Welcome to this next installment of Scent Semantics! This month’s word, supplied by yours truly, is “vernal”, which means “in, of, or appropriate to spring.” Happy April!
As regular readers know, I love to garden and grow flowers, so spring is a marvelous season for me. I also love Easter, and my husband and I were married many Aprils ago, so I have plenty of happy associations with it. For my “vernal” fragrance post, I have chosen Jo Loves’ No. 42 The Flower Shop.
What a happy fragrance it is! At first spray, it positively bursts with zingy green notes, behind which lurks a fruity sweetness and light spring florals. Those would be the top notes of green leaves, mandarin orange, and peony. As it develops, the floral notes get stronger and take center stage: lily-of-the-valley, freesia, narcissus, and jasmine. It really does smell like an actual florist’s shop, with the afore-mentioned flowers waiting in buckets of water to be chosen and gathered into bouquets. If I did as some perfumistas do, and put my fragrance into a refrigerator to chill, No. 42 The Flower Shop would smell even more exactly like the walk-in fridges professional florists fill with their wares.
I especially enjoy the combination of green leaves and lily-of-the valley (muguet), one of my favorite flowers (the other two being daffodils and roses). The green notes and citrus accord balance the muguet beautifully. Most of the time when I wear No. 42, it is muguet that dominates, but sometimes the freesia comes forward more strongly. The name, No. 42 The Flower Shop, refers to the actual flower shop on Elizabeth Street where the young Jo Malone worked as a teenager:
“As a sixteen-year-old, I worked as a florist in Elizabeth Street and loved the moment when early each morning the scent of fresh flowers filled the room. This fragrance celebrates that magical memory.”
Jo Loves’ London boutique is actually located at No. 42 Elizabeth Street, and I have visited it, which I highly recommend. Elizabeth Street itself is absolutely charming, with many lovely shops and flowers bursting out everywhere (especially during the Chelsea Flower Show, when the stores compete to display the most lavish floral decorations). The Jo Loves boutique is a peaceful haven of white with touches of the same bright red that graces its packaging.
The photo below shows its Chelsea Flower Show decorations in 2019, when I last visited.
As the fragrance No. 42 dries down, it becomes slightly warmer and softer, but the green notes persist throughout, and one of the base notes is iris, which I usually think of as a “cool” scent. The other base notes are white musk, moss, and patchouli. I can barely smell the patchouli, which is fine; I think it adds a suitable earthiness to the drydown of No. 42, but I prefer that it not dominate a fragrance.
This is the perfect month for wearing it, because my own garden is positively bursting with flowers! In bloom right now: lilies of the valley; pink camellias; weeping peach trees; a weeping cherry tree; purple redbuds; white dogwoods; Lenten roses (hellebores) of all hues of white, pink, and purple; daffodils; evergreen clematis; forsythia; Lady Banks rose; pansies; rosemary; spring starflowers; summer snowflakes; wild trilliums; and above all else, pink azaleas. We have dozens of them, planted over decades by longtime former owners who were also enthusiastic gardeners. Soon to come: iris, dwarf lilacs, David Austin roses, white foxgloves, daisies, white phlox, magnolias. Later in the summer, we will enjoy crape myrtles and hydrangeas, and, one hopes, vegetables and herbs from my raised beds. Lest it sound as if we have acres of gardens, I should note that several of these plants grow in pots and other containers; our lot is one third of an acre and it also holds a house!

What do you think of when you read the word “vernal”? Many people are most familiar with the word when it is used in conjunction with the spring, or vernal, equinox. The equinox is one of two moments in the year when the sun is exactly above the equator, and day and night are of equal length. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it takes place in March and marks the start of astronomical spring. For others like Portia, in the Southern Hemisphere, the March equinox marks the start of autumn and is the opposite of “vernal.”
Now that I’ve turned ourselves thoroughly topsy-turvy, please make sure to read the other Scent Semantics bloggers’ thoughts on “vernal.” The link to all of them is in the caption below! And do share your own thoughts in the comments, here and on their blogs.

I have to be careful with muguet in fragrances- can be too much for me. I do love the scent of a flower shop though! I’m jealous of your southern garden; I have daffodils and some hyacinth, but everything else here is still in hiding. (We did have some snow flurries on Friday!). I tend to wear my spring flower centric scents m this time of year – Iris, Violet, and lighter roses (I don’t wear roses in the summer, they bloom too much on my skin!)
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Snow on April 1 — the weather fairies were playing tricks. Which Iris and Violet scents are you wearing these days?
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Winter return to the North of England this last week. Snow, sleet, winds & a major drop in temperatures. I had been been testing various samples at the end of March but my nose needed recalibrating & the lack of vernal weather has seen me cracking out a couple of big guns. No 5 in Parfum & EdT and Uncle Serge’s wonderful warming Ambre Sultan. Just the thing for a weekend when the central heating was fritzed & the nighttime temp was below freezing.
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Lovely fragrance choices for unlovely weather!
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I’m so envious of your green fingers. I’ve got black thumb. Your garden is so colourful and rich. I only have daffodils to look at this year, I moved house at the end of February so I’m missing the lilacs and broom bursting out around now. I guessed that muguet would feature in your vernal favourites. As I posted on Abottledrose, Suprafloral is very springy, and I actually wore it last week, when the weather was glorious.
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I’m glad you got a taste of spring weather! Are you unpacked from the move? I loathe moving.
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Your garden looks flourishing! Does the forsythia smell like orange? There are some bushes in the landscaping near me; I think that’s what they are.
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Thank you! I don’t think the forsythia smells like orange, more like a light honey or almond.
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Thank you OH,
Vernal has been so inspiring a word. Also brand new to me.
Muguet is Paris spring to me. May Day to be specific. There are sellers on every city block and the whole place reeks beautifully of it.
Portia xx
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I’ve never been in Paris on May 1, and it sounds heavenly! You know there’s a saying that when good Americans die, they go to Paris. Oscar Wilde, I think!
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That is HILARIOUS! Oscar Wilde.
OH, if you ever can, be in Paris May 1. Even if you just land, stay one night and go on to your European adventure.
Portia xx
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Vernal means green and spring to me. One of my favorite green fragrances is Issara by Dusita. It has a gorgeous green central conifer/cedar note that is so relaxing and spring like. I also think of green tea fragrances as ‘vernal,’ like Nishane Wu Long cha. and Bvlgari The Vert. Finally, your garden is so pretty!
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Thanks! This is really its peak time, through May.
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While I wore Cristalle in the dead of winter as a child, as an adult I associate it with very early Spring…those cool clear mornings where you can smell the change in the air and hear the returning birds….the Spring Equinox is my favorite time and spring by far my favorite season….while I do love me a good lilac(as you and I discussed on other posts) I am going to pick vintage Cristalle (has to be vintage because that one is full of oakmoss) as the one to represent vernal in your post.
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Perfect choice! And yes, vintage is the way to go if one can get it. It’s one of my few backup bottles.
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