ancho

Weekend eats:

Finished up my "salad" of the week: chickpeas, potato and greens with cumin, chipotle pepper, and lemon all topped with a fried egg (this gas stove makes frying crispy eggs soooo easy, swoon)

What is a salad exactly? Does this qualify as a salad? My earliest definition would be a mix of raw vegetables, which then expanded to include non-vegetables and cooked components. Currently, I think a salad is an assembly of ingredients that are in a ready-to-eat state already, the only procedure is to toss the salad together. So I would disqualify this as a salad since the components are cooked together (although almost all of them could be eaten prior to the final cooking).

Made some jambalaya, motivated by the sample pack of cajun spice mix that was included in my Penzey's order: Bless that this can be made with frozen / freezable vegetables, so I don't have to watch all the extra veg that I can't finish languish in the fridge.



Also ate out at Cuchara again because I made the mistake of reading about the best moles in Houston on an empty stomach:

Mole Verde

It is indeed very good ;o; I especially liked the refried beans, so good with the cotija cheese on top. Also got some fried tortilla chips (fresh from the fryer!), which had a great corn-y taste. Hoping to come back at least 2 more times to try more dishes.

maybe maybe maybe I can share it with you

Best accompaniment for insomnia, hnnng:

egg

More blooms in the neighbourhood! I am very pleased with everyone's intense gardens.

I will very much miss being surrounded by this much flowers and greenery after moving back to Toronto and being in a condo. Some time ago I considered adopting the urban jungle aesthetic, but then weighed the very real consideration of increased bugs and dismissed that thought. Also not the biggest fan of pruning and cleaning dead plant parts, but the increased humidity from more house plants is a plus. Will have to choose indoor houseplants very carefully.

punch

Summer of salads continued:

A very expensive (relative to my usual ingredient costs) salad of radicchio, endives, manchego, olives, and a honey dressing. The sweetness of the dressing is definitely key in tying this salad together. Each mouthful is great with the slightly bitter greens and the fatty and salty cheese. It would be even better if I didn't fuck up and buy the wrong olives. The recipe calls for castelvetrano olives, which I assumed I could find at Pheoncia. I was wrong and had to make do with whatever's available at the olive bar, which didn't include a plain green olive. Instead I bought a mix of Italian olives, which had 1! one! green olive. The bites of salad with that one green olive was amazing, the black ones are meh, and the red ones are pretty bad. Honestly this salad is like an 8 with the green olive and maybe 5.5 without.

A Mexican themed, super green, salad of cucumber, tomatillo, jalapeño pepper, avocado with a cilantro-lime dressing. Literally every ingredient is green. I knew going into this that the cucumbers are going to release a ton of water, so I did my best to cut off the seeds and sprinkle some salt to draw out some water. But I underestimated the cucumbers, it still released a ton of water waaahhh. I admit defeat, from now on, I just won't meal prep salads with cucumbers.

Dorset

Shoutout to Surrender to Chance for being bae & replacing my first order that USPS lost!

But this post is actually about a different perfume sample order. One made from Bloom Perfumery in UK, which I paid almost 30GBP to ship to me. Plus it was an impulse buy.

Why did I go that far? Because I absolutely fell in love with the concept of Parterre and the style / notes of their 3 perfumes. Extra points for being SW UK, which I instantly feel great affinity for.

I also ordered samples from Grossmith's full line (their brand story, via Perfume Shrine, was also fascinating, but their full bottles are insanely expensive) and Fleur de Louis from Arquiste so that my shipping fee isn't more than my order ;o;

But today is about Parterre.

First up is A Tribute to Edith, my current platonic ideal of rose:
Super sharp and fresh (like wasabi almost, but not pungent / nasal clearing) opening, but the roses are there right off the bat too. The sharpness turns into a sparklingly, soda-bubble texture. Like a rose soda water? At a distance (elbow to nose), the sparkling texture is barely noticeable, but the rose projects well. The rose is…a true rose? It’s at least what I expect rose to smell like. Not light, not dark, no spice or oud. Just a lovely, pure rose scent. About 1.5h in, the rose scent haven’t changed much, the sparkles are gone even at close range. At 2 hours, the strength has faded a bit, but still noticeable. Ah, this is a jammy rose, this descriptor just popped in my head as I made the connection to Lush’s Rose Jam, which high school me owned a tiny bottle of. But not sweet, or more like, no added sugar haha. At 4 hours, I’m getting hints of the base, what it is I’m not so sure.

Overall I love it, don’t regret paying the insane shipping from UK to get this in my grubby hands. And you bet I would pay the more expensive shipping to get a full bottle. I consider this a “queen” type scent, not princess-y (perhaps something lighter) and not empress level.

...

Then is A Run of the River, which is functionally a more interesting Bergamote 22:

Day 1: Opening is the most realistic herbal scent, literally how it smells if you rub the leaves of some mix of herbs and then smell your fingers. No particular herb stands out, it’s a smooth mix. If I smell really hard, I can pick out the lemon thyme. I’m also picking up a slightly musty base, maybe it’s the oak moss or the frankincense? This one doesn’t project well, can barely smell it at an elbow to nose distance. On second thought, this smells both realistically herbal and now powdery at the same time, like if someone made a dry ointment from the herbs in their garden if that makes any sense. Very interesting since herbal and powdery are usually opposites, but here they are in harmony. Time to revise another impression, the projection is stronger now that its about 10 mins in. After 40 mins in, this fragrance has settled into the heart notes and now smells more like dried herbs rather than the fresh herbs at the beginning. I think I smell the juniper now as well. This is what I imagine a hardcore gardener to smell like, with the soil, verdant herbs, and herbs that’s been snipped off and dried. Interestingly for a fragrance with “river” in the name, there’s no intent for any aquatic impressions. Huh, 2 hours in and I get a sniff of bergamot? Yeah there’s definitely a citrus accent to the clean soil scent. This does give me the impression of being on a river bank. Alternatively, this would make a great drink with some soda water.

Day 2: Sprayed on chest this time in contrast to my usual elbow. Opening is still the fresh herbal, but I’m getting bit more citrus which reminds me of Le Labo’s Bergamote 22. I find the texture of both perfumes to be similar as well. I can consistently smell the scent from my chest, which is really about ~3” closer to my nose (oh the horrors of using IP units). In both days, the scent didn’t last as long as A Tribute to Edith, fading considerably in 4 hours. I do periodically catch a whiff of it later on.

...

Lastly, Root of All Goodness, which sadly I didn't like because the amber ruined everything :(

The opening is herbs and citrus, but fuller and rounder likely due to the amber and leather. But ugh I can't stand amber, at least I know that for sure now. I had high hopes for this one due to the vetiver too. 

feather

Floaty, floral summer dresses are my weakness, hnnng:

super loving the grey-blue color / this is like the perfect grocery shopping or errand running in the middle of the heat wave dress xD

rice

A sustainable food system is one of the causes that I care about, but haven't done much towards. I'll at least summarize a great research paper on the subject: "Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems" (free access too!!)

Context:

Providing a growing global population with healthy diets from sustainable food systems is an immediate challenge. Although global food production of calories has kept pace with population growth, more than 820 million people have insufficient food and many more consume low-quality diets that cause micronutrient deficiencies and contribute to a substantial rise in the incidence of diet-related obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases, including coronary heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Unhealthy diets pose a greater risk to morbidity and mortality than does unsafe sex, and alcohol, drug, and tobacco use combined.

Aka it's a quality and distribution issue, and a very big issue.

...

The absence of scientific targets for achieving healthy diets from sustainable food systems has been hindering large-scale and coordinated efforts to transform the global food system.

Everyone's favourite management quotation: you can't manage what you can't measure. The target is based on the planetary boundary framework. The article also proposes a reference sustainable diet that will "provide major health benefits".

...

The article recommends 5 strategies to achieve the required drastic and global change:

1. National & international commitment by "investment in public health information and sustainability education, and improved coordination between departments of health and environment" (I'm not optimistic on this one after what happened with the Paris Agreement)
2. Farm for healthy (both human and biodiversity) rather than quantity
3. Intensify agriculture in a sustainable way, aka not what we've been doing by inefficiently applying tons of water and fertilizer 
4. Not fuck up biodiversity (any more than what we've already done) by "strong and coordinated governance of land and oceans"
5. Minimum 50% reduction in food loss and waste

"However, this transformation will not be achieved without people changing how they view and engage with food systems."

...

We've done well to increase food production to better some facets of life, but have shifted to an unhealthy diet, driven by "rapid urbanisation, increasing incomes, and inadequate accessibility of nutritious foods". This in turn is killing us and the planet. 

Some environmental stats (all quoted): 

• Agriculture occupies about 40% of global land, [13] and food production is responsible for up to 30% of global greenhouse-gas emissions [14] and 70% of freshwater use.[ 2,15]
• Conversion of natural ecosystems to croplands and pastures is the largest factor causing species to be threatened with extinction.[16]
• Overuse and misuse of nitrogen and phosphorus causes eutrophication and dead zones in lakes and coastal zones.[17] 
• Environmental burden from food production also includes marine systems. About 60% of world fish stocks are fully fished, more than 30% overfished, and catch by global marine fisheries has been declining since 1996. [18]

We also gotta preserve natural carbon sinks and turn our farmlands into carbon sinks if we want any chance of keeping global warming below 2˚.

...

Food Consumption

This Bon Appetit article focuses on the reference diet, and also where I heard about this article. 

• Protein: 0.8g/kg body weight is a guideline, with vegetarian sources (soy, legumes, nuts) > poultry & fish > red meat. 1 or 2 servings of fatty fish a week seem to be good due to omega-3
• Dairy: pretty neutral, no need to consume dairy for calcium if diet is otherwise balanced
• Carbs: eat less of it (<60 and="" energy="" grains="" li="" of="" preferred="" total="" whole="">
• Fruits and vegetable: seem to be pretty good, the article recommends 300g veg and 200g fruits daily.
• Added fats: also seem to be pretty good if and only if they're unsaturated fats, aka more olive oil or rapeseed oil and less butter
• Sugar: article recommends less than 5% of total energy

...

Food Production

• GHG: "The total estimate of all greenhouse-gas emissions from food production is 8·5–13·7 Gt of carbon dioxide equivalent per year." whereas the target set by the article is 5 Gt annually.
• Water: requires regional analysis. Interesting point about the conflict of interest between food sovereignty and balancing water use in different regions through trade. 
• Nitrogen & Phosphorous: require more efficient use, both in spatial distribution and also in closed loop systems
• Biodiversity: severely underrated. "habitat loss and fragmentation, particularly through human appropriation of land for food production, is the greatest driver of biodiversity loss"
• Land use: in relation to biodiversity "Globally, the net area for food production has remained constant since the mid-20th century. However, this trend masks the real picture because substantial reductions in agricultural land have occurred in temperate regions of Europe, Russia, and North America, whereas substantial expansion of agricultural land has occurred in biodiversity-rich tropics". The article proposes 13M sq. km of food production land use. 

...

The next section of the article, "Achieving healthy diets from sustainable food systems" is quite heavy on the figures, which I won't steal. But the main points are:

• "grains, fruits, and vegetables have the lowest environmental effects per serving, and meat from ruminants the highest", while seafood is super variable
• "Vegan and vegetarian diets were associated with the greatest reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions and land use, [5,221] and vegetarian diets with the greatest reductions in water use. [219]". 
• Interesting point on how some crops are less nutritious when grown in an atmosphere with higher CO2 concentrations (Panel 5)
• Hitting the biodiversity target will require the most ambitious of changes. But there's again a conflict between biodiversity and food sovereignty: 

We found that adopting the reference diet (or one of its variations) could increase the global number of extinctions if land-use change occurs in areas of food production. This effect is mainly a result of increased caloric intake to 2500 kcal / capita per day in the reference diet in countries where caloric intake is lower than this value, and shifting production priorities to produce crops (eg, nuts and pulses) needed to support the reference diet. However, these results assume that domestic production will meet a proportion of the additional demand. Rebalancing regional production on the basis of biodiversity concerns could mitigate those additional stresses and have the greatest effect on reducing biodiversity loss (figure 6). [144,206]

Sylvaine Delacourte Vanilla Collection

Here's part 2, featuring the Vanilla Collection.

I originally did not intend on buying this sample set, since I didn't think I like the smell of vanilla. But this set was only a $4 add-on, so I caved into temptations. Never hurts to sample broadly at the beginning, or in brainstorming speak, never dismiss an idea as bad. After some reading, I think I'm not a big fan of vanillin, but vanilla is ok. Still not a note that I'll actively look for, but also not a note that will turn me off of a fragrance.

...

Sylvaine Delacourte Valkerie
There is an initial blast of creamsicle smell! Actually creamsicle is probably not right, since it’s a smell I recognize from my childhood, which did not involve creamisbles. Rather it’s the orange flavour chinese freezies…or like orange yakult! Now I’m craving yakult ;_; The head notes are perfect for brunch, and afternoon tea as well. If I try hard to separate the notes out, I get the impression of a burnt wood, not smokey tho, along with the vanilla and citrus. Once it settles, it’s just the vanilla and the wood. It’s weird that the scent is creamy but a bit harsh at the same time. Although I like this scent, I am doubtful that I will regularly wear it.

Sylvaine Delacourte Vahina
Man I’m liking all of these openings. This one is sparkling for sure, a tender green stem of a flower? There is the creamy vanilla behind the sparkles, a very nice combination. It’s a girlish smell, not like a young girl per se, maybe like a bubbly, sheltered almost 20? Strangely the florals are gone within an hour on me, and all there left is a faint vanilla base. Will test again / try on clothes.

Sylvaine Delacourte Vanori
The opening indeed reminds me of a tropical beach, although I can’t tell what the notes are. A sour floral that’s also sweet? Reminds me of something I’ve eaten, a snack, but the thing escapes me. The floral combination in this one is so far my favourite, very well blended, soft (as in the texture, not the strength). I would want my therapist or doctor’s office to smell like this haha. The sour part (apparently grapefruit) goes away perhaps 10min in, leaving the sweet floral. I’m surprised at how much I enjoy the sweet floral. I can see myself wearing this when I want to seem approachable, for a sleepover, or maybe gift this to a niece or friend’s daughter.

Sylvaine Delacourte Vangelis
Opens with soft wood and soft spice. Then comes a slightly sharper, greener wood, but nothing harsh at all. Again I like the opening notes. I can’t distinguish the individual spice note, overall it smells like a mix between the Aesop Marrakesh Intense (sandalwood, which I correctly identified) and Hwyl (perhaps the blend of spices is giving off a forest impression to me). I can see myself wearing this scent on a regular basis. Ahh I smell the chai spices, loud and clear about 10mins in! Also coming in is the almond? Then there is also an underlay of a heavy floral, possibly the jasmine? I have a hard time deciding between this or Helicriss.

Sylvaine Delacourte Virgile
Opening smells like..lemon balm? Some not too sharp herbal plus citrus. Maybe like a frosted lemon cake minus the sweetness. On the other hand, its also reminding me of those pine-shaped air fresheners, which is not a great association. Interestingly Bergamote 22 never gives me the cleaning product / air freshener association. Around 20min in I smell the vanilla creeping in, but the overall scent is still fresh. The citrus has gone and along with it the air freshener association. Quite interesting right now with a back and forth between fresh and vanilla. An hour and half in, it’s mostly the vanilla that remains, but a “lifted” vanilla compared to the others.

...

Overall, It’s been a running theme amongst the vanilla collection that I really like the opening, which pretty much disappears like 15min in and all there left is vanilla. It would be a worthwhile exercise to do a comparison between the musk and vanilla collection, since the styles match up. At the moment, I'm tempted by the 30% off code to order 2 travel size bottles, one of Helicriss and one of Vanori. But first, gotta sample Parterre, my super impulsive order. 

capers

It's already hit the 30s this week in Houston, which is summer as far as I'm concerned. What this means is...bring on the salads!

I'm very picky about salads, there are many things that I don't like:

• Overly large pieces of food (do not want to smear dressing all around my mouth)
• Non-chopped up lettuce (a pain to try to eat with a fork, a little more bearable with chopsticks)
• Too much dressing
• Too sweet of dressings (although a suitable amount of sugar is necessary for balance)
• Anything but peak season tomatoes 

I've also got a very long list of salad recipes saved in various places. Luckily I'll have plenty of warm weather this year to get to them.

 Potato salad with super mustard-y dressing

Kroger was out of stock on radishes, so I threw in some cherry tomatoes instead. Super glad that I did, the sweetness from the cherry tomato is a good foil for the huge amount of sourness in the salad (there's half a jar of pickles in there).

Barley, green bean and chickpea salad with toasted spices vinaigrette via Bon Appetite

Cumin and coriander is my go-to spice combo, so much so that I ran out of coriander and used that as an excuse for a Penzey's order. This vinaigrette is a good match for grain salads.

Sylvaine Delacourte Musk Collection

I'm done my first round with both of Sylvaine Delacourte's collections (musk and vanilla), so here are my first impressions for musk:

Sylvaine Delacourte Dovana
The official description is pretty accurate: “light as soap bubbles”, it reminds me of the super thick, luscious, foams from certain face wash. The smell isn’t soupy at all, more like powdery. So far it seems like I’m a fan of powdery scents haha. It also smells familiar…perhaps I recognize the orris. I also recognize the vanilla, and like it actually. Maybe I don’t dislike vanilla haha…hopefully this is true since I have the vanilla discovery set as well. Online notes say there’s rose and sandalwood, don’t smell those yet. Projection is good, sprayed it on my elbow and can smell it in a seated position. I imagine it to be perfect for lazing in bed. I’m thinking that this would be good to layer onto Lord George after it wears for the day. However, I can see myself feeling fatigued by the super powdery scent.

Sylvaine Delacourte Florentina
The opening is sweet-is with some sharpness, and then some floral note rising through. It smells different than Dovana, but both are predominantly powdery that I feel its repetitive. Once the scent settles into the heart, it’s super iris-y and more to my preference. This would be a good wedding guest perfume. About 3 hours in I catch a whiff of the vetiver, also very much my thing. Iris and vetiver is such a wonderful combo.

Sylvaine Delacourte Smeraldo
The opening is green and citrus-y, I like! Possibly because it’s a rather hot and humid day. The particular green scent I can’t readily identify, will have to read the notes. It’s still a smooth fragrance, like the others. There’s somewhat of a sparkling feel in the green, like fizzy soda bubbles? I think a common pit fall for citrus scents is that it can quickly resemble cleaning products, and I’m getting just a hint of that. Something warm is emerging, but the soda bubbles are still here. Reading the official description now, “tonic” is quite accurate, and this fragrance does feel very fresh. The citrus I smelled in the opening was yuzu, and the bubbly green is angelica. The something warm would be the vetiver? Or is the warmness the white musk? I think I’m starting to have a sense of what it smells like.

Sylvaine Delacourte Lilylang
I was expecting full on floral opening, but it’s actually quite green? Like smeraldo but without the citrus. Turns out the green-ness is from pink peppercorn. The creaminess is starting to show, maybe 5 or 10 mins in, which I read is from the ylang-ylang. Sometimes I can smell the jasmine? Usually it’s quite a dominant note so I’m surprised at its subtly here. Once it settles into the heart, I wouldn’t say it’s very floral at all, mostly the white musk scent (I’m more confident that what I’m smelling is the white musk, all four fragrance ends in this way).

Sylvaine Delacourte Helicriss
Opening is earthy! I like very much. There’s some feelings of tonic as well, like herbal-y bitter? Official description says middle notes of rosemary and sage, which I get, but I seem have missed the top notes of citrus. Feels quite refreshing to wear during a humid hot evening. It’s settled for a bit and still very much earthy and tonic-y. Not complaining at all, I’d be happy if this stayed like this till the end. I’m tempted to compare this to Terre D’hermes vetiver intense, but it’s been too long since I smelled it. About 2 hours in, I'm starting to smell the musk peaking through? Or at least the earthiness has changed to be smoother. I also realized that the earthy/tonic-y smell is real similar to the forest in Aesop's Hwyl. So it's also woody, which should be the patchouli. I also imagine this to be good with Aveda's Chakra 3 layered on top.

...

So far I like Helicriss the best, by a good margin, and then Florentine. In the broader picture, I'm likely to pick up a full bottle of Helicriss since it reminds me of Terre D'Hermes vetiver intense (regardless of if they actually smell similar, the mental connection is good enough for me), and this is a prettier bottle lol. (Ugh Hermes I just don't vibe with your bottle designs.) Will compare the other Iris perfume samples against Florentine tho.

thousands

The small treat for going to work as the sun rises:

fish

Work's been busy since training has taken up several days in the past 2 weeks. Surviving the last full week before spring holiday & visiting Toronto for a couple of days *u*

mémoire

To round off a week of fragrance posts, the latest batch of my first impressions:

Arquiste Fleur de Louis
Day 1: a floral bouquet it definitely is. I can identify the neroli…I think, and there’s a touch of green-ness which is probably the galbanum, but overall a nice fresh, floral mix. Very smoothly mixed, it’s also light, feels like a very fine veil. Perhaps lovely is the best word to describe this smell. I can also see this as a bridal or baby shower scent. I feel rather impulsive to want a full bottle of this, but it really is lovely.

Day 2 & 3 & 4: been wearing this to work and have decided on purchasing the full bottle.



Caron Sacre EdT
Day 1: fizzy green ish opening that soon turns into darker, heavier florals. Texture is like velvet? Probably it’s the Myrrh that’s contributing to this texture and the warmth? It definitely doesn't feel like a modern fragrance, which it isn't (actually older than me!). Once the scent settles, I get more so a powdery note. But I don’t really get any of the spice notes, perhaps that’s because my sample isn’t a spray vial so I’m missing out on the top notes. I imagine this being the fragrance of a old-school, white table cloth restaurant that enforces a dress code, or like a charity gala or award night.



Miller Harris Fleur de Sel
The very start of the opening was a light bouquet of flowers, with the texture of a tightly weaved linen that’s been washed so much that it’s super soft. Then I smell spices. And none of these are in the commonly perceived notes, which are herbal/aromatic, and salty. I think the combination of herbs and leather might be what gives me the spices impression. One note that I do smell distinctly is vetiver.

Unfortunately I didn’t realize this was a discontinued scent before buying a sample of it. I have a policy of not trying any vintage or discontinued scents in case I fall in love with them…which is exactly what happened here. It has all the elements of what I like in a fragrance for hot weather. I’ve already messaged Miller Harris’ customer service with hopes that there may be a chance for it to come back, but at the very least I can buy 15ml decants on Surrender to Chance (very expensive per ml) or gamble on eBay.



Van Cleef & Arpels Bois d’Iris
It reminds me of several Sylvaine Delacourte scents, there is creamy vanilla, a powdery iris, and the woods. Quite a heavy textured scent, which I’m not feeling in this early summer weather. Will retry when it cools down. Ah I smell some amber in the dry down, nevermind time to skip. I was not diligent enough checking the notes before sampling.



Clinique Aromatic Elixir
Day 1: the opening invokes New York. It’s cool (the vibe, not the temperature). It’s something I want to wear while walking around the shops in Soho and Nolita. It also smells retro…or I guess not modern, which again it isn’t. The scent very much reminds me of soap, but specifically of 肥皂 (soap for washing clothes, as oppose to 香皂, soap for washing yourself). In some whiffs I detect a floral香 as well. It’s a very intriguing scent, and I can’t figure out why I like the smell so much. It’s not really an attractive smell, like florals for example, but it’s just so interesting. It’s dry (as in opposite of sweet) and herbal enough to wear in the heat, so perhaps I’ll wear this instead of resorting to desperate measures to get my hands on Fleur de Sel.

Day 2: got a whiff of the florals in the opening



Serge Luten Iris Silver Mist
It smells like a place. Definitely a familiar smell, but not a perfume. Maybe my maternal grandparent’s place? Smells like a lot of old stuff, but like comforting. The official site’s description mentions that “Iris rhizomes have long been used in Tuscany to perfume linen cupboards”, which matches me imagery. An old closet full of bedding and towels, all clean but have been frequently used for many years. Familiar. It also feels warm to me, which is odd since most reviews mention a cool feeling. Also don’t get a metallic feel either. The earthiness might be what reminds me of my grandparent’s place, since it was humid and often musty (is that the white amber? cause its not as awful as amber but definitely a note that makes me pause) due it being on the ground floor and without AC when I was a kid. 

Don’t think I would want to reach for it often, for when a contemplative mood strikes (aka when I’m tired but can’t sleep). That doesn’t stop me from wanting to own a bottle, thankfully logistics is rightfully preventing me from doing so. Actually…opps I found a good deal for the 30ml, uh oh. Lemmi sit on this. Nevermind, the amber is stronger now and it does really bother me. Hurray for money saved!

ripple

Contrary to my last perfume post, the package I was expecting did not arrive. Or USPS tracking said it was delivered, but it was not. Unless someone stole the package within the 20min that the delivery was timestamped and me arriving me, but I think its more likely that it was a snafu on USPS' part. Except that my claim has been sent around to 3 post office locations with no results. Let's see how this plays out.

That is not to say that I'm without samples to play with. It's the opposite actually, my two other orders arrived, and I've gone to Houston's Le Labo and Aesop store when I realized that I was a block away on my home from Menil.

Today's post will be my first impression of the Le Labo and Aesop scents:

First off, Le Labo samples are so expensive (actually not a surprise), they're $6 each for a standard sample size vial. Luckyscent's samples are almost always $4 ;_; At least the Aesop samples are complimentary, although they're one time use wipes.

I've been wearing Bergamote 22 for the latter half of last week, but the remaining are all blotter impressions:

Aesop Marrakesh Intense
omg I totally know what sandalwood smells like, it’s those scented fans I had as a kid! I like the smell very much, but not sure if I want to wear it as perfume. Can see it as a scent to wear to sleep, most strongly associated with summer evenings. Would be all over this as a home scent tho, a diffuser perhaps?

Aesop Tacit
I smell the yuzu, but then it smells like a generic lemon cleaning product scent.

Aesop Hwyl
oof lots of smokey wood at the opening, which made me discover that I’m not a fan of smokey woods. But once that goes away in 15-20min, it’s a pure coniferous forest smell. I picture myself hiking up Grouse (never again…) an being surrounded by coniferous trees and mist. Not getting the moss tho (but then again…what does moss even smell like), which was the imagery that made me want to try this. This is super fresh, will try again on an unbearably humid day.

Le Labo Rose 31
rose, but green. Not spicy. If I smell really hard, there’s some wood in the background. After about an hour, I’m starting to smell the resemblance to Duke, which I found out is formulated by the same nose (Dauphne Bogey). But this leans a lighter feeling than Duke. Fairly certain I’ll buy one of the two.

Le Labo Bergamote 22
Blotter impression: smells like bergamot briefly at the very beginning, then changes. Not sure what is changes to, but smells nice. About 2 hours in, it’s powdery and soft, which is totally the opposite of what I associate with bergamot. Most reviews I’ve read of Le Labo mentions the lack of relation between the name and main scent, so I’m not surprised. While I do like the scent, it’s nothing special and not what I was looking for. In the dry down, I smells hints of citrus poking though.

Day 1: Very bergamot opening, but like…smooth, almost creamy (as in the texture, not the dairy product smell). I like the opening very much, overall super pleasant. Reminds me of having afternoon tea. Next comes a floral note, can’t identify which flower tho. Blends very smoothly with the bergamot. Still very pleasant, but not remarkable. The scent is already starting to fade (~2 hours)…uh oh.

Day 2: perhaps the longevity is short because the sample vial has a crappy spray. Today is 2 sprays on the back of my neck. It smells the same as day 1, with decent projection (can smell myself). Lasted about 6 hours, it was nice getting whiffs of the smell while it latest.

Day 3: wore this out to site visit to see if a hotter and more humid environment changes the scent. Not really xD Pretty much same smell and performance as Day 2.

Overall impression: pleasant, just very pleasant. Also very inoffensive, I'd feel safe wearing this to client meetings. Will pass on full bottle.

 Another datapoint in my ongoing quest to figure out the correlation / causation between scents and my headaches: I did develop a headache after coming home from these shops. I was not as dehydrated as previous occurrences, so this is at least only a contributing factor. A new factor I'm considering is the intensity of smells, by which I mean in perfume shops I smell a lot of things in a short amount of time. In contrast when I'm sampling at home, I try only 1 or 2 scents a day. 

19.03 Monthly Review-ish

I've wrote it...on the topic of relationship changes...elsewhere.

But here's a quotation that sums up the bulk of the reflection:

Loss is designed to be the catalyst for the more intense appreciation of the here and now

From one of the exhibits at MFAH

...

Maybe this except isn't giving the right mood of my reflection. It was a painful process, for sure, but the temporary resolution I'm quite happy about and satisfied with. I've also come out with deeper knowledge of myself. So it's more of a...it was a great learning experience but never again! Except it will happen again, and again, ad infinitum probably. So perhaps a more accurate categorization is that if faced with those time machine questions (if you could go back to one event and change the outcome), I'd immediately think of this change but decide that it was for the better and not change it.

In a parallel universe, it's true

Feels like I've been trying to catch up with life, never quite getting there tho.

Here's catching up with my liked tracks on Soundcloud:



Guess I'm still at a stage where these lyrics makes my heart tinge.

...

FYI this post is being written approx ~2 weeks before it's posting date. But throughout last week (so 3 weeks ago from when you read this), I was thinking really hard how to answer the casual question of "how are you / how was your weekend / etc" without being false but while being bland. I ended up answering either "lacking sleep", which is the incomplete truth, or "could be better", which cannot ever be false. I think a more satisfying (to myself) answer would be the experience simultaneously being a very good and very bad thing.

orris

I've very recently said that I would sample perfumes slowly...but I threw that discretion out the window and have since made 3 sample orders. The first of which arrived earlier this week so I'm posting my notes from my Saks samples:

L'artisan Parfumeur - Dzhonkha

Day 1
Florals for hours ~2-3
Dry down is warm, bit too warm for my preference
Long lasting, could smell on self after work

Day 2
Opening...sour, don't think was present in the first day. Not sure how to describe the sour? Like a body odour sour? Yoghurt that's been in the fridge too long sour? Not a gross sour, but a...this is past it's prime but still ok sour.

Day 3
No sour smell this time, a hint of fruitiness, just a barest hint, in with the florals?

Overall: on the fence about, aka no full bottle

...

Penhaligon - Much Ado About the Duke

Day 1
Opening very rose, but pleasant to me rose. I get sniffs of peppery-ness, but would not have identified it without reading the notes. To me it's like a...sparkling feeling, a little green. Predominantly rose, and very static.
Applied second time later in the day (~7 hours later), smells much more spicy. Is it because I read reviews that mentions the spiciness?

Day 2
Back to rose opening, but do notice the spiciness in the heart and dry down. Very tenacious perfume, lasts through a hot long shower, I like. Very close to skin, nose needs to be within ~1” to smell it once the opening is gone. Very tempted to buy full bottle…but will try Le Labo Rose 31 before deciding.

Overall: like this a lot better on my skin than on the blotter while in stores. Very tempted to buy full bottle, but will try other spicy rose scents.

...

Penhaligon - Iris Prima

Day 1
Powdery floral opening? I like the first 30 seconds or so quite a lot. But then I remember why I shy away from florals, which is that I can’t stand them in large or long doses without some other element to ground it (like the spices in Duke). I get the ballerina / ballet association with this scent, it’s like the soft, pink stereotype, although I’ve read that the inspiration for this perfume is the opposite, suppose to be the sweat, grit, and daily practice. I also thought I recognized the iris note in this, but not every time that I sniff this. About 10 mins in, I’m starting to smell more…grounding elements? Maybe it’s the leather, although I don’t have a good reference for how leather smells like in perfume, although I do very much know the smell irl. I’ll go with a soft, worn leather ballet flat.

Day 2
~6 hours later: suede! Maybe a suede glove rather than suede shoes. Or even a suede jacket or accessory.

Overall: I like but not enough for full bottle. Also ordered other iris centric fragrances to sample.

...

Penhaligon - The Uncompromising Sohan

Day 1
I like the opening a lot, am ambivalent about the heart, but do enjoy the dry down again. There are also a ton of samples of oud-y rose fragrances in my to-try skin. It’s also the first scent that I associate a seasonality to, this is definitely something I prefer to wear in the winter. It’d be perfect for hiding under blankets. Actually, on that thought, a good scent to apply when you get home, which works out to falling asleep to the dry down notes.

Overall: I like this less on my skin than on the blotter in store, so no full bottle. Will sample other rose-saffron-oud fragrances, particularly excited about trying Amouage.

...

I recall making notes on the other samples I've tried, and on Lord George, but seem to have lost them. From my memory:

• Penhaligon Lord George: my everyday working scent, LBD equivalent? 
• L'artisan Parfumeur Mandarina Corsica: I surprisingly like this, multi-faceted mandarine, with a creamy caramel note that I can actually stand. Will wear the remaining of my sample for Thanksgiving / Christmas.
• L'artisan Parfumeur Passage D'enfer: I'm ambivalent erring on the side of like. It's pleasant but no aspect really stands out to me. Ditto for Timbuku. 
• L'artisan Parfumeur Mirabilis: oh gosh this one I hated. Attempted to wash it off my skin after ~30min, but it was a tenacious scent. Too sweet, which is bad enough, but also resin-y which just made the sweetness even more unbearable. 

...

Overall take-aways:

• I had no idea that I would be into rose. I've written off florals as a whole due to my headaches before, but I'm excited to explore them again
• Iris I still like
• Incense I don't like as much as I initially thought. It adds interest, but I don't want too much of it. Maybe it's because most of the incense is Western incense, which is not the same of my memory of incense in Buddhist temples. 
• Currently ambivalent on heavy woods, maybe it's just the season?

luminance

This weekend's outing: BBQ & more art

The Menil Collection main building

I discovered really cool mobiles by Alexander Calder, and a painting that reminded me of a particular Kyotographie exhibit (plankton macro). I miss that trip ugh.

The Pit Room

The charred green beans are amazing! I'm guessing charred and then braised with drippings from the meat. The sauce is very sour with decent level of spiciness. The pickle(s, there was a pickle bar!) were a relief between all the meat. The meat...well the brisket would be more tender, and the pulled pork is pretty similar to every other pulled pork.

pop

Turns out that the answer to both making and eating granola is buttermilk:

recipe via Serious Eats

Stella has already wrote about the effect of buttermilk in making granola in the linked recipe, so I'll just append that with buttermilk has the perfect consistency (milk is too thin and yogurt, especially greek yogurt, too thick) and a good amount of acidity to team with the granola.