Uplifting

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

LM Parfums O des Soupirs by Mona di Orio

Finding ‘new’ Mona di Orio fragrances can create the same feeling of joy as the discovery of a Van Gogh painting. It is a rare delight. As many of you might know Mona di Orio died very suddenly from a minor medical procedure in December 2011 at the age of 42. At this moment one of her un launched fragrances has just been introduced by the Dutch perfume company Maison Mona di Orio: Eau Absolue. Later this year another ‘new’ fragrance will be presented by Maison Mona di Orio for the Les Nombres d’Or Exclusive line.

Some weeks ago I read on the parfumaria website some of the Laurent Mazzone (LM) perfumes were attributed to the perfumer Mona di Orio. This had been rumored before on several perfume websites but it was never officially confirmed by LM Parfums. Yesterday LM Parfums officially confirmed three perfumes were made by the perfumer Mona di Orio: Ambre Muscadin, O des Soupirs and Patchouly Boheme. I will review O des Soupirs briefly.

O des Soupirs is a very happy uplifting original floral perfume. The opening was a bit off putting as it reminded me of the scent of plastic dolls and gave me the impression of something artificial but after its top notes its scents were wonderfully uplifting to me. At this moment it is my favorite of the three perfumes but this might be due to the season we are in, as it is spring time. O des Soupirs gives me the feeling of a young girl being in a candy store and feeling intense joy of choosing a candy. The purity of innocent joy like the children on the painting.

O des Soupirs means water of sighs, O being short for eau. What a beautiful delicate name for a perfume ! Lovers of fragrances made by Mona di Orio can enjoy these three newly found perfumes. I can imagine this to be very happy news for lovers of Mona di Orio perfumes.

LM Parfums can be bought at www.parfumaria.com, www.jovoyparis.com, and www.ausliebezumduft.de and many other niche perfume shops online.

Do you own a perfume made by Mona di Orio ? Which one is your favourite ?

Leave a comment by telling us which Mona di Orio perfume is your favourite and subscribe to our website or follow us on twitter or tell us how you follow if you already do, you can win a 2 ml sample of O des Soupirs, draw will close on Sunday 16 august 12.00 AM Parisian Time. We will contact you by mail if you are the winner. Worldwide draw ! And the winner is: Fazal ! We have sent you an E mail. Congratulations, Fazal ! The give away is now closed.

Painting by John Singer Sargent, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, 1885-1886,  copyright Tate of Britain.

First published on April 8th, 2013 Re edited: August 11, 2015

Atelier Cologne Grand Neroli

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Atelier Cologne Grand Neroli has been one of my favorite summer cologne this summer. It is fresh, not very longlasting, uncomplicated but uplifting, refreshing and wonderful on a hot day. Every time I wore it I kept spraying it during the day; the only remedy for it’s short longevity.  I bought a leather glove for the 30 ml refillable spray bottle which works quite well in a small hand bag.

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I experience spraying Grand Neroli as refreshing as having a swim in a cold pool on a very warm day or having a cool glass of orange lemonade in the shadeimage.

Highly recommended !

rating: 4/5

origin of sample: my own

 

painting: Bodegon de naranjas  Raphael Romero Barros, 1863, Museo de Bellas Artes Cordoba, Spain