Grumpy … and roses

Sigh … I’m now in the countdown to returning to house-house (early October — pic to left is a ways ago). I am very pleased (I’ve been happy in the rental but all of a sudden I’m ready to go home) and the house is coming along well. Just have to get through all the stresses, such as: 1) my landlady in the rental had said she probably wouldn’t re-let until the new year. She’s changed her mind and I’m going to have potential new tenants trooping in and out of the house until she finds who she wants. I really hope the first tranche (coming through on Wednesday) say ‘please, us – we love the house’ (we can’t be in the house during viewings given Covid, so we and the dog will have to wander the village); 2) I have to do the reverse calling for utilities etc to stop everything here and restart stuff at the other house (and do all the utility readings – plus I get a new landline number at the house as they can’t give me back my previous one); and 3) I have to pack and move again. For the outbound move, my son was back from university – ie, he helped – but it’s just going to be me this time. At least I’m taking a week off work to unpack and settle back in.

For some reason I’ve been thinking about rose fragrances. Rose perfumes generally work well on my chemistry, but I don’t generally enjoy them that much. The one rose I own, Serge Lutens Rose de Nuit, doesn’t feel like a full on blousy rose. There’s simply too much else going on.

I have worn rose fragrances over the years, but none have lasted long in the line-up. I had Patou Joy at one point and it was beautiful, but not sufficiently so to keep me that interested. I wore a few Rosine roses. Same thing as Joy. I love roses as flowers but I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m better off with plants (there is soooo much to do in the garden when I’m back in the house – the builders are simply not interested in flowers – I told them to pick the roses and bring them home, but no go).

However, I’ve had a couple of friends who wore rose fragrances and I absolutely adored them on the two of them.

One wore YSL Paris in the 1980s (launched 1983). She was a fashion designer – knitwear (lord, we’d all go mad when she brought bags of samples for us to paw through – a lot of my 1980s wardrobe came from those bags). She was tremendously chic in a quirky way, had bright red hair and wore Chanel powder and red lips when most of us were doing black eye shadow and short on top long in the back mullets. The Paris of that time was big – apparently Tania Sanchez in Perfumes: The Guide called it “a brilliant, beautiful monster” and my friend bathed in it. It was a serious thing to sit next to her in a bar before a night out dancing. Just to remind of Paris’ notes (from NSTperfume): mimosa, geranium, bergamot, mayflower, hawthorn, juniper, Damascus rose, May rose, violet, sandalwood, iris, amber and musk.

Another friend wore YSL Rive Gauche (you can see a pattern here; launched 1970). She was the polar opposite of the above-mentioned friend: low maintenance, pixi cut, jeans and t-shirts – an academic. Again, the fragrance she chose was gorgeous on her and very much a signature scent. She never talked about wearing anything else. The fragrance was so powdery, but it worked well on her. I once bought her a bottle at Duty Free when returning to the UK and tried the open sampling bottle on myself. No. Really not my thing. But on her it was beautiful and sort of comforting. Notes (from Basenotes) for that one: peach, galbanum, rose, jasmine, geranium, lily of the valley, orris, ylang ylang, vetiver, tonka, sandalwood, oakmoss, musk and amber.

Do you do roses? Are (were) any of these things you wear (wore)? Are there perfumes friends wear that you love on them, but wouldn’t ever wear yourself?

PS The pic of YSL and Deneuve is from The Guardian. Other flowers Pexels. Building site is my house by me