Category: Looking and Smelling Good

The last couple of years before retirement, I noticed that I backed off on wearing makeup and using perfume. When retirement hit, the only times I put on war paint and sprayed on scent were Sunday mornings or going out somewhere.

Moving to Florence 4 years ago triggered something. While I had gotten comfortable with sweatshirts and jeans, and the natural look, such was not always the case down South. I would run into Wendy’s for a quick carry-out, and would stand in awe at what women wore. Holy mackerel, the little old ladies were dressed to the nines and the 4-year-olds had big-ass bows in their hair. Then as I started to explore my new surroundings, I was astounded at the number of dress and jewelry boutiques, hair and nail salons (all usually within feet of each other) that I started counting. Yes, there are still the ladies who wear the ‘bama or Auburn t-shirts and jeans, but the toes were pedicured in those flip-flops.

Sigh. My DC clothes didn’t transplant well: solemn one-color dresses and uppity tops and skirts. I had to buy new COLORFUL and PRINTED clothes. So not me, but I gotta admit, I liked them. Cotton tops made in India with the wide sleeves, kimonos, tie-dye colors (but I do draw the line at the hippie prints), a couple of sun-dresses. I even bought boots and leggings to tuck into said boots. Good grief.

Then the hair color changed, going more burgundy/violet and auburn alternatively. A bi-weekly mani/pedi was the order of the day. My new haunts were SideLines and Marigails, and Lucky Finds and Cloth & Stone (besides Belks and Dillards if I chose to brave the mall). I discovered new perfumes and jewelry (yarn and books have major competition here), and boy, was it fun to dress up again.

Until Covid19 hit. With everything closed but curbside and online shopping available, there just isn’t as much of a desire to do the grown-up thing, so to speak. So it’s back to T-shirts and comfortable pants, home-induced hair coloring and letting the mani/pedi go to pot until I get back into Shantayla’s shop. I need to rethink this. Getting lazy is not an option.

Perfume. I love perfume. But like the books I read, I have also realized my taste in perfumes has also evolved over the years. At least I wasn’t a Giorgio of Beverly Hills or Poison fan, but I did like Paloma Picasso and Halston.

I am finding that I like the old-fashioned scents. The classics, if you will. None of the perfumes coming out today have really caught my fancy (like Flower Bomb), but I will confess to collecting miniatures and samples of these new ones because I collect them. But to use?

Well, that fell by the wayside…not sure when I eased off on wearing perfumes, maybe about 2014. Before the knee surgery. But for years before that…oh, baby, I wore perfumes like they were going out of style. There was a phase where I had a different scent for each season, then it was for each week, sometimes even for each day. I also ignored the rules about wearing certain perfumes for the season, you know, the one that said Oriental/ambery scents were for the fall/winter, citrusy ones for the summer, and light flowery ones for spring. I remember wearing Halston year-round, particularly when the boucle batwing turtlenecks were in vogue. Bill Blass’s Black came a close second. Then Parfum Sacre by Caron and Volcan d’Amour by Diane von Furstenberg came along, and those were the wardrobe mainstays.

But then I discovered the obscure (Claude Gallien’s Peony and Iris, from the Vermont Country Store catalog, of all places) and Yardley’s April Violets…the latter started the Great Violet Perfume Hunt. Violetta di Parma by Borsari was the top of the list, followed by Marc Jacobs’ Violet (splash) and Molinard’s Violette. Oh, and by the way, no one makes violet-scented soaps better than the Italians. But I am upset Tocca discontinued their Violette.

And there were the classic houses: Caron, Robert Piquet, Carven, Rochas, Dior. Even though some of them have issued new fragrances, I still love the old ones from the 30’s-70’s. Even Revlon–I was a Jontue girl (with Enjoli thrown in for good measure).

And the single-flower themed collections (Gallien, Yardley, Elizabeth Arden’s Green Tea set, Molinard, among them). I even had an Yves Rocher phase–Magnolia and Pivoine.

Escada (who issues a minis collection around Christmas, and retires a scent at the same time) and Tocca’s line (even though, as mentioned, they stopped Violette)–these are fun to collect, and they DO smell good.

The chase is on….