Day 96 ~ OYON 365 Days of Olfaction ~ Vintage Costus, Charabot & Cie

Every day I tell myself that I need to buy a lottery ticket because on the off-off-off-off chance that I might win some day, I dream of taking myself to France and Morocco and Turkey and Bulgaria, and dragging along a few friends for the heck of it, but I find myself feeling so grateful every day, for the relationships I have, the friends I have, my family, the wee ones and the ones not-so-wee, who make every day a love story for me, and I think, who needs the stinkin' lottery?

I'd still like to win ~ ha!

I haven't wrapped my head completely around my mother's passing. I still feel her here, still see her around every corner, hear her voice, so how can she be gone? This soothes me, this idea that she's hanging around, checking in, helping me through this, even if it is a bit daft to believe so. I think she sends people my way who know just the right things to say and do so I don't fall apart or cling too tightly where I ought not to cling. So, it's a process, like everything else in life.

Today is day 96, and the scent of this day is costus from a cache of vintage oils I picked up over the weekend. This particular costus is presented by Charabot & Cie, there is a lot number indicated on the bottle, and a code that I am assuming was the previous chemist owner's system of keeping track of what's what in his/her vast collection.

So costus. This particular extraction smells like a goat. I have a few very old examples of costus, and a single newer extraction, and all of them smell of rubber with a back note of fur. Not this Charabot & Cie costus -- it is straight-up animal, muddy fur, wet dirty hair, goats in the rain. There is a very distinctive sweetness to this costus I've not experienced with other costus extractions. While the previously studied costus smelled industrial and burnt and rubbery, this smells like someone distilled the entire skin of a goat in a vat of sweet butter.

So what is it good for if you can't use it in classical perfumery? Incense, of course! Musky and animalic and goaty, at low doses, would add a beautiful warmth to kyphi incense.

Yesterday was a day of exploration. I walked the botanical garden, strolled along the cliffs by the sea, and had a lovely dinner of sole stuffed with crab and shrimp and covered in fresh Hollandaise sauce. It was a perfect day.