L’Artisan Parfumeur Traversée du Bosphore Candle Review

By Olfactoria I never warmed to Traversée du Bosphore, the perfume. It reminded me too much of Loukhoum, the turkish delight that I am fond of to eat, less so to smell like. It was one of the few Bertrand Duchaufour compositions to leave me totally cold. Then I got a candle… I was gifted a mini-candle of Traversée du Bosphore and - ungrateful and picky Perfumista that I am - I took it smiling bravely, trying to suppress a tiny eye-roll. It is the thought that counts, isn’t it? One evening, when I was looking for something else entirely, I happened upon the mini-candle and on a whim, I lighted it. I promptly forgot about it (no need for security alerts though, it was safely out of reach for small hands and far from combustible items) and when I came back into the living room I was struck by the great smell in there. Apparently I am totally fine with my house smelling like loukhoum. Notes, according to Luckyscent included in Traversée du Bosphore, the perfume, are apple, pomegranate, tulip, iris, leather, saffron, Turkish delight accord (rose and pistacchio), vanilla and musks. What turns into an unrelenting sweet-fest on my skin, diffuses into a lovely, fruity-spicy delicacy wrapped in tobacco leaves and softest leather, in my living room. Now I finally got the appeal this perfume has for many. I am happy with my candle and how it transforms my environment into a Byzanthine fantasy. What can we learn from this? Never say never. Now where is that sample of Traversée du Bosphore again…

The Scent, The Sachet And The Wardrobe

By Olfactoria We have covered the large spaces of our homes in the last few post about home scents, but what is still missing are the smaller ones. Cupboards and wardrobes can use a good fragrance too. The best smelling cupboard in my house is the one housing my perfume collection of course, but I think that is the only place one doesn’t have to worry about scenting in any way. The cumulative effect of the various bottles in there is intoxicating and enticing enough (for an addict, I mean a Perfumista at least). In my linen and clothes drawers I use various sachets to keep things smelling fine in there. For the more do-it-yourself inclined among you, I included a link for a how-to tutorial to make your own sachets by the inimitable Martha Stewart. She uses a mixture of lavender, wormwood, cedar, patchouli, rosemary, cinnamon, or cloves to put into lovely Organza Sachets. For the rest of us, who are not as gifted with a needle, there are ready made alternatives available. A good and very affordable bet are the lovely linen bags that house either Verbena or Lavender that L’Occitane de Provence offers. L’Occitane Verveine and Lavande sachets (8$ a piece) are beautiful to look at and hold their scent for a very long time. I change them no more than once or twice a year, they stay fresh and lovely all the while. Also moths really hate the smell of Lavender apparently, so that is the scent I use the most in our wardrobes. Crabtree and Evelyn scented hangers and sachets are available in three fragrances: Lavender, Rosewater and Summer Hill. I use a lovely pink Rosewater sachet in my lingerie drawer. These are not exactly a bargain, (I received mine as a gift) but their scent is lovely and they stay fresh for a long time. It is also nice to toss one of these into a suitcase when traveling, it softly fragrances my clothes and reminds me of home at the same time. I did not try the scented hangers yet, but they sound like a lovely idea as well, should one have the money to spare. I don’t quite see the reason for these to be so very expensive though, the little bags are undoubtedly nicely done, but when there are so many alternatives out there for a tenth of the price, that is certainly where I draw the line. Laura Ashley Wild Lilac Drawer Sachets are an indulgence for your wardrobe that doesn’t burn the bank while still looking lovely and smelling divine. The lilac colored sachets are ideal for drawers. Other scents available from Laura Ashley are Citrus Blossom and Nectarine, Fresh Linen and Jasmine, Peony Petals, Rhubarb and Vanilla and White Flowers. Hmm, smells lovely… Another good idea is to put fine soaps into drawers, or – for a large wardrobe – to spray a little bit of your favorite perfume from time to time. I like sachets for their low maintenance and longevity. Toss one into a drawer and forget about it for months. Even if my wardrobes lead nowhere exiting (see title) at least they smell excellent. Image credit, henryzecher.com.

Vacuuming Turned Glamorous With Esteban Paris

By Olfactoria There is really no reason for the prolonged snickering or outright belly laughs that accompanied my announcement to write about cleaning implements. “How would you know about that?” my husband even had the audacity to ask. Well, I may not be the most dedicated housewife, I may not exactly love to do the cleaning chores around the house, but I know about scents, I know what smells good and I know how to instruct our lovely and very dedicated cleaning lady. What I want to tell you about today is a very nifty invention – vacuum fragrance! I didn’t know about the existence of such a thing until a few years ago, when my sister in law gave me some for my birthday. And what a genius invention it is! You sprinkle one or two teaspoons full of the scented grains, they have a texture like fine sand rather than being too powdery, so no sneezing attacks to fear, on the carpet, or even a wooden floor and hoover them up again. Thereby, while you run the vacuum cleaner, the whole house is scented. Those machines often emanate a slightly stale at best, at worst an extremely musty odor that is no longer an issue when using a vacuum fragrance. The best brand to find these little gems is Esteban Paris. This is a line of home fragrances offering room sprays, diffusers, incense, and candles. In addition they also have a range of sixteen Eaux de Toilettes, which look nice, but which I have have yet to try though. There are vacuum powders in six lovely fragrances. I like Esprit de Thé, an uplifting and spicy green tea, vetiver and woods blend, Sous les Feuilles, a delightfully green citrus scent with tomato leaf and mossy wood notes, and Teck&Tonka, a soft and warm, ambery cinnamon fragrance with patchouli and tonka adding an earthy and sweet touch. The scents are astoundingly well blended and don’t smell cheap, despite being quite affordable. One little container holds 5 oz. (150g) and costs 14$. There are three more fragrance varieties I have not yet tested, but names like Terre d´Ocre, Pivoine Imperiale and Ambre sound enticing as well. Esteban is the only higher end brand I have found that offers Vacuum fragrances, there are several utilitarian brands offering similar granules, but I think the scents go more in the direction of Glade territory. Let us be snobs here, okay? The existence of such a little luxury like scented grains to hoover up, makes chores much more bearable, fun even. The power of fragrance makes me happy even in such a mundane, yet inevitable setting. And why not use something to lift your spirits when doing things that are unavoidable anyway, you might as well enjoy yourself while doing them. Okay, enough talk, I am off to clean my carpets…no laughing please! Image credit: Vintage Ad Browser

Getting Fit with Home Scents! A Novel Approach

By Olfactoria This week, in the spirit of getting off the couch and losing all those extra Holiday pounds we piled on, we are going to learn about a more physically challenging way to scent our homes than just lighting a match or putting up fragrant bottles and sit back lazily. We are going to use room sprays! I developed a sure fire method to evenly scent all the rooms of your home while staying fit and healthy at the same time. Take a scented room spray of your choice and start in the room farthest from the front door of your house. Now here is the trick: Go into the room right until you almost touch the far wall, then start going backwards, your arm stretched out in front of you and depress the nozzle firmly. Then, all the while going backwards, spray again, but this time swivel your upper body to the other side. Swivelling from right to left (or the other way around if you happen to be left-handed) move backwards out of the room, spraying merrily all the way. This exercise improves your hand-eye coordination as well as upper arms, back and legs. In the next room proceed as before, until you reach your front door. If you are accustomed to the movements, try speeding up the procedure. I can do five rooms in under 60 seconds now, but don’t fret if you don’t come even close, I have been training for years and I am very good. Please excuse this little detour into wackiness, I promise to stay serious now: Christmas is so last year, but indulge me if I stay on theme for just a little bit longer and use Annick Goutal´s Noel. I already told you about the candle, I find the spray is even better though, because it transports the freshness of the winter forest it evokes, better than a candle ever could. I also love the bottle, I wouldn’t mind a perfume bottled like that at all. The German brand Linari offers an extensive range of finest quality home scents. Diffusers, candles and room sprays in twenty fragrances are available as well as a sample set of 14 2ml vials. That is unusual and unique, I never saw a sample set for home fragrances before, I think that is a great way to explore the line. I have Natale, which smells wonderfully of almonds and oranges, adds a little spice with lots of cinnamon and ends with a creamy vanilla note. It is great in winter, not necessarily only around Christmas, as it is very cheerful and cozy at the same time. I promise this is the last time I go on about Christmas, I do realize – it is over Henri Bendel Home Fragrances used to make wonderful room sprays that were great value and came in a range of good scents. Sadly they are not available any longer (as confirmed by Henri Bendel, NYC), I tell you about them anyway, since they still offer candles and diffusers though, in most of the same scents. The room sprays can still be found on eBay from time to time. A very good bet for a great room spray is Diptyque. The line is extensive and high quality. I love the fragrances for home and humans Diptyque makes, and I am especially fond of the design. I am easily swayed by how something is presented. The beautiful back and white design of Diptyque says classy and elegant to me. In an ideal world I would have a little cupboard holding the entire range of Room Sprays by Diptyque, and I would select a Scent of the Day for my home, just as I do for me. Being a normal (no comments, please!) person with a normal budget I have to pick favorites, and as hard as Diptyque makes that, because they are all very good, my favorite scents of the moment are Figuier, Feu de Bois, Feuilles de Lavande and Freesia. For a great winter scent Pomander also needs to be mentioned. But now I will stop. Cyprés – great. Okay, I am done now. There is one more item I would like to mention: Aqua Di Parma Ambra Room Spray. I like this fragrance’s warm woody violet scent. Notes include Ambergris, Vanilla, Sandalwood, Cedar and Violet. It is not a traditional amber, but provides a very nice twist through the inclusion of violets. I wouldn’t mind seeing this one as a perfume as well. Armed with recommendations and my incredibly valuable and helpful tips for staying fit and healthy, we can start the New Year in a great smelling home. See you next week! Image courtesy of notes.dpdx.net. Thank you!

Diffusing It! – The Most User Friendly Way To Scent The Home

By Olfactoria After last week's Candle Post, we are going to take a look at Diffusers today. Using Diffusers is a very practical and low-maintenance way to scent a room. Just put it up and the rest is great smell. A Diffuser is a (hopefully pretty) vessel holding a liquid room fragrance, essentially the same as contained in a room spray. You stick in reeds, made from bamboo in most cases, and the scent diffuses along the reeds into the air, evaporating slowly. The practice allegedly comes from Italy, where spices and herbs where put in olive oil and spaghetti were put in as diffusing sticks. A 100ml sized diffuser lets you enjoy the scent for at least two or three months, depending on the temperature in a room as well as its size. Funnily enough (I am certain there is a perfectly logical explanation for this, but I always abhorred physics, so don’t ask me!) the diffuser in the smallest room in my house, the bathroom, has to be replaced the most often. In large rooms evaporation seems to take longer. I love that I only need to select a scent I like, assemble it (takes under 10 seconds, even for clumsy people) and need not think about it any more. I am only reminded of their existence when I get a whiff of great fragrance in passing, or when a guest comments or inquires after the good scent. This is a good thing when you have children, who love to explore, are fascinated by fire or distract you at any given moment, all of which makes open fire (as in candles) a bit of a hazard. I just make sure to put the diffusers high up, then all is safe (except when you have a cat, tune in next week for scent solutions for cat owners). I have a signature scent for each room of my house. I vary a little according to season or curiosity, but only in the living room. The other rooms tend to keep their assigned smell. My bathroom smells of fig leaves. The kitchen of Vanilla. The hallway always smells woody. The bedroom has Lavender. The boy’s room White Musk. My office smells of Bergamot or a similarly uplifting citrus blend, to keep me awake. The dining room gets Cinnamon or other spicy blends. In the living room I use the fancy stuff, meaning more complicated perfume-like scents, it is the only room where I like variety (and where that is tolerated - if not actively encouraged - by my husband.) Anthousa (meaning “the perfect bloom”) is a very interesting brand specializing in Home Scents. I love many of their different fragrances, especially Sweet Basil and Heirloom Tomatoes, Fig Leaves and Bitter Almonds and Pomelo and Kumquat are scrumptious. No need to describe them their names say it all. Italian perfumer Lorenzo Villoresi makes great perfumes, but he excels at making diffusers too. I love that I can scent my living room with perfumes I love to wear myself. Teint de Neige, Yerbamaté and Piper Nigrum are my favorites, each one catering to a very different mood. A more affordable range of diffusers can be found at L´Occitane. They offer glass and reeds separately, to be filled with the scent of your choice, available in practical refill bottles. Their Fig Tree Leaf Home Perfume is what makes our toilet the best smelling one in the city Your browser may not support display of this image. Diffusers are my best friends for providing an easy way to keep the home well scented, even if one doesn’t have a lot of time to devote to the topic. Fragrant Greetings from Vienna, see you next week! Availability of Anthousa and Lorenzo Villoresi through their websites or on First in Fragrance. In the US, Candles Off Main also carry Anthousa diffusers. Image courtesy of Photo8.com

There’s A Light...Scented Candles For Cold Winter Nights

By Olfactoria Marina kindly invited me to contribute a weekly post to her lovely blog. I am honored to do so every Saturday, but before I start, let me tell you a few words about me. My name is Birgit aka Olfactoria, I live in Vienna, Austria, the Perfume Capital of the World (just joking ;)). I am a thirtysomething mother of two boys and when I am not writing my own perfume blog Olfactoria's Travels, I am a psychotherapist in Vienna, the Psychotherapy Capital of the World (seriously! We have a lot of shrinks here, but even more neurotics ;)) I will write chiefly about home scents over here on PST and make that sort of my specialty, but if something else in the wonderful world of perfume strikes my fancy or begs to be told, I will do just that :) ____________ I not only love to marinate myself in perfume, but I like to do the same for my surroundings. A well scented room is so much more inviting and makes me and hopefully others feel at home instantly. In my earlier life as a normal person (i.e. before I had children), I loved to light candles around the house. They immediately deliver a sense of wellbeing, their soft light alone is comforting and cosy. Combine that soft light with a great scent and you have a wonderful invention. We just made it through the Holidays, so it is not too late to mention the most Christmas-y candle of them all: Annick Goutal´s Noel. A limited edition, that returns every year around Christmas, it smells like the tree itself (better if your tree is a little mangy) and is a must have for the season. I use it throughout winter; it evokes that feeling of walking through a snowy forest, snow and pine branches crunching underfoot, the air cold and crisp, the promise of warmth and hot cocoa just over the next hill Another seasonal delight is L´Occitane Spicy Cinnamon Candle. It is a pretty straight forward, no-frills cinnamon scent that provides warmth, without turning all out food-y, which I don’t like in any room but the kitchen. Speaking of which: In the kitchen itself, I like a vanilla scent more than anything else. There is nothing more comforting or assuring for me than vanilla. On myself, as a perfume, I prefer my vanilla to be smoky, dark and set off with decidedly non-gourmand notes, but as a kitchen scent, sweetness is more than welcome. I tested many a candle (vanilla is the most ubiquitous of scents when it comes to candles, but also the most abused, there are horrors out there, I would not want anyone to ever encounter). What I found to be the best vanilla yet (I’m not done with my quest, but will I ever ;)) is Tiziana Terenzi Almond Vanilla, a shamelessly expensive candle, handcrafted in Italy that is of a very high quality that may just justify the price though. It features notes of almond, coconut, heliotrope and vanilla. It makes me feel good, the second I smell it. It is a good mood contained in wax. There is one more vanilla candle without which this post would not be complete: Baobab Madagascar Vanilla. It is the most pure, unadulterated vanilla scent possible, it is creamy and sweet, like an off white cloud, languishing in the winter sky, smooth, mellow but radiating out with a considerable strength. Baobab is a brand by a Belgian entrepreneur who designed the collection inspired by African influences gathered on her travels through the continent. The candles and beautiful vessels they come in are all handmade, and easily qualify as luxury items :) The final items I want to write about today are classics that helped define the genre. Diptyque candles where the first ones to seduce me and lead me into the world of terrific smelling rooms. My first love from this brand was Figuier (I love their people version Philosykos as well, but that is a topic for spring). In winter there are several options from Diptyque that I love. Myrrhe, Pomander, Opoponax and Ambre are my favourites. They are nice to combine too; one can create individual home fragrances by simultaneously burning different scents at once. Those four are from the permanent line. Diptyque regularly offers seasonal scents before the Holidays, this year there were Pin, Olibane and Orange Epicée. Sadly I did not get to smell these before they sold out. As I wrote at the beginning, I USED to burn candles regularly, back when I had no children. Of course I still use them, only way more carefully, mostly at night and only very high up ;) But mainly I use diffusers these days, since the accident probability is less high. But that is a story for another day… Most candles featured in this post are available from First in Fragrance, but that is only practical for European readers. In the US Diptyque and L´Occitane are readily available from various sources you probably know better than I do. Tiziana Terenzi candles are available from her own website which also features an online store. Further Information on Baobab candles can be obtained from the website. Image courtesy of Photo8.com