Wearing Meharees today – the perfect weekday perfume. Cinnamon and spice and everything nice. Really, almost like a cinnamon sugar cookie. Some say that it’s a dupe for Frederic Malle Musc Ravageur and I’d say it’s pretty close, as close as one can get for 1/5 of the price.
This is my everything is gonna be alright perfume. Not just for me but for everyone else too. if you smell this, I hope that’s what you think, because it’s pleasant, innocuous, good.
I started doing Diwali perfume picks because I saw the big retailers and mainstream media completely getting it wrong, often picking the trending scent instead of what fit the times.
This year’s Diwali pick is Amouage Fate, equally opulent and restrained, a mix of soapy powdery incense, heady and cleansing. I love the clean smoke that this represents. Its as if the perfume represents the metaphorical cleansing of incense smoke mixed with a literal cleansing from a powdered Ivory soap. It’s so good, it lasts all day, with an intense projection to start, sillage for a few hours, and turning into a skin scent at the end of the day.
May light always prevail.
Happy Diwali.
Dispatch from the Guerlain counter. Last week, I popped in for their holiday event and I stopped by the Guerlain counter to smell the new extraits. First, we sprayed on paper and then one made the cut for the skin test.
The Iris is a cold take on the iris, not too purple, more a crisp blue. No lipstick in this bottle.
The bergamot is zingy, I liked it, and I know it would be great in the summer.
The tonka is sweet.
The rose is rosy. Honestly, maybe the only one I’d skip for sure because it’s not hard to find a good rose.
The jasmine one is indolic.
Finally – the surprise winner was the vanilla. Cozy and rich without being too sweet. It didn’t last very long, but I just had one spray and smelled a lot that day.
Honestly, these are extraits but they’re wearing like eau de Parfum. For the price… I’d rather a bottle of Diaghilev… or Shalimar Extrait… or Coromandel Parfum…
The Boss brand’s latest release is an “Elixir” and it’s done by one of my favourite perfumers: Annick Menardo (although Fragrantica lists this as a collaboration with Suzy Le Helley).
This Elixir is a dry crisp scent. It opens with green cardamom, and then goes to a cedar and smoky frankincense blend. There’s also vetiver here which helps with the smokiness and accentuates the dry nature of this scent. It really sparkles against the usual ambers of the season but it would work well in any weather. There’s a molecule in this with epic longevity that goes with the dry woody notes in the scents. This is truly a Boss perfume – try this if you have to dress professionally to work and have a lot of energy. The dryness will contrast with any type of heat that might be around.
Although this is an “elixir”, the formula is a parfum and it behaves like one too. It’s meant to last the whole day and it delivers on that front.
Boss Bottled Elixir is marketed as a masculine perfume but if it wasn’t for that one ultra-long-lasting molecule, I feel like I’d be able to pull it off. It’s an almost niche-smelling perfume (a compliment here) with how strong its dry woody character is. The cardamom is *chef’s kiss*, but I can never resist cardamom.
For the first time ever, there was a bit of a break in Calgary in the month of November, so I left town for a few days. I always take all my hair care with me, but this year, I grabbed this Olaplex Smooth Your Style Hair Kit to cover my styling bases. I don’t know why I thought this would be just enough for 4 days – it’s probably enough product for 4 months. The no. 6 Leave-In Styling Cream is a full size (100ml), and for a little bit more, you also get the No. 9 (serum), the No. 3 (pre-shampoo treatment) and a mini of the oil.
If you thought that you use these in order (3, 6, 7, 9), you’d be wrong. Actually, the number 9 is a light gel serum (watery in finish) and you apply it as the first styling step. No. 7 is an oil that’s applied to finish the routine – add shine – or you can mix it with No. 6. Whatever order you use, I like the idea that I’m get the benefits of Olaplex every step of the way. I also recommend leaving the No. 3 in the shower because you’re supposed to apply it to soaking wet hair. So I wet my hair, apply No. 3, wait a while and then shampoo it out. It works in as little as 3 minutes.
That’s the routine – and it’s working.
I forgot that I was easing into wearing perfume, and went back to my old habit of doing four sprays first thing in the day – that is, 4 sprays of Amouage Jubilation 25. I forgot how concentrated it is, so everyone got to smell it. This is a chypre, and as a perfume-lover I know that there’s a peach, a mossy drydown, a sparkly aldehydic opening, and some florals thrown in, but it was interesting to hear other people’s impressions of it. It’s superbly blended so I can’t always pick out the notes, but I feel like I’m wearing a wool tweed skirt suit when this perfume surrounds me, even when I’m in a hoodie and running shoes.
Comments I got:
It smells like a melting glue gun in here!
It smells amazing in here. (What does it smell like?) Perfume! It’s you!
Wow, it smells so good in here. Like a crystal shop! Good vibes, earthy and sweet.
I think the “sweetness” is the resinous labdanum, which adds so much richness to Jubilation 25, showing up more when the scent warms up on your skin. It lasts without wearing out its welcome.
Super thankful for this decant which was given to me by a perfume friend. It’s being enjoyed, and I’m putting a full bottle on my wish list. Hopefully, it’ll be mine before the end of the year.
I was not ready for holiday, but these came in the mail and the textures are so good. Smooth and so soft. I know that I’m over due to post form makeup reels and I’m almost ready.
What I love about the Charlotte Tilbury BEAUTYVERSE eyeshadow palette is that it’s a mix of pearly matte and glitter, so either you’re going to the office or to a party and there’s no in between. Works for me, I’m all or nothing over here.
The highlight and blush palette is very pigmented and honestly, this blush is too dark for me. It’s very punchy and pigmented which is great – a little goes a long way.
Are we ready for holiday? I don’t know. I’m tired. But I did buy some eggnog ice cream yesterday so yes, I’m ready.
If you were planning on getting something from the Charlotte Tilbury website, then you may want to wait until Black Friday and Cyber Monday because there will undoubtedly be some deals to be had.
It’s now November and the truth is that I barely wore perfume in the month of October. but when I was ready for it, it was there waiting for me. I’d say that Shalimar never disappoints, but the eau de cologne is my favourite version and everything else fails when compared to that. It’s the perfect balance of really zingy bergamot and vanilla, there’s leather in the background so it stays interesting and textured. It’s Shalimar in 4D.
The eau de parfum isn’t completely a write-off, it has a touch of leather but less of the citruses so it wears heavier and sweeter, perhaps as you would expect an eau de parfum to.
Finally, Millisime Iris, Shalimar for the 2023 kids, in an age where hype, longevity, and a good dose of sugar helps sell perfume, and honestly, when we look around at the world is it really a surprise? A persistent caramel sweetness can help dull the pain, like the spoonful of sugar your mom used to give you when you were little and you cut your lip open.
In an episode where I admit to an embarrassment of riches, I have a bottle of the edt lying in a cupboard but I haven’t even opened it. Everyone thinks I should because it has a nice zingy bergamot as a top note and that’s one of my favourite parts of Shalimar, so I will open my bottle soon.
Dipped my toe into fragrant waters today by wearing just a half spray of Tabacco Toscano by Santa Maria Novella. It’s a slightly green tobacco with lots of vanilla. I wish I could put my finger on what this vanilla reminds me of, maybe Bvlgari Black, or the vanilla in Dzing! or Dior’s Hypnotic Poison.
Anyway, it was the perfect choice for getting over the flu because an eau de cologne won’t assault a sensitive nose, and by the end of the day, it’s basically gone.
Ledda 22 Orris is the scent of the day because I wanted cosplay as an influencer.
I smell like pear, because it’s trending, and ambrette, because who knows what ambrette is, it sounds super cool and it’s vegan which is another buzz word, so that’s enough for me.
K, byeeeeeeee.
