Our favorite Winter fragrances
January is blowing its icy breath down our scarf wrapped necks. After a relatively mild start in 2014, Winter announced itself in 2015. When we are chilled to the bones. we turn to our favorite cold weather fragrances to warm body and soul.
Parfumerie Generale- L'Ombre Fauve: This 2007 Private Collection creation from perfumer Pierre Guillaume was my first real foray into the realms of animalic musks and has worked its way to the top of my list of winter scents. It's a purring feline of a fragrance, softly sexy and perfect for wearing close to the skin under layers of warm clothing. L'Ombre Fauve is a resinous, ambered scent with a tawny palette of tertiary colours. There isn't a hint of plant life in this fragrance; it's all about lithe movement and silky furs. The cooler temperatures really bring out the beauty in its soft edges.
Hermès- Elixir des Merveilles: I knew there was a Jean-Claude Ellena creation out there for me! Although this fragrance was launched in 2006, I have only recently discovered it and have fallen deeply in love. Elixir is a mesmerising combination of woods, resins and citrus with an astonishing caramel facet that appeals greatly to this gourmand lover's sweet tooth. Orange is one of my favourite notes in fragrance and there is something delightfully festive in the play between this, the cedar and incense. It works perfectly for this time of year –Susie Baird, Contributor
Winter weather in Wyoming can be brutal, both in it's pristine snow covered beauty and in it's capacity for blizzard like conditions and constant wind. The beauty part, thanks to the Black Hills, usually wins out.
My friend, scent artist Daniel Krasofski and I were searching for a perfume similar to the discontinued ZaZen by Aveda, when Yvettra Grantham from ScentBar suggested La Liturgie des Heures by Jovoy byJaques Flori. A warming incense scent comprised of materials traditionally used in sacred ceremonies. A burning ember to keep the fire going during the cold months. Notes: incense, cypress, frankincense and rockrose, musk and myrrh.
Because winter often leaves me with a touch of SAD, and a longing for the scents of summer, I reach for Oranges and Lemons Say the Bells of St. Clements by Heeley. when I feel I need a lift. A beautiful combination of oranges and lemons with bergamot and orange blossom to boot. The dry down is a lovely Earl Grey tea note which grounds the zealous citrus reminder of summer to come. Notes: orange, lemon, bergamot, mandarin, neroli, petitgrain, Earl Grey tea, ylang ylang and vetiver. –Einsof, Natural Perfume Editor and West Coast Contributor
George Henry Durrier Winter Scene in New England
Winter is the best season for diversity in the scents you choose. You can go with the warm and complex, something with a straight-up holiday feel, or something sweet to tide you over until the warm sun returns. I've chosen three that do all of these and well.
PK Perfumes- Gold Leather: I discovered Paul Kiler's line after experiencing the work he did with another favorite indie house, Zoologist. Gold Leather is an endlessly comforting, elegant and complex scent built from orange citrus, gardenia and jasmine, ylang ylang, tuberose, sage and tobacco, musks and civet. It wears like the way sunlight feels. What is most intriguing about Paul Kiler's bold, unique and angular perfumes is that they're also so approachable and warm. An absolute joy to wear and discover.
Dasein – Winter: This is a good one for people who like the “Christmas Tree” feel in their winter perfumes around the holiday season and was composed by indie artisan perfumer Sam Rader. Loaded up with blue spruce, forest pine, cardamom and lavender, Winter keeps you warm while still providing the bracing hit of being outdoors during the chilly months. Available at TwistedLily.com
I Profumi di Firenze – Vanlglia e Fichi: This fig-based scent is a wonderful fragrance to fight off the blue, icy bone-rattle of wintertime. It’s very rich, sweet and cozy – I Profumi di Firenze makes perfumes feel the same way that cashmere makes a good sweater feel – soft and silky. If you’re needing a gourmand fragrance with an exotic edge to pull you through the ice and snow, this is a great one. Available at Lady Pickwicks owned by the charming Rita Fabbricatore, 64 State Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801, (603) 427-8671 – Steve Johnson, Sr Contributor
D.S. & Durga’s Siberian Snow composed by one of my favourite perfumers David Seth Moltz, is one of the most elusive and haunting fragrances in their collection. A memory-scent, spiked with wintergreen for clarity and a union of gentle animalics, resins and balms. Everything is soft with camphor, minted air and powder like footsteps in brilliant winter snowfall surrounding a vast country house where women once danced in silvered silks and fur. Now the windows are blind, furniture is draped in white and the pianos are silent. Some days when I wear it, I feel lost, like a wraith in that house of ice and snow, the notes rising off me like disturbed motes of gathered dust.
Patchouli Patch by L’Artisan Parfumeur is papal patchouli, ragingly regal; a rush of sexy velvet biker chic. Persuasive and elegant scent making that moves with your wrapped up, enclosed heat, rising and falling. A bite of caraway over sheer osmanthus, iris and drifting musk make this Duchaufour take on a scented classic so much more than just woody smoke and drift. I have been through bottles and bottles of the stuff. There are days when I crave it like a drug, it smells that good. It is the perfect winter scent, skin adores it and fibres of scarves and cashmere and tweed greedily consume it. –The Silver Fox, Senior Editor
Baume Du Doge by Eau d’Italie is one of my go-to winter perfumes. Created by the masterly hand of Betrand Duchaufour in 2008, the year I first met both Bertrand and Sebastian Alverez Murena in NYC, so this perfume fills me with warm and wonderful memories. I imagine a Medici court, swirling with intrigue and heavenly aromas of frankincense and myrrh. Wine spiced with orange, clove and cardamom. A procession of envoys moves triumphantly through the glittering halls, paying regal homage to the regent with cedar and sandalwood kists overflowing with silks, velvets, vanilla pods, clove and precious saffron like filaments of gold. –Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief
For our Five Fragances Wintry Mix draw
EU, USA and CANADA From Francois Henin, the owner of Jovoy-Paris 50 ml La Liturgie des Heures
EU, USA and CANADA: Our friends at L'Artisan Parfumeur are offering 50 ml of Patchouli Patch composed by Bertrand Duchaufour
EU, USA and CANADA: From Eau d'Italie 100 ml Baume du Doge also composed by Bertrand Duchaufour
USA and CANADA: The generous Paul Kiler is offering 30 ml of PK Perfumes – Gold Leather
USA ONLY: Thanks to the kindness of David and Kavi 30 ml of D.S. & Durga’s Siberian Snow
To be eligible for the best Winter Fragrances 2015, please leave a comment with how you feel about Winter, your favorites from our top ten fragrances list and the five perfumes that we have for draw, your choices from the five offered should you win and where you live. Draw closes 1/16/2015.
We announce the winners only on site and on our Facebook page, so Like Cafleurebon and use our RSS option…or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume