It’s Not You, It’s Us.

LOL UPDATE — THIS IS MARCH.  Anita and I can’t comment tonight either.  I asked the repair gal if she could move us up in the queue…. please stand by…

I love this blog.  You know that right?  I can’t believe it’s been…. what…. twelve years?  I’m not going to go back and look, because then I’ll read about my former life yadda yadda and that will make me a little sad.  And tonight I’m in a weirdly good mood, I have no time for sad.  I’m learning some new stuff (both at work and at home) and I had my more crappy-looking bike fixed up (voted least likely to get stolen) so I can ride it to the Metro instead of walking.  My ride today was delightful, and it shaves about 20 minutes off my commute each way.  The bike was even there when I came out, seat and everything, lol.

This weather is bullsh!t.  Where’s my gorgeous mid-Atlantic fall?!? It’s going to be, like, 95 tomorrow and I am not a fan.  Speaking of fans – I’m in the market for a new one – possibly a desk fan, or a tower, or a pedestal, so if you have one you really like, leave it in comments.

Anyway, Perfume Posse.  I’m sure it’s apparent to everyone on here that we are not teh techno queens, and WordPress is laughably unintuitive.  So all our widgets and whatnot have gotten more and more out of date as the months and years roll by.  Anyhoo, we’ve hired someone to get the bugs and glitches out.  She asked me at one point if there were random things I wanted and I told her, I’d really like our emojis back.  I wish you could have seen her face.  It’s like I told her I wanted to go back to dial-up internet.  So I lied and said we use them ironically.

I know some of you are having trouble commenting.  Some of you are having trouble reaching us via “contact us.”  Some of you are having trouble figuring out what the hell is wrong with us that we can’t run a blog more professionally.  Well, the answer is, because we’re losers, but we smell good!  I’m working on firing up an InstaGram page for the Posse, and/but in the meantime here’s a link to Portia’s.  Seriously, we’re so appreciative of you, and I’m going to work on my end of the relationship.

So: are there things you particularly want on the blog?  Problems you’re having?  The goal is a blog that can be read reasonably well across all your devices, and more fun to play with…. do we even have avatars any more?  Is there some other doodad you think would be cool?  Tell me about it.

Speaking of perfume. I spent ….. uh …. more than my usual amount on a bottle of perfume recently.  The Cartier Les Heures L’Heure Perdue.  I’m not crazy about the brand, or the name, or even really the bottle (although it looks pretty luxe and comes in a leather box, which it f’ing well should at that price)… where was I?  Oh, the smell, though.  The aroma.  I don’t know what’s going on in there, but whatever it is, it gets me the same way Guerlain Encens Mythique does.  It just sits around me like an aura.  Here’s the blurb from Saks (where it is sold out), the angle is that the entire scent is constructed from synthetic ingredients: “Science explores the artificial through a precipitate of the greatest synthetic molecules, with a preference for vanillin, the aldehyde with voluptuous aromas whose silky aura floats over this eleventh L’Heure Perdue fragrance… Voluptuous and intimate MUSCENONE like the scent of knowledge. Perhaps because everything is ruled by science, so clever in posing as natural when in fact it is a feat of alchemy, exploring the artificial through a precipitate of large synthetic molecules, particularly VANILLIN. This aldehyde with sensual aromas and a silky aura floating over the 11th hour, the lost and progressive hour, demystifying the conventional idea that beauty is only worthwhile if it is natural.”  That is hilarious. Is it just me, or does that read like it came from Google translate?  Anyhoo, here’s a link to Luca Turin’s five-star rave.

Me?  I don’t smell the aldehydes particularly (although others do.). It starts off feeling big shouldered like it’s going to be a particularly nice, classic chypre, only then everything gets weird.  Randomly, I smell: powder, cherry, leather, naughty bits, candle smoke…. And they come and go, wax and wane, so you never know what’s going to be there when you next sniff your wrist.  I just adore it, and if the weather would cooperate, I am really looking forward to wearing it with a big wool sweater.

Okay, your turn.  Suggestions for the blog!  Recommendations for a fan!  (No, seriously.  I love room fans.  I use them whenever possible instead of air conditioning.) And thanks again.

  • hczerwiec says:

    That L’Heure Perdu was one of the ones Turin raved about in the new Perfume Guide — I’ve been itching to try it, but can’t find samples anywhere!

    Honestly, I love the crazy old-schoolness around here. I’d even vote for dial-up. We can all sing along with the sound of it!

  • March says:

    Testing…… testing…..

  • Musette says:

    well, I can’t comment directly on the site anymore, so that sucks. I mean, I could – but I won’t open up Fbook for anything and I don’t do all the other stuff because ………

    anyhoo – LOVE that copy! It’s so Google Translate. In fact, it’s so weird that I thought you’d just strung together a bunch of rando thoughts! Mme Mathile is my Quing but dayum gal – whyyouletthemdoyoulikethat?

    I can’t thank you enough for ooching up the blog, babysnakes. It’ll make it way better and a happier place for us all.

    Just remember to ask your tech to set it up so we can go back to Old School commenting, which left when the widgets arrived.

    xoxoxoxo

  • Dina C. says:

    I tried commenting 3 times this am but it didn’t let me. Besides emojis and avatars, it sure would be nice to post a photo in the comments sometimes.

    That Cartier sounds brilliant March, based on the list of notes!

  • Lavanya says:

    Oh man- for a minute there, when I read, ‘it’s not you, it’s us’, I thought you were closing the blog!!! glad that that was not what this post was about!! Love you all!! xoxoxox Also, now I am so intrigued by the sound of that Cartier scent!

  • Ann Merry says:

    Good news about the tech upgrade to Perfume Posse! I’m a long-time mostly lurker with the occasional comment, but would love more posts – maybe another writer/contributor? And would love to see the swap here again : )

    I tried Perdue after your comments on it a couple of weeks ago, March, and just love it! I was just about to order a decant, but from the above comments, it sounds like It’s discontinued. Ugh! A full bottle is definitely not in my budget… time to stalk ebay apparently, or maybe just 2 large decants would cover it as it takes me forever to go through even an ounce of perfume, Still, I’m thrilled to have found it as it’s been quite a while since I’ve fallen as hard for a perfume – thanks so much for the heads up and good luck with your tech projects : )

  • matty1649 says:

    I’ve got a ceiling fan with light in my bedroom. i find it adequate for my needs.

  • MaureenC says:

    I find that the text of the blog is now partially covered by a string of icons (for Facebook, Twitter etc) running down the left hand side of the page which makes reading difficult. My overall impression is that the page has become more and more busy with the adverts down the right hand side changing and encroaching visually as one reads. However I do appreciate that you probably depend on some advertising revenue to keep functioning.
    I guess what I’m saying is that it’s no longer a “comfortable read”.
    Hope the weather improves for you March, we’ve gone full autumn this side of the pond, lots and lots of rain.

    • Tara C says:

      Yes, I’m having the same problem with the coloured bar of social media icons down the left side of the page. Also the box to click under the poster details that offers to save your email and user name for next time you post doesn’t work.

      But I just want to say Wow, what a coincidence you are talking about Cartier Les Heures today, as I just discovered I love VII L’Heure Défendue yesterday and it’s discontinued, so now I’m frantically trying to figure out what to do: just let it go, buy a bottle on ebay, or go full hog and pay retail for the last bottle left here in Montreal. I tried them all when they came out in 2010 or so, but my nose wasn’t sophisticated to appreciate them yet or my tastes changed since then. And I’m supposed to be on a no-buy! Sigh. Will think about it some more todzy.

      • March says:

        I swear, if I could figure out how to get rid of those social media bars, I would! Yeah, go ahead and BUY THAT BOTTLE. FWIW there are still a number of bottles in the actual physical stores, at least over here. But yeah, if you want it, go get it. I learned that lesson with those stupid Maison Lancomes.

    • March says:

      That sidebar…. we don’t even add that. I mean, widgets change and all of a sudden WordPress has “helped” us clutter up the page. I promise we will declutter! Those ads, I don’t even know what they are or where they are from. (hides face)

  • Portia says:

    Hey March,
    WOO HOO! I’m so happy we are getting a bit of an overhaul. You’re a superstar.
    Thanks also for the link love to my Insta. Come on over and join the fun there crew. Mainly life but a fair bit of perfume porn too.

    Mathilde Laurent has done a spectacular job on these hours for Cartier but almost the whole range has been DCd now. Grab them if you can.

    Get yourself a ceiling fan March. They come in excellent lights with wings that fold away when not in use. We have one in our living room and one above the bed. The AC probably gets turned on 10 times a summer abecause the fan is more than enough.
    Portia xx

    • March says:

      I *have* a ceiling fan, it’s just a crappy, terrible fan provided by my landlord. I’ve looked at buying a replacement myself and installing it; the money I save on the A/C bill would probably offset the cost. And yes, my rental agency should do it — they should do all sorts of things. but the reality is: the house is a teardown at this point and the owner doesn’t want to spend money fixing things that aren’t code violations or something similarly terrible. They offset that with a rent rate that is low by our fancy neighborhood standards, so I just put up with it. For now.

  • Tatiana says:

    I have a tiny USB plug fan that I got at MUJI. It makes a tiny, high pitched sound on high, but it’s really powerful. I use an outlet adapter and have it on my nightstand at night. For a room fan I have a Dyson Airblade. Love that it cools the whole room and as a plus it’s also a space heater. They’re pretty expensive but I got mine during a one day home sale that Bloomingdale’s was having on-line, so I saved quite a bit on the purchase price.

    • March says:

      Huh, that Dyson….. can we laugh? I’ll spend $$$$ on a (useless) bottle of perfume but all fans should cost $29.99 and WORK GREAT. But having something that also heats would be nice…

  • pjmcbride says:

    I can’t “like” your posts. I’m feeling your pain with the emojis. On my blog, WordPress presented me with “try our new editor!” and I clicked on it by mistake and couldn’t figure out how to make it stop. I did eventually find my way out of it, but that was by accident, too.