Today was the annual screen porch clean-off day, finally. It’s a three-hour job involving children, brooms, garden hoses, scrub brushes, bleach, and lots and lots of squealing over icky dead bugs. This year’s wet spring led to a particularly generous deployment of bleach on my part to combat the heedious mildew, and unfortunately I have just enough pride you will not be getting the Money Shot of me in my standard porch-bleaching getup: hair up, rubber gloves, ratty old swimsuit and my gold-toned kayaking Crocs with the orthotics. Diva wanted a photo of me to put up on her Facebook page, in an album no doubt entitled Further Proof My Family is Crazy, or possibly The Bitter Pill of My Everyday Existence. I’ll reek of bleach until Thursday at least.
But all that screen-porch scrubbing and lazy summer dreaming got me thinking about mint in fragrances. I have several patches of different kinds of mint in the backyard, and any of you who’ve grown it free-range know how obnoxious it can be; I’m pulling it out all the time where it’s riding herd right over some other plants. I love mint in tea, and in foods, and even picked right off the plant for a meditative chew while I glare at the mile-a-minute vines choking my rose beds, but as a dominant note in fragrances? Not so much.
I tried, I really tried, to wrap myself around Geranium Pour Monsieur, but on me it’s just one Giant Squeeze of Minty Freshness. I get none of the subtlety and leafiness and other notes that many of you discerning fans get. Seriously, it might as well be called Demeter Mint (which probably exists, right?)
One mint I really do like and brought out for the occasion (and to take the edge off the bleach smell) is Jo Malone’s White Jasmine & Mint. I find the fragrance cheerfully tackola – like it should be spelled Jazzmin n’ Mint. There’s something fakey about it in a good way. The jasmine is sweet and effervescent rather than indolic, and it’s the perfect match for the mint, which is cool and sharp in a way that makes me think more of vetiver and less of Crest or Peppermint Patties. That’s pretty much the whole story, and it’s a nice, simple scent for summer.
I was trying to think of any other fragrances I like that have a strong hint of mint to them, and it seems to me that one of the Comme des Garcons Leaves series I tried and liked had mint – maybe I was thinking of the actual Leaves: Mint, which seems to have been discontinued (? along with Shiso?), although you can find Tea (which I love, maybe that’s the one with the mint in it?), along with the other two, Calamus and … something. Sneezy? Dopey? Oh, never mind. Lily. Let Me Google That For You. Hah, I love that.
Or … wait. Maybe I’m thinking about a CB I Hate Perfume? Something with tea in it? Maybe Russian Caravan Tea, but that’s not it, but on the other— hey, look, on the CBIHP website there’s 2ml travel sizes of many of the absolutes, where have I been??! Also it’s only available in the shop, but he has a Mint Tea, I need to get back to Brooklyn at some point.
Late night sniffing and – yep, the White Jasmine & Mint is still going strong. How do you feel about mint? Does a little become Too Much fairly quickly? Do you find it refreshing, or annoying? How’s that Guerlain AA Mentafollia? And is Lemon Fresca the greatest perfume name ever? You know it is, I could drink one of those right now. Any of you ever try that particular AA? I think Herba Fresca has mint too…
March, I’ve got a HUGE-MONGOUS bottle of Mentafolia that I will, of course, never use up. If you want a big ol’ decant, feel free to drop me a line at allegro805-hotmail.
As for the Geranium Pour Monsieur: I get about one minute (maybe two) of minty freshness, then all sharp geranium essential oil. Where’s the complexity?? Lee? Lee? Where?
Joe, I think I got hooked up locally but if not I’ll email you! Thanks! And so glad I am not insane regarding the Geranium.
You NEED to try Peppermint Series: Sherbet by Comme des Garcons. It’s in production (unlike the discont Leaves Series one), and has that ALTOID-y blast followed by a watery mint blast.
Aqua Allegoria by Guerlain is a mint/aromatic treat – and like Roadster by Cartier features a lightly sweet dry down. Please try it. Just as good as Herba Fresca.
I love mint in fragrance. But I’m weird like that.
I meant Aqua Allegoria Mentafollia. Duh.
alice in wonderland by parfums d’imperfiction lists mint as one of its main ingredients; i’ve never tried it but am about to order a sample of this very niche potion, looks intriguing, mint and violet and woods.
Ahhh, March, that mint you left in Santa Fe just reached my Phoenix garden. It didn’t hitchhike, it crawled. And we have the high adobe walls all around the house. Well, the sun doesn’t kill it here, and it looks good around the birdbath.
I think it has too strong a connection with Mylanta, foot scrubs, toothpaste and gum to make a good perfume. I like the idea of mint more than the taste itself. It’s sort of the antithesis of a chili–it’s a cool mouthfeel, and who needs that in a perfume?
And about Bonner’s brith-control–he’s right, you know. Who’s going to bed you while you are running around the room screaming and slapping your nether regions?
With you on your Doctor Bronner explanation! 🙂 And I agree about the mint-medicine connection as well, it makes sense to me.
I really enjoy Herba Fresca, though I haven’t worn it in a long time. Maybe I should pull it out again :).
Dislike mint in anything except peppermint and thin mint ice creams (the premium kind, with bits of cut-up candy.) Yep, even my toothpaste and fluoride rinse are cinnamon. So no mint fragrances to recommend, but your idyllic descriptions of summer on the porch impel me to call for sangria recipes. I haven’t found the perfect recipe yet, but it’s SO refreshing on the patio on a hot, DRY California evening. . . for aroma therapy I’ll pinch a twig of rosemary or turn over the basil leaves lying in a drying dish. March, rosemary and all those Mediterranean herbs like a dry climate and can’t take much (if any) frost, so it will have to be mint for your summer days. But have you a good sangria recipe to share?
I was in Florida once (on the panhandle) and there was a guy who had a huge bush of rosemary growing in his yard. He said “Come here — wanna smell something really great?” and took me over to it and rubbed a handfull of the stems and leaves between his hands. The aroma was incredible! I was just floored by how gorgeous rosemary in such a large quantity (he had basically a quarter of the shrub between his palms as he rubbed) could be!
If it was growing in Florida, then rosemary can put up with humidity. Maybe DC is just too nippy in winter?
Okay, Gretchen and Carter — in a duh moment, I realized my h-core gardening neighbor has a rosemary bush growing that is certainly the largest I’ve ever seen in this area — against a southern wall, with good drainage and well protected from the wind. Most of the outdoor rosemary around here stays herb-pot size, and her bush probably comes up past my knees. Anyhoodle, I figure rosemary must need a combo of dry feet and protection from extreme cold. I have to replace my outdoor plant about every three years. I’d love it if I could grow them in a row like I have with my lavender, which seems to hack the local weather a little better.
Aw, Gretchen, you made me tear up a little. Among the things I miss about my late mother in law is her sangria. They lived in Spain for awhile (the Cheese was born there) and that woman made the best sangria and gazpacho I have ever had. Unfortunately I don’t have either recipe. She sort of threw them together, and my efforts have never measured up. Just ask her sons. 🙂
I never had any luck keeping rosemary growing outside year-round in DC, but I’m one lousy gardener anyway, so don’t go by me. Where did they live in Spain? I lived in Alicante as a kid and, yes, authentic Spanish gazpacho (it has bread in it) and sangria are incredible! Also paella. There were a million variations on it — every cook claiming to have the *authentic* recipe. But what I remember most about Spain was the goats in the olive and lemon trees.
They lived in Madrid, back in the day. And dangit, where’s your comment about mice?
Your description of the JM cracked me up.
We have not yet done our equivalent of your porch cleaning: cleaning the patio furniture and weeding between the flagstones. It still doesn’t feel like summer to me at all.
Yeah…. it’s going to feel like summer starting tomorrow when the twins are underfoot whining at me that they’re bored. Then it’ll feel like summer. 😉 Now I need to stock up on some cheesy paperbacks for porch reading.
I love to smell mint leaves and drink minty beverages and eat Breyer’s Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream (no green food coloring!) but I’m not all that drawn by the idea of mint in fragrance, either. The only mint fragrance I think I’ve tried is Soivohle Daybreak Violin, which has a breath of mint at the opening and then turns into the most cool, dry, refreshing green floral. (Breath of mint = breath mint??? where’d that phrase come from?)
I like “breath of mint”!
CdG has another mint, it’s in the Sherbet series….Peppermint I think? I used to enjoy it, but don’t really wear mints anymore. You know where it smells great though? On the dogs 🙂 I just put a spritz on one palm, rub them together and then lightly run my hands over their fur. It’s not enough to get through to their skin or heavy enough to make them sneeze and boy howdy! does it ever improve their value as lap-warmers!
Wait… are you the one who scents your dogs? We had drama on here once about that, I swear! Or, wait. Maybe it was about the way their feet smell like Fritos….
Awww, the frito paws. So lurvley.
My dog Dash sneezes like crazy when I spray most perfumes, but Lark is cool.
Here’s an interesting mint factoid: it’s often associated with paranormal activity. Many people reporting ghostly visitations describe the smell of mint before the specter appears! Creeeepy….
My recent scent association with mint comes from a patch of wild mint that was growing beneath a big old jasmine vine in my yard this spring. Talk about intense! A double whammy of the purest deep South stank. For a couple of weeks it smelled like we were living in a Faulkner novel! Between the fetid sweetness of the jasmine and the hyper astringency of the mint, it was pretty overpowering and was literally making my partner gag (though I actually kind of dug it)…
Paranormal activity? That is weird. And of course I love the idea of the jasmine vine and the mint, that sounds like heaven (for a few weeks, anyway.)
LOL at “purest deep South stank.” My first summer in Florida, I stepped outside one night and realized it smelled really funky out there. Ah the Faulknerian smell of flowers and rotting vegetation! I’m sure one day someone will bottle that.
What a great idea! We could do a Tallahassee version (top notes of the aforementioned stank), an Orlando version (plasticky lipstick and Red Bull notes along with some salt to capture the sweating midwesterners at Disney) and a Miami version (the scent of of drag racing Ferraris and Cuban coffee)…
Near the ocean, Florida smelled relatively clean. But get inland a little…. actually, the most smell-intense southern city I ever went to was (pre-flood) New Orleans. In college, flat broke. God, it was wonderful.
I lived in inland Virginia and North Carolina for ten years … there’s nothing like going out in the middle of a moonlit night in the heat of summer when it’s still 90+ Fahrenheit out, the humidity is close to 100%, everything smells of honeysuckle and decay; the insects are screaming so loudly you can’t hear yourself think. And in the morning the sun rises like a hot copper coin, and you long to be on the coast, listening to beach music with a rum-laced RC cola in your hand. I long for a perfume that will capture the soul, the essence of that experience!
Regarding mint and the paranormal: maybe that explains the hallucinations after a bucket of mint juleps …
Yes, yes…Herba Fresca has mint in it. Tenacious enough for an AA, too, but it is part of that wacky grassy herby thang, so if you don’t like the rest of it, you’re not going to be happy with it for mint purposes.
I love the idea of a mint fragrance…I think I would really like a good a) mint tea (will have to seek out the Ava Luxe mentioned above), b) a sort of gin ricky that emphasizes mint instead of lime.
BTW, I tried to be clever and imbed a Google on gin ricky there…that “Let Me Google it for You” made me snarf my tea. No mint in my morning tea, so I can’t leave it and call it my SOTD… 😉
How great is LMGTFY? It was a running gag…. I should have said, I first saw it in comments on NST. We were chatting about stuff people ask you (via computer) instead of simply googling it.
Looks like I’m going to have to try that Ava Luxe!
GpM is actually a pretty simple little scent, I think. But! I’m getting way more geranium than mint so my mileage may be varying….we’ll see waht you think (you got a sample, right?)
xo>-)
Mistress S –
Getting likkered-up on Vilmart et Cie NV (gooood stuff) so this will be quick – did you try LZ’s Geranium Rose Mint?
okay – that’s it. typing over. Champagne taking over and leaving NO prisoners…
xo>-)
Dang. See, had I known, I woulda high tailed it on over and made you share. 😉
Nope, have not tried any of the new LZ quartet. Not that I don’t intend to…
Am I the only one who has a dog in the Geranium pour Monsieur fight? I love that stuff – I smell the rosy geranium right off – but then, I’m predisposed to smell geranium (I wear the essential oil and it’s in my night cream (Jo Malone but you can get the same effect by mixing some geranium essen. oil into Cetaphil cream or olive-based squalane oil) and I like how the mint amps it up a bit in the GpM. Liz Zorn just did a Geranium and Mint cologne (hang on: Geranium Rose Mint). It might do for you what GpM did not. I haven’t yet tried it but it’s on my list.
March, I am stunned! that you are lovin’ White Jasmine and Mint! Though I probably shouldn’t be, as it works exactly as you describe. It is a zesty little bubble. I always feel like I’m too big to wear it (size issues right now, don’tcha know:-( – sort of like the QE2 sailing out of port with a small mouse or a kitten clinging to the anchor rope)
Dr Bronner’s! I used to love that stuff but the base was always a bit off-putting (I just went on the site (couldn’t remember ‘castile’) and wow! what a wacky photo!!! drbronner.dot.com)
off to figure out the SotD
xo>-)
I woulda shoulda coulda let you put some o’ that on skin when we went sniffin’, but as you could tell, I was a woman on a mission, and had to surrender the pale to other plans. But there will be another chance, soon…important to do, I think, because on paper, that Geranium pM was a bit of a mess.
Come to think of it, a mess that calls to mind the AA Herba Fresca…hang on now…developing a “flight” to sniff…
Really, Liz? That sounds like a winning combination. And as I said up there somewhere, I think the Geranium is getting a positive reception. I didn’t dislike it, I just get All That Mint. Didn’t sting as much as the Dr. Bronner’s though 🙂
I’d have bet you a hundred bucks I’d hate White Jasmine & Mint, but somehow it works on me. You’re right, though, it’s a little helium balloon of a thing.
I do love mint in beverages — mint juleps, Pimms… ooh, is 9:30 a.m. too early for a cocktail? — but I need to try more minty fragrances (other than the divine Dr. B). I did like the hint o’ mint in Cartier Roadster, but not enough to buy it; AA Herba Fresca and the Ava Luxe MMT are on the list, although I haven’t had any luck with the ALs so far.
Oh, and I don’t know which CdG has mint, but it’s definitely not Leaves: Tea — that’s the dark, rubbery tea one.
Oy, now I’m driving people to drink? Thanks for the Tea update, I remember loving that one, and that’s probably why. I like my sweet tea, sure, but those dark weird ones are fabulous too.
I’m plugging this e.ver.y.where so please excuse me if I have before… but for mint you really, really gotta try Ava Luxe Moroccan Mint Tea. I can’t stand citrus frags, so I was rather stuck with my dog-days-of-summer-can’t-wear-anything-help-me niche. Along trots MMT. It’s mint, but not toothpasty. There’s *some* tea and a dash of sugar, but way more mint. I don’t wear anything else on hot days, and it lasts a lifetime.
L’Occitane Thé Vert a la Menthe does a good job too, although that has more tea and doesn’t last as long.
You’ve sold me on “mint but not toothpasty.” I like mint toothpaste just fine btw but there’s something about mint toothpaste in fragrance that makes me slightly queasy.
Yah, that was my problem with Geranium pour Monsieur in a nutshell: it reminded me of toothpaste too much.
Glad to have started a lemming 😀
Hey, Widder A –
Let’s trade noses for an hour. I’m getting ONLY geranium, with a little hint of mint. I never smell TOO much mint – and I’m not even a mint-freak!
huh. ain’t perfume strange…
xo>-)
Now, that explains a few things…’twas mint up front and down the back whilst dribbling in between for me…
I rather like Ava Luxe Moroccan Mint Tea – refreshing, decent longevity. It’s on my “near miss” list.
I remember fondly drinking my grandmother’s iced tea with fresh mint from the garden as a child, in the days before air conditioning. She would serve it to us in aluminum tumblers anodized in bright colors that would become so cold with the ice that they would be uncomfortable to hold. We would sit on the front porch waiting for the cool of evening and talk to the neighbors as they passed by, back when folks in neighborhoods like ours still went out for a long walk on a summer’s evening. I developed the following simple recipe to recover some of that memory:
2 quarts room-temperature iced tea
2 large oranges (I use seedless navel, or blood oranges)
2 limes
12 ounce can of carbonated water or carbonated citrus soda (Squirt, Sprite, etc.)
handful of fresh mint
sugar or sugar syrup to taste
Juice the oranges and limes into a container. Crush the mint well in the juice to release the mint’s flavor. Add the iced tea and stir well, crushing the mint against the side to release the flavor. Sweeten to taste. Add the carbonated water or soda and stir gently to mix. I like to leave in the mint leaves and throw in one of the juiced limes, but you can strain the tea if you prefer. Serve over ice.
A beautiful reminiscence! I remember those aluminum multicolored glasses, too.
Oh, I remember them as well! My great-aunt would serve us minted lemonade as well as sweet iced mint tea in those… and the condensation on the tumbler would run down your hand and drip onto your bare legs…
Ah yes, the aluminum glasses! My grandmother would give us lemonade in them, and I know that “too cold to touch” feeling well. It was great.
Mint should be in drinks, surrounded by chocolate, or in shampoo. In perfume? No. Maybe it’s the toothpaste association, but I just don’t want to smell like it.
I used to love the little terrycloth *sweaters* that were slipped onto glasses in the warm weather. I would love to have some of those right now, as a matter of fact. On thing I DO have, and love, is a silver drinking straw that has a little spoon on the end of it — I think they’re called hollow iced tea spoons — love the feel the the ice-cold metal on my lips, plus when your ice cubes melt it pulls up the not-yet-diluted part of the drink. Great little invention!
I tried so hard to chase down a set of those spoons a couple of years back…you can find them as “spoon straws” or vice versa…there are some really beautiful ones…
Thanks for the recipe, that sounds delicious! I wish it would heat up another 5 – 10 degrees, which it will, and I will make it. I have plenty of mint.
Those tumblers! Everyone had them. They were very popular around the pools as well, I can remember the parents drinking cocktails out of them… I saw some of them in a catalog recently, I can’t remember where. I was filled with warm nostalgia, but I ended up not getting them because of the condensation someone mentions below. With the kids it would drive me nuts!
Turns out (and it’s no surprise) the Vermont Country Store has them:
http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/browse/Home/For-The-Home/Kitchen/Glassware/Tumblers/D/30103/P/1:100:1030:10350:101200/I/f02923?evar3=BROWSE
Vasily, thanks! I should have looked – jeez, that’s probably where I saw them.
Sorry, you wound up in the spam filter because of the embedded link. You’d feel our pain if you looked in our filter…
Vermont Country Store has them:
For the Home>Kitchen>Glassware
Item 33693
http://www.vermontcountrystore.com
Love my screened porch, hate having to clean it in the spring. Sat out there after dinner yesterday with the fountain bubbling and the birds singing-ahhhh. Wish I’d known about the bucket trick oh-so many years ago when I took a piece of mint from a friend and planted it next to the patio. Within two years, we had mint on the OTHER side of the patio, next to the garage…you get the idea. My husband discovered RoundUp that year and bye-bye mint. Can’t say I miss it. Fine in tea, but don’t especially like it in my toothpaste and certainly wouldn’t seek it out for fragrance. I think the only way I like mint is surrounded by chocolate-say maybe a York’s Peppermint Patty!
Huh, so you CAN kill mint. I wasn’t sure it was possible.
My sister and I were always stuck with the chore of screen-porch cleaning when I was little, and I remember bickering about it. But that porch was smaller, less furnished, and on a concrete slab (a traditional 1940s side porch.) Our current screen porch is farmhouse-style along the back and much bigger, with furniture and wood floor. It’s so much more of a pain to clean! But too gross to sit on when it’s dirty, I’m going to be thrilled now that we can use it.
With you on the mint chocolate — and I am not a huge ice cream lover but am partial to a really good mint chocolate chip that isn’t dyed green 🙂
A friend is sending me a sample of Geranium pour Monsieur and I keep telling myself that it has more than just mint in its list of notes. If I psych myself up enough, could I smell them? This is probably just a bit of foolishness on my part though. I don’t even crave mint in ice tea, or shampoo, or shower gel. Or planted in the garden, which is a good thing, because with all of this rain, it would probably take over the neighborhood. So I guess that curiousity alone has me seeking out a sample of Geranium. Maybe it will be my breakthrough mint?
I think all the reviews I’ve seen of Geranium have been positive. Maybe I have mint-magnifying skin or something? I am looking forward to hearing what you think of it.
Your porch sounds lovely. I’ve always loved porches, and the ancillary living space behind them is a nice bonus :).
My one (marginally) minty fragrance is l’Ete en Douce. DD likes it too, so another decant is on it’s way. I was enjoying it, but not yet committed, but since she wants to wear it too, *another* decant is in order.
Otherwise, my preferred mint consumption is food/garden based. I don’t have any mint planted yet this year, but clearly, I must rectify this horrifying oversight (thanks for the reminder). Various mentions of mint-laced libations above are creating some cravings, too.
We have a wicker furniture set on ours, it’s set up like a living room. One of my great pleasures in life is dozing on the couch, and reading out there late at night with the fireflies and the heat.
Whoops — pressed save too soon. There are lots of fun mint varieties. As you can see from comments, just be careful where you plant it! It spreads like gangbusters.
Not a fan of mint in fragrance so much, but I love it in other things. Summer wouldn’t be summer without Dr Bronner’s Peppermint Soap and mint ice tea. My grampa taught me to bury a bucket in the ground to plant mint in, since it spreads through the roots. Eventually it overruns the bucket but it does slow it down for a couple of years. Enjoy your porch! Ever since reading about Lubin’s Gin Fizz, I’ve been on a gin fizz kick. Put it in a chilled glass and there’s no better porch libation, imo. 😉
And another Dr. Bronners fan! It is great (if powerful) stuff, and the bottle’s a hoot. I tried to isolate my mint varieties in one area of the yard, but as you know it has a habit of wandering.
I love porches. Adding an actual gin fizz sounds perfect.
Great in hair and shower gels. Ulta used to sell a big jug of dark green mint shower gel but I haven’t seen that in awhile — it was great on summer mornings. Mint is perfect in summer drinks; did somebody mention gin and tonics? Or Thai food. Or Vietnamese food. The only minty perfume I’ve tried is Rosine Diabolo Rose, and the first few seconds is nice and then it’s just rose. The JM sounds interesting, because JM Grapefruit lasted quite awhile on me, very unusual! The essential oils in mints must be extremely volatile, because the scent is so overpowering when you pull up the plants (not to mention the plants themselves!) but it goes quickly, too.
Seems like folks are fans of the drinks, body washes and food, but not really in the perfumes. I wonder why? It doesn’t smell “off” or wrong. Just not that appealing.
Peppermint essential oil keeps mice away. I’m just saying.
Um, these comments show up in random order in my email inbox, and your message was mixed in with the conversation about Dr. Bronners stinging the privy parts, so when I got to “keeping mice away” I was puzzled…. followed by hysterical laughter.
Works fer me 😉
You mean somebody got mice in their privy parts?
Ah, I love how your mind works, March. Let’s see…bugs, bleach….>mint! What comes to mind after those descriptors is a nice gin and tonic. Speaking of which, I am hoping the new Lubin Gin Fizz does what it says.
In theory, I love mint. Toothpaste, in ice tea, and just chawed as you do. I have not yet found a mint that work for my skin, though, and am doubtful about the Malone (yup-scent eating skin stuff).
I need to explore the AAs on the minty front, and remain curious about Le Geranium.
I kept stepping on the mint during the porch-cleaning, which is how it first got my attention… also as I was dumping some bleach water I wondered, will this kill the mint? Um, I doubt it.
I am excited about the Gin Fizz too. In fact, I still want some Lubin Vetiver.
One of my absolute favorite things in this universe is to sit on my back porch in the evenings next to a pot of mint and periodically pick off leaves of it to sniff. Kentucky Colonel and chocolate mint are my faves, but I grow at least 7 varieties in large pots (can’t handle the world domination ambition it gets in the ground). Due to this passion for the scent of mint, I’ve got a few mint dominant perfumes (my fave is the CdG and the AA Herba Fresca), but I find I almost never wear them. I really love the CdG and the HF and can’t imagine not having them there for when the mood strikes (every fifth blue moon), but it’s just not a note I crave in perfume form.
Hah, and even in pots you have to keep an eye on it. I have one patch of mint by the front steps that escaped from a pot on the walkway — it just sent out feelers until it hit ground! Considering how aggressively I pull it out and mulch it, I’m kind of impressed by its tenacity.
The lack of mint-fragrances fans on here today is interesting… hey, we love refreshing summer fragrances. We live in humid climates. I think we should love mint (like we love tea or citrus) and somehow, we don’t.
Well, I think we love mint as actual mint…and not as a note in a fragrance.
Well, yes, persackly, but why? In theory we should be loving its refreshing pick-me-up, but we … aren’t. Too strong? I’m trying to decide. I feel the same way about coriander and cilantro in scents, but that’s a whole nother topic.
For me I think it was from watching one too many Irish Spring commercials as a kid. I don’t remember if the stuff was actually mint — probably so jam-packed full of four-leaf clovers is the reason it was so green, right? — but I kinda got it into my head that it was minty fresh, minty green. Also, those Doublemint Twins got on my every last nerve…
I love mint. Love it in food, drink, grab a handful just to sniff. And then I realized…no desire to smell it in fragrance. I like it in shampoo (woo, pour some essential oil into the shampoo bottle) and bath soap (that crazy guy with all the biblical references). But nothing in the collection, and no desire to reach for to smell of on any particular day.
Dr. Bronners! I love his mint shampoo/body wash, but, uh … you gotta be careful about where you use it, that minty fresh feeling can sting a little. All I’m saying. 🙂
Aren’t you glad you commented?
Dr. Bronner’s mint soap is sooo nice in the summer, but word on the stinging. Doesn’t the kooky literature say it can be used as a douche, and possibly even birth control as well? My private parts are shuddering just thinking about it…
Hahahahaha!!!!!!!! I remember the first time I ever used it in the shower at someone else’s summer cabin. A generous pour, lathering up, loving the minty smell… cue the music from Jaws. Does it really say douche/bcp on the label?!?! Yeeeoooowwwwch!
Here you go: the 18-in-1 uses, straight from the late, great Dr. B himself. Read #6 and weep…
1. Always dilute for Shave-Shampoo-Massage-Dental Soap-Bath!
2. Peppermint is nature’s own unsurpassed fragrant Deodorant!
3. A drop is best Mint Toothpaste; brushes Dentures Clean!
4. A dash in water is the ideal Breath Freshener & Mouth Wash!
5. Peppermint Oil Soap for Dispensers, Uniforms, Baby, Beach!
6. Dilute for ideal After Shave, Body Rub, Foot Bath, Douche.
7. Hot Towel-Massage the entire body, always towards your heart.
8. Pets, silk, wool & body tingles head to toe – keeps cool!
9. 3 dashes in water rinse most Sprays Off fruit & vegetables!
10. 1/4 oz in qt H2O is Pest Spray! Dash, no rash Diaper-Soap!
Hooray for Dr. Bronner! Many moons ago…as in a couple o’ decades…a (male) friend gave this assessment/warning about Bronner’s mint: “It’s great…but I wouldn’t recommend it for your tender bits.” 😉
Oh, yeah, on the crazy Dr Bronner’s mint. I thought that went without saying vis a vis what a Russian facialist once referred to as “”your intime part.”
Well, YOU thought it went without saying, but I had to figure it out the hard way. 😉
ya gotta watch out for those Bigelow energizing (read – minty) body washes too. They smell all wonderful but limited utility 🙂
Thanks for the tip 😉
Maybe guys don’t have that issue? I never get a sting from that stuff.
As for mint in perfume, the Tom of Finland one grew on me a lot.
gardening with mint= pots. Same with rosemary. It will take over your entire yard if you let it.
Um, nope. Guys don’t have that issue, unless maybe you’re doing some intensive, fresh manscaping? I’m not sure I’d use it to shave…
Rosemary is I think more a CA (and south?) thing? They don’t get that big here (too cold?) They tend to die back, or just flat out die. I remember the first time I ever saw them growing like giant shrubs was in CA, I thought it was so beautiful.