Orange

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.

Mood Scent 4 : Perfumes That Work For Everybody Else But You

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It’s Mood Scent 4 time again! Tara from A Bottled Rose, Samantha from I Scent You A Day, Megan from Megan in St Maxime and I are all writing on the same subject every couple of months. This time we write about fragrances which work for everybody else except us. It might be due to skin chemistry, hormones or just personal taste. You can find the links to the others blogs at the end of this article.

I have chosen two fragrances very much loved amongst many perfume lovers: Parfum d’Empire Azemour and Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle Portrait Of A Lady. Unfortunately both don’t work for me, here’s why.

Parfum d’Empire Azemour Les Orangers Eau de Parfum

Notes: orange, clementine, tangerine, grapefruit, coriander, cumin, black pepper, pink pepper, blackcurrant, galbanum, neroli, geranium, orange blossom, rose, hay, moss, henna and cypres (as of to Luckyscent)

Fragrance Family: Mossy Woods / Chypre (as of Michael Edwards)

Azemour was introduced in 2011 and created as a tribute to Morocco where it’s perfumer Marc-Antoine Corticchiato was born and raised. The Eau de Parfum is said to contain all the parts of the orange tree from pulp, fruit, peel, leaves, to bark and earth. I found the use of all parts of an orange tree very appealing as I love everything from the orange tree. Azemour has had many positive reviews online (Bois de Jasmin, The Scented Hound and Olfactoria to name a few).

Orange Tree

Azemour starts very promising on my skin with golden sweet orange to continue quite rapidly into a very sour citrus. The glorious orange shines through from time to time showing a glimpse of the chypre I would like it to be but the dusty moss/hay and sour citrus notes ruin this Eau de Parfum completely for me. I was given a tester bottle when I purchased a fragrance a few years ago and used Azemour from time to time hoping for the better but alas the dusty moss/hay and sour citrus notes make it rather difficult for me to wear. My partner wore Azemour this summer and it smells amazingly warm bright and golden on him. I wish it smelled like this on me. My skin and Azemour just don’t match.

Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle Portrait Of A Lady Eau de Parfum 

Notes: rose, blackcurrant, raspberry, clove, patchouli,sandalwood, frankincense (as of the official Frederic Malle EU website)

Fragrance Family: Mossy Woods / Chypre (as of Michael Edwards)

Another well loved fragrance among many perfume lovers which doesn’t suit me is Frédéric Malle Portrait Of A Lady (often called in short PoaL). PoaL is said to originate from an accord of Frédéric Malle Geranium pour Monsieur. Some describe PoaL as a jammy rose with incense or as a dark rose. On my skin PoaL is very much about patchouli which I am not very fond of when it plays a prominent role. I get whiffs of jammy rose but mostly of very earthy patchouli which I can appreciate at certain moments but not for a whole day. Unfortunately the rose is not too noticable on my skin.

Bottomline: A perfume might not work for you due to personal taste, skin chemistry or hormones. Parfum d’Empire Azemour didn’t work due to my skin and probably hormones and Portrait of a Lady due to the prominent patchouli. So always test on your skin before buying a fragrance and monitor how it develops during the day. If you can test a few times.

You can read the choices of perfumes which don’t work for Tara from A Bottled Rose, Samantha from I Scent You A Day, Megan from Megan in St Maxime by klicking on their names.

Are there any perfumes which seem to work for everybody else except you?

4160 Tuesdays Midnight in the Palace Garden and Advent Calendar Review

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Alhambra 4160 Tuesdays Midnight in THE Palace Garden

The 4160 Tuesdays Advent Calendar 2015
During the last advent Christmas period I tested 25 different fragrances made by 4160 Tuesdays London based perfumer Sarah McCartney. 4160 Tuesdays had offered an Advent box with a different daily fragrance for 75 pounds. Generous 2,5 ml edp or extrait sprays were wrapped in beautiful coloured envelopes. It was a joyful and playfull way to experience a large part of the 4160 Tuesdays perfume collection. I missed the surprise of opening a new envelop with a different fragrance and tweeting about it at end of the Advent Box on December 25th. Sarah McCartney reacted daily to the tweets which was quite nice as well.

4160 Tuesdays Advent Box

Why writing about it now, after Christmas ?
At the beginning of December and the Advent period, I started blogging everyday about her fragrances but I needed more time to test her fragrances and not all were my personal taste. So I decided to test all of them and afterwards write about the ones I liked and enjoy, starting with Midnight in The Palace Garden (shortly: Midnight) from the Crimes of Passion series.

An honest remark about 4160 Tuesdays fragrances
Before I start with Midnight I have to be honest, most of the 4160 Tuesdays fragrance were not my personal taste. They were either too sweet or too edgy. But they are quite different from all other fragrances I have tried before. The perfume names at times are very funny and I love all the colors Sarah McCartney uses in her collection.

My Four 4160 Tuesdays Favorites
From the whole collection I liked four fragrances, Midnight in the Palace Garden, Centrepiece, Doe in the Snow and Paradox. I will start reviewing Midnight and might review the others another time.

Midnight in The Palace Garden Extrait Review
When I first scented Midnight, it reminded me of the Alhambra Palace in Granada. This could be due to its name or the accompanying story on the 4160 Tuesdays official website:

“Picture a moonlit courtyard, scented with white flowers and orange trees; there’s a fountain, a low table with coffee and sweets, a silk- upolstered divan and the scent of warm skin after a calm hot day.”

Notes: (from official 4160 Tuesdays website)
Atlas cedarwood and skin notes, frangipani, jasmine and neroli, sandalwood, cedarwood, 20th century wood-like modern molecules, blood orange, vanilla and coffee

Orange blossom in Jerez de la Frontera

Orange blossom in Jerez de la Frontera

Midnight starts off at my skin with very sweet oranges, as if you are drenched in oranges in a bath. Shortly afterwards  sweet orange candies with a semi liquid orange filling and sweet flowery orange peel appear. To be followed after some minutes by beautiful orange blossom flowers. This is my favorite part of Midnight. After half an hour what remains are the sweets. I did not get any coffee only a slight tobacco idea note at the start. Midnight changes over time but not surprisingly. For a pure extrait, Midnight had some projection, giving the impression of an eau de parfum as more modern extraits do. It lasted about 4 to 5 hours on my skin.

Bottomline: I liked Midnight and I have to admit I like everything from the orange tree from its blossom, twigs, leaves to its fruit. But I wish Midnight was a tad less sweet. The orange blossom note in Midnight is beautiful. If you like orange or orange blossom fragrances give Midnight a try, if you don’t, stay away from it.

Did you try any 4160 Tuesdays fragrances? If so, which was your favorite?

Disclaimer: the Advent Calendar was bought by me

photographs: 1 and 2 : made by me, 4: made by Jerez de La Frontera

Alhambra

 

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