First a big thank you to Ayala Sender for organizing this, and Katie and Elena for coming up with the title and picture. When I saw the picture, I didn’t need any scent to make my heart sing – just remembering that movie is enough. 🙂
And what a better way to describe what spring does to people – seeing everything go green and blooming makes one’s heart sing. And that’s even before you start smelling the different things wafting through the air. For example, yesterday evening I smelled the air around my boyfriend’s house and it smelled like Black March. It’s been raining here a lot last two weeks so the soil is still wet, but yesterday it was sunny and in the evening, the earth was giving off that soil smell mixed with everything green in the garden leafing. Only it’s April. 🙂
Each season brings with it its own scents but I believe the spring is the one where those scents are most noticeable. After the winter’s cold and waste, time of birth is here and everything just seems to be amplified – the smell of spring rain, the blooming flowers, the smell of earth, the green boughs you walk under.
I’ve been meaning to talk about one particular note I seem to be craving this spring – green tea and I will leave that for another post in order to talk about scents that make me sing spring this year.
I realized that each spring there is another spring flower that comes to the front as the one I would like to wear. Last year I was in love with lily of the valley, this year I would very much like some hyacinths near me but that is a bit more difficult than it sounds. 🙂
So, let me tell you what I enjoy instead.
I’ll start with the one my last post was about – Un Parfum de Charmes et Feuilles. It is one of those scents for me that I breathe in and instantly feel happy and relaxed (I’m blaming everything great in this perfume on mint and majoram).
Another perfume that I enjoy lately but wouldn’t ever classify as spring, in my mind it defies any type of classification, Byredo Bal d’Afrique. I learned through testing it in different situations that it might not be the best choice for the workplace since on me it achieves a vast circle of scentful dancing. But for outside wearing – great!
One of the things that caught my interest this spring is Amaranthine. It’s getting quite a lot of love, including mine. If you’re in the opposite camp, you have some like-minded people on your side as well.
For me it embodies spring with bitter-green floral opening (there is some tea hiding in there) that turns slightly muskish (maybe that is where we are supposed to get the woman’s thigh?). I resisted the urge to buy it and instead swapped some Bal d’Afrique for it. I’m just so economical.
I did the same with Annick Goutal’s Ninfeo Mio. I love that one. One of the reasons why this one especially makes me sing spring is because it reminds me of my grandma’s garden. There is no longer either the garden around or my grandma, but Ninfeo Mio warms my heart with memories. This is the second scent by Annick Goutal that reminds me of that garden. First was Un matin d’Orage which reminded me of that garden after a spring shower. And now comes Ninfeo Mio that smells like all the flowers and vegetables my grandmother had growing in her garden. But she didn’t grow flowers like roses, tulips or some of that elegant flowers. I think her flowers were more of country cousins to the elegant flowers but the garden still smelled great. One more good thing about Ninfeo Mio is that it actually makes me tastes the sweetnes of flowers on my tongue – I really like this one and plan on hanging around it quite a lot.
I’ve also been trying to force some other things into the rotation among these four and I think I’m making some progress.
Miller et Berteaux Green, green, green surprised me yesterday with its lime-juiciness enveloped in spring greenery – quite easy to love and wear.
So, mine list isn’t particularly long or innovative but it makes me sing in the spring (mostly my heart or when I’m alone).
Please visit other participating blogs and see what makes them sing in the spring!
All I am - a redhead 