Vote!

A cull to action:  Did you have plans for your collection in 2010?  Do you for 2011?

Last poll of 2010 on the bar to your left there.  You can pick more than one answer.

Image is not meant to suggest that only women can/should vote.  It does happen to be from the first year they were able to in the United States.

image from Here, There, Everywhere blog; otherwise unattributed.  If you know, please share.

Equinox: Balance

We just passed an autumn equinox. While the equinox is commonly understood as the point at which day & night are equal, it in fact refers specifically to relative placement of sun to equator. Day/Night equality has not been reached for most, not quite yet. Every point on the globe is now approaching its day in which day and night will be in balance, in equal length.

So here we thought balance had arrived, when it was truly just ahead...

...a story I know all too well.

In terms of perfume, I profess to be the person who would much rather spend time with a scent, inhabit it, let it inhabit me...discover what season, time of day, weather, mood all do to what happens after I put it on. I shall profess and protest it to be true for always. One side of the pendulum...be in the moment, explore the moment, savor the moment, discover the many moments across time.

But I am also a collector and a preserver, and a person who has rudimentary knowledge of how to operate spreadsheet software. Combine that with the desire to learn and discover, and you get the other side of the pendulum...what is out there, how does this one note get expressed in these various formulations, ooh what's that...and the pendulum swings the other way, putting me smack dab in the midst of an orgy of scent and finding the many moments in one spot of time.

Where is the balance? Not sure yet. I think the escape is in the sabbaticals I take...in the realm of perfume, total stoppages of scent. Sometimes, it gets to be all too much, noise of many kinds, and I need a time out. The first time that happened, I freaked out a little bit. I thought that something I had just started to learn about, that I really had taken an interest in, fell off my radar never to emerge again. Lost in a Bermuda Triangle of my brain. Very disorienting, and a bit disconcerting...what about the investment? what about the STUFF?

And then, when guilt panic abated, sadness. What about the joy that the solid hits had brought, time and again? Would I never experience that again?

Then the desire came back. And I realized that my foray into perfume was merely echoing other passions in my life...intense soaking up of all possible input periods, equally intense soaking up of single/unique expressions periods. It would seem that, much as has been true of other creative endeavors like music for me, I would require a period (or periods) of complete hibernation. And I would have to accept that I could not predict when it would return.

So, I'm going to continue to think of myself as capable of a committed relationship to certain perfumes, even as I accept there will be times when I explore the field. There will even be times when I'll be ignoring every one altogether. But I'll always be thinking about our history, and our current moment, and ponder our future.

Therein will be my balance. I think.

Equinox

Consider the equinox. Sun directly overhead, day time equal to night time. Things in balance.

What perfume to wear for such an occasion? Do we bring in those which continue a balance throughout their development? Or which turn equally from one extreme to another, as our day will turn to our night today?

Balanced presentation throughout: Lancome Magie Noire, which continues a steady if subdued rose underneath is animalistic veneer. Armani Pierre de Lune, which keeps the violet and lightly metallic whiff of green going throughout. L'Artisan Fleur de Narcisse, which keeps the tobacco and hay going against narcissus and leather throughout the run.

Turn arounds: L'Artisan Poivre Piquant, which starts as a sharp peppery single note on me, and transitions into a creamy blended skin scent. If you've been reading for a while, you already know that SIP Black Rosette goes here. Molinard Habanita, which continually bounces back and forth between gently fruity floral and tobacco on me--which I guess means multiple turn arounds, so it is good for a few revolutions.

I'm not ready to vote one approach more correct than the other; after all, it's important to maintain a balanced view of these things. But if you've got additions to either list, I'm all--erm, half--ears.