Underappreciated scents (fall/winter): Costes 2

I was poking through one of my perfume drawers recently on a cool, rainy morning, trying to find just the thing to fit the day. It wasn’t exactly cold enough to pull out the big guns, but yet something a bit warm and cozy was needed. Up and back into their compartments went the decants and vials until I pulled out a black mesh bag and looked inside: Costes 2.

One spray on my wrist and I knew it was just the thing. Not fancy, not flashy, but a soft, comforting scent that feels like a cashmere throw wrapped around your shoulders to ward off the evening’s chill as you sit outside on the patio. On stressful days, I’ve found it be quite calming as well. And with the holiday crush quickly bearing down on us, I’ll take all the calming I can get.

Notes are benzoin, Turkish rose, gaiac wood, Tunisian orange blossom and Ceylon cinnamon incense.

Costes 2 was popular when it came out, but you don’t hear a lot about this one or its older sibling, the original Costes, much anymore. But they are lovely scents created by the fabulous Olivia Giacobetti and made for the very chic Hotel Costes in Paris.

If you don’t happen to have this in your fragrance arsenal, but do have Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s Pour le Soir (no, no — NOT the Absolue!), the MFK offers a very similar effect, although not quite as yummy on my skin as the Costes 2. Of course, YMMV.

Upon more poking around, I see Byredo’s Gypsy Water, which fills the bill similarly, just taking a little different route with its bergamot, incense and pine needles. It’s another low-key fragrance that’s lovely as well.

So what scent do you have that you might have overlooked for a while, but when you stumble on it and wear it again, it’s perfect. And you think “How did I ever forget this?”