Let’s talk presents, people! Tell us all about the gifts, perfume-wise and otherwise, that you’ve unwrapped this holiday season. Feel free to brag about your own gift-giving skills, too!
I got the ultimate Christmas present this year: mono! And not just any mono; this is apparently a reactivation of my college case. (Is that even allowed??) But I was also spoiled silly with a surprise Dad visit and the gift of warmth, in the form of two tubs of perfect homemade chicken noodle soup and a Heattech scarf from the incomparable Daisy. (Daisy actually also made me soup a few days earlier, so the exponential trend suggests that any day now, she will make me FOUR soups. It’s SCIENCE, Daisy.) No perfume this year; at the moment I’m mostly interested in backups of recently discontinued favorites (Jo Malone Black Vetyver Cafe, Lubin Idole EDT, L’Artisan Safran Troublant), anyway.
Vintage Coty ad courtesy of Vintage Ads.
SCENTS OF SELF 
Sorry to hear you are under the weather. Glad you’ve got people to bring you soup.
I didn’t get any perfume for Christmas but I did get the book Scent and Subversion which I wanted.
I hope you feel better soon.
Thank you so much, Poodle. I am about halfway through Scent and Subversion and have already ordered prints of two of the vintage ads in it!
Feel better soon, Ari. I met up with dearest Daisy this past Monday and she mentioned spending Christmas with you cooking up a storm. Isn’t she the greatest? I hope to meet you one of these days!
As to gifts, I got a bunch of gift cards, spending money, a Vera Bradley umbrella and some food gifts. Since my SL Fille en aiguilles arrived on Christmas Eve, I’ll count that as a gift too 🙂
Take care!
I’m so sorry to have missed you this time, Hajusuuri (and at Sniffapalooza, too!) Please email me the moment you are planning your next trip, I would love to meet up!
I really can’t overstate how happy I am to have met Daisy. New York has been a lot less lonely than I was afraid of because of her.
Aw, Darling! I just feel so lucky to know you and be able to call you my friend! I love that you live so close to me too!
Hey Ari,
GET WELL! Sick is so 2013. Well before NYE girrrrrl.
My most outrageously fabulous present is Motorbike Boots from Jin. Then he made me go out today and buy a bike to go with them. It arrives in January and I am THRILLED>
He knows me.
I wish you the best that the world can bring in 2014 and a minumum of anything else.
Portia xx
Thank you so much, Portia! What an AMAZING present! Is it your first motorbike??
First motorbike.CER AY ZEE excited. Lifelong dream.
Yee Ha
Portia xx
So sorry to hear about the mono. I spent the last two Christmases sick, so it was a real pleasure to feel good this year – not something I take for granted anymore! My personal haul included the book “Geek Mom,” a TRX Suspension system for working out, and a bottle of SSS’s Champagne de Bois. (I know, why did it take so long to add this to my collection?)
Thank you for the kind words, Dionne. I haven’t tried that particular SSS, or heard a word about Geek Mom- I wonder if a “Geek Dad” version exists as well?
Arrgghh! No fun being sick during the holidays, please feel better soon. All that soup should have you on the mend in no time! For Christmas, I received some cashews and two books of crossword puzzles. Also, will take advantage of post-holiday sales to get a clothes steamer.
Thank you very much for the good wishes, fleurdelys! I’m loving all the after-Christmas sales, yesterday I found a Schiaparelli pink sweater at Banana Republic marked down from $70 to $25!
Hope you’re on the mend. I didn’t get any perfume this year, but I did finally use a TJMaxx gift card from my birthday yesterday for a bottle of Queen by Queen Latifah. ($9.99!) I also got a pair of boots, but will not be buying a motorcycle to go with them. (Or a horse, for that matter, which would be better suited to my boots.)
Queen is one of the nicest celebrity perfumes, and you got a great price!
I’ve just discovered this blog, most entertaining!
Grim to be unwell over Christmas, but the gift of warmth is the best! We had additional warmth since my niece brought her boyfriend and all his family to Christmas, it made it into a party!
I didn’t receive perfume, I’m too fussy so people would just give gift tokens, but I did give perfume – Bois des Iles decant to my best male friend who wanted a soft, clean sandalwood. Mata Hari and Ruba’iyat samples for a female friend and ‘Gold’ by DKNY for my sis who loves amber and white flowers. They were all happy.
I’m so glad you’ve found your way over here, Rose, especially since you are the kind of friend who gives Bois des Iles decants! 😉
I didn’t get perfume for Christmas, but I gave some. My sister-in-law had talked to me about wanting my brother to find a new fragrance to wear, so I got him a few decants of things I thought he might like. I got him HdP 1828 and 1899 and Erik Kormann Steampunk. Okay that last one was because I liked the name. I hadn’t actually smelled it before I got it for him. And since I was getting him stuff, I figured I’d let her in on the action too, so I got her decants of SL Fleurs de Citronnier, Malle L’Eau d’Hiver and L’Heure Bleue.
Lucky brother and sister-in-law! You know, I still haven’t tried HdP 1899. If they’re going to make a Hemingway fragrance, they really should make a Fitzgerald next.
Also, I’m sorry to hear you have mono. I hope you’re feeling ok.
I am dim – I thought ‘mono’ was some kind of high tech gadget present all young people wanted for Christmas 2013, and was scouring the post for a reference to your falling ill…;) Anyway, glad the soup hit the spot, now I have uncrossed my wires!
I got a Chanel mascara, some gin and a Black & Decker crevice tool – what girl wouldn’t be happy with that?
LOL! You kids and your mono!
You got wonderful presents- anyone who got me gin as a present would clearly understand me intimately!
My ‘big gifts’ were a bottle of Orange Star from Jason and the sheets I didn’t get from my wedding registry from my aunt and my mom. Yay! 🙂
Lovely presents! I am disproportionately thrilled with the perfume-themed duvet cover my wonderful cousins got for me.
Ack, and sorry you’ve not been feeling well 😦
Best Christmas present ever? It was from this year and it was the possibility of a domaine name, and it came from you! Thank you, dearest, darling Ari! I couldn’t have asked for a more thoughtful gift from a more thoughtful friend.
(4 soups coming up, btw 🙂 )