It’s hot here… I mean, really hot. The kind of hot where the air conditioner just doesn’t want to keep up. So what to do when the heat of summer starts being oppressive? Go against the grain and start thinking about fall/winter scents I have missed. Fall and Winter are truly the times of year when perfume is at its finest, wearing the rich and opulent scents that I just never feel I can wear in summer without a really bad headache.
So I look longingly at my shelf of Carons, plotting those that I haven’t paid enough attention to and come up with… French CanCan! Notes of jasmine, lilac, violet, lily of the valley, rose, orange blossom, patchouli, iris, sandalwood, amber, oakmoss. This is one of the most changeable of the Caron parfums. It starts off bright and bubbly and then starts to settle into a jasmine, rose, orange blossom array. The drydown on this is just gorgeous. It stays feminine throughout, with peeps of frivolity, but always held up by that rich Caron base. Carons have always had my respect by how well they captured the time they were made. French Cancan was created in 1936, and while it doesn’t feel old fashioned, it just feels of that era, of a different time, and an attitude where showing bloomers was erotic, and perfumes reflected that… Never completely showing its butt, just giving peeps of it. What winter scent are you most pining for? Not your favorite and maybe one you don’t wear that much, but just that you are thinking about that needs more attention that you admire?
Update: Winners of the Tuberose Post: ering and Tmp…..I picked two…I couldn’t help it. Just contact us and I’ll get your addresses. I have a couple things to send, so I’ll randomly divide the winnings.
I have sweat beads popping off me like a frigging cartoon. and I have to go downtown Boston today.
I want to wear my straw hat but it’s just not done here exept by gardner types (which I am). How weird is that. Maybe I just need the right hat.
I also have a white cotton thing that I can put on my head with an embroidered band like Anwar Sadat wore. My mom brought it to me from Cairo. Whoa it’s a terrorist but she smells really good.
I miss guerlain djedi, cartier le must, hermes exiler de merveilles, huiles 85.
I want to buy the CB Winter 1972 wet mittons this fall.
Take care of your paws Patty.
I like acupunture and also the exercises suggested by Sweetlife sound good.
Devon
P, French CanCan!!! What a perfect, perfect scent. And your photo totally did it justice.
This is almost that weird time of year (late August) when I’ll get some random mental whiff of fall and want it soooo desperately. If I had some with me, I’d put on CB Burning Leaves and Gathering Apples right now, just to scratch that itch.
Winter is when I dig out all my serious “old lady” perfumes;):-w Such a joy — like slipping into your leather boots for the first snow, ya know? I feel sorry for people in climates with no snow.
Have you got a mousepad with a wrist-rest? I found one really helpful for RSI.
It’s so gloomy and wet here in England that I’ve been able to wear pretty much everything in my collection, with the exception of Youth Dew. The ones that I’ve craved less have been the fresher ones, like Jolie Madame. In all this rain, comforting orientals are really welcome. (It was so awful and wet the other day that I hauled out the Songes – if I couldn’t have tropical weather, tropical flowers would have to do!)
Patty, I’m sorry to hear about your hurting hands. I get those, too.
A massage therapist taught me a good preventative/fix: cup your hurting hand loosely, palm up. Take the elbow of your opposite arm, and use the point to find the/a sore spot in your hand (usually somewhere around the fleshy pad at the base of your thumb, but you’ll know it when you feel it). Press on the sore spot pretty hard with your elbow, and then drag your elbow towards the center of your wrist and up, just past your wrist. Repeat as needed.
And I miss my Ambre Russe, Bois de Paradis, and the Montale Ouds, which (sorry Columbina) I adore, but are too much for me in the heat.
Still having a lot of fun discovering summer-worthy scents, though!
Oops — forgot to say that after you massage, extend the hurt arm/hand palm up and use opposite hand to bend your fingers back in a stretch. Hope it works for you like it worked for me!
acupuncture can help with the carpal tunnel. i found can can too much of its time and too sweet for my tastes – wound up giving the parfum to my mother – though i don’t know if she even realizes she has it…
Oh man, it’s been hot here and even humid – and we’re practically in the badlands, and dry as all get out. For three weeks now it hasn’t dropped below 90 degrees fahrenheit during daylight hours (5:00 am until 10:00 pm) with no cloud cover and the kind of stickiness where your arm gets glued to your side at night. Us Canucks are not used to this sort of thing. I don’t sweat much and the heat doesn’t usually bother me, but I looked at some cooler weather scents yesterday and felt ill. Anything with big, opaque vanilla – Boudoir, Black, Angelique Noire, etc. – will have to wait until fall.
E, I know exactly how you feel! For the past 2 weeks we’ve been experiencing the most dreadful heatwave in years and because I can hardly sleep a wink at night, I am like a zombie during the day. Things are looking up for tomorrow, though. Who’d have thought I’d be yearning for rain and wind this time of year? 🙁
Dusan: At least I have the M7 you sent me. I’m finding it surprisingly un-nauseating – indeed just wonderful – in this weather. Oh God, Eau Noire! That was the other Big Vanilla I was trying to think of earlier. Saw my beloved bottle yesterday and it gave me the creeps. Hope your weather chills out soon, dearest.
I’ve been looking longingly at my bottle of Bois de Paradis, but no matter how rainy and nasty it is I just can’t wear it before September. Ormonde Woman, too – I associate it completely with winter. Fortunately I have Champaca to get me through my hankerings.
Can’t wait for the Perfumed Court!
Patty, I had carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands. When my hands start hurting again, I put on my hand/wrist splints. They’re not huge and adhere pretty well to the hands. You can buy them in drugstores that carry…well…walkers and other such geezer stuff. Or online. They make a big difference. Getting a more ergonomic mouse, as you’re doing, is also a good idea. My mousing hand, whichever it happened to be, always hurt more than the other. I switch mouse hands when necessary.
Thank you for doing so much work to get the Perfumed Court off the ground!
I haven’t had to stop wearing any fragrance this summer. I’ve encountered a different phenomenon. I keep wanting Christmas to be here, so I keep dabbing on Nuit de Noel.
My carpal tunnel problem got so bad a few years ago (even with splints) that I was ready to have surgery. But a friend convinced me to try acupuncture-and though it hurt a lot at the time, I have very little pain now. Just an idea to consider. Get better!
P, much as I’d like to believe in your post’s title, today’s 111 doesn’t exactly hold much hope. Being cerebrally challenged at the moment, can’t think of anything perfume-wise to contribute to today’s topic… dunno, maybe later in the evening.
I do hope that your mousing hand gets better and that the stress proves worthwhile in the long run. No doubt it will…
Sending you virtual TLC! 😡
I am awaiting the day that I can revisit Borneo and Chene. Rahat Loukoum is still a bit much in the heat (and very unpleasant and un-LA humidity). I still have a decant (from you, Patty) of Nuit de Noel that I want to wear and daren’t.
But I did get that nice Rodney from Saks to ship me a full bottle of Fleurs de Sel, so there’s my summer purchase…
BTW- I forgot- my boss got the perfect ergonomic mouse: a Logitech trackman thingy. Takes a bit of getting used to but she swears by it.
Do take care of your hand, P. I have found that a soft support glove (not like a wrist splint, more like control top pantyhose for your wrist), available at any drugstore, helps a lot.
I bought Fendi Asja last spring, just before it turned warm, and didn’t get to really experience it, so that’s one I’m looking forward to cooler weather for. Black Cashmere has been mentioned but I’ve been wearing & enjoying it all summer, just in very light amounts. Parfum Sacre is another I’m looking forward to in fall, and Shalimar as well – just can’t take rich vanilla in the heat.
Hey there — I have Asja in EDT and find I actually like it better in the heat — though it definitely does better in a drier heat and one must be careful not to over-apply.
I just get the prickly spices cutting through the hot weather — nothing syrupy or vanillic.
Hey, doll, did you see Marie-Helene’s post re LVMH (Kenzo, Guerlain, Dior, etc.) being the one who sued eBay? I thought, hmmm, it’s going to be hard to live without those brands, but I can.
I miss Brandy, and CB IHP Burning Leaves. Summer has always been my least favorite season, and it perks me up to think of cold nose, warm sweater, fragrant ashes. –Ellen
Wow. All the Guerlain lovers are not going to take this very well! 😕
Nor a lot of perfumista champagne drinkers! –Ellen
I am longing for Ormonde Woman and Black Cashmire, everything else I have been able to wear all along. As Lee wrote, this year the UK is on its way to becoming one whole giant swimming pool. At times like this I wonder why I swapped the warm Italian sun for such misery, but in spite of it all, my love affair with London continues.
Please look after your wrists before it’s too late, I knackered my shoulder through years of bad posture at work and it’ll stay with me forever.:((
Take care of yourself! I love CanCan, too. Maybe I will try it today! I once did put on (a lot of) Tabac Blond in the oppressive heat. Let’s just say it was a mistake.8-|
Hope your hand stress can be relieved by a hand massage from a sexy someone…
As for digging stuff out, I’ve been wearing my last drops of Santal de Mysore and realised, rain or shine, it’s perfection. I love it. It’s bumping itself up the to buy list rather rapidly.
Louise might want to bring a pair of waders with her to Europe – floods, floods, floods. A flashlight woudn’t go amiss either (powercuts too). We haven’t had a summer at all. Though today, thankfully, is sunny.
Rain? Floods? Weather not scorching and oppresive? Dust up the guest room, I’m coming over! 🙂
I’ll bring my rubbers…
Lee — are you OKAY?!?!? My god, what is up with the weather? Just saw the horrific photos on the news. Lots of stiff upper lips and waders, but still …
Oh yeah, fine here thanks. It’s wet, but Suffolk is one of the driest parts of England always, so I’m ok.
I’m so sad about your pretty paws.
Please be kind to them…
[I love Can-Can, too]
Our parts don’t hold up well when we abuse them [ hint, hint- and who would know like a fellow Fire sign girl, hmmm ?].
I kiss the hand that hurts…
Yes, please be careful with your hands. I’ve had carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand. It has helped but I still have a tiny amount of permanent nerve damage from all the typing and writing I do. Needless to say, I do not volunteer to take notes at meetings any longer!
I don’t think I stop wearing any one scent because of the weather. I just apply less of it. Today, it’s going to be 97 and partly cloudy. Ugh.
-From another fire sign girl who wishes she was able to take a walk in the cool rain right now! 🙂
Actually, I wear most of my winter scents in summer – just in even more minute amounts than usual. But Tabac Blond is one that has definitely been sulking recently for lack of attention. Just went to remedy that and apply a microscopic drop (relatively cool today, but I still have to meet w/ clients). I’m also reminded by Louise’s comment that I miss Norma Kamali’s NK (the only scent that DH has ever reeled in horror over). Have to go dig that one out as well.
Hope your hand is doing better! You know how grateful we all are that you’re creating The Perfumed Court. 😡
D.C. has been almost moderate this week. So I have cracked out some of my heavy-weights-the stuff I truly love, that should be held back ’til fall.
The most outrageous spray was yesterday-a too-hearty squirt of Kamali’s Incense. It sent my son reeling (“crap, what is that tree sap?”) and pleased me deeply all day.
Since London and Paris (thanks Carmencanada for the weather update!) are chilly, I will just continue in this fall/winter vein while I travel!
Alpona,Nuit de Noel and Mitsouko are all in the wings waiting for fall.I’ll hit heavy orientals on summer nights, but these need to wait for crisp weather.
Summer in Paris has been so dismal — non-stop rain, no heat to speak of — that it’s the heat-blooming effect I’m missing! But there are a few perfumes that just don’t go with summer, for some reaso. In fact, almost all my vintage collection. I guess time-travelling doesn’t fit with summer in the city.
Take care of your hands, Patty, and don’t worry that your posts are shorter. I didn’t notice, it’s quality, not quantity, and you’ve got plenty o’ quality! Thanks for another great post.
Fragrances I’m sort of yearning for, but wouldn’t wear in this heat: Keiko Mecheri’s Loukoum, Lutens Un Bois Vanille and Borneo 1834, Hermessence Ambre Narguille, Donna Karan’s Black Cashmere, just to name a few – these all just seem so heavy in this heat, but are so lovely in winter.