Happy New Years + Quebec City Day 1

Happy New Year everyone! I hope your celebrations went well.

We decided to go visit Edgewater and see if we could get a glimpse of the NYC fireworks this year, as well as get shabu-shabu. The display wasn’t as big as we had hoped, but the food was good and we were in good company.

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We then drove off to Canada, final destination Quebec City! We stopped by in Montreal for breakfast. Shout-out to the two random guys in a car that offered me weed. I appreciate the sentiment, hope you had a great New Year’s. I did not accept, by the way. We stopped into Second Cup before heading off again.

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My favorite gourmands

I don’t wear a lot of gourmands. I’m an ethereal or incense floral kind of girl. I’m also a fan of the weird stuff, like the fish market Etat Libre D’Orange Secretions Magnifiques and the fermented Byredo Pulp. That being said, tis’ the season! It’s cold and dark and dreary (or it would be if not for global warming), so wanting a bit of warm creamy sweetness is to be expected.

This is a list for people who probably aren’t really into gourmands. No big vanilla bombs to be found, I apologize. Read More

The new Annick Goutal boutique on Madison Ave.

It’s a good day when you can kick back with the lovely people of Sniffapalooza and the NYC fragrance community and get buzzed on perfume.

Mr. Chokkattu and I stopped at Lladro first, but I forgot to take pictures of the pretty porcelain, brand new candles and a new votive. No matter, they had three new home fragrances. Gardens of Valencia and Mediterranean Beach are both florals, Mediterranean is heavier on the musk, and I Love You, Mom is a gourmand, floral on top of chocolate and honey.

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Sniffapalooza Fall Ball 2015!

Finally getting to this post!

Sniffa Saturday Haul!

I’ve been indulging my fragrance hobby for more than a year now, but only fairly quietly in the safety of my own home and in the awkward embrace of the internet. However. This changed last Friday when I attended my first Sniffapalooza event; the free kick-off at Twisted Lily, my own local niche fragrance Mecca that I’ve purchased from before, but ever only online. The website’s treated me well though, some of my old posts like 6 Scents 6 Selves, my UNUM review, my Twisted Lily favorites review, and my Ineke A-H reviews were sourced from Twisted Lily (click on each word for a different Ineke review!)

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Mitsouko vs. Mitsouko

I have been reassured by several reliable-enough sources on the internet that 1989 Mitsouko counts as vintage, THEREFORE.

AND I have also received my Surrender to Chance sample of Mitsouko which I’m 99.5% certain is not a vintage in any way, though I don’t know what batch it is, so it’s time to compare them and, perhaps, contrast them!

I visited Twisted Lily tonight for their Sniffapalooza kick-off gathering and drenched myself in niche juice, so here’s to hoping that the shower I just took helps mitigate any interference. Also touching the wrist pad of my laptop makes my wrists come away with a rather unappetizing rubber scent, so I’ve been trying not to do that. Read More

6 Scents 6 Selves

These are all male-leaning or unisex, but I have no problem wearing Fils de Dieu or Le 3’ Homme myself and I am a tiny, rather unimposing female. The Jungian personalities that I decided would be best suited to each fragrance is also just my opinion. I would never discourage anyone from wearing what they like unless they ask for it explicitly! Mr. Chokkattu and I decided that these were the most versatile that we collectively own, so the list is obviously biased in our direction.

Nearly all of the fragrances in mentioned in this list come from Twisted Lily’s The Sands sample collection which I purchased for him a few months ago. I would like to take this moment and congratulate myself on being able to choose gifts really well, and also bask in the smugness of getting Mr. Chokkattu’s older brother in on the fragrance game without actually having to interact with him. (He basically stole the sample of Tom of Finland Mr. Chokkattu had received from Scent Trunk.) Anyway.

Enjoy the list!

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300th Post: Can’t be bothered

Things that starved me of life today:

  1. Driving to Princeton.
  2. Forgetting the fragrance I was going to wear.
  3. Driving to Trenton.
  4. Going to the DMV.
  5. Driving from Trenton to Edison.
  6. All of the edible spots in Edison being on the other side of the road.
  7. Driving around Edison during rush hour.
  8. Driving around Edison and having to convince every cop blocking a road that you belong on that road because you’re working the event they’re blocking.
  9. Driving home from Edison when there’s construction going on and the local roads are dark as hell.
  10. Being really hungry but knowing that 11:40PM is not a good time to be eating anything.

Fortunately, Mr. Chokkattu bought me naeng myeon and Chow Chow puppies exist and I love them. Life restored.

Things I adored about Iceland

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A picture Mr. Chokkattu took of me while we were on a kayak.

This will be my last post explicitly about Iceland!

So we all know now that I adored the country of Iceland, and I want to go back some day really, really badly, with maybe a job long enough to support me for a few months or just some more cash in my pocket. And that the scenery is beautiful and the landscape breathtaking, etc. But I have to share some of the specifics I jotted down. Some of them are important, some of them are surprising, some are less about Iceland and more about trips in general, and some are pretty stupid but whatever they seemed important enough to write down at the time. This list is a little long, so let’s get started:

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Iceland Day 5

After the mild debacle the other night, we woke up bright and early and headed to Myvatn under the advisement of the two young women we had met the day before even though we had planned to skip it because of the time we lost. Also as a result of the night before and how lovely and helpful everyone was, we decided to pick up two hitchhikers heading to Dettifoss as we were going to drive in that general direction to Myvatn anyway.

They were a couple that met in Sweden at a landscaping and architectural school, a young man from France, and a young woman from the Czech Republic and beyond comparing our experiences in school (it costs too much, and you learn way more working) and discussing summer employment in Iceland (they both worked at Jokulsarlon, him a boat guide, and her a waitress at the cafe), they recommended us head to the Nature Baths in Myvatn, which is similar to the famed Blue Lagoon except much less expensive.

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