The White Stuff

White Stuff. So. Much. White. Stuff. As I write this I’m sitting in my office, staring out at a blindingly White world.  We’ve had snow (a lot) then ice (a lot) then A Lot More Snow.  And now we have dense fog.  The result is like living in a very cold down pillow.  TGirl and I stagger around the park perimeter, steering clear of the 14″ of treacherous icy snow – the kind that breaks under your feet. Flippin’ POOP! already, so we can go home!. These are forced marches, these forays into the White. I’m in my red ice cleats, wielding a bright green, broken-off  mop handle that succumbed to metal fatigue – the jagged, rusted end is great for gaining purchase on the ice layer below the snow’s surface.  It’s a very elegant look, very posh.

Sigh.

Normally I would just turn my back on it, keep Gardeners’ World on repeat and pray for April to hurry the hell up… but this year I’ve decided to …. embrace it..  sort of.  The ice cleat walks, for example… and on those walks I’m looking UP, rather than just gritting my teeth and getting through it, and am being rewarded by all sorts of unexpected loveliness. The ice storm has covered each individual branch with a gorgeous layer of sparkle and the foggy air has provided a gauzy overlay that lets the spangle still shine through.  Sheer beauty.  Even if it is treacherous AF.

In the spirit of the Gauzy Spangle I’m also embracing gauzy, Powdery Perfumes  – at least for this post. Whenever I think of powdery perfumes the first three that come to mind are Chanel No 22, Lorenzo Villoresi Teinte de Neige (Colour of Snow) and Al-Rehab Balkis, though there are many others (I’m seriously needing to find and try Avon Trailing Arbutus, simply because of the name!).  There is a huge gap of time (nearly 50 years) from my teens, when Love’s Baby Soft was my powdery go-to and No22, which is now my Winter go-to. Flippin’ the bird at the White Stuff, in perfume form. If you can’t beat ’em….

I live in a typical Midwestern snow area and most Winters have some sort of calculable snowfall; this year we’ve been fortunate to have a couple of good, powdery events which, if you have to have snow, is the best kind to have – easily shovelable (yes, it’s a WORD. Maybe)… and powdery snow doesn’t hold the same sort of menace that the current crop of Hate Snow that is upon us.
I’ve decided to dedicate No22 to this weather. It’s got that powdery brilliance of the snow, but there’s a heavy(heavier?) touch of warmth that hums along below, like that flush of pink sunset that is always so surprising to see at the close of day in snowy Winter. Luca was not kind to No22 (‘heavy lifting’, I believe he said – or something near) but I like its sexy, slightly bulky heft. It does lack the crystalline beauty of No5 but I feel like it has  that fabulous, Big Nasty Redhead feel to it (Wynonna, who is sexy AF, imo, is totally No22). No22 is a ‘staying in’ scent, lolling amongst the pillows and duvets….. yeah, that.
And since there’s nowhere to go and nothing to do but work or loll amongst the pillows and duvets, I’mo put on some No22 and embrace the notion of the snowy day 😉

How do you feel about powdery perfumes?  What is your personal notion of a powdery perfume?  Maybe y’all have some loves I need to seek out?  Let me know!  xoxoxo

  • March says:

    HATE SNOW. 22 seems like the absolute perfect choice!

  • ElizaC says:

    I love 22 – I view it (and many other Chanels) as icy. I also love the powdery, amber perfumes like Nuit De Noel and Aroma M Geisha Noir. They make me feel like I am wrapped in a warm cashmere sweater with a warm cat purring against me while watching the snow outside.

  • Queen-Cupcake says:

    I just love the image your portray of yourself and the Girl trudging around in the snow! We have lots of the crusty stuff under a fluffy layer. It’s wonderful to see the tracks of various critters that come through our yard. I often get up in the middle of the night to watch the snow in moonlight, and the bunnies that run around. They have eaten all of the lower branches of some weeping evergreen specimen tree my husband bought. Now it looks like a little palm tree surrounded by snow. Wearing Gardenia Petals today.

    • Queen-Cupcake says:

      And, forgot to say: yes, I love the powdery smells! Not sure I have any No.22 around, will have to go look.

      • Musette says:

        we have rabbits in the garden – TGirl doesn’t even bother, since they skim across the snow as if they were on skis (which, in a way, they are).

        Still upset about Bony Tony B, btw. xxoxoxo

  • Dina C. says:

    Musette, we’ve had that treacherous ice layer around here, too, and I walk on it like Bambi first learning to walk. I hate it! Much prefer snow for its beauty and ease of driving and walking. I love powdery scents big time. I think it’s because a lot of my favorite notes can read as powdery: iris, orris, violets, peony, benzoin, galbanum, incense. Today I’m wearing Infusion d’Iris. I also love HdP Vert Pivoine, a powdery peony & rose combo. Love aldehydes, too, like Arpege, Bois des Iles, No 22, No 5. I totally remember when the girls’ locker room after PE in seventh grade, circa 1977, smelled like someone had detonated a hand grenade of Love’s Baby Soft!

  • monkeytoe says:

    No snow here in south Florida. I used to miss it when I moved down here fourteen years ago, now the idea of temps below forty Fahrenheit give me the collywobbles

    I love No.22 and especially love to wear a drop of the perfume when I am all suited up and ready to go to a big meeting.

    (I don’t remember Luca Turin disliking No. 22. If I remember correctly the heavy-lifting comment was referring the the enormous dose of aldehydes, comparing it to the take-off of a jet and gave it four stars.)

    • Musette says:

      and that, my darling, is why I should do my research 😉 – had I simply gone into the next room to get the damb book I would’ve seen the 4 stars and that he said it was ‘an exercise in heavy lifting’ .

      xoxoxo

  • Cinnamon says:

    Wet cold duvet. Quite an image. Love snow. Hardly ever get it here and then it mostly disappears very quickly. Your weather sounds a bit mad. Stay safe. Love the ingenuity of mop handle. Powder. Laura Tonatto Data. Though I don’t really wear powdery perfumes.

  • Zazie says:

    Love the mood of this post.
    Though I am not sure I could look UP to the snowy-icy landscape as you do, unless that kind of scenario had a very clear and close term.
    I’m fine with powdery perfumes as long as it is not too much.
    My faves are l’heure bleue and Niral. And Cuir Beluga.
    I love attrape coeur, mentioned above, but to me is not powdery at all. It is juicy and luminous like a polished golden amber.
    From Chanel I’d mention Misia, but I still prefer Niral, in that rosy powder puff category.
    No 22 should have my name on it… but somehow it doesn’t work.
    No 5 in extrait, in some amazing past incarnations, was very powdery, extravagantly floral and very gorgeous…but today is less floral, less powdery (as in: not at all), and definitely less gorgeous.
    I think it was one of the best perfumes ever made. I have one little bottle, blooming with thousands of roses and jasmine flowers… and filled with the shimmering light of aldehydes, flickering on a soft dusting of powder. Sad face.

    In any event, under all that snow, I could never feel comfort in the melancholic embrace of a powdery perfume…
    I’d wear a big smoking oriental or a huge, sweeping jasmine…to fill in all that blank space. 😉
    If I can’t beat them, I’d rather succumb trying…:P

    • Musette says:

      omg. ‘melancholic embrace’ – what a perfect description. My powderbomb scents remind me of Gene Tierney in ‘Laura’ which I consider to be a very atmospheric/melancholic film.

      xoxoox

  • Neva says:

    Luckily our cold wave took only 10 days. Now we’re having wonderful springtime.
    Many iris perfumes feel powdery to me, so one of my favourites is Orris Tattoo by Parle Moi de Parfum. Another one is powdery with violets: mb02 by Mark Buxton for Biehl Parfumkunstwerke. Both are very beautiful.

  • Eldarwen22 says:

    I love no 22! Haven’t worn it much this winter though since I have been spending so much time with Lyric. LHB and L’heure de Nuit are huge powder bombs too. I know the feeling with the dogs taking forever to poop. Especially at night.

  • Portia says:

    OHHH! I love powder in fragrance Musette. Oriza Legrand does it fabulously in Jardin d’Amide and Heliotrope, Cartier Heures II and I find Nasomatto China White all fluffy too.
    Good luck with the deep freeze over there.
    Portia xx

  • Tara C says:

    My powdery scents are Attrape-Coeur, Enlèvement au Sérail and Stoned. Powdery snow is great but ice sucks big time!

    • Musette says:

      Enlevement always presents as a chypre on me – not a hint of powder. Now I’m going to have to go revisit!!! LHB. Y’know… I was going to include it – but it’s the very powder that puts me off (which is why I don’t like it in extrait. Puts the powder front and center)

      go figure!

      xoxoxo

  • filomena813 says:

    Musette, I live on the east coast and had I taken a photo today, it would have look exactly like yours. We seem to always get more ice than snow. At least one can deal with snow as long as it isn’t 6 feet of it. No one can deal with ice. Now to powdery perfumes…I am in agreement with the three you mentioned and will add one more, which is Miller Harris Powdered Veil. The only problem is their website and the shipping fees from the UK. I have ordered many perfumes from Italy and France, with no problems and no large shipping fees, but the UK is a different story, at least in my experience. Think Spring!

  • Wendy says:

    Hello! Great post & nice photo. I’m in Central VA (60 miles north of Richmond / 60 miles south of DC) & almost wiped out the other day on The World of Ice out there. I’m a seasoned New Englander – – spent my first 30 years in Massachusetts & weather doesn’t usually shake me. But I haven’t seen such sick-thick stubborn ice like this since I was a kid. And back then, I was having fun sledding & sliding on it, not trying to get to the propane tank or down to fill the bird feeders without killing myself. So…powdery frags…some of my favs. I wore Love’s Baby Soft in high school too, lol & Guerlain’s L’Instant Magic is like grown-up LBS, I swear to you! I’m wearing another powdery masterpiece (by Kilian’s Flower of Immortality) and have Narciso Rodriguez’s Poudree au the Parfum on its way from Costco. (Costco’s also offering NR’s Pure Musc For Her right now, all for crazy-low prices, plus you can return opened frags there w/ no questions asked.) L’artisan Parfumeur’s Drole de Rose is very powdery & so is Oscar de la Renta’s Esprit d’Oscar (such a comfort drydown). Unfortunately, I’ve never smelled Chanel No 22 & not sure I ever will because I think it’s discontinued, right?

    • Eldarwen22 says:

      No 22 isn’t discontinued, it’s part of the Les Exclusifs line. I have the edt version, not the current edp.

      • Wendy says:

        Hey, I do have No. 22 in the EdP. Back in 2018-19, I got a set of 15-count 7 ml Le Exclusifs EdPs in adorable tiny bottles with a nice display box. #22 smells a little like Guerlain’s Chamade to me (top notes, anyway). And damned if it doesn’t remind me a lot of the 1975 Windsong by Prince Matchabelli that I used to drench my pen pal letters in!(Just the ones to the boys, lmao!) So your EdT version is probably superior to my EdP one. I’ve heard reformulation to the stronger concentration didn’t do many of the Le Exclusifs any favors (specifically Misia).

    • Musette says:

      ooh! I’mo check out Guerlain !!! Thanks!

      xoxoxo

      • Wendy says:

        I’ll be glad to mail you a giant decant of Chamade. I have a relatively large bottle & it’s just not “me” so I never wear it.

  • taxi says:

    I love 22! I’m still using my last box of pale lavender 22 bath powder in the white square plastic box with the chenille puff. It’s pink on my skin.
    L’heure Bleu, Prada Infusion d’Iris, Je Reviens, Must de Cartier, Secrete Datura (from Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier) are ones I like. The patchouli in Clive Christian X overwhelms the powder for me.