MoodScent4 Project
Mood Scent 4 : Inner Teen Perfumes
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ts Mood Scent 4 time again! Sam (I Scent You a Day), Megan (Megan in St. Maxime), Portia (Australian Perfume Junkies) and I write about a different theme every month. This time we have chosen to post about Inner Teen Perfumes. Which perfumes make us feel like young teenagers again? Fragrances we used when we were teenagers ourselves or perfumes which make us feel like we are in our teens again?
When I was a teenager in the eighties I wore perfumes like Diorella, Lancome Climat and Estée Lauder White Linen. Diorella is the fragrance I associate most with being a teenager. I bought a “vintage” bottle of Climat a year ago but it does not remind me of the scent I used to wear at all. White Linen or Climat are not exactly fragrances I would suggest for teenagers nowadays but we had a lot less to choose from in those days as some of you well know!
Diorella!
I wore Diorella with much joy when I graduated high school in 1985. The year of films like St Elmo’s Fire, Back to the Future and Jagged Edge. Diorella extrait was a very generous gift from my aunt and it still makes me feel like a teenager even though it has been drastically changed removing its dominant fruity melon accord in more recent releases.
Diorella is an uplifting fragrance with Sicilian lemon, bright light clean jasmine over a vetiver and patchouly base. Natural jasmine flowers can smell of rotting and decay in the evening in the Mediterranean but the focus here is on it’s clean scent during the day. Perfumer Edmond Routniska interestingly added an almost rotting contrasting cantaloupe melon accord. Diorella was released in 1972. Edmond Routniska also created Frederic Malle Le Parfum de Therese in the early fifties (for his wife) Le Parfum de Therese was released to the public in 2000 and some bloggers say it is rather similar to Diorella. Honestly I find it rather different but who knows how it smelled when it was first released in 1972? I would love to know Diorella how it was originally intended.
Notes: lemon, peach, basil, bergamot, melon, green notes, honeysuckle, jasmine, violet, rose, carnation, cyclamen. Oak moss, vanilla, clove, sandalwood, vetiver, musk, patchouly.
Moschino Cheap and Chic I Love Love
Pure careless joy in a playful coloured bottle. This fragrance uplifts me everytime I wear it and the blue and red bottle with a toylike spray brings a smile to my face every time I use it. Starting with a bright citrus accord, full of juicy pomelo and sweet candy like lemon, it changes into a warm woody base. Although pomelo or grapefruit is very dominant, it never gets sour and is extremely uplifting. It does disappear rather quickly on the skin though. I love love was released in 2005 and created by perfumer Olivier Cresp, it is said to be rather similar to Dolce Gabbana Light Blue (which he created too) but with a brighter citrus top and as a bonus it is much cheaper too. They do share the same DNA but I love love is much more prominent on my skin especially its bright pomelo opening.
Notes: grapefruit, red currant, lemon, tea rose, cinnamon, musk, cedar wood
Parfums MDCI Péché Cardinal
Parfums MDCI (MDCI) Peche Cardinal is a young, joyful and pretty fruity floral fragrance. Wearing Péché Cardinal makes me feel innocent and playful. It was released in 2008, meaning Cardinal Sin in French and created by perfumer Amandine Clerc-Marie.
Peche Cardinal was the first perfume with a dominant tuberose note I enjoyed wearing. The tuberose is fresh green and innocent before showing us her more lush or even carnal side. Péché Cardinal can be slightly caleidoscopic as she changes from sweet peach liquor to creamy tuberose and a lighter coconut. It makes you feel like a young teenage girl feeling very pretty in pink (I am referring here to the 1986 film Pretty in Pink with Molly Ringwald and Andrew McCartney, a film I enjoyed watching in the eighties).
Notes: Davana, peach, coconut, blackcurrant, tuberose, prune, lily, cedar, sandalwood, musc.
These were my three choices! Have a look on the Sam’s blog I Scent You A Day, Megan’s Megan in St. Maxime and Portia’s Australian Perfume Junkies to read their picks for inner teen perfumes! I am very curious, aren’t you?
What are your favorite inner teen fragrances? Did you wear them when you were a teenager? Which fragrances make you feel like a teenager again?
Disclosure; photographs of bottles were made by me.
Mood Scent 4 : Mid Season Magic : Autumn Perfumes
It’s time for a new episode of Mood Scent 4 together with fellow bloggers Sam from I Scent You A Day, Megan from Megan in St. Maxime and Portia from Australian Perfume Junkies! This month we have chosen to write about “mid season magic”. Portia will be writing from Australia about Spring fragrances, the rest of us about Autumn perfumes.
Autumn is a wonderful season in The Netherlands with its beautiful orange, red coloured leaves and the sun shining it’s filtered golden warm light. I love Autumn in Amsterdam especially sunny days can be very magical.
Warmer, sweeter or woody perfumes might be more suited to wear during Autumn as it is getting colder outside. I have chosen 5 fragrances which are very suited for this season, starting with Nicolaï Parfums New York Intense, Nicolaï Ambre Cashmere Intense, Imaginary Authors Memoir Of A Trespasser, Diptyque Volutes Eau de Parfum and Maison Marghiela Replica By the Fireplace.
Nicolaï Parfums New York Intense
Notes: bergamot, Sicilian lemon, clove, thyme, cinnamon, black pepper, pimento, oakmoss, vetiver, amber
New York Intense starts with sunny citrus notes of petit grain of the lemon tree, sweet lemon and bergamot like golden Autumn sunlight shimmering through Autumn leaves brightening up your day. Interestingly the citrus notes last for hours. Changing much later into a warm base of patchouli, vanilla, incense with sweet brightening accents of orange rind. It is perfume critic Luca Turin’s favorite for a very good reason. Made by one of my favorite perfumers Patricia de Nicolaï, current president of the scent archive in Versailles Osmothèque.
Nicolaï Parfums Ambre Cashmere Intense
Notes: black pepper, mandarine, lemon, iris butter, violets, clove, vanilla, benzoin, styrax
Ambre Cashmere Intense is a sweet, warm powdery feminine fragrance which envelopes you like a cashmere blanket keeping you warm and comfortable for hours. It is a rather sweet fragrance but leaves out sugar cotton candy accents that have defined many perfumes in the last decade. The added boozy notes make it well rounded and interesting. Ambre Cashmere Intense could easily be called London Intense with its luxurious easygoing style like some Ormonde Jayne fragrances without the accompanying price tag. This is the first fragrance perfumer Patricia de Nicolaï created with her son Axel.
Imaginary Authors / Memoirs of a Trespasser
Notes: vanilla, gaiac wood, myrrh, benzoin, oak barrels accord
A must try for lovers of vanilla perfumes, Memoirs of a Trespasser wears like a soft vanilla blanket with an accompanying glass of high quality cognac. Uncomplicated and comfortable.
Diptyque Volutes Eau de Parfum
Notes: honey, opoponax, cinnamon, iris accord
A trip along the former spice route by ship with spicy pepper, cinnamon, sweet tobacco and clove. Lightly dusted, leaving a powdery trail with some added honey and almond accents in the beginning. Inspired by transatlantic journeys by ship from Marseille to Saigon by one of the founders Yves Coueslant with elegant ladies on the deck smoking sweet tobacco cigarettes wearing powdery lipstick.
Maison Marghiela MMM Replica By the Fireplace
Notes: pink pepper, orange blossom, cloves, chestnut, gaiacwood, juniper, vanilla, peru balsam, cashmeran
This warm, earthy and sweet fragrance was created (not very surprising) with the idea of spending an evening by the fire. Imagine marshmallows burning over a fireplace, sweet vanilla and light burning wood, damp mac raincoat and wellies drying on a nearby chair and you get an idea. Makes you wish for winter to come (pun intended).
Have a look on the Sam’s blog I Scent You A Day, Megan’s Megan in St. Maxime and Portia’s Australian Perfume Junkies to read their picks for autumn and spring.
What are your favourite autumn choices? Have worn one already?
Disclosure : all photographs were made by Esperessence, all fragrances were my own acquisition or a gift with purchase.