Angela Flanders Parchment was the perfume mentioned not just a couple of ti
mes when I was hunting for a library/book perfume. I loved Byredo Bibliotheque, but it was a nod to the library I wanted to smell. CB I Hate Perfume In the Library is still the most realistic of all library/book scents, but, well, the hunt was on for the Angela Flanders Parchment – it wasn’t exactly it either!
You can only buy Parchment from her shop in Britain, she has to put it in a 30 ml bottle since the dangerous goods fees on a bottle over 30 mls is ridiculous. Now, she could send as many 30 ml bottles as I wanted, but one 50 ml bottle was dangerous. Yeah, I know. 10 bottles of 30 mls each totaling 300 mls is fine, but 50 mls all in one dangerous bottle is not gonna happen.
It is a gorgeous fragrance, and the only notes listed are vanilla, spices, citrus and resins. It opens a little Pomander’ish – similar to that new Serge thing – and then it dries down to something softer, a little more papery with these charming peeps of spice. It is really special, but still not the library in my head I want to smell.
So I am thinking I want that library – the old, musty one above – and nobody makes that scent. But maybe if I combine CB In the Library, Angela Flanders Parchment and Byredo Bibliotheque all together, I might get the one in my head? I’m trying that as soon as my replacement In the Library gets here. I love all three of these scents, but none of them are quite what I want yet.
Am I missing a library scent? Maybe I need to do those three and then layer Messe di Minuit over the top? For the musty, dusty books, you know. What do we think? So now that I have my perfumes back – yeah!! – I can do drawings easily again.
What scent do you want someone to make for you that you can’t quite find, even though you keep stumbling across beautiful things that are close? I’ll draw a winner from comments and send them a little sample set of the Angela Flanders Parchment, Byredo Bibliotheque, CB In the Libary and some Mess di Minuit. You can see if I’m right!
High on my list of scents that probably won’t ever make perfumes are Chinaberry blossom and shell ginger flower.
Have you tried adding a spray of Vanilla Insensee to your book melange? I don’t know if it still smells the same since my bottle is several years old and has certainly improved with age, but I get a distinct memory of the old library of my childhood from it.
Times when I’m driving in the car with windows down and these amazing scents come wafting in….and then they’re gone cause you’ve driven on. So good!
I still haven’t tried any Angela Flanders…not easy to come by in the US. Someday, though!
I’m still looking for my perfect wisteria fragrance. Most of the ones I’ve tried are too soapy-clean or they’re really freesia or lilac or something else entirely. I want the delicate muskiness of real wisteria on the vine, plus the cool mineral note of the stone wall where it grows, and some green grass growing on the ground below.
Patty,
Your idea of combining all four sounds brilliant! I would love to be entered in the drawing. Thanks. Does anyone do stephanotis besides Floris? It’s a sister to tuberose and smells so good.
I can’t remember a stephanotis, but I’m going to keep my nose peeled for it!
DNEM – but I keep wanting the Perfect Peony scent, but don’t really know what that is! Probably it would be a combination of the vaunted, highly fragrant Duchesse de Nemours, coupled with a hit of Jonquilla Narcissus (sooo fragrant but elusive, as most Spring flowers are – part of their charm) all a bit chiaroscuro (maybe a hint of violet, with that ionone that shuts down the receptors, then releases them again?) The whole would have to have some non-aquatic (no-frog) rain in there, as well, with that whole Green thing wrapping it together, as all Peonies (to me, anyway) always smell Green.
xoxoxo
Oh, same!!! Antica has a peony room fragrance that isn’t bad, but it doesn’t have that in there. I wish they would make it a perfume!
Ignore me, it is daphne they have, not peony, though I think they have a peony combo. The daphne is really good, there was ONE daphne out there that was amazing, got discontinued, then someone else did one, Hiram? Not sure why no love for daphne fragrances. 🙁
The perfume that I wanted was made for me over twenty years ago…..Sarah Horowitz custom blend Brigitte….. grapefruit, lilac, sandalwood, vanilla, musk. Because of Portia I was reunited with it last year.
That sounds amazing!
I love Angela Flanders Parchment too. How about Commodity Book?
Your kitty is beyond adorable
I had not heard of this one, but I’m off to find it!
Ugh, discontinued and very pricey now. 🙁
Patty,
I think you need to wear a few sprays of any one of these and then spritz the air and walk through M/MINK by Byredo. It will add the furry carpet, dust, old air, layers of lightly sweaty humanity, cat fur, tears, tea and hopeless longing that every library needs to feel right.
Portia xx
YES.
Holy cats & crackers, Portia! I nearly burst into tears, reading this! YesyesYES! My ex-DH ran a used&rare bookshop, with the ceiling-high shelves and rolling ladders – and one of the best scents EVAH was going in there, early in the am, before humanity added any more to the air. It was magical! xoxoxo
I had no idea your ex was a book guy. Then you have EXACTLY that smell in your mind too. Nothing else quite like it.
Oh, excellent idea. I had forgotten about that one!
Please report if you do it Patty.
There’s a Parchment candle! I have the Byredo candle in Bibliotheque. It’s nice but not astonishing. Think I might have to get a sample of Parchment perfume (the candle is £45 and no small size — maybe I’ll email her and ask about that …). Still grumping I can’t get CBIHP stuff here.
I can send you some!
Tx. I’ve ordered some samples from them, including Parchment.
Let’s see. The library fragrance you’re concocting with all four of those sounds pretty darn good to me. There are so many perfumes that I would love to take bits and pieces of – like the orange at the beginning of Hermes Eau de Merveilles (but not the ending), the soft spiciness from Tea for Two but not the initial tea smell, the delicious ambery end at the far drydown of Prada Amber – I’d love to put those together into something great just for me. Thanks for the draw – happy to hear that you are reunited with your perfumes!
Oh, wow, I’m drooling over that combo. I think I have all three, I need to try and see if i can figure out a timing to put them all on with those things coming!
Are you talking about Poesie’s Messe de Minuit? I love it!
I suspect she’s talking about the original Etro Messe (aka the Cryptkeeper!)
that always cracks me up, March – you weirdos with the alternate (and way better) names. Yes, that’s probably the one – I have NEVER figured out who would wear Cryptkeeper out in actual Pub-lick … but it’s a pretty amazing scent! xoxoxo
Yeah, Etro, cobwebs and dust and some other stuff, maybe mold?