I know we’re heading into summer, but I was thinking about making a favorite spring and summer fragrance post. Spring fragrances for me is where I start to pick out lighter scents. I think of light and floral to some degree. I’m not a huge true floral fan so these choices will not be within that genre.
On the left is Ormonde Jayne Tolu. Their website considers this a floral oriental. This is strong for me, it’s a more powerful floral, but it’s still light. It’s one of my favorite fragrances that I own. It’s unique. Ormonde Jayne is a UK perfumer and she only has a few scents available, but they are unique and you just have to smell them to understand. Tolu has a warm feel to the floral. Top notes: orange blossom, sage, juniper berries. Middle notes: Moroccan rose, orchid, muguet. Base notes: tolu resin, amber, tonka bean, golden frankincense. I prefer the little 10 ml sprays and I get them from the UK direct from her website. This has a good sillage and longevity, it’s an EDP.
Next is Hermes Eau d’Hermes. This is a citrus leather. It’s a skin scent, animalistic kind of fragrance. A lot of people hate it, it is unisex as well. I think some describe it as sweat, leather and citrus. And that’s about right. It’s subtle, meaning only you or someone really close to you will smell it. That’s what I love about it. It’s a more subtle version of the stronger fall or winter scents similar to this. Usual EDT Hermes longevity of six hours average. You can get this one at a counter.
Child perfume is to the right. It’s a very niche fragrance and only sold in a few select stores, beautyhabit being the easiest to get it from. This is one of the only white florals I like. As far as I know the creator still makes the batches at home and hand pours them. This is the special limited edition spray, as I hate the roll on types. Child website describes it as a white crisp jasmine floral. Top notes: vanilla, lilac, faint magnolia. Middle notes: jasmine tuberose, violet. Base notes: creme musk, rose, mimosa. It’s unique and one of the only white florals that doesn’t give me a headache. This has excellent longevity and sillage.
Last on the right is Tocca Stella. Fragrantica describes this as a floral woody musk. Top notes: blood orange, bitter orange, watery notes. Middle notes: freesia, lily, wild orchid. Base notes: sandlewood, musk. For me it’s like a orange citrus floral with a deeper hint of musk. It has better sillage and lasting power than Hermes does, but less than Child or Tolu. It’s also an EDP.
Check out these fragrance sites for more information on fragrances: basenotes.com, fragrantica.com, surrendertochance.com, luckyscent.com. Basenotes and Fragrantica describe scents and are great for general information about a scent. They’re your fragrance dictionary’s. Luckyscent sells samples and full bottles, but you can try before you buy. Surrender to chance sells samples and decants and is a great way to try before you buy.
Just to explain top notes versus middle and base notes. Top notes are the first scents you get when you spray directly out of the bottle before it evaporates. The middle notes are what you get after the top notes evaporate, this is the heart of the fragrance. After it wears for a while you get the more subtle base notes that are from the dry down. Base notes last the longest. So never reject a fragrance from first smell, or even from the first hour, you really need to test it out for a few hours and get to that base note area to see if you like it. And remember all fragrances can smell different on different people, your own body chemistry will make it change on you some, and because of this you may find some notes do poorly or well with your own chemistry. That’s why being able to read about genres of fragrances and the notes is so important, so you can figure out what you like and don’t like.