Aznavour

Wazamba -- As reported: fruit, incense, resin. Very balanced and a fine incense entry but has a sharp, resinous edge that (while very well-done) powers its monumental sillage to the point where it's a bit uncomfortable to wear.
Eau Radieuse -- Best lime peels ever. Too bad it's overpriced. The ribbon on those H&G bottles is tacky.
Olene -- Sharp honeysuckle-jasmine, but it's all top and no bottom.
Jasmin Full -- Photorealistic jasmine sambac head, very green, also no bottom....

Visited Aedes for the first time -- well, am in NYC for the first time full stop! Love how lines are grouped together; I find it more engaging than doing it by "category" as Scent Bar does, which tends to make me forget what I came to the store for. I came there to test stuff that I don't have access to in LA but I mostly just admired the visual displays of Annick Goutals and L'Artisans, and went on to re-try stuff I'd already been considering.

The younger guy was...

Off to New England for two weeks and after teeth-gnashing and anxiety about the heat and humidity (I can do heat; humidity not so much) have decided to take decants of a pair of vetivers (Encre Noire, Guerlain Vetiver), two citrus/greens (MetB Green, Jo Malone Lime), and what I fondly think of as fragrant tropical mud, Manoumalia, because for sure that one blooms beautifully in the heat.

Am wearing Daim Blond on the midnight flight, though. Hmm, cozy.

I rarely go to Scent Bar even though I live fairly close by (in LA terms anyway), partly because the traffic on the way back can be horrendous and partly because, frankly, it's one surefire way for me to spend money I should save for, you know, life.

But any one hour there is just delightful and exploratory. This afternoon I powered through my to-try list, and among them:

Delrae Bois de Paradis: Not as fruity as I expected but has a smooth amber drydown that's completely...

Felt a quake a few nights ago, maybe a 2.0 or less, and when I get up the next morning I see on the news that part of San Bernardino is on fire, again. Hmm, what perfume to wear for a typical California July?

(Someone really needs to create a fragrance that smells like slightly burnt chaparral and displaced rocks.)

The Miller et Bertaux Green has been doing its duty. It has excellent vibrancy in the heat and while its presence isn't what I'd call pronounced it has...