Anyone care to share their fragrance choice today? And tell us if you had a hard time picking a scent this morning (or evening).
I'm commando, again, at the moment. It won't be hard to pick later because I have so few fragrances with me on vacation this time.
Reminder: this Friday, the 25th, wear something by Hermès OR something by perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena.
And for those of you who like to plan ahead, see Scent of the day ~ Friday community projects 2014, where I'll try to always have the next six or seven weeks mapped out in advance.
Note: image is Stage Harbor, Chatham, Cape Cod, Mass. via Boston Public Library at flickr; some rights reserved.
I’m wearing Wilde again. It was not difficult to pick, because I plumb forgot fragrance on my way out this morning, and didn’t realize I wanted something until I was already at work. Wilde was the only office-friendly option in my bag.
SOTD is Vera Wang Princess. It was the first bottle of perfume I ever received. Needless to say, I have since grown out of it (and the liquid is now a nice shade of brown), but it’s still great for nostalgic purposes.
This morning I was rushing out to meet my mum and sister for coffee so decided to wear Black Cashmere. I’ve only worn it a couple of times and find it a bit too dry and austere but I’m trying to like it.
Post bath tonight is Let It Rock by Vivienne Westwood. I picked up a bottle for $19, and Im really liking it. It’s an amber with a slightly weird plastic opening but great dry down. Even The Guide gave it 4 stars.
I have also “tried to” like BC, but found it too austere! I remember when it was just being discontinued and I there were cheap bottles all over the local department stores. The black pebble-shaped bottles were so beautiful, and the name and whole concept spoke to me, but I just couldn’t love the scent.
Wishing you a good-smelling, hard rocking, post-bathtime evening 🙂
Glad I’m not the only one! I did buy one of those big black pebbles so I’m determined to be friends with it..
And thanks Helle. It was a lovely hot in-from-the-rain bubble bath, that I should remember to do more often.
Hope you feel better soon 🙂
My first inclination was to gasp in horror, Black Cashmere in July… and then I realized, Oh yeah. Flipped seasons. Well, okay then. 🙂
That’s gorgeous stuff.
All rain and thunderstorms here today!
I must be missing something with this one Mals, what is it you love about it?
I have a lot of musk blocking issues, and I can barely smell Black Cashmere at all… most of the nice Donna Karan fragrances don’t smell like anything to me or come and go, get wavey, disappear: BC, Cashmere Mist, Womanity, etc etc… (I have the same problem with the Shiseido/lutens Feminite du Bois). You may just not be able to smell it “correctly” if you tend to have issues with musks.
What I love is how comforting it feels to me – spices and a creamy woody aspect. THat’s not my usual fare, as I am solidly a florals fan, but I find it very relaxing.
I was wearing Guerlain cologne Imperial for all of last week, because I was coming down with a cold and didn’t feel like anything but fresh and short lived citrus. Now I’m feeling a little better, but have almost no sense of smell at all so it’s no use wearing anything. Weather is wonderful, sunny and warm and I long to spritz Amaranthine and Manoumalia when my nose is back in order.
I’m wearing Keiko Mecheri Tarifa today and no, it wasn’t hard to decide on this one. Our heatwave continues so it had to be a citrus, this was the first one I drew fror the samples drawer.
I was about to leave for work without wearing any perfume but remember at the last minute and grabbed the handiest bottle – Tuscan Soul. It has very little silage even if you spray a ton but it’s nice in an Asian way, and office-friendly. Wish I could find the body lotion and candle too, but it’s apparently discontinued.
I like Tuscan Soul on a hot day, too. And I totally get the Asian vibe coming from it, too. I have often thought it was misnamed.
I know that before hitting mainstream world-wide, it was offered on Singapore Air flights and selected hotels in Asia and it did very well. What I don’t remember is whether it had a different name then.
How would you name it? 🙂
Coccobello. Gives me that sunscreen smell in the drydown but the opening is nice. Going to have to figure out what that darned note is so I can avoid it. It is something that reacts with my skin because I rarely smell it on a blotter.
egabbert said that Coccobello smells like BBW’s Coconut Lime Verbena. I sniffed some CLV lotion at a hotel during my vacation, and it did smell a lot like Coccobello, but with less palm leaf.
Tommy Bahama Set Sail St. Barth for Women edt layered over BBW’s CLV lotion make a zesty, refreshing (highlighting the lime) inexpensive combo w/o that sunscreeny vibe. I have minis of both and they make great take-alongs for summer vacation.
Thanks for the suggestion. My summertime but office friendly scents are few and far-between so that has been my sampling focus lately.
When you say “sunscreen,” do you mean like the more modern chemical sunscreens, or do you mean like the sunscreen/suntan oils of the seventies and earlier?
A bitter chemical sunscreen scent. Like my skin every weekend after I have applied my SPF fifty-gajillion. Not that charming suntan lotion in 1976 scent.
Parfumerie Generale Tonkamande. I don’t know why I find myself wearing these warm scents in the summertime but today is not too hot and Tonkamande is just so nice, a lush, almond-vanilla baby-powder kind of thing.
Although warm and humid out today, I was wanting not light and citrusy, but something richer and so I went with Cuir de Lancome but just did a spray on the back of my neck and tummy — still can smell it but its not overwhelming. I can’t get enough of this scent!
Love.
Me too! One thing about scent of the day is making me think about my perfumes more, and if someone hadn’t talk this up recently I wouldn’t have thought about wearing it in July, despite the cool morning.
Making me think a lot more too!
And truth be told, I’m sitting in A/C all day anyway!
My SOTD is Tirrenico by Profumi del Forte. I didn’t have a hard time choosing this because I wanted something that “smells like summer”. The balsamic and marine accords smells like watermelon to me. I really like it a lot.
Bought way too much fragrance on my recent trip to NYC. Today I”m wearing my new Tom Ford Italian Cypress layered with Atelier Cologne Cedrat Enivrant. A little goes a long way, especially today on a humid Florida day. But I love it!
And that’s a bad thing? 🙂
I wore Atelier’s Cedrat Envirant on Saturday night and I’ve concluded its way to masculine for me. Not sure if it is the juniper or vetiver or both!
In Chicago I got to try the new TF citrus scents and liked them both, but probably the Mandarino di Amalfi a little more so.
SOTD is Estee Lauder Jasmine and White Moss. Going through my sample pack of jasmine perfume. I actually like this one quite a lot, as it is very green in the opening. However, it is similar enough to Chanel Crystalle that I don’t need both. Although – if the last power is better …
Hope you enjoy the Jasmine and White Moss. I have and love it, lasts a long time on me.
Yes! It is already outlasting Cristalle on me.
After Cristalle’s reformulation I switched to Jasmine and White Moss and haven’t looked back.
I’ve only tried the new Cristalle, so I don’t know what I’m missing 😉
I think that’s Estee Lauder’s best one out of the Private Collection fragrances. I have only owned a bottle of the Tuberose Gardenia, but when I smelled Jasmine and White Moss, it was instant love. It is truly a beautiful fragrance!
Vetiver pour elle, easy choice, since it was discussed last week.
Wore it yesterday – it is Summer to me…
SOTD is Egoiste Platinum (Chanel). Have a good day! 🙂
Amouage Journey since I picked up a sample Friday and so far it’s lovely. Got a few samples while hanging out with nebbe and this was one of them. No indecision here since I was in a sampling mood and knew I wanted to try it
Ooh, I got my sample of Journey on Friday. What do you think so far?
On me, it was instantly tobacco and honey along with flowers. Very nice. Good for sultry evenings. That was my first testing, though, we’ll see.
I don’t get tobacco at all but get a soft,supple rust colored leather
Thanks – wow, totally different than my first impression.
Now I’m getting a lot more honey but still lovely
Such an evocative description – I’ve got to get some!
Such a fun time! I somehow managed to pack the samples from Friday (all 15! Such bounty!) Into a quart sized bag along with my other liquids to go in my carry on this morning.
Right now wearing Eau de Layover (ha ha) and looking forward to arriving home after an excellent week in NYC
Glad you enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun too, sharing perfume enthusiasm
L’Ombre dans l’Eau EDP. I have to say, I didn’t enjoy it very much today; it seemed very sharp and linear and it kind of screeched and gave me a headache. And that has happened in the last few times I wore it.
I think it is one of those scents you absolutely have to be in the mood for. Very particular.
I agree. This scent is fascinating to me, however. It’s so 3-D like in regards to its rose and greenness. I too need to be in the mood and mostly where it can be washed off if need be as it can be too much for me. Sometimes I do crave it thought
My sotd is Mandragore edt…
Whoops! The mandragore comment was for below. I was going to say that Ombre dans L’eau is hit or miss for me too. Sometimes I find it sparkling and fresh, and other times a spike to the head.
Oddly enough, I smelled l’ombre dans l’eau all over the Detroit airport thus morning. Nit that anyone way actually wearing it, so have no idea where it was coming from. Possibly all in my mind. It was a very early flight…
I’ve been in the Detroit airport… it’s never smelled like L’Ombre dans l’eau! Quite an improvement, I imagine 🙂
Bois 1920’s lovely Come l’Amour is my choice today on a soft cool morning. We get such mornings as gifts in July and this little known but truly beautiful white floral is just right for it.
My stargazer lilies popped open on Friday and I’m loving that, so this morning I cracked open a sample vial of Tom Ford Shanghai Lily, which I had somehow missed trying when it was new. Verdict so far: meh. Nice, especially the spices (mmmmmm!), but it’s already starting to skew a bit too sweet. Also, I can’t imagine shelling out TFPB prices for it.
When it wears off, I’m going to go spritz DK Gold edp lavishly.
Wait. Is there CUMIN IN THIS? I’m getting distinct whiffs of “somebody desperately needs a shower.”
Oh, dear. Hope you’re not at work!
I work from home these days. 🙂 And the BO is coming and going, only noticeable close up anyway.
But there was that time I wore Houbigant Quelques Fleurs Royale to work, and about an hour in it went all sweaty panties… I was horrified.
Hahahaha. I love cumin! 🙂
Heh, that is pretty hilarious. Probably one of the last things I’d want to smell like at work …
Bwahaha! Mortifying! Hopefully nobody thought it was you… =-O
I am wearing Guerlain Voyages Olfactifs Paris-Tokyo which is a kissing cousin to L’Artisan The pour un Ete. I like it slightly less than the L’Artisan but the Guerlain lasts mush longer on me.
SOTD is Alice by BPAL (bergamot, carnation, rose, milk, and honey). I was in a hurry leaving for work today, so I grabbed a couple of packages of samples — one from Surrender to Chance and one from BPAL. Alice was an easy choice — carnation, duh! 🙂 The bergamot lasts for a long time, which is nice. As Captain Picard said to the food replicator, “Tea! Earl Grey.” 🙂
Oh, those are most of my favorites notes rolled into one fragrance, I’ll have to check that out. I’ve tried and enjoyed a few BPAL scents, and I’d like to try more, but I find the website so hard to navigate.
I like several of my BPAL samples. Thankfully, Alice does not feature the band-aid note that I’ve noticed in a few of them 🙂 And, yes, that web site is a veritable maze. Oy.
I’m really interested in BPAL, but there are soooo many to choose from! Alice sounds fantastic, so you have any other suggestions?
I remember that I like several of them, but I can’t remember which ones. I’ll have to re-sample my samples and take notes this time 🙂
I usually search BPAL’s site by individual perfume note — usually a less common one (like carnation). If you search by “rose,” you’ll get a zillion choices.
I have on Vent Vert today and the green notes are great for the super hot & humid day they’ve forecast for us.
Another of my favorites! I love it on the first warm day of spring, when the world here is just starting to turn green, after a long, cold winter.
Love, love Vent Vert.
It doesn’t matter if I really want to wear Deneuve today but I don’t waste my vintage perfumes when I am at work. So I am going to probably wear the next best things, either Mitsouko or no. 19.
Deneuve is so gorgeous, I wouldn’t waste it on work either! But No. 19 is great for that usage.
I don’t wear any of my vintages to work due to the fact that they are ‘too weird’ or massively skanky. So it’s mainly mainstream scents that I wear to work.
SOTD will be Yves Rocher’s Neonatura Breathe edp (called Souffle in Europe). An easy choice as the weather will be hot and sunny today and it’s finally a pool day here! Breathe opens with a bit of ginger, lots of lemon and other citrus, then softens with jasmine and other white flowers, it ends as a soft, powdery benzoin/vanilla kiss. It says ‘hot sun and sand’ to me; I find it a wonderfully caressing skin scent on a sultry summer day after the refreshing joys of blue sky and blue water.
Picking up an Yves Rocher package today, mainly of shower gel. Wonder what the samples will be…
I went with Lutens De Profundis today. It’s my favorite Lutens but I tend to save it for special occasions because I can’t afford to get a full bottle right now. ANYWAY. I had the most amazing day yesterday and I woke up in such a great mood that I wanted to keep that going. So De Profundis it is. And it’s totally working. 🙂
I noticed that I like De Profundis much more when I actually wear it than when I just think about it.
Hope you and your family are enjoying your holiday Robin. Hope we aren’t dragging you away from the party! 😉
Those postcards- do any if those places still look the same?
After a week of near-scentlessness (had to make a trip unexpectedly), I wanted to wear my sample of Rochas Femme. This is going to be a full bottle – I can feel it. It doesn’t seem to smell like anything else.
I’m wearing atelier cologne ambre nue. I’m on vacation, a week-long orienteering competition in the south of Sweden, and right before leaving on Saturday I got my full collection sample pack! I grabbed a week’s worth and pick one at random every day. This one works well as a post run beach scent!
Sounds like a fun vacation!
SOTD: Bvlgari Man Extreme Bvlgari for men
Ava Luxe Fig Leaf for me today. It’s the perfect crisp, green fig for this humid weather.
Bobbi Brown Beach on another GORGEOUS summer day.
I love Bobbi Beach!!! Layer with the oil and shower gel and it is delish! Right now they have a rollerball for $25 limited edition for summer and really nice…
SOTD = Atelier Cologne Cedrat Enivrant
Hello from sunny Halifax, Nova Scotia. I just went on a picturesque tour of Peggy’s Cove and I am back on the ship just waiting to hop on a Hop On Hop Off Tour for the rest of the day! There was a reason why I chose to originally be monogamous with this perfume and the glorious start and simply wonderful middle and dry down are the reasons…in other words, this is a perfect summer vacation fragrance.
I was fretting over not being able to participate in this Friday’s Community Scent of the Day (I know, there ARE more things to fret over than this)…but since I had a very fruitful samples gathering in Boston, I have a CHOICE of Hermes perfumes to wear this Friday…eeny-meeny-miney-moe!
Good for you! They can be pretty stingey in the Boston Hermes shop, so I’m glad you were able to talk them into parting with some of their samples 🙂
The SA had the entire samples drawer open and I ended up getting 4 atomizers!
I hope you’re enjoying the trip (and you smell good!)
Yes and thank you… and my only issue is that I may forget it’s Friday and since I hardly take the elevator, I won’t have reminder!
SOTD is Hermes Osmanthe Yunnan. I probably should have saved this for the upcoming Hermes/JCE Friday (or used it last week for untested sample Friday), but I am bored and wanted to play today. It is so light and citrusy. Not normally my cup of tea (literally, tea scents usually don’t do it for me) but today it hits the spot. I can’t stop sniffing my wrist. I wish I had a spray bottle instead of dabbing from a sample. But kudos to Hermes for giving out generous samples. I can afford to layer this one on a few times.
I also prefer spraying and since those samples are large (4 ml if I remember correctly), I ended up decanting them into 5 ml plastic atomisers. And ones where I was able to get 2, went into 10 ml glass ones!
That’s a great idea. I’ve been meaning to buy some decanting supplies anyway. This is as good a reason as any to finally place the order.
I just spritzed on some Rosabotanica, to perk me up after a scentless morning.
Nice! It’s such a good scent for that purpose.
I must have been thinking about Friday because this morning I applied Un Jardin en Mediterranee from my largish decant.
Sadly, it was all just a memory by mid-morning and I hadn’t thought to tuck my decant in my purse.
If Hermes would release a coffret of all 4 if the Jardin series, I’d buy it in an instant. While I’m wishing, I’d wish for about a 15mL bottle of each one. That way, I could carry my bottle and touch up as needed 😉
Ditto. And a coffret of all the Merveilles (we’ve talked about that on here before) – I would love that.
Now that’s a great idea!
Me four!
I want that one too!
Me three
I haven’t had a chance to smell most of the Jardins, only Sur le Toit, and that one didn’t grab me at all. But I like so many other Hermes scents that I’d likely buy a coffret anyhow.
I’m wearing Quel Amour, but unfortunately I can still smell the remnants of yesterday’s Rockin’Rio. Quel Amour is lovely, and I don’t wear it often enough.
Commando today (unless you count Eau de Fish)! Spending my day fishing, cleaning, and smoking salmon. Tonight, something super floral and feminine after feeling scuzzy all day.
Ooh, do you hot smoke it or cold smoke it?
Hot smoke with a salt/brown sugar dry rub, then glaze of various hot sauces or cracked peppercorns. Yum, yum, yum!
SOTD is S-Perfumes S-ex. Doesn’t smell like sex at all, on me it smells like leather and violets, though there is no violet in the listed notes. I quite like it–it’s light and inoffensive but quite pretty.
Oh, have you ever smelled Jolie Madame? Leather and violets make my ears perk up, would be very curious to hear how they compare!
How about Sous le toit de Paris by Atelier Cologne? Violet leaf and leather — really well done. I thought of this because I just ordered my second decant. Next up may be a FB.
Oh, maybe I’ll have to revisit that! I recollect it as more citrus-y than I was looking for but perhaps especially here in the summer, maybe that’ll be just the ticket!
Hmm, I actually don’t get leather in Sous le toit de Paris but that goes to show how perfumes could smell different to different people. I love me some Sous le toit de Paris 🙂
I only have the reformulated Jolie Madame, but even that I really like. Makes me think of 70s silk shirts buttoned low, and leather skirts, in blacks/greys/purples. Would love to try these others.
Blackberry & Bay. I totally do have a hard time picking–went with B&B as my default happiest perfume.
That’s a good one! 🙂
I agree: Blackberry & Bay is a very happy perfume, I also enjoy wearing it.
Love it! And it works in all kinds of weather.
It’s usually the first scent I think of wearing if I’m going to spend the day with my adorable little nephew. Pure joy.
After watching a documentary on the 100th anniversary of WWI, I was inspired to wear Je Reviens today. I know this has no carnation in it, but to me it’s always smelled like spicy fresh carnations. It’s such a bright and happy scent. I hope all those WWI-era damsels truly did remember their doughboys with great affection when they sent them this scent home from the war front.
Sadly the vintage bottle I picked up is really very not nice at all. I wonder if it has turned?
It probably has, if it’s not nice. It does have aldehydes in it, and those decay fast – but sometimes what’s left after the damaged aldehydes burn off is lovely, and sometimes it’s gone off too. It’s hard to know what to expect with vintage.
I *have* been lucky with a lot of vintage bottles, but there have been a few that were utterly unwearable.
SOTD = the lush and plush 1000 by Patou. Soapy in the grandest and grandiflorest of ways.
I’ve been working ridiculous hours straight through the weekend and ended up leaving the house unscented. At work I took a random sample out of my drawer, as if it were still sample Friday.(Well, was there a weekend in there?)
Crystale Oud, my first try at a Montale. At first nothing, 4 seconds later a hit of strong oud (or, I assume synthetic oud). A minute later to late in the day, nothing.
Wearing Guerlain AA Mandarine Basilic. Love this one in the summer. It was not hard to pick since I only have a few perfumes to pick from – hubby with migraines and daughter with exczema means no scent at home. So I have about 10-15 favorites here at work for spritzing. And since it’s Monday, I figured I’d wear something that starts with M as well. Plus it’s super cheerful and perky for a Monday morning when I’d rather be in bed than at work.
Super cheerful is good. 🙂
Ambre Fétiche by Annick Goutal. Since it wasn’t hot in the morning and an AC in the office makes me wear a sweater, I thought it would be fine. It is “weather-wise” but for some reason it’s not as enjoyable as it used to be. It wasn’t hard to choose: I just thought of wearing something I haven’t worn in a while – and this one came up.
I don’t remember this at all but it sounds like I should save my “skin time” for something else!
I’m wearing SL Vetiver Oriental today. I didn’t have a hard time choosing because I’d been wanting to wear it for a while but kept getting distracted by other stuff.
I heard rumors about this being discontinued soon… A pity because it is quite a unique vetiver.
I’m in Shalimar Parfum Initial L’Eau – I’m sure it’s totally gone by now. This is one of those that I can smell the opening and then, 3 minutes later, can’t smell a darn thing. So easy to over apply because I can’t smell it at all. (it’s still there – other people can smell it!)
Even worse, it makes me sad because I really like this scent and now I can no longer enjoy it. Guess this goes on the shelf for a while and hope that I can “relearn” to smell the whole thing.
You are not alone in this struggle with disappearing fragrances. I honestly think it is my menopausal skin. This morning I put on Bvlgari Black and then a small squirt of Lust at the neck. The Black was gone in an hour and the Lust I can still smell because I got some on my shirt. I did not shower this morning, though freshly scrubbed and moisturized, or not, makes no difference. I put on 10 generous squirts of the Black, I am using at least that much of the Shalimar PI, it does not last long either. My Olympic Orchids Dev 1 stays, my beloved white florals stick around, but honestly, it is quite discouraging……..
Not sure where to place the blame. I love my Ange ou Demon Le Secret by Givinchy, and it has less staying power than any Calgon body spray. Even if I layer it with the shower gel & lotion, spray my hair & clothes & skin using 6 squirts, it only hangs on to midday. I keep a sample splash in my purse for touch-ups.
Wearing vintage Bourjois Evening in Paris. Just arrived in the mail today. Very stormy evening here tonight.
Jumped the gun today, and wore Jour d’Hermes from my small sample, but glad I did. It was perfect for what I needed today: warm but not heavy, comforting but not cloying, complex but not challenging. May have to reapply, actually. I think it would go well with my glass of Gewurtztraminer 🙂
After my TF Shanghai Lily wore off, I put some Magnolia Grandiflora Michel on to test and have been dismayed at it: it smells like soap. Nice lemony soap, but… *soap.* The topnotes were lovely, and for a while there I was getting a touch of jasmine and some vetiver, but within half an hour it was “guest bathroom soap.” Which I particularly hate spending money to spray on myself (if I wanted to smell like soap, I would JUST GO WASH. It’s way cheaper).
Mals, I think the perfume nut for a Magnolia fragrance has yet to be cracked! I find the opening of the Acqua De Parma Magnolia is most convincing but it does not last, the dry down is yawn inducing. Have you tried the Tom Ford Lys Fume? I really like that one! Lots of lily ang Ylang, not so much fume, but really nice.
SOTD was Dame Perfumery Mate, Heliotrope & Patchouli. I did have trouble deciding on it, because I had an allergy shot this afternoon, and didn’t want to wear anything too in-your-face, but did feel like wearing something new. It filled the bill perfectly. Now I’m wearing Serge Lutens Ambre Sultan, which I’ve been thinking about since wearing it Saturday, Still not entirely sure I like it, but can’t stop sniffing it.