Aquatic

Mood Scent 4 Well Named Perfumes

It’s is time for our monthly Mood Scent 4 post! Where Portia (on A Bottled Rose), Samantha  (I Scent You A Day), Megan (Megan In Sainte Maxime) and I write about a different subject relating to perfume. This time we concentrate on well named fragrances. Those perfume names which lead us to the “right”direction in the store or online and give us a well informed idea of what to expect from a scent.

Perfumes referring to notes in fragrances like rose, tuberose, lily of the valley/muguet, neroli or vetiver can give us a pretty good idea of what to expect although this not certainty either. As some fragrances can be called one thing like orange blossom but unexpectedly smell different, for example Serge Lutens Fleurs D’Oranger smells highly of tuberose. I chose my favourite 5 well named fragrances starting with DS & Durga Portable Fireside.

DS & Durga Portable Fireplace 

Fragrance Duo David Seth Moltz and Kavi Hakuja create original fragrances with matching creative names for their New York based brand DS & Durga. Scented candle Portable Fireplace is one of my favourites from this brand. It smells like a complete fireplace in a candle for those who don’t have the luxury of one at home. I don’t have one living in the city of Amsterdam and love to burn this candle during winter. 

April Aromatics Rose L’Orange, Vanilicious  and Ray Of Light

Another brand with well named perfumes is Berlin based April Aromatics. As you might know, I am a big fan of Tanja Bochnig’s all natural fragrances (and so is my fellow Mood Scent 4 pal Megan from Megan in Sainte Maxime) as I have reviewed several fragrances before. The perfume names are not funny or teasing as DS & Durga but some are very well chosen.

Rose L’Orange smells like a big apricot coloured rose dripping of sweet candied orange syrup and a pinch of vanilla powder. Vanilicious smells like sticking your nose in a delicious shiny long vanilla pod, full of smoky, leathery bits leaving your skin as if it was dusted with light vanilla powder. Uplifting Ray of Light adds a sparkle to your grey rainy day with its vibrant sweet yellow lemon, crisp green lime and bitter bright green leaves from the lemon tree.

Hermes Un Jardin En Mediterranee

Hermes Un Jardin En Mediterranee was the first garden fragrance created by perfumer Jean Claude Ellena for Hermes to be launched in 2003. It captures different plants and trees from a Mediterranean garden, a fig tree with its large fragrant leaves, filled with ready to eat but not overly ripe fig fruits, cypress trees, lemon trees and a touch of spearmint.

Un Jardin En Mediterranee smells like a light aquatic sea breeze on a warm summer day, refreshing and light. It’s like a water coloured painting of an unripe green fig fruit with carefully chosen transparent blue colours. Very refreshing on a warm summer day. Jean Claude Ellena left out all the milk like and coconut parts of the fig fruit in this fragrance which make this scent different from other fig fragrances. I am not an avid fig perfumes lover but I like the freshness and water like quality of this scent.

When visiting the botanical garden in Malaga years ago, in Southern Spain along the Mediterranean sea, it struck me how well fitting this name was as all notes could be found in this garden, white oleander flowers, orange blossom, figs and cypress. The photograph with the small travel spray was made in this garden.

These are the 5 well named fragrances I picked.  Have a look on Samantha’s blog I Scent You A Day Megan’s blog  Megan in St. Maxime  and Portia on A Bottled Rose! I love to read their picks and see what they chose. Sometimes we choose the same fragrances which is great as we don’t know the scents we will pick.

 

Laboratorio Olfattivo Salina

Salina
Laboratoria Olfattivo (LO) is a not very well known Italian brand which deserves much more attention. It was founded in 2009. Many of its fragrances are worth a try. It’s price (30 ml/40 euro and 100 ml/100 euro) are quite reasonable compared to prices from other perfume houses and some of its scents are fabulous. I also like the modern design of their bottles and packaging. My personal favorites are Kashnoir, Decou-Vert and Salina. Perfumers Cecile Zarokian and Pierre Guillaume have made fragrances for LO. Last year LO introduced 30 mls spray bottles, which can only be applauded.

Salina is a small Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea, north of Sicily. The word salina means salt lake. Salt lakes were used on the island for the production of salt by evaporating sea water salt was produced. In certain parts in the world salt is still produced this way. The island was the inspiration for the eau de parfum.

Salina Eau de Parfum evokes the scent of salty skin after a dip in the sea at a secluded warm sandy beach. The herbaceous wormwood and lavender giving the impression of a natural beach with low bushes where one can retreat in the shadow under some pine trees. It is a fairly modern and invigorating scent. At times it is almost as if I get a whiff of chlorine, which adds a contemporary and clean touch to the fragrance.

image

Reviews on fragantica, basenotes and from some bloggers are very mixed. Some found Salina horrible and too intrusive. I like Salina and own a 100 mls full bottle. But I can imagine people finding it too  aggresive especially its chlorine note. Personally Salina reminds me of visits with my parents and their friends to a solitary Mediterranean natural beach in Southern Spain. A beautiful quiet place to swim and sun. I only use Salina when I crave for the beach on a very warm day and I am not able to go. It cleanses me like sea salt and water do. In other days it can be too intrusive for me as well. I would recommend to sample before you buy.

Have you tried fragrances from Laboratorio Olfattivo? If so, which one is your favorite?

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Notes: (according to official website)
Top: Lemon Peel, Marine Salt, Pine Needles
Heart: Hot Sand, Myrtle, Wormwood, Marine Spurts, Lavender
Base: Vanilla, White Musk, Cedar

Release: 2013

Perfumer: David Maruitte ( who also made Heeley Menthe Fraiche, the re edition of Le Galion Whip and Especially for Gentleman)

Family: Marine/Aquatic

Origin of bottle/sample: own acquisition

All photographs were made by me.