Best Winter Perfumes 2017

We just wrapped up that Best of 2016, but it’s 2017 now and time for our Best Winter Perfumes.  Make sure to check out Grain de Musc, Bois de Jasmin, The Non-Blonde and Now Smell This for their take on Best Winter Perfumes 2017.

Musette sez:  This is a SUCKY Winter for me.  Winter sucks in general but this one is rough.  You’d think I would be wearing comfort scents but to be honest, I don’t have any!  I mean, the ones I consider ‘comfort’  read as OMG!  RUUNNNN! to a lot of others.  March stole Mitsouko for this post and y’all already know about my obsessive love for vintage No5 (and contemporary No5 body cream) – so I’mo shake it up a bit.  I’ve been testing a new perfume line, Quartana – and I am going to review it a bit down the road – but let me just say, I am madly in love with Digitalis.  How could I not, right?  Poisonous as hell – but beneficial, too!  I love that.  And galbanum-based, with a Scary Wet Leaf Accord, it smells viciously divine!

Patty – I’m going to borrow some from the Best of 2016 to lap over into best winter perfumes.  What’s hugging me pretty tight now is Dawn Spencer Hurwitz Chinchilla.   DSH Dark Moon has become my winter obsession.  Dawn did this as a limited holiday scent for 2016, and she sent me a sample with an order.  That poor sample – I’ve been compulsively smelling and applying it since. Normally chocolate perfumes are a no, but when I do, it is embarrassing.  Notes of  red wine, dark chocolate, and holiday spices. I suspect I need to buy it to stop – well, my sample is almost gone anyway.  So there you go, and just in time for Valentine’s Day!  But my favorite winter perfumes this year have become everything Frederic Malle, but especially Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady and The Night, well, together. I know, it was very brilliant.

Still wearing all of the Sauf incense fragrances, they are perfect in winter and summer too, I’m just using the excuse of winter to wear them a few times a week.

Tom – For those of you not glued to the TV, winter this year has decided to bring all of the rain and snow we didn’t get over the past decade. Most of it has hit in the northern part of the state, where it will actually fall as snowpack, which will do us the most good as it melts and feeds our reservoirs. We will finally be able to flush without a twinge of guilt! Here in LA, we have been getting cold (well, cold for here) weather and almost daily rainstorms. One particular day we had something called a “microburst” which is a phenomena where it ones down in sheets, buckets and tubfuls in the space of a minute. Our courtyard drains weren’t up to it, so I was ankle-deep in water trying to direct the water away from my apartment. Oh the glamour! But at least I wasn’t like those poor people in Laurel canyon who had a big piece of their foundation come a tumbling down.

So what do I do when it’s like this? Reach for the heavy hitters of course! Uncle Serge comes to the rescue when the weather is lousy and cold: a dose of Chene, MKK or Mandarine Mandarin are sure-fire bets (especially when combined with Netflix, bankies and delivery pizza) to keep spirits, if you will pardon the expression, afloat.

March – As the wet, gray days roll by, I’m all curled up in my old winter faves of the most soothing sort: Feminite du Bois, Poison (hehe!), and various Serge Lutens.  Do you remember the first time you smelled a particular scent that made the world tilt sideways?  I still remember, years ago, putting on SL Fleurs d’Oranger and thinking, huh, maybe not, and then running out the door with my toddlers to go to the park.  It was a gorgeous fall day, sunny and dry, leaves falling everywhere.  After awhile I kept smelling this incredible, lovely smell… and eventually figured out it was Fleurs in full bloom, that one really does take a while to warm up on me.  Memories like that are the best kind.  Right now I’m smelling cream of wheat because I’m eating some, and what a lovely comfort scent!

Portia – OK, So you know it’s Mid-Summer here in Oz so I’m going to give you three favourite winter scents that I love to wear. A Vintage, Modern and Budget.
Vintage Winter: Samsara Parfum by Guerlain: So I recently bought a vintage Samsara Parfum and the thickness, the luscious sandalwood creaminess and the everything about it scream fabulous. I do have a modern one too and while it is a little different I think only perfumistas will really notice a huge difference. It’s the good stuff.
Modern Winter: Fougere Bengale by Parfum d’Empire: Curry spices, tobacco and hay create a warming and interesting winter wear. Without being weird Fougere Bengale manages to be happily odd and effortlessly wearable.
Budget Winter: Fancy Nights by Jessica Simpson: For less than the price of McDonalds you can have the cousin of Shalimar with the patchouli turned up to 9. It’s hefty and gluey but will warm even the coolest winter night. Imagine if really good coffee had the scent of patchouli, that’s how intoxicating Fancy Nights is.

So what’s making your favorites for best winter perfumes this year?