalimar mind you. You may want to test the vanilla oriental Mauboussin which is just excellent. Or the Beihl Parfumskunstwerke eo01 (Egon Oelkers 01). It is a very beautiful soft spices- slightly smokey-chalky vanilla that is really well done. And you won’t smell like food or candles!!
my vanilla is “by night” profumi del forte… vanilla-flowery more than foody
Hi Bee,
Is that like the Hermes Vanille Galante?
Tara
Thanks I will try them…I’m asking for TPC gift certificate for Christmas so I’ll start my sample list now!!
If you haven’t seen the original British version of the Office, it’s worth checking out. It’s funny in a more painful way though — they really lightened it up for the US.
I’ve just slathered my (poor over-worked) wrist with Les Nereides Douceur de Vanille, which is a powdery, softly warm vanilla. It’s more seductive than romantic, despite the powder, and has an addictive quality that’s making it difficult for me to remove my wrist from my face long enough to type… I recommend a sniff!
I love quizzes! (I’m new here so I’m not sure if there are quizzes left and right — excuse my newbie enthusiasm.)
1) Penhaligon’s Opus 1870 — my number 1 winter favorite for what feels like the first truly wintry day in NYC.
2) Beginning perfume mania — I can reliably identify a handful of notes that I like (pepper, incense, iris, vetiver, among others) as well as categories I don’t like (fougere, juicy fruits, anything with too much or too-sweet vanilla). And I’ve developed an indie geek’s penchant for niche lines (ELd’O, Le Labo, Heeley and Eau d’Italie are current favorites) and quirky historic houses (Santa Maria Novella, Penhaligons). Sorry for all the parentheses!
3) One to two
4) It still seems way to early to pinpoint a Holy Grail when there’s still so much to try…
5) Re-read Walker Percy’s “The Moviegoer.” My god, that man could write.
6) “Parks & Recreation” or “Bored to Death”. Or the last season of “The Rachel Zoe Project” — irony intended. Her visit to Givaudan in NYC made me shake with envy.
No, it’s actually been a good long time since we’ve done a quiz.
And adore the Moviegoer! For some reason, have never been able to finish the follow-up, the name of which escapes me at the moment. I’ve read the first half about 4 times, then always give up.
1. I’m wearing La Base today. I stumbled upon it while browsing on Lucky Scent and realized that I had it in the original bottle. So I’m wearing it today.
2. I’ve been collecting and trying perfumes for so many years, I would have to say that I’m at least in Stage 4.
3. I’ve had a shortage of funds for months and haven’t been able to buy anything, however, the last couple of weeks I’ve tried an average of 5 new samples per week. Outside of Stephen Jones’s fragrance, I realized that I had not tried any other CdG scents. So I am now in the process of trying the Incense Series, as well as the Red Series–Carnation.
4. I have a several HG scents: Bois des Iles, Hiris, Ormande Jane Woman, Un Rose Chypre, TDC Bois de Iris, SL Chergui and Muscs Kublai Khan, Delrae Amoureuse, FM Carnal Flower and Musc Ravengeur, and Chanel No. 5.
5. I have started reading at least 5 books that I haven’t had time to finish.
6. Two and a half men always cracks me up.
And what do you think of the rest of the CdG line so far?
1. Cartier Roadster
2. im level 2. i dont label myself as perfumista or anything else for that matter.
3. maybe 2 per week
4. i suppose i want to find a great leather scent
5. nope, nothing that great lately
6. i dont watch tv
Down with labels? I’m ok with that.
My first Lazy Friday
Thanks, Robin!
(1) Ralph Lauren Romance… wanted something easy.
(2) No, not a perfumista. But I really enjoy reading this blog (and all the great comments!) and am really awed by you perfumistas out there!
(3) Not that many… Maybe 1-2? Grad school keeps me away from the shops!
(4) A tea fragrance that actually smells like tea and lasts all day!
(5) Only textbooks
(6) Funniest show… I always love 30 rock
Oh gosh…that tea scent, if you ever find it, do tell! Not sure it exists, at least, not yet.
1) SOTD is my new decant of Lumiere Noire pour Femme. Unsniffed, mind you, but totally justified swoony-juice.
2) I can identify myself in stages 2, 3, and 4. And honestly, there’s some part of me that’s rubbing its hands together evilly and cackling, “Classify ME, will you? Fools!” But I confess to the following: I have frequently bought miniature vintage things on ebay, just because I wanted to try them. I have an Excel file with copious notes. I frequently review scents in my blog. And just over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking, “Now how should I divest myself of these many lovely miniatures that don’t really knock my socks off?”
3) Generally test 3-5 new scents a week.
4) Still seeking the perfect fresh-spicy carnation scent, the one that makes me think of the white ones that grow in the garden. Also looking for a simple black tea+violets scent. Not violets, tea, and something else – JUST violets and tea.
5) Currently rereading snippets of “Rose” by Martin Cruz Smith, master of understatement and subtlety, in between working on my novel for NaNoWriMo.
6) I think I have a TV… when it’s on, it’s always showing Animal Planet, Discovery, or ESPN, and I’m never watching it.
(Okay, sometimes I watch the Food Network.)
Ha, Stage 4, in denial. (well you DARED me to classify you!)
And congrats on doing NaNoWriMo. Some day, I’ll do it. But not this year.
Well, I did throw down the gauntlet.
NaNo is really fun. I stressed about it last year, but this time I started with an outline about what scenes I needed. So now I’m just, you know, writing them. It’s shockingly easy… hard part is getting all my normal stuff done. There’s a ton of laundry, and this is only the first week…
My husband is doing it this year, and I put up flyers for it in the library. Some of our teens signed up for it, so it seems like a lot of fun. …. I may try it next year.
It’s just such poor timing…they ought to do it in February or March, when there is nothing much else going on. This time of year just has too much going on.
Well, you KNOW that whoever scheduled it for November didn’t have any Christmas season responsibilities.
And I just jinxed myself by saying it was “easy”! I didn’t write anything yesterday – too busy.
1. YSL Parisienne. Bought on a whim at Sephora and enjoying it more than I thought I would.
2. Hmm … I would say I’m in stage 3-ish?
3. 5-6 on average.
4. I seem to have many HGs. I’m still looking for the perfect “slightly powdery but not overly so” frag.
5. “Juliet, Naked” by Nick Hornby. A breezy and satisfying read.
6. “Flight of the Conchords.”
I have bottles of Parisienne and Ma Dame on the way from Sephora – due to arrive on Monday! Great to be able to enjoy some mass market fragrances and not have to pay an arm and a leg for a bottle…
Yep, the price certainly was right, and since I’m enjoying it quite a bit, it was definitely a bargain! Hope you like yours too.
Nick Hornby does great breezy but satisfying reads! And even better movies. I still like to watch High Fidelity.
Oh, me too! They did a really good job of transitioning that from book to screen (and from London to Chicago, setting-wise).
Loved that movie! Of course, John Cusack is one of my very favorite actors anyway, but that movie somehow just really resonated with me.
Thought the book was very good… you say there’s a movie? With John Cusack?? Must go check Netflix. I heart Johnny C.
I had a crush on JC for a loooong time when I was a teen! Better off Dead and The Sure Thing are so hysterical! But now we really enjoy him in that Bullets over Broadway. It is so funny and well done — Don’t Speak! Don’t Speak!
Count me in on the JC crush.
AnnS, yes, Dianne Wiest is so awesome in Bullets Over Broadway! As well as JC.
Today? Badgly Mischka
Probably in Stage 2.
4
I’ll never find my HG. It is the QUEST, after all, not the actual finding, and I love the quest.
I don’t watch much TV, but have been reading Chandler Burr’s new novel and will then read, “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”.
Hows the CB novel? I have it but haven’t read it yet.
1) 31, rue Cambon (help, I think I need a whole bottle)
2) ideally : 4, but with frequent relapses to to stages 2 and 3
3) 2-3 (because I am really supposed to be at stage 4)
4) a) the perfect incense b) the perfect rose
5) S. Rushdie: The enchantress of Florence
6) no TV
HEY BEE!!! I’m wearing it today, too, and not sure if you saw my post above, but I’ve been lamenting the thought of spending $200 for a bottle. Want to split one?
probably wrong continent… and anyway, I’m afraid I need the whole 200 ml, Î might have found the perfumista’s nightmare, a signature perfume…
Wow. I hear ya. I love it, too. In fact, when answering the HG question, I actually started thinking 31 RC might be it! So, Bee, dear scent twin, hope you get your $200 bottle and wear the juice with abandon!
1. L’Air du Desert Marocain
2. Definitely obsessed but not disciplined enough (no notes, no spreadsheets, no system to sampling) to earn the “ista” designation…so maybe a lazy stage three.
3. Usually a couple, sometimes more. I’m definitely experiencing sample fatigue. I sometimes feel like those little vials are mocking me with their few drops of juice and lack of spray tops…
4. A fragrance that can carry on an interesting conversation all day (or night…); Amouage Lyric, Parfum de Therese, Ormonde Woman and Shalimar in all its iterations come pretty close.
5. Lots of good reading suggestions here—time for another Amazon order…
I’m reading the Library of America Raymond Chandler volumes. Great stuff. Nice to see the recs for Custom of the Country. I was a big evangelist for that book a few years back—made all my friends read it and then we had snarky fun identifying the Undine Spraggs from Apex City amongst our acquaintances…all in good fun of course… ☺
6. Gotta be the Craig Ferguson show; that man makes me weep with laughter.
Love, love, love Raymond Chandler. I re-read all those every so often, along with Dashiell Hammett.
I LOVE Craig Ferguson! I am sad that I can’t stay up for him any more…
I loved him on the Daily Show in the 90s. Gorgeous!
1. I’m wearing Ed Hardy Love & Luck today – a bit mainstream, but I do love it.
2. I am a stage 2 perfumista. I actually just tried Mitsouko this week and didn’t like it, so you nailed that one right on the head!
3. Since I’m only stage 2, I don’t have a whole lot of samples, so it all depends on how many trips to Nordstrom’s, Sephora and Ulta I make in a week! Probably about 2 or 3 right now.
4. I’m just trying to find lot of different types of things, but I also need to find ones that don’t give my boyfriend migraines – I have to do all my testing on work days so it’s mostly worn off by the time I get home. Looking now for a spicy/boozy vanilla that isn’t too sweet or powdery – just joined in my first split, so maybe it will be Havana Vanille!
5. Not reading anything now – just finished The Time Traveler’s Wife a few weeks ago – late to that party, I know!
6. The first 5 minutes of last night’s 30 Rock is the funniest thing I’ve seen on TV in ages. I’ve heard good things about Modern Family, but haven’t watched it yet.
there is one other fragrance i’m looking for – just yesterday i was thinking i wish there was a boozy tea and honey fragrance. and then i realized that’s a hot toddy. so yes, i want to smell like a hot toddy.
LOL!
I doubt you’ll look back, but just in case you do: I just saw a post on Facebook that Demeter has a Hot Toddy scent. (Of course they do!)
I thought Love & Luck was a really fun scent.
SOTD: C&S Cuba.
Stage: Levels 2,3, and 4. Feel I’m mostly beyond 2, but still don’t know all I should in level 3, and began this obsession with the idea of limited myself to 25-30 full bottles at the most, so I’m already very careful of what I buy as a full bottle, so I guess that’s like skipping ahead to the paring your collection down part of stage 4.
My testing goes through phases of famine or feast.
I feel like all my full bottles are HGs.
I’m currently reading Tom Jones and my favorite TV comedy is still the Office. Loved Pam and Jim’s wedding !
The wedding was perfect! I wish I could find time to watch all the video shorts on the Office website, those look hysterical too.
1. I’m wearing a little of my sample of Amouage Lyric Woman, but I’m a little stuffy and I can’t appreciate it properly. Whine whine.
2. I’d say so, though I’m not fond of that specific term. I think I’m somewhere between stages two and three, as I have no fantasies of finding one, specific “signature” scent, but I also don’t earn enough money at the moment to have been able to buy lots of samples & decants and such. It’s hard to move along in these stages when you’re poor!
3. Here I run into the money problem again. Only a few a week. I go to Barney’s, Bergdorfs, Saks and – my favorite – Aedes de Venustas and spritz when I can.
4. Something that makes me feel like my friendly/gooey self and an assertive badass at the same time. It’s all pretty nebulous at this point, I have no idea what this scent will consist of, but I’ll keep you updated. Maybe even submit something to be considered for Monday Mail once I know better what I like and what I don’t?
5. Just read Chuck Klosterman’s IV. Brilliant sarcastic cultural commentary. Love it.
6. I don’t have TV, but my roommate and I have been watching the first two seasons of 30 Rock. Hilarious. I always come back to Arrested Development though, as an all-time favorite.
Yes, Arrested Development is the best ever. I can watch any of them any time and they always crack me up. Jessica is so arch and funny … They are all good. Perfect casting. I wish I had Portia de Rossi’s wardrobe!! I love Buster…. I could go on!
My roommate and I pass by each other at home and say: “Heeeeeey Roommate,” with an occasional back massage.
We’re nerds.
Does that include a shoulder rub? There are so many funny parts. My husband and I just watch it all the time. Gob is hysterical. When I’m having a bad day, I just muster up all the “Jessica” that’s inside me. I wish I could be so rude and elegant at the same time!
Yes, back massage/shoulder rub/whatever you call it. “I’ve made a huge mistake” is also a frequently used phrase in our house.
Glad to know we both have such good taste!
I agree–AD is the funniest show of all time.
“Hey, hermano.”
Oh, you sound like you’re ready for the Monday Mail now!
I am wearing TDC Jasmine de Nuit. I think I have reached stage four (such a relief for the bank account). I haven’t sampled anything new in a few weeks (the meaty part of my thumbs are not being used as much these days
The last thing I read was an autopsy (sorry- occupational hazzard)- I really need to find something fun and quick and great for my upcoming week off for Thanksgiving!!! Any suggestions? Love the Glee (where did it go?) and Mad Men…
Fun & quick: David Sedaris, do you like him? I really liked his last one, When You Are Engulfed in Flames.
For a fun & quick read, I recommend Nick Hornby’s “Juliet, Naked”, which I just finished. Very enjoyable. And I second Robin’s David Sedaris recommendation — with the holidays coming up, you can’t go wrong with his “Holidays on Ice.” Hilarious.
Thanks Robin and Jill for the good recs. I love David Sedaris and will look for the Hornby too…
1. Louve by Lutens
2. I have reached the state of uncontrolable perfume mania, I got scared one morning that I remembered I have been dreaming of trying new perfumes… Luckily I have other stuff to do otherwise I would be lost in perfumes…….
3. when I can make time I try until 10, when I do not have time it’s 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 ……
4. A tuberose that suits me
5. An amazing one but in Dutch: Good Times by Edzard Mik
6.I do not watch funny shows……
Oh, I’ve dreamed about perfume! Pretty funny, when you think about it.
1. This is a “furlough Friday” for me, so I was wearing Ormonde Jayne Frangipani early this morning while cleaning the house, and now after a shower I’m wearing biehl mb03.
2. Definitely stage 3
3. On average, four or five
4. Don’t really have an HG
5. I also (like Aparatchick) just finished The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters–recommended!
I had not heard of that book…sounds interesting. Is it creepy?
The Little Stranger was great, and I say that as someone who was not impressed by Waters’ other books. It is at turns a story of a haunting and the haunted, fraught with class resentment and isolation. It is very creepy at points, but there is a lot more going on than that. Definitely recommended; I could not put it down.
Thanks very much!
1. BBW Sensual Amber layered with Yves Rocher Lilac, and it smells good.
2. Well not quite, I just have a nose and like, use it probably more than most. Probably halfway between stage 1 and 2.
3. Depends on the week, can vary from sometimes 3-4 to 10, this week is 14 (I went and bought some samples online for the first time, darn you people!
4. Honestly I have not really “looked” as yet but I want something good of the following:
*Rose + Chocolate
*Vanilla + Jasmine
*Beautiful lilac smell that lasts and lasts
*Spicy scent that is appropriate for a real hot summer
5. I am currently reading Obama’s book and something about solar powering your home (waaay in the future goal for me).
6. I don’t watch TV often but I like “How I met your mother”.
Further to #4. I am thinking to get myself some Diorissimo Parfum. However, I keep seeing people rave that it is “not what it used to be”. However I have tried the new EDT and love it but think I should go stronger with the parfum (probably new as well). I never smelt the older one or the vintage so ignorance is bliss right?
Yes, ignorance is absolutely bliss! Buy the parfum, and avoid anything vintage.
1. Coco Mademoiselle Extrait and Sensuous.
2. Stage four – but I confess I skipped the very pricey stuff.
3. None anymore, I review again and again the samples I have. It might take me one year to like a scent and buy it.
4. Something with sharp aldehydes like Chanel EP and something like Le De with more longevity. And the “even better then Nahema” rose scent. And something that smells like KUSMI Troika, Eral Grey with orange and citrus flowers, very delicate.
My favourite right now is Kelly Caleche EdT. Used 50ml in 5 months.
Wow! I don’t think I’ve ever drained a bottle in 5 months.
Wow! Lots of comments already.
1. L’Eau de Tarocco. I’ve come to love this one for easy but terrific “everyday wear.” (Thanks, Carlos!)
2. I’m on the verge of Stage 4, since I’m almost ready to part with things I don’t truly love and I’m often content to not NEED to smell ASAP everything that strongly piques me. Plenty of moments of cynicism.
3. Avg maybe 5-7 per week and yet have a huge backlog of vials that I’m too “tired” to sniff. It’s ridiculous.
4. Not looking for any HGs; just enjoying the ride!!
5. Just finished the great “Specimen Days” by Michael Cunningham (“The Hours”). Also recommend “Alex & Me,” a scientist’s heartbreaking account of her cognition work with an African Grey parrot.
6. “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” has had me rolling and is an embarrassing, trashy guilty pleasure to admit.
Headed to San Francisco for a long weekend but don’t expect any perfume shopping. Hope everyone has a good one!
Ooh – San Fran – enjoy!
I listened to the Alex & Me author on NPR, can’t remember which show — but it was fascinating.
Have fun in SF, Joe! Maybe just a LITTLE perfume shopping?
Your book recs sound really interesting!
Joe! you’re coming to see me and didn’t call?? lol
Enjoy my town! (not even a little side trip to Barneys?)
1. Tibetan Mountain Temple (Pacifica)
2. Hmmm…requires more thought
3. 2-3
4. Holy Grail Fragrance would require me to quit looking and that is half the fun! Fracas is probably as close as it will ever get for me.
5. The Lost City of Z, The Girl with the Dragonfly Tatoo, A Happy Marriage, and Push.
6. We don’t own a t.v…and even if we did I usually only watch The Barefoot Contessa–not really funny. We do have a media room but we just moved…
I read Girl w/ Dragon Tattoo this summer. Liked it, but decided to skip the sequels.
I always got late in this funny pools
My answers:
1. I’m wearing clipping, a tobacco mint herbal fragrance from O Boticario, a brazilian perfumery. This fragrance is discontinued, but is perfect for the ultra hot day today.
2.Yes, between stage 3 and stage 4. I not consider myself at stage 4 because i love to shop fragrances, even with my collection reaching 135 fragrances :S
3. In general 3, at the weekends. During the week i use my fragrances.
4.The perfect boozy spicy scent.
Your O Boticario sounds nice! They do some great scents for a low price.
OOoOOooOOh I love polls.
1. Etro Anice. Luvs it.
2. I really hate that word with as much passion as I hate the word fashionista. Ugh. But to answer your question: a sheepish yes and alternating between stages 3 & 4 – paring down comes quite naturally to the terminally short of cash.
3. Either I sample nothing or I sample everything within reach. I know no boundaries.
4. A true almond or hazelnut scent that isn’t sweet, confectionary or marzipan-y or bakery-y, and doesn’t dissipate in gooey musks or plain vanilla extract. Preferably with big woods or incense.
5. Bonfire of the vanities – Tom Wolfe.
6. I don’t own a telly, but I’m re-watching 3rd Rock from the Sun. Hell that was good.
Funny, I hate fashionista, and recessionista, but perfumista doesn’t bother me. Wonder why.
If you find that almond, do tell!
Hello fellow NSTers. Dontcha love these polls?
I can’t wait to go back later and read everyone’s responses!
SOTD – LM Minuit Enchante [for the second time this week - going through a sample. It's scrumptious.]
Stage 3
It would seem that I sample at least one new fragrance a week, and of course, sometimes a helluva lot more than that.
The HG I’m searching for is a floral [other than rose or jasmine as I have lots to love there] that doesn’t get cloying on me. I have serious issues with florals. ha
I’m not currently reading anything [other than trying to keep up with my myriad magazine subscriptions]. My last two books, back to back, were Monsters Of Templeton [quirky, fun read] and No Country For Old Men [the Coen brothers were quite faithful to the book].
There are a few good comedies on TV. There’s a new show called Modern Family that’s hilarious and 30 Rock rocks. haha
One other item I’d like to share since folks here may appreciate this, is how good my house smells today. Earlier I roasted a huge batch of peppers, which, after much peeling and seeding, are now marinating in a nice extra virgin olive oil. And I now have acorn squash in the oven roasting in a mixture of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, chili powder, fig infused balsamic vinegar and S&P. That may sound like a weird combo of flavorings, and it is, but it works. It’s making me drool. LOL
Weird? Nope…I’ll be right over! Yummy!
Awesome. I hope you like wine, cause I just opened a bottle.
I *should* like it. I keep trying to like it. But when it comes right down to it, shame of shames, I’m just a dessert wine kind of girl. Some day, I’ll find a red I can love…maybe.
You will. Consider yourself a Stage 1 Vinista.
“Stage 1 Vinista” Cute! Hey – dry red wine is an acquired taste for many folks. I took to it from my first sip though.
Ooh ooh ooh! Monsters of Templeton! You need to read Delicate Edible Birds! She’s a great writer.
Yep – and what a title! I plan to read it.
Oh no – I forgot to mention the orange juice in that squash recipe. That’s what happens when you make up a recipe as you go.
I adored The Monsters of Templeton! I’m thrilled to find others who enjoyed it too.
yum, you have inspired me, I have an eggplant and I think I will try the brown sugar with some ground ginger and coriander, S&P.
Sounds delish!
MUA flashback with these polls! Today I’ll play.
1. Ormonde Jayne’s Tiaré (is this even out yet? if not, nyah nyah!)
2. I don’t know what to call myself at this point.
3. While working on the guide, roughly 40. Normally, I nose around two or three testers per week when out and about.
4. I think the best days of the woody floral are yet to come.
5. Just finished reading all six volumes of the Penguin translations of Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu: special kudos to Lydia Davis’s genius first volume (Swann’s Way), Mark Treharne’s Guermantes Way, and Ian Patterson’s final volume (usually translated as Time Regained or Time Found but translated here oddly as Finding Time Again). If anyone wants to give Proust a try, feel free to skip The Prisoner/The Fugitive (aka the Albertine novel) because life is short and it is boring.
6. No normal TV, just Netflix, but I’ve been rewatching Monty Python episodes when I can’t sleep, leaves me in little damp shreds of hysterics scattered all over the floor. Tried to watch Fawlty Towers too but I confess I quit because I don’t find it funny at all,.
Re: Fawlty Towers – thank you! I was raised on Monty Python and still enjoy things like the Welsh Coal Miners arguing over historical minutiae, but my dad was never able to get me into Fawlty Towers. Maybe I need to revisit it, but all I can remember is “This is Brahms! Brahms’ third racket!”
Glad I’m not the only one.
My father thinks no music is good music unless it’s classical; and he thinks no TV is good TV unless it’s on public television (which, 9 times out of 10, seems to mean it’s British). Masterpiece Theatre, Doctor Who….. and now there’s my husband with his Keeping Up Appearances (now THAT was funny!) and oh, I forget which others.
I think, with all due respect, you could call yourself a fragrance Guru.
I almost answered: Goddess. But I’m not worthy.
yup, I was thinking : Guru
perfect
Hey TS! Welcome! I just received my new paperback edition and see that you and LT are in Boston? Really??? Maybe we should get a group of locals together and fawn all over the two of you. Ha ha. OK, I see you both running and hiding now. Seriously, though, it would be fun to get together a small Boston contingent for a day of sniffing or swapping or sharing silly stories. (I’m in Maine, BTW)
So envious about the Tiaré! Can’t wait to get a sniff of that one…
So pissed. I’ve been stuck in the last volume of Proust for over a year now. Sticking w/ Modern Library versions, however. If I ever finish, I won’t know what to do with myself.
Hey, I’ve been stuck in Swann’s Way for about 15 years now! My mother read the whole shebang several times, so I feel like a complete loser for not being able to hack one lousy volume. Darn it, though, I did read War & Peace twice…
Whereas I’m one of those cheaters that reads the Peace part and quickly skims through the war sections! But Anna Karenina I have plowed through a couple times.
I don’t mind the War parts — although the Peaceful bits are the really rollicking part of the story — but I could do without the long sections where Tolstoy just yammers on about nothing in particular!
1. Wearing Tea for Two by L’Artisan Parfumeur
2. I consider myself a colognoisseur.
3. I try as many as 5-10 new fragrances a week
4. Holy grail fragrance? What’s that?
5. I just finished reading ‘The Magicians’ by Lev Grossman – fun! Harry Potter meets Brett Easton Ellis.
6. Funnies show on TV? That’s easy: South Park
Heehee @ #2!
That WAS clever! Nice!
Colognoisseur — excellent!
1) Cartier XII on one hand and XIII on the other.
2) Probably a 4.5
3) 3 to 4 per week
4) In a perfect world – my discontinued/reformulated HG’s would either reappear or something as wonderful would be composed
5) reading Five Sisters by James Fox about the Langhorne sisters and Spunk and Bite – a funny writing book
6) not a TV watcher except college basketball
Five Sisters is languishing in my “to read” pile by my bed — any good?
At first I wasn’t sure I was going to get into it, but then all of a sudden I found myself halfway through and very interested. I’ll be interested to hear your opinion.
I’ll get to it eventually! But my “to read” pile is pretty bad, almost as bad as my “to smell” pile.
It never bothers me to be low on food, but if my “to read” pile gets low, I start to panic!
To be honest, I’m as addicted to reading as I am to perfumes. Don’t like to have no books to read.
1. today? M7
2. Yeah, I guess–even as a male I would say perfumista (should it be perfumisto???) Although I don’t really refer to myself in those terms too often. I guess I would have to check what other people call me behind my back… they probably call me an addict! I don’t even show my collection to people anymore.
3. in an average week, I would try out about 3 or 4 frag –in addition to those I own and wear on a daily basis
4. Holy grail fragrance ? A new, unopened bottle of Chanel Bois Noir. I know that “technically” it was supposedly just renamed Egoiste, but to me it is different in the same way that vintage Mitsouko is different from modern Mitsouko.
5. Read any good books lately? “Julie/Julia project” and a biographie of Chanel. (sorry can’t remember which one)
6. What’s the funniest show on television this year?
TV has not been able to make me laugh in a while. I just don’t watch sitcoms anymore.
PS: I only reach stage 5 when it come to niche lines. My eyes not only roll in my head, they also do back flips.
PPS: I am still reading my way through PARIS 1919
I think most men just use perfumista, but asked because I wasn’t sure. Doesn’t much matter, and yeah, would never use the word in “real life”.
1; Robert Piquet Visa
2: 4 or 5, cant decide!
3; ideally a knew one everyday
4; would luv to find a spicy, creamy, sweetish, smokey,lighly floral.
Visa, Burberry Brit Gold and Mauboussin are the closest i have found.
5; re-reading all my Maeve Binchy novels
6; QI ,has just hit Australia and re-runs of Teachers- both British-cant beat British humour.
5;
Another Brit Gold fan! I love that one! (And despised Brit and Brit Red.) Thanks for the reminder, I need to add that to the list of things I want from the online discounters.
I have 5 bottles!!! Limited edition -so im always worried that it will cease to be. However i do think i have enough now-maybe!
Oh i forgot my all time fav tv show -Topgear!! And im not a car fanatic but this is the best show!
Brit Gold was a nice one.
Ahhh, I love Teachers
1)I am wearing O Boticario’s Vetiver Brasil and Adidas Dynamic Pulse Cologne, layered. I think I already responded this in a previous poll, sorry for the lack of innovation!
2) I consider myself a perfumista (no gender issues for me) and I can put myself in the range “between full-blown perfume mania and connoisseurship”.
3) Mmm, perhaps 1 or 2 on average. This may include from time to time stopping by an upscale mall nearby and try 5 or 6 new launches.
4)Holy Grail: Still looking for a nice Linden – lemon or orange Blossom scent that can knock me off my feet and not cost an arm and a leg ( as in non-lutens, his “blossoms” are lovely but it is not a habit I want to aquire… too expensive and hard to get).
5) I am currently reading several mystery/fantasy books.
I have on my pile to start reading next week several books (the product of my visit to Borders while on the states last month) : N is for Noose, by sue grafton; Working For the Devil, by lilith saintcrow, and the latest Preston-Child book (I think its Dance of Death, can´t remember) as I have become a fan of one of his characters, Pendergast.
On non-fiction I just read Microtrends by Mark Penn and Sidney Sheldon’s autobiography “The Other Side of Me” ( I loved Syndney Sheldon’s TV shows, and I considered his books the PERFECT beach read).
I like to alternate between fiction and bios/trends stuff.
6) TV: Well I like Science Fiction, but since the reimagined Battlestar Galactica finished early this year, we’ve been hooked to True Blood. None of those shows are “Funny”… for “Funny-haha” we used to watch The Big Bang Theory (nerdy fun) but the truth is that we are waiting to get a couple of seasons of it to watch in a short period of time.
My biggest discovery is that I can watch ALL SEASONS of the incredibly funny UK show Absolutely Fabulous on Youtube, and I am watching an episode or two a night. And also I watch Southpark online too. (cannot wait a full year for the seasons to launch here in Argentina, sorry cable company!)
Trueblood definitely has its funny moments – great show. I’m a fan of the Vampire genre in general though.
I like the vampire genre too.
I liked twilight (although it IS vampires-for-children) True Blood is very very good.
I like Anne Rice too.
The ones I don’t seem to like are the ones from “Vampire Diaries”…. I cannot find a proper adjective to describe their acting, as “lifeless” would be an undesired pun and compliment
HA True dat!
I enjoyed Twilight also. I’m looking forward to New Moon – it looks like like it’s kcking thngs up a notch. I feel like such a tween. Squee! 
Did either of you watch the short lived, but IMO, excellent Moonlight?
I liked (and read) all the Meyer books.
And Rusticdove… Tween is In!
Rappleyea I haven’t heard about moonlight… but will research this weekend ;-P
Rapple, I can’t answer you directly but yes yes yes to Moonlight! Pant pant
YES – I watched Moonlight and lamented it’s cancellation!
YEA! Fellow Moonlight fans! Of course I bought the DVD’s and they have held up to multiple watchings. What wonderful, sophisticated, and witty writing. Vampires for adults.
Ab Fab was the best! I really miss that show. Would not mind owning the whole thing on DVD.
Love reading everyone’s responses! So many good ideas to steal
1. Sa Majeste la Rose
2. I don’t know if I fit into any category neatly – probably 3-4 with elements of 5.
3. Without a cold: 3-4
4. I’m not actively searching for a HG, though I’ve had rose-hankerings lately (see #1). So far, Jubilation XXV and Ta’if have been keeping me very content. If only they were thrifty scents!
5. I have been buried in ancient Greek texts for my doctoral qualifying exams. Blargh. But I do recommend Plato’s Crito. It still moves me, even when I review it for an exam!
6. What’s television?
LOL…television is what you watch when the idea of reading Plato’s Crito is not appealing! But good luck on those exams.
1. Today I’m wearing Encre Noir. I’ve been trying vetivers, and I always come back to this one. I just gave a sample to my partner and got some on my fingers while having him smell it, and I just love it. Always a pleaser.
2. I like the term “perfumisto”, the masculine counterpart. Although, when talking to others about it, the term “perfume” still doesn’t sit comfortably because of it’s feminine connotation. I don’t quite know what to do with this yet, but I often substitute the terms “scent” or “fragrance”. I’d say I’ve moved into stage 4 by now. I’m a little over a year in my journey, and I’ve moved fast! I really do see my life as a stage before I loved perfume and after. To go back to before seems incomprehensible.
3. The number I try in a week is still low at this point, although there are a whole bunch of samples awaiting me on my desk. I already have a lot I own and I like to give them some wear time and not just try only new things. However, at least one or two new ones I like to try in a week. Just tried The Party in Manhattan this week, and was disappointed. I was really hoping for more skank, and the cumin/cedar combo just doesn’t read as skank to me.
4. As mentioned about, I’m still looking for that holy grail of “skank”. I’m doing pretty well, as I have my Jicky parfum, the MKK (thank GOD!) and Bal a Versailles. It might not get better than those, but I still want to try all the masterful uses of civet and other animalics there are. I just know it’s out there. Fingers crossed.
5. I’m reading through Rilke’s “Book of Hours: Love Poems to God”. It has me on the floor. It’s stunning. I’m in a very mystical mood lately, and I’ve also been working through the ecstatic poetry of Rumi, too. The combination of these two has me in an ecstatic space. Perfume can do that, too!
6.It has to be Glee. Jane Lynch’s acerbic dialogue is the funniest thing I have seen in years and I love love love every minute of it. Plus, my inner music theater geek is just having a seizure over how fun the show is!
I agree Rilke is brilliant.
And as far as skank, try Je Reviens in extrait. It is very indolic.
Which house does Je Reviens? I have yet to smell an indolic jasmine, so that’d be great….
Je Reviens = Worth.
Jared – if you’d like a sample, email me at rappleyea11 at yahoo dot com and I can send you some. Although its indolic neroli more than jasmine.
1. Eau Divine. It’s unseasonably warm here today (upper 70s) and I had this in sample form waiting for a test drive. It’s lovely in the way that all the Divines are – seamlessly crafted and rich – but it’s not shouting ‘buy me’. At least not yet.
2. I guess I’d be a stage 4. I’ve become incredibly picky recently.
3. I usually do 1 sample a day, ordinarily near bedtime, so I’m not stuck with it all day if it’s not ‘me’.
4. I found my Holy Grail early on in life – Faberge Tigress. But since I can’t beg, cajole, or threaten anyone into remaking this discontinued classic, I’d be overjoyed to find an honest, true, honeysuckle where the blossom, the ‘honeyness’, and the earthy green of the vine were all represented equally and perfectly.
5. I’ve been working through the Kate Shugak mystery series by Dana Stabenow. All of the books are set in Alaska and are rife with the author’s love for and knowledge of both the history and the current issues of the state. As for non-fiction, I was both engrossed and deeply disturbed by The Dark Side: The Inside Story of how the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer. I think I’m a little late to the party on this one, as it was one of 2008’s “big” books.
6. I’m not much of a tv comedy person. It’s all sports and PBS for this gal.
I liked the Dana Stabenow books. Another Alaska-based mystery series is by Stan Jones (Nathan Active series).
And by the way — thanks to all for the great reading suggestions. I’m going straight from this blog to my local library website to request some of these titles!
Me too!
Also, I love language change and wordplay, but I am such a pedant about ‘perfumista,” which would be correctly genderless in Italian & Spanish (as noted by Natalie above). If espresso vendors start calling their staff ‘baristos’ I may reconsider.
Ha! Love it.
1. Not wearing a frag today, went looking for the new women’s Prada, no luck.
2. Do I consider myself a perfumista? Not at all, my tastes are much too lemming-ish.
3. Try in an average week? Not many, landlocked, no mall.
4. Something perfectly womanly.
5. Good books: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire! I also like Phillippa Gregory she writes about the English court around the time of Henry VIII, kind of like trashy romance crossed with historical fiction.
6. Funniest NEW show: Cougar Town with Courteney Cox, I never thought she was funny before. Just goes to show what great writing can do.
I really loved the Harry Potter series! Sorry they’re done.
Oh, on that note…have you (and/or your son) read the Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper? It’s tied w/HP for my all-time favorite: both YA fantasy, but I’d call HP a kid in a candy shop and DIR a gourmet meal. It’s more substantial, somehow…plus pulls in Arthurian legend, so appeals to my medieval Brit lit major self.
I bought the boxed set, but we haven’t read it yet. Was trying to decide if it was maybe a bit too old for him (he’s 11, but a pretty advanced reader)? Over the summer we finished the Cornelia Funke Inkdeath trio, we both loved those. He also loves the Percy Jackson series, but I haven’t read them, and he liked the Septimus Heap and Artemis Fowl books (I didn’t read those either).
You know, if he’s read the Funkes (I haven’t read the third yet) and the HP series, I don’t see any reason to withhold the DIR. It’s more complex, but not really “older”…just might give you more things to discuss, or (as with myself and the Narnia books) he might just read it for the story now, and pick up more subtle parts when he re-reads it at an older age. Just heading off to listen to a bit of Artemis Fowl on audiobook (hadn’t read any before now either), actually. The “His Dark Materials” trilogy was good too, though that’s the rare one I actually recommend parents read before their kids – definitely some objectionable material there, for some.
I loved His Dark Materials! But I think another year or two before he’d like it. Although probably he could read the first volume now. Did you see the movie? I still haven’t decided if I want to.
(and btw, I read a very small bit of Artemis Fowl, maybe a chapter, and as is so often the case with ya, though plot was fun, writing was dismal. but maybe you’ll like it better than i did)
Sounds like he’s definitely ready for at least the first DIR book, then. (I refuse to see THAT movie though…by all accounts, and even just the trailer, they completely destroyed the book.) I did see the Golden Compass (who could pass up Daniel Craig?), but wasn’t at all impressed. It was an okay/entertaining movie, but as usual, couldn’t come close to the book. Nicole Kidman was the perfect choice for Mrs. Coulter, though.
And I realized after I posted that in fact, I’d already finished AF, lol. Maybe you should try it in audiobook format…I think the dramatization minimizes inferior writing, KWIM? It was a fun listen.
Yes…we’ve enjoyed listening to the Charlie Bone series even though I don’t think those are very good either.
The Artemis Fowl books get better with each book. As I got to the last one, I was disappointed that it was the last since it was just getting good for me. My husband and I both read more YA than anything else.
I’m coming late to the game and cannot catch up on over 500 posts…has anyone mentions books by Ellen Hopkins?
There is an ongoing book series by Erin Hunter (they’re categorized for 9 – 12 yo but we both LOVE them) ‘Warriors’. They are stories about cat clans…most of the books make us cry and I wonder how on earth kids are suppose to read them…but I’m just an overly sensitive person
.
My son ADORES the Warriors series! He’s almost finished with the last book in the third set. I haven’t read them though.
I started to mention Charlie Bone, but decided not to bother because you’re right…the writing is rather poor. Still fun stories though. If AF is along the same lines, I’ll continue listening to rather than reading those, as well.
1. Ambra by Etro, and there is a story here. I recently ordered a bottle of my favorite perfume, Etro’s Messe de Minuit, from a seller on eBay. When the package arrived, it was Ambra instead. I had never smelled Ambra, but I’m a huge fan of amber scents, and when I tried it, I really liked it, though not quite as much as Messe de Minuit. When I contacted the seller to ask about an exchange, she volunteered to refund my money, and told me to keep the Ambra. Wow! When I went back to check, she no longer had Messe de Minuit available, so I’ll have to keep searching for that beloved bottle, but what an unexpected piece of luck! And Ambra’s softer than MdM, so I can wear it during more of the year, too.
2. I don’t know if I qualify for the title “perfumista’… but I would put myself in Stage 2.
3. I probably try, on average, 2-3 new fragrances a week. It would be more if I could afford it, though, tell you what!
4. Something I can wear in very warm weather that gives me as much sensual joy as the dark, spicy fragrances I love in the colder months (like Messe de Minuit and L’Artisan’s Tea for Two). It’s not perfume’s fault, actually… I just hate hot weather, and so light fragrances that work best in hot weather just remind me that it’s not autumn!
5. Recently finished the autobiography of the incomparable Stephen Fry, called _Moab Is My Washpot_. Loved it. I also just finished Oliver Sacks’ _Musicophilia_, which wasn’t an easy read but was fascinating and really informative.
6. “Glee.” My favourite is still “House, M.D.,” because I adore Hugh Laurie (and because I actually live in Plainsboro and study at Princeton), but I have to admit that “Glee” makes me laugh out loud in my living room.
Great story about the Ambra, congrats! And don’t know why I haven’t read anything by Stephen Fry, I do adore him and read his website, and listened to his podcasts when he was doing them. Read Hugh Laurie’s first novel & didn’t like it though. Well, it was fun. Just not as good as I expected.
The Sacks book was great, as are all his books. Did you see the one hour special they did for PBS?
I did see the PBS special — it was excellent, I thought. The autistic man who could play anything at all on the piano after just one hearing? Wow. I had nine years of piano lessons and am lucky to get through a piece that requires both hands.
I haven’t read Hugh Laurie’s book; it just didn’t seem like my thing. Stephen Fry fills me with joy, just in general. I’ve read several of his fictional works and enjoyed them pretty well, but his autobiography was much better. I picked up his new one, _Stephen Fry in America_, last time I was in London, and absolutely loved it! It’s just been released in the States, and I understand the BBC series documentary that accompanies it is due to be shown on PBS soon. Be still, my geeky heart.
Yeah, then avoid the Hugh Laurie book. It made me adore him less.
And yes, I’m waiting for Stephen Fry in America!
GREAT Friday question!
1. Today I’m wearing Miller Harris Feuilles de Tabac.
2. I’m probably somewhere between stages 2 and 3. While I have long given up the idea of finding my signature scent, I can’t say I know what iris works best for me (just to use an example).
3. Lately, not any!
4. I can’t say I’m all that fussed about finding my HG perfume. I’m too busy discovering and learning and relishing. Although I would love to find a perfume that smells like I’ve been reading in an old-worn leather chair, in a slightly musty library, after spending an hour or so planting irises and paperwhites in a lush English garden in the spring (view of which can be seen through the library’s french doors; clearly, I’ve been thinking about this alot).
5. I really enjoyed Ishiguro’s latest, a compilation of short stories called ‘Nocturnes’. And Pollan’s ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’ is an eye-opening and fascinating read.
6. I’m a reader, not a big tv-watcher (I do love Arrested Development, which is no longer on the air)!
P.S. I’ve always wanted to read Ruth Rendall. I hear she’s amazing.
This is in no way a recommendation since I’ve never smelled it, but have you ever smelled CB I Hate Perfume’s In the Library? I’ve always thought it would be an interesting novelty for us book lovers.
I was disappointed in that one. I really wanted to love it, but it just did nothing for me at all. But maybe layered with something (to give the floral notes mentioned above) it would be nicer…
I always thought SL’s Iris Silver Mist was the perfume for book lovers. At least “dusty book” is what I got! LOL!
I have a sample of CB In the Library and have to admit that I was rather disappointed. I like boojum’s idea about layering it with something else, though.
I will have to give SL Iris Silver Mist a try!
Did not even know about Nocturnes, will add it to the list. The last Ishiguro I read was The Unconsoled, so I think I’m behind.
Its really not in Ishiguro’s league but… have you read Banana Yoshimoto? her leit motifs get repetitive at times, but I enjoy it very much.
I have heard of her (can’t think now of where) but not read her. Will add to the list!
Oh, Robin, “Never Let Me Go,” by Ishiguro, is one of most beautiful and heartbreaking books I have ever read. If you have liked Ishiguro in the past, you must check it out. I was captivated from the first few sentences.
Seconding Never Let Me Go. Definitely haunting.
Thank you both, it’s been on my “to read” list for a long time. Will have to move it up the queue!
I’m reading Never Let Me Go at the moment , and I do find it eerie and heartbreaking and am very curious to see how it ends.
Bookgirl, I immediately thought of Dzongka for you! It is one of my favorites and whenever I wear it I think “leather chair in musty library, with iris wafting about….” !! Perfect! I was in L.A. a few years ago and made a stop @ Scentbar (with my husband waiting outside in the car….pressure!) Anyhoo the second I smelled Dzongka I knew I had found a HG that I didn’t even know I’d been searching for. What a satisfying moment, and this fragrance takes me right back to a lovely trip. SUCH a beautiful and serene scent.
Bookgirl, I immediately thought of Dzongka for you! It is one of my favorites and whenever I wear it I think “leather chair in musty library, with iris wafting about….” !! Perfect! I was in L.A. a few years ago and made a stop @ Scentbar (with my husband waiting outside in the car….pressure!) Anyhoo the second I smelled Dzongka I knew I had found a HG that I didn’t even know I’d been searching for. What a satisfying moment, and this fragrance takes me right back to a lovely trip. SUCH a beautiful and serene scent.
Ooh, you’ve intrigued me! One the “to try” list Dzongka goes. Thanks for the recommendation! How nice to have a scent stay with you over the years – so I take it was worth your husband’s potential exasperation/impatience? Or was he an angel and understood completely your sniffing compulsion?
1) Coco Mademoiselle, I’m congested today so I can’t smell it though (:
2) Stage 1. I *only* own about 7 bottles. Too much by normal people-standards.
3) I havent had time to seek out and try any samples lately
4) When I have hypnotic poison on and I take a shower, the top notes fade out and I get a lovely christmas/clove-y musky smell. These notes don’t appear unless I shower immediately after putting it on–for some reason, it fades out on me entirely before it ever even reaches the middle notes. My HG would be hypnotic poision without the medicinal-smelling top notes.
5) Native Son
6) The Office
I have had that experience too…I’m testing something I don’t like, then after a shower it’s perfect.
I’ve had the same shower thing happen too, with Bal a Versailles — I like it well enough as it is, but if I shower immediately after putting it on, this absolutely stunning scent appears that’s not there otherwise.
1. Jalismar
2. I do and it would be 2, normally, but I’m in the “I just took a serious pay cut, so I can’t buy anything new right now” stage.
3. one, maybe? I go on binges when I have the time/access to them.
4. the perfect rose/insence combo that is all things feminine, sexy, dark, mysterious, and sings to me. Not so much yet.
5. Yes! Big Sur by Kerovauc. Awesome in a can, it is.
6. I don’t know, don’t watch TV.
Did you try the Tauer Incense Rose? But that one isn’t really dark & sexy, I guess.
Incense Rose is drop-dead dark ‘n’ sexy on me, if I say so myself — almost unbearably sultry — so definitely give it a shot!
Ok, I stand corrected!
I keep wanting to, perhaps next time I find myself up in NYC I can get a whiff of it.
Hm, rose and incense that sings…Lyric? Excuse the pun.
1. Today I’m tried out Leslie Blodgett’s Perfume diaries. It seemed to wear off quickly so I spritzed on Lavanilla Vanilla Spice before leaving the house.
2. I’m at stage 2. And this is my first post – hi everyone!
3. It depends on my mood and my sample collection. Last week was Kenzo week and I tried out 2 new-to-me scents and Kenzo Flower because I keep thinking I should like it.
4. I love and adore lavender and good lavender scents are hard to come by.
5. I just started Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.
6. 30 Rock!!! It never fails to make me laugh.
Hi and welcome! I don’t really love Flower either, but I like some of the Flower flankers…Flower Oriental, and Winter Flowers. Might be worth a shot if you haven’t tried them.
loved the vanilla spice last time i was in sephora. too bad they don’t make a roll-on of that one – didn’t feel like throwing down for a whole bottle.
Odori Spigo is a gorgeous lavender/incense thing…!!
1. Le Labo’s Rose 31
2. Perfumista, perfumisto, whatever… I’ve been called worse
And I’d say I’m towards the end of Stage 3 / beginning of Stage 4 (with some cynicism starting to creep in).
3. Depends on the week, and what’s out… Around 6-7 every 2 weeks (I guess that averages to 3-4 a week, but I don’t have the discipline to space them out..).
4. I go between the Perfect Iris, the Perfect Leather, the Perfect Musk.. Perhaps an iris-leather-musk-fig-saffron? Now I’m back to Iris (must be the fall), and I’m afraid I may have found it: Cartier’s L’Heure Promise (sorry ISM, way too harsh to be lovable)..
5. Nothing knockout in a while.. Now finishing Dan Brown’s awful “Lost Symbol”. “The Geography of Bliss” was thought-provoking, “The Monster of Florence” interesting.. But nothing earth-shattering since Rabih Alameddine’s astounding “Hakawati”. Though right now nothing is hitting the spot like poetry: Neruda’s “The Sea and the Bells” and my Holy Grail, Joe Bolton’s “Last Nostalgia”..
6. Hands-down “Modern Family”! I thought sitcoms were done, and then this came along. Totally revived my faith in the possibility of smart sitcoms!
*weeps for my poor ISM*
I’m a bit late, but since we do have some common likes (Rose 31 and Hakawati) and dislikes (ISM, sorry, Robin), you might want ot try Iris Taïzo…(sorry again, Robin)
’s ok
1. Japanese Cherry Blossom by The Body Shop. Perfect for when it gets above 30 deg C
2. Love this article (I clicked on the link)! I’m stage 2. I feel I’m on the brink of stage 3 which appears to be the bank-account clearing stage, I think I am only holding back because the account is being cleared at the moment for my trip to Europe next June … !
3. About 2 a week, at the most it’s been 5
4. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I really enjoyed this though I must admit to doing some eye-rolling and cringeing when she started going on about meditation and visions …
5. This isn’t a funny ha-ha show but I’m addicted to Glee! Love this one!
Oops I’ve missed a question! Yes I consider myself to be a beginner perfumista.
And my HG would be the rose scent that reeks more of sex than English garden (without making me gag!).
Annick Goutal Ce Soir ou Jamais? Or does that make you gag, LOL?
I haven’t tried that AG – I will look out for it on my next trip to the mall. Thanks for the tip!
Hi Lsnuing – IMHO the slight skank note in Ce Soir ou Jamais is a little more prominent in the dry down of the edt than the edp. They are basically the same, but the edp is a little richer and keeps itself together longer.
You may also want to try the Miller Harris Rose en Noir. It’s a limited edition fragrance, but you can find samples of it on the internet. It is very dark rose with a deep patchouli, but it’s not like L’A Voleur de Roses.
I really like FM Noir Epices for a dark sexy rose and spices.
Thanks Anns! I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for those
The Answer to the Sex/Rose scent question: Maison Francis Kurkdjian Lumiere Noire Pour Femme. Dear Lord… I just got my decant on Friday. It made me want to… ahem. Well, let’s just say I couldn’t wait for The CEO to come home and for us to get the kids in bed.
1. Feminité du Bois– just got it from ebay. Love the bottle, the fragrance is intoxicating. I hear people call it woody fruity oriental all the time, but to me it smells like a chypre– Mitsouko could be its strangely related long lost sister. Or not.
2. I am definitely on stage three. I think about perfume nonstop– its out of hand. I like using the term “cologne connoisseur” or “colognoisseur”.
3. I try and do as many as possible, but being in school makes testing them awkward, so I usually average 2-3.
4. A scent that is masculine(not necessarily a men’s fragrance) but has the depth of a feminine as well as the longevity. And of course, the perfects: leather, rose, iris, incense, fougere, etc.
5. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
6. Something trashy like Tool Academy probably.
Congrats on your new FdB!
And something about the combo of The Scarlet Letter and Tool Academy cracked me up. It’s good to have eclectic tastes
All of the Bois 1920 are complex and interesting and to my nose , lean towards masculine . Vetiver Ambrato is great !
Late to the party.
1.Chanel #5. I wore it many years ago when I was gifted a bottle & it never felt like *me*; lately got a hankering to smell it again and swapped for a bottle of the edt. It suits me better now.
2. I love to read the blogs and try lots of scents, but I’m pretty midwest practical about the cost of this hobby. I kind of think of myself as a *dabbler* in perfume.
3. Several from my ever growing sample stash.
4. A fragrance with a really good sap note that doesn’t fade to nothing in the base.
5. Stephen White’s latest, which you might like as you like mysteries, R. It’s called The Siege. My favorite book of his is Kill Me, which would make a fabulous movie, imho.
6. I’m enjoying Glee, Modern Family and would enjoy Mad Men had I not cancelled cable last year. My favorite way to watch tv is on the computer at hulu.com (not affiliated.)
Thanks for the poll, I love to read these.
Thanks, will add The Siege to my list!
Hooray for Friday!
1. Today I’m wearing Barbara Bui along with the remnants of my SSS Winter Woods sample which I accidentally spilled all over myself yesterday. Good thing everyone in my office like it!
2. I would say I am well into stage 2 and working my way up to full blown mania. I have a collection of rapidly expanding samples, and I have about 5 decants in the mail, including Spiriteuse Double Vanille which I’m very excited about
I’m trying to hoard as many treasures as possible this year since I will become a poor starving grad student next fall.
3. I typically wear a fragrance I already own to work, then sample at night, usually about 7 per week. I need to slow down and actually WEAR what I buy, but the hunt is just so enjoyable! How ironic that I work at an addiction studies program….
4. I grew up in Virginia, which has the most magical seasons. I’m still looking for something that replicates the eerie yet serene smell in the air just before it snows. I am also still on a quest for the perfect fall scent, something that captures smoke, apple cider, decaying leaves, and cool air. CB Burning Leaves comes pretty close. Also, a wood that smells exactly like the lumber department at Home Depot would be lovely!
5. A few science-type books and journals for work, and of course Perfumes The Guide paperback. Superfreakonomics by Levitt and Dubner is next on my list, just waiting for the fiance to finish with it.
6. Curb Your Enthusiasm, Community, 30 Rock, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and old Arrested Development… I’m a TV junkie!
Surprised Curb Your Enthusiasm hasn’t gotten more mentions…one of my favorites, but I have to wait for it on DVD since I don’t get HBO.
How could I forget about Curb?! Hard to choose between Curb and The Office
Another huge Arrested Development fan. I didn’t mention it because it (sadly) is no longer on, although come to think of it, it is on our DVD many nights. . . .
Yeah, I will have to get it from Netflix. Fine with me…I kind of prefer watching DVDs.
With the toddler around it is impossible for us these days to watch tv in any normal way. We live and die by watching movies & tv from DVDs and on the internet. And, btw, AD is insanely intelligent and funny and completely irreverent. It is the only sitcom that surpasses Absolutely Fabulous for extreme satire in that same way AF was so hilarious. Imagine the best of Patsy and Eddy rolled up and them parsed out into a handful of male & female characters and then developed to the Nth degree of hyperbole.
Oh good! Sold.
Kalynna, I know exactly what you mean by that pre-snow smell in Virginia! I remember it most clearly from my years at UVA, because it snowed more often in the foothills of the Blue Ridge than it did in Richmond, where I grew up.The smell before snow is different where I live now, somehow. There’s just something about seasons in Virginia.
Snows less in The Hook than in the Blue Ridge proper… I had a friend at college who called Charlottesville God’s spittoon.
The eerie smell just before it snows :
DSH Minuit…SERIOUSLY BEAUTIFUL .
I’ve been eyeing that one for awhile… might have to bite, on a sample anyway.
Not literally.
1.) Terre d’Hermes
2.) Yes!! Of course am a perfumista! I’m a stage 4. And as a male, I use the phrase but I’m also a princess so I may not be the best gauge.
3.) one or two
4.) hmmm. I achieved it, I believe. Am addicted to Tom Ford Black Orchid.
5.) Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
6.) Modern Family. ABSOLUTELY HYSTERICAL!
How nice to find a holy grail!
1. Bond no. 9 New Haarlem
2. Yes, between stage 2 and stage 3.
3. 5-7/wk in a high week, 2-3 in a low week.
4. HG: rose, HG: citrus, HG: incense.
5. I’m currently reading “The People’s History of the Supreme Court” and it’s pretty well written. I read the Sookie Stackhouse books. I can’t say they were good, necessarily, but they were entertaining.
6. Glee! I also like Accidentally on Purpose.
I’ll have to google Accidentally On Purpose, don’t know that one…
I’m in White Linen today. Not a fragrance that attracts much discussion around the blogs.It does get a lot of negative comment in customer reviews etc (‘errrk!’ is a common reaction), but it must have a loyal fan base and be a steady seller for EL because you can buy it easily anywhere. But I guess it’s a relic of the ’signature scent’ era, when women just found a fragrance they liked, stuck to it, and no more need be said. There were fewer perfumes on the market and less temptation to abandon one after 30 seconds to move on to the next and the next.
WL needs more than 30 seconds. Its sharp opening is a bit much even for me, and I’m a big fan. To soften it, I only apply with the walk-through-a-cloud method. After it settles, I find it a comfort scent, but full of character, never boring.
Just finished reading _To Catch a Thief_, the book made famous by Hitchcock. Haven’t seen the film yet, oddly enough. Book is highly recommended.
You. Must. See. The. Movie. NOW.
Agree! And don’t even know who wrote the book.
The author of the book was David Dodge, an accountant turned novelist and travel writer. I’d never heard of him until I picked up the book in s 2/h bookshop. Here’s hoping he was enriched by the movie rights.
I’m certainly going to seek out the movie.
Thanks! Had not heard of him.
I don’t think the glut of perfumes is entirely to blame, though. I was a signature scent kind of gal (though the scent changed every few years), and I still would be except….I couldn’t find one. The department stores were full of that sugar water aka the fruity floral, and I couldn’t find a single scent to love. Then I found the first 2 Hermes Jardins, and couldn’t choose between the two, so went home empty handed. The UJEM turned quickly to hamster cage on me, but where I accidentally sprayed my leather watch band? It haunted me for days on end. I’d be doing something and catch a whiff, and then spend the next 10 minutes with my nose glued to my wrist. Didn’t want to drive all the way back to the MOA for Sephora, so I googled to see who else carried it…and found NST. 18 months and 300 frags later…..
Oh dear – confessions of a perfumista! I suppose in pre-internet days if you couldn’t find a fragrance you loved you had to either stick with stuff you didn’t like, or give up. Especially if you lived away from the big cities.
This reminds me of a perfume comment I once read, by a woman whose mother wore Shalimar. Her father loved Shalimar and gave it to his wife constantly, buying a new bottle as soon as the old one was empty. The parents would have evenings out regularly and the daughter loved to watch her mother as she dressed, made up and, as a finishing touch to the ritual, applied those lovely dabs of Shalimar.
This went on for years. But after the father died the mother admitted to her daughter that she had never liked Shalimar. She wore it only because her husband loved to smell it on her. She hated it, actually.
Amazing story. You could frame a novel around it.
I think EL is highly under-rated. So many of her perfumes are lovely for a great price.
In fact the perfume I wear that gets the most compliments is Youth Dew. Go figure. My OJ’s and Guerlains and Irises rarely get noticed.
1. 31 Rue Cambon. I harp on it constantly for being soulless (I just commented elsewhere that it smells like a gilt, very ornate picture frame with nothing inside of it) but I still like to pull it out!
2. I honestly don’t have the budget right now to be a… perfumisto? I’m okay with perfumista.
3. I don’t order online much and my niche store isn’t frequently updated. They’ve been ordering export edition Chergui for months. Which may be a good thing. See what I said about my budget. ;3 I;m up to date on my department store fragrances, though.
4. Perfect floral (though I REALLY liked Muguet Blanc and Gardenia Petale on strips), perfect green scent (no front-runners here. I loved the opening of the current No 19 EDT but the drydown was pretty scrub-tastic) and the perfect wood. =P
5. Twinkle Twinkle by Kaori Ekuni was pretty funny but it’s strange, Japanese style.
6. I’d have to say Glee but it’s not rea
I don’t have a perfect green scent either since they discontinued the Gobin Daude line. Lots of runners-up though.
I’m glad I haven’t had that happen to me yet. =P
1st post; just recently found this blog while browsing, really great!
1. Harajuku Lovers – Little Angel (letting my sweet fruity pineapple side express itself =)
2. Level 1; living, learning and enjoying it!
3. 1 – 2
4. Still looking to define my HG fragrance.
5. Just out of a fantasy/YA phase (I enjoy a lot of genres). The most original I read during that phase: the House of Night series (a feminine twist intermingling Cherokee Indians and vampire lore – original and addictive). Currently revisiting classics; reading Pride and Prejudice =)
6. Don’t know either; I am a bit late in my sitcoms as I am watching mostly sci-fi and fantasy these days (huuummm… wonder where that came from…
Hi and welcome! Blend of Cherokee & vampire: that sounds weird, will have to check it out.
1. Coty Ici- original bottle of the EDT
2. Yes I do, but I collect them… I still think I’m in the early stages and don’t have enough Niche perfumes.
3. I try at least 5
4. An all out sexy perfume, or perfect for nights.
5. No, sadly don’t have the time…
6. I like the craziness of Family Guy sometimes.
How do you decide what to collect?
Woman, do you actually read all of these comments? Good lord, I can’t believe how this post has opened the floodgates to perfumedom!
Anyway:
1. Testing Cartier’s Les Heures 13 (forget the French, I can’t hold that much in my brain right now!). Is this Bulgari Black or Patchouli 24, or am I going crazy?
2. Sometimes I feel like I am at stage 1, because there’ s always something to learn from y’all. And sometimes I feel like I am at stage 10—Talk about rampant cynicism.
3. Right now with all of the new fall scents debuting, I am testing about seven to ten fragrances each week. Otherwise, I only test a couple each week, depending on my mood and what’s debuted or what I feel I have missed.
4. Is there really an HG fragrance out there? Oops…there’ s the rampant cynicism!
5. I’m reading a paperback I picked up in a giveaway in the mailroom at work last week. It’s titled “Killer Heat,” by Linda Fairstein. She was the lead prosecutor in the SVU of the Manhattan DA’s office, and I must say that it’s a pretty good read.
6. Actually, my favorite TV comedy is on the radio, and it’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I love it! Even went to see it live last night at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
Hope you weekend is going well, R.
Hugs!
I hate its name, but I love “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” too! I heard a rerun a few weeks ago with someone riffing on the notion of Bill Gates putting out a “Godfather”-style hit on the Windows talking paperclip, and it had me weeping with laughter (Clippy saying, “Hey, is that a shovel? It looks like you’re digging something! Could I help? Hey, are those cannolis?”)…
God bless NPR.
Violetnoir – I’ve been wearing #13 all day, and you’re right – it’s Patch 24. However, this late in the day, the drydown doesn’t have the vanilla of the Le Labo.
I like Wait, Wait! But my fave is still This American Life. And did read 2 Linda Fairstein novels, but just went to look and I don’t even recognize the titles…it was a long time ago and they all sound the same now! But I remember liking them too.
1. Bond No. 9 Astor Place
2. Stage 4
3. 4-5
4. A green fragrance with tuberose, gardenia, violet and carnation (if you can image it)
5. None at this time
6. Glee
I can imagine it, but can’t think of one!
What an interesting bunch you are (I now have a new wish list — for books!). Here’s my status:
1. Wearing Today: CdG Carnation today, from a tester. Loving it!
2. Perfumista Level: Beginning to climb out of the Stage 3 pit. But not without some gaping holes left in my fragrance education. I swear that the more I sniff, the less I know!
3. Holy Grail: That’s too hard! Got a list of ‘em. Hey – I know – maybe one that burns ten pounds of fat each time I wear it!
4. Now Reading: The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild, by Craig Childs. Might just dive into the newest Robert B. Parker this weekend, too.
5. Just finished watching all of last year’s 30 Rock from NetFlix. Fun stuff!
Oh, I feel that way too…the more I sniff, the less I know.
1. SL Borneo
2. I would say three but I’m not sure that my nose is as accurate as what is described in Angela’s post! I do feel quite pleased with myself when I identify certain notes though.
3. Probably about 5-6 but I’m trying to order fewer samples. If I don’t know about it, I won’t need to own it, right? Right??
4. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll have a better idea once my nose has been around the block a few more times.
5. I just finished This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper. I thought it was entertaining.
6. You mean they televise something other than hockey?
My husband would agree w/ your #6, except add baseball, basketball & football.
I started the day excited to read everyone’s responses, and now I’m just jealous. So many of you are wearing perfumes on my “must try this” list!
This must be how benched little-leaguers feel ; )
But you’ll get there!
What fun! I can’t resist commenting, even waaaay down here where no one wll see it (safer for shy me?
.
1. Today I wore three full spritzes of the bottle I’ve been waiting a year to buy, Montale’s Vanilla Extasy, and it was bliiiiiiss!
2. I consider myself probably a stage 2.9 perfumista. I CAN’T name all of the non-Sheldrake SLs. But I have done pretty much everything else in stage 3; maybe edging into stage 4, as I’ve slowed down quite a bit and started to form definite opinions about what I would or wouldn’t buy for myself in future…
3. Only 2 or 3 if I can keep my samples organized. They’re tucked EVERYwhere and I’m constantly thinking “What, this again?” or “Wait, I have THIS? Why haven’t I tried it yet?” I don’t have it together.
4. Moroccan mint tea (sigh), but really the bottle I failed to buy in a truckstop in the south of France. Foolish me, I thought that if it was really GOOD, they’d have it in Paris somewhere. Of course they didn’t, and now I’ve lost the name, don’t have the least idea what it was. But it was the closest thing to flowers in a bottle I’ve ever smelled, and even if I didn’t wear it that often, it would be a treasure to own.
5. Actually I’m reading “A Duke of Her Own”, which sucked me in at Barnes & Noble, which is a feat considering I hate historical romances (it’s a historical romance).
6. Glee! I can’t remember the last show that made me laugh out loud and it’s so SILLY! And so geared toward my age group (generation X. Yes, we remember the song Bust a Move!)
Hmm, none of that seems as interesting as it sounded in my head.
Dee and Lemon Print =- I know what you mean!
#4 is hard to find. Fresh used to make a version that everyone said was great, but it got discontinued before I ever got to try it.
See you’re wrong Lemonprint – you’ve been read! LOL! I think a lot of the fun of the Lazy Friday Polls is to come back Sat. a.m. and read the late entries. I *think* L’Artisan may make a mint tea frag. Others can correct me if I’m wrong.
And… I thought the south of France perfume story was very interesting. I hope you can one day rediscover the perfume.
Huuummmm… Moroccan mint tea, I am right there with you. It may sound crazy, but I once found incense sticks named Marrakech mint tea in a decoration store. I was absolutely crazy about them! They would not have that strong stingy scent most incense sticks have. They were very soft and floral with a bit of sweetness and a hint of freshness; pure heaven! Obviously I used them all up and never found them again =( Would love to get my hands (and nose
on that kind of scent bottle-up.
1. Chanel Bel Respiro – I am loving the chewy green stems smell of this on an unusually warm spring day
2. Stage two/three… with hints of four (I have some sort of horrible sensible with money personality quirk – so no perfume buying with abandon – sigh – I WISH I could)
3. Depends how recently my latest order from TPC arrived
4. I don’t seem to have one…
5. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery – I LOVED this book! It made me cry, giggle and pay attention
6. I’ve really enjoyed United States of Tara – laugh out loud and a little dark…
See, and I’m with you on 2, although I’ve certainly spent enough on samples…maybe I just have a fear of commitment to FBs.
“Chewy green stems” is a perfect description of Bel Respiro! Envy your warm day, it’s freezing here.
Upper 50s here yesterday, headed to 60 today…if you don’t have nice weather today, you should by tomorrow.
If anyone is still reading, 1. one drop of Dolphin Clinic velvet rose perfume oil. One drop creates a 4 metre wide sillage cloud and lasts for three days! You can add it to massage oils etc too. 2.Vary between all the stages, including trying to make my own scents with vodka and essential oils, with varying degrees of success. 3. about one or so, usually too busy/tired/carless and what have you. Would like to sample more though. 4. No fragrance blows me away like night scented jasmine. If I could find a perfume that is a faithfull rendition of that , that would be my HG. 5. Jean Plaidy, Madonna of the seven hills. First time I’d read about the Italian Borgias of the fifteenth century. 6. Not sure, like 2and 1/2 men but haven’t seen it last few weeks, find Amazing Race unintentionally funny at times, The Office (the American version) Southpark very funny when I’m not finding it shocking or beyond the pale, missed the first episode screened here of Glee last night but I’m sure I’ll like it. Sounds like Modern Family will be worth checking out.
Love Jean Plaidy.
Had not heard of her but just googled…over 200 novels!! That’s astounding.
Whenever I go to the library, the first books I look for are her ones.
What a day! I’ve only been able to read about half way down…this is a fabulous poll !!! I’m going to play , and THEN go back to read more.
Is that cheating?? ha! who cares…cheating, enabling, sneaking ice cream….it’s a wonder I have time for anything else!
1. started out the day doing the 3rd test of Delrae Debut inspired by yesterday’s LOTV-fest. Tonight I’d moved on to some Chanel Eau Premiere (mmmmm)….but now I’m making sample vials to send out with my splits and my hands positively reek of various Ajmals with an overtone of Byredo Pulp and Vanille-Tonka….whooeee!
2. Stage 3 Perfumista–otherwise known as Piggy-Bank-Nuclear-Meltdown. I’m trying to get a handle on it, really I am…but then Rapple, Angela, Mals, Boo, Joe, et al. keep sending me samples of such good stuff! Resistance is Futile….and I accept that.
3. Hard to tell….by 8PM it all gets a little fuzzy….
4. I’m not really “looking” for one thing in particular in any group…mostly just sniffing things others recommend or new things that flip my lemming switch. I figured out early on that some of the best things sort of “fall into your lap” , or should I say “fall out of swap packages”, those little surprises, have yielded some of the very best fragrances.
5. Just finished a fun series of paranormal, romance, conspiracy type books by JR Ward. Socially relevant? nahhh, but wonderfully entertaining! Although I’ve been taking some notes here today. Thanks everyone!
6. Funniest TV show? egad, you’ve got me there. I only watch one show regularly and that’s House….although I do sometimes laugh out loud…Hugh Laurie is just fantastic….and no, it’s not Lupus.
I just read the first Black Dagger – Dark Love – a little while ago – not bad! But I am trying not to get sucked into another endless series.
And has it actually ever BEEN Lupus??
I don’t think it ever has been lupus….but then just to mess with us, one day it will be….then what do we do with our “it’s NOT Lupus” t-shirts?
It’s Sat. a.m. now for me, but we missed you yesterday Daisy!
Thanks Rapple….I can’t believe I missed this fabulous poll….But seeing as it’s saturday afternoon maybe I’ll get a chance to at least read them all and take more notes for reading materials.
I love House too.
1. Today it was a cheaper one–Black Amethyst. I’ve been bathing in Angel this week in crazy love with it. Like staying awake in my bed and smelling the sheets and not going to sleep like I should. I thought I should just wear the BBW one and have a day of just not lusting after myself all day.
2. I am an early two. I’ve been fascinated with fragrances my whole life–all smells. But I thought I couldn’t justify buying perfume for myself. Hard times and responsibilities. But… now life’s getting more fun and I can have art and live with beauty. I’m going to enjoy developing a more sophisticated nose.
3. Not long enough with it to have an average. 2 right now? 20 tonight with my 6 year old daughter. I’m kind of woozy now.
4. Being infatuated with Angel, I’m a bit distracted. I’m truly too new to have a holy grail.
Next week, I’m going to a Norstom’s Eau de Party to just meet many, many fragrances!! I’m so excited I cannot stand it. $10 gets me in the door. I’m so excited.
5. Yes. The Perfect Scent (Burr). Perfumes: The Guide (Turin, Sanchez). Actually, something that was my first introduction to the science and wonder of perfume is something I read YEARS ago: A Natural History of the Senses (Diane Ackerman). That one I’d definitely recommend.
6. I don’t know! I don’t see much more than Hannah Montana and other Disney Channel things.
I loved the Ackerman book too, but ditto on the years ago. Hardly remember it, I should re-read it.
Oh ‘A Natural History of the Senses’ is pretty much my HG book!! I have just recently finished reading another book of hers called ‘The Moon By Whale Light’ which I really enjoyed too!!!
I doubt anyone will make it down this far, but I thought I’d weigh in nonetheless:
1. Delrae Amoureuse
2. Yes, I consider myself a perfumista, currently at stage 3.5.
3. I’m down to about 2 new frags a week, so maybe I am a stage 4 after all.
4. I’m still looking for most of my HGs. In fact, the only true HG I have is the above-mentioned Amoureuse. Although I’ve found a few rose fragrances that are pretty darn close.
5. I’ve read some very good books lately. I’m re-reading Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey series (a must for mystery fans). Loved Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close [or is it the other way around?] by Jonathan Safran Foer. For a fun, silly read, I like the Sookie Stackhouse novels.
6. The Office.
I loved the Wimsey books. Have not watched the BBC series, have you? It’s on Netflix & have been thinking of trying it.
I’m such a LPW geek that I’ve watched both BBC series–well, part of them, anyhow. The first is with Ian Carmichael and are the non-Harriet Vane novels. I only saw one (Murder Must Advertise): while I think IC is a fine actor, I thought he looked so unlike how I pictured LPW that I just could not get into it. But i know there are a lot of fans of this series. I own the second, later series, with Edward Petherbridge and Harriet Walter. Petherbridge has the looks and behaviors down spot on (although admittedly he’s a bit long in the tooth for the role). Strong Poison and Have His Carcase are very good; sadly, Gaudy Night (one of my faves) falls short.
So I guess the short answer is, Yes, they’re worth a look-see.
Let me know if you want to borrow mine; I’d be happy to send them along.
Thanks! That Petherbridge series is available on Netflix for streaming, so I’ll give it a shot.
I am not wearing anything yet today. I need help making up my mind. I am between a 2 and 3. What are you if you have sifted through the garbage twice to find the samples you accidently threw out?
I haven’t found my HG scent yet. I am looking for an adult version of the vintage Miss Dior, or Bal a Versailles without the skank.
Just ordered Coromandel and like Chanel 18. I love the smell of the big scents such as Lyric, but they are too strong on me.
Favorite all time book-Anna Karenina.
Comedy show-The Colbert Report (news satire)
Miss Dior doesn’t seem like an adult scent to you?
It does, but it’s not me as an adult. I wore it in my 20’s. Now a few decades older and a lot less “prissy.”
Gotcha.
Me too, Na. Those young guys are so funny, too. and sweet.
This is my first post and I love your Blog. I hope my English is not too bad.
1. Joop Berlin
2. 2-3, sometimes 5.
3. 1-2
4. I am stil looking for it. I am looking for a nice comfort scent after sport.
5. Anthony Horowitz, power of five
6. ?
Hi and welcome, and your English is perfect!
1. Cuir de Lancome for work and later chanel gardenia on one hand and Jo Malone on the other, just to make a comparison
2. stage 3 I guess, people are starting to give me weird glances after they’ve seen my collection (which is, by all means, modest)
3. no idea, there are weeks I don’t smell anything new (escandalo!!) and then there are some when I smell five new ones, constantly browsing ebay for new ‘discoveries’
4. I’m not, I’ve found my holy grail perfume like five times already and I can never make up my mind to pick ONE.
5. Uhm, Francis Scott Fitzgeralnd – Tender is the night. love it.
6. Dunno, but I’ve been watching the Mentalist and like it, funny with occasional dead bodies or two
I have not read Tender is the Night since college — many moons ago — but it was one of my favorite books then. I reread a few FSF books recently, but not that one, thanks for reminding me.
Late to the party, but yesterday I wore Romance during the day and Ivoire for bedtime.
I’m beginning to consider myself a former perfumista. I’ve gone throught all the stages, acquired my favorites, and have come back around to not paying much attention to perfume. I still enjoy your blog and MUA, and I will gladly sample the new Parfumerie Generale if it comes my way, but I don’t have the fever like I used to.
I think being a perfumista and the concept of a holy grail scent are mutually exclusive. If you define a holy grail as the perfume you love best, the one that makes you feel confident, happy, sexy and most like YOURSELF, then by the time you reach Stage 5 you should have found half a dozen “holy grails”. Bois d’Iris, Ivoire and Coco Mlle are but a few of mine.
Don’t know about comedies, but Mad Men is the best thing on television. Otherwise, it’s PBS and old Golden Girls reruns.
In some ways I don’t have the fever either…I’m not as desperate to get my hands on everything new as I used to be. I still love perfume though!
I used to love the Golden Girls! Its not on any more here.
1. Nothing today; yesterday I wore Chanel Allure Sensuelle.
2. Stage 3 I guess … I don’t worry about niche lines which knocks me out of the NST inner sanctum… I’m more about accessibility in fragrance and finding the unexpected.
3. I’d love to try more, but probably 2-3. There’s just not enough time!
4. My ideal holy grail would be 2 imaginary perfumes I’ve yet to come across… a heavy, creamy orange blossom with grass notes and jasmine… and a honeyed chypre with cassis and amber..
5. It’s fall and gloomy so I’m reading my old stand-by Wuthering Heights – I would love to see an Oscar worthy remake! Although, Merle Oberon was fantastic in the original.
6. I don’t really watch tv – but I do love Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Really? I feel like there’s easily as much interest in mainstream as niche here, sometimes more…although it varies a good deal by brand. Sorry you feel like that excludes you
1. What fragrance are you wearing today?
Dawn Spencer Hurwitz Parfum de Grasse
2. Do you consider yourself a perfumista, and if so, what stage are you? (Click on the link to see the four stages Angie identified. I later added a fifth: rampant cynicism.) If you’re male, do you use the term perfumista or something else?
I’ve been a devout sniffer for over 40 years…no stages , just all out fanaticism .
3. About how many new fragrances do you probably try in an average week?
As many as I can get my hands on
4. What holy grail fragrance are you still looking for?
T he best one
5. Read any good books lately?
Well I read Dan Brown The Lost Symbol , but was disappointed in it
6. What’s the funniest show on television this year?
HOUSE always makes me laugh
LOL at “the best one”…yeah, aren’t we all!
I love “no stages, just all out fanaticism”. I must say thats kind of me, too!
Sometimes I stand back and think “this is ridiculous, I’m way too crazy about perfumes, I’m not buying any more till I run out” etc but I soon revert to type, lol. I’m trying to be sensible, though. I’m sure I’m getting there.
life is short…follow your passions !
I know I’m late, I didn’t make it on my computer yesterday. Yesterday I wore
1.Paestum Rose
2. Stage 3, beginning to flirt with stage 4.
3. Depends on how many swaps I’ve done. Probably 5-10.
4. I’ve been looking for the best dead-sexy perfume. I may have found it in MFK Lumiere Noir. It’s amazing!
5. Reading the Emperor of Scent.
6. The Office.
Wow, that’s 3-4 mentions of Paestum Rose here! That’s great, glad it has so many fans.
1. What fragrance are you wearing today?
***Montale Chypre Vanille***
2. Do you consider yourself a perfumista, and if so, what stage are you?
***Stage 4***
3. About how many new fragrances do you probably try in an average week? *** Sometimes 0 and somtimes as many as 10.***
4. What holy grail fragrance are you still looking for?
***Something in the spicy family. I did however find my HG Gardenia and that is Tom Ford’s Velvet Gardenia. ***
5. Read any good books lately? *** Don’t Cry (short stories) by Mary Gaitskill***
6. What’s the funniest show on television this year?
*** The Big Bang Theory and 30 Rock ***
I have never read Mary Gaitskill I don’t think? Unless she’s had stories in the New Yorker. How is Don’t Cry?
I’m late too (I’m pleading “5 month old baby”!).
So, (just in case anyone still cares!
), here it is:
1) Un Bois Vanille (SL) – my current obsession
2) Stage 3(ish)
3) Hmmm, varies… 3 to 10, maybe…
4) A good Jasmine, and a good Something Autumnal
5) The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields – beautifully written
6) Oooh, so many choices! Might have to go with ‘Flight of the Conchords’, or else, dare I admit it, ‘Psych’…
Oh, I loved that book! Long time ago though. And always meant to go read more of her work but never did.
1) Today’s all about the comfort scent, cold weather and sniffles… so, Halston, one of mom’s faves.
If it gets worse, I’m gonna have to get a second job for perfume money!
2) Stage 2 as far as knowledge, stage 3 for the pocketbook ouchiness of it all.
3) I’ve been terribly lazy about new scents to try lately, probably less than one a week, average… but I tend to do most of my long distance scent shopping (and the little bit of swapping) in the winter – since summer mailboxes in the southwest are positively brutal to perfume.
4) that’s the worst. I think I found my HG chypre, but have only a fraction of a sample left and not a single clue about how to get more. Parfumerie Generale’s Marylin & John is everything I love about the type, but the little bit of info I’ve scraped up on google all points to “you’re out of luck”.
5) Just re-read “Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynman” by Richard Feynman, and it’s every bit as wonderful as the first time through.
6) Oh, like pointing to Richard Feynman for a good read wasn’t enough proof of nerd-dom. The Big Bang Theory is geeky, adorable, wonderful and totally worth a half hour of your time.
I don’t even know that scent! Where did you get it?
From a wonderful friend who ordered a sample from the perfumed court about a year ago? Maybe a little longer.
Interesting. Probably some limited edition or something? That’s annoying when they do that and you fall in love with it.
Shirley at The Perfumed Court very kindly informed me that it was a special issue and no longer made, but she’s working overtime in wish fulfillment and thinks she can get her hands on a few more mLs for me. yay!
Richard Feynman can do no wrong! I know he was an insufferable publicity hound, but he sure was smart and entertaining.
I’ve been lurking for a few months — since about the time I discovered perfume after stumbling into possession of a copy of “The Perfect Scent” — and this is my first post. Finally taking the plunge into posting on this fabulous blog!
I’m late too, but…
1) Frederic Malle Lipstick Rose
2) Definite Stage 2
3) About 10
4) The perfect vanilla — haven’t tried too many yet
5) The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara
6) Fawlty Towers on DVD. It just gets even better with age.
Hi & welcome! We agree 100% on Fawlty Towers. Are you a Black Adder fan too? Don’t know why but always think of them as going hand-in-hand.
I used to laugh at Queen Elizabeth 1 in the Blackadder series. She was so brilliant.
Miranda Richardson!
Oh yes. Rowan Atkinson is brilliant!
1. Givenchy Le Secret supplied at work.
2. Right over the deep end of perfumistadom! I’m glad to note that a few people above wrote in to say that “perfumista” is without gender. I object to men using “colognista” because so few fragrances come in cologne anymore. People call all concentrations “cologne” or “perfume” when they are really looking for EDT. (Why SA’s get gray!)
3. Several whenever I’m at work because I have the gamut to choose from.
4. Lime, waterlily, a touch of mint, lily-of-the-valley, seasalt, anise, ivy, cedar and maybe some oakmoss.
5. “The Secret of Scent” and the two Burr books on a year in the industry and Luca Turin. My favourite book is “Eats, Shoots and Leaves” which I just cannot finish because then the fun will be over. Grammar, spelling, language and punctuation are my thing.
6. It takes a lot to make me laugh out loud. Monty Python has not been equalled. I really love Jay Leno’s Headlines that people send in, where the English language is massacred in print. It can be very hilarious.
Wow, I’d buy your mythical #4!
Me too.
Aaaaaaaaaaaargh … I just finally tried by Killian Back to Black and I think that I might love it. I cannot allow myself to fall prey to overpriced packaging; plus, I’m pretty sure that it smells like something else that is much cheaper in the drydown – I just can’t place it. It isn’t the SL that Kevin mentioned because a. it’s probably not cheaper and b. I’ve yet to venture in to the SLs.
Anybody who’s tried BtB have any idea what other scent it might smell like?
Bto B – my friend said Mercier Minuit Enchantee reminded her of Back to Black…there’s nothing remotely close in my collection and I love it too . It lasts for two days on my skin too !
e-mail me if you would like a decant , maybe we can swap .
Wow, really? I can barely smell the ME at all, let alone for 2 days. Of course, I may simply have underapplied, with the SA standing right there.
1. Not a perfume – Sandalwood body wash (A’kin)
2. Stage 2
3. As above, not many. I do seek out testers for things that sound like they might be delicious – so I probably smell 1-2 new perfumes a week. In terms of what I own – very little.
4. Found one that is about 99% of what I want – the Estee Lauder Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia.
Now – my aim to find a “nighttime” scent (with a bit more sex appeal)
I bought a candle in France with a scent called “ambre” and I still remember the smell, I loved it. I keep smelling perfumes with amber as a note/mentioned in the write up but I’ve never settled on one that really matches the candle (which I no longer have).
5. I’m a voracious reader, but lately (stress, life changes) – I haven’t been reading that much! The last book I read and quite enjoyed was Possession by A.S. Byatt – but this has been out for a while.
6. Big Bang Theory
L’Artisan L’eau d’Ambre is a lovely spicy powdery amber , and the Amber Extreme is great too !
I will seek them out – thanks for the recommendations!!
Who made the candle, do you know?
After spending about an hour of dedicated internet searching, I believe I have identified it as Côte Bastide – Ambre
That one has a matching fragrance…check http://www.fourseasonsproducts.com. It is likely to be very light, like a cologne splash, but hopefully it will smell like the candle.
Love Possession. It’s on my list of top ten favorite books of all time (maybe even in the top five). Hmmm, it may be time for a re-read.
It is such a “cosy” book – and a bit Bronte-esque too (which is a good thing in my opinion! I like the introspective characters).
1. On the day of this poll, Friday, I wore Aramis Tuscany per uomo.
2. I never refer to myself as a perfumista, or use any other such term, but that’s no doubt what I am. Presently at stage four.
3. I sample a new fragrance once every other week or so.
4. I love all kinds of fragrances and there’s no one particular type I’m after as a holy grail. I just hope it isn’t too expensive once I find it. It could be that I already own it, as i consider several fragrances by Olivia Giacobetti, Patricia de Nicolaï, Jean Laporte, and Jean Paul Guerlain to be perfect.
5. Lately I’ve been reading old paperback collections of Mad Magazine. I loved the magazine as a kid in the 1970s and have recently had an itch to revisit my youth. Much of the material is naturally dated, but still funny.
6. Funniest show…hmmmm…toss up between The Sarah Silverman Program, Flight of the Conchords, and The Office.
I loved Mad too. Wonder if it’s still as good today, do you know, or are you just reading old ones?
Oh, it hasn’t been good for a very long time, sadly.
Too bad! My son got “Mad Kids” a few times but then that folded. I guess maybe we’ll skip the real Mad if it’s no good anymore.
I LOVE the old Mad Magazines… Fershlugginer! Stale halvah! Even Dave Berg!
1. Bond’s Nouveau Bowery, but I have Sisely 3 on my other hand.
2. Do you consider yourself a perfumista–I have bits of stages 3, 4, 5. Don’t believe in Holy Grail; I think as long as perfume is made, I will sniff in curiosity and wonderment. I admire the art.
3. 1 to 2 a week, but I’m not a perfume blogger, I blog about totally different things. Still like to sniff good things, still have about 100 samples.
4. My HG is really just a fragrance that develops beautifully and that I can wear no matter the season. As that’s a tall order, I know it’s imaginary. Still, I’d hate to find it, because the thrill is the search.
5. Good books I’ve read recently–The Help and Eating Lunch with Buddha. Both great in completely different ways.
6. Except for Project Runway and True Blood, I don’t watch TV.
Did you think PR was a bit limp this season? Not sure if I’m liking the editing on Lifetime.
I know what you mean by not really wanting to ever find it…
Woah – i am late with this post, and it was obviously a very popular one!
1: Ambre Sultan by Serge Lutens
2: Yes, I am a rabid perfumista. Stage 4, to be precise.
3: This week I tried a new one each day because I was working near a department store that had an amazing selection!! Normally though, I probably go perfume sniffing or sample purchasing once a month.
4: I’ve never been a Holy Grail crusader. I try not to have expectations. For me, Ormonde Woman and Bandit are the most satisfying fragrances I own. However, I am still deciding which incense scent I will purchase, as i can’t seem to make up my mind between Tauer, Etro and L’Artisan. So I guess I am searching for the Holy Grail incense after all!!! ………NST peeps, do pipe up and let me know any others i should try before deciding!!
5: The swedish crime author John Theorin is writing a series of books set on the island of Oland. Damn fine. I recommend them, even if you don’t like crime. They transcend the genre into a realm of their own.
6: I don’t watch much TV. But True Blood had me hooked for the first few episodes, then i got bored. I also recommend the UK’s Strictly Come Dancing, purely for the judges, who are brilliantly funny and entertaining. I’m surprised that Craig Revel Horwood hasn’t been invited onto American TV shows yet, since they seem to have a penchant for nasty british judges on reality tv shows these days!!!!!
Typo – it’s JOHAN Theorin. Not John.
Thank you, I will see if my library has that series!
Great – I bet you’ll like them! The first one is called “Echoes from The Dead” and the other is “The Darkest Room”. I think he’s in the middle of writing his third. Rarely do I read a book that makes me carry it with me everywhere in case I can snatch a spare 5 minutes at work, or on a bus.
Bond No 9 Silver Factory
AG Encens Flamboyant
OMG – I totally forgot those two scents! Thanks – I’ll pop to Harrods and try them both this week.
I haven’t managed to try any but lots of people here like the Comme des Garcons Incense line.
Thanks Tama, I completely forgot about these too! I tried Kyoto and Zagorsk and found Kyoto wonderful at first , then after a few days of wearing it the coffee aspect became too overwhelming and i sold my bottle. Ouarzazate was lovely, but reminded too much of my teen years for some reason so I bypassed that one! Avignon, Zagorsk and Jaisalmer are yet to be tried on my skin though, so I’ll add those to the list along with the above recommended AG and Silvery Factory. Thanks guys!!
What sort of incense do you like? I like “incense”, but frankincense specifically I can only take in very small doses. I had the opposite problem w/Kyoto…loved the coffee, but the frankincense was too much. Ouarzazate had some odd note that didn’t work for me, though the drydown was lovely. I’ll need to try it again, but of the 3 I’ve tried, I think I liked Zagorsk the best. Avignon I didn’t even try, guessing that will be very frankincense heavy. Back 15-20 years ago, I had some really lovely incense I used to burn, and Prada’s Id’I smells exactly like it…so that’s an incense frag to me.
I guess I like Frankincense, as I like Tauer’s Extreme. I havn’t tried a myrrh heavy fragrance, at least, not to my knowledge! I guess I should pay more attention to the notes in the ones i DO like. I’ll look up the ingredients now……
yay!!! =)
Can’t wait till the next episode-
I think the way Rajesh (don’t know how to spell…) acts is so cute.