I was not excited when I heard Chanel’s latest addition to the Les Exclusifs collection, Jersey, featured lavender. It is not a favorite note of mine, although I love Guerlain Jicky, and oddly enough, also the first fragrance I thought of when I smelled Jersey, Brin de Réglisse. Like Jersey, Brin de Réglisse is a niche-from-a-mainstream-house sort of thing, in this case from Hermès, and the reason I thought of Brin de Réglisse right away is not because they smell alike, although I suppose perhaps they are the distant-est of distant cousins. No, I thought of it because of the lavender note in Brin de Réglisse, which as you may remember, was a molecular fraction (is that the term? I don’t know the term, and admit I am not very concerned about it either way). I’ll repeat a quote I used then:
[Perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena] asked them to slice natural lavender into 50 distinct groups of molecules, sniffed them all, discarded five and reassembled it. “My lavender had a much purer, cleaner smell,” he says, comparing it with the natural scent. “Then I had to find something to dress it up that would be a little unusual. I chose a touch of licorice.” (via Los Angeles Times, 10/28/2007)
As near as I can tell, they do something similar (presumably using cheaper methods) with many fragrances notes, which is why notes you used to hate — patchouli! — don’t bother you anymore, and why smelling materials in their natural state is no longer necessarily helpful to the budding perfumista…
My tired nose is on a brief hiatus from perfume-sniffing. Right now, I’m devoting my appreciation of scent to what’s blooming in the garden: mock-orange/Philadelphus (one of those glorious floral aromas that no perfume can duplicate), honey locust trees, roses, wallflowers, gardenia, jasmine, clove-y “pinks,” peonies…and lavender.
West of Seattle, a large area of land near the town of Sequim, Washington, is devoted to lavender production, and I’m heading there next weekend to breathe in lavender’s pungent, herbal aromas. Lavender…in soggy western Washington, you ask? Sequim is located in what residents of Seattle fondly, yearningly call “the rain shadow” of the Olympic Mountains in the Sequim-DungenessValley. Rainfall is usually less than 20 inches a year in the sunny rain shadow, so lavender thrives. As Seattle is the “Paris of the Northwest,” so Sequim is the Provence of the U.S. (Relax! You may laugh!)…
When I get stressed, I remember why I fell in love with home fragrances to begin with — a gorgeous floral candle, a cleansing sea salt bath soak, or a refreshing citrus or woodsy room diffuser can serve to lift my spirits and help me regain perspective when I return to my apartment after a long and dispiriting day. In fact, I barely consider these items extravagant as they cost less, and last far longer than, say, a massage or a visit to an aromatherapist. This is especially true when you come across a neat little product like Aura Cacia’s Aromatherapy shower tablets.
I stumbled across this product in the local organic supermarket the other day. Available in lavender, eucalyptus and peppermint, the idea is simple: to put a little water-soluble tablet on the shower floor which will release its essential oils when hit by the warm water, thereby giving you an aromatherapeutic shower. If, like me, you have tried to accomplish this yourself by dropping neat oils onto the shower floor while showering, you already know that the effect doesn’t last as the oils wash down the drain almost immediately. This tablet solves that problem by dissolving slowly throughout the duration of your shower…
