Posted by Angela
on
24 April 2009
When spring arrives, the black and white world of winter seems to turn technicolor in splotches. The ground is mostly barren, but a patch of lurid daffodils lights up a parking strip, and a tulip tree looks like it has burst into white flames against the grey sky. Even the singing birds sound ridiculously cheerful, like a Looney Tunes short come to life.
Of course, I love it. And mostly I like choosing perfumes for spring that make the same garish splash in the cool, damp air. But sometimes moodier fragrances that reflect the dirt’s slow awakening seem more appropriate. Here are my current favorites for spring, not in any particular order.
Amouage Ubar. Nothing says spring like lily of the valley — light, ethereal, and tinged with green. Unfortunately, when I wear Christian Dior Diorissimo, I feel like I’m wearing someone else’s clothing. It feels cold on me. Ubar, on the other hand, is loaded with lily of the valley and sunny jasmine, but has a warm grounding of sandalwood and civet. I’m hoarding the few drops I have left in my sample sprayer…
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In the doom-and-gloom days of my late teens and early twenties, one of my favorite poems was “Spinster” by Sylvia Plath; at one point, I even photocopied this poem from Plath’s collected works and pinned it to the wall of my dorm room. It relates the thoughts of an emotionally repressed young woman who, during “a ceremonious April walk / with her latest suitor,” finds herself dismayed by early spring’s “rank wilderness of fern and flower; / She judged petals in disarray, / The whole season, sloven.”
Many real-life seasons passed, and I eventually loosened my grip on such tense pessimism (although I will always value Plath’s work). I even decided that it’s not such a bad thing, after all, to “reel giddy in bedlam spring” when the opportunity presents itself.
Here, then, are ten scents that evoke springtime giddiness in me whenever I wear them…
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Posted by Robin
on
7 March 2007
It has been snowing since late last night, and we now have several inches of accumulation. It is that time of year when it seems like winter is taking just a bit too long in departing, and I am ready for a little denial; hence, today’s subject: Folavril by Annick Goutal. It was her first fragrance release (launched in 1981), and the name, April Fool, is the perfect way to announce the coming of spring. I’m just doing it a little bit early. The notes include mango, jasmine, boronia flower and tomato leaf.
Annick Goutal’s Folavril opens on a burst of sweet mango and what smells to me rather like apricot or peach jam. It would probably smell like yet another insipid fruity floral (although if I remember correctly, it is classified as an aldehydic floral) were it not for the tomato leaves, which undercut the sweetness with their bitter, peppery-spicy green edge. The combination smells playful, in keeping with the name, and it has a nice bite to it — Folavril perfectly manages to evoke the warmth of the tropics without calling to mind suntan oil or a frozen cocktail….
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