There is not much to be said at the moment, other than I am working through this moment, and as usual in times of distress I reach for Infusion d'Iris, this is the scent that never begs for drama but rather has the effect of a soothing cup of green tea.Music: Sour Girl by Stone Temple Pilots
I suppose if there is any good news to getting over this relationship I once had is that my days so far have been full. I am determined though in this process to find beauty even it should be on the melancholy side. Bois des Iles I have always said is on the theraputic side with its heavy dose of sandalwood, so today I wear it with needed clarity. I leave you also with the heartbreakingly beautiful musician Jeff Buckley.
Today is a feast day and on those days of harvest we must give thanks, so here are few things I am thankful for:
I have a long day ahead of me with grocery shopping, filling out and turning in an application for a new apartment, and some how in between seeing my boyfriend. I also did another drastic thing yesterday, I cut my hair very very short considering it was to my my waist, to give you an idea of what it looks like:
After the heavy orientals of the last few days I am suddenly wanting something a little bit more luminous so I am going with Chanel No. 5 pure parfum. Whenever I wear it I always have a few ideas and images pop into my head: opals, the aurora borealis, champagne, perfectly powdered skin after an evening bath, and the intriguing combination of black and a salmon pink. I also find it interesting that many people considering this such a cold scent when to my nose it has such a sparkling powdery quality.
Ever had one of those days where you just wanted to smell dramatic? Well today I do but actually this desire started yesterday when I found the image above done by one of favorite illustrators, George Barbier, which heavily evoked Ambre Russe to me this feeling then continued as I looked for pieces by Ravel and found Tzigane which continued the insistence that I wear Ambre Russe. I had been tempted to wear Ambre Russe on Thanksgiving but that just doesn't seem appropiate; I will most likely choose Burberry Brit Red.
I have been for awhile looking for a nice rice scented fragrance, I love the scent of rice cooking, and when Kenzo's Amour came out two years ago I thought I would finally have my answer, but it turned out to be to light and little too bland, forward to now and Kenzo has answered my needs with the parfum variation of Amour. This stuff is divinely comforting, creamy, but with incense interlaced, and a must say the opening reminds me of POTL, this is a most elegant and decadent comfort scent.
I have always wanted to have a red lipstick but have found I have the sort of coloring that looks like it would be perfect with red but I have found I few subtle issues that makes finding a red lipstick hard 1) Although my hair is dark it is not a full dark hair but is in fact heavily accented with red, in sunlight it is, as my friend said the perfect chestnut and 2) my skin tone although I am very pale I seem to have inherited the bizarro mix of pale European with hints of my great grandmother's asian skin tone basically I look pink but I have a lot of warm gold to go with it. Most red lipsticks often veer into too pink/cold or too much orange/warm, but today I have found the one MAC's Hot Tahiti, it doesn't look like much on the stick, but once it is on it creates the perfect subtle sensual red. What I found really funny was looking at makeupalley's reviews for the color it seems that those that loved it the most are those that have a great deal of red in their hair and hazel eyes (which I also have).
Last night my friend and I got together and went to our favorite brewery, Buffalo Bill's located in Hayward, CA (okay it is basically the only thing in Hayward you would want to go to). I should probably say this before I got any further I am not a beer expert and I am more of a wine drinker. We had a wonderful time chatting and relaxing after a long week and both of us ordered the pumpkin ale which I had never had before. For many years I have meant to try pumpkin ale but have never gotten around to it, well it proved to be a delightful surprise last night, and the first think I said after taking a sip of cinnamon laced pumpkin ale, was that it was November in a bottle. While the cinnamon is prominent in scent the flavor is mild in the ale and just adds tha perfect feeling of warmth and crispness. Very enjoyable.
I have been craving a rose scent ever since I read Divina's review of Citizen Queen, I've been wanting to wear one of those dirty spiced up rich roses, unfortunately those roses really are not work place appropiate, so instead I am going with Mille et Une Roses, the most likable rose out there.
So we are unseasonbly warm weather, starting on Friday the tempertures have been in the upper 80's and today is likely to be no different, although I do look forward to Wednesday when the temperture is supposed to drop. This weather has of course left me wanting my spring and summer scents, so today I am going Vanille Fleurie de Tahiti, which I always seem to forget is a delicious vanilla.
I admit the for the last week I have been loving BBW's Sensual Amber body cream with its juicy chewy apricot opening and lovely use of smooth amber, the weather has warmed up so I have once again been reaching for lighter fragrances yesterday I wore Le Chasse aux Papillons and today I am reaching for my beloved osmanthus love Osmanthus Interdite. A strange tidbit fact although I consider osmanthus to be a summer scent it is fact an autumn blooming flower and in China they hold a festival centered around this autumnal flower. Of late I have found myself reaching back for 1990's female singer/song writers, its sad looking at the music scene right now and not seeing anyone really following in their steps well not entirely true I have found myself in love with beautifully dusky voiced young women coming out of Britain: Adele, Corinne Bailey Ray, Amy Winehouse (although the girl needs some serious help), and Duffy. Still I am sad with the American scene of music. So in continued celebration of 90's songstresses the ever beautifully voiced Sarah McLachlan:
Okay so my current obsession with puppies continues (Daily you are so lucky! Your Gatsby is absolutely adorable) this time I am utterly enamoured with the puppycam, http://cdn1.ustream.tv/swf/4/viewer.45.swf?cid=317016 which is a live stream of shiba inu puppies, seriously I had never heard of this breed before, but now I find myself adoring them for their shear roly-poly furriness, they are so ridonkulosly cute!
One of the perks of working for the public is that I get the holidays off such has today. So to fully enjoy this day I am going to be a sillage monster in my home with a layering of potent BBW Blackberry Amber lotion, the sweet and tart Molinard Mure, and the lovely creme brulee vanilla of L'Occitane Vanille parfum de extract. I know it sounds nuts, but I think many fragrance lovers can understand that sometimes you want to be surrounded by a cloud of scent.
I would like to say I have spent my sunday morning being productive and intellectual, the truth is though I have spent my morning getting cute therapy by looking at cuteoverload.com while sipping my PG Tips special blend and eating homemade toasted pain d'epice. I then contemplated what I wanted to wear fragrance wise and have decided to go with L'Instant pour homme which then makes me wonder why on earth I have more success with Guerlain's masculines than feminines? I also noted that L'Instant pour homme and Ambre Narguile both share the same toasted sesame note. 
Earlier this year I wrote about my experience with Serge Luten's Five O'Clock au Gingembre and how I wanted to wear it while eating pain d'epice, dark chocolate, stem ginger preserves, and a cup of Russian Caraven. Well I did it today without the chocolate and ginger preserves, the effect was intensely spicy and wonderfull soothing, the pain d'epice went perfectly with smoky Russian Caravan, the Five O'Clock au Gingembre adding beautiful tangy piquant fresh ginger note. I suspect part of this experiment owes credit to Chandler Burr who over the years has hosted dinners centered around the concept of pairing fragrances with dishes (one of my wishes is to go to one of these) and his statement a little while ago while doing a review of Ambre Narguile that he enjoys it most by wearing it during meals finding that it enhances the gustatory experience. I think he is on to something with this last part considering I find wearing Ambre Narguile puts me in the mood to cook; last nights pain d'epice and the caramelized apples a little while ago.
It occurs to me I have been in exoticism the last week with my fragrance choices Parfum Sacre, Musk to Musk, and now the delicious Ambre Narguile, funny how you begin to notice a theme.
The divine Miss Divina sent me a sample of this beauty and I must Divina mission accomplished! I finally found a Montale I truly enjoy and one that features aoud. I must say this really is a gorgeous musk that reminds me of perfect cool water and yet it has not ozone notes, just beautiful, there is something very sylph-like to it.
Overall I will say that last night our country won back its soul and did it with the sort of aplomb that we should be proud of, but I am most definately disappointed in California but sadly not fully shocked. I am a California native, my father is gay and a California native too, and in the US, California is viewed as the "liberal" state. Being the California native I am though I know that this is a large and diverse state is much more conservative than others would think, we have small noticiable enclaves of our "liberalism" , but I am afraid for the most part that title is undeserved. I will not give up though, we have seen the fruitition of a African American president, and we will see Gays attain the right to marry those that they love. Let us not forget Bayard Rustin.
Today is the sort've day I never realized would happen during my lifetime. I am nursing wisdom teeth removed, a case of labyrinthitis, and lack of sleep but I feel right now utterly elated, scared, and amazed. I hope we are on the precipice of great voting history, that we are about to see a landslide for change. I don't usually speak about politics but I will say this if you live in California vote no on Prop 8! For the day I chose the calmness of Angelique Encens.
There are so many variations of the rose fragrance, some go for the perfect soliflore, some are a perfect Morgane Le Fay fragrance such as Stella Rose Absolute, some are the perfect idea of angelic Mille et Une Roses, others are the abundent opulence of Marie Antoinette such as Lipstick Rose or Paris, but today was the need for the mysterious spiritual rose. Parfum Sacre is perfect idea of the sacred rose it is dry incense laden satin rose, it is dusky sunset just as the sky turns to the dark blue of night. It is perfectly mysterious and wish Caron would pay attention to its beauty because this scent is what so many of rose fragrances are trying to be.
I can no longer take any more cocooning so I have put on the very cheery Burberry Brit Red and later on I am meeting my boyfriend for hot chocolate and a movie. In the evening I will be making an incredibley aromatic soup: Pork Noodle Soup with Cinnamon and Anise http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pork-Noodle-Soup-with-Cinnamon-and-Anise-240942 , incredibly easy and perfect for the weather. The rain is here and it poured last night and I love it. Have a lovely Sunday everyone.
Right now I am nursing one soar mouth, yesterday I had two of my wisdom teeth taken out (the bottom ones). Most of yesterday I spent in a haze of vicadine but today well I really don't need the vicadine because it doesn't hurt that much so on to good old ibuprofen for me. The real kicker though is that I can't eat spicy food for a month (this is going to be really hard). To go with the first rainy days of Autumn and my soar mouth I am going with the ultimate in gourmand/comfort scents: Comptoir sud Pacifique's Vanille Canelle.
October was the need for comfort wo I relied on L'Occitane's Vanille; what is more comforting than vanilla? Possibly hot chocolate, but I didn't want to smell like hot chocolate.
