Cristalle

Perfume Chat Room, February 17
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Perfume Chat Room, February 17

Welcome to the Friday 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, February 17, and I hope you all had a pleasant week, including Valentine’s Day if you celebrated it and just a great week if you didn’t. I can now reveal that the Valentine’s gift I got for my dear husband is one for us to share — a large bottle of Parfums de Nicolai’s New York. Not New York Intense, though I’ve read that is also very good. I borrowed from his small bottle I had given him some years ago while we were out of town, and I really enjoyed it on me as well as him! So now we’ll share it. I suspect he will use more than I will, because I have so many other options, lol!

How’s this for serendipitous: I was trying to figure out what might be a fun Portuguese perfume to bring home from our upcoming trip, and one of you suggested I reach out to Miguel Matos to ask him, but meanwhile I found out that The Perfumery in Barcelona carries Miguel’s own line! And we’ll be in Barcelona before Portugal. So I’ll go try some of Miguel’s scents and see if there’s one I’d like to bring home as a souvenir of both Barcelona and Portugal.

Our weather here has careened from chilly and wet, to sunny and warm, back to freezing cold and wet today. It’s not literally freezing yet, but it’s barely above that level and will dip below 32 F tonight. Glad I got in some overdue garden cleanup yesterday, when I think it was in the 70s! Sadly, the many pink magnolias that had popped open this past week will undoubtedly brown up and lose their blossoms after tonight’s freeze. They’ve been beautiful while they lasted.

Photo collage of pink magnolia blossoms
Pink magnolia blossoms; image from allaboutgardening.com.

Next week will be Portia’s and my next “CounterPoint“, posting on Monday! We’ll be writing about our different experiences and versions of Chanel No. 5. Please join us!

What’s new in your world? I’ve been enjoying NST‘s community project this week, which was to match a fragrance with a textile or wear a fragrance that reminds you of a textile. So this week, I’ve worn Cristalle (textile-adjacent), Dior’s New Look 1947, and today — Grey Flannel, which I’m really enjoying.

Perfume Chat Room, March 18
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Perfume Chat Room, March 18

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 18, and I’ve been wearing green fragrances all week! This makes me very happy, as I love and own many green fragrances.

Image from Disney’s Fantasia 2000; http://www.disney.com

Truly, this has been a week for the “wearin’ o’ the green“! Today I’ll be wearing Papillon’s Dryad; earlier this week, I wore Cristalle, Chamade, Silences, and of course Chanel No. 19. Other options I could have chosen (and I may wear some this weekend, just to keep it going) are Envy, Decou-Vert, Vent Vert, Manifesto, Azurée, Aromatics Elixir, one of the Tom Ford Vert series, Le Jardin de Monsieur McGregor, too many others to list.

Yes, I am wallowing in green this week. Do you like green fragrances? Any particular favorites?

Outdoor sculpture of the Mud Maid, Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall
Mud Maid, The Lost Gardens of Heligan
May Melange Marathon: Cristalle
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May Melange Marathon: Cristalle

Chanel’s Cristalle came to me later in life; my earliest Chanel “love” (for myself) was No.22, which I still love and wear, then No.19, also still a strong love and in regular rotation on my skin. I’m not sure why it took me so long to discover Cristalle; I probably thought my need for a green Chanel was fully met by No.19. Regardless, I first tried Cristalle a few years ago, and yes, it’s love. I wear Cristalle on days when I need a good snap of green but No. 19 feels like overkill. Both were created by perfumer Henri Robert: No. 19 in 1970, and Cristalle in 1974. (I refer to the eau de toilette; Jacques Polge created an eau de parfum version for Chanel twenty years later).

The two share some notes. Cristalle‘s notes are: Top notes — Sicilian Lemon and Bergamot; middle notes — Hyacinth, Brazilian Rosewood, Honeysuckle and Jasmine; base notes — Oakmoss and Vetiver. No.19‘s notes are: Top notes of Galbanum, Hyacinth, Bergamot and Neroli; middle notes of iris, Orris Root, Rose, Lily-of-the-Valley, Narcissus, Jasmine and Ylang-Ylang; base notes of Oakmoss, Vetiver, Leather, Cedar, Musk and Sandalwood. No.19 was launched the year before Coco Chanel died; it seems to be the last fragrance that she personally approved.

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Scent Sample Sunday: The Wearin’ O’ The Green
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Scent Sample Sunday: The Wearin’ O’ The Green

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! In honor of the day, let us rejoice in the “wearing of the green” — green fragrances, that is. I love green fragrances, as you might expect from a blogger whose nom de plume is “Old Herbaceous“, and my most difficult fragrance choice today will be to decide which of the many I own I will wear. (Another option might be to wear one of the fragrances I brought home from Ireland last summer, including some from the small independent perfumer The Burren Perfumery, but today I’ll probably go with a classic green). Today will be a celebration of “The Wearin’ O’ The Green”!

Green nymph Fantasia

Image from Disney’s Fantasia 2000; http://www.disney.com

Fragrantica did one of its wonderful “Best in Show” columns last year on green fragrances, which you can read here: Best in Show: Green Fragrances (2018). As the editor notes, “green” can describe a wide range of fragrances and notes, which can include: galbanum, patchouli, vetiver, grasses, mosses, ivy, and leaves (especially tea and tomato), lime, basil, rosemary, mint, and cilantro, green mango and apple, conifer needles, bamboo, and more. Many of the muguet fragrances I love are quite green. As I’ve already written a lot about so many of those, and will again later this spring, I’ll pass over them as a category for now.

Some of the classic greens I own and love are Chanel No. 19, Chanel Cristalle, Annick Goutal Grand Amour, Gucci Envy, Balmain Vent Vert (the 1991 version, by Calice Becker), Jacomo Silences, Estee Lauder Azuree, Clinique Aromatics Elixir.

My newer green niche perfumes include (of course) Papillon’s Dryad, Beaufort London’s Fathom V, Amouage Bracken, L’Artisan Parfumeur’s The Pour Un Ete, Laboratorio Olfattivo’s Decou-Vert, DSH Perfumes Le Jardin Vert. There are others, but many of them I own only in small sample sizes, so I’m not counting them here!

Green fragrances: Chanel No. 19, Cristalle, Papillon Dryad, on Liberty shawl

Favorite green fragrances

While I know that “green” fragrances are said to be the least favored category of fragrance, I know many of you also love them. What are your favorites? Do you plan to wear a green fragrance today?

Outdoor sculpture of the Mud Maid, Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall

Mud Maid, The Lost Gardens of Heligan