I have a mind that classifies — non-stop. With perfume houses, I often shove them into categories such as:
Holding Steady: Acqua di Parma; Arquiste; Goutal; Chanel; Diptyque; Etat Libre d’Orange; Frédéric Malle; Guerlain; Hermès; Jo Malone; Kilian; L’Artisan Parfumeur; Le Labo; Memo; Ormonde Jayne; Parfum d’Empire
Should Be Better Known: Aesop; Astier de Villatte; Blackbird; Cire Trudon; Salvatore Ferragamo; Vilhelm Parfumerie; Zoologist…
It’s been a very odd spring in my little corner of Pennsylvania: first way too cold, then way too hot, and only just recently approaching the happy sort of spring temperatures I look forward to all winter. That’s probably made it a little easier to think about which vanilla perfumes might work best for the gamut of spring weather (I’ve already covered fall and winter). As always, do chime in with your own picks in the comments!
Aedes de Venustas Cierge de Lune: With a creamy powder finish and a hint of warm amber, Cierge de Lune is probably best suited to the cooler days of spring…
Winter is a great time to wear vintage fragrance. Something about the gorgeous-yet-unfashionable waft of an old perfume is perfect when the wind bites at your face and you’re swaddled in wool. In my opinion, wood fires, old movies and long nights all deepen with a vintage fragrance on your wrist.
Here are my top ten fragrances for winter, each at least 50 years old. If you’re new to vintage fragrance, you might be put off by how hard they can be to “read.” Let me warn you, though, once you get a taste for them, they can be addicting. I look forward to hearing about your favorite winter fragrances — vintage or not — in the comments. If you can think of modern takes on these fragrances, please comment! And do check out the winter lists at Bois de Jasmin, Grain de Musc and Perfume Posse…
In the 1992 movie Scent of a Woman, Al Pacino, playing a blind, cranky aesthete, walks across a college campus in autumn. He and his companion cross paths with a woman and talk politics for a moment.
Al Pacino’s nostrils quiver. “Fleurs de Rocaille,” he says (in a terrible accent).
“Yes,” she replies.
“Flowers from a brook.”
“Yes.”
As Pacino walks away, he says to his companion, “Don’t tell me. About five feet seven, auburn, with brown eyes….”
French perfume house Caron has launched Pour un Homme Parfum, a new variation on 1934’s Pour Un Homme. Pour un Homme Parfum follows 2015’s Pour un Homme Sport…