Bon Bon di bon

I don’t have much today.

I was planning on writing about Bond No 9 Chinatown, after mentioning it last week and managing to get ahold of two Bon Bons (the house’s samples; see pic — cute — maybe a bit too cute) off eBay. I was actually quite excited about doing so.

But alas no. My Bon Bons arrived and I quickly unwrapped one and sprayed it on. To be greeted with ‘what happened’??? While it is still lovely, it appears to have been reformulated and no longer smells to me like what Turin and Sanchez in the original Perfumes: The Guide referred to as a corner of a French grocery where ripe peaches meet floor wax – ie, it’s lost the quirk that made it outstanding (apparently this has also happened with the other Bond I liked, Hot Always).

The peach is luscious and sweet, but the overall fragrance is now a more pedestrian and sweet amber rather than a complex floral and juicy oriental. It doesn’t even improve from being sprayed on my son, which hasn’t happened before.

It’s still long-lived — if I spray it on in the morning, there’s still a waft in the evening.

So, in any case, I’m glad to have my Bon Bons, but that will be it. Chinatown gets removed from the mental WANTS list.

I have three other samples that need attending to and they’ll (I hope) make for a more oomphy post next week.

I’m getting the garden ready for towards autumn, when I will start moving some things around, as they aren’t happy in their current positions (why do they do this? I plant them or move them and they appear to be fine and then a few months later it’s like, meh, no, I’m not comfy here and I’m not going to do much).

The weather is cooler and pleasant and we’ve even had a bit of rain so the grass is coming back.

I have most things slotted in for the London trip mid-September (including which perfumes I want to try at Liberty which I’ll definitely write about).

I hope you’ve been up to nice things. Perhaps tell us what one of your favourite summer food is and your three fave seasonal perfumes for this year (or winter if you’re down under).

For me, the food is peaches being in season. They just smell beautiful and taste wonderful and for no specific reason make me happy. Perfumes have been the Agrumi di Sicilia I bought for our heatwaves. It’s easy to wear and cooling on the days we continue to get that are sunny and humid. My Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Mandarine Basilic sample comes out frequently (I think it will be done soon) when I want something juicy. Diptyque Philosykos emerged a bit ago. I forget about this for three-quarters of the year (which is downright silly) and then one warm, sunny day, go a ha, I can drench myself in it again.