Sad Perfume Seeking

I am making a concerted effort to find some new perfumes; my old are tinged with sadness as perfume sampling was a thing ma and I did - and pa but he thought everything smelt of bicycle inner tubes (bless him, sometimes he could suddenly smell and we would be treated to hours of, "What's that smell?  Can you smell that?") 

There are some I would purchase again but rather unsurprisingly they are either long gone or ruined by reformulation.  Nuit de Noel, En Avion, are two that my son bought me and I would like those again.  Mon Parfum Cherie Par Camille I tested with mum so hardly ever wear as I don't want to use it up.

I've got a newish bottle of Youth Dew that was mum's - occasionally put that on.  I've one of the last bottles of dad's Old Spice - you wouldn't believe how much that one suited my dad's skin, he being a musky smelling chap even the cheaper, thinner modern formula had depth..  Wish he were still here to give a big old hug.

As my brother-in-law says, "Death isn't an event, it's a new reality."  I don't much like my new reality.  And there, I've made myself sad.  I don't just want some new perfumes, I need them.

Going through my old samples I was most surprised that Rouge Bunny Rouge was no more.  They did some pretty interesting fragrances none of which made it into my cupboard; I tested so many around that time I had to, "Walk on by", the vast majority of them.

I was disappointed to find that Caron had not reformulated/reissued Nuit de Noel and En Avion.  Seven years or so ago I had the impression that they were working on reformulating those two, necessary because of something or other they could no longer put into the mix.  I guess they either couldn't come up with a decent enough formula or marketing indicated that such constructions would not fly off the shelves nowadays.

This is a Harkness Rose called Lady Marmalade.  I'm not great with gardening but you can see that this rose has profuse flowers, is a wonderful orange colour, and bushy.  For me it has a very long flowering season, hasn't succumbed badly to black spot (dreadful in my area), and has the most beautiful fragrance.  I chose it for fragrance and colour.

Another beautiful rose I have in my garden is Scent from Heaven.  Wonderful fragrance, long flowering season in my garden, hasn't succumbed to black spot.  This year I had to more or less chop it down.  For several years it behaved like a bush or shrub rose but then a couple of years ago it suddenly started behaving like the climber it is, putting forth stems an inch across and climbing seven feet in a season.  So why did I cut it down you ask?  Well because I didn't really know what it meant that a rose was a climber and I foolishly planted it right between the garden path and the rotary washing line.  The washing line did look nice for a couple of years but it was  a hazard when walking down the garden path, taking up so much room, throwing out stems to hit one in the face, and super, super, sharp spikes.

The garden had some lovely snowdrops and I am looking forward to the bluebells coming out.  They are French bluebells that seeded themselves some years ago so I only have a couple of clumps.

Got some spring flowers arriving soon, lots of narcissus so lots of fragrance to appreciate.

Musk Mantra has made it into my cupboard (or will when the post arrives in a day or two).  Of course I added a couple more samples and got a couple of samples free.  I still would like Phul Nana but have done the sensible thing and ordered an up to date sample. 

Musk Mantra is behaving like several I have tried of late in that the top interesting notes burn off quickly leaving my skin smelling more or less just of the base.  This one behaves much better for me under clothing and in more liberal quantities than I typically apply.

Keep well.  Toodles.