Fragrance diaries: a Sunday well scent...
brings a week of content
I am searching for my next fragrance investment. I have multiple empty bottles, around 16 empty sample tubes, and an ever increasing interest in the art and alchemy of the world of scents, coupled with an aching desire to have a scent for every mood I am in. Last weekend, I was meeting family in central London and decided to sandwich our sandwich with a few hours of scent soul-searching. I sprayed a lot, I smelled more than I should, and I took a few notes which I thought I would share via Substack, because I believe that everybody should explore the world of fragrance and this might help someone begin...
Gucci Flora Gorgeous gardenia EDP
I have to get something off my chest: I love this scent, but I really, really dislike the bottle (it’s like Dior J’Adore L’Or all over again). This is a very sweet floral but has a good depth, meaning you aren’t going to be smelling like a teenager when wearing it. White gardenia is prevalent, followed by jasmine, but it’s the pear blossom and brown sugar that gives this a really modern feel. It’s moderate in intensity, but has a lightness and an air to it, like putting your face in a bouquet whilst carrying it through the street in Spring. This is a potential contender for my next purchase
Gucci The Alchemist’s Garden A floral verse EDP
I received a sample of this when it first came out, and my first impression wasn’t great. I found it leaned towards animalic and oriental (thanks to black tea and Indian jasmine sambac), but as the fragrance dried and settled on my skin, white musk became apparent, giving it a powdery note and made the scent feel more fresh and inviting. The fragrance is supposed to ‘unravel like a poem, inviting the senses on an enchanting journey’ and my experience very much bolstered this claim. I spent the next few hours constantly sniffing my wrists, enchanted by the journey I kept taking. This is a serious contender, and just look at that gorgeous bottle below, but with a £240 price tag, I may need more time to be convinced
Hermes Un Jardin en Méditerranée EDT
The first of the Parfums-Jardin scents, en Méditerranée is supposed to evoke a walk through a Tunisian garden filled with flowers and fruits. It opens with a very light citrus which quickly gives way to a sweet fig, juniper and herbal, woody base as it settles. I found this quite dry from the get-go, but I appreciate the scent and think it would work well on gents in the Summer
Hermes Cologne Concentre d’orange verte EDT
This is a really bright and fresh green scent. It opens with a real citrussy hit of tart orange, quickly drying down to a herbal green note from the basil, rounded by syrupy cedar. I really, really enjoyed this, but despite being unisex, felt that it leaned towards masculine, which I am not wanting to invest in right now
Hermes Le Jardin de Monsieur Li EDT
This, I really liked. It was created to evoke a Chinese garden poised between reality and imagination, a place of serenity, surrounded by water, flowers, trees and rocks - all of which come across superbly. Sambac jasmine, fruity kumquat and a peppery bergamot are perfectly balanced. It is a subtle but beautiful scent, one for warm Summer days
Guerlain L’Art & La Matiere Frenchy lavande EDP
With a name like Frenchy Lavande, it would be correct to assume this would be heavy on the lavender, and I expected it to give my pillow mist a run for it’s money. But I was pleasantly surprised. It was light and citrussy, geared towards lemon verbena with a subtle soapiness. I noted it as ‘green without being obvious, bright’ Another unisex fragrance, offering an alternative floral for gents, and a dressing table bottle of dreams
Guerlain L’Art & La Matiere Cherry oud EDP
This was what I call a heavy scent. Not heavy as in dense, but heavy in breadth and depth. Straight away I picked up on cardamom, oud and leather, and nothing seemed to give way to anything further as it settled. The cherry is very much noticeable, but I wanted a little more fruit and was desperate to feel the whisper of the Turkish rose, and it didn’t quite get there
Guerlain L’Art & La Matiere Musc Outreblanc EDP
With heart notes of rose, iris and white flowers, and a base of white musk, I was prepared to fall in love with this, but fall in love I did not. It is a very tender and gentle fragrance - leaning in to that ‘clean girl’ aesthetic which apparently blew up on TikTok, thus within the fragrance world, last year - and a nice change from some of the florals and heavier numbers that Guerlain produces, but I found it unnoticeable after minutes. It's the kind of fragrance you imagine when hanging out your linen bedding on a Summer's day. A nice scent to smell, but not a scent I would want to wear. My notes read ‘unremarkable’
Penhaligon’s Lily of the Valley EDT
That by name, that by nature. This is a very true to form fragrance. Fresh and floral from the outset, I picked up on the ylang ylang, lily of the valley and jasmine with ease and with plenty of appreciation. If you want lily of the valley, you get lily of the valley. And the bottle is exquisite
Unpopular opinion, and quite possibly premature, but I don’t think I am a fan of Tom Ford’s Private Blends (EDP). I remember liking Black Orchid years ago, and understanding why late teens and twenty-year-olds wanted it on their dressing table. But I have tried and tried with the various cuboid bottles that sit atop the TF fragrance counter, and, quite literally like a child at an ice-cream store offered a taster of each flavour, I take advantage and try each one to see which will make it into my cone (or shopping bag, in this case) But alas, whilst I enjoy myself sniffing the sweet or spicy or floral tones, none of them really get me going. I know what my problem is: the singularity of each scent. Much like in an ice-cream store, you have the fail-safe pink strawberry, white vanilla, and the washed brown of the chocolate - flavours you see and you know what is in store. But it’s the ‘caramelised pistachio’, ‘cherry and almond bakewell’, ‘gingernut coffee’ and even the classic mint choc chip or salted caramel that tempt you, because they offer you that little tiny bit more, that little extra dimension, and perhaps a combination that you would have never thought of before. That’s sort of how I feel at Tom Ford. The scent inside is exactly what it says on the bottle - be it a fruit, a flower or a fabric - which is fine if you like that, but it isn’t a journey or an experience when you smell it. What this means in practice is I need to trial and test multiple fragrances together, to see which combinations are the key to opening the door of an olfactory experience like never before. Scent layering - a total art, possible marketing con, and a very time-consuming exercise if you want to do it on your own accord. On this occasion, I didn’t layer. I tried Lost cherry, Bitter peach (oh how people ROARED about this), Rose prick, Soleil blanc and Fucking fabulous (excuse the language). The former, fruity scents are undoubtedly nice, but I searched for a story in a book that didn’t open. Rose prick is ok, but there are far more complex and sensual roses out there which I would pick (pun!) before this one. The latter two, a little more difficult to decipher from their names, didn’t make it to my wishlist either
Today I am wearing Miller Harris Lumiere Doree: bergamot, orange blossom, neroli, jasmine, white musk, vetiver. It’s got strength, but is delicate, feminine and more f**king fabulous than the fragrances above (sorry Tom Ford. Maybe next time)
Happy Sunday
Amie Elizabeth