Guest Post – By Musette
Snow and ice is gorgeous – and if you tell anybody I said that, I will have to kill you.
Hahahaha! Jes´ joshin´. No killing, I promise. It´s just that it´s our first heavy snow of the season and I´m a bit overwhelmed by it – a spectacular sight but I am rather atavistic in my fear of it. Living in the country doesn´t help – vast stretches of ice and snow are somewhat terrifying – yet I´m fascinated by Winter´s frozen beauty and long to really embrace the concept. Of course, my concept´ is High Drama: I wish I had the sleigh and furs and the whole shebang – you know, Tilda Swinton in Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. Yes, yes, she was Eeeevil. But! She rocked the furs and the sleigh and the whole smashed ice goblet thing. With the hot chocolate? That was so cool.
And that smashed ice goblet got me thinking about what I love most about Winter – the don´t touch/ shattered Ice/ Deathisjustafingertipaway feeling that is woven into the blanket of ice and snow and leaches into your core if you stay out in it too long. In the City ice is at best, inconvenient and at worst, lethal, with sheets of it hurtling off buildings and slippery plazas threatening to shoot you into the frozen river. Out here in the open fields it´s a thing of beauty, with huge frost heaves covering the riverbanks and frozen corn stubble. But it really won´t do to underestimate its capacity for destruction.
Most of the winter I spend indoors, wearing warm´ perfumes and drinking lots of tea and hot chocolate. But this recent snowfall and cold snap got me thinking – hey, do y´all remember last summer when we yarked about heavy winter´ scents blooming in the heat? My big surprise was Cuir Ottoman. It was just okay in the frigid temps but somebody suggested it for really hot weather and YOWZA! Howyadoin´, baybee! From there I went to some serious skank, like vintage Bal in August. Hurts so gooood.
So why not the reverse? I wanted to try a perfume experiment that runs counter to what most of us tend towards as the temps plummet so I´ve gotten up early these past few mornings to try out a couple of weird crystalline, grey/green/silver perfume choices, out in the pre-light, truly frozen break of day. I swear, the things I do for you…
8:30a. Shoveling sparkling-clean snow. It´s maybe 22F out there. I´m wearing TDC´s Charmes et Feuilles which has a minty freshness that usually evokes a rainwashed Spring morning but the minty/camphory open runs through the entire experience, making it a perfect smashed-crystal scent for Winter. I would never wear this if I were looking to warm up – it´s not aprà¨s-ski. It is for skimming down the slope and matches perfectly with those little bitey pellets of wind-whipped snow. Wearing it, I actually felt as one with the elements, which is bizarre, given that I am tropical by nature. This is beautiful in Winter. Notes are Marjoram, Peppermint, Sage, Serpolet, Jasmine Sambac, Grapefruit, Clementine and Patchouli. It is very silver and tinkly and works perfectly for a walk along the frozen riverbank. (what the heck is serpolet´?)
I loved Onda in the early autumn. It has this weird, woody/rooty/dirty thing going that works well with a rich brown cashmere twinset and Trust Fund Pearls. Today, in the freezing wind and snow (around 17F), I wore Vero Kern´s masterpiece to walk my boy and it scared me half to death. I felt like my heart was ready to fly out of my chest! It was so weird that I had to stop and bury my face in my dog´s warm chest to ground myself. He thinks I am very strange. Onda is a stunner, with that “thing” so similar to the grave dirt found in Djedi and in the cold it morphs into something truly scary. Perfumista Scary, as in ” wow! This beautiful stuff is….scary! Gimme summa dat”. The cold amps the black, seemingly dead dirt and that weird little dish soap note plays a creepy little antiphonal tune… Fascinating. .I would definitely wear this in the cold, just to remind myself of my own mortality (as if fear of freezing to death weren´t enough.) Notes are vetiver, ginger, mace, coriander (Luckyscent describes a leather note, which I get a bit of in the autumn but not now – it is not listed in the notes but is referred to in the lovely copy). This is definitely Ice Queen material. Think Tilda Swinton, painted that eerie blue, with a mouthful of platinum fangs.
Vintage Coty L´Aimant. I put it on this morning and went out to shovel the drifts from last night. I really stacked the deck on this one -6:45a, pitch-black and cold as a gold-digger´s heart. …AND I wore the way-thinner Eau de Toilette (hey, go big or go home). Well. L´Aimant hit the cold, swelled up like a balloon and burst into a million crystalline pieces! Wow! Like plunging down one of those old, rickety wooden roller coasters (Riverview´s The Bobs comes to mind). I definitely have to do that again. It´s still on my wrist and it´s having a good time but it´s a different creature altogether from what it is when I wear it in temperate climes. It has little icy claws! I kinda like it. All the ladylike qualities have been frozen off and it´s like a vicious little sword-wielding elf. TPC lists the notes as bergamot, neroli, peach, strawberry, jasmine, rose, ylang-ylang, vanilla, vetiver, and sandalwood. They forgot to list the stainless steel sword. Very aldehydic and sparkly as all get-out, especially in the cold.
Last but not Least. My new preciousssss: Cartier L’Heure Brilliant. I have worn this two nights out in the pitch-black permafrost and something really wonderful has happened to it each time. It´s icy-cold here right now, with a gale-force wind and Brilliant, like L´Aimant, gets all those flowery bits frozen right off in this cold. Of course, I can´t smell it when I´m outside, as I´m mostly just trying to stay alive and get the damn dog to hurry the hell up and Pee, already! but when I come back in, that vaguely annoying oily-flower note is gone, burned right off in the extreme cold. What´s left is something akin to the frozen dregs of a really good bottle of gin, with a hint of lemon rind. And maybe a cocktail onion. Srsly. I mean, it doesn´t smell like a cocktail onion. You just feel the crunch of a really cold, gin-infused cocktail onion snap between your teeth. If I were just a tad more insane I would be tempted to go outside (it´s 14F) expose a bit of skin to see how this really smelled outside. Instead we´ll just imagine it, okay? I dunno the notes on this one (and I´m too lazy to look them up) – I just know I love it and I really love it in the cold.
Have any of you tried this twist? I´d love to know your take on some of the fizzier, chillier scents in the cooler (or downright frozen) weather.
PS. I am SO over winter now. Is it May yet?
What a great question! Mostly I enjoy pulling out my warmest and heaviest scents in the winter, but there is something about walking outdoors on a cold winter night with Fresh Index Pomegranate Anise that is just perfect.
As we say in Canada, “Winter sucks eh?” I too try “summer” scents to relieve the gloom of winter but I could never express it as lyrically as you did.
winter in Canada always seems better than winter in Illinois. Seriously. You guys make it look so pretty and so easy!
What scents do you wear in the ffffreeeeezing temps?
xo >-)
Instead of the usual warm winter scents I recently cracked out Rose Ikebana, Iris Infusion and Kelly Caleche. Miss Dior is good anytime. Now I’m heading back to the Andy Tauer-fest I’ve been enjoying.
I enjoy your comments and have learned so much from reading blogs.
And I thought I was fairly well informed. My first fragrances, 44 years ago, were Jicky Parfum and Shalimar edp.
Little did I know how immense and fun the world of perfume would be.
Thank-you!
I’m with Rosarita – I love winter! Love the cold air, the hushed softness after a fresh snow overnight. This winter in Montreal I wore Bulgari Voile de Jasmin and it was perfect – it matched the icy freshness outside.
I love jasmine. Must try this. I love the excitement of a heavy snowfall but I would be thrilled were it to simply GO AWAY the next day.
xoxo >-)
Musette, I love your post, so eloquent! All of the bloggers here are so good at describing perfume, well duh, but it’s not that easy -to me it’s either pretty or its not. I’m glad someone else has the patience to go into all the complicated wordplay that can describe a perfume’s opening middle and dry down. I have been wearing a Biehl- EO03 which is a beautiful white floral during this wretched cold snap and it feels wonderfully luxurious. Also Bois D’ Armenie, oh that one I’ll probably be wearing through the winter and on through for the rest of my life!
I’m so flattered my toenails hurt! But you should rest easy, darling – I’m right with you on ‘pretty/not’. I know nearly nothing about actual notes and completely nothing about how they work together. I only know how scents ‘feel’.
and in the end, isn’t whether it’s pretty/not or whether you like it/not the true test of whether you want to wear a perfume? on regular days, yes…but…
….not always in this group – we are wackos who think wearing Play-Doh is a Good Idea!=)) Stick around – you’ll soon be in that camp with the rest of us < ):) (what the hell IS this emoticon, btw? Cowboy? Commando? ) xoxoxo >-)
Uh, not that emoticon – the one with the green hat. what is that?
Smashed crystals and death and little icy claws and crunch cocktail onions and all… I love this post.
Just tested Carnal Flower a few weeks ago, in that sustained 15-degree-weather we had, all cold and clear, and it was stunning. Fleeting, but wonderful in its Tropics vs. Arctic Circle showdown.
And wore La Myrrhe, which I love anyway, the other day. It made me think of ice caves and frost crystals, and of the nexus of math and music, science and magic.
Ha! See? I wore Carnal F the other day, too – and it, too, was stunning but it got this whole Frozen Flower thing at the end that kinda freaked me out!
I love crunchy cocktail onions! Where’s the martini emoticon when you need it?
xo >-)
I truly loathe winter. I wind up having to spend absurd amounts of time freezing my buns in the dog park off because her ladyship loves the cold and insists on extra pouncing time outdoors.
For some reason, round about now I start craving aldehydic chypres. Morabito Or Noir, Aldehyde 44, ELO Rien (though this one defies generic classification), vintage Diors, Balmains and Chanels…I think this is due to ther overiding image on winter that gets stuck in my head: Rockefeller Center. My grandparents always took us there on Christmas Eve when I was a kid, after a tour of the Chritmas displays in Manhattan. Once I envision Rockefeller Center, I see 5th Avenue and mentally stroll to the the Plaza where I see ritzy chicks having their hair done or taking tea at the Palm Court before shopping at Cartier. And, of course, these trust-fund dames wear aldehydes….how convoluted is that?
Still, the association of cold weather and memories of NYC in the winter is my theory as to why I am on an aldehyde kick between December and January.
Makes sense to me! My aunts were those Dames, minus the Trust. When I think of alds, I think of furs and pearls and hairspray. And I love all 3!
xo >-)
ps. are you FBing Ald 44? Did you get it through Barneys or is there a Secret Society? You and Louise are the only two I know who are possessors of that wonder.
Wish I had the FB — too rich for my underpaid blood. Mine is but a sample — a generous one, though — from the sweetie at Barney’s this last November when they had the foreign Labos in for a tour of NY.
What is it with the Labo dudes and all these silly exclusives? do they actually want to sell their perfumes? or do they just want to torment us with knowledge of their inaccessible existence? One would have thought the prices alone gave them the requisite snob appeal.
Wonderful post as always, Ms A 🙂 I just this week pulled out my bottle of Bulgari Au The Blanc, which is my favorite summer staple fragrance. It features a musky sort of drydown and I suddenly craved it. Turns out, it’s wonderful in snow and cold! It actually gives the illusion (to me, anyway) of smelling like snow. Clean and fresh, but with presence. Speaking of the white stuff and winter in general, I confess to loving the season with all of my heart. Yeah, you’re right, it can kill and do it quickly, too – there have been several fatal sledding accidents in my area this year, of all things. Yet I love the silence of blanketing snow, and the glitter of icicles in the thin sunshine and the bare branches against the winter sky. Can’t admit this to many folks in real life; most of them want to be in Florida this time of year. No thanks. 😡 I’m enough of a sensualist to love being cold just to relish the relief of coming indoors to hot soup and a hotter toddy.
Hey, sweets! I drafted a Really Elegant Response – then El O came in and decided to change out the monitor before I’d posted (slow and steady wins the race, my :(|) New Motto: Hit ‘submit’ before you leave the desk!
anyway, what i was gonna say was….what drives me nutso about this time of year is what we are experiencing right now (us in Central IL or maybe just us here in Wy). A near-total absence of color. The temps are climbing, which is great – but there is no sun and since there is so much snow (and little to break the vista) it’s a vast sheet of greyish white, from the top of the sky to the discernible ground. Very demoralizing and weird, like being inside a pillow without all the fluffly bits.
But I, too, can get why winter has its charms. Sort of. Maybe./:)
and too weird and sad on the sledding accidents. Hope it doesn’t happen again!
xo >-)
I’m totally digging the Brillante, as well. I enjoy the early moments the most, but there is a dry/boozy/powdery breath in the drydown that keeps my interest for a while. I shall have to wear it to work, where I swear they will never get my office temperature right: I feel like Bob Crachit, typing away in fingerless gloves. I liked sampling the tea-and-leaves Cartier, too, but I have not felt called to wear it very often for some reason.
OOOOH! Another Brilliante fan! Yay!^:)^
I don’t think I’d given Cartier much though re parfum, prior to Patty’s post on Les Heures (their emeralds are another matter entirely=p~ and while I like Mysterieuse (I think I mangled that sp) Brilliante just snatched my heart out of my heaving bosom! Of course, I will try to avoid making the Nuui mistake again – I will do at least a full decant (or two) before committing to that pricey FB.
I would think it would be a nice office scent. Not overpowering and I agree on the dry/boozy/powdery breath – like an old-time, ladylike, gin-tippler in a sable coat.
xoxo >-)
Great post, Anita. It’s a timely topic for this time of year.
I’ve always enjoyed green/summer scents in winter (oddly, for whatever reason, I have not moved on yet to my comfort scents like my DSH spices and warm-blanket frags.) I’ve been wearing the heck out of Climat, which is a big, bad green thing, and occasionally Carthusia Mediterranneo (sp?). And there’s always Mandragore, which many folks view as a summer citrus, but I find it cheering in winter.
I can def see Mandragore in the winter!
Okay – that’s it. I’mo have to hunt up some Climat!
xoxo >-)
I just got my La Collection set in the mail yestiddy! Exciting. Have not tested any of them yet as I am hot-and-heavy with tuberose stuff this month, but opened each to sniff. (If a sniff of the Magie bottle made my toes curl, am I an Amber Ho?)
I belieba you is! and that’s o-kay! Go sit by Shelley. I confess, amber ain’t my thing but Things Could Change. you nebber know.
xoxoxo >-)
That’s right, come on over. Here. Let Musette play her ice games; she’ll join us eventually. (I think you two share a Bal passion, anyhow…)
I was thinking of trying this myself, but I’m such a cold-weather weenie that I pick up the bottle, sniff it, shiver, and put it back down to reach for something that smells warmer. I very nearly wore Lostmarch’s Eau d’hermine yesterday though, and had Iris Pallida in heavy rotation back before the temps dipped down to the 20’s, although I think the patch in that keeps it from being too frigid. I agree with you on needing it to be May already–I’m a huge fan of heat and humidity, and I should just get off my butt and move someplace on the equator and quit my b!tchin’.
take me with you,[-o< xoxo >-)
This is the coldest damned winter we’ve had in almost 30 years. And I wasn’t here for the last one.
I find myself craving florals as I sit, in my coat, in my high-ceilinged living room, drinking cocoa with a little brandy in it to try to keep warm. Amaranthine. Manmoulia (my little half mil is all that remains.) Joy perfume. I’ve got a sample of that Brilliante coming…and the other Cartiers. L’Aimant goes all warm powdery on me right now. I tried some vintage “Y” the other day but it was a little too cold — will wait. Oh, and orange blossom. Anybody’s.
Manoumalia blew up in my face! Funny you should mention ‘Y’ – Nancy (or was it Shelley? we three were together for a quick, delightful dinner and they brought fun things. I brought nothing, l-) that I am)…anyhoodle, i was gifted with a teensy bottle of ‘Y” parfum and just tried it the other day – what a bloomer! Took awhile (the top notes are wonky due to age) but man, the drydown was awesome!
I am craving ROSES right now – the Rosines and TPC RP are getting a hefty workout, as is Fracas (hey, it’s tubeROSE). Joy parfum makes me itchy in this weather. Have to wait for autumn for that one (that really is a season-specific scent – of of the very few to be thus). It’s funny because I don’t even like rose perfume in general but in this weather, I dunno….something happens..
xo>-)
Yum! on the~o)
Hey, yo, it was me! I >:d< Y, and those vintage bottles are all the haps, aren't they? I am going to pause now for a public service announcement and remind readers in our listening range that unlike dishes, furniture, and other "antiques," many perfumes get labelled after 20 years of existence, not 50. AND, you can find "vintage" without actually having to have lived at the time it was made. That said...yes, I'm getting older. 8-|
On your recommendation. I’m wearing Eau de Sud today and trying to pretend it isn’t 25 degrees F. But, cold weather chicken that I am, I couldn’t help myself and smeared some Cashmere Mist creme on at the last minute before getting dressed. Not a bad combo 🙂
~:> :):)
xoxoxo >-)
Around these parts we’ve been having record breaking cold temps. I’ve been wearing Baghari alot, definately not the usual heavy amber frags I love in winter.
I have never smelled Baghari, which is weird, given my love of that house. Must try.
Stay warm!
xo >-)
Baghari has for a rich sweetness, unlike some of my other aldehydes-it fits well into my winter rotation, but can be cloying on me in the heat.
Great post, Musette! :)I’ve been doing the light-scents-in-winter thing this week, too. Yesterday I wore Prada Infusion d’Iris, which I think of as a really delicate iris. It had a nice crystalline quality to it. Kind of like the frozen sheet of ice that can form on the inside of a window that isn’t well insulated.
Today I’m wearing Bel Respiro, which I would normally save for spring and summer wear, but I’m in need of that energizing blast of green-ness since I have lots of stuff to do. I’m really liking that clean, linear melody played on silvery flutes and piccolos.
These ‘are’ piccolo/flute scents, aren’t they? esp. in the cold! Whereas normally I would tend towards cello or even bass notes, sometimes ‘tinkly’ is just what one needs!
xo >-)
I can’t smell Infusion in any season. It was my first indication that I might be somewhat anosmic to Iris – I remember wondering if perhaps the tester was actually a factice!8-| Alas, no. You can ask Mistress Shelley about me and iris (we are the March and Louise of Chicago;) sometimes I think she hands me iris scents just to watch my face go blank! LOL!
But Bel Respiro – you know, I was wondering what to wear today (something ‘different’) and BR just might fit the bill – thanks!
xo >-0
…it’s not exactly blank, that face you get; kinda quizzical, ready to look around and see who dressed the Emperor…I mean, not that I pay attention or anything… <):) (I *really* need whistler guy right now) Bel Respiro...there's an interesting one...can be light enough, but (on me, at least...I think March watches is fly away shortly after application) also has a simple syrup of substance. (See, now I've gone alliterative. Trampling my way through high school english concepts, I am.) BTW, you KNOW I perked up at the mention of flute/picc scents. :d/
yeshhh…I was surprised you didn’t snag that one earlier! they do have that tinkly quality, don’t they?
xo >-)
Go Iris Anosmics! For me it’s partial anosmia-Infusion I can smell on some days-not on others-and sometimes gone to kitty pee :-&
Other irises are tricky. I love Iris Poudree-the aldehydes seem to help the flower pop. But it’s sibling, Ferre (the iris-based one) is un-smellable to me on most days. What’s really tricky is that I may be overspraying the irises, and gassing out other noses =:)
So happy someone did a post on this! I love neroli and other hesperides in the winter. My all-time winter favorite is Romeo di Romeo Gigli – neroli and galbanum. It’s crispness can be best appreciated in the crisp, cold air. Creed Windsor is lovely in the cold, too – bracing and fizzy, yet softer than silk.
Thanks for the reminder on Creed. Shelley and I both tried it in slightly warmer temps (actually much warmer temps – I think it was in the 40s) and it didn’t thrill us (I got a lot of sweet lime and that was about it). Perhaps I’ll get the fizziness in this cold!
I haven’t been back to Gigli in yonks. I remember wearing (and loving) his original, eponymous scent. Another to try.
xo >-)
Yay!!! Great post. I absolutely know what you mean. I’m gonna see your point…and add a variation…
See your point: Mine, as you know, is L’Eau d’Hiver. The one some people call the ghost scent, or the one that is not there, or the one that doesn’t do much. I love it, particularly in the cold. The COLD cold, folks, not the “uh-oh, maybe we’ll want to put something in the woodstove while we watch ‘Steel Magnolias’ ” cold. You know how a quiet sound carries across the snow and ice, and seems to lose neither volume nor depth? Do that with a fragrance, and if it is done a certain way, you will find a bunch of layers you ran past in your bikini.
Add to your point: That same “I can hear you breathing, neighbor” effect does something to certain soliflores for me. You know, the one I have always whispered “yes, I get it…but…I am not thrilled?” WHOMP!!! That, and Dior Lily (ooooh, teeny tiny vial that I got in a swap) just kind of keep going at their speed and BAM!! that boy with the snowball, I mean that perfume, hits hard. But in a good way. The emotional equivalent of hair in the inkwell/can I carry your books home? more than the snowball, which as we know, really hurts if there is ice in it. But I digress….
May will come, as you know. Sometime after that crazy April snowshower. And I know that you will embrace Diorissimo as a celebration. Meanwhile, I might have worn some already, enjoying the way it blossoms in the cold.
(Did I overkill the winter metaphors yet? We are in the land of Big Winter. I’m a-tryin’…. :d )
Diorissimo? In this weather? 😕 I’mo smell like a whorehouse on payday if you guys keep this up, with 43 fragrances slapped all over my corpus….
xo >-)
and yes, we are Def Big Winter. I’m sure there are ‘bigger’ winters somewhere but I don’t wanna know about themb-(
Fun post! I have difficulty tolerating temperatures below 45F, so this winter has been troublesome for me. And the colder the temperature, the stronger the craving for a rich warm fragrance.
But, as others have mentioned, aldehydes can be great in cold weather. They go on dry, sparkling, white, crisp or bubbly, or sometimes all of the above. A few of my favorites in cold weather include Neil Morris Vapor (little known, but really wonderful, vintage No 5 edc and No 22 (kinda cheating, because it’s pretty warm).
Oh, and I occasionally wear rooty iris scents in the winter. I haven’t quite worked my way up to ISM though!
NMV is def on my ‘must-try- list. I wish I had some Aldehyde 44. That stuff is straight-up alds and it is phenomenal!
Honey, I so feel your pain on ‘anything below 45F’. I hope you live somewhere that doesn’t try your winter hardiness – like Santa Barbara or Mill Valley ? Or Death Valley8-x (just kidding on the DV – that’s a bit extreme,though there are days….like when it hits -15F here and you add wind-chill on top of that. It’s not often it gets that horrid but when it does, bleached cowskulls start to look goooood!
xo >-)
It’s like oysters on the half shell washed down with any icy cold Gibson, straight up with extra onions. Incredible sensation…scentsation?…a thrilling, tingly blast.
It’s melting here and warming up a smidge though my little tappytypy fingers are icy right about now (we don’t exactly overheat our house…).
I’ll share my ‘perfect at any time of year’ scent tomorrow, my alien of wonder.
YAY!
xo >-)
ps. is it okay to have a buncho those, btw? I was thinking about that when I did this post and with the exception of some scents (Cuir Ottoman and a couple of other leathers come to mind, which really don’t work well for me in the cold but bloom like beauty in the heat), I am comfy with most of my stuff 365. I don’t think my ‘nose’ is very refined, alas.
xo >-)
Ooh, a reason to get out of bed tomorrow =d>
I’m pretty much sticking to my thick, dense, gooey winter scents in this very cold winter. Today is UBV over remnants of AS on my sweater.
But I do occasionally spritz a lighter perfume-two days ago I craved my Aldehyde 44, and it’s dry bubbles were cheering :d/
And for our mini warmup this weekend-maybe I’ll go wild and go green…green chypre, floral or just M&B Greeeeeen.
Thanks for a fun post, sweets 😡
Babycakes –
I feel like I just fell into the CIA (or the IRS:o
decode: UBV/AS (I’m thinking there’s some ‘amber’ in the AS?
but, knowing your collection, this could be something from Ulan Bator, which would be way cool and not beyond your ken!
I got M&B and I’m jealous as a snake over the Ald 44 ^:)^
xoxoxo >-)
Al Lutens, lovely. AS=Ambre Sultan. UBV=Un Bois Vanille. Sorry, just lazy :p
Lovely post, thank you. Very poetic descriptions even though I think snow and ice are a nuisance here in the city where everything grinds to a halt!
I don’t tend to break out “different” perfumes in the cold but I was especially taken with your gorgeous description of the Coty l’Aimant, which my mother used to wear. I really need to get hold of some vintage. Aldehydes are good in the cold!
FleaBay is a great place to score vintage l’Aimant. I have several scores from there and they have all smelled persackly like I remember (my mom, too, was a L’Aimant gal. L’Origan, too – and i scored a vintage L’O that blew my mind back to 1960!)
I dunno where you are but in Chicago things DO NOT grind to a halt. It is not allowed[-( You just grab the rope, haul yourself across the plaza and keep on truckin’. Mayors have lost their jobs over snow. As I’ve said before, you can KILL folks and keep your mayoral position but if you don’t get the damn snow off the street (and the garbage out of the alley) you are toast!
However, we have a real problem in downtown Chicago with falling ice. People have been hurt and even killed! by falling ice (thank Floyd that’s a rarity). Everybody’s been hit with tumbling ice, especially along Michigan Avenue (don’t ask me why that’s such a magnet for ice-hits). Even the small stuff, though, hurtling from 30 stories up, hurts like blue blazes! Scrambling for cover (with attendant shriekage) is undignified – but necessary!
xoxo >-)
I’m in London, where each snowflake is treated like an alien invasion that has never happened before nor ever been envisaged! You would laugh at the hysteria and the way everything screams to a halt.
I have bought very vintage Emeraude and l’Origan on flea-b but haven’t yet found a “good” l’Aimant (I’m thinking 50s or earlier). One of these days!
I’ve not read anything beyond “What is serpolet?” and shouldn’t even be up at this time anyway, but wanted to tell you that it’s wild thyme. SHall read the rest of your wonderful post later when I’ve slept more (I hope~)
Thanks! I was too lazy to look it up! c’mon back when you’ve had a chance to sleep.
xo >-)
no!!!!…i don’t even like the lows of 12-18degrees Centigrade over here
for me its only WARM fags
all the ambers/sandlewood
amber sultan
amber fetiche
even amber ylang ylang
but every once in a while i feel like spraying diorissimo!
beautiful article m
:d
Thanks! I actually do way better in your neck o’ the world – like you, I love humidity – great for the skin and sinuses (my sinuses, anyway). We tend to get that weather in July/August and I am in alt! That’s when I bust out those heavy-hitter tuberoses (making sure I use Dial beforehand (don’t you wish everybody did?=)) sorry – that only works if you are a product of 1960s US TV, as I am:-)
anyhoo, your arsenal is heavy-hitting, indeed! You must smell deee-lish in that humid clime. Come sit by me!
xoxo >-)
right now it is sooo dry, am slapping on the face creams big time and my whole families sinuses are shot!!!!!:-& and here’s a coincidence…i am not american and didn’t even know what dial was until last week when i bought some liquid dial from a store that brings in american goods for my 12yr old son who asked me to buy it for him and i bought some bars for a trial….when the cussons english leather (awesome smelling soap) is finished!**==viva american dial?
Yes! Iris Silver Mist is a winter favorite.
i so need to try this one!
Alas, all I get from it is Frozen Water. It’s my fault, not ISM. I hear it’s beautiful!
xo >-)
Well, “winter” here is a relative term. If it gets into the 30’s it’s an event, and the one time in 20 years living here there was a light dusting of snow in parts of Bel Air Action McNews had so many choppers in the air I thought it was “Apocalypse Now”
And maybe it was..
Sooo.. I’ve been wearing al Eau D’Hiver a lot. Sous Le Vent and Derby were xmas gifts and I’ve been loving them in what passes for chill here.
I love your description of Winter and it’s storms that I remember so well. I have friends from here who talk about how they could never live in Palm Springs or Phoenix because of the summer heat. They exclaim that it would be terrible to have be be cooped up in the house with the AC on. I have to remember that I grew up in an area where you could actually DIE if the heat went out or your car slid off the road..
You may not have snow and ice but you are tortured by other natural attacks – I once nearly got creamed by a rockslide on PCH in February.
Yeah, I think winter (REAL winter)is a way quicker DIE than summer. Extreme summer is rough, esp if you have no a/c and no outside access or sheltering shade (like oldsters who have barricaded themselves in their homes because of their surroundings or other issues or the all-too-often ‘left in car’ syndrome which is just horrifying – but if you take that out of the equation, Winter is a quicker killer hands down. Scary stuff.
I’ll take my chances in the summer, thanks!
xo >-)