Posse! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! Whatchubeendoin’?
I’ve been hitting the sales! Not for ‘stuff’ – well… okay… ‘stuff’ but Stuff, Musette-Style! I lost mah MIND and bought scads of paperwhites because they’re 50% off and we’re heading into Jan/Feb, which is the bleakest time of year for me and the fabulous smell of ‘Ziva’ paperwhites perfuming the house will cheer me right the heck up! Ditto amaryllis – though they don’t have any scent they’re just so damb SHOWY! Coming into a room with 3 or 4 (or 10) lining the parson’s table…. the only thing better than that would be a platter of birria tacos! That Idris Elba made and is just waiting to serve them to me.
Apparently that is not going to happen. Dangit! So on to the subject of this post!
This is definitely the time of year for home scents – the rest of the year I’m outside, even if it’s just working on the front porch, and come the warmer weather all the windows are open so (Shrug Emoji here). But right now? Trapped inside most days, having the space smell nice is a real bonus. I’m still in thrall to my fabulous Trapp and Agraria scents and they are still fanFREAKINGtabulous – but I love checking out what else is on offer, both high-end and budget. Alas, since I’m stuck here at the back of beyond, it’s ALL budget. But there’s some nice stuff amongst the dreck! And, alas, some dreck. Let’s take a stroll, shall we?
Avon Fresh Fiji Hinoki Room Spray
Yes, Virginia, there are still Avon Ladies! When I last posted about Ten Thousand Waves I went looking for other Hinoki home sprays and vi-ola! Avon’s is a lovely, fresh take on hinoki (which has elements of mint and cedar) and lightly scents the space without banging you over the head with ROOM SPRAY! Score: (1-10): a solid 9!
Aldi ‘City’ Candles
Whenever I’m at Aldi I make sure to go visit the short-run aisle (can’t remember what it’s called) – the stuff that’s here and gone in a nanosecond. And y’all know I’m a sucker for anything colorful. So imagine my squeeee! of delight upon finding these frosted glass jars with exotic city names…
… except…
I’m not sure what they were intending…but I can tell you that
a) they all smell the same and
b) they smell like.. (shrug emoji – really, I have to figure out how to insert that into my post)
Based on these candles I could be in Sydney… or Greensboro NC… or Teaneck NJ… or my office…truly… it was mystifying how completely banal all of them smelled! Score: 2(because of the colored jars). Take that $6.99 and go buy some of their really good chocolate. Or cheese. They have GREAT cheese!
World Market White Tuberose
Here’s the thing: tuberose isn’t that exotic anymore – you can go to any midrange florist and smell it. TJ’s has them on the regular, in little bouquets. I’ve bought them in pots. Heck, I’ve even grown them!
So. …. um.. why on earth would World Market put out a scent that smells more like a public urinal (during rush hour) than tuberose? Was somebody mad at WM? Did the perfumer get hit on the head and lose their sense of smell? O.M.G. This is….ew. I’d rank it – but it’s already rank (heh. I meant to do that. Okay, I didn’t – but it was a happy accident. Unlike this scent…which is just an accident). I sprayed it near the front door (just in case) and I’m glad I did because I had to open the door – it smelled like my dad’s socks. After the third day of wearing.
Normally I don’t go out of my way to drag products because … eh. But this one…
(VERY)Honorable Mention (because Walmart): Mainstays (Walmart’s house brand) Universal Fragrance Oil Alpine Forest. Shock and AMAZE! Mainstays actually has some really nice scents and this is the best of the bunch, imo. You’d think it would be a walk in the woods (heh. okay I’m done) to make a piney/minty home scent but lemmetellya it’s a very thin line between a well-constructed smellie and industrial floor cleaner. This one really is well done.
Walmart is not known for subtlety so it was a pleasant surprise to find this nuanced, well-crafted scent among their offerings. It’s easy on the nose and BONUS: if you put a few drops on a pieece of fiberglass insulation (to block a rodent highway) you can deter mice without choking yourself out of the house!
It’s not quiiite a dupe of my absolute favorite, Christian Tortu ‘Forets’ – – what a nuanced beauty – (h/t to surrendertochance.com for introducing me to his wonderful scents) – then again, I couldn’t afford to wash my floors with ‘Forets’, so… (dang! I really wish I could SHRUG!)
Do you scent your home? What home scent do you love? High? Low? No?
Hey there Musette,
We were given some Perfumer’s H incense for Xmas. It’s bloody gorgeous. Incense and resins and woodsy breezes. Gorgeous.
Portia xx
My current thing is Fragrances of Ireland Inis the Energy of the Sea. A crispy clean scent for my upstairs that really helps clear the stank of teen bedrooms, laundry room, and bath. I am intrigued by your Walmart choice. Since I am running there near daily for one thing or another, I will investigate asap.
Oh, please do! There are several good scents! BH&G has a lot of fragrance oil scents as well – but they tend to err on the wrong side of Coco Chanel’s edict (about taking one accessory off)
Thanks for the overview of some products I wasn’t aware of, Anita. The Avon spray sounds nice. I use pedestrian stuff like Mrs. Meyer’s hand soap and dishwashing liquid which comes in a bazillion different scents.
LOVE Mrs. Meyers, their verbena laundry soap is my go-to for years now. And we have a … honeysuckle cleaning spray? Hope you are doing okay in the snow!
You introduced me to Mrs Meyers – and I am forever grateful!!!
I think Mrs Meyers is amazing stuff – even the scents I’m not overfond of are excellently done!
I use the Basil scent to clean my kitchen counters (in Spring-Autumn. Come winter it’s PEPPERMINT!! to deter the mousies)
DH isn’t keen on “air care” or smelly flowers. Get him near lilies & his head almost explodes. We have window vents open all the time & windows open upstairs all the time. But I bake bread so that always smells good. The sliding full height windows are opened regularly to let Mr Jarvis out.
When I’m here on my own I might burn one of the Boujee Bougies mini candles.
there is NOTHING as delightful and soul-building as the smell of baking bread!!!
I am a big candle fiend and have more than 100 candles. Rural areas seem to get tons of power outages so candles are a little more necessary because generators are expensive. I do have seasonal candles and year round candles. I don’t really burn candles according to season. I am still mad at Bath and Body Works discontinuing the Lavander Cedarwood candle. I am hoarding the last 6 candles I have left of that one.
Re the power outage: INORITE? Generac is next on my Big Spend list because I don’t have a fireplace or wood stove and power out in negatives isn’t my idea of a good time!
Over 100 candles? WOW!
Great read, Ms A! I need to get ahold of that Avon spray. My husband was in a house fire as a kid and doesn’t want open flame in the house so no candles. I like Mrs Meyers Geranium room spray (Acorn Spice in the fall.) Maybe I’ll brave Walmart and look at their room sprays. Isn’t Aldi the best? Sorry about the candles.
Yikes! I can imagine that’s some serious PTSD!
March intro’d me to Mrs Meyers – I love their scents, especially the Basil line… now I have to grab a sniff of Geranium!
That was fun and educational. Our weather isn’t as, well, weathery as parts of the US and UK. We’re just in the usual for the season grey and damp, with the odd colder but brighter day. Candles are my home fragrance choice and this winter I’ve been alternating between sweet, seasonal scents and a couple of sharp, more citrusy things to clear the air. I really need to get some sage …
My paper whites from the greengrocer didn’t grow this year. Weird. So, they’ve been exiled to the trough in the front wall to compete with everyone else who has survived there. I did buy a rose for a pot, a sepia pink beauty which is going to sit under the kitchen window with the hope that in warmer weather its fragrance will waft into the kitchen.
paperwhites are usually reliable but every now and then….
That rose sounds lovely!!!
I really need to try that tuberose. Just because. I think there’s a World Market in Westwood..
I’d be so provoked over those frosted glass ones. So pretty and so disappointing..
Ha, I’m gonna be out by our World Mkt in the next few days … do you think it’s weird that my first thought was also, well I need to go sniff that thing, sounds awful!
Not to us, it doesn’t! I’d be alll over it, as well! And yes, take a couple of paper strips because there are several sprays – I’d love to get your take on the others (myWM is 2.5 hours away)
Honey! DEWW EEET! Report back!
(also, now’s the time to stock up on the Pepparkaker thins in the tins – they last forEVER! (I just opened last year’s tin, back in mid-November. Not only were they still fresh, they stayed fresh until the end (and it took me until 2 weeks ago to finish them)
I sprayed that Avon one all over the place today, it’s delightful! There, but not overwhelming. So thank you!!! Also I’ve pasted the shrug emoji in there but it doesn’t recognize some of the characters so it winds up looking weird. Fixing it is outside of my areas of expertise. In 2025 I would like an Aldi to open here lol.
You are welcome! And that is my 2025 wish for you – you’ll be in there on the reg’lar, I promise!