Long time no see, fragrance friends! I’m still here but have not had much time and energy to post new blog entries. Content creation is a labor of love and I’m only capable of it when I’m in a good headspace. Late winter is usually a fallow period for me, creatively speaking. I used to try to fight through it, but in the last few years, I’ve come to accept it as a kind of mental reset that will happen annually. Whatever energy I have gets consumed by work and activities of daily living. I don’t do much writing or arts and crafts during this time. Things were further complicated this year by a promotion I received at my job in February. I’m very happy about that, but a good month or so was consumed with winding up of old duties while learning new ones at the same time, leaving little psychic energy for anything else. I’m finally settling into a rhythm as far as the job goes, and with the return of Spring, nicer weather and sunlight, my creative juices are flowing again. I hope to resume posting on a regular basis in the near future.
As usual, I have a huge backlog of scents I want to review. I may not get to them all, but recent purchases and gifts include more scents from The Lovely Muse Apothecary (who is running a sale right now with 25% full size lockets for Mother’s Day–must order by May 5th to receive it in time; these are generally safe blind buys, especially if your mom likes a particular artist or has a favorite floral note, but you can check out my prior reviews on The Lovely Muse’s perfumes here and here); multiple scents from Osmofolia, one of this year’s Art and Olfaction Awards finalists (for Solario, a scent I have not yet tried and which is currently sold out, but the others I’ve tried have been great and I look forward to telling you about them. Best of luck to perfumer Sab Finn!); new releases from Parterre Gardens (including a comparison of my beloved Amboise solid–read more here and here–to its perfume oil counterpart); Warm Human‘s aromatherapeutic Power Blends; beautiful tea and floral scents from Matilija Fragrance; a new fave Copper + Copper perfume from Copper Cat Apothecary (read more here and here) and so many more!
In other important fragrance news, Andy Tauer is getting ready to release another batch of L’air du DĂ©sert Marocain solid perfumes. First released in 2005, LDDM is already a legend and a modern classic. The fragrance is absolutely stunning and arguably more wearable in the solid format. It’s one of my most beloved solids and my husband enjoys it, too. Read more here and get your debit/credit card ready if you’re a fan of this scent! (Follow Andy on Instagram and/or sign up for the brand’s newsletter to keep up with the latest releases.)
And finally, a quick word about Instagram. I no longer post there daily (usually a few times a week + Caturday), but I still visit the site several times a day to engage with the perfume community, read posts and watch Reels. It is the only social media platform I use at this time, and if they start charging me to use it, I won’t stay, but for now it’s still a pleasure. I’ve found so many great brands through IG and I appreciate the opportunities to learn and share with the IG perfume community. I wanted to highlight a perfume-related content creator I’ve met there who I hope you will check out: Danielle @perfumehaiku
First off: haiku! I love it! It’s amazing how much you can learn about a perfume from Danielle’s 17 syllables. Some are quite literal, some are humorous, some are more fanciful, but all are delightful.
Second, she was an English major, like me. 🙂 We’re an increasingly rare breed and perhaps an endangered species with the rise of ChatGPT and other AI chatbots.
Third, at a time when there’s so much fragrance snobbery in the perfume community, I appreciate that Danielle gives attention to every pricing “tier”: drugstore classics, quirky indies, shopping mall body sprays, department store standbys, celebrity scents AND high-dollar niche fragrances. She recently started a series of Reels on “Perfume Collecting for Regular People” which I highly recommend for any perfume collector. The content is refreshingly down to earth, with helpful tips (we’re talking color-coded spreadsheets, amongst other things) for how to enjoy this expensive hobby and also not go broke. This is exactly the kind of “influencing” we need more of! Thank you, Danielle!
And thank YOU for reading, dear friends. I know this was random and only loosely perfume related, at best. I’ll be back soon with more perfumed musings. In the meantime, Happy Spring!
All images by me.
Solidly Scented 
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