Happy Holidays and see you next year!

Have a wonderful holiday, everyone! I plan on seeing my mom and step-dad, going to some parties, hanging out at a cabin in the woods, and relaxing away from the computer as much as possible. I hope you all have joyful and fun holiday plans, too!

I think my holiday perfumes will probably include a lot of my new crush, vintage Beloved by Prince Matchabelli. I also really want to wear Comme des Garcons Avignon out in the woods. And since I won't be going to work for a whole week, I'll probably wear a lot of skanky wonders, like Muscs Koublai Khan. I'll also be enjoying my new set of travel sprays I finally got in the mail from Ormonde Jayne--I finally broke down and bought Champaca at their Thanksgiving sale. Basmati rice is just as comforting a scent as any old vanilla! OOOhh, and I will be testing a lovely set of Amouage perfumes that I got from a way generous swapper (thanks, Sherri!) during the Perfume Posse swaparama over Thanksgiving.

Fifi Chachnil, Or, A Flirty Angora Sweater Scent Is All the Tobacco Manliness I'll Ever Need

I've finally gotten around to testing Fifi Chachil's eponymous fragrance, and I've realized that all my searching for the perfect tobacco scent was an eyes-too-big-for-my-stomache situation. I kept trying tobacco scents and never found the right one. Tabac Aurea is lovely but too sweet, La Via del Profumo's Tabac is too butch, Hilde Soliani's Bel'Antonio is too brooding ... you get the picture. An all-out tobacco scent is something I really *thought* I should like, because I love the smell of a pipe-tobacco store that I used to visit in Harvard Square. I didn't really want a tobacco scent, though. I wanted the tobacco backdrop setting the stage. This is why I love Habanita, and that's -- O-KAY.

Fifi Chachnil edp is straight-up pin-up girl in the top notes, but the coriander keeps it from straying toward the gooey, and its green-spicey tartness bridges the tobacco with the rest of the girlie notes. It doesn't rely on the amber except to create a slight angora-sweater fuzz around that tobacco. The only thing that is a tiny bit disappointing is that in the far drydown, I get mostly amber, not the lovely melding of amber and tobacco that I smell earlier in the scent's development. I love the juxtaposition of tobacco and rosy floral, and I think I can put my tobacco hunt down for good.

Some other reviews of Fifi Chachnil are at Perfume Smellin' Things and Legerdenez.

Obvious perfume observation of the day (OPOD)

My obvious perfume observation of the day: many body lotion formulations of amazing perfumes just don't work at all. I'm curious about which you all feel do and do not work, if you have experience with such weighty and significant matters!

Body lotions that seem to work: florals or chypres without dissonant or aldehydic topnotes, like Joy de Patou, or Le Dix by Balenciaga. Both of these have wonderful body lotions. My Miss Dior body lotion is gooooorrgeous.

Body lotions that don't work: aldehydes or salicylates seem to be particularly difficult to pull off in body lotion form. This is just a guess on the actual cause of the problem, but both YSL's Rive Gauche and Lancome's Magie Noire body lotions were nasty and urinous on me. It could be just a problem with the quality of the ingredients, though. Chanel #5 in the body oil is just...weird, and not at all like the perfume. It doesn't smell bad, exactly, just...oddly loud and herbal. Some fruits can be a problem too, as revealed in my much-longed-for Philosykos body lotion, which smells distinctly like cat pee for a few minutes after my shower. Ew.

I remember the discussion of formulation problems for the different versions of Sarah Jessica Parker's Lovely in A Perfect Scent, and I am guessing that lotion formulations are prone to disaster. Does anyone else have this problem? What body lotions do and don't work for you?