Someone turned up the heat in Vancouver, and must have also switched the "patchouli" button in me because I'm still craving this musky, pungent and unusual note for over a week.

While taking advantage of whatever little is left of Film Noir sugar scrubs on my bath tab shelf, I dab a tad of Film Noir parfum on to complete the patchouli theme - resinous, thick and rather ancient patchoulis paired with chocolate and benzoin.

But the more "experimental" thing to try in this unusual weather was a spray on each armpit with "Refresh" by Yuko Fukami (Parfum Phyto). She made this special blend as a deodorant, and although don't know everything that's in it, I can tell you that it smells like a lovely melange of lavender, ylang ylang and pathcouli - and thankfully none is particularly strong (I'm not a fan of strongly scented deodorants); yet the patchouli lingers on nicely and beautifully masks the musky eau de armpits. At least it did in the last two days, which were the hottest of the year so far! And that's very impressive for an all-natural deodorant (which can be usually deemed useless).