Spring flowers By Olaf Hajek
March 19, 2020 is the Spring Equinox, and the day is as long as the night. These past few months have shaken us to our very core, but spring is the season of hope, of renewal. “Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world.” –Virgil E Kraft. Our Part 1 picks for the best Spring perfumes:
Back Bay on Newbury Street by Sandy Carr
Spring in Boston’s Back Bay: pick a street, any street. The majestic expanse of Commonwealth Avenue, the serene intimacy of Marlborough Street, Beacon Street which seems to go on forever: all of them herald the Eternal Return in a flourish of rosy, velvet-petaled Northern magnolias, arboreal sentinels. Old-world charm commingles with the ubiquitous seething of students from every corner of the globe whose mission (it appears) is to infuse new life into Dame Boston. Perfumer Sandy Carr has captured this vernal energy so exquisitely that everyone would do well to give it a good long sniff. Window boxes of herbs and geranium, bursts of iris and hyacinth in bloom, the tender stalks of lily of the valley sequestered in the shade they always seek. Cedar mulch is a must; the sea is never far and its salinity wafts in on the breeze and follows you into every corner of the city. Spring is fleeting everywhere, but in New England especially you must filch it while you are able: BLUEHILL Fragrances Back Bay enables one to revisit it whenever you wish.
Notes: bergamot, basil, galbanum, rose, iris, magnolia, hyacinth, geranium, muguet, green notes, oceanic notes, ambergris, sandalwood, cedar, amber
Ida Meister, Sr. Editor
Claude Monet’s gardens at Giverny
DSH Perfumes Giverny in Bloom by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz: Created by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz to accompany a Monet exhibition, Giverny in Bloom captures the memory of spring gardens of my childhood when cold, stony ground surrendered to blooms and buds. The scent is almost astringent on first spray, like rubbing a broken fern between your fingers. After that the flowers come, bloom by delicate bloom and not just petals either, but stems, stamens, buds: the whole shebang. You’ll find lilacs, carnations, mimosa, roses, jasmine, neroli, violets, linden blossom- it’s all there. But what makes this stand apart from other florals is the sappy greenery and earthiness. There’s soil tincture, oakmoss and galbanum. All this works not against, but alongside, the prettiness of the flowers. A good gardener knows you have to get your hands dirty and that’s what this smell like: a real garden. Like the strokes of an Impressionist’s brush, the blending is cleverly done to give an artless feel that allows each note to blur into the next without losing itself.
Samantha Scriven, Contributor
Collage by Nicoleta
Do you know the aria “E lucevan le stelle” from Puccini’s Tosca? The sound of the crickets echoing in the night, the footsteps on the garden stone path, the creaking of the rusty gate, the cold blue shadows of lovers embracing, it’s all here, embedded in Annick Goutal’s Nuit Etoilee (Isabelle Doyen) For me, this perfume also captures the picture-perfect essence of the first days of spring: the woodiness of pine and fir trees of winter, buried under the ever-thinning layer of snow; the minty and full of promise air of crisp spring mornings, the first rays of orange light with astringent lemon brightness, and the touch of your favorite silk dress, laying cold on your skin, on that day when you decide to leave your house without your coat on-Nicoleta Tomsa, Contributor
Photo: Colin Dodgson for Vogue, 2015©
Senyokô Madama Butterfly II (Euan McCall): In view of a challenging spring ahead, I profoundly crave a scent that reflects renewal, rebirth, clarity of spirit. The Senyokô creative team envisioned Madama Butterfly II as a continuation of Cio-Cio San’s story, according to which the heroine transcends her tragic ending reincarnated as an empowered, self-sufficient woman. Perfumer Euan McCall blends the deep greens of tangy petitgrain and bitter/sweet galbanum with the earthy hues of aromatic woods, chocolatey patchouli and vanillic tonka bean, enriching the olfactory canvas with bright pink peppercorns, dark red fruity flourishes (raspberry, quince), and highly original floral shades (fully-blossomed cherry trees surrounded by marigolds, tulips, and irises). Spectacularly evoking moist, fertile earth ready to give birth to all sorts of natural wonders, the hauntingly beautiful Senyokô Madama Butterfly II is itself impregnated with contemplative optimism, and mind-clearing energy.
Notes: Pink Pepper, Quince, Tagettes, Angelica, Clementine Petitgrain; Galbanum, Incense, Raspberry, Tulip, Iris, Sakura Blossom; Musk, Ambergris, Cedarwood, Sandalwood, Patchouli, Tonka Bean.
Despina Veneti, Senior Editor
So full of dreams – Ellen Von Untwerth – Vogue IT July 2012
Naomi Goodsir Nuit de Bakélite (Isabelle Doyen): Winter is a long, stormy night to me, broken only by glimpses of daylight. Beginning of March though, you can sense the sunshine is coming and soon the spring: the air it still brisk but the dawn softens the earth, dotted by fierce greenery. The white night is over and my craving turns into an obsession for everything is bourgeoning and blooming, sticking my nose like a bug to the most hidden corners of flowers to inhale their narcotic beauty. Fierce and green as the promise of spring, Naomi Goodsir Nuit de Bakélite embodies this intense awakening of the first sappy, earthy breath. Spring it’s divinely wild and erotic like Persephone emerging from the clods of earth. She wears leather gloves rubbed in bitter, anise-tinged angelica roots, holding a tuberose stem full of unripe blossoms. Yet the promise of full bloom casts the spell of its intoxicating vegetal addiction.
Notes: Leather, Tuberose, Ylang-Ylang, Angelica Root, Artemisia, Styrax
– Ermano Picco, Editor
Disclosure From our own collections, purchased or sent as samples.
via flickr
For our Best Spring Perfumes Draw
Worldwide: From the lovely Dawn Spencer Hurwitz 10 vdp of Giverny in bloom
EU, Australia, Canada and USA: Thank you Renaud and Naomi for 50 ml of Nuit de Bakelite
EU and USA: with love from Senyoko 50 ml tester of Madama II
USA With our gratitude to Sandi Carr for 50 ml of Back Bay
To enter our best spring perfumes part 1 draw you must be a registered user of ÇaFleureBon. It is simple to do, just follow the prompt here. To be eligible, please leave a comment with what you thought of our part 1 best spring perfumes choices (even if there is no draw, the spring fragrance you would like to win that are available (there are 4) and WHY, where you live by 3/19/20 .
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