SOTD: Parfumerie Generale L'Eau Rare Matale

For some reason, this one surprises me every single time I wear it. I always remember it as clear water and clean gentle tea, and, well, no. Burned wood. Bitter tea. Sometimes something a bit harsh-herbal, in the bug-killing realm. And this time I did catch the tiniest trace of the "white flowers" that are listed in the notes.

And I love it. But I never remember, between wearings, what it really smells like, so I wear it far too seldom.

Review Roundup: Is here.

Image: By Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). Wikimedia Commons

SOTD: Scentless Sunday

No boom today. Boom tomorrow.

(Yeah, we've been watching a lot of Babylon 5.)

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: Scentless Saturday. Sort of. Then I went shopping.

It was going to be a scentless Saturday.

But then I remembered that there were Dawn Spencer Hurwitz (Parfums des Beaux Arts) perfumes in town. (Alchemy Botanicals in Ashland is carrying them! Woohoo!)

So I went to sample. I tried on Pamplemousse, Tubereuse, Bancha, and d'Anjou, all at once. And walked around town in a perfumed fog. And promised Himself a Scentless Sunday instead.

As for the perfumes, I'm uncertain:

• Pamplemousse started out nice and sharp-fruity, but ended with a little too much sharp and too little fruity, and the fruit that was left wasn't specifically grapefruit to my nose. I've read that this has neroli in it, too, and neroli is a note that I love for about forty seconds, and then grow actively tired of. So this one isn't for me.
• Bancha started out with a lovely combination of bergamot, tea, and other green things. It seemed to turn unpleasantly sharp later, but I now suspect that that was Pamplemousse aggressively announcing itself from the other arm, because several hours later Bancha is gorgeous, soft bergamot with just a hint of tea and an even more subtle hint of something richer. It's soaked into my skin as if it belongs there, and I'll be very sad when it finally fades away.
• d'Anjou was a lovely pear for an hour or two, and then it was gone. I may have missed subtleties; I'll try it again.
• Tubereuse was tuberose. A whole lot of tuberose. If I want a straightforward tuberose soliflore, this is in the running, but before that happens I want Tubereuse Criminelle. Though, there is an engaging graininess about it, rather like that of Un Lys...

So the favorite is Bancha. Am I going to do anything about that? I'm not sure yet.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: Serge Lutens Un Lys

Yum.

Review Roundup: Is here.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.


(Edited because I apparently thought, one confused day, that this was a Parfumerie Generale perfume.)

SOTD: Chanel No. 19 parfum

Eep! I forgot my SOTD post!

Well, through the magic of backdating, here it is. Thursday's scent was Chanel No. 19 parfum. I've mentioned that I generally save this scent for days that are near-guaranteed to be pleasant. But I badly wanted to smell it, so I risked wearing it on a work day. And it was a medium lousy work day.

But No. 19 was its usual self, a combination of surpassing beauty and "you wanna make something of it?" strength. So maybe it's the best thing to wear on a bad work day.

Review Roundup: Is here.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: Parfumerie Generale Aomassai

I've been neglecting the main body of the collection, so today I tried the blind-stab-at-the-perfume-bottles method. My finger touched Aomassai, and I put it on, despite assuming that it would be far too sticky-foody for relatively warm weather.

It turns out that I was wrong. In the winter this makes me think of sticky pastries, but now it's more like a crisp little wafer of a cookie, not sticky, syrupy, or otherwise smothering. I'll be interested to see how it works in flat-out hot weather.

Review Roundup: Is here.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: Balmain Ivoire

I've learned today that Ivoire is not a wafter. One spray on the back of my neck - my usual dosage for most scents - simply vanishes as if never there.

I'll overdose a little next time.

Review Roundup: Is here.

Image: By Nick McPhee. Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: None

No scent today. Do you think that the bottles are offended? Bottles, y'know, all lined up and disapproving, like The Birds...

Image: Mine

SOTD: Cranky Bubbles and Oily Roses

I'm typing this with pruny fingers.

I love bathtubs. Bathtubs, and bubbles, and getting into water that's too hot for comfort, and getting used to it and then making it even hotter, and soaking with a book until the water cools down and I half-drain the tub and add still more hot water. I've loved them all my life, as many, many damp books can attest.

When we bought our house, it had a lovely old-fashioned white cast iron tub with claw feet. We intended to remodel the bathroom, turning one medium-sized space into two tiny ones. That bathtub didn't want to fit into "tiny", and the holes for the faucets were in the wrong place, and measurements and drawings repeatedly hit the roadblock of The Bathtub. And Himself assured me that if I would give up that tub to some good home somewhere, he'd happily buy me the finest of replacements.

Nope.

So Himself turned his determination, instead, to making the tub fit. Drawings were redrawn and doors were shuffled and the faucet holes were plugged and a lovely plumbing monstrosity was arranged to fill the tub from above, and the tub spent a few remodeling weeks out in the side yard until it finally returned in glory to precisely where it belonged.

My bathtub. I suspect that I spend more time reading there than I do at my desk or on the couch.

Naturally I have many bath potions, but generally I fill it with blazing hot water, "cranky baby" bubble bath (California Baby Tired & Cranky), and Elizabeth W Rose bath oil - so far the one rose, in the one context, that gets past my doubtful response to rose perfumes. The combined scent is permanently associated with bubbles and turning pages with damp fingers, and there's not much that can beat that.

Image: By Muu-karhu. Wikimedia Commons.

SOTD: None (Scentfree Saturday)

Another unscented Saturday today, but the garden is enthusiastic about May, so there's plenty to sniff.

Photo: Mine