By March

Old bidness: These are the folks who won the Miriam giveaway, selected via random.org – send a message to “contact us” and congrats, Patty will send them to you:  Pam, Meg, Ms Christian, Samberg, Maureen, Gisela, Joanna, Nozknoz.

Okay, onward.  For some reason I – the original incense freak – am not really feeling the incense right now.  My bottles and decants of incense frags sit on my shelves, neglected.  Sadface.  But then… as usual… someone (let’s blame Louise) comes along with a taste of something new and different to love – Kilian Incense Oud.

It took me awhile to come around to the Kilian line, partly because their fancy-cask branding annoys me irrationally, and partly because I hate many of the fragrance names, all of which sound something like Stairway to Heaven, so I can’t ever remember which scent is which.  The tuberose one is pretty freaking great (Straight to Heaven?  Taste of Heaven?), and if I were being gifted a bottle I’d want the delicious honey-tobacco of Back in Black, unless it’s Back to Black.  But as usual I digress.

What do I like about the Kilians?  They smell expensive.   Fancy bottles and marketing spew aside, their scents (even the ones I loathe, like that marshmallow one) don’t smell like a million other things, they don’t smell like laundry musk, and they don’t smell like the perfumer’s brief said: your budget is sixty cents a bottle for the juice.

Oud is the new pink pepper, apparently – how many ouds have we seen in the last year?  When Jo Malone’s doing an oud, we’ve reached saturation point.  Who’s next, Beyonce?  Anyhoodle, Kilian did a rose oud which I hear is great and I’ll take your word for it, because I’d rather stick a firecracker up my nose.  According to LuckyScent, notes for Incense Oud are Guatemala cardamom, pink pepper, Turkish rose, Egyptian geranium, grapefruit, Virginia cedarwood, Indonesian patchouli, Indian papyrus, Somalia incense (oil and absolute), sandalwood, Macedonian oakmoss, Spanish cistus labdanum, musks.

I’m guessing oud fans aren’t feeling the love, because that weird, raspy oud note in Incense Oud is undetectable.  The LuckyScent blurb points out that “the fragrance boasts no actual oud in its list of materials. If Incense Oud lives up to the second half of its name” it’s through the interplay of half the list of notes, blah blah blah, and … well, it kind of doesn’t.  So if you’re looking for oud, look somewhere else – like Montale – or you’re destined for disappointment.

If you love incense, though, this is definitely worth a sniff.  The first impression was oooh, Chaos! …. No, wait, something more like that Uncle Serge that smells like pine forest … no, wait …. one of those CDGs….

I love its kaleidoscopic nature.  Incense frags can be pretty static, but Incense Oud shifts constantly among the adjectives.  Sweet.  Smoky.  Spicy (hellooo, cardamom!)  Earthy.  Resiny.  Did you notice rose listed in the notes?  On my skin it registers as honeyed sweetness in the background, and since I’m almost as much a honey freak as I am an incense freak, I couldn’t be happier.  There’s something cozy about it – like the Bottega Veneta, it seems like it belongs in a room, along with the smell of furniture polish and old papers, indoors rather than outdoors, and not a bit churchy.  My only gripe is I found its lasting power kind of average, and given that I’m the scent-sponge, I wonder if longevity is an issue for normal people.  Incense is one of those smells that tends to cling in perfumery.  But it was very much worth the ride.

We could play the what’s-you-favorite-incense game, but that’s almost like picking your favorite kid.  I love ‘em all.  Feel free to name some of your favorites, though.

March

Hey, everyone!  The weather’s fine and fall-ish and you know what that means – it’s time for a Random Sunday makeup post!

The fall makeup collections are out, and it’s been fun looking at all the palettes – lots of dramatic colors and burgundy and brown lippies out there, like the ones in the Lancome ad above, in keeping (it seems to me) with the retro runway looks.  These aren’t necessarily the easiest makeup colors for me to wear, but I still enjoy playing with them in the stores.   I did try on the wack Dior’s Mysterious Mauve, check out that color at left  – yep, a deep, shimmery purple.  Purple.  Look at that thing, how could I resist?  News flash: it was just awful on me, but it would be gorgeous on someone with dark skin.

Let’s talk about foundation.  Carter was pimping the new(ish?) Maybelline Dream Smooth Mousse foundation, which has gotten a lot of love already on MakeupAlley, with a high 73% rebuy rating.  It’s a drag you can’t try them on in the drugstores, but our local CVS lets you return opened makeup so I bought a couple so Diva and I could sample them.  SPECIAL NOTE – this is not the Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse foundation, which has much lower MUA approval ratings of 47%, although I did buy some for Diva to try since she’s a teenager.  She found the matte formula hard to work into a smooth finish, although the color was right.  She kept the light neutral shade (Light 1) as a pancake makeup for her dance performances.

I bought what appeared to me to be the two lightest, most neutral tones in the Smooth Mousse – Porcelain Ivory and Classic Ivory.  There are two other light colors that are much more obviously yellow and pink, for those of you who swing that way.  The Classic is too dark for Diva and me, but the Porcelain was excellent.  I wore it for a few days and Diva’s wearing it now.  The formula’s packed in a wide pot with a built-in sponge in the lid storage area. The formula for these things is amaaaazing – they really are incredibly creamy and the coverage is buildable.  They stayed just fine on me, they are dewy but not too shiny on my dry skin, and they didn’t break Diva out.  In the end, I decided the color is just a hair off to be a perfect-perfect match – it’s one I’d wear if I really had to, but I’ve got better matches, and I hate being able to see my foundation.  If you’re looking for a reasonably priced drugstore foundation and you can find a color match (they have 10 shades), this is well worth checking out, and thanks, Carter!

Bringing me to Make Up For Ever’s two obscure lightest colors in their Face & Body Makeup!   Some of you may remember my ecstasy over this iconic product.  It’s at Sephora, and I think the finish is gorgeous (and I’m not the only one, based on MUA ratings.)  The main problem, as always, is finding a color match.  For whatever reason, Sephora stores don’t usually stock the two lightest colors, 36 and 38, in the store – I didn’t know they existed.  (And no, I have no idea what’s behind MUFE’s totally random numbering system.)   I’ve been wearing 20, their palest in-stock neutral, but I’d admitted to myself earlier this spring that it wasn’t the perfect shade for me, it’s a hair too yellow and I have to powder it to tone that down a little.  So I read all the comments on 38 and 36 from fair-skinned folks on MUA and based on that, I ordered 38.  Then two days later I discovered that – ha, ha – those two shades are now stocked by our swank Sephora in the Wall o’ Bling.  So I tried them both, one on each side of my face. The 36 is the paler and pinker of the two – it looks scary, like super-pale calamine lotion in the bottle.  I could actually get away with it, but it was a little pasty on me.  I envision it on those porcelain-doll beauties who are even lighter than I am, and they’re out there.  But #38 was just right.  It looks darker in the bottle and on the application sponge than it does on the skin, it’s closer to 36 than you’d think.  It’s neutral, sheer (more sheer than the 20) and buildable.  I like that I can just do the center of my face, where I’m the most red, and it still looks natural and blends away perfectly at the edges without full coverage down to my jawline, so it’s less “made up” looking.  It doesn’t look like great foundation, it looks like no foundation.  Unlike, say, the MAC girls with their supermatte, very hard-edge makeup, the less-is-more look is better for those of us who are no longer young women, in my opinion.  Too much makeup is oddly aging.

PS: A change in the MUFE bottle – I put the stuff on with a sponge, so the bottle’s open-mouth design, which ooks people out, has never bothered me.  (The weird jello-like consistency doesn’t bother me either.)  But the new bottles, at least the one I got in the mail, have a pump-top on them like the Hi-Def.

Finally, a MAC lament and a score. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I knew Strada was being discontinued, those bastards, I should have stocked up.  The perfect non-blushy blush for us pale girls who want a little “color” that isn’t orange or dirt.  The d/c’d Strada is now selling on eBay for … $35 a pop.  Anyone find another match?  I’ll probably go to a MAC pro and ask.  In the meantime, Louise forced me to try on lipstick, and I have to say – Viva Glam in Gaga is the pale-pink bomb.  It’s the first one of their Viva Glam lippies I’ve bought.  Their description: “named after celebrity spokesperson Lady Gaga. Features a high lustre finish and cool blue-pink shade.”  It is a pale bubblegum pink unlike any other pink I have.  It’s paler than my actual lips (it’s also paler than the color at left as it appears on my monitor).  It is NOT any of the following: sheer, YLBB, pinky-nude, bright, neon, fuchsia, or (conversely) too pale and mod, speaking of looks that don’t work so great on those of us who wore that the first time around.  It’s wow without being POW.  It’s pale pink as a color rather than a bold statement, and it works great with a modern, pared-down natural look, which is humorous when you think about who it’s named after.

So, it’s your turn.  Anyone out there working a new look, trying some new polish or a great new eye quad?  How do you feel about this fall’s burgundy and brown lips, like at Lancome?  Any other makeup comments or questions to throw out to your fellow commenters, some of whom are much bigger makeup fiends than I am?  (Not naming names.)  Has anyone busted out their red lips yet?  I wore them a few times this summer, actually.  Counter-intuitive and fun, but not when my face is sweaty.

March

Happy Labor Day Weekend, for those of you who, uh, partake.  No, I don’t actually know why it’s a holiday today, which amuses me because I feel that’s so typically American of me.  But I’m enjoying it in the customary style, which means I got all bloated at a barbeque yesterday (seven kinds of grilled meat and a long conversation with a drunk man about haggis) and got home rather late.  So I forgot to put this up until … now.

I will actually be posting on perfume on Wednesday, my next posting day.  In case you thought I forgot this is a perfume blog.  Don’t make any sudden moves, but my perfume mojo seems to have crept quietly back into the room.

We’ve spent a lot of time on the yard this weekend, which (trust me) needed it, an entire pickup truck of weeds, and some sod moved, not by me personally.  Fortunately.  I’m off with our own Weezy (the perfume friend, not the rapper) this morning for some Wall o’ Bling, Labor-Day Edition … oh!  That’s why we have labor day!  Store sales!!!  Right?

The weather here is gorgeous.  Fall-ish.

Finally, Sariah, former D.C. perfumista and Posse commenter, is still on her amazing year-long trip around the world, here’s a link to her travel blog if you’re curious.

—— March

March

OK, who else is sick of life being dictated by the freakin’ weather? Am I the only one who is exhausted by the fact that it is so ungodly humid outside that every morning for the past week, I’ve woken up with the most monumental of sinus headaches? I’ve been popping Tylenol like Skittles and I still suffer from chronic throbbing between the eyes. I don’t have a sinus infection, and I’m fairly certain I’m not growing a brain tumour. A friend took pity on me recently and gave me a bottle of this Chinese White Flower Analgesic Balm you’re supposed to rub on your top lip so you can breathe it in to clear your sinuses. I’d rather snort raw, grated horseradish to be totally honest. This stuff is nothing but methyl salicylate, eucalyptus oil, peppermint oil, and camphor. Hello? Vicks Vapo Rub?

So between the sweating and the sinus headaches, I’m grumpy beyond belief. I really wanted to tackle the rest of those “Humiecki and Dafts”, but I would literally be endangering my life by popping open those vials at this point. And I’m dying for some new sniffage in the worst way. I love/hate this time of year because August is the harbinger month that signals the end of summer, the beginning of school, and the end of yet another year. But I do look forward to the fat magazines, fall clothes and the promise of warm cuddly scents to come. Summer has gone by in a literal blink this year; I’ve done nothing but stare at my laptop, stare at my cat, and write. A solitary existence to say the least. Thank God for air conditioning.

Here’s your assignment: Where do you think would be the ideal place to live? Someplace where there’s no wild fluctuations in temperature, no freakish mountains of snow, or violent thunderstorms; just moderation. I’m thinking a lovely home in San Diego, or an igloo on a glacier in Antarctica. What about you?

Howdy, everybody.  First off, let me just say how touched I was by all the comments on Monday.  (Desperately resisting urge to use humor to fend off emotional honesty/awkwardness.)  I’ve been feeling like I have been letting you down in some way I am not articulating well.  When I told all this to Anita, and expressed my surprise at everyone’s kindness, her response was something along the lines of: whatthehelliswrongwithyouanywayareyouserious?

So.  The message has been received, the guilt stuffed in a baggie and tossed in the trash, and … here I am.  I will definitely dig through Ye Olde Archives (have I mentioned how terrible our search function is?) and select some Best Of links, including some of those already mentioned.  I need to go look at them because, due to our blog movage, some of the older posts have weird typos and missing images, so they need to be tidied up.  If you have other favorite posts, please say so in comments and I’ll look for them.  I also noted everyone else’s suggestions for post topics, and thanks for all the love and rockets.  I read them all, and I think I answered all the questions.

I’m still on my Scandinavian Thriller bender, and right now we’re in Iceland.  I am enjoying this book very much but am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I have trouble keeping the patronymic names straight, as everyone in Iceland according to my reading is either named Bjorn Olafsson or Olaf Bjornsson (men); or, Thora or Kristin Olafsdottir for the women.  Insert some random accents and circle-things over those letters, btw.  So I keep having to flip back 15 pages, thinking, wait … is this the dad or the uncle we’re talking about here? We need to send our friends in Iceland some new names.  I’m thinking Mitsouko, Serge and Kilian.

I could never live in Iceland, and not just because of all the murder victims piled up like cordwood on creepy, lonely beaches and in all the heroin dens of Reykjavik (yes, I had to look up how to spell that.)  If I wanted my kids to be smack addicts, I’d have stayed in New Mexico … or, wait, it turns out there’s a lot of heroin in this area, so let’s scuttle along, shall we?  Iceland, Greenland, Finland, Norway, Alaska, anywhere in the northern latitudes with long, dark winters?  I.would.die. I have now read thrillers by two different authors saying that the typical Icelandic murder involves two drunks and a kitchen knife, and I can believe it.   I’d last three months in a northern climate, assuming those months were August, September and October.  Okay, maybe I could suck it up until Christmas.  After that, it’s all The Shining.  You know, just like it was around here in February.

I prefer a more temperate climate – something with four seasons, “summer” not being the length between appointments to have my hair cut.  (This eliminates Maine, for instance.)  Something like …. Washington, D.C.  You see, I grew up here.  In a tiny brick Cape Cod.  With no air conditioning.  When it got hot, we all slept on Army cots on the screened side porch.  To this day, the sound of crickets and an attic fan puts me to sleep instantly. I go out and sleep on the wicker sofa on our screened back porch on sultry nights just for the pleasure of it.

Take today, for instance. At 4 p.m. it was a lovely 95 degrees with a 6mph breeze, and I was happy.  That breeze makes all the difference.  It’s true what they say about the humidity and the still air … my hot yoga I did this morning was not really hot yoga like Bikram, which they keep set at “Dubai” (let’s call it 110F-ish.)  No, it’s merely warm yoga, somewhere in the upper 80s.  It’s perfect.  It doesn’t aggravate my rosacea, and I can stretch (to the degree that I can stretch) and be happy.  I’d keep my house somewhere around 85F all the time in the summer, if the other people living here wouldn’t beat me to death with their icepacks.

I have the vague impression that some people (perhaps 85% of the folks who live here) don’t share my enthusiasm for our summer.  My apologies to those of you who formed beads of sweat which dripped on your keyboards and felt nauseated just thinking about hot yoga in this weather.  Perhaps you like it cold.  On the other hand, maybe some of you are fundamentally indifferent to the weather – no bad weather, only bad clothing etc.  So I’m throwing it out to you, because it is August after all:  any of you who’ve lived in “extreme” climates, hot or cold, extended light/darkness/cloudiness, have opinions about how you cope?  How much does where you grew up form your impressions?  (Can you move from the St. Kitts to Anchorage and retain your sanity?)  Who else is having wacky weather?  We had reports of coldness in Belgium… San Francisco is miserably cold, yes?  I’m pretty sure our summer here is going to be hottest on record.

PS.  In terms of actual perfume:  Denyse really has me wanting to try Boxeuses.  Also, Louise reports in from the field (actually, Saks in Chevy Chase) that “the Guerlain cosmetics counter had a new collection of various perfumes-including testers of Sous le Vent, Liu, the Elixirs, Angelique Noir, Spiritueuse, and others. The SA said she thought they might only be there for a short while…”   Hm.  Louise, what is that strange feeling you’ve stirred in me?  Suddenly I have a desire to hop in the car.

March