Heya Posse! HOLIDAY! After a year of C19 restrictions in Australia Jin and I were finally allowed to travel interstate! YAY! So we took the chance to go see my favourite Aunty on the Far North East Coat of Australia in Cairns and surrounds. None of our friends had had any visitors for over a year so we were headline news. There were lunches, dinners, family reunions and loads of wonderful stories from our year in isolation. It felt almost like pre C19 times.
Sadly, many of the local businesses have failed in a tourist driven town like Cairns. It’s heartbreaking to imagine the owners plights, especially as my own business basically collapsed during the break. Without Jin’s income we would be living a very different reality right now. I think about half the shops are closed for low season or completely finished.
Holiday! What Scents Did I Take?
It was only a few nights so I took an ultimate capsule collection of perfumes. It’s monsoon up there now and the daily temps are fairly cool, around 30-35C (85-95F) and the humidity is extremely high.
Stash Unspoken by SJP
This nutty quince cheesecake wears so perfectly in almost all situations. I was worried about its wearability in humidity but it did not disappoint. I felt fresh, sweet and mildly fragranced all day. Stash Unspoken is a total holiday no brainer.
Niral by Neela Vermeire Creations
Tea and iris over a lovely soft leatheriness. A perfect afternoon into evening fragrance that sets a glam tone and softly but insistently pumps out wafts of glamour. Niral works in daytime but really dazzles at night.
Ylang 49 by Le Labo
This is a weird fish, like so many Le Labo. Not really about ylang at all but more a leathery white floral with a shitload of bells and whistles. I thought Ylang 49 would lean more tropical in the heat. Nope, but the thing was its austerity was a foil for the moist heat.
My decant is from Surrender To Chance
Here are a few of our catch ups.
What will you take on your next holiday adventure?
Portia xx
Yayyy for airline travel and holidays. Cannot. Wait. I’ll go anywhere. The severe restrictions there are paying dividends now. Great to see you back doing what you do best: enjoying life. Aunty Tracey’s looking great too. You’re quite smitten with the SJP, even going on hold with you, oooooh. Hope your business is up and running smoothly again.
HA! Cassieflower, I hear you. We couldn’t wait to get on planes again and as soon as restrictions lifted we booked the cheapest airfares we could on QANTAS points and got the hell outta here.
I’ll tell Aunty Tracey you said so. She’ll be thrilled.
Yes, Stash Unspoken is so easy. Love that 30ml bottle too. It fits in the beauty bag, no worries.
Portia xx
So great to see you traveling again! …and the restaurants are open – I have almost forgotten how that feels like.
Ylang 49 is one of the very few Le Labos that I like for its cool freshness.
I have realized how many wonderful places are right here in my small country so I’m happy with that for the time being. If it weren’t for the Covid crisis I wouldn’t have discovered some of them. Once a month I go on a long weekend with friends. We rent a comfortable house and spend a few days discovering the surroundings.
Hey there Neva,
That is a terrific thing to do.
While we were locked down we were allowed to travel only within our state so Jin and I caught the train and jumped in the car a few times. Mini getaways that opened our eyes to the beauty close by.
As awful as the pandemic has been there are a few good things that we have learned about ourselves and our own back yard. A small bunch of wins.
Portia xx
Thanks for sharing your travels, Portia! My husband, mother and I got our second vaccine shots this week and I cannot wait to see my daughter and later, my best friend. And walk around inside a department store and just look at Stuff. Online looking at Stuff is great but not the same.
Woo Hoo Rosarita!
So glad. Is two shots the end of it?
Portia xx
Yes, although I’m thinking there will probably be booster shots, the same way we get flu shots every year.
SO HAPPY for you, that looks wonderful! And it gives me hope that we’ll get there too, in the not too distant future, here in the U.S.
Hey March,
With the vaccine roll out going so well over there I think you should be able to soon. We haven’t started vaccinations yet but hopefully very soon.
Hope you are doing OK
Portia xx
Oh, my darling –
It really is all relative, innit? ‘Fairly cool’ in your monsoon season would be catastrophic in our humid summer, even though we frequently go into triple digits. But Australia always wins in those contests!
I’ve not tried Niral – and now I want to. That iris… so intriguing.
And I may be the last person on Planet Perfume who has not tried any of the SJPs. Must remedy that.
xoxoxo
HA! Musette, yeah. I forget that the rest of the world work to a different level of hot. Now I’m laughing at myself. What a louchebag I am.
Niral is excellent, I’d love to hear what you think if you ever get a decant.
Really? NONE of the SJPs? Wow! I always look for the new ones when they arrive because they are pretty good and almost free. It took me a few wears to fall in love with Stash Unspoken because I was expecting it to smell other than it does. Once I let preconception go it becomes a beautiful, well blended, grab and go.
Portia xx
it wasn’t deliberate, my missing the SJPs. I think it was one of those things where I wasn’t where they were, physically, so they ended up off my radar. But I will definitely seek them out.
I’mo check with Neela today, see what’s she’s got going on as regards decants/samples.
Louchebag. LOVE it! And hon – y’all take Grand Prize in almost everything Nature Related – except extreme cold (I don’t think even the far South of you is as cold as it is here in the Midwest/Plains (we can sink to minus double-digits with relative ease and if you add in a Polar Vortex… well, Death. 😉
xoxo
YAY! Say hi to Neela from me when you speak to her. She’s the best.
We do cold but not polar vortex. To us, that kind of weather is for visiting. NOT for living in.
Hugs,
Portia xx
So happy for you, that you got to travel and see some folks! I’m not acquainted with those three scents myself, but I’ve heard of all three. Loved seeing photos of people without masks on being normal and smiling.
Hey DinaC,
It was wonderful. Now that the vaccine is rolling out we should be able to get back inn the air at some point in the next 12 months internationally too. Won’t that be amazing?
Portia xx
We’re heading back to Canada April 10th, border is still closed so mandatory Covid test and 14 day quarantine upon arrival. We will be doing no travel this summer. Maybe driving to visit a couple of friends in the province later this summer, but that’s it. I have an airline voucher for a cancelled ticket that needs to be used by April 2022, no idea what I will do with it at this point, would like to go to Hawaii but it depends on the air travel rules at the time.
Hey taraC,
Doesn’t your annual migration feel like a holiday? Or is it too regular nowadays?
Our airlines have been giving us extensions on our vouchers, hopefully yours do too.
Good luck in quarantine. Do you have some buddies to drop off some perishables while you’re there?
Portia xx
The annual migration feels like a move, not a holiday, but I do look forward to a change in scenery. We should be able to get groceries delivered but will be taking basic provisions in the car. I should contact United and see if they’d be willing to extend the voucher later this year.
I was going to Romania last year, but it looks like that won’t happen. When the world opens up, I think I hear London Calling again.
Hey GinaT,
Yeah, so much travel deferred.
We are hoping to hit London on our next travels too. I love it there. Second home.
Portia xx
How fun! I heard Australia was very strict with ockdowns. I’m so glad you got the chance to visit friends, family and have a holiday. Your Aunt is lovely, she has a great style.
Cinnamon was talking about Ylang 49 so I picked up a sample at Nordstrom and I got one for my friend too – she loves it and I love it too – I think our little sample will last us a long time. I’m going to the beach in July, and going to visit my family on the West Coast also in July. What will I wear? Good question I will start contemplating this now!
Hey Ann! So good to see you.
Our lockdowns have been very strict but it’s paid off handsomely.
Travel felt like real luxury, even though we did it on the cheap.
Yeah, I think Cinnamon may have been the catalyst for my sample purchase too.
Woo Hoo for beachy adventures,
Portia xx
Oh, holiday. Yours looks wonderful. I am hoping for going somewhere end of Aug/Sep but I think it’s going to have to be a last minute booking. Depending on circumstances I wouldn’t mind a cottage further West (Cornwall) but I doubt I’ll be able to find something affordable unless I book now and not prepared to do that. So, maybe 5 days in Paris if it’s safe and Parisians go to the seaside, leaving the city reasonably empty. All I want is to be elsewhere, have someone else cook most meals, walk and visit museums.
It was wonderful Cinnamon.
thanks for the Ylang 49 idea. YUM!
We so desperately want to get back to Paris but it sounds like a nightmare.
I think some of the smaller towns in southern Italy have recovered well, yeah?
Portia xx