Summer

What a scent can add to your outfit or day

 

Photograph: Esperessence

Photograph: Esperessence

Some weeks ago while talking to my sister, she told me she tends to wear the fragrance I gave her for leisure time, Guerlain Jasminora, for work, to add a bit more softness especially when having difficult meetings with clients. She works at human resources so her meeting involve hard meetings with people from time to time.

I had found this phenomenon before myself, as I tend to wear tropical floral fragrances like Guerlain Terracotta Le Parfum or Madonna Truth or Dare during summer when it was raining outside. You would expect Terracotta or Truth or Dare to be more suited for hot weather but I like to add tropical warmth or sunshine with these fragrances and add a holiday sensation by wearing these.

You could try it for yourself, wear a really summery fragrance in another season, a very expensive smelling fragrance while going to the supermarket, an informal fragrance to a very formal occasion to feel more relaxed or a very glamorous scent while not dressing that way at all.

Chanel Bois des Iles is the fragrance I tend to wear when I want to add to glamour and richness to my outfit or Chanel 31 Rue Cambon when I want to feel I am dressing formally, like wearing a beautiful feminine tailored suit.

Do you wear your fragrances contrary to weather, occasion or outfit ? Tell us more about it !

 

How to prolong your summer with perfume

Photograph: Esperessence Sail 2015 in Amsterdam

Photograph by Esperessence Summer 2015 Amsterdam

Fragrance  can help you get through a clouded rainy autumnlike  day by inviting summer in and adding a holiday feeling to your day.

  1. You can use a fragrance you would normally use on a warm summer day, for example a more calming tropical floral perfume
  2. Use an uplifting stimulating scent, a cologne or cologne style fragrance
  3. Wear a fragrance which makes you feel like you are on an actual beach

Tropical floral perfumes can contain the tropical tiare flower, frangipane or ylang ylang. Or they might not actually contain tropical flowers but give the impression that they do. According to Jennifer Peace Rhind the scent of frangipane is said to impart inner peace, release tension and bring comfort. Research demonstrated that ylang ylang increases calmness. Examples of perfumes which contain tropical flowers are Ormonde Jayne Frangipane and Guerlain Le Terracotta. Nicolai Juste un Reve evokes containing tropical flowers.

Uplifting fragrances can be a fresh eau de cologne or a fragrance from the citrus family containing for example lemon, bergamot or bitter orange. Eau de cologne or eau de cologne type fragrances are my favorite refreshing Atelier Cologne Trefle Pur or Hermes Eau d’Orange Verte.

Drawing by Rene Gruau

Drawing by Rene Gruau

Another option is a fragrance which makes you feel like you are on an actual beach. Like 4160 Tuesdays Sunshine and Pancakes. With its  sweet citrus stimulating opening Sunshine and Pancakes was meant to evoke a British summer beach day in the seventies according to Luckyscent. I find it to be one of the most stimulating and uplifting fragrances I know. Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess is another fragrance which makes you feel like you are on a beach the moment you spray it with its sun tan like coconut scent.

To help you prolong your summer feeling you can use a tropical floral, a citrus/cologne type fragrance or a perfume which evokes the feeling of a  beach. This can be opposite to what you might wear normally on a rainy more autumn like day but I find it works to add an uplifting or very calming feeling to a day depending on my needs at that moment.

Do you use fragrance contrary to weather or season ? If so, tell us about it !

Disclosure: all fragrances mentioned are my own acquisition either full bottles or samples

Ineke Chemical Bonding

Just bite the sour apple

When I first heard the name Chemical Bonding I was a bit put off by its name. Bonding and chemical sound a bit sterile to me. The image I get is a chemical lab not the romantic idea of two people bonding. Chemical Bonding is based on two people bonding and alchemy as well. Chemical Bonding was launched in 2006.

I bought Ineke’s beautiful Deluxe Sample Collection Set with all of Ineke’s 7 perfumes. One of the samples was Chemical Bonding. The discovery set is an excellent way to get introduced to her whole collection. All of Ineke’s perfumes are categorized by alphabet, an abecedary as Ineke calls it herself. Ineke Ruhland has her own small perfume house in San Francisco.

When I first scented Chemical Bonding I did not like its opening note. It was (and still is) too harsh and loud for me. It smells like sour citrus. Ineke calls it a citrus cocktail herself. Or it could be the tea note in the beginning as I do not like tea perfumes, such as Bvlgari Eau Parfumee au The Vert or Bvlgari Eau Parfumee au The Blanc. After this loud sour citrus burst, surprisingly I got a more mellow clean musky base. Very pleasant and fresh. In Dutch you have a saying to bite through the sour apple to get something nice afterwards. In English the saying is to bite the bullit. It is like this in Chemical Bonding, after the sour part the really nice part of the perfume starts to kick in !

The principle of Chemical Bonding of two opposites attracting can be found within this perfume in the citrus and the more clean mellow musk. I found this quite interesting. The Fragrantica website classifies Chemical Bonding as a floral fruity and Michael Edwards as a crisp citrus fruity. Personally I would classify it as a musky citrus.

ineke1

Some find Chemical Bonding too mainstream and in general reactions are mixed. Personally I prefer to wear Chemical Bonding on a hot day. On these days it works best on my skin. It smells even better sprayed on clothing. Chemical Bonding will not end up in my top 10 list but I like to wear it from time to time in summer.

Ineke Ruhland just introduced a new perfume to her abecedary, H Hothouse Flower. This based is based on gardenia, one of my favorite flower scents in perfume. I really look forward to trying her interpretation of the gardenia flower.

Notes according to Ineke leaflet with Discovery Box and website:

Top: smooth citrus cocktail, tea, blackberry

Middle: dewy peony

Base: vetiver, amber, powdery musk

Longevity: very good for a citrus, several hours

Sillage: stays quite close to my skin

Origin of sample: my own  

Photograph: my own  

Originally published July 27th, 2012

Update November 26th, 2014

 

Youtube: Chemical Bonding by Ineke Ruhland