lunabee34: (Default)
[personal profile] lunabee34
1. First, my BPAL order finally shipped this evening! I am so excited. I can't wait to start smelling all the things!

2. I need a perfume icon or two methinks. I will gift fic to anyone who feels compelled to make me one. *bats eyelashes* I found a couple cool pictures of perfume bottles but I don't know if they are suitable for iconnage, so I'm open to anything. :)

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/347340189980682133/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/193936327674211904/

3. Today before I knew my order had shipped I was feeling all impatient to start smelling and reviewing things when I remembered that we do have a couple perfumes in the house right now that I could start with.


Somewhere between 8 to 10 years ago, Josh bought me a bottle of Kate Spade Beauty as a gift. He is such a thoughtful gift giver; he'd watched me pick up a bottle in the store, smell it, remark that I liked it, and then bought a bottle for me as a surprise. It was such a sweet gesture, but after a while of wearing the perfume, I discovered I didn't really like it all that well, so I still have a mostly full bottle.

Apparently, the scent has been discontinued and so it was hard for me to find a description of the perfume's notes. I tracked down this small set of reviews and the consensus seems to be gardenia, honeysuckle, and jasmine with maybe some tuberose and/or other flowers mixed in.

I sprayed one wrist and could immediately identify the honeysuckle and gardenia but not any of the other notes (to be fair, I'm not really sure what jasmine and tuberose smell like LOL). It's very sweet, almost cloying, and stays that way as it dries. It's a warm smell, if that makes any sense, and it doesn't have a lot of throw. I had to bring my wrist up to my nose if I wanted to smell it. It's very pretty but not for me. It feels overpowering and like it might give me a headache over time. I washed it off with Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day hand soap in the radish scent and really liked what my wrist smelled like after that with all the sweetness tamped down (this is clearly a lingerer of a scent; I think Ajax dish soap would probably have washed it off entirely, though).

However, this perfume deserves a better home than with someone who will rarely wear it and possibly force it to commingle with radishes against its will. Free to anyone in the US (or outside US for my friend's list only) who thinks this might work for them.

4. And now for the fic. I decided that I wanted to accompany each of my reviews with at least a drabble's worth of fic inspired by the scent. So have a double drabble of HP. :)

Beauty

The day Narcissa Black marries Lucius Malfoy, the house elves float hundreds of gardenia blossoms in her bath. The scent is cloying, heavy, and between the flowers and the steam, Narcissa can barely breathe. Creamy petals cling to her skin; she picks them out of her hair for what seems like hours afterward. When the flowers have been banished, though, and only their fragrance remains, Narcissa feels as if she is cloaked in something powerful, sensuous. Bellatrix joins her at the foot of the stairs just as the orchestra begins to play in the gardens. Her sister’s arms are full of honeysuckle and jasmine, a wild tangle of white flowers and greenery that nearly glows against the silk of her dress, the darkness of her curls. “Are you ready?” Bellatrix asks. Narcissa thinks about the sister who is missing, and she can almost smell the tuberose and lilacs of the bouquet she’d bear. Bellatrix looks at Narcissa, at the empty space next to her, and Narcissa smiles before Bellatrix can scold her for being maudlin. “Yes,” Narcissa says and follows her sister through the Great Hall and into the gardens where the rest of her life is waiting for her.

Date: 2014-04-10 01:34 am (UTC)
musyc: Bellatrix Lestrange looking up (Bellatrix: Looking up)
From: [personal profile] musyc
Oooooooooooh, what a great idea, drabbling to the reviews. I like this one (the Malfoys are MAH BABIES) and look forward to more!

Date: 2014-04-10 04:35 pm (UTC)
musyc: Silver flute resting diagonally across sheet music (Text: Malfoy family bonding)
From: [personal profile] musyc
YES. YES EXACTLY. I can buy them as political marriages or as "because that's what done", at least for the length of a short fic, but no one can convince me that Lucius and Narcissa weren't in love.

Date: 2014-04-10 02:47 pm (UTC)
agentcthulhu: knitted yellow-green cthulhu in black suit and sunglasses (Default)
From: [personal profile] agentcthulhu
Totally unrelated - your drabble reminded me of "The Death of Narcissa Black" from hp_darkfest of 2008 (no working link found). If Narcissa's life is a cracked mirror, yours is the half opposite TDoNB.

Date: 2014-04-11 06:57 pm (UTC)
agentcthulhu: knitted yellow-green cthulhu in black suit and sunglasses (Default)
From: [personal profile] agentcthulhu
Aaaaaah why did you have to do the math? 2008 is not so long ago if you don't think about it relative to now! (I was thinking about showing a friend Cowboy Bebop earlier today and realized its 20th anniversary is creeping up. Eek!)

The author/artist has a tumblr blog. I wonder if she'd be willing to host it on her new site again or link to it on tumblr.

Date: 2014-04-11 01:27 am (UTC)
umadoshi: (mermaid (roxicons))
From: [personal profile] umadoshi
YAY, shipped order! Very exciting. *^^*

I had a go at three simple ones...

Date: 2014-04-11 06:47 am (UTC)
sallymn: (art 2)
From: [personal profile] sallymn
One from one of your pictures and two from old perfume ads :)

Don't worry if they're not what you were looking for, I like the practice (I think I am gonna have to stump up for more icon places over here)

      

Re: I had a go at three simple ones...

Date: 2014-04-12 10:06 am (UTC)
sallymn: (happy 1)
From: [personal profile] sallymn
:) Glad you like them! Only if you feel inspired, but any little something about one of my beloved geeks would be fine...

Re: I had a go at three simple ones...

Date: 2014-04-11 07:01 pm (UTC)
agentcthulhu: knitted yellow-green cthulhu in black suit and sunglasses (Default)
From: [personal profile] agentcthulhu
Hello! Just swinging by the thread to let you know I like the first icon - the bottle on light blue background with writing in white - very much.

Re: I had a go at three simple ones...

Date: 2014-04-12 10:07 am (UTC)
sallymn: (happy 1)
From: [personal profile] sallymn
Thank you!

Date: 2014-06-18 12:27 am (UTC)
wendelah1: (Perfume)
From: [personal profile] wendelah1
Hi. I'm Wendy. I added you because I saw from [personal profile] elfin's journal that you're reviewing perfumes. Perfume has been a life-long obsession for me, stemming from my first sample of Joy from the perfume store on Main Street at Disneyland, way back when I was age 13 or 14.

I admit I love your idea of writing fic to go along with perfume reviews. This probably sounds bizarre to anyone outside of perfume fandom but I've been inspired to search out several scents from reading about them in fic.

I see by your later posts that you already have acquired a lovely perfume icon. I have only very basic icon skills but I did find this old set by [livejournal.com profile] nymphic_icons on livejournal: http://nymphic-icons.livejournal.com/71421.html

If I found a suitable photo of a beehive shaped perfume bottle, would that be of interest for an icon? I don't know the meaning of "lunabee" although I'm guessing it's not a type of insect...

Edited to add:

Also, one of these might suit if you like bpal scents: http://exceptforme.livejournal.com/14153.html The pics are from their website. I

Edit the second: I just realized that [livejournal.com profile] the_icon_lab is for only bpal icons. Wow.
Edited Date: 2014-06-18 12:41 am (UTC)

Date: 2014-06-19 02:02 am (UTC)
wendelah1: (oldpeoplesex)
From: [personal profile] wendelah1
I have not joined [community profile] smellsgood, but thanks to you, I will. I will check out [personal profile] rydra_wong's journal, too. Maybe I've read a couple of her posts? I'm pretty memory challenged these days...

You were on AOL back in the day. Most people were and we weren't. I don't remember why. Jesus, now I can't even remember our first provider but it wasn't AOL. I don't think it was. DAMN I MISS MY BRAIN. Anyway, you are not old. You have a baby? My baby is starting grad school this fall. I really am old. LOL.

Like I said, my icon skills are minimalist but if I find something suitable that still looks like a perfume bottle and not a weird beehive in miniature, I'll post it here for you.

It's lovely to meet you, too.

Date: 2014-06-19 07:47 pm (UTC)
wendelah1: (Perfume)
From: [personal profile] wendelah1
Hanging out on Fandom Secrets. LOL. Yeah, that would make anyone feel old.

It is gratifying that he got in, and to a pretty good school, too. He's going to be getting a Doctorate of Physical Therapy from Chapman University (a private Christian school in Orange County). The only problem now is how to pay for it. Loans, loans, and more loans... We're "loaning" him money and he's having to take out those horrible government grad student loans that start accruing interest the minute you get them. They actually tell the students to start paying the interest while they're in school. Good grief! If they had the money to do that, why would they need the loans?

What am I wearing? I do rotate my perfumes now. After I read Perfumes: The Guide in 2008, I got it into my head to try every perfume they'd given four and five star ratings. (Not terribly original, I know.) After having worn nothing but Joy (the eau de parfum) for years, it's been fun to try different things. Today, I'm wearing a four star drugstore cheapie: Lady Stetson. It smells like cinnamon and carnations on me, which is nothing like the book's description. I never smell any peach, for one thing. But it smells great and it's incredibly cheap. They are right about the ugly bottle. I love the male version even better, Original Stetson, and I wear it a lot in the winter. They describe it as a "floral oriental." I don't know about that, but it smells great to me and on me, and it doesn't make my husband sneeze if we're in the car together.

You can see how useful my perfume reviews would be. LOL.

Date: 2014-07-02 12:27 am (UTC)
wendelah1: (Perfume)
From: [personal profile] wendelah1
Oh, dear. I hope you're feeling better now.

Yeah, I was reading someone's reviews that were linked to [community profile] smellsgood today. All I could tell from them was that the writer and I probably had very different taste in scent.

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