December 22, 2016 · 8:07 pm
↓ Jump to Comments

A CHRISTMAS CONFESSION

 

images-2.jpeg

images.jpeg

460825894.jpg

 

 

 

 

Sometimes I wear Estée Lauder’s Beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

33 Comments

Filed under Flowers

33 responses to “A CHRISTMAS CONFESSION”

  1. The Scented Hound
    December 22, 2016 at 9:56 pm

    If you didn’t wear something so womanly I would be disappointed.

    Reply
  2. Lilybelle
    December 22, 2016 at 10:23 pm

    Why not? Beautiful smells beautiful. Do you wear it out, or just at home? Now I have a sudden intense craving to smell it. I wear White Linen. Not every day, or even often, though more often in summer. I’m a bit addicted. I also have Youth Dew edp and bath oil. I can’t wear them at home or in the car because my husband complains. But Beautiful…who would complain?

    Reply
    • ginzaintherain
      December 22, 2016 at 10:45 pm

      We were doing some end of year cleaning in the perfume room and I espied one of those miniature parfums (I have a few lying around). I suppose it just really reminds me of the eighties, in the best possible way. Family. Friends. School. Christmas and warmth. Really enjoying it today!

      Reply
  3. Tara C
    December 22, 2016 at 11:02 pm

    Saw the pictures and wasn’t sure where this was going. 😉

    My guilty pleasure is sugary gourmands… I have even worn Pink Sugar. The horror!

    Reply
    • ginzaintherain
      December 22, 2016 at 11:09 pm

      Sorry, this is me at my silliest. I can imagine, the way I go with confessionals and over emotionality that a reader might even approach this with dread, but I was just amusing myself. In a good mood. Finally relaxed a bit, enjoying the holidays, and my perfume collection.

      This IS quite a naff thing to wear though, for a man. But obviously, I couldn’t care less. I actually find it very soothing. It contains so much history ( I actually think that perfume really does do that, in fact: it ABSORBS the years in which it was released……and it’s not as though I am obsessed with the eighties, but then they were such a big part of my life so far and sometimes I just can’t help dipping back into them).

      What’s your excuse?!!

      Reply
  4. Katy
    December 23, 2016 at 12:27 am

    It is a beautiful fragrance so why not?

    Reply
  5. Brie
    December 23, 2016 at 1:42 am

    I will reiterate what others have said above…why not? (says the 93lb woman who would soak herself in Grey Flannel…..)

    and happy holidays to you and the D!

    Reply
  6. MrsDalloway
    December 23, 2016 at 2:46 am

    Heh – that is the signature scent of my stepmother (70). It’s kind of nice but it does linger in a room. I’m smelling a bit butch for me right now – Parfumerie Moderne Cuir X. I like it a lot but I’d rather be wearing Lancôme Cuir.

    Reply
  7. Robin
    December 23, 2016 at 3:20 am

    Next thing you’ll be telling us you’re drenched in Fracas.

    Reply
  8. islandjavaguy
    December 23, 2016 at 3:55 am

    It’s a great scent! EL has more than a few gorgeous offerings in their range!

    Reply
    • ginzaintherain
      December 23, 2016 at 1:29 pm

      I agree. I genuinely do like it a lot, and sometimes do have cravings for its warmth and protective feelings of homeliness and safety, but I also think it evokes quite ambivalent feelings in me. On the one hand, I consider Beautiful the quintessential American fragrance. On a woman in freshly laundered clothes, nice smelling hair – classic pearly teethed US hygiene in other words – and then some sprays of Estee Lauder’s Beautiful, this perfume is multifaceted, complex, sweet, physically enwrapping, and has a certain level of flair.

      At the same time, it embodies a kind of cosseted, suburban smugness, and is in some ways horrifyingly conservative (smelling precisely of the Reaganite times in which it emerged), and despite its beauty, is somehow dead. I think all the classic Lauders have this quality. That velveted, powdered, wholeness with not a hair out of place: a brilliant sillage, that envelopes the woman in an impenetrable fortress of ‘just so’ (think how Beautiful, or Youth Dew, or Aromatics Elixir linger in a room….there is quite a subtle, passive aggression lurking beneath these brilliantly technological perfumes – they are really designed to invade your space and make you NOTICE me).

      Moving in to kiss someone with one of these perfumes is therefore very daunting: they are not like French perfumes, which are far more flirtatious and open-legged: it’s like trying to French kiss Margaret Thatcher. Or even Krystle Carrington. But you will be slapped around the face in any case – these are the perfumes of shoulder padded Boadiceas.

      Reply
  9. marmaladeseason
    December 23, 2016 at 4:52 am

    Why not? But your confession made me smile. Beautiful is such an evocative scent.

    Reply
  10. Maria de Santis/Grayspoole
    December 23, 2016 at 8:08 am

    If you are confessing, Neil, you should add this to your list of sins: you made me buy more Jolie Madame yesterday…

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s