Mood Scent 4 : Virtual Holiday Perfumes

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It is Mood Scent 4 time again! Where we share our views on the same subject linking perfume to mood or occasion. This time Portia (guest blogging on A Bottled Rose), Sam  (I Scent You A Day) Megan (Megan In Sainte Maxime) and I chose to write about taking a virtual holiday with perfume as for the moment most of us, will not be travelling very far and enjoy our staycation.

We have all been affected by the virus in different ways. Some are not able to go out. Others see themselves without income, work or faced with health challenges. Work at home without being able to relax. Teach their children at home while still having to work at home. Not being able to visit their loved ones or elderly parents and the list goes on. For me personally, frivolous as it may sound, it has been challenging not to be able to go to Spain on holiday and not knowing when this will be possible. I made a roomspray reminiscent of scents of Southern Spain. Using this spray has bought me a lot of joy. 

As it is not always possible to make your own fragrance I have chosen 4 “virtual” holiday scents for you to enjoy. You will be taking a little mini break to a lush Mediterranean garden, damp Portland Forrest in the US, dry herbal Kibbutz near Jerusalem and Spanish Orange Tree Orchard. All wonderful olfactory escapes. 

Travel To A Mediterranean Garden With Hermes Un Jardin En Mediterranée

Notes include mandarin, orange, bergamot, lemon, fig woods and leaves, orange blossom, white oleander, cedar, cypress, juniper and musk.

Inspired by a Tunisian garden, perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena invites us to experience different plants, trees, fruits and flowers in a blossoming Mediterranean garden. Un Jardin En Mediterranée offers ready to eat ripe figs, crisp green fig leaves, uplifting orange blossoms, refreshing lemon, white oleander, woody notes of cypress and cedar.  When visiting a botanical garden in Southern Spain several years ago I came to understand this fragrance completely as it had many of these plants and flowers to be admired. The photograph above was made in this botanical garden under a fig tree.

Travel To A Rainy Forest In Portland With Envoyage Perfumes Rainmaker

Notes include: rose leaf, silver pine, citrus, incense, patchouli, iris, rhododendron  (see photograph above) cedarwood, fir, redwood needles, petrichor (scent after the rain) Accord, oak moss and amber accord

Rainmaker inspires us to visit a green damp mossy forest in Portland with wet earth and uplifting incense like the one sold in Indian shops on the background. This is the happy acquaintance of visiting a new town with a surprising bohemian culture. Perfumer Shelley Waddington was inspired to create Rainmaker when she moved from sunny California to the rainy and colder climate of Portland, Oregon on the Pacific North West Coast of the US.

Travel To An Israeli Kibbutz With Anat Fritz Tzora

Notes include: cassis, clary sage, bergamot, pepper, magnolia, osmanthus, jasmine, cedarwood, vetiver, patchouly, musk and moss

Tzora Eau de Parfum was inspired by a kibbutz 20 kilometres from Jerusalem where Berlin Based designer Anat Fritz used to go during Summertime. Tzora was created by German perfumer Geza Schoen. Smelling Tzora is like taking a walk in sandy hills where it hardly ever rains with very dry herbs and trees on a magical evening filled with Golden sunlight. The day was very hot which you can still feel, golden rays of sunlight linger through the leaves of the few left trees. A light soft breeze allows you to smell the clary sage and other dry herbs. Uplifting pepper makes the fragrance more interesting and contemporary. 

Travel To A Spanish Orchard of Orange Trees With Ramon Monegal Entre Naranjos

Notes include orange flower, orange, petitgrain lemon, neroli, amber accord and patchouli.

Entre Naranjos ( Which translates as Surrounded by Orange trees) is a very fresh, happy fragrance inspired by the blossoms, wood, leaves and twigs on the orange tree. Reminiscent of cologne, which can be found easily at Spanish supermarkets, Entre Naranjos wears luxurious due to the woody notes and amber accord providing more depth and longevity. You can still smell Entre Naranjos after a few hours unlike a cologne. 

These are my 4  picks of  Virtual Holiday Perfumes. Have a look on Sam’s blog I Scent You A Day, Megan’s  Megan in St. Maxime  and Portia on A Bottled Rose to read their picks and see how they are doing during this exceptional period. 

I hope you and your loved ones are able to stay healthy, calm, centred and positive during this period we are all experiencing.

Do you use perfume to take a little holiday break with perfume? Which one do you use?

Disclosure: all photographs were made by Esperessence.

 

Mood Scent 4 Super Power Perfumes

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It is Mood Scent 4 time again! Where 4 bloggers from around the world share our views on the same subject linking perfume to mood or occasion. This time Portia (now on A Bottled Rose), Sam  (I Scent You A Day) and Megan (Megan In Sainte Maxime) and I picked Super Power Perfumes as a subject as all of us could use some Super Power during this exceptional period of lock down or semi lock down.

While being semi quarantined in Amsterdam I have spent time enjoying blossoming flowers and admiring nature’s resilience while walking outside. In The Netherlands luckily we were allowed to have our daily walk in the first 6 weeks of the “intelligent” semi lock down. This week hairdressers reopen, restaurants will opening in the beginning of June.

I have been spending a lot of time at our allotment and gardening with the help of Peter luckily. We are very grateful for our garden these days. A yoga school near my home started doing online lessons which I do now as well. Very easy yin yoga and restorative from the comfort of my living room and a way to support local shop owners as well.

During my daily walks I have seen different flowers in bloom following their natural rhythm like magnolia, tulips and the current white and purple lilacs. Being completely honest; flowers have given me more strength and solace than perfume lately but these fragrances boost my confidence, give me hope or strength: Nicolai New York Intense, Pure Distance Master Perfumes M and Chanel Les Exclusifs 31 Rue Cambon. Nicolai New York Intense is one of the fragrances I reach for most when in need for a boost of confidence or strength. Long lasting uplifting  bergamot and lemon on a warm oriental base of oakmoss, vanilla and frankincense never seize to amaze me as it is both multifaceted, rich and sophisticated. It is said to be the signature fragrance of its maker perfumer Patricia de Nicolai which does not surprise me. 

Another confidence booster is Pure Distance M which I recently won in a photography contest. Inspired by a James Bond Aston Martin Car this perfume smells full bodied and complex like the slightly used rich black leather interior from a very expensive car and some added precious resinous frankincense mixed with spices like cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and clove. As Nicolai New York Intense, M leans towards masculine.

The ultra chic Chanel Les Exclusifs 31 Rue Cambon is another confidence booster and one I tend to reach for when I want to feel elegant despite the outfit I am wearing. 31 Rue Cambon wears like dark pink smooth velvet fabric, both comfortable and opulent in a classic way. Wearing this fragrance makes me feel like everything will be alright whatever the outcome will be for us, our family and friends, our communities and our planet.

These are my 3 picks of Super Power Perfumes. Have a look on Sam’s blog I Scent You A Day, Megan’s  Megan in St. Maxime  and Portia on A Bottled Rose to read their picks and see how they are doing during this exceptional period. I am very curious, aren’t you?

I hope you and your loved ones are able to stay healthy, calm, centred, and positive during this period we are all experiencing.

Do you use perfume to feel more confident or strong now? Which one do you use?

Disclosure: all photographs made by Esperessence. Last photograph is a view of one of the Vondelpark entrances.

How to Create a Safe Haven With Fragrance Within Yourself

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With all that is happening around us and in the world, I can imagine you don’t always feel confident or safe thinking about the future, at times I don’t either. Due to this, it could be a good idea to create a practice or little ceremony to feel safe and protected within yourself everyday.

You could go into meditation or take a little rest and contemplate on what made you feel protected in the past. Or what makes you feel safe right now? When did you feel protected when you were a little child? As a young adult?  Which scents did you smell? Which fruits or flowers did you like?

I have a dear friend who likes to revisit her grandfathers peony garden.  When I was a little girl I felt safe when visiting the rough mountains with wild thyme in Southern Spain. This experience inspired me recently to make a blend of essential oils of sweet orange, thyme and Spanish sage.

Comforting fragrances will be rather different growing up in another country or part of the world. It might be the relaxing fragrance of a cup of smoked lapsang souchong tea? Or joyous tropical flowers or fruits?

The experience of a safe haven within yourself goes much further and deeper than just revisiting this moment in a flash. The most important thing is the feeling you experienced. The experience of feeling completely safe and protected and nothing can happen to you. When you recapture this experience, try to recreate the same feeling by using essential oils or look for a perfume with these notes using the fragrantica website (look them up by using the same notes) or have a good look in your perfume collection if you have one.

For example when want to smell the fragrance of smoked lapsang souchong tea you could give the perfume Bvlgari Black a try or for the peony garden try Avon Luminata or Annick Goutal Quel Amour. Have a look in your cupboard for some tea or spices, even lemonade.

Let me know if how you would recreate a safe haven for yourself with a fragrance. I would love to know how you experience this or if you would like some want help recreated this experience.

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