Scent Woobies

It’s my birthday today, and I’m getting older ‘n dirt, and where… are… MY… PRESENTS?!?!?! Hahahaha! Just kidding, just kidding, unless it’s that Mugler Coffret.

Lurkers — for those of you that think about commenting, but you’re hesitant because we all seem to know each other pretty well, I just have to say, I didn’t know most of these people a year ago, and my first comment I posted on another blog made me nervous because I thought everyone knew each other and looked pretty tight. The very coolest thing about the perfume community is that it is welcoming and warm. Just jump in! You don’t have to know a lot about perfume or anything at all, but you do know what you like or what you want. I think everyone that blogs has been the lone dissenter on a fragrance or two, so liking something everyone hates is perfectly o-k. Well, except… no, no, no exceptions. So please make yourself at home and comment when you want. We love the back and forth, it’s what makes this fun, even when you disagree and think I’m out of my mind or March has a weird nose that likes things that smell like worms and feet.

We’re all friends, right? Okay, confession time. I have perfumes that I panic if I’m without that I never, ever wear.

I call them Scent Woobies, and they tend to be gourmands, but not always. I don’t very often want on my skin to wear around all day, they just bother me or are too distracting, but I have to have the bottle so I can take a quick sniff hit of my favorite comfort juice when I need cheering up or just scenty love.

At the top of the list is Serge Lutens Rahat Loukhoum. I love the open on it, but the drydown just is weird on me. Every time I open the bottle and that beautiful almond creaminess floats up to my nose, my eyes roll back in my head and I just sigh contentedly. Honest to God, this really should be a candle, I’d spend as much for the candle as for the perfume.

Next on the list is Serge Lutens Tubereuse Criminelle. Now, this couldn’t be further from a gourmand, and I find it difficult to wear very often, though I do wear it from time to time. That camphor’ish blast with the tuberose lollygagging around in the background on opening the bottle is just my idea of happy scents, and it will also clear my nose if I’m a little congested. Comfort scent? Yeah, for the weirdest of reasons. It reminds me, when I’m feeling all mommyish and frumpy that I am also all girl and need some tarting up every now and then.

Hermessence Ambre Narguile (aka Nazgul) — I hate this scent with the heat of a thousand burning suns, but only on my skin. The honey note in there and just the over-the-topness of the caramel and amber is just the last thing I want to smell all day. But a hit or two off the bottle is a slice of heaven…. or caramel nougat…. whatever. I can’t think of much that is more comforting than this smell.

What are your comfort scents — not the ones you love to wear — the ones that you really don’t want to wear, but need to have around?

  • Patty,

    Late to the party, but I’m sending you my best wishes for a beautiful new year of womanhood for you.

  • Flora says:

    Better late than never – Happy Birthday!!!!

    I have very few “woobies” as I will wear anything I love almost anytime now, but one of the few is Nahema, only because I can’t wear it as often as I like since it is so powerful – so I must sniff in private or just put in on when I am alone. If I had the kind of life where I coulf get away with wearing diva scents 24/7, I would wear it a lot more. However, my inner diva will have to suffice most of the time! 8-|

  • evilpeony says:

    Belated Happy b-day, to my most favorite santa Patty! For you, I will wish for a nice warm bath in (fill in your favorite perfume.) Hugs!

  • sariah says:

    Wow, 87 comments must be a record so I’ll make this short. Happy Birthday! And I’m loving the Poivre – very strong – should come with warning label or something.

  • patchamour says:

    Dear Patty,

    Happy Birthday belatedly@};-. Your posts are always fun, frank, and fabulous.
    Scent Woobies: Diorissimo and all LoTVs, Fracas, and Jo Malone’s Orange Blossom, which is beautiful on my daughter but too flowery for me.

  • Patty says:

    Oh, my gosh, more birthday wishes. Thanks to all of you! I very much appreciate that, you’re all just the best!

  • Skye Hewitt says:

    Sorry I’m a little late but during this so called “Most Wonderful Time of The Year” things get as crazy as my family (were talkin’ exorcist territory). Now that I’ve gotten rid of my bah humbugs……

    Happy Birthday Patty<:-p It's nice to know where all of my fellow Sags have disappeared to. My b-day is the 17th. May the sags of the world unite to make everyone smell as good as you ^:)^ Here's hoping Santa drops that coffret off under your tree [-o<:d Please refrain from throwing anything heavier than rose petals when I say my woobie is.... Angel. I know I know. I love to spray a little on my pillow before I go to sleep, but if it comes anywhere near my skin I get this powdery liquorish scent that makes it an instant scrubber 🙁 So from a devoted fan here's wishing you birthday wishes and Caron dreams>:d< & :* Skye

  • Emotenote says:

    A most excellent and happy birthday to you! May you be transported to where ever your fragrances claim. (I’m thinking somewhere in the British Virgin Islands for instance.) We are a heavily Sag family which balances the two Tauruses very nicely. No wonder I enjoy your humor, being a staid and serious Taurean myself.

    My woobles are most of the Del Raes and Sg A la Nuit. Everytime I wear it it gets so overwhelming even though I love love love the Jasmine.

  • Cait says:

    Happy Birthday, Sweetie!

    My comfort scents are L’EAu d’Hiver, L’Homme de Coeur, Annam, Cologne Sologne, and Vent Vert.

  • hausvonstone says:

    happy birthday patty! your bottle of C VP is safe and will be en route to the US in 10 days! when i first read your post i didn’t think i had one of these. now i would say michael kors. my friend sent me lots of spray samples once, and the michael kors had all but evaporated. when i first opened it, i thought ‘wtf? i don’t like flowers except violet/iris/lav’ but then i kept having to sniff it. tuberose and gardenia. i don’t know if i want to wear it, but now i have to go get up from the computer and sniff the lingering dampness left at the bottom of the bottle…

  • Cheezwiz says:

    Wishing you a fragrant Happy Birthday Patty!

    I too am a Saggitarius with a birthday coming up (aren’t you glad you’re a jovial fun Sag?).

    I have many wooblies that I don’t own but enjoy sniffing.

    Chanel’s Coco is a divine spicy concoction. It smells not bad on me, but very glam and heavy – not really “me”. Kind of like turning up to a casual barbeque in a fur coat.

    I also love the opening notes of Cristalle, but alas it goes all funny and musty on me. I still like to sniff the citrus top notes though – especially during a hot spell.

    A celebrity scent that I admire is “Lovely”. The opening notes (whatever they are) are quite heavenly. However it turns into a musky mess upon contact with my skin. So I content myself with sneaking a sniff at the perfume counter.

    I like sniffing a true tea rose scent as well as White Shoulders. These perfumes are my maternal & paternal grannies bottled!

    I hope your birthday was fun and scent-filled!
    :d

  • Deborah says:

    Happy Birthday Patty. Delurking for the first time here. Wobblies? Sublime for sure. Lovely, sophisticated frag, but on me all I smell is scrambled eggs.

  • minette says:

    Happy, happy birthday with many joyous returns!

    My woobie-doobie-doos include Sublime (fantastic in the air, and too much on skin), Diorissimo (again, great in the air, but not so hot on skin), No. 19 (which I love taking a sniff of, but don’t seem to wear much), and SL Fleurs d’Oranger and Miel du Bois (I love getting a hit of them, but have to be in a very particular mood to wear them).

    Eliza, FM Iris Poudre came to mind, as did Creed Fantasia de Fleurs and Moschino I Love Love.

  • Maria B. says:

    Happy birthday, Patty! Betcha the dirt I’m older than is older than yours. So there.

    I came out of lurkdom yesterday–not that I had lurked for long–and it was a good experience. This is a friendly place where one can just sit and put one’s feet up.

    I’m keeping two bottles of YSL Champagne even tough on me it smells like old-lady talcum powder (I’m not *that* old) because of its historical value. One bottle is of extrait and the other of eau de toilette. They have that nice champagne cork shape. I must have bought them just before the lawsuit by silly vintners from the Champagne region forced YSL to change its name to Yvresse. Okay, it’s not just that I’m interested in history. I also hope the bottles will be worth something to collectors someday. $$$

    Happy birthday and thanks for the welcome to lurkers!

    Maria

  • Camilla says:

    Happy Birthday!
    My best woobie story isn’t really mine, but here goes: One day a friend asked me what perfume I had on. “Shalimar”, I said, laughing, “you know, the one your grandmother wore”… “No,” she replied, “my grandmother wore Toujours Moi.” Well, I love vintage scents and collect them whenever I can, so I happened to have a vintage bottle of Toujours Moi (this is the old one, by Cardon). So the next day I brought it to work and gave it to her.

    When she opened it, she just smiled this great smile and said, “Yep, that’s pure Nana, ummmmm” She told me she would never wear it (it’s way, way, way powdery), but she just loves having the bottle so she can open it up every once in a while and take a sniff, calling up the image and dear memories of her grandmother. To me, that’s just the best kind of woobie.:)

  • gingele says:

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

    Cheers to another trip around the sun! <:-p Have a wonderful, wonderful day & best wishes to you, dear Patty!!! My woobie would have to be Feminite du Bois. Have not actually worn it in years (binged on it big time back in the early 90s) - but cannot bear to be without it.

  • Lucy says:

    Happy birthday Patty! Many, many, happy birthdays to you. . .

    So. No more lurking for me. I will have to think about that woobie thing though. There are plenty of scents out there that are just gawjus, but smell like bug spray on me. But I love sniffing them on others (what a visual).
    Anyway, happy birthday!

  • Happy Birthday, Patty!

    I should be ashamed to put it here in print, but my secret is Eternity. It’s my early 20s in a bottle, where I’d rather they stay. But I can’t tolerate not having that bottle.

  • Christine says:

    Happy Birthday!

    And for a woobie…Coco. I always try to muster up enough vavavoom to wear my sample, but really I just want to sniff the bottle and remember my elderly neighbor from my childhood, who even now in her late 80s (goodness, maybe early 90s) doesn’t leave the house without all her makeup and her hair perfectly done.

    Loved her. It’s time for a card.

  • Patty says:

    Thank you, Cindy, Katie, R, Justine, R and Robin!

  • Robin says:

    Happy birthday!! Oddly enough, I never smell a bottle, never. If I can’t wear it on skin, I don’t need it.

  • Amy K. says:

    I can’t believe I listed my woobies but forgot to say happy birthday. Happy birthday, Patty!

  • Justine says:

    Happy Birthday Patty!

    When a birthday feels at all bittersweet to me I think of my two girlfriends that both successfully battled breast cancer and remember that getting a year older sure as heck beats the alternative 🙂

    Plus, I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this yet because there are just too many posts to read through, you look gorgeous. Really. Gorgeous and wise, a very sexy combination. And you smell good too.

    Rahat is one of my most loathed scents. In the bottle and out I can’t tolerate it. TC I love. It’s that gasoline accord that hooks me and keeps me coming back for more.

    I don’t know that I have any scents that I like only in the bottle, but I tend to appreciate incense on others more than myself. 10 Corso Corso for example, smells great when its not on me.

  • Katie says:

    Happy birthday, Patty! I hope it’s a great one. Enjoy your day!

  • violetnoir says:

    Oh gosh,Patty, I am so late to your birthday party. Please forgive me.

    I want to wish you the happiest of birthdays. You came into my life last year, and your friendship and support have been a great blessing to me.

    I’m so frazzled thinking of a gagillion things I have to do this morning, that I can’t think of anything cute or witty to say about perfumes I love to hate or hate to love, so I will just leave it at that.

    <:-p Hugs and much love!

  • CindyN says:

    Patty,
    Happy Birthday MONTH to you. My philosphy is the older you get, the longer you deserve to celebrate the event.
    Woobies: Escada Collection & Plaisir. Both evaporate to nothing on my skin. But they are comforting to me.

  • Patty says:

    Thank you, Tom! I live in Denver, and I’ve heard of Tuescher, I’m off to find exactly two of them for today. I better not eat anything else, though.

    Now, Norma Desmond is simply the greatest character ever. I used to think Carol Burnett was making it up, and then I saw the film.

    What perfume do you actually think that character would have worn? Some weird, difficult Patou that makes the people around her worried because it is just a little crazee.

    Some days Rahat’s cherry sticks with, and then it is absolutely perfect, but if the cherry vamooses, so, so, so bad.

  • AngelaS says:

    Happy Birthday Patty!! I’ll be thinking of you today.

    Your woobies are my woobies. I have sample vials of Ambre Narguile, Rahat, and TC, but I just can’t seem to wear them. But I’m definitely not giving them away! It’s like having a painting that you love to look at in a book but just won’t work in the living room.

  • Patty says:

    L — get your paws of Chaya’s randy ferrets, those are mine, I tell you, Mine, MINE!! :d

  • Patty says:

    Chaya, vintage Rumeur, for reals? Okay, I’m e-mail you!

  • Leopoldo says:

    Chaya – I’ll take your randy ferrets!

  • Patty says:

    Thank you, Iris! I always read the notes on Angel and think it has to be the best perfume in the world, until I smell it, and, oy…. just not good at all. But it makes me happy knowing it exists in the world and smells absolutely divine on lots of people.

  • tmp00 says:

    Happy Birthday Patty!

    I forget where you live, but if there is a place that sells Tuescher truffles, I think that should be your birthday treat. Two is about all you will need (or want, really), and in winter they can fly over the “extra butter” one. The champagne is delish too.

    Have two. They’re small.

    My woobies are headed up by Tubereuse Criminelle: I adore it and sometimes even wear it to bed thinking “I can wear this out, it so leathery”. Then I awake in a Norma Desmond-like fog of tuberose which is divine, but would definitely get me weird(er) looks in my button-down corporate job.

    The second is Joy, perhaps because like tarleisio I remember being 6 and smelling it on my mother’s fur coat. That one I only have to sniff.

    Rahat Loukoum I actually wear. I get a bit of funk at the end, but not a lot. The wonderfully boozy cherries stick with me all the way through, and whatever funk is there just makes them sexy cherries. :d

    Lastly, about your comments to newbies, I’ve been commenting on these blogs for less than a year, and I have never been received as warm a welcome. Dive in kids, the water’s fine.

  • chayaruchama says:

    Hey, baby-
    YOU didn’t answer the question…
    I’ll happily make a package for you, just say !

  • Leopoldo says:

    Always on me, but I bet the bedsheets would smell great spritzed with it!

  • IrisLA says:

    Happy Birthday, fragrant lady! I adore Rahat and TC. They will always be in my collection.

    One of my woobies is Angel. I love how it smells in the bottle, but it doesn’t always behave on my skin. For that reason, I rarely wear it out of the house.

  • Patty says:

    Thank you, V!

    See, everyone has them. Even if they don’t keep the bottle, they have them in their head, like White Shoulders and Cinnabar.

    Putting the word “Hombre” in any perfume really should get them drummed out of the perfumers’ guild.

  • Patty says:

    Tigs, thank you! I totally disagree on the taxi thing, but I do agree that you’ll stay younger if you’re driving them than if they’re driving you. I’m so over teaching teenagers to drive. I only had one round in me, and this second one has just fried my nerves, and he’s a good driver.

    Tolu is a weird one for me too. I always like the idea of it and even love it sometimes, and I have a bottle with about a squirt or two in it where I just smell the cap from time to time, and I won’t throw it away.

    We are a goofy bunch, huh?

  • Patty says:

    Beba, I have missed you!! I’m glad you are doing well and recovered!

    I almost snagged some Vol De Nuit parfum this week, then changed my mind. I smelled it once and really liked it, but now I’m having trouble remembering if I loved it enough to spring for the parfum or not. :”>

  • Patty says:

    Thank you, Teri.

    Same here on the Shalimar. I have a little bottle of it, and I’ve smelled it on people who make it do the magic, but on me it is just rancid baby powder. The SA swore to me if I got the shower gel, that would make it all better. How very wrong she was. :-w

  • Patty says:

    Karen, happy late birthday to you and to your aunt! that is so good you went to see her. I so hope you’ll have her for many more years.

    When I get old, I’m going to drive people out of my assisted living apartment with all the perfume and scent I have in there, since my nose will barely be able to smell anymore, so I’ll have to spritz more of it to compensate. 🙂

  • Patty says:

    Thank you, Dear L.

    So do you just spritz your bed with AN before you crawl in, or take the bottle with you? This may be a way for me to enjoy it more, just a spritz on the blankets, being careulf to get not even a molecule on me, lest it be ruined.

    Agree in ISM, but I have to throw Apres L’Ondee and Encens et Lavande in the mix. March and I have declared at least one or all three of these must be piped in at our wakes to ensure copious tears.

    Love you back!

  • St. Veronica says:

    Happy Birthday!

    I thought the idea of Scent Woobies was weird. After a moment of introspection – you are right. I have a few. Adolfo Dominguez Vetiver Hombre, Carlo Corinto Vetyver Pour Homme, and Jovan Grass Oil For Men

    I nominate them for the ‘Dumb Name for a Frag’ award, too. How about Vetiver Hombre and Hombress, Vetyver Pour Homies and Jovan Grass Oil for Womyn? Hey, if Carlo can spell it ‘vetyver’….

  • Tigs says:

    Happiest Birthday to you, Patty. My mom claims still having kids to taxi keeps you young. (I have a brother 11 years younger than me. His first day of kindergarten, my mom, who was a teacher, ran into another mom who said wonderingly to her: “Mrs. B?” She’d taught the other mom in Grade 7. It was like an Oil of Olay commercial.) You sound young at heart and now young in forehead too.

    Woobies, hmmm. Kenzo’s Kashaya, which smells so cool in the air or on a coat sleeve, but just smells fruity sweet on me. Tolu, too – I love the orange blossom hit at the beginning, but it morphs into a weird mixture of edible and incense dust after that. My husband says “That is how women are *supposed* to smell…” but it just disturbs me a bit.

  • Patty says:

    Thank you, Sharon!

  • Patty says:

    Marina, you and March and Judith are scary in how close you all three feel about some pretty weird stuff. 🙂

    Thank you!!!

  • Patty says:

    Thank you, March! Creative use of the icons! 🙂

    BTW, I put something in the mail to you that you hinted strongly about.

  • Patty says:

    E — thank you! And totally agree ont he LotV notes, they are just horrible on me.

    I knew you’d have hundreds of these. 🙂

  • Patty says:

    Thanks, Judith!

    Safram is awesome, but i never wear that one either, though I could be talked out of mine for something else more wooby-ish.

  • Patty says:

    Thank you, Christina! What do you supposed makes Rahat do that? I’ve worn it every now and then and didn’t get that funky thing, which makes it awesome, but once it turns, it’s just horrid.

  • Beba Simo says:

    A very Happy Birthday!

    I have been silent for the two last months but I am happily on my way to full recovery.
    Every morning since early this year,I have enjoyed the daily adventures in Fragance Land of all those wonderful perfume bloggers and friends, I love them, every one!

    My favorites of all time: Vol de Nuit, Mitsouko, Nuit de Noel, Tabac B, and Ma Griffe.
    My new favorites: Attrape, Vega, Liu, PQJ, L’Air Du Desert, Harmatan N, Fumeria, A Narguile, Chergui and Borneo.

    A BIG HUG

  • Teri says:

    Happy happy birthday, Patty, and many more warm and well-scented ones to come.

    I have to agree with Flor, I think it was, about the Shalimar. I always have a small bottle in my collection because I like to take furtive sniffs. But if you put that lovely juice in contact with my whimsical skin, it morphs into something I can only describe as Eau de Catbox. :(( So, I admire Shalimar from afar, but alas, she shall ne’er be mine.

  • Karen says:

    Happy Birthday! I spent the early part of this week visiting my aunt in Wisconsin, helping to celebrate her 92nd birthday (on Dec 7.) (My birthday was on 6 Dec.) We were afraid that that birthday would be Auntie’s last, so I’m glad we made the effort. (Of course we didn’t tell auntie that. She was just so pleased that we traveled from Virginia to Wisconsin to help her celebrate.)
    My scent woobie used to be Chanel No. 5. I would rarely use it. But I started to make an effort to wear it, even if to work. I try to keep a good rotation going.

  • Patty says:

    Kathy, thank you! White Shoulders, how old does it have to be to be vintage? I used to wear it in my early 20s and loved it. Did they change the formulation after that?

    MKK, scent woobie? I had to think about that a bit, but I agree. I have such a hard time wearing it out, but I do love to put a drop on and just sniff it all day.

  • Patty says:

    Silvia, welcome! FT is awesome, but I have the same problem with it. It’s like the best smokey barbeque pit in the world in the bottle, but put it on, and I’m taken back to pit keg parties with big bonfires that needed to be jumped over and too many cigarettes and cute boys. Which is fun to remember, but not so great to smell like.

  • Leopoldo says:

    Can I wish you many more years of dashing discombobulation, my lovely one. Birthday joys indeed.

    Ambre Narguilé is my sniff in bed scent – somehow I like to smell like pastry when I’m folded up in blankets. I love it.

    Bois Farine is an SW for me – sometimes I love it; other times it goes vewwy vewwy bad. And I don’t really wear ISM much but it’s my placid melancholy scent – perfectly gets me to that point of winsome nostalgia we all need one moment or another.

    Love you P! Enjoy your lofat locarb birthday munch celebrations.

  • Marina says:

    …and HAPPIEST OF BITHDAYS to you, dear Patty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Patty says:

    Hi, Eliza, and welcome!

    Not sure if you saw it yet or not, but over on the left is a Perfume 101 article, which you may find of some help.

    Of those that you list, I don’t know some of them that you list, but the first question is to figure out the types of perfumes you do like.

    If you want to hit the Contact Us button over there and shoot me an e-mail, we can chat about it.

    Of the ones you list, the Black Cashmere is really terrific, but it is a darker, more difficult perfume, which may be perfect if you like those. The Hermes Hiris is a pretty straightforward iris scent, but it is an excellent perfume because it is fairly simple, but I think I learn at lot from the way it is crafted. SJP Lovely is a great mix of some good notes and pretty accessible too.

    Angel… shudder…. but you should sniff it and try it. For the people it works on, it is just gorgeous. I’m just not one of them. 🙂

  • Sharon says:

    Patty,
    Happy Birthday to the best smelling woman around! Fragrant best wishes to you!

  • Marina says:

    I want to wholeheartedly second your comment about commenting, Patty 🙂 I also agree that March has a weird nose that likes things that smell like worms and feet. She is my scent twin in that respect
    😡

  • Patty says:

    Flor, that is the single funniest thing I’ve ever read, and I totally get it. Happy Birthday a little late back to you!

    Discombobulated is the word my mom used to use for me. 🙂

  • March says:

    Happy Birthday to you:x
    Happy Birthday to you…@};-
    Happy BIRTHday dear PATty…<:-p Happy Birthday to you!!!!!!!!!!>:d< Scent Woobies ... vintage or vintage-y things like Soir de Paris. I love to sniff them in the bottle, but mostly I don't want to wear them -- they're very demanding in terms ot sillage and they're the sort of thing that never seems right for whatever I'm doing.

  • Patty says:

    tarleisio, your mom sounds just amazing. I wish my mom had worn some scent or another, but she always smelled of soap and earth. Which is a weird combination, but that’s how she smelled and still does.

    Paleontology age for sure here. I just never though I’d actually be this age, it’s odd.

  • Patty says:

    Thank you, Pam! LoTV is just a stinker on me too. There is no amount of room spray that can cover that nasty smell up once it hits my skin, which is a shame.

    Buddy is just a big, old love. He’s getting a *little* less exhuberant in his old age of 2, but very little.

  • Patty says:

    Louise, Happy Birthday right back to you, too! Oh, let me guess that colleague, must be the Divine Miss M.

    Yes, Sags really are clueless about what is appropriate. And if we get a clue, we’ll lose interest in it in a week and be flitting off to the next thing. 🙂

  • Patty says:

    Chaya, you are just a love, thank you! I have a feeling whatever you bake up would be out of this world delicious. With my new (?) health kick, that would be a very, very bad thing. I have toyed with the idea of going and getting two truffles to eat on my birthday.

    I forgot to say what I got me from my DH! He gave me Yosh’s White Flowers. He may still give me Cradle of Light from Christopher Brosius, I really, really, really need to sniff that one. Don’t you think he’d want me to have that? I do, he loves me. 🙂

  • Elle says:

    Happy fabulously scented birthday!!! I hope your DH surprises your w/ that coffret!
    I’m afraid I’ve got more Woobies than I can count. I need them desperately once every 23rd blue moon, so I have to have them, but they basically collect sit around feeling sullen and unloved. Quite a few are scents that I’ve worn in the past and are like photos in an album – essential for bringing back clear memories. 1000, Cartier Must, L’Artisan Ambre Extreme, L’Artisan Mure et Musc, L’Artisan L’Eau de Navigateur (yes, I used to be a real L’Artisan sl*t) and AG Heure Exquise are just a few in that category. There are also seasonal scents like lilac, lily and LOTV. I generally can’t wear LOTV scents, but once every spring I *need* to wear Yosh Sottile or Diorissimo. And I’d panic if I didn’t have SL Un Lys for a day or two in April and Vacances for May.

  • Patty says:

    Dusan — Angel? Okay, okay, i’ll look past that shortcoming.:d

    And thank you!!!

  • Patty says:

    Julia — on dear, no T42? Definitely, if that one didn’t behave on my skin, I’d have it in my wardrobe. I wish I could get a cup of tea brewed that smelled that good.

  • Patty says:

    thank you, Andy! I was bathing in Orris yesterday. 🙂

  • Judith says:

    Happy Birthday, Patty!!! Hmmmm. . . I’m stuck on the SWs. Although there are certainly perfumes that cause me panic if they are even CLOSE to gone, and others (more than I care to admit) that I don’t wear at all, the two categories don’t tend to coincide.
    Well, maybe a little–
    Eau Noire (it’s too cuminy on me, but I can’t bear to give it away–and DH feels exactly the same; in fact, he stopped me from swapping it once).
    Laura Tonatto Safram (I could be talked out of this one, but it might take some talking)>

  • Patty says:

    Thank you, D! TC does require a certain mindset. I’m just not that girl most days anymore. But I adore the one that lives in the bottle, and when I get done with my taxiing to school years, I swear, I’m going back to being her.

  • Patty says:

    Alica, thank you! I agree, when I look around at my life, there is no thing in it that I love, really, just the people who have made the trip so much fun.

  • Christina H. says:

    Happy Birthday to you Patty!And wishes for many, many more to come! I totally agree with you on the SL Rahat!I adored the opening notes but the dry down was funky to say the least.Majorly disappointing. The TC scent is so weird in the beginning, but I can see all past that for its gorgeous dry down and AN is the only one scent my hubby is madly in love with.Thankfully, I am too!

    I hope you have a wonderful day!

  • Patty says:

    Amy, definitely agree on Parfum Sacre being a SW, but I just love to practically drown myself in that one. 🙂

  • Kathy says:

    Happy Birthday Patty! I hope that you have a wonderful day. Mine is coming up soon, and I’m older than dirt. My saving grace is that I have young children, so people assume that I am younger.

    I love today’s topic! I have so many woobies, and I couldn’t give them up. Caron Nuit de Noel is one for me because I just don’t get it, but I am strangely drawn to it. Another is White Shoulders because it reminds me of glorious days as a child with my grandmother. I’d love to find some vintage White Shoulders, but the modern one has a hint of the old one, and it’s enough to evoke memories. A stinker that I’m drawn to sniffing in the bottle but NOT on my skin is the dread SL Muscs Koublai Khan. It chases away nightmares because nothing at night is scarier to me than that decant.

    Have a great day!

  • Silvia says:

    Hello everyone, my name is Silvia and I am a LURKER, drawn out of the woodwork. Happy birthday Patty !
    One woobie of mine would be SL Fumerie Turque: love it in the bottle but makes me gag on my skin.

  • Eliza J says:

    First of all Happy Birthday!

    Your post brought me out of lurkdom. I have always loved perfume and just recently started really exploring it and reading more about it (thanks in part to this lovely blog!) I have a question and I wondered if you or some of your readers could help me out. I wanted to try some of the scents that you write about and review. I have realized that my collection is pretty simple in comparison to what is out there. I just wondered if given the perfumes that I have if someone could recommend some of the more complex perfumes that I should give a try. Maybe this is a stupid question and I just have to try a bunch on my own but I thought I would tap into all of your expertise and see if you could be of any help. Maybe I am way off base asking but thoght I would give it a whirl. What I have right now is:

    Creed Millesime Imperial
    Quelques Fleur
    Donna Karan Black Cashmere
    Annick Goutal Folavril
    Hermes Hiris
    SJP Lovely
    Gucci Rush
    Herve Leger
    D&G Light Blue
    Angel

    If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate it.
    Thank you!

  • Flor says:

    Happy Birthday Patty! I just had my birthday on the 1st and now that I know that you’re a sag the way you write makes a whole lot of sense. I adore it! Reading your blog is so much fun! I wish you a wonderful new year with wonderful new fragrant discoveries and adventures.
    I love, love Shalimar, but the drydown is soooo awful on me that I cannot bring myself to wear it. I also cannot give it away or trade it because I love it so much. Thank goodness the bottle is so beautiful.

  • tarleisio says:

    Happy birthday, Patty! No, you’re not older than dirt – if you were, then you’d be a fossil, and fossils don’t write even half so well as you! 😉

    Or else I – no nymphet, either! – shall be more than happy to join you in the paleontology department, as two of the world’s
    most beautiful, very!best-smelling fossils…:d

    I hope you have the greatest day, and that absolutely everyone spoils you at least as rotten as you certainly deserve!

    Woobies…woobies…for some reason, all mine seem to be connected to other people’s. I worship at the altar of my sister when she’s wearing Chanel no. 5, not that I like it at all (although I’m a Coco – the original, mind -Bois des Iles and no. 19 person myself, because it’s absolutely heavenly on her. And strangely enough, we both own bottles of Mitsouko and First, not to wear, but to open them and remember one world-class femme fatale, who taught us about the importance of perfume – our mother. I can open up either one, breathe in, and suddenly, I’m 6 years old, hiding away in my mother’s fur coat, immersed in Eau de Awesomely Sexy…

    And as she was, so do we both aspire to be, pregnant bellies and two-year-olds notwithstanding! 😉

    One of the many benefits of being “d’un certain age”…

  • Pam says:

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY, P!!

    There are a few SWs in my collection. One is Diorissimo. LOTV and lilac fragrances generally clash with my skin. Diorissimo is no exception. I like it in theory and only after about 2-3 hours. One day I had spritzed some on and a little later my husband walked into the room and said, “Hmm. Smells like a Raid Yard Bomb went off in here.” And this from a man who likes Mitsouko and almost everything else. Thing is, he was right; Diorissimo smells like bug spray on me for the first 2-3 hours. I’ll take feet and worms over Raid Yard Bomb any day.

    Patty, how is ol’ Buddy doing? He sounds like a hoot. Have a great weekend.

  • Louise says:

    Happy birthday to another sag-we’re so much fun, no? And really, “inappropriate” is such a vague term to us (ooops, wazthat inappropriate). My birthday was Wednesday, spent partially in the company of an darling unnamed colleague of yours. I am much older than dirt, and love to believe that the correct fragrance makes me much younger.

    Cheers to you!

  • chayaruchama says:

    I forgot- my woobie would have to be Dyptique’s L’Autre- smells SO good in the bottle, but gags everyone else in proximity…

  • chayaruchama says:

    =d>:)
    Happy, happy, my precious!
    I love your sexy, mommy, restless, lovely, sometimes harried self !
    I’m certain that the adoring DH won’t mess this one up.
    I wish I could bake you something outrageous and wanton, for you to snort up solo at your leisure…

    In lieu of that, would you like me to send you a little package? Do you have enough NdN parfum? A little vintage Rumeur, too?
    You’ve got my email, so let me know, and I’ll send it off…

    Too bad I don’t have an ermine muff for your little paws this am- would a few randy ferrets do?
    Love You!

  • Dusan says:

    Happy birthday, luv! My only wish to you is – always remain the way you are – a kindhearted, funny-as-hell, drop-dead-gorgeous dame! I am sending you a huge Chewbaca hug!
    Luv ya

    My Woobie is Angel [the breasted one], it’s my ultimate comfort scent – can’t help it! I want to wear it but…er… [lean closer] I’m afraid to leave the house with Angel on. So I don’t wear it… at all. Bizarre, ain’t it? Of the ones I wear, I choose Gaultier2. There.

  • Julia says:

    Happy Birthday!

    I really love L’Artisan Tea for Two. I love it in theory and in the bottle (and sometimes on others). On my skin however it becomes a bit too loud. Not that I don’t appreciate “loud” but just minutes after it hits my skin, I feel like I’m trapped inside of a dirty teapot. Too bad:(

  • Andy says:

    Happy Birthday to you, Patty. May the gods of scent be nice with you this day! enjoy this day and bath in caron or whatever this day may bring you.

  • carmencanada says:

    I adore Tubéreuse Criminelle and have gone through a full bell jar at a point, which must mean something — rubber-camphor blast and all. But I find it requires a certain mindset, a projected persona. So I don’t reach for it as often as I used to. Rahat Loukoum I’ve used enough to be halfway down the bell jar… I reach for it only on certain very cold days, for some reason. Both are indeed scents that are imposible to be casual about. For me, Caron Nuit de Noël fits that bill.
    And joyeux anniversaire !

    D.

  • Alica says:

    Dear Patty, happy birthday to you, warmest wishes. As for me, I don´t usually have any birthday wish because I have got what the most valuable is – my dear HB and wonderful love. Anyway, if I should wish anything else – it would be SL Tubereuse Criminelle! Enjoy and celebrate!

  • Amy K. says:

    Tendre Friandise and Parfum Sacre. I don’t wear either often, but I love to take off their caps and get my whiff fix.