Scents and Sensibility

Majalis

I've been on a "bit of a tear" for the last 6 or 8 months. Restless. Craving something different. New things. Which meant, of course it is time for a bit of perfume exploration! I started small, ordering a few samples for DSH Perfumes over the summer. And discovered that is not a line of perfume which suits me.

Just before the winter season changed everything, I ordered a few new perfumes, mostly sample sizes of new-to-me scents, from one of my favorite web sources, BeautyHabit. I like to think of perfume as a fragrance garden since I'm between garden spaces; even it weren't winter where only witch hazel and hellebore are possible, a Midwestern winter garden is a barren place.

The price point of my favorite perfume has become outrageous for everyday wear and even a stretch for wearing on special days. Looking for new perfumes to love could be classified as a necessary indulgence or frugal frivolity at this point.

What to explore? I do like soft scents like lotus, tea and lemon but they tend not to last on my skin. Florals (rose, peony, lily) are an obvious choice given my love of flowers; most tend to be too heavy or too powdery in my opinion. Orientals work well on my skin - but I don't love them.  My favorite scent space is the land between florals and orientals, floriental.  The obvious answer was to get a nice cross-section of fragrance types.

The Library of Flowers is an American company, a small batch perfumery which offers the most awesome samplers of three scents at a time for a price point of $38.  They come in a great package with a small adorable notebook for capturing scent thoughts. My first thought? I'll take two! And so I did. One sampler which is more spring-oriented and one which has the warmth winter needs. 

I started with the True Vanilla and Forget-Me-Not. My first whiff of Forget-Me-Not made me think of Veet (specifically Veet velvet hair removal - probably not the scent memory they hoped to invoke) but without the chemical backwash, pleasant but not the best association. True Vanilla has an undercurrent of amber warmth which makes it less cupcake scented than I usually associate with vanilla-based fragrances. 

The fragrance on the left has become one of my winter favorites. It's French. Reason enough to love it. It's also rose. Specifically, it's supposed to be a cinnamon rose. Les Perfumes de Rosine Majalis. I get a honey rose off it immediately, which opens to a hint of cinnamon enfolded in the honey rose and then mellows to a vanilla rose which holds for hours. I love it in winter, especially in February. I'm not sure yet if it's too heavy for summer; we will find out.

When trying a new perfume, I like to experience the scent for several days. See how it moves, when it lingers, how it layers over the different creams. And I don't like to have too many scents open at once. This makes perfume trying a slow process for me. (My last perfume exploration was in December of 2013, and I'm just finishing out the final bottle - left with the matching hand cream -  now.) 

If I waited to write this perfume exploration post until I tried all the new scents - it would be two years from now. So there will be periodic fragrance updates. Stay tuned...

Take-away - Journeys are meant to be enjoyed for what they are, as much as the arrival at the destination.

Other posts you might enjoy:
- Scent and Memory
- Is It Kismet?

** I name names because that's how I roll; but this post (like the entire blog) is wholly unsponsored and my opinions only.**

Photos by me - and yes, I know you can tell :-) 

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