Tales from the Furlough #1: sniffy sniffy
For those of you who haven't talked to me this week, which to be honest is just about everyone: the kickoff for Tales From The Furlough is coming up very, very soon. Furlough #1 will take me to:
- Atlanta (3 nights)
- Detroit (2 nights)
- Minneapolis (2 nights, though really less than 36 hours)
- Denver (3 nights)
Crashspace has been generally secured, but there are details to work out. I estimate panic in approximately 48 hours. It's a complicated, demanding itinerary, and I will have to be careful not to wear myself out early in the trip for fear of turning it into a slog, because what's happening at the end of the trip (code sprint) is equally as important as what happens at the beginning of the trip (coordinating the wedding of two friends).
In those ten nights I'll sleep in one state park cabin, one hotel, and 5 friends' houses. I suspect I will be overwhelmed and grateful to finally touch down in Huntsville at the end of this trip.
I've splurged on a tiny new set of perfume samplers to try, since I'm about to go on an adventure of sorts and it's been so long since I tried anything new. What I seek out:
It's hard to explain my idea that some parts of a perfume shouldn't necessarily smell yummy and edible on their own, because it seems contradictory -- you want the end result to smell good, right? There's a reason that strong, even animalic undertones work well in perfume: contrast, dimension, and balance.
(Someone said once that their perfect perfume would be one that made her smell like herself, only more so and awesome. I thought that was a great description.) [read the rest of this entry from March 2008]
- L'Heure Bleue: (Guerlain, 1912) floral oriental [review] [basenotes]
- Dzing: (L'Artisan, 1999) reportedly almost impossible to describe [review] [basenotes]
- Tabac Blond: (Caron, 1919) leather, smoke, floral hints [review] [basenotes]
- Habit Rouge: (Guerlain, 1965) citrus, vanilla, leather [review] [basenotes]
- Après L'Ondée: (Guerlain, 1906) floral, powdery, violets [review] [basenotes]
- Black: (Bvlgari, 1998) woody, smoky, unisex [review] [basenotes]
I am curious but wary of Dzing; one of my worst perfume experiences came from another L'Artisan perfume (Tea for Two) which provoked headaches every time I tried wearing it. As a result, I've been wary of smoky tea scents ever since.
Tabac Blond and Habit Rouge both intrigue me greatly. Thanks to Chanel's Cuir de Russie I know how much I love perfumes with dark, leather undertones. Tabac Blond has a bit of a haughty, dominatrix reputation; perhaps she and I will make friends.
Hopefully it'll all arrive before Friday, so they can all go with me on the trip. One of the best parts about buying good perfume in tiny, tiny amounts: one handful contains your entire perfume collection, and it's uniformly spectacular.
Comments
Ah, that reminds me--I have
Ah, that reminds me--I have that sample of Tea for Two squirreled away in a little green box. I put it aside because I developed health issues not long after the mailman delivered it, and it didn't seem to be a good idea to mess with potentially headachy scents when I was already experiencing headaches / lightheadedness / fainting spells as it was (damn chronic low blood pressure!). It took months to stabilize, and I'd forgotten about it by then, Reading this brought the memory of the green box back to me.
Of course, me being me, I no longer have a clear memory of where that box is. But it has to be around here somewhere. I'll definitely let you know how it turns out.
And I'm curious to know what you think of Apres L'Ondee. I recently got a little decant of that myself, and I suspect your nose is more sophisticated than mine.
Safe and happy travels.