First off, I hope all of you who celebrate it had a very happy Easter. I had a lovely holiday weekend, surrounded by spring favorites, and even better, springlike weather. The past few days have seen me up to my ears in the scent of hyacinth, either solo or in tandem with other florals. Among my faves: Serge Lutens’ Bas de Soie, Tom Ford’s Ombre de Hyacinth, Gucci Envy, and I think I detect a bit of hyacinth in the lush lilac-ness of Jean Patou’s Vacances. Ahhh … something about hyacinth just relaxes me and makes me happy, taking me to a simpler place and time.
In fact, the more I think about it, that’s exactly it. When I was a girl, I had one of those Coty Sweet Earth solid perfume compact trios and hyacinth was in one of the little compartments (accompanied by honeysuckle and ylang-ylang, which were also much-loved). Sure wish I had several of those again. So perhaps that’s from where the love of this flower springs, deep from the well of scent memory and a happy childhood. (I also recall having the grasses one with hay and clover, although that sounds like a bit of an allergy nightmare these days).
Only slightly off-topic but still on the happy subject of “hyacinth,” I recall many an evening spent doubled over in laughter at the antics of Hyacinth Bucket (“pronounced Bouquet,” thank you very much) in the hilarious Brit-com “Keeping Up Appearances.” The ever-snobby Hyacinth rolls her eyes at her down-market sisters Daisy and Rose, attempts to keep up with her wealthier sister Violet, and has her long-suffering next-door neighbors going to great pains to sneak out of the house without getting trapped by her. Silly, side-splitting fun, worth a half-hour of your time just to see actress Patricia Routledge’s wonderful brand of physical comedy: such expressions, such body language! 🙂
But back to fragrance. What about you — any hyacinth faves? Any other scents that we should try? Or what’s your favorite single note of spring?
I do hope everyone here in the Northern Hemisphere is getting a nice dose of spring after this roller-coaster winter, and that you folks in the Southern are enjoying a lovely autumn.
ADORE real hyacinths, just adore them. Swoon. But I’m iffy on perfumery hyacinth – it so often seems to go all metallic and chemical-unpleasant on me.
I absolutely hated P’s Bluebell (having the opposite reaction as ankathry up there – I loved the first ten floral-spicy minutes, and after that kept gritting my teeth against the industrial-accident horror) and the Tom Ford AND Bas de Soie. And Envy, I don’t like Envy either. All of them are jaw-clenching dreadful on me. I don’t know quite what it is having that effect, but I have to assume that hyacinth is part of it since so many hyacinth scents seem to strike me with that metallic effect.
On the other hand, I like Grand Amour very much. And E Coudray Jacinthe et Rose, and I dole out my sample of Vacances very deliberately on special occasions. Love Chamade too, though I don’t get a lot of hyacinth out of it. Leonard de Leonard and Silences and Safari, I love those. There’s a big slug of hyacinth in my darling Crown Bouquet and it’s noticeable in Deneuve, too. Oh! and Smell Bent Florist’s Fridge, that’s a good one.
I just spent a ridiculous amount on a bottle of Jacinthe des Bois on Ebay. My SO said I could have anything I wanted and he was probably a little sorry for doing so! I just love the smell of hyacinth so much, that and Narcissus are my favorite Spring smells, and grass and dirt too!! I’ve got the Jacinthe et Feu des Bois candle already, but can anyone recommend a very green Springtime hyacinth candle?
Congrats, Samantha, on your amazing JdB score!! I bet it’s wonderful. I’m not sure about such a candle, but it sounds terrific — maybe someone else on the Posse knows of one. But I will go on the hunt just to see and report back.
Not a huge hyacinth fan, but I do like a bit of Chamade and Bluebell once in a while.
Howdy, Tara! Another Chamade and Bluebell fan — lovely! I’ve only had an initial sniff of Chamade so far but am greatly liking it. Now to see about Bluebell. Thanks!
I like Penhaligon’s Bluebell, which is more about wet hyacinths than bluebells, I think. The first 10 minutes are appalling, but it gets gorgeous, green, and spicy after that.
Oh, my — wet hyacinths, you say? I’ve gotta get my nose onto that, especially if it goes green and spicy. Yum! Thanks for sharing.
OMG! Scent Twins! I wore TF’s Hyacinth last night and was trying to figure out what it reminded me of….and it hit me: Caron’s Montaigne! The aldehydes in Montaigne offset the BWFs and give the whole thing a Spring feeling. I have a house full of hyacinth bulbs right now – smelling divine!!!
xoxoxoxoA
Darling, that Montaigne sounds lovely — must try ASAP. Lucky you to have all those hyacinth bulbs about; it must be amazing!
If, of thy mortal goods, thou art bereft,
And from thy slender store two loaves
alone to thee are left,
Sell one and with the dole,
Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul
– Muslihuddin Sadi,
13th Century Persian Poet
I had that stuck in my head, my dad used to recite that.
you betcha!!!
Lovely! Thanks for sharing!
I had heard that before but it didn’t click until you shared that lovely verse.
“Mind the lorry, dear.”
“it’s parked, Hyacinth.”
“i cannot have you running into parked lorries when it’s the evening of one of my famous candle light suppers… the vicar is coming!”
“you ought to worry more about the vicar running into a parked lorry.”
Whoo-hoo, Einsof!! Your quotes of hers are spot-on and have me grinning like crazy as I read them. Thanks!!
Ann, I’m so psyched that you’re talking about hyacinth because I absolutely love it! I’ve got a bottle of both SL Bas de Soie and Gucci Envy. They are both great spring hyacinth scents. I’m also a fan of other spring notes like Lily of the Valley and Narcissus. Those three are in a lot of the green florals that I love so much. I wore Bas de Soie all day for Easter yesterday.
I’m so glad you included Hyacinth Bucket in your list of hyacinths. She is a scream! I still love catching that show in reruns and laughing at her silliness.
Ah, yes, Dina — great minds do think alike, I’m finding! 🙂 And you smelled great in your Easter BdS. Glad to see another “Bucket” fan — she really is a scream, isn’t she?
Spring. Lol. It was snowing here yesterday. Not accumulating but still, there were flakes in the air and there’s still a fair amount of snow in the yard. At this rate my hyacinths will be blooming in June I think. I was just watching the weather and it could be a rain/snow mix on Wednesday too.
I loved Muguet de Bois too. I remember giving myself a spritz with the tester whenever mom and I were at the drugstore.
Spring? What spring? So sorry to hear about flakes in your neck of the woods, Poodle. But you will enjoy the hyacinths so much whenever they do decide to pop up. And I’m right there with you on the drugstore spritzes — I loved to do that, too. Back in the day a trip to my local Eckerd’s was such fragrant fun!
Hey Ann,
One of my all time favourite TV shows was Keeping Up Appearances. We have the box set here and I can watch the whole thing again and again. The bucket woman, so funny. Even now I’m smiling in memory.
Portia x
Hey, Portia! So glad to find another “Bucket” fan! She was such a hoot, wasn’t she? I need to get the boxed set for my dear mother-in-law; the PBS station near her doesn’t run the show anymore, and that would brighten her days in the nursing home considerably. I just watched a clip or two on Youtube and was nearly falling out of my chair laughing, even after all these years.
I had my schnoz in actual hyacinths this morning, in the yard… what a wonderful smell. I like my hyacinth all femme and blowsy — Annick Goutal Grand Amour, and seconding that vote for Chamade. Fingers crossed, it is finally feeling like spring.
Howdy, March! Lucky you to sniff the real thing. I haven’t smelled Grand Amour in ages — definitely need to dig my sample out and revisit.
Vacances is one of my all time favorites and, yes, there are definitely some hyacinths in it blooming beneath the lilacs. I’m really hoping that reviews of Patou’s new reissue of Vacances will be good My bottle of the original is dwindling away and I hate to think of reaching the last drop.
Yay, Kathryn — so happy to see another Vacances lover! I, too, am hoping that the reissue will be a hit. I have one or two little sample vials of it and I use them VERY sparingly, so it would be so nice for us all to be able to get a full bottle.
I’m so excited for the Vacances rerelease.
I have been wearing Chamade, it is mostly a green scent on my skin and I mainly like to wear it in spring. Tulips are the real spring flowers for me, but so far we only have snowdrops, crocus and other very early flowers outdoors.
Hi, Ingeborg! You must be a mind reader because I’ve just now tried a sample of Chamade and am really liking it. Might have to do a separate post on it. Since you enjoy tulips, have you tried Byredo’s La Tulipe?
Hi Ann,
Can you believe it? I actually have not tried Byredo perfumes at all. La Tulipe is one of those I think I just might like!Have not tried that line because I do not like the SAs at the nearest place selling Byredo. Silly really, to feel intimidated by SAs, but there are so many new launches to try at other places anyway, plus all those goodies available to test via StC.
I know what you mean about those kind of SAs; they kind of bug me, too, but just march in there, look them right in the eye and test away! 🙂 STC has samples of Byredo and La Tulipe so you could try it/them in your next order.
I too had that same Coty Sweet Earth compact! Honeysuckle was my favourite of the three. As for spring flowers, I always fall for lily of the valley (possibly because I grew up with them).
Lindaloo, great minds think alike! 🙂 When you were young, did you wear Coty’s Muguet de Bois? I think my local drugstore carried it and I wore it like crazy back then. Still enjoy many LOV scents.
I had that solid pack too! Along with Dr. Pepper Lipsmackers (the FAT ones) are lovely childhood memories. I think I wore Jovan Musk then too…
Hey, Rina! Thanks for mentioning the Dr Pepper Lipsmackers — I had one, too, and love, love, loved it!! And I recall a bit of Jovan Musk somewhere along the line as well.