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 Sunday, September 14, and this week it’s time for my husband’s birthday! Yes, we’re both Virgos, and the less said about that, the better, lol.
I have two fragrance tidbits to share: one, our second daughter recently returned from Greece (where she and a friend had the BEST time), and she brought me a very nice fragrance she found in a boutique in Athens called La Maison de Stefanie. The fragrance is called Artemis, and it has an intriguing opening that smells like a mix of fruit and spice, but nothing like apple pie, for instance. I think the fruit may be fig. I’m still puzzling over the spice notes.
The other is that my BFF who lives in Florida felt the deep need for self care and re-centering that many of us in the USA are feeling in these disorienting times, and she got herself an item from her wishlist: Amouage’s Existence. She’s in heaven! It is centered on a muguet accord, so you know I’ll have to go try it locally. Have any of you tested it?
That’s all for now — gotta go think of birthday plans for my beloved.
Van Cleef & Arpels jeweled lily of the valley clip; photo from Van Cleef & Arpels.
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, May 2, and yesterday was May Day in many countries. In France, a May Day tradition is to give bouquets of maguey, or lily of the valley, to loved ones and friends. Apparently this was a tradition faithfully honored by M. Christian Dior, whose favorite flower was the muguet. This inspired, in turn, his work with Edmond Roudnitska to create the legendary Dior fragrance Diorissimo. As regular readers here know, muguet is one of my favorite scents and the flowers are one of my favorite flowers. In past years, I’ve done daily posts in May for a blogging “May Muguet Marathon”, which has been great fun!
Today I’m wearing my newest muguet fragrance, Cavatina by Parfums Dusita. I really love it, especially at this time of year when the weather shifts between late spring and early summer.
Lilies of the valley in woodland garden; image from Pinterest
Did you do anything special to celebrate May Day? Do you have any new-to-you favorite muguet or other spring fragrances?
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 12, and I have another new fragrance by Parfums Dusita! The latest is Cavatina, a beautiful tribute to vintage muguet fragrances like Diorissimo, Muguet des Bois, and others. Listed notes include: top notes of bergamot, litsea cubeba, petit grain; heart notes of lily of the valley, tea rose, jasmine; base notes of ambrette seed, Siamese woods, vanilla. Additional notes mentioned on the website, presumably used to create the lily of the valley accord, include tuberose, ylang-ylang, heliotrope, and aldehydes.
As longtime readers here know, I adore lily of the valley flowers and fragrances, and in past years I’ve amused myself by writing a “May Muguet Marathon” series of daily posts during the month of May. (In other years, I’ve done a “Roses de Mai” Marathon).
I was curious about the litsea cubeba listed, and it turns out that it is an evergreen tree or shrub native to China. According to Eden Botanicals, its essential oil has “an intense, clean, fresh, sweet-green, lemon-like aroma with light woody-floral undertones.” Seems like a perfect ingredient to create a Muguet fragrance, since lilies of the valley share some of those fragrant traits.
Cavatina is a lovely muguet. It is light, floral, elegant. The bergamot gives it a little zing at the start, and it must be the litsea that adds the lemony note that I do smell in real lilies of the valley. The muguet accord is very realistic, even without the molecules that made Diorissimo a legend but are now banned or can only be used in tiny quantities.
I won’t be doing a May Marathon this year, as I’ll be traveling (including a trip to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show! If I did another marathon series later this summer or fall, what would interest you most?
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 28, and last Friday was International Fragrance Day, which I totally missed! OTOH, I did visit the niche fragrance boutique that opened a few years ago in a nearby suburb, Indiehouse. I had first visited its pop-up store before it had its fixed location, and I’ve been to its intown location, which isn’t far from my house, but I hadn’t yet visited its main store. I’m delighted to say that it was lovely, with many interesting rinds, and the staff could not have been nicer.
Indiehouse fragrance boutique
I bought a discovery set I’ve been eyeing for a while, from the brand Grandiflora. If I can’t get to Australia this year, I’ll wear Australian fragrances!
Indiehouse fragrance boutique
The two sales associates were very warm and welcoming, and managed that great balance of offering help but then letting me wander around sniffing until I had a specific question. They were both knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and we had a great chat about Christian Dior, his sister Catherine, and the original Miss Dior.
I haven’t p,urged into my new discovery set yet because I’ve been enjoying the Rosarine by Parfums Dusita that I was “ given” in February. I’m using quotation marks because as usual, I bought it for myself then handed it over to my patient, nice husband to give me for Valentine’s Day! He’s a very good sport. Next up: Cavatina, for Mother’s Day, lol. The lilies of the valley I grow here (barely, they don’t seem to like the heat here) are already in full bloom and very fragrant.
Spring is in full swing now, and I’ve been very busy caring for all the roses and other plants I put in last spring and summer. All seem to have made it just fine through our erratic frosts, and I’m tackling the usual bugs and diseases early and preventatively.
Have you discovered any new stores, fragrances, or plants recently?
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, June 7, and we’re back from our trip to France! It was an amazing trip through Normandy and Brittany, where we visited D-Day sites, prehistoric standing stones, landscapes of great natural beauty, and several museums along the way. We also enjoyed many outstanding meals, including our first ever dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant. All in all, it was a wonderful, though delayed, celebration of major birthdays, wedding anniversary, and graduations; this was the trip we had planned for the summer of 2020, which of course we had to cancel. It is also likely to be our last big trip to Europe with the whole family, as our three young adult children now all have full-time jobs, significant others, and more scheduling challenges. So we pulled out all the stops!
I did not come home with any fragrances, but I was able to try some really nice ones in the duty-free area of Charles de Gaulle airport. The Guerlain extraits were so luxurious! I sampled Iris Pallida and Rose Centifolia. Just gorgeous! I also tried Chanel’s Comète and was unimpressed. Quite pretty, but it may have suffered by comparison with Guerlain’s Iris Pallida extrait, which was simply stunning. If I were longing for a powdery Chanel iris eau de parfum, I’d probably be satisfied with No. 19 Poudré, at a much lower price.
We also visited the garden at Christian Dior’s childhood home in Granville, which inspired many of his designs and fragrances. It was absolutely beautiful, and all the roses were in full bloom, including a lovely, fragrant one named “Jardin de Granville.” I wish it were available in the US, to add to my own garden!
Jardin de Granville rose
A big thank-you to rickyrebarco, whose package with Nicolai’s Une Fleur En Mai and another lovely goodie arrived while we were away! They’re both beautiful, and I love them. I’m wearing Une Fleur En Mai today!
We won’t be traveling overseas for the rest of the summer, though London is a possibility this fall, and we may go visit family in New Hampshire in July. Do you have any summer travel plans? Any planned acquisitions of new fragrances? Do tell!
Today is the first of May, traditionally celebrated in France by giving bouquets or sprigs of muguet, or lily-of-the-valley. As regular readers know, I love lilies of the valley and I love muguet fragrances. In some past years, I’ve done a “May Muguet Marathon“, posting every day about a muguet fragrance or the flower itself. I won’t do one this year, because of our son’s college graduation and then our family’s two-week trip to France itself. Got a lot going on!
I did want to share this lovely photo of Maison Dior’s flagship in Paris, decorated with huge sculptures of lilies of the valley:
Muguet at Maison Dior; image from Maison Dior.
Isn’t that magnifique? Christian Dior is much on my mind these days, after having watched the Apple TV series “The New Look.” I loved it — so well done, and the acting was terrific, including Juliette Binoche as the very unappealing Coco Chanel. The series is about what happened to Christian Dior and his sister Catherine during the Nazi occupation of Paris, with the parallel story of Chanel’s alleged collaboration. Only Binoche could have pulled off the balanced acting required for that role. Both narratives are based on separate books by Justine Picardie: a biography of Chanel that includes the war years, and one of Catherine Dior, focused on her experience as a member of the French Resistance and also as an inspiration to her brother. The perfume Miss Dior was named for her.
I’ve read the book about Catherine Dior, Miss Dior; A Story of Courage and Couture, and I highly recommend it. Have you read it, or watched the series?
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.
Guerlain Muguet 2016
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?
Sasha Pivovarova with lilies of the valley; Vogue magazine.
The word for this month’s Scent Semantics posts is “misanthrope.” If you haven’t read one of these posts before, “Scent Semantics” brings together a group of us fragrance bloggers in a collaborative project called “Scent Semantics“, the brainchild of Portia Turbo over at A Bottled Rose. On the first Monday of each month, we all take a word — the same word — as inspiration for a post that has some relationship to a fragrance, broadly interpreted. There are six participating blogs: Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities (here), The Plum Girl, The Alembicated Genie, Eau La La, Undina’s Looking Glass, and A Bottled Rose. I hope you’ll all check out the Scent Semantics posts on each blog!
One definition of “misanthrope” is “someone who dislikes and avoids other people.” Now, I am not normally a misanthrope myself, although I am definitely an introvert (and if you’ve never seen author Susan Cain’s TED talk on the subject, click on that link — it’s a treat!). However, I think we’ve all become a bit misanthropic during the last two and a half years of a global pandemic — we were forced to avoid other people starting in March of 2020, then we disliked many people because of their varied responses to the pandemic. Layer on top of that the American elections of 2020 and their aftermath, so full of rage, and I think it’s safe to say that many of us, misanthropic by nature or not, have been slowly emerging from a phase of misanthropy.
My semantically matched fragrance this month is vintage Chanel No. 19 eau de toilette. I’ve been wearing it almost daily for the past week as my green armor at work, due to the difficulties I’ve encountered leading up to a long overdue personal leave (which started this weekend, yay!). No. 19 always makes me feel that I can be tougher than I actually am; it stiffens my backbone. Some might say that it helps me set and keep healthy boundaries, lol!
Why? I think it’s because of the hefty dose of galbanum that heralds its arrival: a bitter, green opening chord that announces, as the Chanel website says, a “daring, distinctive, uncompromising composition.” Perfect for setting boundaries! The other top notes reinforce the lack of compromise: astringent bergamot, assertive hyacinth, aromatic neroli. All have a distinctive tinge of green supporting the star of the show, the galbanum, which Fragrantica sums up as an “intense and persistent bitter green .” Indeed. If galbanum were a person, it would be Bette Davis playing Margo Channing in “All About Eve”:
“All About Eve”, 20th Century Fox.
If you’re not familiar with the movie, it is about a star actress who is turning forty, fears for her career, and is manipulated and ultimately upstaged by a much younger woman. Fittingly, No. 19 was the last Chanel fragrance created while Coco Chanel herself was still alive, in her 80s, though I don’t know that anyone ever succeeded in either manipulating or upstaging her. Master perfumer Henri Robert put the finishing touches on the formula in 1970, Chanel died in early 1971, and No. 19 was released the same year.
The blog “Olfactoria’s Travels” has a wonderful review of No. 19, referring to it as a “magic cloak”. The reviewer takes a more benevolent view of No. 19 than Tania Sanchez did in the guide to perfumes she co-wrote with Luca Turin, where she compared it to the wire mother monkey in a famous experiment about nurturing or the lack thereof. Blogger and author Neil Chapman, of “The Black Narcissus”, is famously a devotee of No. 19, scarfing up vintage bottles of it in all formats from second-hand stores in Japan, where he lives. You can read all about it in his amazing book, “Perfume: In Search of Your Signature Scent”, available in the UK and the US, and elsewhere in other languages, which I highly recommend!
Luckily for me, since I adore green fragrances, on my skin the greenery lasts and lasts, joined in the heart phase by some of my favorite floral notes: iris, orris root, rose, lily-of-the-valley, narcissus, jasmine and ylang-ylang. The green astringency of the opening notes is carried forward by the lily-of-the-valley and narcissus, while orris root adds earthiness, iris adds powder, and jasmine and ylang-ylang add airiness, sexiness and warmth. My sense of No. 19 as “armor” is aided by my vintage spray, a refillable, silvery, aluminum canister that has protected its contents for many years.
No. 19 has had many “faces”, my favorite being English model and iconoclast Jean Shrimpton. And guess what? Based on her own words, she may actually have been a misanthrope, having walked away from her superstar modeling career and life of celebrity in her 30s, becoming what she herself described as a recluse running a hotel in Cornwall. Although the photo of her below is not an ad for Chanel, to me it captures the spirit of No. 19‘s opening — inscrutable, distant, mingling shades of green, white, and earthy brown with the unexpected intrusion of purple:
Jean Shrimpton; image by Patrick Lichfield for Vogue, 1970.
As No. 19 dries down, to my nose the galbanum never leaves, though it recedes into the distance as the oakmoss enters the glade. Because I have the vintage EDT, the base includes oakmoss, leather, musk, sandalwood, and cedar. It is a true chypre, a genre I love. It reminds me of the Jackie Kennedy Onassis of the 1970s: elegant and even haughty upon first appearance, with a warmth that reveals itself over time to the patient; breaking free from the fashion conventions she mastered so skillfully and embodied in the 1950s and 1960s, and far from the cold “wire mother” of Tania Sanchez’ imagining while retaining an aura that commands respect.
I’m choosing to adopt Laura Bailey‘s interpretation of No. 19, which she described in Vogue at the height of pandemic lockdowns in 2020, as the scent of new beginnings and dreams of future adventure:
No 19, the ‘unexpected’ Chanel, the ‘outspoken’ Chanel, created at the height of the first wave of feminism in 1971, and named for Coco Chanel’s birthday – 19 August – is, for me, the fragrance of freedom, of optimism, of strength. (And of vintage campaign stars Ali MacGraw, Jean Shrimpton and Christie Brinkley.) The heady cocktail of rose-iris-vetiver-jasmine-lily-of-the-valley remains shockingly modern and original, bolder than any sweet fairy-tale fantasy.
If you had to relate a fragrance to the word “misanthrope”, which would you choose?
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, April 8, and we’ve gone from one weather extreme to another here. The week started out as gorgeous springtime, sunny and blooming. It was “Scent Semantics” Monday, and I got to choose the word this month, which was “vernal.” Then we had two days of violent storms, including a couple with extremely loud thunder and lots of lightning, accompanied by a 20-degree drop in temperatures. Our dog Lucy was NOT happy!
Lucy, not happy
Yesterday and today dawned bright and sunny again, and Lucy’s tail is wagging. She loves to lie in the sun outside in our garden (which is totally fenced, with a secured gate). We celebrated our wedding anniversary this week, which brought to mind the strange mix of weather we had on our wedding day: April snow, April showers, brilliant sunshine amid April flowers.
Le Jardin de Old Herbaceous
This weekend is Palm Sunday, soon to be followed by Easter. I love Easter, maybe even more than Christmas because it is so vernal (see what I did there?). I adore the many Easter flowers on display indoors and out. I love Easter food (we always have a traditional roast leg of lamb), and I love having our kids home for the holiday. I love the Easter music and services at our church
April this year is filled with important holidays: Passover, Ramadan, Easter. I enjoy learning about all the different traditions. I wish I’d had more opportunities to learn about them when I was in school, as my children have had, but better late than never.
I think my Easter fragrance will be vintage Dior Lily. It’s a lovely combination of spring florals, mostly Muguet and white lilies. As many of you know, though, I have SO many muguet fragrances that I won’t lack for choices!
Do you have any upcoming celebrations or favorite fragrances to match with holidays?
Parfums Christian Dior is responsible for possibly the most famous muguet fragrance of all time, Diorissimo. A less-known, discontinued muguet fragrance by Dior is the lovely Lily, launched in 1999. The perfumer behind it is Florence Idier, who also created Comme des Garcons’ Series 1 Leaves: Lily, another lily-of-the-valley fragrance. There is another fragrance called Lily Dior, but the one I have is just called Lily; it is an eau de toilette.
Lily, by Parfums Christian Dior; image from Fragrantica
Fragrantica (which has a photo of the wrong bottle on this fragrance’s page, btw; it shows 2004’s Lily Dior) lists its notes as: Top notes are Green Notes, Fruity Notes, Bergamot and Brazilian Rosewood; middle notes are Lily-of-the-Valley, Lilac, Lily, Jasmine and Rose; base notes are Musk and Sandalwood.
I acquired my bottle of Lily within the past year, so it has never featured in my frequent “May Muguet Marathon.” It wouldn’t be May for me without some reviews of muguet fragrances! I like Lily very much, and if I didn’t already have several true-love muguet fragrances, it would be among my top dozen. Even as a vintage eau de toilette, its top notes are clear and strong, with a noticeable fruit note at the start that reminds me of a green pear. The only listed top note that I don’t really smell is the rosewood; the opening is very fresh and green.
The lily-of-the valley note steps forward quickly and it is very natural-smelling (although LOTV notes famously rely on clever combinations of other substances, as the flowers’ natural essence cannot be extracted). The companion notes of lilac and jasmine are evident, with the lilac slightly more obvious than the jasmine. At this stage, Lily reminds me a lot of the 1998 version of Guerlain’s Muguet, which was created by Jean-Paul Guerlain and launched the year before Lily.
Hmmm. The list of notes for each fragrance is almost identical, according to Fragrantica. The clear presence of both lilac and jasmine in the middle stage, as part of the evocation of lily-of-the-valley, is very similar in each fragrance. Lily‘s opening is distinctive, though, with that green pear note that gives it some zing together with the bergamot. I’m going to give Parfums Dior the benefit of the doubt here, though: Christian Dior’s association with the muguet, his favorite flower, goes back decades and prompted the creation of Diorissimo; the flower appeared regularly in Dior fashions: dresses, scarves, hats, jewelry, and apparently he had a tradition of giving sprigs of lilies-of-the-valley to employees every May Day, which the fashion house continues to this day. Don’t you just love this hat?
Lily of the valley hat by Christian Dior
The Christian Dior name is also attached to a wide variety of household goods featuring lilies of the valley as his signature flower, everything from sheets to fine porcelain. A new collection of muguet-themed housewares was launched by Dior last year, and they are quite beautiful.
As my regular readers know, I truly love muguet fragrances. I struggle to grow them here in the South, as it really is too hot and humid here for them, but I have a few plants I have nursed along in dedicated planters on the shady edge of our front terrace, where I can keep them well-watered and mulched with the rich humus compost they love. Lily is very true to the natural scent of lilies-of-the-valley and it doesn’t smell soapy at all to my nose, unlike some LOTV fragrances. It doesn’t last more than a few hours, which is the norm for most muguet fragrances, especially in eau de toilette concentrations. While it lasts, though, it is very pretty. However, most of the prices you will see online for Lily are too high, considering that one can easily find lovely, newer, muguet fragrances that are more affordable, or at least fresh (see my “May Muguet Marathon” posts for some suggestions!).
For a lovely post on lily-of-the-valley scents, check out one of my favorite blogs, Bois de Jasmin. Its author, Victoria, mentions Dior’s Lily briefly in the comment section. She writes about muguet fragrances pretty regularly, as it is a favorite scent of hers. I know lily-of-the-valley scents can be polarizing; people tend to like them very much, as I do, or not at all. How do you feel about them?
Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities 