Fragrance Fridays

Fragrance Friday: Biryani, Wine and Perfume
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Fragrance Friday: Biryani, Wine and Perfume

Tonight I am making coconut and curry leaf biryani while I sip a glass of Yellowtail Big Bold Red wine. Both, needless to say, are very fragrant! I adore biryani and am trying to learn to make a good one. Here’s what is in the spice blend: cumin, coriander, Kashmiri chili, turmeric,  black pepper, kibbled curry leaf, black cumin, clove, star anise and cinnamon. Very fragrant!

The Big Bold Red wine is yummy. Australian wine reviewer and blogger Natalie Maclean has this to say:  “This full-bodied red wine offers flavours of fleshy ripe raspberries and strawberries, along with notes of chocolate, mocha and espresso from toasty oak aging.”

So what perfume might go along with my Indian meal and Australian wine? I’ve found one that has notes of both coriander and cumin that sounds very appealing, as it includes my beloved rose note: Miller Harris’ Rose En Noir.  Top notes according to Fragrantica.com: coriander, cumin and lemon leaf. Heart notes: rose, violet leaf, black pepper. Base notes: tobacco, patchouli, ambrette (musk mallow). No fruit.

BUT according to Miller Harris’ own site, these are the notes in Rose En Noir: “Ruby red raspberry fruits, violet leaf and hints of petit grain provide a tantalising introduction, while rich notes of Turkish rose Damascena and black pepper dominate the heart. Rose en Noir seductively draws down into a deeply rich velvet base of ambrette seed, tabac noir, vetiver and patchouli.” Yes, that is raspberry listed first — just like my glass of wine.

So now, as I savor my glass of wine and smell the fragrance of biryani on the air, I have added a new perfume to my wishlist. It doesn’t hurt that it was originally a limited edition exclusive to my favorite department store in the world, Liberty of London.

Rose En Noir Bottle with Petals

Photos: 18 The Mall.

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New Blog Feature: Fragrance Fridays

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One of our Blogging 101 class assignments this week was to create a recurring blog post feature. I already had one, What Went Well Wednesdays, but I think I’ll add another, consistent with my renewed interest in fragrance and perfume, and lifelong interest in flowers and gardening. So welcome to Fragrance Fridays! I will post stories with a common thread of fragrance, scent or perfume — but not necessarily the kind that comes in a bottle. Here’s my first, about the rare blossoming of a Titan Arum, also known as the “corpse flower” at the Denver Botanic Gardens: Thousands Stop To Smell A Flower (And Hope Not To Gag), as reported by The New York Times. It gets its common name from the usual reaction that its blossom smells like rotting meat.

Okay, not a pleasant smell — but how fascinating! And it is really interesting to read how differently various visitors perceived the smell of the flower. Some smelled rotting meat but others smelled stinky cheese, gym socks, etc. The purpose of the scent is to attract specific insects that will then carry its pollen away, which is why most plants have evolved to emit fragrance, although some seem to use fragrance to repel. LiveScience.com explains more at: Denver Stinky Corpse Flower Blooms.

Scentbird?
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Scentbird?

One of the tags I follow is “Perfume”. I have always loved perfume and even saved up my money in eighth grade to buy my mother a small flacon of Chanel No. 5, her signature perfume. An early memory of mine is sitting on her bed watching her get ready to go out with my father, as she sat at a real dressing-table whose lid, when lifted, revealed a mirror and a deep compartment filled with mysterious bottles of fragrance, lotion and makeup. I am firmly convinced that scent and fragrance can help transport us to a different (better?) state of mind, as the sense of smell connects to the most primitive, unconscious parts of the human brain, the ones that process emotions and memories. Let’s use that power for good!  Serenity now!

Today, another blog featured a subscription service called “Scentbird.” I loved that name so much, I had to read more just to find out what it was. Turns out it is a service where you pay a monthly fee to receive a decanted sample of a different named fragrance each month. This has clearly been given a lot of thought; subscribers get a special container to hold their samples, which come in small glass vials. Very creative! I had heard of another subscription for beauty supply samples — “Birchbox” — but not for fragrance. Where do they get these great names, by the way?

Anyway, Scentbird also has a blog where contributors comment on various fragrances: Scentbird. And today’s post included a fragrance I just tried myself in a store and liked very much: Hermes Jour d’Hermes. The blog aptly describes it as taking its wearer into a beautiful garden — and you know how much we love gardens here at Serenity Now. It was very appealing, with its white florals, green notes, sweet pea, citrus and water notes. And yes, it made me feel more serene.

Next up for me to try: Hermes Jour d’Hermes Absolu, pictured above with my favorite roses!

jourdhermes-bottle