My perfume personality leans toward orientals, chypres and florientals but when spring arrives I’m ready to flaunt simple floral beauties that are neglected the rest of the year. This depends on where you live, but for me, I’ve usually spent the last 6 months indoors, in front of a fireplace, television or reading a book, disconnected from nature. When warmer weather and blue skies show up I’m longing for nature specific florals. Early spring is when I pull away from abstract scents and desire more realistic fragrances. I crave certain florals like a vitamin deficiency, such as hyacinth, lilac, iris, violet, honeysuckle and green florals.
And, because we all love lists, here are my favorite spring fragrances broken into three categories; 1. The all time hits; 2. New loves for 2010 and 3. Recurring loves, last spring and this year, too.
THE ALWAYS RIGHT, ALL TIME GREATEST HITS FOR SPRING:
Acqua di Parma Iris Nobile in eau de toilette
Iris Nobile is my favorite iris. I wear the eau de parfum during the fall/winter and I love the eau de toilette in the spring/summer.
Annick Goutal Grand Amour
Pure class and beauty. Hyacinth heaven.
Annick Goutal Le Chevrefeuille
The best honeysuckle fragrance bar none. It reminds me of honeysuckle iced tea. Simple and stunning.
Guerlain Chamade
Elegant aldehydic hyacinth. Chamade feels suited for festive soirees during the months of March, April & May. Invite me to an outdoor wedding, I’ll wear Chamade in vintage parfum de toiltette.
Jean Patou Vacances
Vacances is the quintessential spring fragrance and the only lilac focused perfume that works. It is luminous and I wish I had gallons of it so I could wear it 24/7 for the month of April.
Serge Lutens Fleur d’Oranger
This is my favorite orange blossom. It’s pure, natural and true to the flower but with more facets than other orange blossom scents. It has a soft oriental base rather than that clean-musky-soapy base.
NEW SPRING LOVES FOR 2010:
Byredo La Tulipe
Clean, soft vegetal floral. Fresh cut stems. Byredo pulled this one off. It’s unique and memorable.
Bond No. 9 Eau de Noho
EdN is a delightfully cheerful linden floral that lasts; it's a linden gem.
Parfums DelRae Debut & Mythique
I’ve been living under a rock because I just discovered Debut this year. Debut is dreamy and striking the perfect chord with me these past 10 days.
Mythique is my second favorite iris scent and it might have knocked Acqua di Parma off it’s pedestal if it only had some sillage. Mythique lasts but so close to the skin I have to touch my nose to my arm to smell it. It loses points for zero sillage but the aroma is magical ... just can’t deny the glorious spring fantasy this one conjures.
RECURRING LOVES; LAST SPRING AND AGAIN THIS YEAR:
Annick Goutal Un Matin d’Orage
Gardenia, wet stones, fresh upturned earth and soil. Makes me think of gardening, sinking my hands in the cool April ground. Love it.
Parfums MDCI Un Coeur en Mai
Another green hyacinth prominent fragrance. I told you, it’s as if I have a vitamin definiciency, my system requires hyacinth!
Creative Universe Mare
The notes for Mare are sea salt, avocado and ginger lily. Mare is remarkable for conjuring a breezy cool seaside without any of that ozonic/aquatic drivel. Mare reminds me of a walk along the ocean on the northshore of Massachusetts in May. Creative Universe doesn’t receive enough accolades. Several fragrances from this line could easily be a spring/summer favorite.
Sonoma Scent Studio Voile de Violette
Deliciously flirty, fruity and fun violet. VdV is not candy sweet and it's a robust violet which is nothing short of a triumph for springtime violet lovers.
This article is a joint project suggested by Ayala over at Smelly Blog. Thanks so much to Ayala for organizing everyone and for providing such a goofy-great image above (I must have watched The Sound of Music 100 times as a child =).
Participating blogs:
Katie Puckrik Smells
Perfume Shrine
The Non Blonde
Notes from the Ledge
Scent Hive
Savvy Thinker
Roxana's Illuminated Journal
Perfume in Progress
All I Am A Redhead
Ambre Gris
Olfactarama
A Rose Beyond the Thames
Ok, so I made you read all the way to the end before telling you about the free giveaway. It's not a full bottle of Tauer's newest release or anything that special - but it IS your choice of any of my favorite spring scents above in a large decant.
You know the rules, you must have commented before this post... I will choose the winner on Sunday evening (April 18) Good luck!
38 comments:
I'm in, if you ship to Europe, that is! (Pretty sure I have commented, haven't I?) Not really much of a floral person either, so I have hardly smelled any of these.
great choices- especially iris nobile which is great anytime but would work really well for spring.
I thought Tulipe is well- it seems perfect but it may be that i am in love with the new! and la chasse I am just rediscovering, it has to be in the top perfume names ever list don't you think?
Since I found some interesting ideas on your list that I haven't tried yet, I do hope I get my chance to select a decant. :)
A great list!
I found myself heading for florals today, rather than the orientals and chypres I've been wearing. I didn't go all spring-fresh though, I need to ease into it. So I showered with Floris Seringa gel, then dug out my Caroline Herrera from lo, these many years ago! (The box is falling apart, but the perfume is still perfect). Now I feel like I'm wearing a spring dress, but with big shoulderpads... ;-)
Okay, well I cannot refrain from trying for this...I like your list, most of which I have not tried. I do find it is difficult to keep up with all of you perfume bloggers, but it sure is fun to try.
What a great offer! Thanks, Abigail! This is Karin from Maine (hi Karin from Europe...). :-)
I've been wanting to try Iris Nobile for ages. Can't find it around here, though. Chamade is one of my spring favorites. I also love No 5 Eau Premiere and Juicy Couture in the spring...as well as Black Orchid Voile de Fleur. Really anxious to try that Byredo Tulipe!
I'm wearing mostly green florals these days...
Chamade, Le Temps d'une Fete, Crown Perf. Crown Bouquet (it doesn't smell like Vacances, of which I have a sample, but surprised me by sharing the same tender feeling), Kenzo Parfum d'Ete (old one), Silences, No. 19, and every violet scent sample I own. When I finally break down and buy a violet, it will be Penhaligon's. I'm enjoying my samples of Vacances and Amoureuse as well.
Grand Amour edt is beautiful for two hours and then, sadly, disappears.
I think I would LOVE Un Coeur en Mai but have not smelled it yet.
Interesting list... I appreciate the fact that you go off the beaten path and come up with some stuff I don't know at all!
OMG...there are so many on your list that I am dying to try...I love the "house" of Delrea.. Bois de Paradis has to be in my top 5 if not top 2 although it is hardly a spring scent.
This spring I am really liking M & B Green Green Green...and for some strange reason Chanel Sycomore is just working for me...so far spring in NY has not been that warm but has alternated between warm, cold, warm, cold and Sycomore just seems to work!!!
Thanks again for all you work and your amazing blog...
Iris Nobile is one of those "oh, YEAH...that's a good one!" scents for me. Which is to say, I find it, I think it is a good something, I forget about it, it proves itself still worthy...lather, rinse, repeat. A weird cycle. Infusion d'Iris recently came up as another one of those. (Hmm, I should explore if this is an iris issue...)
Argh! One of the things I love and hate about hearing other people's lists is that I get reminded about things I want to try. Like Chevrefeuille. Blart. But thank you.
Can I say how much I love, love, love Chamade? And that one of the justifications for a repeated "love" is the fact that while it is not quite what the old was, the current iteration is still wonderful enough that I don't have to get all funereal about it, or cut it out of my will, or anything like that? Because it is still really good?
Ack! Again!! What is this Mare? (mutters, adds name to the list...)
Thanks for the fun post!
Sounds good to me, as we usually like the same scents. I would love to be entered in the draw, Abigail.
Thank you, Abigail! You are always so kind and generous.
Hugs!
What a nice list! I'm also in love w/Serge Lutens Fleur d’Oranger and Acqua di Parma Iris Nobile. Mythique sounds really interesting...
I am reading through these spring lists and am shocked & dismayed at how many of these fragrances I don't know. Gah. So many perfumes, so little time...
What a nice opportunity! Hope to have a chance to try one of these.
bursztyn
All of your spring scents sound beautiful. Please enter me in the draw. Rosiegreen
Great list and unfortunately not one that I'm wearing this spring. I've been rotating Bandit, L'Temps d'une Fete, Chanel No. 19, Miss Dior and Cristalle.
Please enter me in the drawing. I'd love some of the new Tauer.
Great list and I like the way you divided it into categories. For me, the best spring scent is Diorella! Please enter me in the draw. Thanks!!!
I'd love to be entered into the drawing. I haven't tried a lot on your list, but they sound great. I think I might need to buy Annick Goutal's Chevrefeuille unsniffed! Honeysuckle and tea sounds divine.
Thanks
Enter me, please! After a week of spring weather and springy floral perfumes it was cold and rainy when I woke up today, so I tried my sample of Winter Woods today. Oddly enough, it was perfect for my mood.
You have such interesting taste, and it's been having an influence on me (got into Annick Goutal as a result). I would so love to try one of your faves.
What an interesting list. I'm always interested in the scents that strike you ever since I discovered Alahine because of you. I had pretty much dismissed Byredo as a whole, but I will give La Tulipe a chance now. And I had never paid any mind to Creative Universe Mare before, but the avocado note sounds intriguing.
Well, I guess I can't be entered in the draw since this is my first comment, but the reason why it's my first comment is because I just found this blog through the spring posts! (Great idea, by the way)
My favourite spring fragrance right now is L'Artisan Fleur d'Oranger, but I'm also loving Jicky as a spring scent.
Oh, Abigail - our tastes run so close together, it's amazing. I have to gently rib you about only now finding Debut (having blown through an entire bottle of this stuff last year, I understand the affection! That's why I asked you for more spring and summer florals, to broaden my Debut "abuse"). You've narrowed down my choices for spring to the Serge orange flower, which will join Songes shortly. Keep up the spectacular work!!
I just bought Grand Amour and agree that it is spring in a bottle. Matin d'Orage is another favorite of mine (in fact, those are the only two AGs I own!). I must try this Tulipe that so many are raving about, too.
Please enter me in the drawing, and thanks for offering it!
Oh, wow - I love your list, Abigail. Chamade is so perfectly elegant, yet springy.
You've also piqued my interested in Tulipe and Mythique. Byredo Green is one of my new favorites for spring; it's green without galbanum and dries down to an additive almond and laundry musk.
Is Mythique at all similar to Prada L'Eau Ambree or Infusion d'Iris? They seem to share an ethereal nature from the reviews I've read.
Thanks for the post and please enter me in the drawing!
Oooh! What a great list! I'm in for the drawing.
I'm also craving florals reminding me of spring now. Would love to get my hands on one of your favourites. :)
Great choices! plus as some others I've never tried which I am now curious about. Please count me in for the draw.
Great list, excellent choices, and of course I'd love to enter the giveaway.
Thanks.
Roberto.
Un Coeur en Mai is the *best* spring frag. I actually like it for summer a lot, too.
I have a sample of Tulipe on it's way to me, and I am hoping that this one will also work for me for spring.
My list would be.... Lauren, Un Coeur en Mai, Escale a Portofino, Tiare and Beige.
And yes! Please enter me in the draw! I'd probably go for SL Fd'O. I'm dying to try that one.
Well, a decant of one of your spring favorites is indeed special! You have some lovely choices, though I certainly haven't tried them all. Please enter me. Thanks, Abigail!
I enjoyed reading Brian's spring favorites as well.
I've been stuck in a runt and still clinging to my winter scents here in Taiwan... where did all my citrus/florals go? Maybe I'll give SL Fleur d'Oranger a go today...
Thanks for giving us some ideas with this spring project and I hope I can get my hands on some of your favorites =P
Hi, don't know if I have commented before--I am not much of a 'commenter'!!
But, your list sounds lovely and I would enjoy being in the drawing.
Chevrefeuille was one of my best 'unsniffed' purchases. It is such a happy scent.
thanks so much...
Abigail,
I love that you have so many Goutals on your list. 4, no less! Annick Goutal Le Chevrefeuille and Mythique have been heavy in my spring rotation. I don't know how it has escaped me, but I've yet to get a whiff of Un Matin d’Orage. This would be my choice if my luck changes. Fingers crossed.
For someone who usually steers away from spring in their smells, that's a pretty convincing bouquet of florals you've got there! Thanks for the inspiration.
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