I’m most of the way through my little project of wearing a different perfume that I own each day, and it’s getting harder to remember with some of them: did I already?

Today it’s a 4-mL sample of Le Lion de Chanel (Olivier Polge, 2020) that I got as a gift with purchase several years ago. This got a lot of love and praise from seasoned perfumistas during the pandemic, and I can see how it established itself as a fragrance of comfort and strength. On Fragrantica, it’s voted by the vast majority as a scent for winter, closely followed by autumn. Although my nose has started to tingle occasionally as if it were spring, the temperatures are still firmly in winter, so this is suitable.

The lemony opening is quickly followed by a familiar, rich, labdanum-forward amber, which makes me think of shades of brown—I start to wonder whether this could be the power of visual suggestion, and then I look at the liquid and am almost surprised to find that it’s yellow.

Le Lion feels like a conversation with an older woman, an aunt or grandmother perhaps, or a friend who took on such a role. Someone with gray hair well coiffed, whose practical wisdom comes from lived experience, generous yet to a degree unfathomable. You could trust that she had your best interests at heart even if you didn’t agree with all of her opinions. I have no personal association with this perfume, so I’m not thinking of anyone who wore this style of fragrance; it’s how I started perceiving the perfume’s persona. It’s mature from the outset, and the smoky vanilla gives it plenty of gravitas. Along with incense, these lower registers convey to me a stability of emotion, but lest you mistake it for tough love, the warm sandalwood base keeps it approachable. It is constant.

Perhaps the woman is wearing a fur coat—in any case, there is a furry aspect to Le Lion. How many of us have actually smelled a lion’s mane up close? I certainly haven’t…

…but I did get to have a close encounter with meerkats recently! About a month ago, I went to Taiwan for a week, and made it a point to book a reservation at the meerkat cafe in Taipei well in advance! Meerkat75 is home to six meerkats (who are all related) and guests can spend 15 minutes in a dedicated space interacting with them. I’m not sure if their behavior varies widely throughout the day, but I visited in the late afternoon during their third shift, and their antics alternated between running around in a frenzy across our laps and finding a cozy blanket or sweatered elbow in which to burrow their faces.

And that, my friends, is how one changes the subject mid-post… Hope you are all doing alright.