Happy fragrance summer to all Canadian perfume lovers!
Congratulations to Il Graham, winner of our Smells Like Canada contest of last week. My apologies for taking forever to make the draw. I've been on the road so to speak and immersed completely with the Artisan Fragrance Salon and all the events around it, not to mention visiting our neighbours to the south ;-)
Please email me your mailing address so I can ship your prize to you - a mini of the deliciously Canadian and maple-syrupy Immortelle l'Amour!

We will return on Monday with another Monkey Monday contest + giveaway.

There was a CBC morning show called "Sounds Like Canada" which is no more, but along these lines, I'd like to dedicate Monkey Monday's post to what Canada smells like, to me. Well, the little bit of it that I had a chance to sniff.
Maple syrup of course comes to mind at first, and it's especially fragrant when incorporated into baking, or fudge, or better yet - tire sur le neiges (taffy on the snow), which is prepared in the dead of winter when the maple syrup harvest begins. They also sell it at farmers markets in Vancouver year around (although we're nowhere near maple-land). The scent is divine. It's amazing how much aroma there is this, with nothing else added. Not even vanilla.
And then there are forests. Endless coniferous forests of citrusy Douglas firs, crisp spruces, red cedars. Oh, and elderflowers, with their sweet berry-like aroma; and balsam poplar buds - honeyed and ever so slightly medicinal. Oh, and cotton trees, so thickly sweet you think someone is making cotton candy around the corner.
Other scents are sentimental and bizzare but only remind me of Canada, as nowhere else have I experienced them before visiting my dad's home in Quebec - musty basement, plus the Tide dryer sheets that are what America considers to smell "clean"; and the fungus-infested cylo, as well as nearly any wooden house in British Columbia, where the rain never stops. Wet woods and fungus was the first thing that greeted me arriving in Vancouver at the end of October 1998. You get used to it after a while, but it's not my favourite.

For those who missed it - our weekly giveaway is of Immortelle l'Amour mini; to qualify for the draw, please leave a comment either her or on the previous day's post about Canada Day. I will do the draw on Friday as usual. You may comment about what Canada smells like to you; or if you happened to experience perfumes by a Canadian perfumer (there are not too many of us, admittedly), than please share with us too and let's celebrate Canada Day for one more day (the banks are closed, so we might as well...).

Hope you all had a happy and wonderful Canada Day!

And sending a far-away shout-out to the other Canadian perfumers scattered around the country and the globe, some of them I am lucky to know in person and be friends with. Ineke Ruhland (Ineke), Jessica Buchanan (1000Flowers), Isabelle Michaud, Susanne Lang and Claude Andre Hebert.

It's been what we consider a "nice weather day" in Vancouver - aka not rainy. Overcast mostly, which only encouraged wearing Immortelle l'Amour (a rather wintery scent otherwise, which resembles maple taffy...) and baking mapley things (maple & hazelnut granola, anyone?); but the sun finally decided to grace us at the end of the day so we went for a picnic on the beach with watermelon and feta cheese to match the colours of the Canadian flag.

And since tomorrow is going to be a holiday too for many Canadians, let's begin the Monkey Monday giveaway tonight:
If you're not Canadian, share with us your favourite Canadian perfume; and if you live in Canada or ever visited here - I would love to hear from you what scents (natural or otherwise) represent Canada to you.

Among the readers who leave a comment, I'll be giving away a little whiff of the Pacific forests and Stanley Park in particular: a mini bottle of Rainforest.