The sun’s out. It’s cold, and will be for a couple more days, but then it looks like maybe, just maybe, we’ll start seeing the beginning of spring. Certainly, the spring flowers continue to do their thing, but I don’t think I’m going to do any planting in the ground for another two weeks. However, I’m cautiously hopeful.
We’re being told that this area (East Devon) is going to see some of the highest summer staycation traffic. I made the mistake of visiting the farm shop on Saturday afternoon and it was mad … completely and utterly mad … and that’s now, not June-August. How it can get any more crowded than this is beyond me, but it will. Had a chat with a neighbour who lives on the lane through the village and he complained bitterly that it’s already way too busy on weekend days and he’ll have to walk his dog around 7 AM to avoid the ‘weekend warriors’ (30-something guys in bike gear riding fancy bikes hell-bent through the village, sometimes in flocks).
Anyway, a friend sent some samples recently which I’m working my way through. One I’m quite taken with is Joyeux Osmanthe. Maison Rebatchi is a Paris-based house that is new to me. If JO is any indication, though, I should sample their other stuff. Mohamed Rebatchi apparently wanted to translate the Maghreb in North Africa into fragrance and he worked with Maurice Roucel on this, which was released in 2018.
Notes list includes apricot, nectarine, green leaves (??), cinnamon, neroli, osmanthus, tuberose, orange blossom, jasmine, iris, honeysuckle, rose, cashmeran, amber, musk and cedar. It’s supposed to be a modern riff on tuberose.
On me, this starts out as a gorgeous slightly astringent fruity floral. I get apricot (a note I love) more than the nectarine, and the ‘green leaves’ do make a showing.
When I googled Osmanthus (pic from wiki) I got Devilwood as one name, along with sweet olive. You can buy the shrub from nurseries here and I’m now smitten (along with wanting way too many orange dahlias, but thankfully the ‘shrub’ is too big for my space).
Anyway, as this works its way along on my skin, it never loses that gorgeous fruitiness. It opens (and heats) up into a lush white floral with a slightly woody, pongy undercurrent.
The dry-down is the least interesting part of the perfume. Things sort of stop developing, I don’t get a ‘sense’ of tuberose at all (which is what Rebatchi was after apparently — a modern tuberose), and the fruit starts to get a little bit sharp.
Still, this is sort of happiness in a bottle – sunshine, fruit, flowers, wood. I doubt I’ll buy one (even though the 50ml size isn’t mad expensive — €96, which is $114 at current exchange rates) just because I’m trying to be well behaved (see: not buying an Osmanthus shrub). But I will certainly enjoy this while my sample lasts. Given our current post Brexit trade situation with the EU, I doubt I’ll try buying samples for a while (don’t want to receive a surprise customs bill). But if I do make it to Paris reasonably soon I’ll make a note to visit the shop.
So, do you know this house? If yes, what have you tried and what did you think?
Well that sounds absolutely delightful! I’m never sure I know exactly what “osmanthus” is supposed to smell like, although I did like the Hermes one a lot. Just the NAME of this Rebatchi one makes me want to try it.
Cinnamon,
I’m not familiar with that house, but I love the smell of osmanthus. To me it’s a lovely powdery apricot-y scent, but I’m not describing it very well. I need to sniff more scents with this note to “nail it down” in my sense of smell. Have you sniffed Hermes Hermessence Osmanthe Yunnan? That’s a gorgeous tea scent with osmanthus, very delicate and pretty. I’ve sampled it and enjoyed it.
I need to try this!I have a sweet-olive in my cool greenhouse(bought from Logee’s years ago)and love the scent.
If you care to grow it-outside in the sun in the summer,full sunny window in the winter.It blooms fall through early summer-tiny white blooms that pour out fragrance.
No, do not enable more plant purchases. I’m trying to be good.
That was my first thought, too, Cinnamon – but Logee’s just sent their catalogue… the fiends… xoxoxo
I don’t know the House but it’s a sensually elegant website, with close attention paid to the perfumers and their connection to Rebatchi.
Of course, you know I’m even more interested in WHICH ORANGE DAHLIAS!? do tell? xoxoxo
It is a good website and fairly easy to navigate. Dahlias … I’ve got two red ones coming but orange is in my head flower-wise right now. So, I caved and Bought one called Happy Birthday which isn’t fully orange — more a mix. Found it on sarahraven.co.uk. I’m now really really going to try not to buy anything else until I have received what has already been ordered and it’s all found a place in the garden.
ack. it’s Happy Butterfly, not Happy Birthday.
oh, that’s charming! Collarette? Do you have to lift your dahlias? I’m backing off, a bit (you know I’m lying, right? 😉 ) because I have to lift every one of them and, at last count, I had 27. That’s a lot of lifting.
If you are looking for a blend, I can recommend ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and my beloved dinnerplate ‘Labyrinth’, which would be the dahlia I would grab as I ran from the zombie horde.
xoxo
ooh, will have to look up. Lift dahlias … here … uh, no. Everybody stays in their pot (or in the ground) outside over winter. We have maybe 3 full weeks of real cold here. Our big issue is wet. But so far dahlias (and the one peony) have been ok. Fingers crossed. My big thing this year is seeing how everyone managed while the builders weren’t bothering with them over last summer. Poor lambs.
I’ve not heard of this crew Cinnamon,
There is an osmanthus shrub in our Sydney city Chinese gardens. It was flowering last visit and I happened to be with a couple of perfumistas. We went doolally! It is the most feral and sumptuous scent imaginable, so rich and thick. No surprise that so many try (and fail) to reproduce it.
This little shrub was surprisingly small and weedy looking but the scent. OMG!
Portia xx
good grief, Portia! I’d probably still be there, elbowing the pit vipers and funnel-webs out of the way, to snuffle the blossoms 😉 xoxo
HA! Musette, it always makes me laugh that you all think the super dangerous stuff is in the city. Last time a red bellied black snake was seen in Sydney city it made national news headlines. Must have travelled in on a ute or some kind of truck.
Funnel webs are more common in suburban Sydney, but rarely in the city. Definitely not in the Chinese Gardens, right in the heart of Darling Harbour next to the CBD.
Portia xx
sez you 😉
xoxoxo
Apparently it’s been around for a few years. Who knew. We get crepe myrtle here which blooms all through the winter and smells glorious. I really need to keep myself from buying yet more plants … in any case, perhaps StC has some of other ones from this house. I can’t see them here.
This sounds very pretty, and the bottles are also well-designed. Since ordering from France might be difficult, it would be nice to hear other people’s favourite osmanthis choices.
It is pretty — but a bit more as well. Hopefully others will reply on the Osmanthus query.