I’m participating in the Hay Festival Querétaro 2023 and I have two events, during which I will present my book, The Rooster House, and talk about Ukraine:
Victoria Belim in conversation with Eduardo de la Garma de la Rosa and Alejandra Martínez Quesada
HAY FESTIVAL LVIV BOOKFORUM SERIES
Thursday 7 September 2023, 12pm
Venue: Tec de Monterrey, Punto Blanco

Victoria Belim in conversation with Yael Weiss
HAY FESTIVAL LVIV BOOKFORUM SERIES
Friday, September 8, 2023, 10:30 a.m.
Venue: City Theatre

I hope to meet some of you there. You can see the full program at the Hay Festival Querétaro website.

On this note, if you have recommendations for what to see and do in Mexico City and Oaxaca, I would be grateful. My readers make the most wonderful suggestions and I learn a lot from you.

Image: Frida Kahlo, Roots.

Today have a generous giveaway courtesy of Bois de Jasmin’s reader Carla. She would like to give away a nearly full bottle of Chanel Gardenia EDP, 3.4oz/100ml. It’s our second Gardenia giveaway this year!

Carla would like your help to find a new fragrance for her. Please see her question below. Carla can send her package in the continental US.

We are not responsible for leaks or damage during transit, customs fees, or for lost packages.

To participate, please answer these questions. I will randomly draw one winner.

1. Please suggest a new perfume to Carla. “My children left for college, I moved to a new house and I’m starting a new job this fall. Lots of new things. I would like a new perfume to mark this transition for me. I like woods and spices, but nothing too sweet or heavy. I wore Diptyque Tam Dao for many years, but it’s been reformulated and no longer smells the same. Thank you for your recommendations.”
3. May I contact you via email to notify you of your win and share your email with Carla?

The contest is closed. The winner is Luce. Congratulations! I will contact you via email shortly.

I would like to thank our entire Bois de Jasmin community for your generosity and kindness, whether it means giveaways like this, advice or comments. 

Our “Recommend Me a Perfume” thread is open this week. You can use this space to find perfume recommendations, to share your discoveries and favorite scents, and to ask any questions about scents, aromas and flavors. Or you can just tell us what perfume you are wearing!

How does it work: 1. Please post your requests or questions as comments here. You can also use this space to ask any fragrance related questions. To receive recommendations that are better tailored to your tastes, you can include details on what you like and don’t like, your signature perfumes, and your budget. And please let us know what you end up sampling. 2. Then please check the thread to see if there are other requests you can answer. Your responses are really valuable for navigating the big and sometimes confusing world of perfume, so let’s help each other!

To make this thread easier to read, when you reply to someone, please click on the blue “reply” link under their comment.

Photography by Bois de Jasmin

Perfume wearers and boats have more in common than one might reasonably suspect. Sillage (pronounced as see-yazh) is a French word that means “wake”, as in the airplane contrails criss-crossing the skies or the waves left on water by a passing ship. But it’s also used to describe the scented trail created by perfume. Sillage defines the degree to which fragrance emanates from its wearer and diffuses into the space around them.

Sillage is an important quality to keep in mind when buying a perfume or when selecting it for specific occasions. Big sillage scents are the most complimented because they’re easy to notice, but their distinct presence may make them inappropriate for restaurants, theatres, or some office environments. On the other hand, a fragrance that doesn’t bloom at all is rarely satisfying. The goal is to find the right sillage for your mood and lifestyle.

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What a beautiful fragrance do sweet peas have! Until I grew these flowers in my garden, I didn’t realize the full dimensions of their scent. In perfumery, a sweet pea accord is a common one in vintage-style fragrances, but I never enjoyed its cloying powderiness. Real sweet peas have a powdery scent, but this makeup-like note is uplifted by rose, pear and violet accents. Are you familiar with this fragrance? Do you have perfumes that resemble it?

For those curious to grow sweet peas themselves, I can tell you that they are not too capricious. They sprouted easily, but it took a few warm weeks for the plants to shot up and take over their corner of the flower bed. I bought a mix of different colors and it was a surprise to discover the hues of the blossoms as they opened up–magenta, purple, lilac, white, peach.

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