Geza Schoen

Mood Scent 4 : Virtual Holiday Perfumes

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.

 

Ormonde Jayne Tolu Scented Candle

Ormonde Jayne perfumery is a London based fragrance company. It was founded by Linda Pilkington. She says about its foundation: ” my goal was to combine elements which define true elegance, the quality of English craftsmanship, the art of French perfumery and the sensuality and natural harmony of the Orient.” Ormonde Jayne has a collection of 16 fragrances at this moment including her Four Corners of the Earth Collection with the exquisite Nawab of Oudh.

Tolu is sold as an eau de parfum, body lotion, shower gel, bath oil and a scented candle. From time to time Tolu is offered as an extrait, as a gift with purchase. I have the eau de parfum, extrait (pure perfume) and scented candle.

Tolu is a precious Peruvian tree resin used as a raw perfumery material. The eau de parfum Tolu was created in 2002. At the beginning it smells quite rich, deep and powerful but light and fresh at the same time. Later it becomes more ambery, golden, smooth and sweet. The fragrance has the structure of caramel. It is suited for colder weather. I found the extrait – scented candle to have more similarities than the eau de parfum and the scented candle. The pure perfume and candle are both more amber and golden than the fresher eau de parfum. My personal impression is that the extrait and scented candle are more concentrated on the original balsamic base notes and fresher lighter herbal (top) notes have been added to the eau de parfum.

The painting The Golden Temple captures the essence of the scented candle beautifully; golden from the frankincense, orange from the orange blossom, the caramel smoothness from the tolu and amber.

THE Golden Temple

The large scented candle holds 260 grams of wax according to the Ormonde Jayne website and has 2 wicks to burn very evenly in my experience. If you burn it one hour it scents a large room. I bought my candle during an online sale last year, used it during the winter time and just started using it again. It is one of the best scented candles I own but comes with quite a price tag (48 British Pound Sterling / 60 euro). I would recommend to wait for an online sale and I understand one is coming up very soon. So check the Ormonde Jayne website if you plan to buy one. To me burning this candle is the ultimate indulgence. It would make an excellent Christmas or Sinterklaas gift as well.

Tolu candles can be bought in London or in Ormonde Jayne’s online store. More info at www.ormondejayne.com

Notes: (according to the official Ormonde Jayne website)

Top notes: Juniper Berry, Orange Blossom, and clary sage

Heart notes: Orchid, Moroccan Rose and Muguet

Base notes: Tolu, Tonka Bean, Golden Frankincense and Amber

Fragrance Family: Deep Oriental (Michael Edwards) Oriental Woody (Fragantica)

Perfumer: Geza Schoen

Painting: The Golden Temple by Henriette Hackenberg www.henriette-hackenberg.nl

Disclosure: all products mentioned in this article were bought by me