My Ten Favorite Scents for a Modern Summer

I've loved reading the summer fave scents by the real scent bloggers, like Marina and Tom, Ina, and Victoria, so I had to join the fun.  Actually noticing and narrowing down my choices to the nearest and dearest made me think about what I really look for and find in my scent choices, and they naturally broke down into five catagories which made it quite neat.  The great thing is that all of our choices are pretty darned different, which is why we are all here, isn't it?

I find that there are several qualities in a scent that I crave during the summer, the first is the quite literally a bracing scent, fresh and invigorating, simply the opposite of the way that I wilt in the heat.  These quaranteed antidotes to the heat for me this summer are both by Miller et Bertaux, go figure!  That is what got me to musing on my comparative modernity this year, as I am not craving any classic perfumery at all -- unless you think my final entries are Classic, I just think they're Magic.

My first Bracing scent is Miller et Bertaux's earthy Spiritus (#2) , and my second is their self explanatory Green Green Green & Green (#3).  Though my immediate sensation of #2 is always "peppery," I'm never tempted to sneeze, it's cool pepper like szechuan peppercorns.  The stated notes of #2 are “Mystic incense, sandalwood, tobacco and spices are infused with ginger and rose,” now that doesn’t sound bracing does it?  But the effect of the scent is cool spice, perhaps due to the cooling effect of incense and tobacco on ginger?   It's completely addictive, like spicy food is sometimes.  I am notoriously bad at picking out notes and I’ve turned that weakness into a strength by lauding the fragrances I love that are blended so seamlessly as to blur the edges of all of their notes.  Now #3 is crisp and bittersweet, a git like green pepper blended with herbs to soften it's bitter edges.  It’s stemmy and fresh, reminding me of that Gobin Daudé scent that was so green and alive smelling, while Vent Vert, which is also very green, has that classic perfumey quality that I am eschewing.

The next quality that I crave in summer is piquancy, a kind of stimulating pungence, which I associate with spices, and again I have a double header by Divine Parfums, L’Homme Sage, one of my favorite spice scents of all time, and my new discovery L’Homme de Coeur.  Coeur seems to be made of rather pungent green herbs and spices, Sage is all brown and gold spice, simultaneously warm and and comforting and, and sharp and stimulating. 

    
When I read the notes of  L’Homme Sage and I think HELLO it’s made from mostly things I really love – even Lychee! (and what are “everlasting flowers?”), which combine to make a scent I really love, which seems intuitive but doesn't really happen all that often to me.  With saffron, mandarin, cardamom, lychee; balm, aromatic woods, everlasting flowers; patchouli, oak moss, amber and incense, it’s a never miss scent for me. 

In contrast, L’Homme de Coeur is green and gray composition does a completely different thing with an herbaceous combination of angelica, juniper berries, cypress, iris, vetiver, ambergris, and wild vanilla (which seems to be some kind herb, not the vanilla pod we expect).  Actually I would have named them in reverse, as this scent seems a bit more monastic (sage is wise in French, like wiseman, but also sort of quiet and good), and the Sage seems more warm hearted, but what’s in a name?

Believe it or not my next two scents are ALSO by the same house, Les Parfums de Rosine, and I am after their simultaneously fresh and stimulating aspects, which isn't what one would necessarily look for in a Rose scent.   Roseberry and Diabolo Rose have both surprised me as potions concocted from curiously refreshing components combined with rich rose to make scents that really last on me, for one thing, delivering downright amusing whiffs at every turn!  

Here are the interesing notes of these scents – Roseberry has almost a fizzy fresh aspect with “aldehydic, green and rosy notes, blackcurrant bud, blue camomile; lees of wine notes, wild rose, Turkish rose, raspberry leaves, blackberry; sandalwood, vetyver & iris.”  I swear that the red wine comes across, and as my foodie friend Richard always says about balance in food, it, along with all of those berries, brings “good acid” to the composition, hence it's refreshment.

Diabolo Rose hits with a whoosh of mint, like a breath of fresh air, that combines Sicilian bergamot, peppered mint, rose essence, lily of the valley, rose absolue, tomato leaves, peony, maté leaves, sandalwood, amber & musk.  The citrus and mint combined with those refreshing leaves and florals really makes this a special scent, so much more than the mere combination of it's parts.

My Happy Summer Florals this year are Creed’s legendary Fleur de Thé Rose Bulgare, and Le Labo Neroli 36, both of which always make me smile, which must be aromatherapy doing it’s work.  Again, their notes don’t tell the story very well, as both scents are so evocative of times and places and feelings I may have never experienced, but these scents teach them to me with every sniff.   I experience a kind of ecstatic happiness from the wonderous Creed scent, which is like a magnificent fictitious tea rose.  If the amazonian genetic mutations of roses that are at florists for Valentine's Day -- one can’t help trying to smell them, only to be disappointed again and again -- had a scent, this would be it!  The notes are Bulgarian roses, green tea, Sicilian mandarin, Sicilian bergamot, Italian lemon, all of which can definitely be sniffed out in this transporting scent, but it that's not the whole story and the radically simplified almost generic notes of the uplifting Neroli 36 (for 36 ingredients) tell us very little about it “neroli, rose, musk, mandarin orange, jasmine and vanilla” (duh, whatever, how about Neroli Neroli Neroli?)  All I can tell you is that it works on me like Prozac this summer!

My last cagegory is Fabulous and Mysterious, a special feeling that both Balenciaga's Vintage Le Dix and Guerlain's Vol de Nuit always give me, and there is no way to imagine how either of them smell by reading their notes.

The Third Thing

Water is H2O, hydrogen two parts, oxygen one,
but there is also a third thing, that makes it water
and nobody knows what that is.

The atom locks up two energies
but it is a third thing present which makes it an atom.                  D.H. Lawrence

Le Dix completely  took me by surprise.  I had gotten a HUGE bottle on ebay for a violet loving friend, and of course had to decant a bit for myself to experiment with, and I was very intrigued.  I have NEVER liked violet anything, except for the color!  The scent was violety, woodsy and captivating, and I have returned to it over time especially during warm weather, which is a double surprise, since woody violet with a hint of leather doesn’t sound too appealing for the summer, but that’s just one of the mysteries of which I speak!  Here are the notes, of the vintage, not the reformulation, strangely missing a violet note altogether: bergamot, lemon; ylang ylang, rose, lily of the valley, iris; civet, musk, vanilla, sandalwood, & vetiver.    
Vol de Nuit (1933) has something in common with Le Dix (1947) which can pretty much be discerned by reading the notes,  both have a violet aspect which is not listed (Le Dix is MUCH more violet, and Vol de Nuit is always depicted in a sort of violet mist, perhaps to evoke The Night) but I suppose it’s the citrus topnotes, rich floral middle notes, and woody musk base notes create a genetic relationship for sure.  But none of them describe it's aura properly, and there is no way I can tell you what Vol de Nuit smells like.  Others have made a better stab at it, but no one has been able to describe what it really is.  I love that!  Supposedly it is made from orange, mandarin, lemon, bergamot, orange blossom; jonquil, aldehydes, galbanum; vanilla, spices, oakmoss, sandalwood, orris, musk.

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Comments

[Katie]

Fleur de Thé Rose Bulgare is an excellent rosy fragrance for the summer - I'm sort of disappointed that I did not think of it myself! It's one of the more ephemerally joyous fragrances that tend to escape memory because of it's seemingly ephemeral quality. It occurs on the skin as a somewhat temporary explosion of rose garden, and thus doesn't easily impress itself upon the long term memory unless one chooses to admit it.

Le Dix is one of those fragrances I think we take in almost as if it were a monument unto itself, so much so that we tend to remember what it established without realizing what it does when acutally worn. (For example, I feel that if there were no Le Dix, there would be no Kenzo Flower, which seems nowadays to get more love than Le Dix overall. And yet, I cannot disentangle Flower from this particular predecessor. Or perhaps it's just me who views it Le Dix as part of the perfumed lineage that traces down to Flower by Kenzo.) There's a secret powderiness that makes it so easily adaptable to summer, no? It's one of those fragrances that improbably has been relegated to the vintage heap without acknowlegement that it remains a creative and intellectual challenge even after all these years. I still am amazed at how underrated Le Dix is, even in this current internet-fueled culture of vintage appreciation. More than likely, it's specifically this leathery undertone in the vintage you mention that may well be key to its charm in summer, even more than the woody violet leaf or the powder. I love that you tie in Vol de Nuit here to Le Dix. While I cannot personally choose it for summer, I can certainly appreciate the appeal it holds for you :)

This post reminds me that I really need to revist the Miller et Bertaux house, not just for summer, but for whatever season. Great post, Wendy!!

[Qwendy]

Katie, thanks for stopping by and the interesting comment. I hardly know contemporary (relatively) fragrances at all, as so many synthetics don't register properly with my nose at all. That's why I have made so many forays into vintage and classics, perhaps "Original Synth" work better for me in general. But there is always an exception, so I'll make sure that I take a sniff of the Kenzo when I can!

I admit that I'm a terrible historicist in general, so I'm very happy going back whenever possible to the times I'd never seen, not the 80's or the 70's!!!!! And I seem to have a different powder meter too, so Le Dix doesn't strike me as powdery, either that or I think of powdery as a negative and when I love something I don't think of that particular adjective. And strangely, FdTRB lasts on me, go figure! Let me know if you'd like me to send you a M&B sample pack, they are unique and interesting.

[Prince Barry]

Dearest Wendy, what wonderful reading your posts are, it is such a pity that we have to wait a millenium for the next installment. I really do miss your regular posts. What you lack in quantity my dear is certainly made up by the quality.

I love L'Homme Sage! Of course it is very much a dndyfied perfume to my nose. That Yann Vasnier is a remarkable perfumer. Yann told me a while back that his favourite creation was the L'Homme de Coeur. I like it, but I'm not too much of a big fan of iris notes.

Please post more often my dear!

Barry

[tmp00]

green green green and green? where do I sign up?

[Divina]

Just found your page (damn, why doesn't anyone tell me these things?!) and wanted to say.... Please write more? You could definitely become a serious addiction if you did!

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How do I make a modern summer dress into a 1940's dress?
I'm going to a party tomorrow where i have to dress up in vintage 1940's. I have no money to buy a costume.