I first sniffed the Dirty product line at the New York launch of Gorilla Perfume at Lush last year, and I've been looking forward to its release in the United States. Dirty has finally reached our shores, in all its iterations, and it feels just right for summer. According to Gorilla Perfume's promotional materials, "Dirty is an invigorating, cathartic breath of fresh air that stirs up something primal." Its notes include spearmint, thyme, tarragon, lavender, sandalwood, and oakmoss (but no dirt!).

Dirty is available in as a traditional liquid perfume and as a solid fragrance stick; it's a fresh fragrance that leans slightly towards the masculine end of the spectrum, but it will probably find quite a few female fans who enjoy wearing grassy, minty, or leafy scents. For the first hour or so, Dirty reminds me of an herb garden giving off the aromas of an assortment of plants: the thyme and the tarragon are there, and the mint is especially noticeable. Dirty gradually evolves into a salty sea breeze and an airy musk base with a very sheer sandalwood note. It has good staying power for a "fresh" fragrance, particularly one that includes so many natural ingredients.

The complete Dirty line takes a new approach to "layering": each product is scented with a different element of the Dirty composition, so that they can be worn together to recreate the total fragrance...

Smell is the most associative sense. For years, they have dyed both men's colognes and sports drinks like Gatorade the exact shade of blue of the absorbing liquid in maxi pad commercials and nobody seems bothered by this, except me — and, well, maybe now you as well. Something I never overhear: "I can't listen to Bartók anymore, because John Bonham of Led Zeppelin has ruined me for timpani." Yet every scent enthusiast is familiar with the type of scenario where you apply careful dabs of your most cherished new sample and you are snuffling away at the baptized spot on the back of your hand, squinting and considering every facet, when your spouse breezes in and announces casually: "It smells like Lifebuoy soap in here." And you are NEVER ABLE TO WEAR IT AGAIN. The band-aid aspect of fragrances with black pepper, the ham in lily soliflores, a whiff of Creamsicle wherever and whenever it is found: once smelled, it haunts you forever.

Perhaps no note in perfumery has suffered more for its associations than mint. The cost of our modern obsession with smelling fresh has been that there are some of us who regularly wear fragrances that evoke the burnt dust of a blown computer CPU, but refuse to wear minty scents on the grounds that we are reminded of toothpaste, mouthwash and chewing gum...

You don’t have to be obsessive-compulsive to worry about germs these days. It’s cold season, it’s flu season, and worse yet, now we have to fear the H1N1 virus (“swine flu”) too. Accordingly, sales of antibacterial soaps and hand gels have risen dramatically in recent months. However, there are some problems with mass-market antibacterial products: the ones with triclosan pose possible health concerns, and the ones with too much alcohol leave your hands dry and cracked, and thus vulnerable to all kinds of irritation and infection.

For these reasons, not to mention the harsh window-cleaner smell of so many drugstore antibacterial products, I’ve long preferred alternatives like EO Hand Sanitizer. Lately, I’m even more pleased with the new Hand Purifier from Intelligent Nutrients. It’s a gel product (rather than a liquid that runs down your wrists and onto the front of your winter coat when you try to apply it on the go), and it feels like a lightweight hand lotion...

I came across WASH WITH JOE Coffeemint Invigorating Bodywash by chance: I was browsing in a C.O. Bigelow store during an out-of-town trip, and a shelf of WASH WITH JOE bottles caught my eye and pulled me across the room, as if by magnetic force. When I covertly sniffed one of the bottles, I was instantly hooked on its fragrance and needed to purchase it immediately. Then I went for a cup of coffee across the street.

I later learned that WASH WITH JOE is the creation of graphic designer/beauty entrepreneur/coffee-drinker Jane Schub, who is the mind (and the eye) behind the Strange/Beautiful nail polishes that I’ve been admiring at Bergdorf Goodman for the past few months. Schub’s design background has provided her with ample sources of inspiration for those polish colors and this new body wash. JOE’s label was influenced by the work of industrial designer Raymond Loewy (who created some of the best-known corporate logos of the twentieth century), the Campbell’s Soup can as interpreted by Andy Warhol, and the movie Good Night and Good Luck (filmed in black-and-white, and set in the 1950s). It’s the visual equivalent of a double espresso: bold, direct, and sophisticated...

As I imagine him, the Géranium Pour Monsieur man is “casual” but always well groomed. He enjoys nature — sunshine, the sounds of birds, crickets and cicadas. The Géranium Pour Monsieur man can’t walk past a blossom without sniffing it. He rubs leaves between his palms and scratches bark with his fingernails to savor their aromas. The Géranium Pour Monsieur man, his dog at his side, would happily spend a quiet afternoon following a butterfly through country fields — a sprig of fresh, sweet grass between his lips, a wildflower tucked in his jacket buttonhole.

Frederic Malle Editions de Parfums Géranium Pour Monsieur is a charming and unpretentious fragrance (outdoorsy, but not “sporty”) created by perfumer Dominique Ropion; its notes include geranium, mint, rhodinol, aniseed, clove, cinnamon, sandalwood, incense resinoid, styrax benzoin, and white musk. When I first read Géranium Pour Monsieur’s ingredients list, I was worried the spices and musk would end up masking the mint and geranium, but spice and musk are used judiciously and don’t distort the slightly floral, herbal “greens” and dry woods in the fragrance...

Renew Elixir is a fragrant essential oil blend created by the company Drops of Nature and designed to promote emotional balance and mental clarity. For me, Renew's effects begin even before I unscrew the cap of its small bottle. This bottle, molded from frosted glass in the leaf shape and ornamented with a green tassel, fits comfortably into the palm of the hand, giving a soothing tactile sensation.

Renew Elixir feels gently emollient, thanks to its use of sweet almond oil; it absorbs easily into the skin, softly diffusing its scent for about fifteen minutes. In addition to the almond oil, Renew's ingredients are essential oils with aromatherapeutic benefits: peppermint for alertness, as well as relief from headaches or nausea; bergamot and sweet orange for their uplifting effects on the mood; and lavender and clary sage for stress reduction...