Jasmine

MoodScent4 Project: Wedding Guest Fragrances Pick the Perfect Scent To Your Outfit

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Welcome to MoodScent4!

We are four perfume bloggers based in France, Holland, England and Wales who post on a different joint subject every couple of months. This time we have chosen Wedding Guest Fragrances as June is the wedding month.  You will find links to the other blogs at the end of the post. We hope you have fun reading our different choices and adding your own in the comments.

My choices were inspired by wedding guest outfits. I have matched them to fragrances. The outfits I chose are the Cocktail Dress, Gala Dress, Chanel Tweed Jacket/Formal Suits, Informal Jeans and Barefoot at the Beach Dress.

Try A Rich Abundant Bouquet Of Flowers – The Cocktail Dress 

When invited to wear a cocktail dress a good choice would be the abundant floral bouquet Jean Patou Sublime. This is one of my all time favorite fragrances.  Created in 1992 by master perfumer Jean Kerleo this classic rich scent starts with sweet sugared orange rind to continue with a warm floral bouquet of Rose, Jasmine, Lily of The Valley and Orange Blossom. Try the older round vintage bottle shown on the photograph and the richer Eau de Parfum if you can. It has a dirtier drydown probably due to the added civet, making it more sophisticated and intriguing. Some would say making it more French.

Notes for Jean Patou Sublime: Bergamot, Mandarin, Orange, Ylang Ylang, Rose, Jasmine, Lily of the Valley, Orange Blossom, Madagascar Vanilla, Amber, Sandalwood.

Select An Elegant Flower – The Chanel Style Tweed Jacket 

Invited to a formal wedding and plan to wear a Chanel style tweed jacket with pearls or another more formal suit? Try Frederic Malle’s Iris Poudre. This cooler more introverted elegant fragrance is an excellent choice for those weddings where you want to keep a bit to yourself and keep some distance for whatever reason.

Notes for Frederic Malle Iris Poudre : Aldehydes, Iris, Ylang Ylang, Rose, Vetiver, Musk, Vanilla, Tonka Bean.

Pick A Crisp Fresh Floral – Informal Jeans 

When invited to an informal wedding where you can dress as you like and even come in jeans, a crisp soliflore (based on one flower) scent is a good choice, like the gardenia inspired Hothouse Flower by Ineke Fragrances. This is a fresh natural green fragrance with green stems, creamy white petals and green foliage. The dry down is inoffensive but lovely like white clean transparent cotton.

Notes for Ineke Fragrances Hothouse Flower:  Earl Grey Tea, Green Foliage, Cypress, Gardenia, Fig, Frankincense, Galbanum, Guaiacwood, Musk, Corn Silk.

Choose A Big Bold Flower – The Long Evening Dress 

When going to a wedding dressed in a long evening gala dress, you could select the iconic big floral by Serge Lutens Fleur d’Oranger. Fleur d’Oranger contains notes of white flowers like white rose, orange blossom, jasmine and tuberose. Which makes it very fitting for a wedding to wear. Although named after the orange blossom this scent can be more an opulent creamy tuberose scent to some.

Notes for Serge Lutens Fleur d’Oranger: Orange blossom, Jasmine, Tuberose, White Rose, Citrus Peel, Hibiscus Seeds, Cumin, Nutmeg.

Pick A Natural Flower – Barefoot White Dress On The Beach

For a wedding on the beach, in nature, garden or outside wear the all natural April Aromatics Jasmina. With jasmine, pink grapefruit and ylang ylang this scent is happy, sensual and uplifting but makes you feel relaxed as well. I have used the oil version regularly lately and very much like it.

Notes for April Aromatics Jasmina: Jasmin Grandiflorum, Ylang Ylang, Pink Grapefruit

Tara’s choices from A Bottled Rose, Megan’s from Megan in Sainte Máxime and Samantha’s from I Scent You A Day can be found by clicking on the names of the websites. I am curious about their choices, aren’t you?

What fragrance would you pick as a wedding guest? Will you be going to a wedding this year? If so, what fragrance will you wear?

 

 

Disclosure: all photographs were made by Esperessence, April Aromatics Jasmina was a pr sample, the other bottles were bought by me.

 

Habit Rouge L’Eau Perfume Review Budget Beauty Pick

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Habit Rouge L'Eau

A beautiful fragrance does not have to be expensive. One of the fragrances I recently found on my search for affordable budget friendly fragrances is Habit Rouge L’Eau.*

Habit Rouge L’Eau starts off with a fresh incredibly crisp citrus bitter orange note. Powdery iris appears after a few minutes to dissappear quickly and not return. Clean jasmine which reminds of expensive soap is to be smelled later. The longevity of the citrus is amazing as it happily lasts a whole hour on my skin. Which is one of the reasons I like to wear this fragrance. An ugly chemical off note appears which could be a side effect of the hazelnut note when this note becomes noticable. Airy luminous clean musk with a vanilla touch closely lingers on my skin for the next 4 to 5 hours to disappear and return on and off afterwards.  As a whole Habit Rouge L’Eau stays close to the skin.

If Habit Rouge L’Eau would have a colour it would be white and as texture high quality recently washed and ironed expensive high quality cotton.

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Who would wear this? And for what occasion?  Habit Rouge L’Eau leans towards masculine but can easily be worn by man and woman. All the bodily (read sex) appeal which can be so prominent in other Guerlain classic fragrances like Shalimar or Heritage has been left out of this fragrance. It is a good fragrance if you have a job interview or as office wear. Wearing it will make you feel very well dressed in an elegant finely cut business suit.

What does it do? Habit Rouge L’Eau could be a good choice if you want to concentrate and focus without any distractions to get a serious job done. I find it quite calming as well.

To me it feels like all notes are very well kept into place with incredible restraint which reflects on the fragrance making it unimaginative. Although nicely balanced and well made I find it can be a bit too lineair. But for its bargain price at discount stores it is worthwhile to try if you want an uncomplicated and office friendly fragrance.  If you are looking for a good introduction to more complex and interesting Guerlain fragrances like the original Shalimar or Habit Rouge this would be a good way to start. It would make an excellent gift for this purpose as well.

Habit Rouge EAZ

In short: Habit Rouge L’Eau is an invigorating, luminous, elegant and uncomplicated fragrance well worth a try. But at times and to some it could be too linear and feel too restrained. It can be an excellent introduction to other classic Guerlain fragrances like Shalimar and Habit Rouge.

Did you try this Habit Rouge flanker L’eau? Would you like to try it?

Notes: (from Fragantica website) jasmine, patchouli, vanille, bitter orange, hazelnut and green notes

Launched: 2011

Perfumer: Thierry Wasser

Perfume Family: Oriental

Status: still in production but bottle design is about to change (with thanks to Monsieur Guerlain for this information)

Produced by: LVMH

Origin of sample: my own bottle

Price: 35 euro for 50 ml edt at an online Dutch discount store

*I am starting a new topic on this website, the Budget Beauty Pick of the Week. My aim is to find and write about affordable budget friendly fragrances. One of the first ones is Habit Rouge L’Eau Eau de Toilette. This is obviously a flanker of the classic Guerlain Habit Rouge. I am not a fan of the original Habit Rouge as the citrus top note turns sour on my skin but I really enjoyed wearing the L’Eau version these past few weeks.

*Read more about the original Guerlain Habit Rouge and all its variations on the Monsieur Guerlain website.

Biznaga, an old Andalusian Jasmine tradition in Malaga

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Biznaga Malaga

The biznaga is an old tradition from the Southern Andalusian city of Malaga. It is a very special flower arrangement made of the fresh flowers of jasmines and can only be found in Malaga. Biznaga is an Arabic word and means gift of god.

The flowers are picked in the early morning before they have opened.

Biznaga Malaga

Afterwards they are put into the spikes of a thistle which has dried completely. The thistle has been collected earlier that year. Each closed individual jasmine flower is placed by hand on each individual stem. This requires practice and patience.

Biznaga Malaga

The jasmine flowers open little by little and leave a magnificent trail of natural jasmine. I have never been able to find a perfume which could equal this wonderful scent which is so connected to the city of Malaga.

Biznaga Malaga
The biznagas are sold traditionally in summer on the streets of Malaga by biznageros, men wearing a white skirts, black trousers and a red waistband. The individual biznagas are put into a fresh large cactus leaf, called penca and can be bought on the streets.

The image of a biznagero selling his jasmine flowers was such a popular view that a statue adorns the city of Malaga, El biznagero made by the artist Jaime Pimentel. It can be seen at the gardens of Pedro Luis Alonso and is one of the symbols of Malaga.

Biznaga Malaga

In August Malaga and its Malaguenos are celebrating their big annual festival,the Feria. During this week biznagas can be found everywhere.

Most photographs are courtesy of Charro Gallego and her wonderful website www.biznaga.com and some are my own. Thank you for your permission to use these pictures !

 

Previously published: August 19th, 2013

Re edited: March 12, 2016

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