We decided to just go out to the sea despite a very busy day in Kawasaki yesterday, somehow too restless to stay at home.
Although we missed the last order for the very restaurant we had travelled specifically down to eat at ( because we were sat talking on the beach ), we didn’t mind.
I wanted to be heavily scented, eventually settling on vintage O de Lancôme ( a lemon-leafed gentle chypre from 1969 ).
For D I selected a perfume from four decades later, Sappho by Lush ( 2019), an unusual tobacco jasmine vanilla that worked truly perfectly in tandem for some reason, scents floating in and out of each other with natural ease.
I needed such harmony today.
In a taxi on the way to the station on Saturday afternoon, the radio had been tuned into what I imagined to be the beginnings of Buddhist funeral rites for Shinzo Abe. Today in Atami, the polling stations – it is Election Day – were solemn and empty.
On the side streets, though, we saw several troupes of kids practicing taiko drums for an upcoming summer festival, the first post-corona ( we are not there yet I know, but people are ready ), the atmosphere focused; steady.
The Black Narcissus 
I completely forgot about O, are the newer formulations as good as the vintage?
Thank you for the intimate glimpse of Japanese culture with the children playing taiko drums!
I thought it was a nice thing to share – glad you enjoyed it.
As for O, it was DIVINE yesterday somehow, and bizarrely mixed serenely with the Sappho. The last time I tried the current version at Lancome it was nothing like the original, which as you will remember has a cold cream ingenious complexity in the contrast between all the citric leafed beauty and the more chypric conclusions: : it really is a masterpiece.
So happy to read this. It sounds like it was a lovely day.
I just received a half full bottle of O de Lancome in the mail today. It was from the early 70’s, so it is divine. Perfect on a hot summer’s day.
I know we both love this one but there is just something so genius – so soothing about the vintage – that I couldn’t resist mentioning it again. What is the olfactory composition that leads to that incredible inner harmony?
It is the perfect blend of citruses, with florals and strong mossy base notes. It opens with lemon, bergamot, and honeysuckle, the goes into and herbaceous floral heart with jasmine in it, and has rich vetiver and oakmoss laced basenotes, which I am sure are now nonexistent in the reformulated versions. It is a perfect summer scent.
Yes – the mossiness and vetiver – and the honeysuckle. Pure genius!
Truly!!!
Ah.
O de L. Bought the first time I went to France as a gift for my grandmother. It became my teen signature. Alternated with Colors (Benetton). I haven’t dared buy new or old as I do not want to be disappointed.
Sorry we missed you on this trip.
Me too.
I loved and still sometimes think about that Benetton!
I LOVE the idea of you in vintage O De Lancome, by the way.
You ought to source a bottle. I actually find that most of my teenage scents still work very well on me (perfume was so much better back then).