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Month of Irises: Week 1 (Feb 1st – Feb 7th)

Welcome to our Month of Irises project!

This post will be updated continuously during the next 7 days. For more details see here, but in short – come back every day to read something new I added for the day, see what perfume I chose to wear and share your SOTD.

February 1, 2018

DID YOU KNOW?

As I discovered (and more or less confirmed beyond just reading Wikipedia), it is not a coincidence that iris plant has the same name as Iris, the Goddess of the Rainbow: there is an opinion that the name refers to the wide variety of flower colors found among the many species of irises. How many? 260–300, according to the Wikipedia article in English. I’m mentioning the language because, as I noticed by browsing pages in several different languages, the number of species varies significantly from language to language (e.g., it mentions 100 in Greek, 210 in French and 800 in Russian) but only English version has citations for the numbers – so it seems the most trustworthy.

 

 

SOTD 2/1/18

I decided that it would be fitting to start this month with the perfume that serendipitously had all of the notes in my perfumista-style rainbow mnemonic:

Rose, Oakmoss, Ylang Ylang, Galbanum, Bergamot, Iris, Vetiver…

As several of you correctly guessed, it is Chanel No 19 EdT. And since it’s one of those perfumes that does not require an introduction, I’ll just leave it at that.

February 2, 2018

SOTD

In how many projects can one person participate with the same perfume on the same day? My goal for today was to fit both this project and NST’s Groundhog Day community project, for which each of us is supposed to randomly choose between “winter” and “spring” perfumes, predicting that way what to expect from this winter.

Since my Winter and Spring iris perfumes come in bottles, it would have been hard to “randomize” them. Instead, I decided to trick Rusty into making that choice for me. Two balls made from tissue paper were to represent Winter (blue) and Spring (green). After careful consideration, Rusty ran away with the green ball (all pictures are from the same sequence, I didn’t touch the paper balls between shots – hover over each picture to see the steps description).

 

4. Think about it
1. Sniff the Winter ball
2. Sniff the Spring ball
6. Run with it!
5. Make the decision
3. Rearrange fo the better view

 

So, according to Rusty, there will be an early spring – and I’ll be wearing my “alien” Spring perfume Prada Infusion d’Iris EdP. Now let’s wait and see whether Punxsutawney Phil will see his shadow.

FUN FACT

Angela Zito, a co-director of the Center for Religion and Media at New York University, screens the film for students in her Buddhism class. She said that ”Groundhog Day” perfectly illustrates the Buddhist notion of samsara, the continuing cycle of rebirth that Buddhists regard as suffering that humans must try to escape (a belief, Dr. Zito noted, that was missed by executives at Guerlain, who, searching for an exotic name, introduced a perfume called Samsara in the 1980’s, overlooking the negative connotations).

Groundhog Day is one of my all-time favorite movies. I own it on a DVD, watched it many times and plan to watch again today to celebrate this day. I expect Rusty to particularly enjoy it too since the only place I can watch it is sitting on the sofa, and he’ll get to spend the whole evening sleeping on my lap.

February 3, 2018

SOTD

Infusion d’Iris that I wore yesterday was great, and I could still smell it through the whole movie we watched but I hope not to be stuck in the same day wearing it…

I know that 6 more weeks of winter was predicted, so to everyone who suffers from cold weather, I’ll cite beautiful lines from Coleridge’s “Work Without Hope” that I noticed today for the first time in the “Groundhog Day”:

And WINTER, slumbering in the open air,
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!

By the way, I was right: Rusty must think that this film is the best thing… OK, not ever but since Die Hard, which we watched for Christmas.

Today I plan to wear Chanel 28 La Pausa: since it’s a weekend, I plan to try “hajusuuri’s approach” – 8 sprays (or as many as I have left in my sample) to see if it sticks around (and I still can’t stop giggling at Lucas’s comment:“At least it doesn’t need 28 sprays!”).

RIDDLE 1

Saturdays are usually lazy, so I’ll leave you with a short riddle:

What do Pacific Coast, Rocky Mountain and Louisiana have in common?

February 4, 2018

RIDDLE 2

I’m not sure whether nobody saw the riddle (post updates do not trigger e-mail or other notifications, so I don’t know how many readers remember about my “rolling” post), or just wasn’t interested, or didn’t know the answer – so I’ll give the second clue, and tomorrow provide the answer.

Pacific Coast, Rocky Mountain and Louisiana have in common the same thing as Bamboo, Blood, Blue flag and White cemetery. What Is that?

SOTD 2/4/18

While 28 La Pausa was very nice and, applied with a heavy hand, stayed longer than I remembered, I’m glad to report that I do not regret not buying a bottle of EdT while I could. But still – very nice.

I plan to wear Guerlain Iris Ganache hoping that my decant is still fine – I haven’t touched it in a couple of years, which probably means that it was a good idea to buy just a small portion instead of going for a bottle. But I’ll report back.

February 5, 2018

The answer to the riddle: “What do Pacific Coast, Rocky Mountain, Louisiana, Bamboo, Blood, Blue flag and White cemetery have in common?” – these all are common names for irises.

DID YOU KNOW?

Speaking of names, did you know that there is an iris cultivar called Perfume Counter?

 

Iris

 

SOTD 2/5/18

I plan to wear Atelier Cologne Silver Iris – one more decant that I’ve been neglecting. Iris Ganache (older version, not the one re-released last year) was very pleasant but I was right: I don’t need more than I have since there are so many perfumes that I enjoy more.

February 6, 2018

LINKS, LINKS, LINKS

Silver Iris that I wore yesterday was very pleasant but … too office-friendly: not being too strong to start with (just enough oomph for me to find it interesting), it sets down to almost nothing within a couple of hours. But it seems that it behaves differently both for Lucas (Chemist in the Bottle) who likes it very much and Angela (NST) who didn’t love it herself but thought it was good perfume to test for those who were “starting out on […] iris quest.”

And this is Victoria’s (Bois de Jasmin) review for Mugler’s Oriental Express – perfume that a couple of readers wore yesterday, even though it doesn’t list iris as an official note. I can confirm that from my own impression it does smell like iris.

SOTD 2/6/18

Since I have a couple of meeting during the day in a small conference room, I need something quiet – so I decided to go with Hermès Iris Ukiyoé.

February 7, 2018

The last, seventh, day of the first week of the Month of Irises. It is probably a good enough reason to have a celebratory drink…

DID YOU KNOW?

Orris root is among the most common botanicals in gin. It is used, mostly, not for its own taste profile but rather as an aromatic fixative that helps to preserve other aromas in gin.

 

Gin

SOTD 2/7/18

Iris Ukiyoé, which I wore yesterday, is probably the most floral of my iris perfumes (as tiffanie perfectly described it in her comment below – “not-iris iris perfume”). And it’s extremely quiet. So today I want something “louder.” I should probably go with Le Labo Iris 39, one of my most favorite iris perfumes.

 

What are you wearing today?

 

Images: from Wiki Commons red iris – KENPEI, orange iris – Kor!An, “green” iris – Simone; the rest – my own.

121 thoughts on “Month of Irises: Week 1 (Feb 1st – Feb 7th)”

  2. Felt so rough this morning I didn’t even think of perfume, let alone an iris. Will hopefully be on track tomorrow! Look forward to others’ comments. I love the variation in colours of irises but would never have dreamt there were that many. It’s such a stunning plant. Love the top left pic.

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    • I hope you feel better soon: a day when I do not wear perfume usually means I’m really unwell.
      I rarely use somebody’s pictures in my posts but when I saw that red iris, I just knew I wanted to get most of the colors to use in this post – just to share this one, which is absolutely stunning.

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  3. I love irises and iris perfumes so it is time to come out of lurkdom to participate in your iris month, Undina, (I always enjoy your blog, but I don’t think I have ever commented before.) I wore vintage No.19 yesterday, and it was a calm, beautiful counterpoint to a busy, rather stressful day. The iris in vintage No, 19 is unmatched by any other iris I have tried–it is definitely a floral note (not bready or carrot-y) but it is a richly nuanced, ever so slightly sweet, creamy not powdery and not syrupy or grape-y. I checked to see how much was left in my atomizer, and it seems I am perilously close to finishing my second bottle of vintage No. 19. (It’s okay: I have more.) This is unprecedented event in my perfume journey, so you can tell how much I value vintage No. 19. The current one is a different perfume entirely.

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    • Hi Maria! It’s nice to see you de-lurking :)

      After reading your comment I went to see if I still had my vintage sample. Unfortunately, the EDT one is gone (I used it up), so I went with the originally planned 6-7 years old bottle. It’s not vintage but I’m sure it’s better than the most recent changes. I should look into getting some older stock, if I can find it, as a back-up.

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  6. Day 1
    Chanel Exclusifs 28 La Pausa EDT

    …otherwise known in hanusuuri world as 8-spray La Pausa. This is a great fragrance that disappears quickly unless you over spray. For me, the magic number to make it last all day is 8.

    I chose to wear this on Day 1 to represent the 28 days in February ?thank God it is not a leap year!

    My 75 mL bottle is now alarmingly only 25% full. I don’t think I will run out as I have a 200 mL BUB!

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  8. I am starting with Byredo 1996. Here is my lineup:

    FM Iris Poudre
    FM L’Eau d’Hiver
    l’Artisan Dzongkha
    L’Artisan Mon Numéro 8
    L’Artisan Traversée do Bosphore
    Penhaligons Iris Prima
    SL Iris Silver Mist
    SL Bas de Soie
    Aedes Iris Nazarena
    Dior Homme & Dior Homme Intense
    Acqua di Parma Iris Nobile edt &edp
    Terry de Gunzberg Ombre Mercure
    BF Feu Secret
    PG Felanilla
    TDC Bois d’Iris
    VCA Bois d’Iris
    Mugler Oriental Express
    HdP Moulin Rouge 1889
    PdE Cuir Ottoman
    PdE Equistrius
    Divine L’Homme de Coeur
    Guerlain Iris Ganache
    Guerlain Après l’Ondée
    Guerlain Insolence
    IPdF I Fiori del Cielo
    Roja Dove Unspoken
    AC Silver Iris
    Prada Infusion d’Iris edt & Absolue
    DSH Iridium
    JM Orris & Sandalwood
    Micallef 1707 Bleu
    Lolita Lempicka
    Eau d’Italie Sienne l’Hiver
    Byredo 1996
    Byredo Oliver Peoples

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    • I didn’t even realize that one had iris in it. But any iris is a good iris in our project!
      Since I’m wearing iris perfumes during the day, I use nights to do something “warmer” – honey, amber, etc.

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    • I’m thrilled! :)
      I liked that perfume but my decant (that I bought!) had gone off :( I understand that decants are more prone to spoiling but somehow I didn’t expect that, so now I have some mistrust towards that perfume.

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  12. February 2 Iris SOTD: Bulgari Eau Parfumee Au The Bleu. On first spray, I get a weird celery-like green note which I think is the shiso. It’s not unpleasant, just unusual. I also get the iris note up front, and no lavender that I can detect. The violet comes to the fore after about half an hour while the shiso/green note lingers and the green tea emerges, so there is a nice balance of slightly powdery violet with fresh green leaves. I can sort of smell the iris note still lurking in the background.

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    • I don’t know what that groundhog saw, but it’s definitely spring here :)

      I thought that all that numerical nonsense was a mistake on L’Artisan’s part: it’s very hard to remember which one is which. But some of them were pleasant – just not memorable names.

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  15. Day 2
    Diptyque Volutes EDT

    I participated in NST’s Friday Community Project and used a coin toss to determine if I was going to wear the EDT (Heads / Spring) or EDP (Tails / Winter).

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    • I found it funny that you chose two different concentrations of the same perfume to represent winter and spring. Coin toss was a good idea. Once I clarified with Robin that the idea was to equally represent both “weathers,” it was obvious to me too that 2 choice would be enough, especially taking into the consideration that putting full bottles into a bowl would be problematic :)

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    • I still have probably 1/3 left in my original bottle but I hoard a couple of samples from that time as well and take them with me for a touch-up during the day (not that Infusion d’Iris really needs it).

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  18. Before I saw hajusuuri’s comment I realised today that Volutes edt can be classed as Iris – I could almost wear that all month…okay, maybe not quite, hehe.

    And I love the fact that you have watched Groundhog Day ‘many times’ – of no other film is repeat viewing so fitting. ;)

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  19. Day 3
    Diptyque Volutes EDP

    I only did 2 sprays since I was going to be in an enclosed space with a scent phobe. It must have been the right amount because I did not hear one peep from her and believe me, I get the 3rd degree with comments on I’m trying to kill her. Anyway, the EDP is fruitier and the iris more intense; however, there is something up top that is a little raspy…nothing that bothers but is a point of difference between the EDT and the EDP.

    Now I am off to the mall to take a sniff at Eau Savage Parfum and to look for The Body Shop lipbalms that Robin posted in Daily Lemmings a week or two ago.

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    • I also had a mall run in today’s plans: some returns, some cosmetics shopping though I should probably do it online for those things that I just repurchase: I can rarely get anything good from SAs anyway, so it makes sense to get what I need when the sites run GWP store-wide. Though today I scored a couple of Chanel creams and made a sample of TF Tobacco Vanille.

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  20. Micallef 1707 Blue for me today. This was a Fortnum & Mason’s exclusive I bought in London many years ago. It’s burned off now so I’m wearing AG Nuit Étoilée edp to bed.

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    • I’ve never even heard about Micallef 1707 Blue. Notes look promising.
      I keep neglecting Nuit Étoilée but I think it should be a good office-friendly scent. Once I’m done with this project, I’ll test my theory :)

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  21. Check-in day 4.

    I chose Carner Barcelona D600 for today.

    I don’t know the answer to the riddle, I wonder if it’s because I don’t know much about America in general.

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  22. It must have been a really long week for me, Undina, because your riddle is going nowhere for my brain. I only recently watched Groundhog Day for the first time. What a super film! Talking of Prada, today I am wearing Prada L’Homme, another very good iris fragrance. Will be reviewing it and the intense version this month.

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    • I’m glad you liked the movie!
      When you post, I’ll link to your review (unless you want to “host” that day’s SOTD on your blog then you need to coordinate the date with me via e-mail).
      I’ll give the answer to the riddle in tomorrow’s update.

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  23. Day 4
    Atelier Cologne Iris Rebelle

    I immediately bought a travel spray after smelling it at Sephora. Why a travel spray, you ask? At $26 for 10mLs, it is cheaper than $85 for 30mLs. If I need more, I will wait until 20% off before buying the 30mLs. In case some of your readers don’t visit NST, here’s my take on it:

    Semi-rooty iris, woody and musky, topped off by citrus. By itself, it smells nice. Mixed with someone else’s perfume, not so much. At church, the woman sitting behind me was wafting some kind of gooey caramelly chemical synthetic mess and not only was her perfume disgusting by itself, it invaded my space. I hope to never sit near her again although I unfortunately did not take a good look at her.

    I have to say thought that after posting this, I felt un-Christianlike. Of course, the problem is me not being able to tolerate some smells.

    As to your riddle, I thought Oysters but your second clue kinda put the kabash on that.

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    • I need to test Iris Rebelle more to negotiate with myself that I do not need more than 10 ml. So I should probably go for these 10 ml one – as a sample, you know ;).

      You could have felt bad, had you said anything to that woman. Venting in here is quite alright, in my opinion.

      I liked your train of thoughts on oysters :)

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    • I think you’ll like IR better the second time you try it: you had some notion as to how you wanted it to smell based on what you read from others, the name and other things. Now, when you already kind of know, you might feel differently about it.

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  25. Iris, so versatile! i dont know if I want or can do a whole month of iris, but today I am joining you, wearing one of my favourites: Bois d’Iris by The Different Company.

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    • Also wanted to add, for lovers of the iris flower: Two years ago I visited Japan in month of May….and I saw irises everywhere, in all colours and varieties.
      There are whole sections of city parks dedicated to irises, but we also spotted them everywhere in the wild. So beautiful, I took dozens of iris pictures, and I really want to go back there one day. Only downside being in parks/nature a lot was seeing one of those huge hornets. Argh that was so scary.

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      • Did you publish your photos anywhere so that you could share a link? Or maybe you have a picture or two that I could include in one of the upcoming posts this month (with credits to you, of course)?

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  26. Today I’m wearing Ombre Mercure, which is a lovely warm iris. I’ve been neglecting this one, for reasons unknown. Perhaps, because beautiful and comforting as it is, it lacks a bit of personality. I feel bad even writing that because I truly can’t pinpoint what it is, I should have it all, but falls just short…

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    • I don’t think I’ve tried any of this brand’s perfumes on skin even though I saw several bottles in the store. I’m not sure why. There are just some new brands that seem … less authentic (?) than others. It might be wrong impression but with thousands new perfumes out there I can use any filter, right?

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  27. Twins today, Undina! I have a sample of Silver Iris. The name at least matches the fresh snow here today. I wish I had enough to spray, I’m guessing it will be gone by mid morning even though I dabbed generously.

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  30. Day 5
    Mugler Oriental Express

    This is from Mugler’s Les Exceptions line and indeed, most of the perfumes are top notch! This was afforded a lot of blogger love. I won’t post the links here…just google it and you’ll see what I mean. I should wear this more often since it is very office friendly.

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    • I was surprised not to see iris among the declared notes because I clearly smelled it when I applied it first. I think I’m anosmic to something in this perfume because I can barely smell it.

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    • I almost believed you that Ashoka was also an iris perfume – even though I would have never thought about it as such :) But then I went and double-checked the list of notes – nope.
      Still, I like this perfume very much and will be wearing after the month is over.

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      • Ashoka IS an iris perfume. It smells very irisy on my skin which I also mentioned in my review. When I talked to Neela she told me there is lot of iris in it but surprisingly people don’t smell it…

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        • How interesting… Iris is one of those few notes that I can often recognize without reading a list of notes. I do not really trust my nose – so I do not pretend of smelling something when I don’t; but roses, irises, linden, galbanum, vetiver, LotV and several more I usually recognize – when there’s enough of that note in the composition. With Ashoka, which I like, own and wear, I cannot smell iris at all. Oh, well – it doesn’t really matter if I can pick out the note or not as long as I enjoy the result, right? :)

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  35. Day 6
    Le Labo Iris 39

    My name on the bottle was misspelled but eh, it reminded me of how my grandfather always misspelled my name which I didn’t mind because it thrilled me to no end that he sent every grandchild a postcard once per vacation!

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    • That’s a fun memory. Your grandfather was special. I was lucky to have doting grandparents, and I think the experience made me a better child and (hopefully) a kinder adult.

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      • He was certainly special and lived to the ripe old age of 94. He was a disciplinarian and had his own ideas of what children should be exposed to. He once caught some of us playing with tarot cards; the cards were confiscated and trashed witth no word from him nor a peep from any one of us. How could anyone fault someone with quick reflexes who can catch a fly with his bare hands and release it to the great oudoors?

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    • I think Iris 39 is one of perfumes that I really enjoy. I’m afraid to think if it had been reformulated: I still have some juice left in my decant but once it’s done, I’ll want to buy more… Have you tried it recently not from you bottle?
      I loved the story about your grandfather. In our family only one of my grandmothers and I were sending postcards for holidays.

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  36. Hiris lasted 4 days, until I had a headache. Though unrelated to Hiris, it did prompt a change of scent. I switched to Infusion d’Iris EdT on Monday, then Apres L’Ondee today (Tuesday). I’ve set out Iris Ukiyoe for tomorrow, I think of it as my not-iris iris perfume. There is great fun to be found in looking at perfume through an iris-colored lens!

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    • I always record in my perfume blog if I had a headache while wearing perfume: not that I think they cause it but I want to make sure to catch if there is any connection/correlation between my (rare) headaches and specific perfumes or notes. So far I haven’t discovered any. I loved your definition for Iris Ukiyoe – it’s very fitting :)

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    • Opus V was so bad on me that after trying it a couple of times I gave away my sample (which was something really unusual for me back then since I tried to keep everything for “library”). In general, that whole line is not my cup of tea. There a a couple that I could probably wear but I prefer Amouage “classic” collection – both feminine and masculine versions.

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        • I really do not like brand’s direction in the last many years. Out of all recent releases, I liked Journey Man (it smells good on my vSO – so I got him a bottle, but I can’t wear it myself, it’s too masculine for me) and I thought that a couple other masculine perfumes were quite nice – but not their feminine counterparts. But mostly releases of the last 7 years were kind of disappointment.

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  38. I saw the musical production of Groundhog Day in London a year or so ago and it was fabulous. Wish you could have seen it.
    Today I’m wearing my sample of Iris Oriental by PG. Not a fan. I think it’s the combination of fig and honey that’s putting me off.

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    • I’ve never tried Iris Oriental (PG perfumes are not readily available here): I like fig but honey might go very wrong on my skin.

      That musical sounds interesting – though it might be too hard to watch something that you know and love in different interpretation. You know, similar to watching a film done for the favorite book. But I wouldn’t refuse to try if I had a chance.

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    • When it’s 73 F outside, it’s hard to comprehend that somewhere, just hours away (by plane), it’s still winter. Keep warm!
      I don’t usually wear HE when it’s colder – I’m not sure why. It just seems like a warmer weather perfume. But who knows? It might be nice in winter as well. I hope you’re enjoying it.

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  40. To cap off Week 1
    Day 7

    Carner Barcelona D600. This is me doing the NST Friday Community Project 2 days early. I did not wany to have anything to do with a perfume with such a weird name and which my brain automatically translated to “WD-40”, a speayable substance used to get stuff unstuck and allow for smoother movement. Anyway, I’ve come to love this perfume and fall a little more in love with it each time I wear it!

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    • I can’t believe it but I actually know what WD-40 is :) I still might have a can that I bought hoping to fix a stuck watch bracelet but never got to use it (which reminds me that I still need to do that :) ).
      Tomorrow I need something prettier but on Friday I’ll wear D600.

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  41. I started the day in DSH Iridium. Maybe my decant is off, I didn’t care for it and it didn’t even smell like iris. Wearing Mancera Coco Violette now, much better

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  43. Undina, I’ve really enjoyed Week 1 of Month of Irises, between your fun facts and many people chiming in often, if not daily. Looking forward to Week 2. Other than possibly DIOR (spell check somehow keeps wanting to capitalize every letter..so I let it be), I haven’t yet planned out the lineup. I look forward to getting ideas from the comments!

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    • I have something already planned for the week 2 but I’m not always sure if anybody actually reading new bits that I post :) But I’ll keep trying.
      Speaking of spellcheck, my on the phone constantly changes Chanel to CHANEL – I stopped fighting :)

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  44. Pingback: Februiris – a Month of Irises | Chemist in the Bottle

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