tada.

Today is not a happy day brainwise.

( tada )

[perfume] This counts as tidying up my room

The other weekend I was killing time at KGX/St Pancras with D; our wanderings took us through an expensive chocolate shop, several book shops, and a branch of Jo Malone, where I picked up four sample strips and tried two perfumes on the skin.

• Lime, Basil & Mandarin was Your Citrus Friend in ways that weren't sufficiently exciting to me for me to want to try it on the skin. (I have many citrus friends.)
  
• Earl Grey & Cucumber was fascinating, in a very... cucumberish sort of a way. This is something I am contemplating trying on the skin next time I hang around, precisely because it's not a flavour combination I'd really considered before and... yeah. Wow, etc. Out of cowardice that this would go weird on me, it's again not something I actually tried. (Well, that and I was running out of skin by this point.)
  
• Blackberry & Bay is one I tried on. Sadly it wasn't as interesting as I'd hoped and went through a prolonged bubble-bath stage in dry-down; it ends up somewhere in the vicinity of BPAL's Glasgow, of which I already own a bottle, so I definitely won't be acquiring any of that.
  
• Wood, Sage & Sea Salt I adored. Ended up mostly as slightly tangy woods, but I was completely sold - it is a very "me" sort of scent. Which means I've got a lot that's quite like it and I therefore need to think very carefully before considering an actual purchase, and on the other hand I'm fairly sure the thing I was wanting to wear yesterday was, er, this, so... heh.

I'm also finally getting around to my latest BPALs (Metamorphoses and a Neil Gaiman decant circle).

• Red-Spotted Purple wants to be your overenthusiastic citrus-scented cleaning-product friend. It is described as "white thyme, yuzu fruit, hinoki wood, blue cedar, white carnation, plum rind, white mandarin, and lime-tinted white musk." On wet, it is yuzu fruit all over, and then the thyme starts coming through. I tend to amp BPAL's white musk and indeed that shows up pretty early in drydown (within 5 minutes or so), but the yuzu is holding its own here in a way that impresses me. On me it is sharper and less juicy-mandarin than it is in the bottle: it ends up at your overenthusiastic citrus-scented cleaning-product friend that wants to cut people on your behalf. I am glad I got a half-bottle. ;)
  
• The Other Hot Chocolate I wore a few days ago; "even though she knew she would like it she could not bring herself to taste the hot chocolate." It is rich and smooth and velvety and exactly what I wanted. Comforting in a slightly sinister way, though the lurking sense of threat might just be the name.

Don't quite the energy to tackle the rest of them (I've also got Lacus Solitudinis and Goatweed Leafwing from Metamorphosis; The Cat from NG; and sniffies of prototypes of two iterations of Butterscotch Balls & Black Beetles; two iterations of Silas; The Other Hot Chocolate; and The Beldam. If I'm feeling really competent, I'll write up comparisons of TOHCs and BB&BBs...)

Introductions meme is up to date!

Yep (189 comments!). But I'm afraid I'm closing it to new requests for introductions, because it has been nearly a month and I'm still being super slow about writing them. HOWEVER, I am intending to run a love meme in November, so more chances for nice things then. ♥

[poem] Still

I turn to you. When
my voice falls silent, when
I find I cannot speak, when
my tiredness stretches taut
and every sliver of awareness
hums distantly with pain, monotone and dull:
still, I turn to you.

You absent yourself from any map
I'd care to draw - and in so doing
create for me this space,
let radiate a sense
that nonetheless there irgendwo exists
a solitary wellspring, pouring quiet
out onto my landscape of debris.
Is it a kindness that this
patient sort of strength
rubs grit into my wounds and smooths
them out? Perhaps. I live in hope -
should I freeze over - I will find
my feet (at last) and teach myself to skate;
to dance unmoving with reflections of my skies.

for J.J.