Scented candles

A selection of good quality scented candles

Mood Scent 4 Well Named Perfumes

, , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

It’s is time for our monthly Mood Scent 4 post! Where Portia (on A Bottled Rose), Samantha  (I Scent You A Day), Megan (Megan In Sainte Maxime) and I write about a different subject relating to perfume. This time we concentrate on well named fragrances. Those perfume names which lead us to the “right”direction in the store or online and give us a well informed idea of what to expect from a scent.

Perfumes referring to notes in fragrances like rose, tuberose, lily of the valley/muguet, neroli or vetiver can give us a pretty good idea of what to expect although this not certainty either. As some fragrances can be called one thing like orange blossom but unexpectedly smell different, for example Serge Lutens Fleurs D’Oranger smells highly of tuberose. I chose my favourite 5 well named fragrances starting with DS & Durga Portable Fireside.

DS & Durga Portable Fireplace 

Fragrance Duo David Seth Moltz and Kavi Hakuja create original fragrances with matching creative names for their New York based brand DS & Durga. Scented candle Portable Fireplace is one of my favourites from this brand. It smells like a complete fireplace in a candle for those who don’t have the luxury of one at home. I don’t have one living in the city of Amsterdam and love to burn this candle during winter. 

April Aromatics Rose L’Orange, Vanilicious  and Ray Of Light

Another brand with well named perfumes is Berlin based April Aromatics. As you might know, I am a big fan of Tanja Bochnig’s all natural fragrances (and so is my fellow Mood Scent 4 pal Megan from Megan in Sainte Maxime) as I have reviewed several fragrances before. The perfume names are not funny or teasing as DS & Durga but some are very well chosen.

Rose L’Orange smells like a big apricot coloured rose dripping of sweet candied orange syrup and a pinch of vanilla powder. Vanilicious smells like sticking your nose in a delicious shiny long vanilla pod, full of smoky, leathery bits leaving your skin as if it was dusted with light vanilla powder. Uplifting Ray of Light adds a sparkle to your grey rainy day with its vibrant sweet yellow lemon, crisp green lime and bitter bright green leaves from the lemon tree.

Hermes Un Jardin En Mediterranee

Hermes Un Jardin En Mediterranee was the first garden fragrance created by perfumer Jean Claude Ellena for Hermes to be launched in 2003. It captures different plants and trees from a Mediterranean garden, a fig tree with its large fragrant leaves, filled with ready to eat but not overly ripe fig fruits, cypress trees, lemon trees and a touch of spearmint.

Un Jardin En Mediterranee smells like a light aquatic sea breeze on a warm summer day, refreshing and light. It’s like a water coloured painting of an unripe green fig fruit with carefully chosen transparent blue colours. Very refreshing on a warm summer day. Jean Claude Ellena left out all the milk like and coconut parts of the fig fruit in this fragrance which make this scent different from other fig fragrances. I am not an avid fig perfumes lover but I like the freshness and water like quality of this scent.

When visiting the botanical garden in Malaga years ago, in Southern Spain along the Mediterranean sea, it struck me how well fitting this name was as all notes could be found in this garden, white oleander flowers, orange blossom, figs and cypress. The photograph with the small travel spray was made in this garden.

These are the 5 well named fragrances I picked.  Have a look on Samantha’s blog I Scent You A Day Megan’s blog  Megan in St. Maxime  and Portia on A Bottled Rose! I love to read their picks and see what they chose. Sometimes we choose the same fragrances which is great as we don’t know the scents we will pick.

 

🌹Mood Scent 4 Roses, Roses, Roses!🌹🌹

, , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

It’s time for Mood Scent 4! Where Portia (on A Bottled Rose) , Samantha  (I Scent You A Day), Megan (Megan In Sainte Maxime) and I write about a different subject linking perfume to mood or occasion. This time we picked roses in perfumes. Powdery roses, fruity roses, roses with chocolate or spices, there are so many to choose from! I adore roses in perfumes, roses as flowers and own several rose centric fragrances. For this article I chose different kinds of roses in perfumes, tea roses, dark roses, powdery roses and wild ones.

Paul Smith Rose Eau de Parfum 

Paul Smith Rose is an elegant, sophisticated, natural smelling light pink rose scent. This eau de parfum smells very natural as if smelling a bouquet of recently picked small light pink roses. It reminds me of rose lemonade on a hot summer day too. Think of a fresh, light pink rose with shiny drops of dew on its petals and a light tea touch. After a few minutes Paul Smith Rose turns into a slightly warmer dark velvet rose.

Paul Smith Rose was created by perfumer Antoine Maisondieu and launched in 2006 at the famous Chelsea Flower Show in the UK. The scent reminds me of the discontinued Stella McCartney Stella Edp, a reasonable and affordable alternative for this fragrance. Paul Smith Rose is cheap as chips at discount stores and makes an excellent gift for lovers of rose scents.

Neela Vermeire Créations Mohur Eau de Parfum 

Mohur is a fragrance with many faces, changing continuously showing us different notes each time you smell your wrist; saffron, powdery rose, oud, creamy woody sandalwood, spicy refreshing cardamon, green stems and sweet milky notes. It feels like experiencing those kaleidoscope tubes we used to see as a child, where every time you turned the tube with beads and mirrors, very different shapes and colours appeared.

Surprisingly Mohur smells very lightly at the beginning but after a few hours it is at its best and very noticeable on skin. It took me time to fully appreciate Mohur as there are so many sides to this fragrance. Now it is one of my favourite spicy rose fragrances as it is such a special and distinctive scent.

Guerlain Nahéma Eau de Parfum / Extrait 

Nahéma is a lush powdery rose, full of dark velvet rose petals, juicy peach on a warm smooth sandalwood, with a balsamic base of peru balsam and creamy not overly sweet vanilla. Wearing Nahéma feels like walking in a bright red velvet long evening gown fit for an movie star. from the 1950’s ties.  It is bold, voluptuous and daring. I prefer the discontinued extrait/pure perfume to the eau de parfum which is still sold today. This version is worth a try as well and can be found at Guerlain counters in department stores or online. I haven’t been to department stores for some time so I am not sure if they still sell Nahéma. The Eau de Parfum seems more powdery and not as filled with lush velvet rose petals.

Nahéma was released in 1979 ahead of its time in the 1980’s ties when big and bold fragrances like Dior Poison and Yves Saint Laurent Paris were introduced. I wonder how long Guerlain/LVMH will be producing Nahéma as it is so hard to find. It is one of my personal favourite rose fragrances and gets a lot of wear.

Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle Une Rose 

Another fragrance which gets a lot of wear is Une Rose, created by perfumer Edouard Fléchier. He also made Dior Poison and Tendre Poison. Une Rose is a rose with thorns and darker boozy edges. A rose which has endured storms, heavy rains, winds and is still showing its beauty. It is not your usual light tea rose but an ancient breed grown to undergo hardships. Une Rose is beautiful at times, powdery and scented of rose jam but you can smell its rough green stems and torn leaves. A magnificent creation.

Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle Rosa Rugosa Scented Candle  

Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle Rosa Rugosa was created by perfumer Carlos Benaïm (also from Polo Ralph Lauren). This scent is sold as a scented candle, rubber incense set and large room spray.  Rosa Rugosa was inspired by the scent of the rosa rugosa flower. This is a wilder kind of rose bush which can usually be found in the dunes near the sea.  In The Netherlands they were planted next to roads or in parks as well. It seems they have grown out of fashion. The blossoming Rose flowers turns into little fruits which are the size of cherry tomatoes and can be used to make jam or syrup.

The burning Rosa Rugosa candle smells like leaving your window open and wafts of the blossoming Rosa Rugosa bushes enter your room leaving the room lightly scented of wild blossoming small rose flowers. Rosa Rugosa bushes grew abundantly in the Dutch village where I grew up near the sea and I have a fondness for these small fuchsia coloured pink wild roses with their green wrinkled prickly leaves. The rose underneath is not a Rosa Rugosa but another kind of Rose.

These are the rose fragrances I picked. Have a look on Samantha’s blog I Scent You A Day Megan’s blog  Megan in St. Maxime  and Portia on A Bottled Rose,  to read they choices too! It is always a joy to read their picks and see what they chose. Sometimes we choose the same fragrances which is a nice surprise as we don’t know in advance what we will pick.

Back to you Do you like rose perfumes? What are your favorite ones ?

Disclosure: All fragrances mentioned in this article were bought by me.  The Bottles or scented candles which are sold now, might be different from the ones shown on the photographs. The photographs were made by me and are an artistic expression. The aim of the photographs is to portray personal impressions of the fragrances.

Mood Scent 4 🎄 Christmas Gifts Galore 🎄

, , , , , , 5 Comments

It’s Mood Scent 4 Time again! Our monthly blogging project where Portia, (on A Bottled Rose) , Samantha  (I Scent You A Day), Megan (Megan In St Maxime) and I write about a different subject linking perfume to mood or occasion. This time we picked scented gifts for the upcoming holidays.

As many of us are spending a lot more time inside and washing our hands I picked soaps and scented candles as gifts. This year has been an exceptional year for many of us. Some will have more money to spend than others. Local shops and small business can use all the help they get from us. Because of this I chose scented products from local or small fragrance businesses starting with the UK based company Olfiction and their new Boujee Bougies Scented candles.

Boujee Bougies Scented Candles

Scented candles Boujee Bougies were recently launched by Pia Long, Nick Gilbert and Thomas Dunckley from Olfiction. The candles intend to be novel and fun by telling a different story from what we are used to. There are two sizes of candles available:  large 220 grams and mini’s 60 grams and come in 5 different scents, green Succulent, fruity rosy Queen Jam, leather Cuir Culture, futuristic floral Hellflower and golden frankincense Gilt.

The small size candle is an excellent gift and great way to try this collection. There is a very informative podcast (FumeChat) about the candles and the stories behind them well worth to listening to. I haven’t tried the candles yet but ordered a set last week and can’t wait to smell and gift them.


April Aromatics Vanillicious Eau de Parfum

April Aromatics perfumer Tanja Bochnig just launched a new gourmand fragrance called Vanillicious Eau de Parfum. Vanillicious was introduced earlier as a lighter version in the gourmand collection. It is an ode to the natural vanilla pod which has a more leathery even slightly dirty scent compared to what we normally know as vanilla from sweet vanilla ice cream.

Vanillicious is slightly powdery, leathery but woody as well. It smells as if a vanilla pod was soaked in an old wooden barrel of rum, the vanilla pod was taken out after absorbing the boozy rum and old oak wood. The fragrance is soothing, placing you with both feet on the ground. As an avid lover of vanilla perfumes it was love at first sniff as it doesn’t become cloying or overly sweet. I would recommend Vanillicious for lovers of vanilla fragrances. Smaller 15 ml bottles are available online which will make an excellent gift for the holidays if you have a bit more to spend. Longevity of this Eau de Parfum is excellent as it can be scented on skin for almost 24 hours!

Werfzeep / Werf Soap

The Dutch Soap brand Werfzeep (literary yard soap) has been making organic and artisanal soaps since 2009. All soaps are handmade in the centre of the city of Utrecht. Depending on the season a different soap is introduced. At the moment they have a autumnal soap with star anise, sweet orange, cinnamon and fennel. One of my favourites soaps is Tayyibah, a spicy soft scrub soap full of clove and coffee which makes your bathroom smell of Christmas.

These soaps are excellent for people with sensitive skins as they only use plant based materials and very affordable costing around 7 euro for a bar of soap. For my Dutch readers: Werfzeep can be found at the organic store Ecoplaza as well so you don’t have to pay for shipping. I have given a lot of these soaps to friends as they are all natural (some of the herbs, roots and flowers are hand picked in a nearby forest or in their garden) and a (soft) delight to use. Did I mention the quality of the soap is excellent?

I found a lot of artisanal local brands selling hand made soaps on Instagram in the UK and US. It is well worth the effort to look around for local hand made presents there if you can’ t order Werf Zeep. Perfumers Bruno Fazzolari  (US based) for example and Ayala Moriel (Israel based) sell artisanal soaps as well.

Oriza L. LeGrand Soaps

Other winners are Oriza l. LeGrand soaps which offers a fine soaps selection as well. They can be ordered online on their website. An exquisite set of 3 soaps is available for 30 euro which you can split. Each soap is wrapped in a beautifully decorated paper and these soaps are of high quality as well. I loved their violet scented soap, a scent you will not find in your local drugstore. The soaps on the photograph were bought by me some years ago so you will find other packaging in the stores and online.

These are my Holiday Gift picks. Have a look on Samantha’s blog I Scent You A Day Megan’s blog  Megan in St. Maxime  and Portia on A Bottled Rose, to read their choices too!

I Love To Hear From You
There have been some troubles with leaving comments before.  I hope you are able to share your gift ideas as well and let me know what you think of my choices.

Disclosure: All photographs were made by me and are meant as creative expression.

 

1 2 3