Hawthorn tree in Country Waterford © George Munday

Irish sap runs through most of my family tree. Names like Quillin, Farley, Kennedy, Tevlin, and Flanagan adorn the branches. What is now the very chic Brooklyn neighbor hood of DUMBO used to be called Irish Town. It’s where my great-great-grandfather settled, solid liquor, and watched the Brooklyn Bridge rise up. Another great-great-grandfather was a cop in Manhattan during the ruthless era Scorsese captured in “Gangs of New York”. My Irish ancestors were anxious to assimilate into the Melting Pot of America and didn’t cling to their Irishness. It was left up to me to rediscover it and honor it. There are many lists out there of “Best Fragrances for St. Patrick’s Day”, often offering up a very useful list of the best “green” fragrances. I’m taking a different tack, sharing a Lucky 7 fragrances that express the beauty, dignity, heritage and humor of Ireland and her people, many using notes that are found on the Emerald Isle such as ambergris, angelica, birch, blackcurrant, broom, hawthorn, honey, leather, malt, moss, strawberry, and of course whiskey.

Mizen Head, Ireland’s most southwesterly point © Rory Hennessey

THE SEA has always figured prominently in the story of Ireland. The folk tales of the sea god Lir and the adventuring warrior captain Máel Dúin make their way into the Christian legends of St. Brendan the Navigator who some believe reached the shores of Newfoundland in the 6th century. What is certain is that millions of Irish took to the sea in the 19th century, leaving home behind, to find a better life in new lands. Olympic Orchids Kingston Ferry created by Ellen Covey in 2010 transports me into the mind of one of those brave souls. The immediate sensation is a blast of briny sea air and the wood of the deck. As the perfume wears it softens into an idyll of heather, wildflowers and wood fires… the sweet memories of a home left behind. Olympic Orchids Kingston Ferry is an experiential perfume. Notes: salt air, rhododendron, lavender, tarragon, chamomile, heather, cedar leaves, sea-weathered wood, seaweed, sun-dried driftwood, charred firewood

Dublin bedroom on a soft day © Fleur Treurniet

THE NOSTALGIA for a home left behind, the unified island nation that once was, or a love gone too soon is a motif that is often repeated in Irish songs. One famous song from the 16th century is “Roísín Dubh”, or “Little Dark Rose”, originally a love song dedicated to the object of a monk’s affection, but in later years that lover became a symbol for Ireland when the song took on political meaning. Cloon Keen Roisin Dubh, created for the Galway based perfume house by Irish perfumer Meabh McCurtin, delivers the beautiful, nostalgic melancholy of the song the perfume is name after. It’s a dusty rose that puts me in mind of writing in journals and smelling a lover’s sweater to which a tobacco scent still clings. Notes: rum, black pepper, osmanthus, Damask rose, tobacco, patchouli, cedarwood, frankincense, cistus

Rock of Cashel, home of ancient Irish kings © Mike Kenneally

THE ANCIENT KINGDOM of Ireland was home to kings, warriors, bards and druids. The system of laws that ruled the Island was as complex and equitable as had ever been seen in Europe. Women had rights unknown in the rest of Europe in the Dark Ages. Gold mines were bountiful and artisans created magnificent works. When I wear House of Matriarch Orca by Christi Meshell  I close my eyes and and imagine I am in the hall of the High King who ruled over all of Ireland. It is rich and majestic, laden with mead and precious ambergris (lucky is the Irishman today who still finds ambergris washed ashore.) There’s an inky note that brings to mind the warrior’s tattoos and the spicy, sweet note of spikenard that could  have arrived from the East to the emerald shores, hinted at by the crunchy seashell note of choya nakh.  Notes: 19th c. vintage ambergris, honey, clementine, choya nakh, spikenard, henna

Lilt of Irish laughter © Austock Photos

LAUGHTER is heard when Irish gather, be it for a wedding or wake. Sarah McCartney has created a happy, merry fragrance using many ingredients found in Ireland. 4160 Tuesdays Mother Nature’s Naughty Daughters is full of nature’s delights as sweet as the summer harvest festival of Lunasa itself. It is an absolutely joyous perfume that is kept from being overly fruity by the heady broom, earthy malt, and green moss. Notes: black currant, pear, malt, praline, rose, strawberry, broom, ambergris, cedarmoss, opoponax

Peat fire blazing in the hearth © Andrew Ridley

HEARTH AND HOME is as important to the Irish as anyone. I was especially struck by this when I was visiting a friend at her farm outside Buenos Aires. With wonder I saw a small white washed cottage with a thatched roof while out walking on her property. She told met that it was an exact replica of her great grandmother’s home in Ireland that was built to give her comfort in her old age. When I wear Lubin Korrigan created by perfumer Thomas Fontaine I imagine her great grandmother’s true home back in Ireland. There is an immediate creamy warmth that smells of Irish butter (the best in the world if you ask me) that glides into a floral booziness that is delicious. It is is inviting, and intimate and cuddly. Notes: juniper berries, saffron, cognac, lavender, ambrette, whiskey, cedar leaves, agarwood, leather accord, vetiver, musk

Looking over a four leaf clover © Sydney Rae

THE COLOR GREEN is of course unescapable on St. Patrick’s Day. Sylvaine Delacourte Smeraldo from her Collection Muscs delivers the exact green I envision when I close me eyes and summon an imaginary Irish landscape. It is bright and fresh, but with a smooth solidity behind it. It is a very true green fragrance for those who don’t love galbanum and violet. I like to believe that its specialness comes from the use of hawthorn, known in Ireland as The Fairy Tree, inhabited by the wee folk. Notes: rose, lime, vetiver, yuzu, angelica, mastic tree, hawthorn, pear, cedar leaf, musk

Many a happy colt makes a fine horse © Jan Gemerle

IRISH HORSES are inextricable from Irish culture. For thousands of years breeds have been developed for warfare, sport, transportation and work, from the long locked Irish Cobb to the charming compact Kerry Bog Pony. One can only think of leather fragrances when horses are invoked and Memo Paris Irish Leather signed by Aliénor Massenet is the obvious choice for a leather St. Patrick’s Day fragrance. It was the first in the house’s Cuirs Nomades collection, a tribute to the co-founder John Molloy’s birthplace. It is leather that is lifted by green freshness and the feel of nature. This is not leather that seats you in an armchair by a fire; it has you holding the reins of a magnificent horse flying through tall grasses.  Notes: pink pepper, oil of clary sage, juniper berry, green maté absolute, oil of flouve, iris concrete, tonka bean absolute, leather accord, oil of birch, amber accord 

Saoirse Ronan in the 2015 film “Brooklyn” © Fox Searchlight

This St. Patrick’s Day take a moment to thank your Irish ancestors if you have them, or tuck in to a book of Yeats poetry. Me, I’ll be enjoying a glass of Powers Irish Whiskey neat, burning a stick of Sensari’s hand-dipped, all-natural “Irish Peat and Tea” incense while deciding which Saoirse Ronan movie to stream.

Disclaimer: Thank you to the perfume houses and retailers who supplied samples for St. Patrick’s Day Fragrances. My opinions my own.

Marianne Butler, Senior Contributor

St Patrick’s Day is March 17th, 2019

For our St. Patrick’s Day Fragrances Draw:

Worldwide: Thanks to Margaret Mangan and Cloon Keen we have a 100ml bottle of Cloon Keen Roisin Dubh

Worldwide: With gratitude to Ellen Covey for 5 ml spray of Kingston Ferry (or if you are in the USA it will be 30 ml)

EU, Canada, UK and USA: 30 ml of 4160Tuesdays Mother Nature’s Naughty Daughters

USA: Thanks to Europerfumes, the distributor of Memo Paris a tester of Irish Leather

USA: From the lovely Ann of Indigo Perfumery a 100 ml bottle of Sylvaine Delacourte Smeraldo 

USA:  From Fumerie Parfumerie much gratitude for the large sample of Lubin Korrigan

USA: We appreciate Christi Meshell for 15 ml of Orca-ALL NATURAL

To be eligible for our Lucky 7 St. Patrick’s Day draw, please leave a comment on what St. Patrick’s day is like where you live, where you live and the 7 evocative St. Patrick’s Day Fragrances Marianne chose… which resonate with the "Irish in you" and list all you would like to win. You must be a registered reader. Register here. Draw closes March 20, 2019

Follow us on Instagram @cafleurebon @spritzi_mcgillacutty @indigoperfumery @bergdorfs @fumeriepdx@olympic_orchids_perfume @cloonkeen @houseofmatriarch @4160tuesdaysperfume @houseoflubin @sylvainedelacourte @memo.paris @sensari_incense @Offical_europerfumes

We announce the winners only on site and on our Facebook page, so Like ÇaFleureBon and use our Blog feed…or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume.

 We continue to celebrate International Women’s History Month; six of our Lucky 7 St. Patrick’s Day Fragrances were either composed by women perfumers, or had Women Creative Directors oversee the perfume.  Both Ann and Tracy own their own retail boutiques Indigo Perfumery and Fumerie Parfumerie repespectively.