A Book of Rogues and Imposters

So back in 2010, I ordered a limited edition Arcana Soaps perfume. It was Monsieur Lapin ("A wild jackrabbit blend of warm ginger, black vanilla, Atlas cedarwood, bergamot, soft musk, cardamom, a pinch of patchouli, and a tiny nip of oakmoss."), and my complaint at the time was that on my wrists, he smelled of lemon and cedar, whilst on my cleavage, he smelled of carrot cake. A lot.

Fast forward to 2012, and my ordering a second bottle for Veggie.

Fast forward again to 2014, and the renaissance of the journalling perfume geeks, which inspired me to mine in The Boxes for the collection of vials and bottles, and our determining that while she still liked the '09 era Monsieur, Veggie did not like the '12.

So I brought the bottle north with me to hand over to gingerschnapps for testing purposes.

Her wrists smell like lemon and cedar. :D

Hmn. M's let me wander through and sniff/apply her Le Labo samples.

My pulls from her collection were the Santal 33 and the Ambrette 9, with an intention to sniff the Fleur d'Oranger 27, the Bergamote 22, the Neroli 36 and then see if vetiver still smells like 'nope!' in the Vetiver 46*.

*: Spoiler: yup!

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So there's an indie perfume from ZOMG Smells called Chocolate Orange Cordial. On the Dormouse, it goes this very lovely boozy orange with rich backnotes.

On me, it smells _exactly_ like one of those chocolate oranges you get around Christmas. I could probably get a 'Woman, why you smell like Christmas?' out of Zach with no effort.

I admit it's mildly tempting to buy an imp of the stuff just to troll him. >.>

Note to self: try to avoid sneezing while holding a mostly-full mug of mango-passionfruit tisane.

*mops hand, also couch*

The failing light aside, I really, really like this season; it's full of pleasing shapes, colours and smells.

I couldn't tell you if I like the perfumes I do because of my mild thing about pumpkin spice lattes, or if I like pumpkin spice lattes because of my thing about those smells.

This message brought to you by ordering stuff from the Soap Box Company, finishing the order, and then running across a whipped soap line that includes:

Nevermore: Beautifully warm brandy and comforting cedar envelope you - keep out the weary and dreary chill of December with a woodsy scent, mingled with dark amber, embers and apple.

NYC Chestnuts & Brown Sugar: Hot roasted chestnuts are nestled in a swirl of brown sugar. Made with organic sugar for a gentle exfoliation. The colder the weather the better, when you have this warm scent to comfort you!

and

Spice Market: A rich blend of clove, orange, vanilla, and amber. The top is fruity, but rather than being sweet, it has the richness of dried fruits. In the middle, the orange and vanilla combine to give the warm scent a nice dollop of cream, and holding it all up are the bass notes of the clove, amber, and a small hint of cinnamon. Mildly spicy, contains real nutmeg, allspice and cardamom.

So I like foody and fall-themed perfumes. I'm sure you're all shocked.

--

Specialist-physio gave me new exercises Wednesday, which I've been doing to the full ten reps three times a day she asked for. My hips hate me and desire my suffering.

Mind you, that might have something to do with Wednesday evening's class, too. >.> Not least in failing to eat my reformer while doing one-handed stuff.

(My bad arm is also not so thrilled with me.)

In other news, klgaffney asked if I'd be willing to collect a core-strength list o'exercises to share with her. Anyone else interested?

So I did an hour and a half of pilates this morning, then drove three+ hours all on my own. To see my father (and brother).

Nothing exploded, my elbow wants to fall off, I ain't talking about how much I don't want to do my damned exercises, but dammit, at least I still smell like kung fu*.



*: Technically I still smell like Shambhala, which is sandalwood, cedarwood and a touch of honey. Which is awesome in combination with the beeswax, olive oil, and shea butter lotion bar I picked up at the Saturday farmer's market downtown.

Veggie and I coordinated with dormouse_in_tea on an order in later September, and sniffed the things today.

Perfumes ordered were Caffeinated Death, Kincardine Maiden, Skeleton Key and Straightjacket by Arcana Soaps. And Villainess' Autumn Gala Whipped body lotion, because I sometimes have a lotion problem.

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I smell interesting*. This gives me an absurd amount of glee.

I suspect stories are jealous, horrible Creatures. This thought currently brought to you by my full intention to work on Witches' Horses over the vacation (I was hoping for a rough draft of the Falcon's Feather adaption, and would have settled for a complete outline), and instead getting my head munched on--idly--by the Wild Roses universe.
So I spent most of my more lucid moments pondering the role of the Navy in general, and especially the role navigators and gunners play. This was sparked at least in part by my finding pirates of the Spanish Main books to supplement my Russian history reading. (If anyone wonders why I seem to be slightly Cracked in the best of times, you can probably attribute it to my reading habits.)

Considering the actual history, I'm somewhat surprised the Russian Fairy Tales don't include rather a lot more wars, and the various upheavals and shifting of the princes. It was rare for a city to spend twenty consecutive years under the rule of one prince, or one prince's family line. If they didn't get their silly selves deposed by their brothers (and/or nephews in collusion with their brothers), they got themselves killed fighting wars with the nomads, each other, the Polish, the Hungrians and occasionally Byzantium. Mostly each other. I also suspect the name 'Mstislav' is Cursed. There were up to three in damn near every generation of the prince-families, and at least one of them usually ended up either aiming for the throne in Kiev himself, or helping someone else get there.

But the fairy tales, even the ones that mention tzars, don't give that impression. They're . . almost timeless--the Tzar exists, but he's often not named, or described as anything other than the Tzar. It's interesting. :)



*: DEVIL’S NIGHT -- Devil’s Eve, Devil’s Night, Gate Night, Trick Night, Mischief Night; whatever your name for it might be, the chaos is still the same. Contrary to popular belief, this festival of pandemonium isn’t unique to Detroit. Falling on October 30th, it is an evening of mayhem and destruction. On the gentler side, it may be celebrated by practical jokes, an egging, Ding-Dong-Ditch, or enthusiastic TP’ing of your most hated neighbor’s trees, and on the more violent side, arson and vandalism. This is the scent of autumn night, fires in the distance, with a touch of boozy swoon, playful sugar and thuggish musk. ( a limited edition purchased here )