It's time for a little spring listing!

Narcotic Flower beautifully orchestrates magnolia, fruity jasmine and peach aldehydes over a soft patchouli and opoponax tincture. Haunting and mysterious.

Sweet rose and cardamom over irresistibly musky and aphrodisiac ambrette seeds in Bedouin
by Persephenie. Perfection, and a great way to satisfy a rosy craving!

And speaking of roses – there is also Persephenie’s Rose Paka: Healing restorative butter with a subtle scent of roses and a creamy, buttery undertone and a fluffy, mousse-like texture. Nourishes the entire body and is gentle enough to use on the face as well!

Vanille Galante has become one of those go-to spring concoctions, with it’s salted caramel decadence and booming Easter Lily explosion over woodsy vanilla.

Fig Tree by Sonoma Scent Studio – an aldehydic, Mediterranean fig scent, reminiscent of cold marble patios and shady grapevine leaves.

Crisp, effervescent floral bouquet with accents of apple and watermelon - Spring Flower
is the kind of scent that makes me believe for at least a few hours before it fades that life might just be a weekend picnic.

But spring is not only about flowers, it’s also about developing stronger roots, and what better root could there be besides vetiver?
Blood Orange & Vetiver by Soivohle’ brings together the mineral and smoky notes of vetiver and the brightness of bright red citrus.

What are your spring favourites this year? Add a comment and enter to win a mini of Zohar - which is my own expression of pure spring happiness.

Before summer slips away… here are some of my summer staples this year in my perfume wardrobe. We’ve been blessed with a warm and sunny weather this summer (which I hope will prove to remain this way till it fades into fall). I’ve been spending each evening at the beach swimming in the otherwise freezing waters of the Pacific ocean. And I believe that this temporary change to my lifestyle, where my 2-level apartment turns into a beach house (quite literally: the entrance gets covered with sand every evening), my perfume choices are anything but the typical-Ayala wardrobe this summer.

I’ve been keeping my scent choices to the bare minimum. I find that scents are generally overbearing in the heat and tend to keep my scent choices similar to my garments this season - a minimal wardrobe whose highlights (both practically and style-wise) is Vancouver designed and made bikinis - and the rest are light fabrics to help me cool off (transparent white cotton shirts, bamboo and linen dresses, and screen printed nightgowns that are light as a feather), and some splashes of colour to keep everything lively and fun (how about some azure, turquoise and coral?).

So this is how my scent wardrobe looks like. It’s embarrassingly sparse but I love it this way.

Eau d’Orange Vert
Those who know my perfume tastes well enough should know that citrus is NOT my favourite fragrance family. I adore the scent of lemon verbena and lemongrass, not to mention the simple yet timeless aroma of freshly squeezed lemon and their zest dripping into the lemon juice (my favourite way to make a salad dressing is this and a drizzle of olive oil. Nothing more is necessary!). However, I find most citrus scent to lack dramatically in the area of originality or interest. This is greatly due to the fact that most citrus notes are top notes, and fade at an embarrassingly fast rate, usually leaving behind a “meh” trail of nondescript florals or woods, or, worse, the dreaded synthetic musks that are so common in nearly all modern perfumes. Eau d’Orange Vert is everything but a boring citrus. It bursts like a bubble of ether on a plump bitter orange peel. It’s dry yet juicy and nearly mouthwatering – as refreshing as a gin and tonic. It is absolutely non floral at all, which helps to cut through the heat, whether dry or humid; and last but not least important - it conceals a slightly mossy base with a light sprinkle of oakmoss, and that gives it the ultimate appeal for a Chypre lover like myself. Unforutnatley, this has been reformulated quite recently to include no oakmoss at all. And while it still has the juiciness of a grapefruit pulp plus a hint of green mango, both of which very refreshing, it is not as classy as the original. Nevertheless, still better than many other citrus out there.

Terracota Eau Sous La Vent
For those fine evenings at the beach, this strange product which is suppose to enhance tanning (I’m not sure I can attest to that) smells like a stunning white florals at nightfall and is refreshing yet creamy. It makes for a erfect beach scent, and its scent blends nicely enough with most sunscreens – and especially my favourite, which I will discuss shortly.

Hawaiian Tropics Sunscreen
Of all the sunscreens, this is the only one that I actually love its fragrance. Everything else makes me feel uncomfortably covered in an unwanted scent (not to mention some sticky or greasy texture). I can’t say it’s not sticky or greasy, but the scent definitely makes up for every other fault it may have. After all the sunscreen and preservative ingredient list, the very end reads like a tropical vacation – extracts of papaya, mango, guava and plumeria (frangipani) flowers. This might explain why the flies come for a sniff the moment you put it on at the beach, as if you just sliced up a fresh mango fruit! Thankfully, the can realize quickly that there is no real food involved and they leave you and your bikini alone with your beach daydreaming…

Vanille Banane
When I was a little girl, a trip to the beach always included a frozen treat. Usually – a banana flavoured icecream bar with faux chocolate covering. This is an intense and wearble version of this experience, and makes for a wonderful compliment to any pigrimage to the beach, even if you are already covered in sunscreen. Several dips in the ocean will also take the edge of its sticky sweetness.

Bronze Goddess (formerly known as Azuree de Soleil)
Whatever shape or form this fragrance comes from is quite the experience. Though I have to admit that when the brozed body lotion is a little mature the scent turns into something not altogether unique or pleasant (more like a heady drugstore mess). So use up the body products fast! Which is what makes me start thinking that the scent is perhaps better than applying the body oil or the glittery bronzed lotion (it’s full of glittery mica which makes one look like a goddess alright). As for the body oils – I’ve been switching to body oils of my own concoctions instead, and find them to be a lot more reliable as a product, as the scent does not turn into something nasty after maturing.

Song of Songs Anointing Body Oil
My own concoction, which I just released at my tea party, has been a long time favourite that I’ve decided to share with you. The term garrigue came up on this blog while discussing Mediterranean scents. Well, this is a combination of that impression (though no herbs are used in it per se). The responsible element to that effect is the labdanum. It’s like the heated rocks and herbs on the mountains, adorned by sensual roses and saffron. Applying it to the skin leaves it perfumed for some 24+ hours, not to mention a very nourished, silk-like feel to the skin itself, as if it was immersed with botanical gold. It has squalane oil (olive derived, which is a very rejuvenating to the skin as it is very similar to vitamin A), and tea seed oil (a natural anti-oxidant). The particular formulation there is very nourishing yet at the same time very light weight and fast absorbing.

Fetish
This was my take on how to make a citrus not boring. Jasmine green tea accord is refreshing, especially with an overdose of lemon-verbena-like notes of litsea cubeba, and that underlining fir absolute, which is surprisingly refreshing despite its Christmas tree association. I shouldn’t brag, but Fetish keeps me interested even though it’s a citrus. And I wear it when it’s hot to the point of bothering and it’s not in the least cloying despite that hint of vanilla at the base (vanilla is one of those few natural notes that has a tendency to grow with time rather than fade).

Philoskyos
I admit I worn it only once this summer. I also ate green figs once this summer, which come to think of it, is more than I usually get when I stay in Vancouver! A friend picked them from a tree in Kitsilano. As much as I appreciated them, they were pale in comparison to the fragrant figs we get in warmer, dryer Mediterranean countries. A summer without green figs is incomplete, and Philosykos can be a stand-in for the real thing.

Sienna Musk
Last summer Laurie and me had a little exchange of samples of our own scents and this one was love at first sniff. It was a very hot summer, and the forest fires were roaming so there was no sense in trying he Feu de Bois, because it was already smoky!
Sienna Musk is a subtle woodsy musky scent, from the same family as Kyoto (which is another favourite of mine). Wearing it reminds me of peaceful summer evenings on my balcony, burning incense and hanging out on the hammock.

ArbitRary Candle
It may sound counter-logical to burn a candle to reduce the heat. However, when temperatures go up, just placing an ArbitRary candle in the room brings in the refreshing aroma of basil, lime, hay and jasmine.

L’Eau d’Issey
Smelling an ozone-like aroma floating above the water surface was magical got me interested again in l’Eau d’Issey, a scent I wear sparsely and rarely. I love how it is in the parfume extrait form; though admittedly the white-musk dry down is a bit of a let down. But what can you expect from a designer scent?

Un Jardin Apres la Mousson
I worn this practically all summer last year; but neglected this scent for the most of the summer in favour of Eau d’Orange Vert. However, in the past 4 days it’s been so hot that the aloof character of this scent seemd in the right place, especially with its bracing iciness of vetiver, ginger and coriander seed.

Which scents go with your summer? Leave a comment and enter to win a Song of Songs Anointing Body Oil!

What scents or smells make you so ecstatically happy that you want to sing out loud or jump up and down with joy?
I asked 13 other bloggers to help me answer this question and share with you our picks for perfumes to wear this spring. Scents that could make you feel giddy, cheerful and excited about life again. And my list includes 8 staples that I seem to return to for several years now and never fail to bring a smile to my face and a song to my heart.

I tried my best to bring you a list that has no melancholy in it whatsoever; but some of the scents have an inevitable touch of that emotion in them. And come to think of it, spring does too, because the flowers, as beautiful as they are in full bloom, only bring their very own death upon themselves by exhaling all their beauty in one powerful breath in this short, abrupt season exploding with life.

The perfumes that I find a little melancholy usually have a little powdery, bittersweet character (usually an effect that can be easily blamed on the presence of coumarin in some shape or form). Whenever these are mentioned, they will be accompanied with an asterisks, just so that you are properly warned (in case you are looking for a 100% cheerful spring).

Jasmine
Jasmine absolute, and, of course - fresh jasmine flowers of any kind, bring an immediate smile to my face. The bushes are usually dormant in winter, but come spring and warmth and they start building up their stash of star-shaped flowers that will reach its peak in the heat of the summer. There are so many jasmine scents that I love, but the ones that I associate and wear in the spring are Le Parfum de Thérèse, which I have come to associate with the season and with Passovers in Israel, because it’s when I worn it and fell in love with it first; and also because it’s so hot there at this time of the year that the balance between jasmine, basil and under ripe plum and melon is nearly the only thing I can wear there. When I have to stay in Vancouver in Passover I wear it to remind me of the happy times at home; and it also takes me through summer bringing a smile to my face every single time I smell it, no matter what the occasion or mood I’m in.

Citrus Orchards in Bloom
There is no scent with so much unconditional happiness in my mind as orchards in full bloom. The blossoms begin sometimes in March, and continues through April, usually coinciding with the celebration of Passover. I am still wondering why there is no citrus flower holiday in Israel. They really should make a Hanami festival of sorts out of it, but they don’t. Instead, the day after Passover has become a day of barbecue picnics that if anything mask the scent of any orange blossoms on the horizon. But that’s for another story…
The best way to experience orange blossoms is to be around then. If you live out of the citrus growing zone like me, you can forget about it unless you travel to a citrus destination. Because I can’t always travel to smell the orange blossoms, I created Zohar,
Another way for me to overcome that home-sickness is sipping on pomelo-blossom tea, a rare green tea that was perfumed in the same technique that jasmine green tea is made, by layering petals of pomelo flowers between the tea leaves and removing them once they’ve exhaled all their fragrant breath onto the tea. As a matter of fact, I’m sipping this very tea as I write it, and it transports me to my family’s orchard, early in the morning, when the shapely pomelo petals are still covered with dew and just begin to open and give away their clean, heady scent. And a far more modern and synthetic orange blossom associated scent that has become a spring stable is Narcisso Rodriguez, which is mostly by pure incident (because it barely smells like orange blossom at all), because I worn it in the springtime in one of my most fun spring travels to Israel as well.

Ume (Japanese Plum) Blossoms
It literally took me years to discover the scent of Vancouver’s spring. The most significant and emotionally charged is the scent of the ume (Japanese plum) blossoms. Ume blossoms are smaller and have only one layer of petals. They have a peculiar wildflower-like scent, very ethereal and heady, and at the same time a little powdery and bittersweet. It is more apparent on warmer days; so when early spring is rainy and gray, you can hardly notice their scent in the air.

The sakura (Japanese cherry) blossoms grow in clusters, and are way more showy and impressive looking (especially the ones that have multilayered petals like roses), but they are far less fragrant if at all.

Ume blossoms bloom earlier, usually beginning in January and on till March (depending on the temperatures, of course), and grace the street corner where I live. The ume and sakura blossoms make Vancouver a place worth staying in the springtime, and my only consolation for missing the orchards of Israel when I can’t go there. Inspired by these blossoms (and the Ezra Pound poem) I created Hanami*, which is what I wear almost exclusively throughout the hanami season in Vancouver. Another taste of it can be experienced if you eat sakuramochi at room temperature. The pickled cherry leaf that wraps this pastry adds this peculiar, flowery and bittersweet aroma to the red bean paste filling, and I know for a fact it has coumarin in it.

Fresh Freesias
I visit the florist regularly to get a fresh supply of freesias. I pick them based on their scent rather than their looks: the most fragrant will go home with me, and these are either white (which is more peppery) or yellow (slightly more full-bodied and fruity). I sniff each bouquet till I find the one… And I also have a favourite freesia perfume: Ofresia by Diptyque, created by the world renowned nose Olivia Giacobetti. This freesia perfectly balances the freshly ground green pepper scent of freesias with a little with no sharpness, and some sweetness in the base to make it addictive.


Lilies of the Valley
Other fresh flowers that are more rare to come by are lilies of the valley: they bloom in the spring, usually in May (this year I was lucky to find some in March, but they are gone again and should return in May as the florist informed me). I rarely see them in gardens, and when I do they look quite miserable (but smell heavenly just the same).

Diorissimo is the best lily of the valley scent in the universe that is not the fresh flower. But it’s more than just a lily of the valley soliflore – Edmon Roudnitska himself said he wanted to capture the scent of the little flowers as well as their surroundings, and even went to the extent of planting a patch of lily of the valley in his garden to study them. Diorissimo is particularly gorgeous in the parfum extrait formulation that I have from 10 years ago, where the oakmoss peeks through like the undergrowth of the forest environment of the lilies, and boronia, galbanum, jasmine and rose make the centre of the perfume vivid.

Lilacs
Now, this is not a scent without any melancholy attached to it. I have a sprig of lilac by my table and the real flower has more complexity to it than what we’ve been trained to think of as “lilac”. Besides the very high level of the light, woody-floral linalool that accounts in part for its cleanliness, the lilac on hand has a balsamic-sweet styrax undertone. It’s rare to find lilac scents that don’t smell like bathroom freshener’s or an old maid’s talcum powder; but two perfumes that I’ve met come very close to capturing the real scent plus adding a very personal spin to the theme:
Olivia Gioacobetti’s En Passant*, in which green cucumber and ink-like and starchy wheat add a contemplative, cool mist of lilac clusters; and Ineke Ruhland’s After My Own Heart*, where raspberry and heliotropin bring a lighthearted, romantic sweetness of girly scented stationary.

Mimosa
Scent that traveled from Australia to Provence and the Middle east, mimosas have an invisible wildflower scent that is heady and light and woody, with a little cucuber-coolness to it. My favourite mimosa are light and refreshing: L’Artisan Parfumeur’s Mimosa Pour Moi and my own Les Nuages de Joie Jaune. which literally means “clouds of yellow happiness.

Magnolia
After the cherry blossoms, magnolias have become almost a symbol of Vancouver in spring. There are so many trees and varieties, it would be difficult to describe all of them here. The two significant differences are white versus the pink ones. The white ones are very light and airy and almost woody-clean, as well as fruity like peach. The pink ones can be fruity, but sometimes they are very heady and turn almost wine-like and spicy (but not like mulled wine!). My favourite spring scent with magnolias in it is Opium Fleur de Shanghai. Again, this is by association, because this light summer-version (limited edition, unfortunately, like all of them), came out in the springtime. It just so happened to be in a very happy spring for me, and I worn it every day for several month. The magnolia is very distinct (and quite rarely used in perfumes in such concentration) and beautifully balanced with the resinous bitterness of myrrh, the sweetness of peru balsam oil and the spiciness of cloves. It’s luxurious and light and very easy to wear.

Spearmint & Lemon Verbena
Fresh herbs from the garden give me a sense of well-being, and my favourite of them all are lemon verbena and spearmint. I love picking these fresh and brew them into a delicate tisane together, sometimes also with lemongrass added. Moroccan mint tea is another favourite – with either green or black tea, fresh sprigs of spearmint, and generous dose of sugar (though not as generous as the Moroccans serve it with), perhaps even with a sprinkle of orange flower water!
One of the treats I serve to guests at my studio is my original Charisma tea blend, which is jasmine green tea with dried osmanthus flowers, fresh lemon verbena, lemongrass and spearmint from my balcony’s herb garden. In the wintertime I serve a modified blend with the dried herbs (most of which were hand-picked and dried by my loving mother). And for those of you too faraway to visit, Dawna have created for me an even more sophisticated version of a fine pomello blossom tea with the same dry fragrant herbs and osmanthus flowers.

Verbena and spearmint are those notes which I love in real life but less so in perfume. An exception is Spring Flower, which has a mint note and is another perfume that never fails to make me feel happy. I have nearly run out of an entire bottle, which says a lot.

Cantaloupe
Last year I spent a lazy afternoon in my hotel room in Grasse with a cantaloupe… I know, this does not sound good. But I assure you, even though it was only the two of us, nothing happened that afternoon behind those closed doors… Except that I couldn’t get enough of the fragrance that filled the room. Which is exactly why I took my time before slashing it open with the knife I bought for that purpose only. As it turns out (a couple of days later), This cantaloupe was not only the most fragrant, but also the most delicious, juicy and beautiful fruit ever.
Another cantaloupe encounter that trip was with Michel Roudnitska’s Emotionelle, a beautiful and sophisticated perfume centered around jasmine, violet and overripe cantaloupe.

Ayala’s Spring Essentials:
Le Parfum de Thérèse
Diorissimo
Emotionelle
Vanille Galante
Zohar
Hanami
Spring Flower
Opium Fleur de Shanghai
Narcisso Rodriguez for Her (EdT)
Ofresia

Leave a comment sharing with us your spring staples, or any scents and notes that bring a smile on your face, and enter to win one of these prizes:
1) Mini parfum of Zohar
2) Tin of Charism Tea
3) TBA

Participating blogs:
Katie Puckrik Smells
Perfume Shrine
The Non Blonde
I Smell Therefore I Am
Notes from the Ledge
Scent Hive
Savvy Thinker
Roxana's Illuminated Journal
Perfume in Progress
All I Am A Redhead
Ambre Gris
Olfactarama
A Rose Beyond the Thames