<
s
c

s
Home / SmellyBlog / Tagged: Floral

SmellyBlog

Spring Flower



Tulips Pool, originally uploaded by Ayala Moriel.

If a spring of glacier water could be bottled in a perfume flacon – I think it will smell like Spring Flower. It makes me wonder if “spring” refers to the season or to the body of water. I would say it’s a little bit of both.

With its fresh and simple beauty, Spring Flower is sheer happiness in a bottle.
Fresh, optimistic and tranquil with no unnecessary ambition – Spring Flower is nothing short than beautiful. It’s just that – beautiful. The fresh fruity accents are crisp and complement the floral tones that are at the heart of the composition – rose and jasmine. They give off a feeling of water lilies floating above glacial freshwater. The base holds only a tad of sweetness like a soil that promises a longer blooming time.

It’s nothing too deep or serious, just pretty, charming, effervescent and bubbling with vivacity. Spring Flower has surprisingly become one of my wardrobe staples, which is quite surprising – considering the fact that I have hared time with pure and sheer florals, particularly fruity florals. One main reason is that unlike most other fruity florals, it does not quickly transform into a powdery, nose-stinging chemical mess on my skin. Rather, the fruity notes stay fresh forever (a very unnatural characteristic, but in this case most welcome!). As if this is not enough, Spring Flower is the only Creed that truly captured my heart so far!

Spring Flower starts off with a blast of fresh, citrus-fruity notes of lemon, bergamot and peach. There is also a hint of herbal note, almost minty. It is charmingly refreshing and positive. The thing is, that this fresh beauty lasts for a long time!
The heart and base notes still maintain this luscious fruitiness, along with delicate flowers that are neither heavy nor heady, but simply reminiscent of fresh, dew-laden blossom in an early spring morning. Though officially the notes are of jasmine and rose, to my nose it smells like waterlilies. Perhaps it is the combination of the rose and jasmine notes with the crisp apple and watery melon notes that create this light, bright and fluid impression.
The feeling is of inviting cool spring water, so inviting you absolutely have to drink them!

Later on notes of lilly of the valley and a citrus floral note emerges – it is not orange blossom, but actually smells a lot like lemon… Perhaps it is lemon blossom…
The drydown is a tad powdery, with the lilly and melon notes lingering on a base of cedarwood and perhaps a hint of orris as well as musk. It is only slightly powdery, but still has the fruity floral notes persist while maintaining an extraordinary freshness.

Top notes: Peach, Lemon, Bergamot, and I suspect a hint of peppermint!
Heart: Jasmine, Rose, Water lilies, Melon, Apple, Lilly of the Valley, Lemon Blossom
Base: Cedarwood, orris, perhaps benzoin which adds a tad of sweetness without overpowering the top and heart notes, and very subtle musk, amber and vanilla notes.


me, originally uploaded by Ayala Moriel.



Chant d'Aromes


Ashridge bluebells, originally uploaded by Today is a good day.

One speaks of the moods of spring, but the days that are her true children have only one mood; they are all full of the rising and dropping of winds, and the whistling of birds. New flowers may come out, the green embroidery of the hedges increase, but the same heaven broods overhead, soft, thick, and blue, the same figures, seen and unseen, are wandering by coppice and meadow." (E.M. Forster from "Howards End")

Chant d’Aromes simultaneously reminds me of Spring and of Autumn, with its bitter-sweet tenderness, and a cheerfulness that can be likened to a flower emerging from a bulb after a storm. With its fragile and melancholy beauty it reminds me of the film Howards End – Leonard wondering in the forest amongst the bluebells until the grey dawn, the wind blowing in the blooming trees, the almost-mystical history of the house and the tragic tale of friendship, love and social differences that separates between people.

Chant d’Aromes is a delicate floral with subtle woody-chypre undertones. Noticeably, Chant d’Aromes has a uniform impression that is carried out throughout the different phases (that is not at all to say that it is a linear fragrance) – the beautiful floral heart notes are apparent from the first stage of the perfume, and gradually mellow down and lead into the more woody, mossy notes.

Chant d’Aromes opens with top notes of mandarin, bergamot, peach and aldehydes. These are there only for a few moments, to introduce the luscious, dew-laden floralcy, and disappear leaving only a trail of retro aldehydes that maintain a soft and bitter-sweet mood all along.

The heart is primarily honeysuckle, supported by fresh, morning-dew blossoms of gardenia and jasmine – (unlike the heavy, intoxicating night blooming white blossoms with the tropical fruitiness). This beautiful floral heart gradually reveals some more warmth, just like a fresh garden gradually warmed up by the gentle rays of sun.
To its delicate sweetness there is now some added powderiness, from orris root and the unfolding cedarwood base notes.

It gradually deepens, with a velvety touch of oakmoss, and very minute amount of vetiver, that is light but adds a tiny bit of warm woodiness, along with transparent musk and frankincense notes, and a hint of the almond-like tonka bean that emerges from the Guerlinade.

The EDT is true to the parfum, but requires many reapplications. The parfum is not much heavier, just slightly richer and most significantly – has a more satisfactory staying power. I also find the pure parfum to be less bitter as the heart notes linger longer.

I don’t usually view perfumes through fashion lenses, but Chant d’Aromes has a white and cream coloured retro feel to it and I love wearing it with linen and pearls in warmer weather.

Top notes: Peach, Bergamot, Mandarin
Heart notes: Gardenia, Honeysuckle, Jasmine, Orris root
Base notes: Cedarwood, Musk, Oakmoss, Frankincense, Vetiver, Tonka bean

Wildflowers and Spring Perfumes


Wildflowers glowing under the sun., originally uploaded by fnkymnky.

As cliché as it is, Spring always means flowers to me. Especially wildflowers. And flowers are very hard not to love. I am yet to meet the person that doesn’t like flowers in some form – in the garden, in a vase, as a floral print on textile, or their scent (bottled or not).

I am also yet to find a perfume that truly captures the scent of wildflowers in the springtime. So I revert to associating more civilized flowers in the perfume context. My trials of tincturing wildflowers did not bear any satisfactory results. So I will stick to the traditional jasmine, rose, orange blossom, tuberose et al for now, and indulge in exotic scents such as champaca, osmanthus, boronia, kewda and other aromas that I wasn’t exposed to until I became a perfumer.

For a long time, Diorissimo has been my favourite perfume, and was the essence of Spring for me. Although I don’t think any less of it, I have grown to love other scents and feel more comfortable wearing them in the Spring or otherwise – when a flowery mood dawns on me. I am hoping to be able to review some of them here before the Spring turns into Summer!

It seems like I have skipped the chilly, brisk moments of Spring here in Vancouver when I was away on my holidays. For a few days it was indeed rainy and grey and needless to say – not particularly warm. But the sunny days are significantly outnumbering the grey ones now, and you can see the immediate effect on the people around – they simply look more energetic and cheerful, and I am amongst them. A nice continuum to a vacation, I must say, so I am seriously considering an annual pilgrimage to the blooming orchards of Israel!

From the innocent lily of the valley of Diorissimo I have grown to admire the intoxicating orange blossom (as in Fleurs d’Oranger), which is perhaps the one single note that brings Spring and happiness to me in an instant. I also love the youthful cheerfulness of full-bodied and seductive jasmine, the soft fresh petals of roses. For a fresh and green feel – I have extended my affection of the floral lily of the valley to freesia, boronia and most surprisingly – to the cucumber smelling violet leaf and to the even more obscure iris.

Neither soliflores nor floral bouquets been my main interest – both as a perfumer and a wearer. I am a known as a chypre junkie and oriental lover, and generally speaking I seek complexity and evolution in my scents, which isn’t often satisfied by florals. But in the few reviews to follow, I will pay a tribute to some of my favourites that I are really special to me.

Back to the top