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Last Week the President of the U.S., my vSO and I visited Seattle

With the workload of the last five months both my vSO and I needed some change of scenery, and Seattle seemed to be a perfect destination for a three night trip.

It’s just a 15-minutes’ drive to the airport but you can’t predict how bad the traffic will be, so we left 15 minutes earlier. There was no traffic.

We had just carry-on bags and checked in a day earlier but with the recent situation with TSA you can never know how long the security check will take, so in my calculations I allowed 60 minutes before boarding time for waiting for the privilege to take your socks (but not shoes!) through a full-body scanner. It took us only 15 minutes.

The boarding had started just 15 minutes later than it was supposed to, but it was well-organized, and “a full flight” (lingo used by flight attendants to scare people into checking in their carry-on bags) managed to play the luggage puzzle game in a record time and without odd pieces.

It was supposed to be a two-hour flight. “An hour and a half once we’re flying” kept repeating our captain while explaining first that “a technical crew needs more time to go through <inaudible>”, then “it’ll be at least another hour” and then “it looks like we’ll need to change planes.”

We landed in Seattle almost 2.5 hours later than scheduled and 15 minutes after the gourmand tour, for which we had tickets, started.

But from this point on everything went just perfect: nice hotel, great food, a couple of pleasant evenings with friends who live in Seattle. We even got to see some rain (we loved it!) and the President’s Motorcade (we had to wait for it to pass to get to the hotel).

Mr President

I brought with me enough perfumes to change them twice a day (I didn’t) and I planned to do some perfume sniffing (I did). But if I had to name just one scent/note that lingered over my stay in Seattle, it would be lavender.

If you were wondering, no, we didn’t visit any of the lavender farms near Seattle, we stayed mostly within a short walk or taxi drive from the downtown; the picture below is from one of my trips to the local wine country last year. But lavender somehow sneaked into our urban retreat.

Lavender

It started the first evening when after dinner at a seafood restaurant I was brought a bowl of water with lavender and lemon to wash my hands. It smelled divine and turned my thoughts towards the Chanel counter at the flagship Nordstrom store nearby, which, as I remembered from the previous visit, had Les Exclusifs line, and where I hoped to try their new perfume featuring that note… So there we went.

An SA at the Chanel counter was very nice and completely went along with “smells-interesting-but-I-need-a-sample-since-I’m-wearing-something-else-now” (I was!), and Boy Chanel sample landed in my purse.

I like both lavender and rose that I can smell in the Boy Chanel‘s opening. It is unmistakably Chanel, and I felt a surge of that excited feeling: “Is this the one? Will I love it?” But within half an hour it develops on my skin into a soapy but strangely dry scent. I dislike it at that stage but mercifully it goes away in the next 30 minutes. Unfortunately, together with the rest of the perfume. I won’t say that Boy Chanel has the worst longevity out of all Les Exclusifs but it will be a close competition with some of them. Robin (Now Smell This) in her review of this perfume wrote: “Boy would make a great no-brainer summer cologne if you needed such a thing” – clearly not for me: I wore it on a mildly warm day of leisure walk in Seattle and each application lasted barely a couple of hours.

Boy Chanel wasn’t the only or the best lavender perfume I came across during that jaunt, so I could have probably made a sequel to the last year’s In the Search for the Perfect Lavender episode if I hadn’t tried to sneak Mr. President into the title. But since I couldn’t resist, I will probably leave my other lavender discovery for the next post.

 

Images: my own

29 thoughts on “Last Week the President of the U.S., my vSO and I visited Seattle”

  1. How lovely that you and your vSO went on such a lovely trip and had a great time in Seattle.

    Also great to see you talking a little bit about Chanel Boy. As you know, Chanel Les Exclusives are not available in Poland at all so a fellow perfume lover from the US promised to get me a sample. I want to try it, no matter if it works on me or not (as it did not in your case)

    At the moment my favorite lavender perfumes include Histoires de Parfums 1725 and Rania J. Lavande 44

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    • You should definitely try it: Chanel is reasonable with their Exclusifs releases, they are well done (even when they are fleeting) and very tasteful. As a perfume enthusiast, you should put a check mark next to Boy Chanel’s name.

      I’m very curious about Lavande 44. I’ll get a sample soon.

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  2. Glad to hear you had a good time even with the rocky start with the flight delay. Hopefully you were able to reschedule the gourmand tour for later in the trip.

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  3. Enjoyed reading this post and will now hunt out Boy the next time I am near a Chanel Boutique. When you speak of lavender, though, the first scent that comes to mind is Vero Profumo’s Kiki, a surprisingly warm and gourmand take on lavender, with a caramel note that sweetens the pot. After Kiki, I do love Eau Illuminee by Parfums del Rae , light, bright and worn easily by both genders.

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    • Hi Renee! It’s great to see you here. I wasn’t sure if you were still “around” since you stopped blogging.

      I like Kiki (at least one of the versions, the cooler/less sweet one) and might eventually get it. And I’m not sure if I’ve ever tried Eau Illuminee: since Barney’s stopped carrying the brand, I don’t see it anywhere. But now I’ll remember to seek it out and try – thank you for the idea.

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  4. How exciting to come so close to the presidential cavalcade. I wonder what cologne Obama took on his state visit? And I smiled throughout your wry account of your delayed flight – all too familiar. At least they ‘expedited’ the ‘luggage stowing’ in a timely manner.

    I don’t care for lavender, so I shan’t rush to try Boy Chanel, but to my surprise I do find myself enjoying quite a few perfumes which have it in, most recently Geisha Vanilla Hinoki.

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    • Maybe Barack Obama by Parfums Deray? :)

      Ironically, it was the second time our flight to Seattle got “delayed”: a year ago it was, if I’m not mistaken, 8 hours (for a 2-hour flight!) but since we had a weird connection they had to fly us another airline (and another route, not through Seattle) – or we risked loosing the complete day of our 5-days vacation. It must be something with Seattle…

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  6. I’m glad you and the VSO found time to do some R&R. I haven’t been to Seattle in a very long time. My niece and her husband live there and methinks I should visit one of these days. I also didn’t know about the lavender farms! Provence is in my cruise itinerary and I hope to smell some lavender!

    Your flight delay is outrageous. I’ll tell you about a worse one. I once had a flight from Washington DC to Newark, normally a 45-minute flight. The flight itself was delayed 2 hours on the ground and once it got on the air, it had to circle around the Baltimore area for 45 minutes before heading north. Seriously, I could have taken the train and been home in less time than that entire ordeal!

    Boy Chanel on paper smells like 1932. Since I’m still commando, I think it will be SOTD as I walk to the mall in a little while.

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    • Horror stories about delayed/canceled flights can go for hours! I accept that it has to happen from time to time, I just don’t want it to happen to me every time I fly :)

      Seattle is such a nice city! Out of the U.S. cities it’s probably my third most favorite (after NY & SF).

      After I came back from this trip I learned that there are several famous lavender farms north from San Francisco. Unfortunately, the season is over. I’ll try to go there next May or June.

      Enjoy your lavender… I meant, cruise!

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  7. Sounds like you had a great trip after a bumpy start. How lovely to receive a bowl of water with lavender and lemon to cleanse your hands after a meal. What a nice idea.
    I don’t have trouble with the lasting power of Les Exclusifs but doubt Boy is for me. It’s still a must-try though. Interesting to read your initial thoughts. I know Birgit wore the Diptyque lavender all last summer.

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    • None of the Diptyque’s Lex Eaux line perfumes works for me: they are OK but too boring. But with Lieber Gustav that I have and, maybe, one more perfume (either Kiki or the other one, about which I plan to write soon), I think, I’m covered for my lavender needs.

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  8. Heya Undina,
    People seem to be in Seattle ATM. Glad you had a ball.
    What a complete bummer about Boy for you. It lasts a bit longer than that on me but most frags hit soft dry down before three hours anyway so it doesn’t seem so short for me. I do like to get the bottle a spritz like crazy though, he he he
    Portia xx

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    • I haven’t tried covering myself from head to toe, but I wasn’t just testing, I actually applied my regular amount of perfume. But it’s alright: there are so many perfumes to wear that it’s not a problem when one of the new creations doesn’t work for me.

      Seattle is great (though SF is better – just in case you’re choosing where to go next ;) ).

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  9. Know what you mean about airport security in the States where it is always shoes and socks off. Our worst experiences recently were water bottles!! These had to be dumped asap as serious hazards.

    Too bad Boy did not live up to expectations. Currently you can get a good lavender fix from Haute Provence in the PdN line though it is technically a cologne it lasts a long time. They seem to have it in stock :-)

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    • I really dislike walking in my socks on the dirty floor and then putting those socks into my shoes. Over years I tried many different things – special additional socks, disposable shoes – but it such a hassle…

      I think I’m almost set for my lavender cravings for now but still thank you for the suggestion.

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  10. I am about an hour into the drydown of my first sniff of Boy, and I am quite smitten. For me, the warm sandalwood is center stage, and perhaps the geranium close enough to my beloved rose note, that it is captivating me. Boy’s powdery aspect is fetching and I could see this as full bottle worthy. Not to ignore the lavender…though I am experiencing this note as the impression of dried lavender sprigs stored in a sandalwood box, alongside a compact of rose powder.
    So glad you mentioned Boy. As far as current offerings with lavender, this and Kiki by Vero Profumo are at the top of my wish list now!

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    • I will re-try it once it gets cooler: if not for anything else, just to see if it would live longer on my skin.
      Krigler’s Lieber Gustav is still my number 1 lavender perfume love, but Kiki is also very lovely.

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