Hey there Posse. On Monday I jumped into the pool for Aquarobics with my phone in my pocket. I felt it when hitting the water so it was submerged for less than 20 seconds. DEAD! Unbacked up since 2020. My own fault. $600 later for a refurbed replacement. Not happy with myself for a litany of reasons about this.
Having started going into serious self hate spirals and caught myself going. Fortunately I’m also in the middle of the New Idea. So, as I felt myself descending grabbing a decant and spritzing myself wet with 2ml of something has been the perfect distractor. Complete fragrant overload and a little lie down to smell the journey has been a really good way to halt the spiral. So, while I’m no psychologist, don’t think it will work for real deep depression and am not implying that it’s a cure all; spritzing is one of my best coping mechanisms. It’s always good to have a plan ready, and another in case plan A falls apart. My two fallbacks are grocery shopping and cooking. Both of them take me well out of myself, even cooking things as simple as a melted cheese jaffle are enough to take myself out of my head long enough to derail the spiral. BONUS, I have a melted cheese toasty jaffle to consume. WOO HOO!
DRAMA of the phone kind
Having pulled out my bottle of Bois d’Oud by Detaille recently to write about their Par 4 over on Undina’s Looking Glass I am trying to wear it all. Hoping to thunk the bottle by the end of summer. I thought you all might like to know what it’s like. I was given this Pass Bottle at Esxence Milan a few years ago. As you can see, not much left.
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Agarwood (Oud) Bergamot Labdanum
Heart: Cedar Saffron
Base: Agarwood (Oud) Cedar Tobacco
Oud, wood, saffron, resins and tobacco. This is the most comfortable, sweet but not fruity sweet, honeyed oud I have had the pleasure of wearing. The oud is slightly fecal but more band aid in nature, though it also veers mould and piss. Sounds ghastly? It’s not. Through all of this it is a lovely dark woodsy scent with some rick smoke and tariness.
The price point is excellent and Bois d’Oud smells better than many oud offerings five times as expensive. Sure, it is a synthetic recreation but so many are. Apparently many of the niche fragrances saying they have the real deal have a smidge of real and are mainly synthetic recreations themselves. I’m no perfumer but the argument has been made by people I know, whose word I trust.
Fully unisex but leaning modern traditional masculine. Longevity is excellent and projection is above average for a couple of hours before Bois d’Oud becomes a soft oud, mainly honeyed tobacco and amber.
Would you give Bois d’Oud a go?
Portia x
The perfume doesn’t sound at all my style, but I love the concept of spritzing through the blues. I do something similar to deal with severe chronic pain – it’s amazing what soap, shower gel, body lotion, perfume, and a candle can do!
I hope your new phone works exceptionally well and that you remember even in the darkest times that You. Are. Loved.
Oh MaggieCat,
That’s really beautiful. Thank you.
Yeah, there’s something about fragrance that is transportive, I guess it’s part of what we love about it.
Portia xx
Very sorry about the phone and the way you’re feeling, Portia. I haven’t been able to process the perfume info yet as … don’t phones automatically back up to the Cloud? We lost a camera with un-downloaded baby photos years ago and I’m not over it but thought I’d be safe with iPhone?
Hey Sue,
I never had a lock on my phone. The phone must be locked to cloud backup. Something I learned. Bum, eh?
Portia xx
This perfume sounds like a big no. Not a oud fan. I’ve had a couple broken phones. One had an argument with water and the other was a slider phone that’s screen was wrecked by being somehow pressed into a corner. This was well before phones were so expensive.
It’s interesting how many non oudh-ers we have at Posse Eldarwen22,
Gah! Phones, we have SO MUCH on them. Fortunately quite a lot of my contacts are on the sim and the Apps are all saved in the App Store, so it was easy to refine them.
Portia xx
Thats a kicker all right and seriously….it’s tough to stop those downward spirals once they get going, for me at least, but you did so yay to you!
This scent would be a pass for me but you did get me with the last one lol! Cuir d’ange sample on the way.
Woo Hoo for Cuir d’Ange JenniferS,
I reckon we all have spirals. Having some sort of plan to derail it at the start is the important bit. Have a few plans.
Portia xx
Booo! on the phone. Glad you got another, though. Those ‘spirals’ are a beeeyotch, ain’t they? Glad you have working plans for distracting yourself – mine are cleaning and getting on the mat. Or walking to the gym, then getting on the mat. Instant reset.
Bois d’Oud sounds like a hard no for me – not a SHRIEKING HARD NO – but none of those notes say ‘Musette’ – at least not to me.
xoxoxo
Cleaning is an excellent reset Musette, with the added benefit of CLEAN!
HA! No worries, next week I might hit something you like.
Portia xx
So sorry about the phone disaster! Ugh. I like your scented intervention idea. I’m still working away at some samples in an effort to thunk them. Today’s is RdP Little Flower (again).
YAY for burning through some samples DinaC, you like Little Flower?
Portia xx
As I was reading this I was thinking, what do you wear for aquarobics? I would have thought just a bathing costume, so how could you have a phone on you? Then I remembered men’s bathing shorts often have pockets. 🙂 As a woman this could not happen to me, in a bikini or even a one-piece. LOL.
Not a fan of oud, so this would be a definite no for me.
HA! Yeah, I wear shorts usually and arrive in them so the phone and keys are in my pocket. I was distracted and forgot.
Not every note is for everyone. It must be nice to have a super no go. One less thing to purchase.
Portia xx
Absolutely agree that wearing perfume is therapeutic. I spent the first six months of the pandemic wearing either Douceur de Siam or the Bulgari blue tea to stave off panic and despair. Walks around the neighborhood helped too
Hey AnnieA,
Oh yes, walking is such a mood alterer, even more so when you smell gorgeous,
Portia xx
So glad you figured try a way out of that brain spiral! Looks like many of us are guilty of the same … I’m the biggest Pollyanna in the whole world so I do 1) a mental gratitude list to derail it, and/or 2) tell myself that in the future, there may be a benefit I’m not seeing now (new phone! lol). Oud never really became my thing, smells like bandaids and mulch. I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it.
Heya March,
Oudh is so particular but also a really broad category nowadays. I bet there’s one out there that you will love. The early days were just finding their feet.
Portia xx
Really sorry to hear about phone. Annoying and frustrating.
About 10 years ago I was very poor and it caused a lot of anxiety. Taking the dog for long walks helped. Cooking a bit. Really, getting out of the house and moving was what worked best though.
This sounds nice, particularly the combo of oud, saffron and tobacco.
Yeah Cinnamon, I love a doggy led ramble to get the blood pumping and take me out of routine, the blues or anything really. That Paris is so grateful makes it even better.
Portia xx
Portia Darling good work on avoiding the pot hole of self blame!
It’s easy to fall into & tough to get out unscathed.
As for the scent, cellars, mould & piss aren’t selling it to me. Sounds far too close to Vero’s Onda EdP. I’m still recovering from wearing that!
Now I realise you’ve described the scent of Shrek’s house at the swamp in Far Far Away.
Ha Ha Ha Ha ha. Maybe I have Alityke,
Portia xx
It reads nice but I’m not sure I’d need it.
Sucks about the phone, but good for you handling incipient blues in a healthy and productive way (spritzing and cooking I think qualifies) oh for the days when you could even get a new iPhone just for signing a contract. Now you have to get a 15 line family plan, cable, and give them first dibs on your internal organs to get $100 off last years basic model.
HA!
I could have gone the plan route but my cost per month is all bundled top with Jin’s and our wifi. We pay very little and the savings mean that though this was $600, I’m still ahead.
HA! Yes, spritzing, cooking and eating. The holy triumvirate.
Portia x