Happy Friday, and welcome to our first Picture Challenge! Our community project for today: wear a perfume that matches the painting — Max Ernst, The Nymph Echo, 1936. Detail from the painting is shown above, or you can find full (and larger) versions here and here, and you can read the story from Greek mythology about Echo on Wikipedia. I'm sorry that I don't remember who suggested the idea of doing a picture challenge, but do raise your hand if it was you!
What fragrance did you pick? As always, do chime in with your scent of the day even if you’re not participating in the community project.
I went with Verdant by Tauer Perfumes. It's lush and green enough to fit the tangled jungle-like growth in the painting, but it's not your typical cheerful spring / summer green — it's murky and a little mysterious, with a thread of dry smoke underneath. Whether it's a good fit or not, I'm glad I thought of it because I'd forgotten how much I liked it.
Reminder: 4/1 is April Fools Day! We're going for pure fun: wear your most-fun-ever perfume. (suggested by thegoddessrena)
And for those of you who like to plan ahead, see Scent of the day ~ Friday community projects 2016, where I'll try to always have the next five or six weeks mapped out in advance.
This art can be interpreted in fragrance in any number of ways! I love it!
It could be green. It could be overtly sexual, as nymphs like Echo are. It could “echo” a mood or the color we see. It could be a fragrance meet to seduce a god!
I chose Metafora, by Fueguia 1833.
According to the Metafora (Metaphor) copy:
“Metafora means metaphor, which perfumer Borges defined simply : something created by linking two things together. He thought the possibilities for metaphor were endless. This would make every fragrance a metaphor. We love that idea.”
Great choice! I’m going to be very interested to see how commenters interpret this – so many possibilities.
I like your line of thinking. Cool.
Salvador.
EDT pour homme, lemon, cedarwood, and nutmeg.
The leaves in the painting remind me of melting watches in various Dali works.
Happy Holidays Everyone! 🙂
I hoped someone would think of Dali. You made me smile. And you smell great!
Thanks tiffanie !
Your post made me smile, too.
????
That picture is so very green that I was tempted to go with something equally green since it’s spring, but that feline head (upper right) and all those white flowers make me think of the original Panthère de Cartier quarter-ounce parfum (you can see it at https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/85/91/44/8591442d02cf68b295ada0d8585ad81f.jpg), which it just so happens I own, so I’m in a tiny droplet of that today: powdery gardenia and then a glowing warm amber-oriental base. It’s pure eighties and utterly stunning.
I think I am going to wear the same, it sounds perfect.
When I read the story , I was surprised to see that Hera (which is my name) was very jealous goddess , so I was thinking of something seductive and strong which Panthère represents for me.
Hera had good reason to be jealous — Zeus “got around.”
I went for my sample of unicorn spell, the first to come to my mind as being slightly maleficently green, which is the vibe I’m getting from both picture&myth
That one is lovely. What L’Artisan Verte Violette *ought* to smell like. The name makes me think more of My Little Pony than unicorns, though.
Love The Unicorn Spell! I’ll have to smell it again with an eye (nose) for maleficence; on me it’s resolutely cheerful and tender. One of my favorite violets!
it’s the green bean bomb at the beginning that puts me off, I agree that the drydown is another story
I like the green bean part!
Biche Dans l’Absinthe (Gobin Daudé). It feels Surreal (dream-like), and I don’t think I have a Dada-inspired fragrance.
Happy Holidays! 🙂
Ah…one I wish I could smell again. I only managed to get a sample. Then poof!
I have probably one or two more wearings of my sample left… 🙁
Great choice! girardEAU, I have a bottle of this Bdl’A. If you need a decant and are in the U.S., reply to one of my comments over the weekend and let me know how to contact you.
I chose Mugler Cologne, an otherworldly green that seems to fit the picture. Because it was with my husband’s things, I had forgotten it, but it works for today. Before I stumbled on the Mugler, I had planned on wearing Envy.
Nice, and stealing your husband’s scent ties in well too! So interesting to see all the different interpretations today.
I decided to wear a fragrance that would get the attention of a God, like Echo got the attention of Zeus. My SOTD is Queen by Queen Latifah. Supposedly it has notes in it that attract men.
Chili dogs and football leather?
LOL!! It’s boozy, right? I almost bought a bottle at Marshalls last week, but held off. Might have to revisit it! 🙂
Yes it is.
Ha! That works too, I imagine.
I just bought a bottle of this for cheap at Marshalls – $9.99!
That’s cheaper than what I paid! You got it for a great price!
You do smell gorgeous, and slightly boozy. If that won’t attract men, what will?
I’ve seen that one around at TJ Maxx and Marshall’s. I didn’t buy the perfume, but I did get a tub of the body butter for like $4. It smells great, and I may give in on the perfume at some point. 🙂
My interpretation is Freaky Floral, so I’ve applied of dab of Joy from my vat of a vintage (estate sale) bottle. One of my I am Woman, Hear me Roar scents. So retro, it’s edgy!
Love the idea of ‘so retro, it’s edgy’!
Vintage Joy! If I had to have only one, it would be that one!
Ha, “Freaky Floral” is spot on, imho! I’ve never sniffed the vintage, but you smell great.
No. 19 EdC still fits the picture perfectly to me, so that’s what I’m wearing.
Happy Friyay!
Agreed! I was going to go with No 19, but forgot to grab my travel spray before leaving for work.
No. 19 is so perfect for spring that I just leave a travel spray in my purse. Hopefully you were able to spray yourself with another beautiful scent!
I decided to think not only of the green of the painting, but also of the sad story of Echo. I am wearing a drop of vintage Diorissimo on one wrist and a sample of the reformulation on the other: the reformulation only able to whisper the hollow echo of the vintage glory, never able to catch the wearer’s love, and doomed to watch the wearer fall in love with another scent.
I am drinking some New Vithanakande Ceylon.
Love Diorissimo and your interpretation.
You smell beautiful!
Monkeytoe, we are scent twins today, as I am in a 90’s era Diorissimo.
I came to it in a completely different way: the picture is so green, and at first I was going to wear a really green fragrance. But after looking at it for a moment, it also feels like it is in shade, and LoTV grow in shade, and the leaves in the painting reminded me of the leaves of the plant. Diorissimo just popped into my head and I had to wear it.
Robin, I love this challenge! I studied art history in college and have spent a long time working in various arts organizations. This is too much fun, and I love seeing everyone else’s interpretations.
I wish I knew who suggested it! Going to try a comment search and see if I can figure it out.
Nope, cannot find.
*clap clap* love it!
I like your interpretation! I wore my sample of current formulation EDT yesterday and, having never tried a vintage version, liked it. Now I’m afraid to try the vintage lest a new lemming be created!
Brilliant!
Love your interpretation!
Haha! Brillliant! Love it!
Wonderful interpretation!
Perfect!
That’s an excellent, though sad, interpretation!
I would have worn Silence, since it is one of the greenest scent I have, and if I was cursed to only repeat someone elses last words I would be silent. However, since I’ve worn Silence quite recently, and I’m trying not to repeat, I chose Ysatis. This is the edt from the 90s, with the gold cap. The bottle looks like a skyscraper.
I wore this when it first came out and loved it.
I can totally see Ystasis here.
I was not going to participate, but after I put my scent of the day – Illamasqua Freak – I realized that it more or less fits. There is greenness, and I would describe the style of this perfume as surrealistic. Also the theme of changing shape, transformation kind of connects with the ‘freak’ theme.
Perfect!
The painting gave me a ruins-in-the-jungle vibe (though there were no jungles in ancient Greece), so I picked Copal Azur. A bit of piney forest/jungle, and a bit of incense to feed the gods. Bonus points for one of the only things I could actually smell this morning.
Oh, nice, and you smell great!
That’s a really great pick – you smell great, even if your sniffer can’t appreciate it fully.
I thought Chamade because the blue and green color scheme makes me think of its green and hyacinth notes. Also a possible connection with the meaning of the name (drumbeat signalling retreat) and Echo (echoing drumbeats of retreat?). Or maybe I’m just trying too hard. I’m not wearing Chamade today, though. I was more in an Iris Poudre mood.
Regardless, you smell wonderful!
According to the myth, the nymphs consorted with Zeus, and the brave Echo was the object of Hera’s envy.
SOTD is Gucci Envy- a ” green, fresh, modern,abstract innovation” – Chandler Burr. The Nymph Echo is a surreal green lush magical landscape.
Tangentially, if while wearing Envy, Narcissus could have been so enamoured of himself draped in it that he shriveled at the knowledge that the perfume was discontinued 😉
Love it!
Spot on!!
And it probably describes Hera – envious, aloof, but beautiful. You smell grand! Just ordered a bottle myself – can’t wait for it to arrive. 🙂
Oh, man. I have always been ambivalent about the Surrealists, liking some (Man Ray, Duchamp, Miró) and recoiling from others (chiefly Dalí). I stared at Ernst’s painting for a week and remain confounded by its chaos. So I chose Must de Cartier, one of the very strangest perfumes I know.
I really loved the parfum (very different from the EDT) when it first came out — not on me, but it was a friend’s signature scent and she always smelled sophisticated.
Hm. The drydown is quite elegant, but getting there is a tilt-a-whirl, hitting green and ice-blue and murky brown notes in quick succession. I like it but am bewildered by it.
Must de Cartier is a beautiful weirdo!
Love her.
“Beautiful weirdo” – hilarious and true!
Oh so agree about Must. It is that whack of dark green galbanum(?) at the beginning that I especially love and it’s so, so different from the drydown. I call it my witchy perfume and it always gets a wearing on Halloween — it’s dark and mine sprays on orange.
As for Surrealists, I’d go for Schiaparelli and her “shoe hat.”
I love “witchy perfume” 🙂 And I think it’s true that Must’s beginning and end (and heck, its middle too) seem to belong to completely separate perfumes. Fruity-nectary (YSL Champagne) plus minty-fresh (Chanel No.19) plus dry dark resins (SL Borneo 1834) = a conundrum.
I really like Silences for matching the painting, because both are green and murky, and because I like the juxtaposition of “silence” with a sound (echo). But in the end I wasn’t in the mood for murk, so I concocted some nonsense in my head about how Echo probably attracted attention (however unwanted) while playing among the violets … and went with Balenciaga Paris.
Bandit Parfum. I anticipated a more fabulous version of the eau de parfum, but this concoction is a different story altogether. The initial impression was somehing reminiscent of Obsession For Men. This time it’s not that bad, but it is sweet and sharp at the same time. Like it’s been slightly chlorinated.
The bottle still looks like a million bucks, even though it was, fortunately, a bargain.
Is it vintage?
Not really. Bought it around 2010. My sister agreed yesterday that it’s not like the EdP. If I hadn’t heard of other people say the same thing about their bottle I’d think it was fake. But the bottles really nice and I don’t think there’s a lot of money to be made from fake Piguets.
So I had to look up a description of the painting (you get creative as a blind perfumista lol) and decided Penhaligons Amaranthine would probably fit the bill. 🙂
I really need to wear this one more often. It’s so lovely!
Love this! Amaranthine makes me think of a sensual jungle. That odd banana leaf note up top in particular strikes me as perfect for this. If I’d thought it, I would be right with you.
Scentualist, do you find that the person/site describing the painting affects your enjoyment of the painting? And relatedly, do you ever use Artsy? Just curious.
Oh, nice choice! This is one of those Friday themes that really brings out varied responses.
I chose Olympic Orchids Sonnet XVII for today’s challenge because I thought it matched the overall feeling of the painting and because I was in the mood for it. I’m off to brave the supermarket for a few last minute items…how did I let this happen? Good Friday is not going to be a fun day to shop.
I still have half a sample of this lovely beast. Very barn yardy in the opening and settling down to osmanthus, ambergris and musk. Inspired by a Pablo Neruda poem, I find it appropriately suggests the more earthy aspects of love, which make it a great fit for this painting. I hope you survived the grocery store!
I’m wearing Aedes de Venustas EDP because it’s green, dark and bloody weird.
Ha, that works!
Wearing vintage Miss Dior parfum, probably my greenest scent, though also very proper and elegant. If Echo had been wearing this when she saw Narcissus she would have smoothed out her skirt, fix her hat, and walk on.
By the way, a bonus question! I have a friend who has a fascination with moss. What is the mossiest perfume you can think of, vintage or modern?
Hardly anything nowadays has much if any oakmoss in it. A great many scents from the sixties through the eighties were oakmoss monsters, though. Vintage Mitsouko, obviously, pretty much the reference point for chypres. In the seventies, Jolie Madame de Balmain was ferociously oakmossy: earlier incarnations may have been even more so. Ditto with Molyneux Fête. In the eighties you had Lauder’s Knowing (best in parfum although the EDP was nothing to sneer at), Paloma Picasso’s Mon Parfum, Ungaro Diva, Création by Ted Lapidus, and the original 1982 Armani, for starters. These are just things I have personal knowledge of: there are lots of others.
Aftelier Bergamoss is pretty darn mossy.
Vintage Magie Noire and Fazzolari’s Au Dela are pretty mossy.
Second Bergamoss. I assume the naturals use real oakmoss. Is this wrong? Also Providence Perfume’s Moss Gown. I don’t love it as much as Bergamoss, but it’s good.
How about Azemour Les ‘Oranger, parfum d’Empire, gorgeously mossy!
Nodding in agreement and seconding …
Oriza L. Legrand Chypre Mousse
I went with L’Temps d’une Fete for the literal association with Narcissus. Also sharing the frustration of Echo of being unable to obtain the object of her love (although I do have a nice-sized decant for now).
Like! I went literal, too. ????
After wearing Onda yesterday, I decided to focus on the strange flowers in the painting. I’m wearing Manoumalia, which smells like flesh in the middle of being turned to flowers.
I’d been considering Onda for today exactly for the strange flowers. I haven’t tried Manoumalia, but “flesh in the middle of being turned into flowers” sounds downright fascinating!
If I owned Manoumalia I would wear that too, nice choice! But I went with what I had at hand was Onda extrait.
Manoumalia is a great choice! Like Amaranthine, it has this sensual tropical decay and wild abandon vibe. I keep thinking I need to buy this, but that wish list is too long…
I love your choice, such a distinctive scent.
In the full painting, there is a creepy three-fingered hand clutching a giant grape or plum in the lower right corner. I’m wearing Alien, both for the creepy hand and because the overall feel of the painting is so wierd.
Thanks, everybody, for your support yesterday–it was appreciated and I feel much better today. Still hate the refrigerator, though 🙂
Yep, creepy hand and weird painting, so nice choice with Alien!
I’ not participating in the challenge, mostly because I’m confused and thought it’s Thursady. We managed to get to Martinique yesterday evening, so I’m starting gently – considering the jet lag – with Wood Sage & Sea Salt. Although I actually like to travel in this direction: if the time difference isn’t too big (5 hours in this case), it turns me into a morning person, simething I never get to be otherwise.
It’s warm here and I’m reading about the Mongol queens by the pool.
Some day I will make it to Martinique, have wanted to go for years. It’s only a 5 hour flight from Montreal and no time difference (or maybe one hour) so it would be the perfect island getaway. Have a lovely vacation!
It’s been lovely so far. I guess you speak French? One reason we picked Martinique is that our daughter speaks pretty good French by now (and not much English). In any case, sounds like a good option for you.
I hope you have a great holiday! It must be lovely to have some warm temperatures.
I’m enjoying the warmth so much… As a result, made the typical Stupid White European mistake and burnt myself in really ridiculous places. Burnt sideboob is a new personal low for me. But I’m still enjoying everything.
My aunt swears by a tepid bath with a cup of vinegar for sunburn pain, but I’ve never tried it myself. Glad you and your family are well.
Try the original Biafine Emulsion pour application cutanée. You might actually be able to find it on Martinique;iIt’s a département français d’Amérique after all. Most French pharmacies sell it.
Have fun!
I’m glad you got away for your vacation Annikky. And you smell lovely. Wood Sage and Sea Salt is my favorite JM.
It’s among my top 5 as well, although not my favourite.
Oh now I am curious what the top five are. Sorry about the sunburn. I did this last week in Miami. I’ll never learn.
I have been pretty sensible in recent years, but this time I think my sunscreen simply wasn’t enough.
On JMs – I like Blackberry & Bay and Mimosa & Cardamom even more. If you really are interested, I wrote about it on the blog not long ago (click on my name).
Enjoy your vacation – I hope it brings you much rest and peace of mind.
Thank you! I’m sure it will.
I went with PdN Odalisque this morning. It is very green with a hazy melancholy vibe that seems to match the picture.
I love reading everyone’s interpretations today…my mind doesn’t really work this way so this challenge was a real challenge! Reading your ways of thinking have been a real “oh! I see!” kind of experience.
Great choice. I have a big bottle of this and sprayed it yesterday to remember how good it is.
No. 19 parfum was my choice for the challenge…but I forgot it! So instead I’m in Private Collection, which is still green.
Nice. 🙂
Dame Perfumery’s Narcissus is my fragrance for today.
Nice! I’m sort of a distant relative, with narcissus as a main note.
Corsica Furiosa Baby! Happy (very busy) Friday????
Oh my new love! You smell great!
That’s was one I also liked for the challenge- layers of vegetation.
This one sounds rally nice, on to sample list to join its hundred or so brothers and sisters!
I didn’t reflect much this time, I just chose a “Good Green”, Jean-Louis Scherrer in EDP. It’s a wonderful perfumy perfume, and I love it.
One of my favorites, too!
Twin . . . except I’m in the vintage EDT 😀
I’m wearing a spritz of Pinesol behind each ear and a garland of limes around my neck. 🙂
SOTD: Hindu Kush
LOL!!
I’m traveling this week and I wasn’t coordinated enough to bring a picture-matching sample. Incidentally I’m wearing MdO Musc.
I just added a few swap items to the very bottom of the swap list! Can’t believe I missed it before today!
Still open through Tuesday, guys!
I love surrealist photography, less in love with the paintings, although Ernst is the most interesting to me. This is a great choice for a perfume challenge though. I agree with others that it calls for something melancholy and/or weird, neither of which is quite how I feel today. Although if I were to play, I think I’d wear Pale Grey Mountain, Small Black a Lake to play off the stony figure of Echo in the upper right corner. Still mulling what actually to wear to combat the grey day.
I’m not very familiar with Ernst’s work. The one surrealist whose work I know quite well is Magritte.
He did a lot of collages that I really like – intricate cut outs from medical books and old magazines and illustrated books. Also what he called frottage, I think, where he rubbed his materials against the grain of wood or other objects. And paintings, of course! There are women surrealist painters who are interesting too, two of them, Leanora Carrington, and Dorothea Tanning, partners and/or married to Ernst. (He was quite the looker, among other attractions I imagine!)
The frottage works are some of my favorites of Ernst’s. There are also some that he worked off of random paint blobs. There are a couple of small examples of those here in Houston at the Menil Collection (which has a fantastic permanent Surrealist collection). As for the female Surrealists, I’d also add Kay Sage to that list (though she wasn’t married to Ernst — she was married to Yves Tanguy, another painter whose work I really enjoy).
Oh how lucky to live near the Menil collection!
Pale Grey Mountain, Small Black Lake is a great idea!
I was very exited about this challenge, as Max Ernst is one of my favourite painters. But ‘as the day drew nearer’ I was getting more and more perplexed. Either it’s a difficult picture to match, or I don’t have enough perfumes 🙂
No. 19 seemed like a perfect match, but I thought it would be too obvious. And I’ve been on a sort of Amouage kick for several days, so now I’ve got Ubar on one wrist and Epic on the other. For me both are green, difficult and beautiul. Will pick up a winner later.
Sorry if it was too hard! I thought the back story would make it easier, but given the relatively low level of participation today, I maybe should have found something more classic.
It was hard, but fun! Besides, I suppose it would have been difficult with any painting, really. It is so often said that perfume perception is very subjective, and here it is combined with art perception, which, I guess, is no less subjective. Really interesting to read about different thoughts and emotions the picture conjures, and how these thoughts and emotions translate into perfumes. This project must be continued!
BTW, my winner is Ubar. It is more weird. And there’s something in Epic which says herbal garden, not wild forest.
It’s funny I think of Ubar as weird but sort of deep pink, and definitely not green, wild though.
I’d say it gets somewhat bluish in the drydown, but nothing like pink 🙂 It’s fascinating how different our perceptions can be.
It might be the holiday. A lot of people are traveling, or on a different schedule than usual.
That’s true too. I was not complaining — I found this interesting! Some projects just engage people more than others.
I was thinking it was the holiday too.
I really like this poll, Robin! It’s a chance to stretch the brain and creativity a bit more than usual. Perhaps people are simply outdoors today because the weather is nice and cherry blossoms are peaking, etc.
Good! And meant what I said above, I wasn’t complaining 🙂
I was all set for Le Temps d’une Fete, for the narcissus. And because it is one of my favorites. Last minute, my travel spray of Ormonde Woman jumped out.
Since I’m still doing work in our apartment, I found OJ Woman to be kind of overpowering even with two spritzes on one arm. I just scrubbed. My husband liked the scent but said, “it IS strong…”
I’ll wait till we are in more open air for that one!
SOTD = Prada Candy
Easter Bunny, I can explain. And no, I am not doing the Most Fun Ever Friday project a week early.
ALL WEEK, I have been on theme in one way shape or form: Oriza LeGrand Chypre Mousse because this painting is darkish with some light bits and just plain weird, JM Birch & Black Pepper because Hera was SO ANGRY at the cheating Zeus, No.19 because ECHO needed some backbone to stand up for Zeus and then yesterday, Jacomo Silences because ECHO was rendered almost silent save for only being able to repeat her last few words.
You see, one of my nieces’ middle name is ECHO, I kid you not. My sister-in-law, smart in many ways, was no Greek Mythology scholar. Anyway, the imagery used in the Prada Candy packaging with the woman wearing a sleeveless above-the-knee black dress in mid-prance reminds me of my niece — just replace the blond hair with rainbow colors.
Now, can I have my Easter basket?
Wow Echo. It is a pretty name so I see the attraction. I have nieces named Leah and Dinah – for those who know their bible stories, some seriously unhappy resonances. But now I just think of my fabulous nieces!
My mom liked the name Echo so much she named a business after it 🙂
Nice!! And huge bonus points for doing a whole week, I think you’re the only one. My virtual easter bunny is sending a big virtual basket your way.
This was a fun project for sure! Thanks for the virtual basket :-).
Koenigsberg did an alternate universe version of participating!
I was planning to wear Ninfeo Mio, both for the green and the association with the Garden of Ninfa (garden of nymphs), before deciding it was more of a Narcisse Noir kind of day.
sotd: dior gris montaigne, because, I forgot…
i had given the image some thought earlier this week and was thinking about wearing YSL Y or Chamade. The image reads springy green and about nature ‘unfurling’ and i notice things that look like hyacinths…
I really like Gris Montaigne even though sometimes I can barely smell it. Do you have a FB to spray from and does that make a difference? I’ve just got a small decant.
i do have a FB of Gris Montaigne. it’s one i spray with a bit more abandon, and on fabric, too. i like to spray my scarves so i can for sure smell it all day. on skin, it disappears within 2 hours or so on me.
No theme here – spritzed on the last of the decant of 28 La Pausa. Pleasant, but no need to take it any further. Oddly enough Beige works well for the office in particular, despite a plasticky top note.
Happy Friday!
I’m matching the painting’s color scheme and mythological subject with my perfume’s composition and color. I’m in Dolce by Dolce & Gabbana.
Echo and Narcissus are both represented in the heart notes of water lily and narcissus. Water lilies belong to the genus Nymphaea, named after the nymphs of mythology, including Echo. Narcissus is the namesake of the flower which grew on the spot where he died. Both flowers grow on/near pools like the one where Narcissus died. The green color of the juice matches the color scheme of the painting, and it also represents the aquatic, floral, and forest elements of the myth.
Perfect!
Brilliant!
Couldn’t make up my mind at all. Showered with OJ Woman, then Mito Voile d’Extrait on my left wrist (I think I detected peaches or at least a basket/cornucopia of sorts in the painting) which is green but I am not sure I like it (like the painting), and then a little late I thought of Hiram Green’s Shangri-La because of oakmoss and chypre, which I find beautiful but it may be too golden for the picture. I may return to OJ tonight.
You can’t go wrong with OJ, right? I hope you are well. Email about your swap preference… 😉 I just got more decant vials, so I am all set….
Will do!
The Hamamelis that grows at my house has been intoxicating me with her fragrant yellow flowers. They remind me of Osmamthus but more animalic and less orange blossom. Obviously, I love your NST name!
It is such a beautiful and elusive scent isn’t it. I live in the Netherlands and it is flowering in my garden too. I always hope to find a Hamamelis perfume, but I think you’re spot about the Osmanthus. I also get oranges besides orangeblossom.
SotD –> Ostara –> daffodil –> narcissus –>
mais, ceci n’est pas un narcisse.
😉
LOL!
😀
Fougere Orange Blossom from Kenneth Cory– I needed a darker green scent with some floral lightness
I don’t think it really matches with the picture at all but I’ve been wanting to wear my sample of it this spring (so before I forget, I did.) Keiko Mecheri Peau de Peche. It’s nice and very light. It actually reminds me of Wood Sage & Sea Salt.
i was just thinking last night that i don’t like a lot of fruity scents, but i always loved (loved, loved, loved) KM Peau de Peche. I could smell the fuzzy peach skin on that one. it’s so delicate and light yet i could smell it on myself for at least half the day. my bottle is gone now and i was thinking maybe i should get more. PdP is one of my favorite KMs, along with patchoulissime, ume (another fruity), and loukhoum eau poudree.
Those are my favorite KMs, too, and I have FBs of all except patchoulissime. Another KM favorite is Canyon Dreams, but I only have a decant of that one as it is quite expensive. Have you tried it?
now I need to also try Canyon Dreams…adding it to the list.
yes, I completely agree! and ooo I’m excited now, I need to try out patchoulissime and ume!! thanks for sharing!
Ooh. Just tried Wood Sage and Sea Salt and liked it a lot. Will put this on my Try list!
Also, I didn’t get to reply to you before – I mostly do Hatha yoga with a bit of Kundalini.
cool. I practice the primary series and vinyasa mainly. I’ve never tried Kundalini but heard quite a bit about it.
Chose Bvlgari’s Jasmin Noir L’Essence for today. Its lush, white flowers surface from a dark undertow of green rooted in woods. Like Ernst’s Echo; lovely, pleasing, at first glance, yet the longer it’s given attention, the darker, more subversive the experience becomes for the observer. Equal parts beauty and disturbia. Not easily forgotten and right up my alley.
Nice!
I love reading everyone’s interpretations! I went with Jacinthe de Saphir, which to me smells lushly green in a bruised-leaves and damp earth sort of way — just this side of melancholy. It smells like solitude and poigancy on a beautiful day in early spring.
Lovely! I might have to sample this one, even though I haven’t found a DSH that works for me yet. But, you never know….
CB I Hate Perfume Black March, which goes quite well, even though it wasn’t quite planned. I just wanted to wear this one on the perfect March day. I probably used half the sample, and I don’t guess it will last forever, but I might add YSL Nu when I go to work later.
It’s crazy how good dirt smells 🙂
It’s true!
I love Black March, but it makes me weirdly sad when I wear it so I don’t reach for it that often. Wild Hunt is similar, but somehow gladder.
Black March is perfect!
It is/was. I can still smell it, if I put my nose right to my arm. I just bought a huge bookcase and have been rearranging everything in my apartment, and smelling like wet dirt (with a backdrop of old books) has been delightful.
Today is friday already? I totally lost track of what day it is. OK, so I blew this one. I was going to wear Encre Noire to go along with the picture, but I totally forgot. SOTD is Bottega Veneta Eau Legere b/c it’s a nice but chilly spring day and I wanted some of that creamy oakmoss goodness in BV EL.
Today for me it’s La Prairie Life Threads Platinum. I know, from under what rock did I find this one? I honestly can’t remember; must have been a freebie sample from some seller.
Anyway, it’s very green, with lots of galbanum and oakmoss. At first I thought it was a dead ringer for JLS Scherrer, but on a subsequent wearing, it felt earthier and sweeter, like a smidgen of Ormonde Woman had gotten mixed in, with that hazelnut-like note I get from it. Maybe from vetiver? I don’t know. But it’s green and weird. And I like it!
I guess La Prairie gave up on the fragrance category? They did all those films & whatnot, and the Life Threads just did not take off.
I think I managed to match it perfectly: l’wren scott for barneys! It is not a “green” fragrance, but to me it smells like a weird garden (in a good way).
Perfect!
I don’t know if anyone posted this above but I just saw the email alert from Ormonde Jayne that there is complimentary worldwide shipping this weekend with the code EASTER ….. Obviously I am not affiliated otherwise I’d be swimming in Taif every day. Cheers!!
*not listening* (but thanks!)
I love little green Echo up there in the corner and that there are lots of colors in this painting. Little hints of orange and pink. I get lush green, flowers and peculiar animals. What fragrance does that suggest? I think I am going to go with my favorite green monster perfume, Niki de St Phalle. Sour green artemisia colliding with peach notes and marigolds and the softly vibrating floral heart and then the blissful oakmoss dry down. Maybe not humid enough but a pretty good fit.
Nikki St. Phalle is a gorgeous green scent. The weird, ahem, unusual, snake bottle seems perfect for accompanying a surrealist painting.
Agree.
Ooh, good one. I have a small splash bottle of NdSP. I sometimes crave this beautiful weirdo when it’s hot and humid.
It’s Good Friday – a public holiday in the UK where I work, but not in Poland where the people I work with are located. So I am working from home today.
SOTD1: finishing off my samples from the Comme des Garçons Incense series, today was “Avignon”. Like the rest of the series, I like it but it doesn’t like me and runs away after 2 hours. It didn’t strike me as especially austere or churchy, although closer to church incense as smelled in Ireland than any of the rest of the series (unsurprisingly).
SOTD2: because I am at home, after Avignon wore off I got to participate in the Community Project. I dithered a while over Maria Candida Gentile’s “Barry Lyndon” or “Gentile”, but in the end I went for Chanel No. 19, modern EDP. In terms of my own personal perfume ecosystem, I would class this with Hermès “Eau d’Orange Verte” in that it is cool, green and astringent and not something I would wear a lot as an ‘all day’ scent. I wear OV after the gym as a sort of no-nonsense clean perfume and could imagine using this the same way.
When I came home yesterday I found the expected PG and ElDO sample packs waiting, and also a FB of Cloon Keen Atelier’s “Sybarite” which I had forgotten was imminent. Lovely stuff, which I happily tried out because Ouarzazate had (of course) evaporated long before.
Did anyone else see the piece in Fragrantica about the 13th Hermessence, “Muguet Porcelaine”, due out on the 1st of May? I feel a Summer 4x15ml purchase coming on – my Osmanthe Yunnan is long gone, Epice Marine nearly empty, Muguet Porcelaine of course will make a 3rd and I’m not sure what the 4th will be. I’ve had 15ml of all 12 over a few years and now have FBs of most of those I liked, but thanks the the corrupting influence of NST I’m not looking for more 100ml FBs of anything that can be bought in a smaller size. :^)
Great news that Ellena did one more Hermessence!
I really want to smell this new one. I generally haven’t been that interested in Guerlain’s annual muguet, but this sounds worth a trip to sniff….
Oooh, ooh! I totally missed this. Love Hermes, love muguet, so I am stoked to try this. Thanks for posting about it.
Oooh, Muguet Porcelaine from Ellena and Hermes sounds like a winner. I hope it is lovely.
Let’s see if the LOTV in this one will win me over to LOTV scents!
I think it’s time to rewrite the myth of Hera and Echo. So, Hera decides enough is enough and leaves Zeus and moves to a wonderful glade, deep in the darkest jungle. Here she gathers magical, exotic fruits and spices from the towering trees, twisting vines and flowers, and creates a perfume of such fantastic pommegranate and opium notes that it attracts the attention of all the nymphs, who, lead by Echo, desert Zeus and Narcissus and move in with Hera. The female energy and power surrounding this group magnifies and before long they corner the perfume market, producing the ten greatest scents of all times.
Zeus and Narcissus, meanwhile, end up demonstrating mirror cleaning products, door to door.
That is a brilliant rewrite.
LOL!!
Kanuka, this is fantastic!
Wonderful kanuka, thanks for giving me the giggles!
I heard the end of this story…Zeus called at a motel in Taihape to demonstrate grout-cleaner and fell heavily for the entrepreneurial motel owner. He moved in with her and they produced a whole tribe of athletic children (at least 2 All Blacks, a Black Cap & 4 Silver Ferns). It looks like he might finish his days in blameless monogamy. Narcissus hooked up with a botany graduate who won’t put up with any nonsense or tolerate his vanity. The last I heard, he was grappling with choice she gave him: get over himself or get out.
Hi everyone! It’s nice to drop by. I’ve really missed you all. The last few weeks have been….well, they’re over. It’s Easter, and I have some time to do things I like. NST was a first choice.
I love this serial scented short story!
Welcome back! I’ve been wondering where you’ve been.
Very good to see you Waterdragon! You were missed.
Nice to see you pop in!
Much better than all the mournful pining of mythology!
And nice to hear from you again, Waterdragon. I’d been hoping things were getting sorted out.
Love this!!!
And I just got the “mirror” part.
Love your version of the myth! Oh, to get a sample set of Hera&Co. perfumes… 🙂
Great feminist literature on this site!
Glad to hear things are improving, Waterdragon.
“demonstrating mirror cleaning products, door to door” ???? Oh, I love this and the whole rewrite!!!
Clever! :^)
Vol de Nuit, because it’s green and exotic.
I almost wore VdN. You smell fantastic!
I thought about Ninfeo Mio, but decided on Manoumalia. Yes, it’s a Big White Flowers kind of scents, but with a decidedly unusual undertone of decay. It smells like my idea of the jungle.
Did this painting remind anyone else of the works of Henri Rousseau? Just me then?
Definitely.
There were so many great choices by NST readers today. I think if I’d read them before choosing, I might have worn something else.
I went with PG’s Papyrus de Ciane. It is green with an anamalic purr. One of my favorite early spring green fragrances. Be well!
Chanel No 19. I realize that loads of you love this, but it remains a green challenge to me. At the moment I’m wearing vintage EdT; vintage EdC; slightly vintage EdP; and current Parfum. (If you’re going to do something, why then DO IT, I say.) The EdT is still a Big Fat No for me; the EdC and EdP have disappeared into the ether; and the parfum is certainly my favorite but we’re only flirting at this point, it’s not true love.
I was just on the point of replying “the modern EDP I’m wearing as my 2nd SOTD is little more than a skin scent now, an hour or two after applying it” when my partner passed by (2014 “Autumn Da Qing Gu Shu” raw pu’erh in hand) and assured me it’s very much still there. It would be funny if all the time I’ve been complaining of my scent-eating skin, everyone around me has thought I reek to high heaven. :^S
No 19 EdP does seem to have a nose-numbing effect on me; one sniff and I smell it, two sniffs and I don’t. Also, if I sniff the parfum, I cannot smell the EdP at all, even if I snort my skin. Odd.
Pixel, I LOVE the modern No.19 EDP and I wear…5 sprays…and it lasts me the entire day. 28 La Pausa requires 8 sprays and it lasts all day. I usually decant my perfumes to smaller atomizers but not these…these are sprays from the original bottles.
I was going to wear Envy (any excuse) but to me it seems too bright for the darkness of the image and the sadness of the myth.
So I went for Must de Cartier for the reasons Olenska described and because it contains narcissus. Narcissus is often described as hypnotic, which I imagine can be the effect of staring endlessly at one’s own reflection. I intend to spray a tiny amount repeatedly to get that opening ride.
Plus narcissus has a dewy green aspect that speaks of deep cool shade…
I went with Robert Piguet Futur (the modern version). It is very green indeed–I bought a decant after reading Portia’s review at Olfactoria’s Travels, titled “Greeeeen!” I’m not a fan of green florals generally, but this one, like Vent Vert, is so green that it moves into another category. It is also somehow both classic and avant-garde, and a modern iteration of something older.
It feels odd to be commenting while it’s still Friday on the East Coast. I’ll have to come back later to see what everyone else is wearing.
That’s a Piguet I’ve never heard of. Sounds like something I should try. And nice to see you during reading hours 😉
It was a toss up between vintage Givenchy 111 edt & vintage Diorella edt, went with Givenchy 111, as it’s so perfect on a sunny spring morning. Lush, green vegetatation, strange fruit and mossy dirt, and tropical flowers, becomes dryer in the heart, perhaps to cheerful for poor Echo and her Forrest tho.
I have really enjoyed reading everyone’s creative interpretations of this challenge. Thanks Robin, and more please!
We will do this again sometime, for sure!
Yay!
Caudalie Divine Oil. The scent (green with white floral), the name, and the ritual of applying a scented oil all fits with the painting.
I may top it off with something later – I’m thinking of carnal flower or silences (not sure how that would layer though).
I was going to go for OJ Woman today, which I’ve seen described as green and witchy, and that seems as apt description to me.
However, my local perfumery has just got in some of the Mona di Orio range!!! I have been very pleasantly surprised a few times lately to find things that I never expected to find in New Zealand. I’ve only tried a couple of the MdOs, so plan to spend the afternoon sniffing the others 🙂
I’ve been so disconnected from everything but work that I didn’t know what the project was, but as it happens, I’m wearing Jean Louis Scherrer, which is so green it goes with at least one aspect of the painting. In fact, JLS is so fresh and crisp that it feels to me like the earth after rain, all renewed and made over, which is a little how I feel now that we’ve reached the Easter break. I started the semester at a stride (I can do anything!), but by week 3 I had slowed to a slightly wobbly walk (I’m fine, thank you, and the Easter break is coming) and finally yesterday I lurched into Good Friday. And here I am, doing nothing this Saturday except going up the road with the dear man to buy baguettes and sour dough from the French bakery. I have really missed starting my days with NST, and I also missed enjoying my perfumes. I have been wearing perfume, but quite mindlessly. I’m loving all your choices and comments today.
Semesters always take even more out of you than you anticipate. Glad you’ve bounced back!
Yay welcome back!!!!
Thank you! It feels good to relax. Dakkie turned up three times the morning with a faceful of knitted mice. I’ve been playing “fetch” with him. Richard has bought him a new one, scarlet with a blue tail and ears, very dashing. We’ve now broken Big Red in thoroughly, because he fell into the water bowl. Life is fun again. And I’m loving the Scherrer. Just gorgeous! How could I have spent weeks just spraying perfume and forgetting about it for the rest of the day?
We are scent twins today. I hope you have a lovely Easter.
We’re doing pretty much nothing, which sounds like seventeen kinds of bliss to me! For reasons I can’t explain (mind you, I’m not trying very hard!) I can’t access the Uni network, so I can’t even conduct research meetings with my students! Is it awful of me to be going “Hurrah!” inside? It means I can utterly blob and sog and read nonsensical things and see friend.s. Also, I don’t know what happens elsewhere in the world, but the education sector in NZ gets the Tuesday after Easter as a holiday, so five days…yeah,it’s going to be great.
Great to see you, waterdragon! I’ve really been enjoying your and kanuka’s comments and perspectives from the other side of the globe.
Tamara Charleston today. I didn’t notice it all that much this morning, but it seems to have revived after lunch. Will put on some Salome this evening, for luck (I hope).
SOTD = Florabotanica over yesterday’s drydown of Sycomore. I know that Florabotanica doesn’t get a lot of love, but it’s just off kilter enough to match the surreal style of the art.
Other possible choices were Mitsouko EdP from a sample, Sycomore, or Green Oakmoss from Soivohle.
I thought about Florabotanica today, too! Couldn’t find my sample, though.
I almost had a scent twin! Cool! Bummer that you couldn’t find your sample, though.
SOTD Neela Vermeire Pichola, because to me it has that blue-green color and also a bit of murkiness.
Using http://www.max-ernst.com/the-nymph-echo.jsp as my guide in selecting today’s scent, I chose Jacomo Silences. Its simple black bottle sets the perfect note of darkness: The deep primordial forest is suffused with a somewhat bitter greenery, while iris, jasmine, narcissus, hyacinth and other flowers weave in and out just below the surface – as do the forest creatures – even as its very name ‘echoes’ the tale told in this painting.
I was off today and being lazy, so I’m late posting. I went with Silences, both to echo (pun entirely intended) the greenness of the image, but also to reference Hera’s punishment of Echo, preventing her from calling out to Narcissus.
Cacharel Eden. As I noted earlier in the week, I was surprised how complex this perfume is. When I first tried it in the 1990s, it seemed streamlined and futuristic. Since then, mainstream perfumery has been transformed by changing tastes, IFRA, and corporate accounts.
I’m not sure I entirely like Eden, which also makes it a good match for painting. Max Ernst paintings tend to be at once alluring, beautiful, disturbing and ominous.
(That should have been corporate accountants.)
Very much enjoyed this poll, which requires drawing on different parts of the brain to come up with solutions. 🙂
Yes, that was a fun exercise!
Excellent choice as Eden is both Green and Weird. I’ve never been able to make up my mind about it either.
I used to try all Cacharel’s releases as Anaïs Anaïs was such a great favourite of mine, but I’ve never been able to find another Cacharel I enjoyed as much.
I came across Eden at a discounter a while back. At the time I smelled it on a strip but not on skin. I have been meaning to go back to that shop and see if they still have it.
I didn’t participate in today’s project because it was cold and rainy day and I have been a bit under the weather. I needed one of my favorite comfort scents so I chose Beloved. Had it been different, I probably would have chosen Niki de St. Phalle or No 19. I really enjoyed reading everyone’s response.
This is such an interesting project ! Since perfume is such a visual element, it actually makes so much sense too ! I didn’t think anything I own would “echo” the painting, and decided to layer 2 fragrances instead. Incidentally, my interpretation happens to go with my overall fragrance mood of the day too, which was nothing too perfumey or beautiful or feminine; I was in the mood for something simple and almost unscented even. It had to be light because of the sweltering heat here, and I wanted something that could lie close to the skin and be light yet interesting. So here’s my SOTD : a base of Molecule 01 with Sisley’s Eau de Campagne layered over it : the verdant countryside note is given a more sinister turn with the hit of Iso E Super to add some darkness to the light and joyful EdC. Like most surreal works, there’s always this tone of the macabre, a general doom and gloom air or the creepy nausea of being in a nightmare. At least, that’s the way I see it for most works by Ernst (and Dali) – and I studied fine art in university !!!!
Missionista, art and film description can vary. But I tend to prefer minimalism so I can try to build my own imaginings around it. For instance, lush, foreboading or inpenetrable when applied to a jungle all make me visualize different things (I could see as a young child), so sometimes the more elaborate a description, the harder it is for me to visualize the artist’s vision. But flowers shivering in the sun is just delightful and not too descriptive enough to the point I can’t imagine the scene. 🙂
I’ve never heard of Artsy, but am off to Google it right now!