cahn | Network

Posted by Victoria

https://boisdejasmin.com/2025/11/recommend-me-a-perfume-november-2025.html

I’m writing this from a perfumer’s studio in Ternopil. I arrived this morning after a grueling chain of a plane, two trains, and a couple of tense border checks. Now I’m reviving myself with coffee while Sofiya and I smell new indie launches from Shanghai. The electricity is out; the blackout folds itself into the day as naturally as weather. Outside, the low growl of generators blends with the city’s usual soundtrack, a kind of metallic heartbeat.

On my wrist is Lapot Studio’s Narcissus, a mosaic of white petals, cool earth, and green buds. In this dim light, it smells almost luminous. I’m in Ukraine for the rest of the year, working, researching, and writing. I’ll be documenting the journey on my Substack—quick dispatches from the road, and longer essays that weave together Ukraine’s everyday reality with the craft of perfumery.

For those following along, look for:

The First 50 Materials for Your Perfumer’s Palette

My Rituals to Stay Focused

Guerlain Shalimar at 100: the anatomy of an icon

Our “Recommend Me a Perfume” thread is open this week. You can use this space to find perfume recommendations, to share your discoveries and favorite scents, and to ask any questions about scents, aromas and flavors. Or you can just tell us what perfume you are wearing. If you received recommendations from this thread, please let us know what you sampled.

How does it work: 1. Please post your requests or questions as comments here. You can also use this space to ask any fragrance related questions. To receive recommendations that are better tailored to your tastes, you can include details on what you like and don’t like, your signature perfumes, and your budget. And please let us know what you end up sampling. 2. Then please check the thread to see if there are other requests you can answer. Your responses are really valuable for navigating the big and sometimes confusing world of perfume, so let’s help each other!

To make this thread easier to read, when you reply to someone, please click on the blue “reply” link under their comment.

Photography by Bois de Jasmin

The post Recommend Me a Perfume : November 2025 appeared first on Bois de Jasmin.

https://boisdejasmin.com/2025/11/recommend-me-a-perfume-november-2025.html

https://boisdejasmin.com/?p=33313

james_davis_nicoll

Just as the Great Fire of Rome was a boon for the building trade, so too will a modern catastrophe be a boon for used book stores.

The Coming Golden Age of Used Books

myveryown_nemesis

Good Morning, you Beautiful People!

I have a very ADHD-forward brain today, so I'm glad that my to do list is light:

go grocery shopping (list already made)
shop for a new mouth guard
take the car to the wash

I'm feeling a bit wired today (due to the ADHD brain action), but not to the point of feeling twitchy, so I should be okay on the urge/craving front, but if something does rear up, I know to ride the wave, and to play the tape forward. It's nice to be aware of when my brain is being a bit odd, so that I can be prepared for the potentionally poor decisions I could be making.

I hope that you find something beautiful in your day, and as always, thank you for being here!

minoanmiss

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

cimorene

Last week I spent all five days out of the house, 9 am to 3 pm, at a course designed to help job seekers. I was hoping for this to be more immediately helpful to me than it was; the last one I went to had time blocks for comparing positives and negatives to decide what kind of places to apply, compiling a list, and creating separate cover letters and CVs, all with counselor feedback; but it lasted longer. These are all things that I know how to do but which are much easier to do with external structure because of executive dysfunction! ( Read more... ) I did not learn much last week, though I did get a few tips about modifying my CV. I found the week surprisingly nice, though - way too draining (I didn't have the energy to do anything else all week), but it was pretty comfortable. I liked the other people and would have been happy to keep seeing them.

After one week where I was too exhausted to do anything, after having been in the habit of near-daily sweeping and vacuuming of the kitchen/dining Sipuli enclosure where I spend the day and Wax sleeps at night, there were a staggering amount of dust bunnies today. I spent a long time sweeping and vacuumed a bit (until the vacuum needed charging). Then I took the rinsed recycling from the draining cupboard where it drips dry, because it was starting to leap out whenever you opened the cabinet door, and I also washed the counters and the sink. That was extremely fun and exciting for Sipuli. She got the zoomies and zipped around sniffing things and warbling at me and playing for a couple of hours. (She is back inside the duvet tent against the radiator now, though.)

A week ago we also finally gave up on the triplets telling us what kind of sweaters they would like (these are their 18th birthday present from last summer: Sweater of Your Choice. I tried spamming them with pictures and suggestions for months. Ciara picked a mariniere and a color combination, but the others didn't even make a peep). We also could not get a response on 'When can we come to your house and measure your teenagers' or 'Could you measure the length and width of a sweatshirt from each of them' from Wax's brother, so we finally just asked for generic size class (M for all three) and then decided to guess. Wax and I picked the patterns and the colors for the two remaining sweaters. She is working on Ciara's sweater and I have started one of the others, and already managed to knit too many hours in a row (in spite of not even having made it down from the neck opening to the underarms yet) so my right shoulder was feeling stiff. So now I'm trying to knit for shorter blocks of time and do other things in between, to avoid hurting myself so badly that I have to stop knitting entirely again.

Due to the aforementioned exhaustion we've only gone out for me to practice driving our car once so far, and I was disconcerted that it was pitch black and I couldn't see the inside of the car. Everything's different, including the gear shift! Driving in daylight in this season will require a little more work though, since the sun is up from about 8-16:30. Wax is working too late this week.

scripsi

I haven’t written any fanfic in a long time, and I feel I need to get back into it. I know from experience it’s good for my mental wellbeing to write, and as the world continues to hassle us, I need what I can get to feel good. I had been thinking of signing up for Yuletide, but completely missed the sign-up window. But when I checked what other people wish for, I found 2 letters that gave me ideas. So I will try to get those done as treats. I’ll try to write 300 words every day. More if I get in a flow, of course, but 300 words is doable even days with little writing time.

Fanfic meme gakked from all over my f-list.

From your AO3 Works page, look at the tags and find the answers to these questions.

I currently have 123 works published, in 28 fandoms.

1. Under what rating do you write most?
Teen and up audience, with 47 works.

I thought Explicit or Mature would be on top, but they are number 3 and 4. But as it is my longer fics that tends to get that rating, while my one-shots usually have a lower rating, that isn’t so surprising.

2. What are your top 3 fandoms?

Doctor Who with 32 fics.
Peter Pan with 17 fics.
And Harry Potter and Versailles both come third with 8 fics each.

Peter Pan was my first big fandom in the early 2000s, and Doctor Who my second one, ten years later, so no surprise with those. I was also super into Versailles for a bit, so that’s not odd either. But I’ve never really been very big on Harry Potter. I was over 30 when I first read the series, and I never really thought they were particularly well-written, though I was hooked enough to read every new book. But 3 of my fics are written as part of a re-mix challenge, so I didn’t really choose which fandom I would match on.

3. Which character do you write about most?

Captain Hook, who is in all my Peter Pan-fics. The Delgado version of the Master comes second, and River Song third. Though if you want to argue that the Master is the same character regardless of regeneration s/he is definitely my most written one, in 30 fics in total.

4. What are the 3 top pairings you've written?

On shared first place are Wendy Darling/James Hook (Peter Pan), Sophie de Clermont/Fabien Marchal (Versailles) and The Master/River Song (Doctor Who), who all have 7 fics each. Second pairing is Beth Harmon/Vasily Borgov (The Queen’s Gambit) with 6 fics. And third place are Evy Carnahan O'Connell/Rick O'Connell and Imhotep/Evy Carnahan O'Connell (The Mummy), and Vanessa Ives/Sir Malcolm Murray (Penny Dreadful) with 3 fics each.

5. What are the top 3 additional tags?

On shared first place I have Humor, Angst, Dark, which have 14 fics each. Second is Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence with 9 fics, and in third place is Spanking with 8. Which I feel gives a pretty good general overview over my fanfics.

jazzyjj posting in

awesomeers

It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!

Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

spikedluv

Season two is now over, which is a bummer. I enjoy this show, but there are only 6 episodes (and with them airing two a week, that meant they were over quickly). I commented about the first four eps of s1 previously, so here are my comments on the rest of s1 and all of s2. With some bonus screencaps | promo shots.

~*~

Emily Lane, played by Sarah Drew.

( 3 more back here )

( episode comments )

If you have any interest in a Christmas-themed murder mystery, I recommend this show. Here are some links if you want to learn more:

About Mistletoe Murders (hallmark.com)

Sarah Drew Talks Hallmark+ Series ‘Mistletoe Murders’ (telltaletv.com) (from Nov 2024)

Also, also! I learned that Cobie Smulders voiced Emily in the audible series! I thought that was neat.

spikedluv

We slept late this morning (7am *g*). My excuse was that I didn’t sleep well during the night. In the middle of the night I woke up experiencing some unpleasant symptoms of gastric paralysis, which I haven’t had but once since I switched from Ozempic to Trulicity. I felt off all morning and took several naps. I finally felt better after my noontime nap, when I got up at 1:30pm to put supper in the oven. I didn’t eat anything until supper, just drank water, but I did, thankfully, start to feel hungry.

Symptoms, for my own information

I woke up in the middle of the night experiencing sour burbs, gas, and the feeling that I might have to vomit. Every time I woke up I had these experiences. The sour burps continued all morning. I did not vomit, but I did have diarrhea all morning. I also had no appetite and zero interest in eating, and was super tired. Enough that I laid down between chores and took three separate ‘naps’.

I did three loads of laundry, hand-washed dishes, ran a load in the dishwasher, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, and changed kitty litter. I roasted a chicken for supper, which was delicious and I was thankfully hungry enough to eat and enjoy.

I read fanfic and watched Mistletoe Murders. Zoo North Carolina was my evening background tv.

Temps started out at 32.7(F) and reached 41.2. We had snow in the morning when the temps were still in the 30s, then some rain when it hit 40s, then back to snow. Nothing heavy that accumulated, thankfully.

Mom Update:

Mom sounded good today. She had a friend visiting when I called her, so we didn’t talk long. Sister A took her to her treatment today. (I thought it was strange that they’d schedule a Sunday treatment, but apparently they didn’t want to skip a few days to get her final treatment in. (If they only did M, T, W this week, she’d have to wait until M next week for her final treatment.) She’s really looking forward to her last day!

oursin

Happy birthday,

claudine and

littlered2!

viridian5

Saiyuki gen: “Wanted” [@ AO3]
RATING: PG-13.
SUMMARY: People keep wanting him for things.
NOTES: This is about a year before “Compulsion” took place and doesn’t involve Hakkai and Gojyo. The “Where’s Roscoe?!” Bell Environmental pest control commercials have been on NYC TV for years.
I’ve had bits of this fic dancing in my head since October and they wouldn’t go away, so here it is. Thank you to

akira17 for beta.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: "Slipping Away" by Stabbing Westward

vriddy

Editing a fic in which one of the characters has an eyepatch and replacing ~~too~~ many instances of "eyes" with "eye".

Only singular orbs in this house!!

flo_nelja

Catégorie : La Bonne Auberge de la Pierre Levée (Fantasy - Quête - Médiéval - JDR - Livre dont vous êtes le héros - Voyageur - Musique)

J'ai lu les cinq premiers tomes, et je ne suis toujours pas arrivé au bout du premier arc. Ce sera, normalement, cinq arcs de six tomes chacun, un pour chaque pays.
Il y a cinq continents, peuplés par différentes espèces anthropomorphiques. On part sur les félins, mais il y a aussi les singes, les cerfs, les ours et les reptiles.

Et ensuite, c'est principalement de la politique compliquée, avec une monarchie chez les félins (je ne sais pas si les autres pays sont différents), plein de trahisons, d'intimidation, de magouilles, de coups d'état, de drama familial, etc. (ça a été comparé à Games of Thrones, mais je n'ai pas vu Game of Thrones).

Au début j'avais un peu de mal avec le taux de mortalité ; souvent dès qu'on avait l'impression de comprendre un personnage, peut-être même de commencer à l'apprécier, il ou elle mourait d'une mort horrible. Puis après les tomes ça s'est tassé, on s'est mis à avoir quelques personnages stables avec une capacité à évoluer sur la durée. Toujours aucun auquel je suis émotionnellement attachée, mais plusieurs que je trouve intéressants, et c'est déjà pas mal !
Je pense avancer encore, mais le tome 6 était emprunté la dernière fois que je suis allée à la bibliothèque.

Ca a un peu le problème de Blacksad et autres animaux anthropomorphisés, que les personnages fémiins ont des cheveux et des seins, mais ce n'est pas au niveau de Blacksad (surtout que le premier arc se passe chez les félins, et pour tous les personnages lions, ce sont les mâles qui ont des cheveux, pour des raisons évidentes)

thatguy62 posting in

1character

Character: Ingus
Fandom: Final Fantasy III
Theme set: Zeta
Rating: E10
Warnings: N/A
( Read more... )

astronomypicofday_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251123.html

How far can you see?

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251123.html

kaffy_r

Music Meme, Day 13

The first song that plays on shuffle:

Well, the first difficulty is that I, being monotonously linear, don't use shuffle. I think I've used shuffle on my winamp list (yes, that's how old I am; I love winamp) once, and I stopped using it almost immediately. I like organizing my lists in a way that makes sense to me. So I thought I'd have to scratch this entry. Next, I thought I'd just pick one of the songs that are halfway through my current 111-song list.

But then I thought I'd try to be true to the meme. I toggled "shuffle" and waited for the first song. It turned out to be Stray Kids' recent piece, "Ceremony."

Welp. It's one of the rare SKZ pieces that I respect, but not one I'd necessarily introduce a Stray Kids newbie. Still, rules are rules, and here you go. It really is a good song. It's just not one of my multitudinous SKZ favorites.

Watch on YouTube

So I'll also include one of the songs I pinpointed as being smack dab in the middle of my list, or at least as smack dab as an uneven list allows. It's a piece by the Irish duo Saint Sister, called "Causing Trouble." I think I might have shown the actual music video for the song at some point in the past, but this is their live performance of it, many years ago. It's definitely one that I love, and sing along to. They're whip smart and lovely.

Watch on YouTube

And I'm just going to link you to the last meme entry I made, so that you can catch up on previous entries, should you desire.

Current Mood: exanimate
Current Location: the living room
Current Music: RM "Everything Goes"

sholio

The n-OH-vember Flash Exchange revealed, and I am delighted with my gift!

A Momentary Thing (Biggles/EvS, 3100 wds)
Absolutely delightful and satisfying enemies-era forced drugging/rescue. Bittersweet and delicious.

In other news, evidently Paletteful Packs (makers of curated art supply boxes) are going out of business and having a sale. However, the two things I attempted to buy both came up as "out of stock" when I clicked to add them to the cart (though this was not otherwise indicated) and after that I gave up. So either my choices were uniquely unlucky, or a bunch of items appear to be available for purchase on the website but actually aren't.

queenlua

"Verso," Sciel says, smiling brightly, "I'm starting to think you don't want our little expedition to succeed."

---

Verso’s working toward another end. Sciel won’t let it happen.

Set during Act 3.

Sciel &/ Verso, ~7k words.

Read here on AO3.

( author's notes (very full of spoilers for the fic!) )

torachan

1. Last week when I was reorganizing stuff in the shed, we went over some items and decided we no longer needed to keep them, but since it was still raining off and on, I didn't put them out at the time. Today I got them out on the curb, along with a box of ornaments we decided we no longer want, so hopefully those all get picked up soon.

2. I did some cleaning out of kitchen cupboards and fridge drawers yesterday and today. There were a lot of snacks that are expiring within the next week or so and Carla's out of town and I'm not going to eat them on my own, so I took them up to the Little Free Library that's been converted to a mini food pantry and they were already all gone the next time I took a walk.

3. Look at this sweet Chloe.