Welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.
Today is Friday, March 22, and yesterday was Fragrance Day, per the Fragrance Foundation. Did you wear any special fragrance in honor of the day? I love that Fragrance Day falls in the same week as the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, that seems so fitting given that my garden and others are bursting with fragrant flowers right now. Also, “Paris Perfume Week” is underway, from March 21-24. How I wish I were there! Maybe next year … anyone care to come? It appears there are many events that non-professionals can attend (with a ticket).
I’m still enjoying my souvenir of Paris, Fragonard’s Narcisse, which was its flower scent of the year in 2023. I chose it because on our recent trip, there were daffodils in bloom everywhere we went, including Versailles. Elena Vosnaki of Fragrantica chose it as one of her favorite fragrances of 2023. My heart still belongs to Ostara, for a true daffodil fragrance, but Narcisse is very pretty. It’s light and fresh, with a lot of citrus in its opening. The picture on the bottle shows Narcissus poeticus, a late-blooming white narcissus with a small, red and yellow ‘eye” in its center, and that is what it smells like as opposed to daffodils. More lemony and less musky. A very nice spring scent! It doesn’t last long but I enjoy it while it does.
We are entering my favorite fragrance season, spring. As regulars here know, I love my floral and green fragrances! Of course I can wear them year-round, but the spring is when I really love wearing them, as they blend seamlessly with the fragrant air outside. RIght now, the smell of fresh flowers inside my house is coming from a bunch of sweet pea blossoms that a friend gave me yesterday. I love them! I’ve tried before to grow them in my garden, without success. I just haven’t mastered the timing, as they hate hot weather. I think I’d have to plant seeds in the fall to have any chance. Meanwhile, their delicate blossoms are scenting an entire room; they don’t even look real.
Do you have any favorite sweet pea fragrances? Caron had one for a long time called Pois de Senteur, which they reformulated and reissued in 2021, but I’ve never smelled it. Last year, Jo Malone had a new fragrance called English Pear and Sweet Pea, so I may have to go try that at a nearby department store. Have you tried it? Thoughts on it?
Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities 
I haven’t smelt sweet peas for years! Mum grew them when we lived in the park of a stately home. How she did it without a cold frame or green house. I don’t know how she did it!
Not sure I would wear a sweet pea fragrance though.
I’m waiting for the smells of spring to arrive. The magnolias are out but they don’t smell. The apple tree & cherry tree are just beginning to bud.
My favourite hawthorn is a month away & the linden about 10 weeks off.
I missed Fragrance Day but woke up today & my nose was working so I’m in Goldfield & Banks Ingenious Ginger. Much warmer than I expected but tip top on a cool English evening.
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Hurray for a working nose! Ingenious Ginger sounds very appealing.
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Glad your nose is back in order! I’m not that familiar with sweet pea, but the photo looks delicate! Also looking forward to the fragrances of spring (though not the accompanying pollen allergies).
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Me too. My sinuses loathe the smells I love. Tree pollen & oil seed rape
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My mum grew sweet peas, they were very fragrant. My job was stringing them up when they were young. I just don’t have my mother’s green fingers unfortunately. She loved gardening. My house smells of lillies this week. My favourite cut flower smell. The Paris Perfume week could prove to be dangerous. I’m just imagining how easy it would be to bankrupt myself. I’m enjoying wearing the Maison Margiela From the Garden that Portia was trying out a couple of weeks back. Really springy green floral. And it’s got a bit of oomph, always a positive in my book.
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It sounds really nice, I’ll make an effort to go sniff it.
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The only 2 sweet pea fragrances I have sniffed are the first My Burberry and Carven EDT. The Carven is lovely and I would like to have a travel size decant of it. I don’t think I’ve ever smelled any sweet blossoms in real life.
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The sweet pea flowers look beautiful. It is a kind of flower I don’t think many people grow anymore. Anyway, here they would only be present in summer. We have a mix of snow and rain now, so it is more about snowdrops now outside. Indoors we love having tulips and different varieties of narcissus at this time of year. Not sure I would want sweet pea in perfume, and perhaps I would not even be able to pick it out as a note if paired with other floral notes.
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I love all spring flowers, but narcissi are my favorites. The sweet peas’ fragrance is very delicate so I think it would be challenging to pick out in a perfume blend.
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