Monday, Oct. 11: Lovely day, in the low 80s as it has been for the past few days: Indian summer. I’m actually wishing for a bit of cooler weather, so I can wear more autumnal stuff like Jolie Madame and Tabac Aurea. And after smelling the woods at Monticello yesterday, I’m wanting just a tad of vintage Magie Noire. However, since I’m working on a review of Caron Aimez-Moi, to be posted with some other reviews of violet scents the first week of November as part of a joint blog project with Scent of the Day and Redolent of Spices, I wore that. I like it. I have a small bottle, and I have to say it’s one of the prettiest bottles I own.
Came home from work and found the front door wide open – and dog tooth marks on the doorknob. Bad Hayley dog! I mean, smart Hayley dog, but bad dog! Guess we’re going to have to start locking the doors. I know, I know… But we live on a road nobody can find, and we have a few neighbors close by, at least one of whom is nearly always home. She was outside because yesterday she got into something really incredibly foul-smelling (Fresh manure? Something dead? That stinky plant I don’t know the name of? All three?).
I think Bookworm has got Gaze’s strep throat. I figured we’d eventually be paying for this hectic schedule of hers, and although her grades are still excellent, the late nights and constant running around are really messing with her health. This is her second illness of the school year. I think Cross Country and marching band is just too much.
The CEO just gave Hayley a bath in the basement tub, and I can hear him singing to her, “Towel time, it’s towel time – time to dry off the doggie!” Awwwww.
Tuesday, Oct. 12: Took poor Bookworm to the doctor – yep, it’s strep. Wore Moschino L’eau Cheap & Chic, which P:TG says “for a time, does a pretty good imitation of Serge Lutens’ insanely wonderful… La Myrrhe.” You know how I feel about La Myrrhe (love it), so I was interested enough to pick up a mini bottle for nottalotta $. So does LC&C resemble La Myrrhe? No. Not the least little bit. It’s not bad, mind you, but it isn’t congruent to any of what I’d call La Myrrhe’s salient points. Shimmering aldehydes? Umm, sort of, a few soapy ones… okay, I’ll be generous. Aldehydes, check. Vaguely medicinal air? Well, no. Cooking herbs, maybe. We’ll call that one “close but no cigar.” Rose and jasmine shot through with light? (crickets) Resinous myrrh with sun glare? (more crickets) Nope. No, as a La Myrrhe smell-alike, LC&C is a big FAIL.
I know P:TG says “for a time.” But how long a time, I’m wondering – a nanosecond? During the aldehydic part? As far as I’m concerned, even the aldehydes aren’t the same. What LC&C really reminds me of is L’Artisan’s Passage d’Enfer, with the herbal stuff, the resiny pine bits… PdE is more shaving cream, while LC&C is more bar of Dove soap, but still: herbs, pine, and lather.
SOTE: F Malle Iris Poudre. Which is still terrific. Still almost delicious up top, and still reminds me of Mariella Burani in the drydown. And I have a nearly-full bottle of MB (which is discontinued but still available for around $30 at the discounters, if you can find it).
Wednesday, Oct. 13: Happy birthday to Gaze! He’s 12 today.
I have recently gotten very excited about the upcoming Hermessence, Iris Ukiyoë, which is supposed to focus on the iris blossom, not the usual iris root. I’ll predict right now that there are going to be a lot of iris-lovers annoyed by it, because it won’t be what they were expecting (and they didn’t do a lot of research on it before jumping). IU is supposed to be released by the end of November in Paris, but apparently the tester’s available, if hidden, at the Paris Hermes location. Denyse at Grain de Musc called it a “sweet wet blossom” (here’s her review) – and it’s supposed to have been inspired by Jean-Claude Ellena’s collection of Japanese Ukiyo-e woodcut art, many pieces of which focus on iris. Iris blossom is very delicate-smelling, and I love the scent. My guess is that IU is exactly the sort of delicate, streamlined scent likely to be a thing of beauty in JCE’s hands. I do have a few reservations: Denyse hints at aquatic notes (lotus, perhaps? I liked it in DSH’s Secrets of Egypt Susinon/1000 Lilies) and orange blossom. OB tends to go quite soapy on me, but if there are just aspects of OB plus other stuff that add up to “iris flower,” I’ll be very happy. We’ll see.
SOTD: PdN Vanille Tonka, because apparently the last time I wore this pink blouse a spritz of it landed on the fabric. Oops. It was too distracting and too near my face to wear something else today. Good thing I love VT.
Thursday, Oct. 14: Busybusy rushrush. SOTD: Nothing. Too tired, and I don’t feel good. Hope I’m not coming down with strep.
Friday, Oct. 15: Feeling much better – and The CEO came by work to take me to lunch at the Mexican restaurant, too. SOTD: Guerlain Idylle edp. I’m not sure why all the complaints about this one – it’s nice. The florals are very well-blended and remind me somewhat of the floral portion of Alahine, which you know by now that I love, and then the base is sort of patchouli-woody-musky, deeper than your usual mall swill. Apparently there are people who firmly believe that Guerlain should never release a scent that could be described as “merely nice,” but honestly, why not? Chant d’Aromes, Champs-Elysees, and even Chamade were the equivalent of “nice girl” fragrances for the times in which they were created. I think people are snarky because a) the card for this sample mentions “floral chypre,” and chypre it is definitely not and b) it does rather smell a bit like an upscale Sarah Jessica Parker Lovely. Difference is, I don’t like Lovely, and I do like Idylle.
On the other hand, if someone is going to give me a bottle of “merely nice” perfume, I want a bottle of Marc Jacobs Daisy instead.
Better yet, someone could save up and get me a bottle of Frederic Malle Iris Poudre! Which, I admit, is not terribly distinctive and original and shocking and quirky, the way serious perfume nuts often like their scents to be – but I can assure you I’d wear the toothpicks out of it.
Saturday, Oct. 16: A gorgeous day, sunny, breezy, with temps in the mid-50s F. Took Bookworm to the high school for PSATs, then came home and cleaned up the house. The CEO and Jeff the Hired Guy loaded up two bulls with wanderlust – after the fifth time we found them four fields away where they should have been – and took them to an entirely different part of the farm where they couldn’t jump fences. (Actually, it may have been the plain old-fashioned variety of lust rather than wander-, because we kept finding them in with the heifers.)
SOTD: Nothing, because I went shopping for a few birthday presents for the boys, having been unable to find what I wanted online, and I tested a few things. Victoria’s Secret’s new scent, Bombshell? No. Just… no. Went to Bath & Body Works to try to check out those Halloween Pocket-Bac things Jessica reviewed on Now Smell This, and sad to say, they were all gone. They had Christmas scents, though, so I bought a few Pocket-Bacs in scents like Vanilla Bean Noel (a minty vanilla thing) and Comet’s Ginger Mint (self-explanatory). Smelled all the Slatkin candles they had out, both the autumn ones and the winter ones, and disliked most of them. Leaves, Autumn, Spiced Cider, Holly Wreath, Pumpkin Spice, Frosted Cranberry – all of them trying too hard, or something. I do like the Fresh Balsam one. And I did fall pretty hard for the candle called Winter, which has a sort of icy-crisp smell, with evergreens and clove and bayberry, maybe even a hint of citrus in there. For something that sounds like every holiday cliché in the book, it’s restrained. I even fell hard enough for it to jostle my wallet loose: I bought a small candle in a metal-topped glass for $5 (half-off sale).
I sprayed some of their new men’s scents on paper to test. Ocean is, predictably, a Calone marine scent. Oak was marginally better but still noticeably synthetic. Noir is, in my opinion, the best of the bunch, a classic aromatic fougere, but unless you were desperate and down to your last $30, you’d be better off with Polo or Drakkar Noir. In all honesty, you’d be better off still with a 5ml miniature bottle of DN – they sell it at Wal-Mart now, for about $9. I also smelled the “Summer Vanilla” body spray series (Lemon Vanilla, Coconut Vanilla, and Berry Vanilla), largely because someone mentioned the Lemon Vanilla favorably on one of the blogs I follow. Coconut and Berry are, as you might expect, toothache-sweet. Lemon Vanilla I went so far as to actually spray on my left thumb because of its lovely tart lemon-curd topnote, which lasted for a good twenty minutes before the ethylmaltol showed up (Hello there, Angel!).
Sunday, Oct. 17: Chillier today. SOTD: Honore des Pres Vamp a NY. I still dig it, but perhaps less than I did in the summer… it is a bit trashy. It appears that I don’t mind that trashiness in the summer, or maybe it just goes better with beach novels and sunburned noses. It lasts alllll day, which is nice as so few things hang around on me. Also, it blended pleasantly with Bookworm’s Hanae Mori. (Her samples are almost gone, she tells me. Time for a small 1 oz bottle? Or just a few more samples?)
Had the boys’ Family Birthday Party this afternoon, with cake and presents and grandparents and whatnot. It was nice.
Image is from ScentStash.
Muse in Wooden Shoes 
Hey Muse, thanks for the Diary! I had wondered about L’eau Cheap & Chic, so thanks for pointing out the crickets.
Glad you dodged strep! And yes, trashy is always better in hot weather. Perhaps it is enhanced by a touch of sweat.
J, I knew it was too good to be true about LC&C… (what, you like La Myrrhe? I didn’t peg you for an aldeho.)
I ‘spose I’d better put away my trashy scents away for next summer… except for That Slut Tocade, of course.
Hi Mals! I got to enjoy some of the DC area Indian summer last week as I was back home for my mom’s wedding in MD. It was lovely and now back in San Diego, it’s chilly and drizzly. Makes no sense. I bought one of those Lemon Vanilla sprays at the last BBW 75% off sale – it’s fun and think I paid about $2 for it! And one of these days, I will get the Fireside Candle – that is my favorite Slatkin. I do love the Pine/Balsam candles as well, but only for about a month at the holidays, and then they gather dust the rest of the year.
It has been really lovely weather, J, if a bit less interesting than our usual fall. Congrats to your mom!
Fireside candle? Didn’t see that one…. hmmm… I should, you know, go back to check, shouldn’t I? Yes. Definitely I should.
Iris Poudre’s drydown is similar to Mariella Burani? Hmmmm, that’s a good thing to know, because I luuuurved the drydown.
It’s not exact, D. I think the IP has less musk and more sandalwood – i.e., a bit less powdery than MB. MB has just a hint of Jovan Musk for Women (which my mom used to wear, so it’s a comforting sort of thing for me, as opposed to, “ew, clean laundry musk”). But they are similar, yes.
Which one had you tried and liked? IP or MB?