Frankincense, Myrrh, DSH, and other scented Christmas gifts

Have you ever heard it said that the gifts given by the three wisemen are representative of perfume? Or is it only perfume people who start making connections like that?
Frankincense and myrrh are both heavily fragranced incenses, and the third gift was the gift of gold (given by Caliban? I have no idea), signifying the flacon, or the vessel for the perfume.

I am very much not a Christ child, but scented gifts do tend to figure prominently in my Christmas wish list.
I haven’t tried any of the following, but here’s an inventory of what I received (you’ll be happy to hear that it involves a lot of DSH and Zoologist, two brands that I’ve been meaning to explore and have a tendency to go on about).

From DSH:

• Tsukimi, Foxy, Au Lait, Musc al Madina, Indus, La Belle Saison, Reveries de Paris, April, Poppy, Peony, Habibi (I want to name my next pet Habibi or Rasputin), Chinchilla, L‘Etole de vison, Chataignes du bois, Arabesque, Rendezvous, Une Robe de Zibeline, and Mirabella.
• As well as a few exciting extras, Dawn is super generous with samples!

From Annick Goutal:

• Ce Soir Ou Jamais

Zoologist:

• A mini bottle of Hummingbird ( ❤ ), having drained my previous decant
• Camel, Elephant, Civet, Dragonfly, Nightingale

Everything is a sample size unless otherwise stated. So excited to play with these ^.^

Links from the USA

Happy Christmas Eve Eve! I arrived home yesterday afternoon and am super jet lagged and being treated to a very New England ice storm.

It’s excellent.  We’re going to see The Last Jedi tonight and I think my excitement will be such that I will stay awake.  I’ve heard lots of interesting things about it but have so far avoided any spoilers.

I have a healthy (and scented!) collection of links this week!

• Quentin Bisch on “a journey to dreams and emotions” and what it means to be a Givaudan-trained perfumer.
• Why perfume descriptions are never about smell (hint- it involves the close link between fragrance and memory)
• The Cult of Le Labo Santal 33. I think it smells like cucumber.
• Zoologist has some new releases– I think Camel sounds very appealing.

The year-end photo compendiums are coming in, here are two favorites…

• The Most 2017 Photos Ever
• The Most Hilarious Wildlife Photos of 2017

On the fashion front:

• What did happen to jeans in 2017? Honestly, whatever it was, I kind of liked it.
• An Instagram account I’ve started following, which gorgeously marries art and fashion/cosmetics.
• Finding one’s sense of style really is a personal journey. I don’t think I could truly define my style beyond ‘things that make me happy and that I like wearing’.

And the more miscellaneous:

• What did you learn this year? I loved reading the comments.
• The Ocean’s 8 trailer has me excited.
• Pantone’s Spring 2018 color trend forecast.
• Some great gift ideas for francophiles (ahem, me) via My Little Paris.
• Excited to see Swing Time on this list of the world’s coolest playgrounds. It inspired me to search for Imagination Station and discover that it was in fact a thing and not just a figment of my childhood imagination. Now that was a playground.
• This clip of the original Fantasia just blew my mind.
• Keeping the NYC Vogue scene alive.
• How to wrap a cat.

Very Late Links

There’s a lot to say right now, the main thing being that, because of a random five-day weekend (!) I was in Milan until a few hours ago. So all blog posts were postponed (haha, let’s just pretend I’ve been keeping up with a regular posting schedule).  Also it looks like a yogurt in my fridge has gone missing.

So there will be future posts about Milan, but for now I have links crowding my bookshelf section, and it is my plan to dump those on you, as is my weekend ritual.

• A Call Me By Your Name clip (Because I’m excited, if you haven’t noticed from the previous ~20 times I’ve mentioned the film).
• I have a certain optimistic and inspiring new friend in France, and these pencils are really calling out to me as a Christmas gift for him (too bad I’ve already bought him something!) (Better). But if you have some Secret Santa business in your future, I recommend!
• I’m SO INTO this sultry incense holder (No. 69, of course).
• All the different shapes and sizes that families come in continues to inspire me. Read about the personal experience of a surrogate mother.
• Another short film makes me cry… the hope, the pain, the sacrifice.
• What does your life soundtrack look (sound) like?
  This may be an upcoming list…
• Trying out different morning routines… what’s yours?
• Upcoming in Paris, this surreal poetic watery underworld. I need to go.

Christmas Conspiracies

The lead up to Christmas is always my favorite part of the whole holiday.  The anticipation, scents, and sounds make me so happy that I can almost forget the winter world is a cruel and barren wasteland.
And then it ends and, not being a fan of New Year’s, I feel quite adrift.
All there is to look ahead to is my eventual return to university and that is not a rosy prospect.  It’s not that I’m bored or lack for things to do. But I feel wistful and a bit depressed.  There aren’t so many bright colors or maniacally forced happiness and I honestly miss it.
So my cynicism, which I hold at bay during most of the Christmas season, returns in one big and apathetically bitter landslide.

Stocking Stuffers for a Girl like Me

Pictured: My stocking and Dad’s stocking with Mom’s substitute stocking in the middle (her traditional one is getting a tad delicate).

My stocking is the best stocking ever because my Mom sewed it around the time I was born.  It’s also kind of obnoxiously large compared to my parents’.  Dad has a small pharaoh-themed one because he spent a lot of time in Egypt in his twenties. Mom’s is old and scraggly and red with peeling glitter glue that spells her name.  It’s quite lovely, really.

I decorated the whole tree today to surprise them when they get back from work, and also as some much-needed post fans therapy.  It’s the worst thing about college finals.  I don’t like Christmas nearly so much as I love the lead up and anticipation and carols and crowds and whole season.  So now I’m going for full on immersion.
And don’t worry, I’m not neglecting my pleasure reading! I’ve already finished With Borges by Alberto Manguel today (recommended) and was inspired to add many similar books to my To Read list (currently an overstuffed 436).

But back to stockings! I remember when I was little there was always the wonderfulness of unearthing from my stocking handfuls of gelt, fruit, and delicious Hershey Kisses.  One of the worst things about growing up, or at least the particular way in which I grew up, and my struggles with anorexia, was the loss of this happiness.  We have to let go of a lot of things as we get older, because things change and sometimes because we change.

But thankfully there are still little treats that can make you smile. For someone like me, I think the following little odds and ends are nice ideas.

My Xmas Wishlist

(I edited the Christmas Specials list to include Trading Places with Eddie Murphy- not sure how I forgot about that one! I am amiss!)

But I’ve finished my finals- finished the last one 4 hours and twenty minutes ago as of right now and I’m celebrating with a blog post and not lighting up because of who I am as a person even though I’m going home (!) and marijuana is legal there now (!).

It’s time to enjoy my respite from not-numbing-enough anxiety and round the clock studying to bathe in the golden and bedecked rampant consumerism that is one of my favorite things about Christmas.  I really liked gifts. Both getting and giving.  If I don’t think too much about the whole confusion that is the nature of the reciprocity social contract. But it’s kind of okay on my side because I tend to be the kind of person who, no matter what, will get the best present for someone in any given circumstance. It’s okay to hate me.