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 Saturday, April 27, and we’re almost at the start of May! I won’t be doing a blog May Marathon this year because we’ll be out of the country for the second half of the month, and before that we have our youngest child’s college graduation. So I’ll be running a different kind of marathon getting ready for all that! However, as most of you know, I just love lily of the valley, or muguet — both the flowers and the scent. The first of May in France is traditionally a day when the French give or wear sprigs of muguet, and French perfumers in particular have created some wonderful muguet fragrances, the most famous being Christian Dior’s Diorissimo.
Guerlain also issues a muguet fragrance every May in a limited edition flacon.
So you can imagine how excited I was when I read two weeks ago on “Now Smell This” that Patricia de Nicolai was releasing her own limited edition muguet fragrance, to be sold only in their boutiques, called Une Fleur en Mai. I began immediately to plot how I might get a bottle, since our trip in May will be to France. Alas! according to the company website, it is already sold out! Maybe we’ll get lucky and the firm will add it to their regular line.
I know that muguet is polarizing to many perfumistas — some love it, like me, and others loathe it. Where do you fall on that spectrum?
Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities 
Congratulations on your child’s college graduation! I’m not sure I’ve smelled real LotV flowers. Not a note I’m attracted to in perfumes, though. It would be fun to wear the flowers with everyone else to celebrate May Day!
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Thanks! And I agree, it would be fun to celebrate May Day in France with all the flowers. Lily of the valley is one of my top three favorite flowers, the other two being roses and narcissi.
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Congratulations on the graduation. I know that will be a great celebration. I love LOTV. I ordered the Nicolai new LOTV fragrance I’m looking forward to sniffing it. I considered the Guerlain LOTV but couldn’t justify such a pricey purchase.
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I’m jealous! I truly had no idea it would sell out before May. Believe it or not, I got Guerlain’s 2016 Muguet (the one in the photo) with Amazon points!
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That’s impressive!
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Also, please come back here to comment with your thoughts on the Nicolai. I love her Odalisque, which has a strong muguet note.
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I will!
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The Nicolai Muguet is very well done, true LOTV notes up front and it develops into the full lily plant, flower, stems, earth, etc. It’s a bit too lily indolic for me. I’m picky about lily scents. If you want it, it’s yours. I only sprayed it 2 times. LMK via email. (-;
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Thanks!! I’ll email you.
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I LOVE lilly-of-the-valley flower: it’s beautiful, and it smells wonderful.
When it comes to perfumes with this note, I dislike when it’s done cheaply. But even when it’s done well, I resent paying niche prices for something that is done artificially, and both attempts to recreate the scent by natural ingredients (by Tauer and by DSH) were just horrible for my nose and didn’t smell of LotV even remotely.
I love my Diorella and will be wearing it on May 1st.
I hope you’ll have a wonderful trip (and bring back something great).
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I have a vintage Diorissimo mini, which is gorgeous in homeopathic amounts but most LotV soliflores are, to me, headache inducing. As a bit player LotV features in a number of my collection, from No19 to Anais Anais
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Hey OH,
YAY for graduations and European holiday extravaganzas!
We were lucky enough to be in Paris a few years ago for May 1 and there was LOTV being sold as sprigs or little pots on every corner. So gorgeous. You are going to be so happy.
I bet they will still have testers as PdN stores if you ask. At least you’ll be able to smell it.
The only LOTV fragrance that gets any real wear around here in the Hermès Muguet Porcelain. I only have a 15ml and it was DCd before I bought a FB.
Portia xx
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That’s a great idea, thanks! I love Muguet Porcelaine, and was able to buy a tester of that some years ago.
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You are a lucky duck OH. 100ml of Muguet Porcelaine to spritz with abandon? That is real luxury.
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It is! And I plan to spritz away tomorrow and much of May!
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Perfect. XX
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