It’s called Portrait of a Lady and you can find it at Mecca in various sizes.  The perfume was actually named after the Henry James novel.

via Google Images

I unfortunately, am yet to read the novel but I do have a picture in my mind of Nicole Kidman in the title role of the film adaptation.  From what Google tells me, Nicole as the newly wealthy Isabel Archer finds herself manipulated by Barbra Hershey’s character into a questionable relationship with John Malkovich’s Gilbert Osborn.

But back to the perfume.  It’s very distinctive and described as a baroque, oriental rose yet it also smells very modern to me.  It’s unique, heady yet fresh, it has mystery, it’s also elegant.  Basically, a bit of a statement fragrance but it makes it with subtlety.  So basically, everything I look for in a perfume.  I’ve been wearing it daily to work and just because.  ‘Portrait of a Lady’ has this unique quality of smelling a little ‘worn down’ the moment it’s sprayed.  I mean this in a nicer way than it may sound.  Basically, it wears quite evenly through the day, the dry down not being as marked as it can be with other fragrances.  This might just be one of my forever fragrances…

I’ve been stealing ten minutes here and there to put my wound up mind and body through a few slow yoga poses.  Just before bed in my pyjamas, on a Saturday afternoon in my trackies….  Much better for me than if I’d spent the time scrolling through the socials or filling yet more shopping carts virtually.

And then there’s those guilty pleasures that you know are bad for you but you can’t resist anyway because they’re just a bit mindless.  I speak of course of the weekend papers and the gossip they carry within their pages.  I did turn to page nine straight up and was rewarded with a hit of tabloid distraction.  It’s the simple things.