Perfume-Smellin' Things Summer Favorites 2011 & a Prize Draw

Alena

Это лето выдалось дождливым и холодным, поэтому мой летний парфюмерный гардероб мало отличался от остальной части года, разве что я меньше ношу розы и альдегиды. Кожу я люблю в любое время года, но этим летом я особенно часто носила Onda Vero Kern в духах. Onda входит в мой стандартный дорожный набор. Обычно я никогда не знаю заранее, что мне может понадобиться, поэтому стараюсь взять все самые любимые ароматы с собой. В поездках я по обстоятельствам надеваю тот или иной аромат из набора. Этим летом мой выбор часто падал на Оnda. Onda побывала со мной в Антверпене и Париже, но собенно органично она звучала в старых замковых и монастырских стенах. Главным событием этого лета стало посещение аббатства Мон Сен-Мишель. Лил проливной дождь, от камней веяло холодом, на арках и лестницах пробирали сквозняки. Onda – глубокий аромат с внутренним стержнем, он согревает тело и охлаждает голову. Запах дегтя, дыма, кожи, ароматных трав, кисло-сладкий привкус настоящего хлеба... В Onda мне удалось прочувствовать как жили монахи в этих суровых и прекрасных местах. И я опять беру ее в следующую поездку. (This summer turned out to be rainy and cold, and so my perfume wardrobe did not differ much from that during the rest of the year, apart from the fact that I wear less roses and aldehydes in summer. I leather anytime, this summer I have been wearing Onda Vero Kern in parfum the most. Onda is in my standard travelling kit. I usually don't know in advance what I might need and so I try to pack all my favorite scents. This summer I mostly chose Onda. It went with me to Antwerp and Paris, and it seemed the most at home within the old castle and monastery walls. The main event of the summer was the visit to the Abbey of Mont Saint Michel. It was raining hard, stones seemed cold, the arches and stairs were drafty. Onda is a deep aroma with a hard core, it warms the body and cools the head. It is the smell of tar, smoke, leather, herbs, of the sour-sweet taste of a real bread. Through Odna, I sensed the way moks used to live in this severe and beautiful place...)

Alyssa

Austin is looking at it's 47th day of triple-digit heat today, and we've had so little rain that trees are dropping their limbs in thirsty self-defense all over the neighborhood. The weather has pared down my perfume rotation, too--I've become a serial monogamist. First I was obsessed with cool green of The Different Company's De Bachmakov, then it was the tart, sparkling orange blossom of Annick Goutal's Neroli, and shortly after that the softer, more honeyed blossoms of L'Artisan's Fleur d'Oranger. Currently, I can't stop wearing The Different Company's Sel de Vetiver, a sea-bleached vetiver that makes the best of my sweaty, salty summer skin and brings the beach and much longed for breezes to me.

Beth

I have fallen in love with a perfume that I swore I'd always avoid, mostly because it was the signature scent of one of my best friends. But fall I did and very hard. Hermes 24 Faubourg is beautiful and my husband adores the way that its soft floral and amber accords smells on my skin. It's also the first perfume that I've worn in a long time that travels easily from day to evening. By day 24 Faubourg is the olfactory equivalent of a soft pashmina shawl, classy and elegant...full of color, but by night it magically becomes a bewitching symphony of soft Egyptian cotton and a sensual caress. This Hermes is my summertime affaire de coeur ...

Birgit

Surprisingly the perfume I am most fond of this summer was one I discovered accidentally. I wanted to try a sample of Lostmarc'h Aod and received Ael-Mat instead. I tried it anyway and promptly fell in love, or at least in summer-flirt.With notes of hesperides, chamomile, jasmine and musk, Ael-Mat looks simple, but it smells very unusual. The top is effervescent and cheerful, the the floral notes of whitest, softest jasmine with the herbal, vegetal almost feel of chamomile mixed in dominate for some time, finally giving in to a soft, salty-musky skin scent. Ael-Mat meaning Guardian Angel in Breton, is an Eau de Toilette and lasts about three hours on my skin. Reapplying is a treat though. What I like the most about it is its uniqueness, Ael-Mat smells unlike anything I know, it is not your run-of-the-mill standard summer citrus scent. I have a soft spot for Lostmarc'h and Ael-Mat has proven to be another very good reason to really like that line.

Donna

My top pick for Summer 2011 is one of the most delightful fragrances I have ever smelled, and a tropical style scent that is head and shoulders above most others in this usually cliched genre; Vents Ardents by Shelley Waddington of En Voyage Perfumes. It is a bounteous blend of everything that evokes the tropics, minus the usual coconut and suntan oil, with notes of luscious mango and other fruits, rich florals, sweet dark rum, fragrant tobacco, vanilla, Tonka bean, amber and exotic woods, its is the embodiment of all my island fantasies. It was actually envisioned as a masculine fragrance, but the guys can't have this one all to themselves! Outstanding in every way.

Linda

My summer favorite this year is MDCI's La Belle Helene. The vanilla-infused, citrus-scented pear of the opening plays joyfully with the seductive floral heart and chic oriental drydown. It strikes me as intrinsically modern -- yet it has a big, timeless, classical feel too. I love the way it blooms in the heat of summer. It is like a sumptuous picnic of poached fruit, set out on a perfumed and elaborately embroidered cloth, spread in a lavish flower garden. It makes me feel grand.

Marian

Maybe it’s because it’s been way too long since I’ve left the sweltering sidewalks of New York that the fragrance I’m most enjoying this summer is Ambergris Absolute by SMK Fragrance. It’s redolent of the somewhat shocking yet compelling scent of shells washed up on shore- a mixture of brine and animal that is as alluring as it is disquieting. It reminds me of mollusk-encrusted hulls, salty breezes, grizzly sailors and tangled masses of wave-scattered kelp- images that carry me across oceans as I stare out my apartment window. Although I like to wear it unaccompanied it’s amazing how the ambergris brings to life other oils and perfumes with which it’s combined, and increases their longevity many times over. Because it both exalts and is exalted Ambergris Absolute is truly a whale of a scent!

Marina

When one has a baby, a job and a 100F heat, one wants everything else to be nice & easy. Including fragrance. At the moment, "nice" means pretty & girly, easy means light and lighthearted. Maitre Parfumeur & Gantier's Fraiche Passiflore is all of the above with a bonus of deliciousness. To me it's like an exotic not too sweet drink which smells of peaches. Because what else one needs when one has a baby, a job and a 100F heat? That's right, a (cold) drink.

Marla

Lilies, acacia blossoms, jasmine, amber, and spice. Donna Karan's Gold (2006) has been a very happy discovery for me this summer. I love the way those flowers bloom in July heat, and the amber drydown is sultry and warm. Sad to find out it's discontinued (of course, I mean it's 5 years old already, right?), but it's still online, so I've got a backup bottle, too. I prefer the richer eau de parfum to the cucumber-topped EdT. And what a gorgeous bottle!

Tom

I think my new favorite of the Summer is one that I just got: smell bent Debonair Eau Dandy. Part of their "Remix Project", they took the original scent and added lemon, rose, jasmine and amped up the oakmoss (yes, the real stuff) to make a summery little wonder that smells startlingly fresh. In the hear of summer I could bathe in it.

If you would like to participate in a prize draw for a set of 10 summery samples (Marina's choice & some of the above), please, say so in your comment. The winner will be chosen at random and announced next week.

To check other lists, please visit: Bois de Jasmin, Grain de Musc, Now Smell This and Perfume Posse

Image by Slim Aarons is from staleywise.com