Let's revive our old perfume threads, perfumistas!

[shins]

I know it might seem like we've nothing left to say but I'm sure we have :)

I have to tell you: Seville a l'Aube is on the TK Maxx website for half price - lots of other L'Artisan perfumes but that one is very special and I wore nothing else all summer!

SOTD: Cuir de Russie. Like a fuzzy hug with vague undertones of marauding Cossacks from the 19th century.

None in clearance unforunately MrsC, the LPs were £30 but the SL and the Elixir were £40. Bargains in themselves even without clearance! The Elixir is gorgeous btw, the incense is not too strong or overpowering. Lovely to wear to bed.

Considering these were all blind buys I'm pretty pleased!

I'm looking for Ambre Sultan too. If I have any luck I shall let you know 😉

SoTD is going to be 11Semma by Odin. I just fancy the hot spicy humbug note in the chill wind, and will love the way it softens into a rather masculine chypre! A decant from Perfumed Court following a Nose sample, I'd be interested to sniff others in the range but have never noticed them for sale in the UK. Has anyone else? Do Les Senteurs stock Odin?

Only 21 more posts needed and we shall have to have a new thread!

Yay!

SOTD is Time For Tea again. I love the bitter note of black tea and then it softens to sweeter milkiness. Yum.

I'm going to be on Oxford Street alter today (rare event these days).
What shall I sample?

I'll probably head for the Chanel Exclusives or Serge Lutens in Selfridges.

They have a vast Oud counter in Selfridges, too!
The perfume section is great. There are lots and lots of unusual lines in Selfridges. Have a great time!

Are you doing Liberty, too?

Definitely try the Byredo. Also the Roja Dove - if only because he's so expensive and hard to sample otherwise.
And y y y to the Chanel exclusives - though they tend to make everything else smell a bit trying-too-hard/ inelegant!

Selfridges perfume counters! Roll on next week!! I am looking forward to TheCat's suggestions and some new discoveries.

On which note ... I dug out my Nikki de StPhalle today. It's a green chypre, old skool stylee. To my modern nose, it's angular and even shrieking. It's in a style that was discredited by too many cheap versions - which really were very screechy - and it DOES remind me of a school disco back in the 1970s.
I know that it's been re formulated and cheapened but even in it's current formulation I rather enjoy it. It's fun and seems a lot less well-behaved than many modern scents. It makes me think that modern attention-getting perfumes (the ones thst follow Angel,) are indecorous in rather convention-reinforcing ways.
NikkiStPhalle is really rather fun.

It made me think that, when people decide to wear retro clothes, or retro-influenced clothes, they should go the whole hog and wear retro perfume, too.

I saw a feature on 70s clothing being revived. I 'd love it if people accompanied thst with appropriate perfume!

That should be early 80s school disco. I 'm not that old! People were wearing this style of perfume - made by Avon - when I attended school discos in the early 80s.

crapartist - do you mean Tea for Two?

In which case we're fragrance twins today!

Triplets

I'm really loving it - a real winter warmer

ThenLater Italy is a perfume mecca. Bigger cities have wonderful profumerias - you could sample so much. Is there an Olfattorio near you? Smaller towns often also have shops that are surprisingly good. My favorite perfume shop in the world is Campomarzio in Rome.

I'm wearing Prada's Vetiver. Saw some of my rl perfumista friends last week, we were invited to talk about perfumes on a live radio program. Exciting!

Come on perfumistas, more posts. Then we shan't have to trawl through to the fag end each time we want to see what's happening. My local town is sadly lacking in profumerias............. we have Boots (small, dull), Superdrug (sleb rubbish only) and a very, very, deeply ordinary chemist, but it sells R&G soap.

Cresset - I got a sample of 11 Semma from a Nose diagnostic and I loved it. Can certainly order from their site

Frugal- sadly small town Puglia, but, hey, the internet is my oyster!
Sotd here was my current favourite Cuir Cordoba (Keiko Mecheri) Original sample from Nose, just received more samples from FirstforFragrance. I might need to buy a full bottle. I adore it, and think the review of it as smelling like the inside of someone's glove drawer when they've had perfume on sums it up. Sadly doesn't last very long, which surprised me for a 'heavier' style scent.

Thecat - had great hopes for the re-released Aqua Manda for 70s nostalgia purposes but it feels rather a weedy and pale reincarnation.

Have you read Lizzie Ostrom's ' Perfume: A Century of Scent'? Great source of historical inspiration. Its good on the link between perfume and each decade's zeitgeist, but the description of each fragrance featured could be a bit more detailed for us obsessive types.

Cresset- sometimes the dullest independent chemist can have fantastic stuff. Sometimes not, though.

To be honest I think the best perfume on the High Street is M and S at the moment. Perfume Shop is very meh and there are never any knowledgeable staff. They know the bestsellers and they can speak from the script but otherwise it's usually a waste of time.

Fragrance Shop- same thing, only mine has a scary woman with enormous eyelashes.

Boots- all the mainstream stuff but usually some old classics such as Yardley and L'Aimant ( which I love), and of course Library of Fragrance.

I even have a little House of Fraser near me with a deserted Guerlain counter. Sometimes, if cupid strikes, they leave big piles of samples lying around, which is great because it's liking getting blood out of stone these days when I try and bag samples from sales assistants.

MrsCocoa I met Lizzie Ostrum last year, she's just lovely! If you get the chance to hear her talking about scent it's well worth it, she hands out scent cards while she's talking, it's really immersive.

Thank you for that, MrsCocoa - sounds good!

Oops. Yes I did mean Tea for Two Cointreau. Don't know where that came from!

My Parfumaria treats arrived! ELDO Eau de Protection, Arquiste Boutonniere No.7 and Paul Emilien Carrousel. Yum, yummy and even yummier! That's my weekend sorted 😀

Picked up a sample of Black Orchid today too... First sniff was encouraging

Can't quite forgive M&S for not making the Lyn Harris collaboration work for longer.

The M&S Lyn Harris tie up produced some great scents: I bought a couple of the men's fragrances and while I don't often wear it (it's too woody even for me) I think they should have persisted for longer. The Rose was good....

And this is the last word. Who will kick off a new thread?