Rhododendron

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.

 

Daphne du Maurier Rebecca, What perfume would Rebecca wear?

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In my English Classics Bookclub we just discussed Daphne du Maurier Rebecca. I brought perfumes to suit the main caracters in the book. Rebecca was written in 1938 and filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940. I found it an interesting and at times haunting book with the dead Rebecca de Winter in the leading role. It starts with the very catching and famous sentence: ‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.’

For the three main caracters Rebecca de Winter, Maxim de Winter and the young nameless second Mrs de Winter I choose fragrances which would suit them as a person. It was great fun to do. All of the fragrances were from my own perfume collection so I could bring the bottles for people to sniff. *

Rebecca the first Mrs de Winter, beautiful, ruthless, evil and chameleonic with the people around her. I choose the rich floral and creamy Isabey Gardenia for her glamorous evenings at the Mandeley estate in Cornwall. For her secret life in London I choose the darker mysterious Mona di Orio Oudh Osmanthus. In the book the clothes of Rebecca were  said to smell of powdery of azalea (rhodondendron) but I have never found a scenting azalea or a fragrance centered around azalea.

imageMaxim de Winter, widower and a handsome elegant man in his forties.  In the beginning of the book Maxim walks out of the bathroom while shaving to meet the young nameless (soon to be) Mrs de Winter. An intimate scene, which inspired me to look for a  classic cologne like Aqua di Parma Colonia.

The second Mrs de Winter, very young, attractive, a bit of a grey mouse in my opinion but others from the Book Club saw her as girlish, pretty and not yet fully developed. As she did not have much money I chose a cheaper fragrance. There are many references in the book to flowers in the garden like azalea, roses and lilacs. The beautiful, lilac centered discontinued Yves Rocher Pur Desir de Lilas would have suited the young Mrs de Winter. The others thought so too. Maxim de Winter could have bought her a pretty fragrance like Dior La Collection Privee Grand Bal.

These are the fragrances I choose.  What do you think of them? Have you read Rebecca or did you see the Hitchcock film? Did you like it?

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photograph 1 and 2 taken from the Internet, photograph 3 was made by me.

*I had asked people to comment on the Facebook Fragrance forum which perfume they would chose and got wonderful ideas like Worth Je Reviens, JHAG Lady Vengeance, Givenchy Monsieur de Givenchy. But as I did not own any of these fragrances, I choose scents which I could bring for people to smell. Nonetheless I enjoyed all suggestions and will try them in the near future.

Disclaimer: all fragrances which I brought to the meeting were bought by me. The large Dior Grand Bal sample was a kind gift from Tara.

Interview with Envoyage Perfumes Shelley Waddington about her new upcoming perfume

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Shelley Waddington

American perfumer Shelley Waddington of Envoyage Perfumes will release a new fragrance on the weekend of May 14. I recently I interviewed Shelley Waddington about her upcoming perfume.

What  was your inspiration for your new fragrance? 

Eight months ago I moved to a new state and relocated my home to the Pacific Northwestern part of the US. The culture here is deeply influenced by its Native Americans beginnings. It is also known for being a rainy part of the country, and for having millions of acres of pristine forests of cedar, fir, redwood and pine. I was immediately inspired to make a new fragrance and I’ve been developing it ever since.

I read you made a fragrance using native natural materials while living before in Carmel. How come you are so interested in working with native natural materials and how do you know which materials were used in Portland. Is it well documented? Are these materials easy to find?

I learned perfuming using only natural materials and these materials are my first love. They are responsible for imparting vibrancy and life to my perfumes. Naturals are sadly lacking in commercial perfumes and that’s partly why artisanal fragrances have risen so much in popularity.

The natural materials I select for each are integral to the story being told. For me it’s a small leap from naturals to the realm of local materials, their history of use in spirit and medicine, their ethnobotanical uses. It often takes a fair amount of research. It’s part of my passion and my artistic journey.

Shelley Waddington
You moved from Carmel, California to Portland, Oregon. Could you tell us why? 

For several years I’ve been eyeing Portland as the place that is cleaner, greener, less commercial and more like the simple California that I grew up in. The arrival of my new grandson clinched the deal!

How did you prepare for your new fragrance?

A big move like this demands a willingness for reinvention and for seeing the world with fresh vision. In that state of mind, I’ve been exploring, meeting people, learning about and enjoying the new culture and surroundings.

How long has it taken you to make your new fragrance?

I’ve been in the Pacific Northwest since September. I started working on this as soon as I arrived 8 months ago.

In what way did the new city where your are living influence your new fragrance? 

It’s strongly influenced by my new home in Portland Oregon, which is also known as The Rose City; its Native American origins, its native plants, its misty, rainy weather, and its clean environment that is so supportive of health and creativity.

As you are living in such a different place with such a different climate as well much colder. Is your new fragrance very different from what you have made before?

I believe so. The exhilaration of being in a new location where everything is crisp and clean, I like to think some of this is conveyed.

Shelley Waddington organ

And a more personal question do your fragrances contain a message?  It feels like they do. 

You’re right, each of my fragrances tells a meaningful story. Knowing that is important to fully understanding my work.
We’ve talked a little about the things that motivated this new fragrance, but the story it tells is an equally important part of the inspiration. When it launches I will be able to fully disclose.

What is your personal goal by making fragrances?

At the most obvious level, to bring beauty and enjoyment. But there is always the story that will touch in a different way. Not everything is so obvious.

What notes do you like personally? 

I’ve always liked styrax and cedar leaves and vanilla. Another of my favorites is Cyperus scariosis, known in English as cypriol and in Hindi as nagarmotha. It’s a beautiful woody, earthy note that was called for in this fragrance.

I think of perfume notes as much in terms of their cultural traditions as of what other perfumers have used them for, but cyperus is a note that is sometimes used in high quality perfumes such as Amouage Library Opus VI and by Agonist in Black Amber.

Lastly, although I can’t yet disclose the name, or the full story, I can say that this new eau de parfum is a bright mossy chypre for men and women, and that the notes include:

Rose Leaf
Incense, Patchouli, Iris, Rhododendron*
Mossy Rain Forest

Shelley Waddington

My last questions are more general about your perfumes and becoming a perfumer. When did you start making perfumes? And what was the reason for it? And how did you start? Are your perfumes sold in Europe?

I began my journey in perfumemaking in 1998. I was in love with the natural oils that were just becoming available to people outside of the closed world of professional perfumers. I began my study with a few other perfumers that were experienced and willing to share and mentor me.

My fragrances are purchased widely by individuals all across Europe (and other parts of the world). I formulate according to US standards, thus I don’t distribute to any resellers outside of the US.

Thank you very much for this interview, Shelley. I very much look forward to scent your new fragrance. The new Envoyage Perfumes fragrance will be released on the weekend of May 14, 2016.

Photographs provided by Shelley Waddington. Photograph 1: famous waterfall of Portland,OR

  • my own addition: the introduction of the note rhododendron is a new note which Shelley Waddington just made public.  I found this very interesting as I have not seen it used very much as a perfume note. If you are interested in scented rhododendrons and want to read more about the so called smellies click here. Most fragrant rhododendrons seem to have a palette of whites and soft pastels. Its fragrance helps to attract insect pollinators. Other rhododendrons seem to attract the insects with their color. There are only 18 other perfumes listed on the fragantica website with a rhododendron note including Estee Lauder Intuition and Stella McCartney Sheer, 2 by Olympic Orchids and 3 fragrances made y JoAnne Bassett.