** Eventually...feel free to scroll on down past the "missing in action" preamble to the review itself...This must be the all-time longest hiatus in the history of Bonkers about Perfume. To be honest, over the last six months I really thought I had shot my blogging bolt: not so much in terms of my personal relationship with perfume, which is ongoing, albeit in a smaller orbit
More unread books on here!Well, another year has passed, almost to the day of my last post about my reading achievements: 55 books in 2024, which was a lifetime record, now topped by 2025's total of 66! I promise that none of them were pamphlets, though one was a novella. And no, I am not aiming for 77 this year in case you were wondering, even though that would seem to be the natural
I have been blitzing my Christmas cards this week, and while writing them I re-read a handful from last year where the sender had included a long message on the card or in a separate letter. Two of these friends - neither of them perfume lovers, or even wearers for all I know - urged me to carry on with the blog: one said they enjoyed the French travelogues in particular, and another that
Source: Wikimedia Commons ~ Bekstet (author)Topic advisory: I promise this post is not remotely anti-religious, but it does contain coverage of "dermatological derangement" against a backdrop of ecclesiastical turmoil.Back in 2016 I wrote a post on a couple of skin issues, namely dark circles under my eyes (I don't remember ever having them in fact!) and acne. In those days I used a multi-faceted
Back in February 2023, I wrote a post about my donation of a 1960s bottle of Madame Rochas to Mike O'Shaughnessy, a senior lecturer in Graphic Design and Illustration at John Moores University, who is also passionate about fragrance. He added it to his collection of vintage perfume to use in workshops with inmates as an olfactory trigger of memories of their past, encouraging them to write
Linda PilkingtonWhen I first fell down the perfume rabbit hole in 2008, I started sampling designer brands by buying carded samples on eBay, and it wasn't long before I discovered Jo Malone, which acted as a gateway brand - or "back of the wardrobe" brand, if you will - to the Narnian land of niche fragrance beyond. And my first properly niche love was Ormonde Jayne, whose Signature Collection I
The Blind Girl by John Everett MillaisBack in October, a neighbour kindly tipped me off about an exhibition starting that month at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Edgbaston. I recently remembered that it was due to finish on 26th January, so I girded my loins sharpish and bought a train ticket to Birmingham for the following day. I also carefully researched bus stops and timetables, and
Two of the many tsundokus fighting for my future attentionIn 2009 I read five books all year; in 2024 I read 55! The difference being of course that back then I was working, and almost all my reading was confined to briefs on the next work project, and going over my interview write ups. It has taken me several years in fact to finally accept that I am "retired" - it's been a slow, subliminal
Fraser Island by David Stanley (Nanaimo, Canada) via Wikimedia Commons It's been over a month since my last post, though there has been the Christmas runaround to contend with, plus it took me several weeks at least to come up with that title. The wags amongst you might say I should have taken longer. Regular readers may remember my friend Simon, whose growing interest in niche
It's been a long time since I last wrote about a hair care product on Bonkers, but my recent quest to find something to give my fine, limp hair a bit of a lift in the crown may be of interest to any other seekers of volume, oomph, or anything vaguely resembling an artfully tousled look.In recent years my hair had been steadily growing, and I rather liked it long. However, lately the ends had been
Source: weddingfactorydirect.comIf you had told me back in October 2009 that I would still be writing blog posts 15 years on, perfume-themed or otherwise, I would not have believed you. I am telling myself this fact now, and I don't even believe me. But there it is...769 posts to date, all by yours truly - how long they collectively took I really don't want to imagine! Then I have had 12.6k
I have nearly finished reading a book by Hannah Jane Parkinson called "The Joy of Small Things", a collection of her columns of the same name for The Guardian, which were inspired in turn by J B Priestley's "Delight" - a book with which I am not familiar, despite having played the odious Ernest Beevers in Time and the Conways. I remember delivering the line: "You've done a lot of silly things in
Long term readers (or any Instagram followers) may recall that I am prone to several kinds of dermatitis: mainly the allergic and irritant contact variety, about which I have done a few posts, most notably - and graphically! - this one.I did also have a six month spell of seborrheic dermatitis, which came out of nowhere after the first Covid booster vaccine - I will of course never know if the
It has been a while since my Epona review, which is now on sale for those anxious to try it! I came to France nearly three weeks ago, and have - perhaps counterintuitively - gone and chosen one of the hottest days of the year to sit down and write a blog post finally. It is 38C in the shade today, and was 44C in my car earlier before I got the aircon going. The heatwave has been ongoing since the
Last week marked the 10th anniversary of Papillon Perfumery, the artisanal brand founded by elegant epicurean earth mother Liz Moores - whose birthday is today in fact! In that time she has released eight perfumes, and the rectangular 3 x 3 display on her website is clearly crying out to fill the bottom right hand corner with No 9. So when she announced the latest addition to the Papillon stable,
Ceramic bowl by saskiarigby.comAs any Instagram followers may be aware, my profile blurb there reads: "Perfume blogger and industrial market researcher, prone to occasional bouts of travel writing, mindless knitting, and several kinds of dermatitis."I should update it really, as I retired five years ago(!), though I still often undertake ad hoc research-related favours for friends - currently one
Longer term readers may recall my account of first getting the keys to my French house in the depths of winter in early 2019. I clearly remember it was -2C, and I was able to keep yogurt and Camembert on the decking outside my Airbnb in the run up to the big day. The title of that post began: "January is the cruellest month..." so in case anyone is keeping tabs on the league table of
Photo courtesy of NSorry for the longer than usual gap between posts - I have managed a monthly frequency for a while now, but I have been slightly distracted by another round of health investigations(!). Last year, having exhausted the suggestions of my local chemist, I sought out a nurse at my GP practice to advise on an effective cream for chilblains, from which I had been suffering for
I am a regular shopper in the discount chain Home Bargains, much as I am in B & M, which is a similar cheap and cheerful purveyor of just about anything short of a full food shop. Home Bargains is my go-to destination for cheap firewood, Poppets, rhubarb yoghurt, cat soup, and kitchen towel (which regular readers know is of the utmost importance to me). On any given visit where I am typically
Today is the 25th anniversary of my mother's death. This isn't going to be a tribute post as such - I have already written one of those, on the occasion of the 11th anniversary. It is true, however, that an item belonging to my mother has inspired this post...to wit, her book log / book diary? / book book?!. This is a small hardbacked notebook in which she used to write down every title she had
This Christmas was a marked improvement on last year, when the months of trapped nerve pain in my neck managed to segue seamlessly into Covid. This year (apart from an alleged shadow on the lung, of which more anon) I was in much better shape, and de-stressed the big day by opting for a high welfare chicken rather than a turkey, not even one in a conveniently legless and bacon-draped format. I
1999 was a challenging year for me. Have you noticed how "challenging" has come to mean everything from "bloody awful" to "damn near impossible", as well as its primary meanings of "inviting competition" and "testing one's abilities"? The word has become the go-to euphemism (especially in government circles) for "much harder than we care to say". In 1999 of course the world was bracing itself for
Source: mama66.netWell, that's unusual...I am writing this post on my actual blog anniversary as opposed to a few days or weeks later, or not at all. I shan't make a big deal of it, as it doesn't seem warranted now I am only posting once a month or so, and I am sure I have lost some of my regular readers and commenters because of this sparse frequency. But people I will never know are still
2013 meAnother month has passed - I am taking the notion of slow blogging to the most leisurely extremes, I know, but I do feel I should only post when the muse moves me, and it seems to be on a bit of a go-slow these days, for the reasons I mentioned last time, topped off with another round of health investigations. Though as I can testify, a degree of slowing down is probably normal for most
The winsome Post Office!Two months have gone by since my last post! You may be forgiven for thinking I really had thrown in the blogging towel, but not so, or not yet. I was merely dormant, fielding various issues on both houses. For as with the kitchen renovations, being the only person involved in maintenance / repairs does take up that bit more time on top of the usual everyday chores. Why, I