Wilko to Zurich...? Lovely, Friendly Perfume Thread 6

[MrsMacNally]

We'll go anywhere in search of things that smell great, and then we discuss them here. Feel free to join us.

[[https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/style_and_beauty/2973003-Pink-mohicans-and-cats-Lovely-Friendly-Perfume-Thread-5 Last thread]

product placement, it is bedtime

The next week or so is going to be fruity as I strive to use up, Marc Jacobs Grapefruit splash, Chloe EDP and Hearts & Daggers. Maybe I could layer them.

Thanks for the heads-up Green.

Red alert for the Northern Lights tonight - shame it's so darn cloudy. (Quite like the idea of an aurora-inspired perfume..)

Green- Anais Anais ORIGINALE on the box is (to my nose) identical to the original AA. The one without ORIGINALE on the box takes PM to a whole other level

That blog link was fascinating (and I now want a juicer)

I found what must be one of the photos with Diana holding her frock to hide the perfume stain.

I am in London 1969 again, as the handful of samples I pulled out were LADDM (was v tempted) and various Nose nonentities.

I like the sound of the Caldey Island and shall put it on my list.

SotD is 4160s Lemon Sherbert - last night's crowdfunding talk put me in the mood....

PiaM - they are quite difficult to find (unless you're having a day out at the seaside in Pembrokshire). Try searching on Caldey Abbey rather than Caldey Island. Think their perfumes are 28ml or 10ml, but they also list 'skin perfume' which seems to be cologne strength and comes in dinky 5mls for £5.95. I've tried and really like No.1 and Island Gorse (latter is slightly sweet and urinous, like fig can sometimes be, but compelling all the same ). Would be interested to hear what other people make of them.

SOTD L'air de rien. Feeling French and gussety

Caldey Island also at Roullier White.

SoTD is Chloe, soft and fruity floral, pedestrian.

I have a bottle of Anais Anais, SIL gave it to me when I had DD(22), only opened it this year

Today is Incense Rose, which is like a warm mix of POAL and the Tauer spicy base - gorgeous! It's less rosy than I expected from my mishap with spilling it on my fingers and the cardboard box, but also deeper and spicier. Damn, now I want a FB of this too!

at 'gussety', Kittens! I have a sample of that somewhere, suggested by les senteurs when I was disappointed by Bandit seeming very soapy and not gussety, I remember it having a urine-y tone in a weirdly likeable way!

Thank you PIAM I shall look out for Originale once the lovely miniature is used up. It is very satisfying to think it is still available and hasn't been ruined by reformulation. Pest I imagine your 22-year-old bottle really is the original.

I rather fancy a juicer now too. Poor Princess Diana is clutching her dress rather awkwardly in that picture so it does make sense that she was trying to cover up the spilled perfume stain.

I hadn't thought of Agatha Christie not identifying the perfume out of principle. But I think it may well be that she just wasn't interested in scent. In "Cat Among The Pigeons" she has the headmistress say to a parent: "Like that very charming Balenciaga model you are wearing. It is Balenciaga, isn't it? It is so delightful to meet a woman with real clothes sense."

So I don't think it can be that she objected to using the name of a real brand. Actually, maybe she disliked perfume. A couple of paragraphs on she writes:

"The next arrivals were prefaced by such a gust of expensive perfume as almost to knock Miss Bulstrode backwards.
"Must pour a whole bottle of the stuff over herself every day," Miss Bulstrode noted mentally..."

As you can see from that I also have a memory which hangs onto all sorts of odd bits and pieces. Someone once told me I was a mine of useless information! Here is some more -
famous women's favourite perfumes.

I wore Lemon Sherbert just the other day MrsMac. It covered up miserable CK One so beautifully and was such a happy contrast.

Sample of the day is DKNY Be Tempted - I'm really, really not.

That article about Princess Di is so cringey - 'a queenly perfume for the queen of hearts' > not envy, boak! I don't understand why anyone would want to smell like a celeb, unless they just liked the scent anyway, like the Truth or Dare one someone recommended upthread - I am going to hunt that down. I mean, I know I said I'd like to smell fracas because it's in Jilly Cooper, but if I don't like it I won't wear it, it's just for fun. That article is so serious and so crawlingly royalist. (Goes off muttering 'vive la revolution'...)

I wouldn't want to wear a perfume because someone famous or royal wore it either, Mary. But I am interested in obsessed with vintage scents so I'm interested in their choices because, presumably, their buying power gave them access to a huge choice of perfumes and these were the ones selected from a lot of competition.

Gussetty Kittens! I must fish my sample out again and compare. Mind you, I can never detect the skank in Miss Dior either. But I think that's probably association because my DM wore it when I was small.

I do think the role of fragrance in fiction is interesting and quite nuanced though. In the case of the beloved Agatha ( love her books) I think she is using scent in a very symbolic way to signiify a "loose" or otherwise tricky woman - so she's not interested in the brand just the signifier Jilly on the other hand totally buys into scents as seduction so uses brand names to add a sense of reality to her romantic fantasies

I think you are bang on the nose about Christie, Puppy. So we're back to scent being subversive. The trail of associations left by a simple consumer product is extraordinary.

Delivery day, from Zoologist! So, in honour of her legion of fans here, SoTD is Sarah 4160's Macaque. Starts very fresh and quite fruity, green apple and a bit of citrus with cedar, then there's a hefty belt of galbanum with incense, and the base notes (haven't quite got there yet) will be cedarmoss, green tea, oud and musk. I'm fairly anosmic to musk, so fingers crossed that it doesn't reek out the hairdresser when I get there. I do like this after 90 minutes and think others would too. A single spray is all I spritzed, just in case, but I might now do the other hand. So far, I like it better than the 4160s I've tried (apart from Captured by Candlelight) but I think it's the 4160 base that I am responding to unfavourably.

Phew, loads to catch up on.

I am reeling slightly at Oxford being described as irredeemably masculine, I think of it as incredibly feminine. Just goes to show how differently we all smell things. I'll do my interpretation of it soon when I have it to hand.

I've succumbed to the 4160 Rhubarb citrus cologne. I adore rhubarb, although I was slightly relieved on my last trip to Liberty to discover that the insanely expensive Aedes de Venustas I have been yearning for was not in fact anything like the rhubarb scent of my dreams.

SOTD is Ninfeo Mio because I ran out of the house in such a hurry I came out scent "naked", and this is what I have a bottle of in my desk drawer at work.

hello all

still haven't tried my penhaligons samples as im still ill. what i had been battling on with thinking it was viral was actually walking pneumonia so im now on antibiotics and steroids and hoping to be better in a few days! living my scent life reading about what you have all been wearing, i still cant really smell anything and everythings making me cough so totally scentless here still

Pneumonia OneNight! Oh you poor love. I hope the drugs are doing their stuff for you. I do hope you're up and about soon.

Sock thank you for the Macaque road test. It does sound promising so far. I'm a bit uncertain about the yet to be sniffed oud notes - I don't really get on with oud. Do please let me know your final thoughts.

MsRinky sorry about Oxford! I have the same trouble with 4160's Maxed Out and I know that has legions of devoted fans.

Your observation about scent being a possible authorial shorthand for trollopy type, Puppy has cast a whole new light for me on Golden Age crime writers.

The first one that springs to mind is Ngaio Marsh's "False Scent" in which a character is given a present of a new Parisian fragrance called Unguarded - described as "a lick on either lobe and the satellites reel in their courses." She proceeds to half drown herself in the stuff (signifier of emotional and sexual licence) and there is one passage where she is urging an old flame to spray her with it, despite her watching husband's objections and it really is described almost as though she's committing adultery.

Ahh, Green I love Maxed Out as well! Our noses are evidently diametrically opposed, although our taste in literature is not.

OooH Green and Rinky could be evil perfume mirror twins. Anyone here do spreadsheets?

Sorry to hear of all the lingering illness. I've succumbed too and wfh today.

Sarah Mac's Zoologist creation sound very interesting- ta for description. Zoologist are all very animaltic aren't they? I guess that's obvious from the branding but is there really such an audience for a whole brand of animaltic scents?

SOTD is Shay and Blue Dandelion Fig. It's green but musky too, I can smell tomato plants, lemon, unspecified herbs, I'm not getting fig but it is a fresh yummy gourmand, making my mouth water actually.

DH SOTD is cuio as recommended by leather lovers up thread. It really does smell like TF Tuscan Leather and about 1/10 of the price.

More specifically DH SOTD is Pal Zileri Cuoio

Sorry animalic

I have just spent a small fortune on the perfume society website- mainly buying birthday presents for next few weeks as well as treats for me. Rinsing my VIP membership discount.

Perfume society boxes do make great gifts and I've had good feedback from receivers. I've bought the 6 set Infusions set from Prada for my mum who has been coveting mine (8 ml bottles) only £30 so bit of a bargain.

I'm very tempted by 4160 Rhubarb and Custard. What have been your experiences of crowdfunded perfumes? Decent or just exciting to smell? Worth taking a chance?