oils of summer

I'm not one to rush spring (humidity is my enemy), but it's sandal-weather in Boston, so I thought I'd recommend a few of my favorite summertime oils: 

Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse (Multi-Usage Dry Oil): Beach beachy beachiest! You would ideally cover your body with this while enjoying a fresh salty breeze from the open windows of your completely clean, all-white, beachside bedroom. This oil makes an ideal summer moisturizer: it absorbs quickly and leaves just a touch of shine. But best of all is the smell, which I was thrilled to learn is going to be available in a perfume version sometime this month. I plan to wear loads of both this summer, and you'll smell me coming, bringing the beach.

Auric Blends Egyptian Goddess Roll-On Perfume: My policy on layering scents is pretty much the same as for choosing them: if it smells good, I'll put it on.  This light but persistent oil lends itself to layering, and seems to especially extend the life of some of the fainter, citrusy scents I crave in the summer months.  I love how close Egyptian Goddess stays to the skin, and though its warmth and my preferred season for wearing it make the comparison counterintuitive, there is a hint of that beloved cold-smells-on-a-sweatshirt tang to it, something warming-up, something cuddleable and fresh and human.

Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Liquid Soap: I use this castile oil cleanser in the shower year-round (and for my laundry when I travel), but I especially love its bracing chill after a hot, sweaty summer's day. Your butt-cheeks have never been so cold!

summerfester

 [image via]

I'd hoped to kick off Pie Week around these parts, as tomorrow's Nosy Interview is a pie wizard (and the smell of pie in the oven, particularly my mom's rhubarb pie, is one of my favorite food smells for sure), but it has been too hot in Boston to bake pies. It's not just the foolhardy notion of further heating up an already sweltering apartment, it's also the fact that pie crust and I share a reaction to humidity: it brings out the worst in us.

Also keeping me from my kitchen is a sink/dishwasher issue so disgusting that the repairman who came this morning told me that this was one of the "top worst smells" he'd ever encountered, and that he was surprised he didn't "toss" (tossing is underutilized as far as synonyms for vomiting go, no?). This is a man who, as he explained to me in perhaps slightly too rich detail, once lost an entire entertainment system to rogue fecal water that had come up through his bathtub. Needless to say, I'm writing from a secure location. But I trust that your kitchen smells much better than mine at the moment, and that, as far as your visits to the nosy blog go, you'll bear with me through the bad smells, too.

excessive heat warning

[via Thessaly]

My popsicles melted completely on the one-block walk home from the store (they're reforming themselves now, filling the puffed tubes of their containers). I'm starting to think the acrid smell is the air itself. So thick! When I'm complaining after weeks of slush and ice this winter, feel free to point me in the direction of this post and tell me to suck it up, that thin air, that barely-there air. 

stray smells

 Unleaded, Unleaded, Premium Unleaded by Eric Graham

Today on my bike I smelled violet and rice, together, in a hot blast. I don't think I would have noticed this combination were it not for Katie Puckrik's recent review of Love, Chloé (a perfume I'd hoped would smell a little bit more like what I smelled on the street today). I was riding past a Chinese restaurant and a flower shop, but it can't be as simple as that, can it? On the corner near these two stores there's a gas station that has the faintest odor of any gas station I've ever sniffed; it's a real letdown. Another gas station in my neighborhood was mysteriously abandoned today, cordoned off by a big tornado fence and bright orange construction tape. It looked like a crime scene, a diorama of a suburban ghost town. Off my bike, an oddly sour smell seemed to follow me all evening, but I refused to accept I was its origin. I can be stubborn that way.

nosy recommends: muggy-weather scents

My friend Charlotte urged me to make more recommendations on the site. Charlotte is a great encourager, and my first recommendation is to befriend her if given the chance. In terms of scent suggestions, I've been thinking lately of what I reach for now that the muggy-monster is among us. Boston is humid as all get out, and these are the fragrances that have served me best during my least-favorite weather:

East MidEast by D.S. & Durga 

I'm a jerk for recommending this (though I recommend it without reservation for all seasons) because it's impossible to track down. But maybe we could rally enough nosy demand to inspire D.S. & Durga to re-release this beauty? (This worked for me once with a seasonal flavor at an ice cream shop in Madison, Wisconsin). I didn't discover East MidEast until it was already on clearance at Anthropologie, and though I was able to manage to hoard a couple of small bottles, I still wear it less than I'd like to for fear of running out. I mention it despite this scarcity because its notes ("saffron, Indian cardamom, Russian roses, & red mandarins") would have, at one time, seemed to me to make it a big no-go for the summer months. In our haste to subsist on watermelon and ice-cold margaritas in the summertime, we forget how excellent spicy foods taste when it's hot. I think the same goes for perfume--though the natural inclination might be to reach for your sheerest citruses, the right big rose thrives rather than cloys in the heat.

Recommended for: Anyone who likes to smell really good, people who can't stand being told what to do, and Katie Puckrik.

Nuit de Tubéreuse by L'Artisan Parfumeur

Nuit de Tubereuse may be my favorite muggy-weather scent; I rarely wear it when it's not crazy-humid. I bought a bottle, somewhat impulsively, on a super-hot day in New York last summer, and I'm not sure I would have had the weather been milder. Something about this peppery, dirty, juicy-fruity, sexy, incensey stunner just heats up so right. Reviews point to the abundance of white florals (though are quick to correctly note that you won't get your creamy-tuberose fix here), but this smells so green to me. NdT almost (almost!) makes me look forward to muggy weather, and this makes me believe the ad copy claiming narcotic qualities isn't just fluff. I've also noticed that I get more compliments on NdT than on any other fragrance I wear. This could be due in part to the odor-amplifying days on which I tend to wear it, but it also speaks to the tenacity of the scent (especially notable since people's biggest beef with L'Artisan seems to be that their scents fade too quickly).

Recommended for: Women wearing backless dresses, glamorous outdoorsy types, and people who like to flirt on the bus.

U4EAHHH! by Yosh 

I've mentioned this mellow fruit-bomb on the site before, and while it can be a bit too sweet for me, it's perfect for those muggy days when all I want to do is eat popsicles and read the kinds of magazines generally reserved for waiting rooms and long flights. 

Recommended for: Lemonade stand salespeople, freckled stoners, and teenagers attending their first spring formals.

If you have other sweaty-weather favorites, please share them in the comments!