Well, it’s hot here. Pretty much I suppose like everywhere else that isn’t at one of the poles at this point. It’s not even hot enough that I feel I can really complain: Although the news reports would lead one to believe that Los Angeles is dying under triple-degree heat, that doesn’t take into account the fact that LA is huge. Yes, the Valley is hot and the West Valley (Where all the celebs like the Kardashians decamp to to avoid the Hoi Polloi) is even hotter and hotter still is the “Inland Empire” and desert communities like Palm Springs will flirt with 120 degrees, but the West Side will be merely uncomfortably warm and I can guarantee that Santa Monica will be downright chilly after 4PM.
But still, it’s hot. And for LA, Humid. My apartment has AC and more importantly, my little office have does as well and the power isn’t going to be cut off (I hope) like it is going to be at my old apartment on Maple, where Edison in their wisdom decided this was the perfect weather to upgrade something in the alley and cut the power off for 24 hours to that block of Maple and Palm. Hope nobody was stocking up for that ice cream social.
I also was somewhat thwarted in my ambitions on what to write. I had a few things lined up but they didn’t work out: Samples of Neil Morris are delayed because of illness (hope he gets better soon.) I was going to write about Miller Harris L’Air de Rien in honor of Jane Birkin’s death, but can’t find where I last put the bottle (and I am sure that I have more than one: why is it that when you are looking for something in particular that you will find every other thing you have been searching for over the past forty five years but not the one thing you are looking for now?) The samples of L’Interdit vintage and new arrived from STC yesterday but I hate to admit that even with the AC I just kind of can’t. Perhaps it’s my 100% British Isles blood (so says 23 and me) but my primo operation temps are at 60 and below: I like a blustery day. Heat makes me want to bite people. (Of course, extreme cold isn’t my friend either, which is why West LA is usually perfect.)
I know I have posted before, not infrequently enough that you all would not be able to fill in the blanks with what I am going to reach for when it’s hot out: AG Hadrien and Eau de Sud, Dior Eau Sauvage (the original only, please), Barneys Route du The, (thanks to a wonderful tip from alityke) Alvarez Gomez Agua di Colonia (now purchased by the gallon) and, yes, even Jean Nate. I’m sure I’ve forgoten about ten and if you have ones to add to the list please comment away..
Now, I did actually manage to leave the building: Sunday was a garden party that friends of mine were having and I was determined to drag my lazy a$$ out and go. It was in the backyard of a lovely little bungalow and I sat in the shade, saw some people I hadn’t seen since Covid, drank about 30 gallons of cold Perrier and by the time I left it had even cooled off enough to warrant that drive along Mulholland with the top down I do weekly as an excuse to charge the battery on the car (which otherwise mostly sits unused.)
So I marked the passing of Ms. Birkin by watching DVDs of “Evil under the Sun” and “Death on the Nile”, the latter available for free with ads on Freevee. I also fell into a YouTube loop, watching a little remembered American TV show I enjoyed called “High Society” which was one of the spate of AbFab wanna be’s that attempted to hit that jackpot. It starred Jean Smart and Mary McDonnell and got progressively funnier as they jettisoned some superfluous story lines and just let Jean and Mary go for it. Most of the eps are on YouTube- the links change so I’ll just chance the one here.
Hope you’re keeping cool and I will actually do perfume next week. Promise..
Photos are mine and pexels
My hot & humid summer favorites are Dior Escale a Portofino, Chanel Cristalle eau Verte, Lubin Gin Fizz, and Cristalle edt. All are very citrus forward, airy and refreshing. I need that uplifting scent profile to make it through Virginia summers.
Oooh I haven’t smelled Cristalle in years. I thought it was discontinued. It was very popular with the girls at Smith when I was in HS- I loved it but wouldn’t have dared to wear it becuase it was for “girls”
How things change, thank goodness..
Oh lord it’s hot, although we’re getting by, I think today is the last really hot day, wish I had A/C! Ahhh the glorious Sud, what a great hot-weather fragrance. I need to get some of that cologne water, I used up the last of my 4711! I love a cheap and cheerful like that.
I am sort of wanting to try the others but I think I will have to see if a local bodega has them. I see that there’s a place that has them cheap but with shipping, not so much.
It’s been pretty nice here in the lower great lakes region, for July. It’s gotten more humid which brings out the bugs. Summer is not my season, that would be fall. The weather people keep talking about an impending heat wave coming soon, which means I’ll be doing my favorite summer activity, sitting in my little house listening to the air conditioner run. Probably wearing Un Jardin Sur le Nil.
I know its a cliche, but dry heat really is easier to deal with. Palm Springs in September at 115 and 5% humidity is so much easier to deal with than Milwaukee at 95 and 100%.
Of course it helps that prectically everything in PS is air conditioned and it isn’t in Milwaukee, at least wasn’t last time I was there.
I will still never understand he vogue for ourdoor malls though, especially in the desert.
As alityke notes we’re north of the heat dome hovering over southern Europe. So, low 70s and sunshine today here (I’m further south than she is). Nice sea breeze. I liked Jane Birken. Never saw here in films but she just seemed — weird and breezy and … likeable. Loved AbFab. I’m in Perfumer H Smoke yet again. Broken record here. Hope everyone dealing with heat or floods is doing ok.
Lucky us who are being lightly touched by the crap weather!
Jane Birkin was just as wierd and breezy in those two movies as she may have been in real life, though she does a great transformation from ugly duckling to swan in “Evil” that’s a hoot to behold.
Ab Fab is so great. I have the whole thing on DVD. Which I suppose is like saying I have it on wax discs for the Victrola at this point.
The UK heat disappeared & has left us with intermittent warm rain, interspersed with biblical thunder storms & gales. UK summers are often described as three hot days then thunderstorms.
We are currently sitting above the Cerberus heat dome plaguing Europe with 40c plus even overnight.
Apparently there have been lots of people with kids cancelling holidays in Europe because of the heat!
I’m crossing everything DH gets the all clear on his CT scan & we can get travel insurance.
Have you tried any other Alvarez Gomez colonias? They do quite a few
Holding the hope DH is up to snuff soon.
I need to seek out some of those other Gomez ones. I tell everyone I know about this one and credit you.
Bless you.
No, bless you. You are keeping us all cool with that Gomez stuff.
I wonder if they’ve seen an uptick in sales and wondered what was up? Doubt it but fun to imagine.
My 900ml bottle of the ordinary Colonia rather than Concentrada will need replacing soon. Use it in laundry when softener would usually go on. I have the best smelling bedding!
What a good idea!
I copied a Spanish friend
Wafting cooler breezes your way Tom.
High Society! So CAMP!
Portia xx
I loved that show, especially when they dropped the Faith Price character and just let MM & JS go for it.
I always thought heaven should be in the mid 70’sF, no humidity, and a warm breeze blowing. If by a blustery day you also mean something like the Santa Ana’s and the trade winds blowing, I’m in. They make me feel wonderfully alive.
I’ve been enjoying the large perfume decants I bought recently. I should have bought the 100ml of PdN Sacrebleu Intense instead of the 30ml. The more I wear it, the more I like it and it’s going down very fast! I keep wanting to wear it everyday day. That rarely happens.
Oh I love the Santa Ana’s at night when it’s not too hot. “Blustery” to me means 60’s: just chilly enough to need a scarf or a jacket and maybe the heater when driving with the top down.
I don’t think I’ve tried the PdN. Think I need to..
You have to be ok with sweet fragrances which Sacrebleu is. I never liked them. Then I fell in love with two. It feels like the universe is having a bit of a laugh at me. 😉 Oh well, I’m happy.
Your “blustery” sounds good too.
Sweet can be iffy- I think I don’t like them when confronted by something loathsome like Blue Sugar but will roll over and purr like a cat wanting it’s tummy rubbed over something like PG Aomassai.
we had absolutely SCORCHING! temps the past few weeks – not quite triple digits, but close. Now it’s actually a bit (gulp!) …chilly? If 70F could be considered ‘chilly’.
I’ve been picking and processing bushels of peaches. Kinda sick of the whole thing, as always happens.
Santa Monica is mah JAM! as you know because the weather is almost always perfect (save that pesky Mud Season)
I love peaches but remember when my mom would bottle them. We got sick of them after a while. There’s just so much cobbler even the most wasps of wasps can consume. But our dogs would sit rapt waiting to get the bruised pieces that weren’t nice enough to preserve. Our big Doberman especially loved them. He’d have given the alarm code and safe combo for a few garnet beauties.
The current goober has been pulling and eating them right off the trees (they’re dwarf – he is not). He eats the entire thing, ripe or not, then poops out the stones.
He’s been doing it since they first got a teensy little yellow blush on them and he’s still kicking – so I guess they’re working for him.
I don’t think most fruits are bad for them. Ours (especially the Dobie) were just big dumb garbage disposals that would greedily gobble up any scraps we tossed off the counters. I could have rebuilt the Barracuda’s carb on the kitchen counter and they would patiently wait for me to give them an old spring to chomp on.
The cat would just look on, appalled at it all.
Berkin was wonderful in “Evil Under the Sun” as was the rest of the all star cast, with a special mention of the handsome Nicholas Clay who died too young.
She was wonderful in that: the whole thing was a delight. Even the Cole Porter score was perfect. Clay was ver ham dome and very talented and did die too young; oddly, Simon MacCorkindale, who was the “jeune hottie” in DotN also died fairly young.