Summer favorites list, and signing off, at least for a while

I might as well admit it: as my reluctant and sporadic posting suggests, I have lost the will to blog, folks. I still love perfume, and love reading all my fellow perfumistas' clever and fascinating perspectives on perfume. I love reading about new discoveries and vintage treasures, but I think I may have reached a saturation point in my own life with perfume, and writing about it in this format isn't the joy it used to be. Perfume is still a solace, a delight, a charm of protection, a call to the hunt, and a disquieting mystery. I think I just need to explore it in different ways, and am not very articulate about the experience right now.

See you on the (other) blogs!
Aimee

Here's a summer favorites list to sign off with:

Kiehl's Original Musk
For some reason this used to smell very powdery and uninteresting to me, but now it's just the right mixture of sweetness, salty skin, and hippie funk.

Givenchy Le De vintage eau de toilette
I've been a fan of the reissued "Mythiques" version of Le De for a year or two now, but I never had the chance to try the vintage until recently. It's a lovely, slightly melancholy, minor-key garden-herb jasmine in the eau de toilette.

Ormonde Jayne Champaca
As always, I find the basmati rice and creamy florals in this scent to be supremely comforting but never boring. It makes me feel luscious!

Gucci edp II
This is a new and oddball scent in my collection, but for some reason I keep falling for it. Berries and greenery, then it disappears. But for some reason, it satisfies my heretofore-unheard-of craving for a light berry summer fragrance for the office.

L'Artisan Parfumeur Dzing!
Great in the winter, and scarily great in 100-degree summers, this is the furry masterpiece I never want to be without.

Vero Kern Onda extrait
When I read the notes list, at first I thought: mace? Like the medieval weapon? Like that sledgehammer spice that seems to pop up only in brick-weighted holiday fruit bread? Nope, like velvet, this is. A more dangerous, transporting, and seductive use of spice and vetiver I have never experienced, and it works in the summer just as well as in the winter.

Givenchy eau de toilette, vintage
Let's see, there's oakmoss, more sweet, bergamot-tinged oakmoss, with a little tender florals in there somewhere. And oakmoss. The perfect summer cologne for those of us who can do without the citrus.

Annick Goutal Un Matin d'Orage eau de toilette
Resisting the urge to hoard much more of this right now. The bitter shiso and petrichor in the topnotes just hooks me every time. Then it subsides into an unsweet but somehow creamy and green floral. Definitely not a perfume to buy unsniffed, but I'm addicted to it.

Miller Harris Un Petit Rien eau de cologne
A more translucent and summery version of L'Air de Rien, or "the lair" as I like to call it. Still very recognizably the skank-monster's little sister, but she opens the windows to let some fresh air in once in a while.

Donna Karan Chaos eau de parfum
Tangy chamomile, woody cinnamon, and musky, nongourmand cardamom are the strongest impressions I get from this strange but compelling perfume. I have to admit after comparing it to my tiny sample of Dawn Spencer Hurwitz's sadly discontinued version, Anarchy, I find the DSH slightly better blended, because the cinnamon quality is a little less linear and overwhelming in Dawn's version. But nonetheless, this is a great example of one of my favorite categories: oddball comfort scents.