The weather here today is cold and grey and dreary. We still have a few inches left of last week’s snow, and there are light flurries swirling outside my window as I type. It is the kind of day when you reach for a comfort fragrance, and so I am wearing two vanilla scents: Vanille Tonka by Parfums de Nicolaï, and Vanille Absolu by Montale.
Vanille Tonka was released in 1997, and has notes of tangerine, lime, cinnamon, Mexican vanilla, tonka bean and frankincense. It starts with dry citrus, very heavy on the lime. The citrus notes fade into a cinnamon sugar accord; the vanilla and tonka bean intensify over the next hour, and are joined by smoky swirls of frankincense…
