Top 10 of Spring 2015

Our Posse crew picks their favorites for this spring:

 

Musette’s Spring Top 10:

It has been awhile since I’ve given some thought to spring favorites – a whole year, in fact!  This spring is shaping up to be really traditional, in terms of Midwest weather.  Today, as I write this, it’s 60F and mizzling rain, which is perfect for growing.  And training giant dogs who need to learn how to poop on walks.  This is Liz Zorn/Soivohle weather.  I’m awash in (wait for it) Violets and Rainwater.  Acousticjus Lilacs in spring.  Writing Lyrical Poetry.  Green Oakmoss, SO perfect for spring.  liz zorn

This is galbanum season, as well.  I’m not a huge fan of galbanum but I do love Jacomo Silences – and this is the time to enjoy it!

 

The cool wetness of spring is also perfect for those sweeter, oilier roses.  By ‘oilier’ I mean those scents that have a lot of rose oil (as opposed to ‘greasy’).  This is the only time of year I can comfortably (and happily) wear Une Rose.  The rosiness in Mohur comes forth beautifully in these cooler temps, as does the waxy gorgeousness of Amouage Lyric.  roseoil

 

 

Portia’s Spring Top 10: Spring for you guys, autumn for us down under. I find most of my mid season frags are crossover anyway because the temps are pretty much the same.

Girl Pharrell Williams Comme des Garcons FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Budget:
Pharrell Williams/CdG GIRL, a super woody aromatic that lasts forever on my skin.
L’Occitane’s Neroli & Orchidee is a dry fruity floral, quite unexpected and pithy all the way through.
Queen Latifah’s Queen Of Hearts is so freaking cheap and an excellent spicy fruity floral that dries to warm burnished amber. MMM

Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Lys Soleia Guerlain FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Mid:
Annick Goutal Un Matin d`Orage is spring in a bottle, a sweet spicy floral.
Serge Lutens Daim Blond is the softest plush suede and smells great all year but I especially love it in spring.
Juliette Has A Gun Gentlewoman:
Brand new from the house, a lovely pithy citrus cut through with almonds, woods and musks.
Guerlain Lys Soleia
is the loveliest lily, chock full of spring sunlight, I am onto my second bottle and it gets constant love in my Spring Top 10 lists.

Vanille Mona di Orio FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

$$$!:
Neela Vermeire Bombay Bling,
I seem to be reaching for Jin’s bottle of this more and more and an excellent spring choice.
Ramon Monegal’s Lovely Day
is another beautiful jasmine and sunshine spritz, fresh and alive.
Mona di Orio Vanille
is chock full of citrus, balmy vanilla, spice and booze, perfect for snuggling with your choice of spring fling.

Ann’s Spring Picks

la tulipe hand creamGoing for a Tom Ford double-header here right off the bat: His Ombre de Hyacinth is just so darned pretty, and I’m picking it over my perennial spring fave, SL’s Bas de Soie, because it’s somehow a bit fresher, friendlier and less hair-spray-leaning, and because you guys are probably tired of hearing about the BdS. 🙂

TF’s Jonquille de Nuit is equally lovely but with a slightly different floral angle, and it makes me feel like I’m in a garden, soaking up sunshine and happy to have put the winter blues behind me.

And last but not least, I’m lining up behind Patty on Byredo’s La Tulipe, a perennial favorite of hers. It’s such a pretty young thing and fairly sings out “spring” to me; I never want to be without a decant of it. Another plus, it now comes in a hand cream.

BTW, my envious, wandering eye keeps looking up at Portia’s pick of Guerlain Lys Soleia, and I’m thinking “why didn’t I think of that?” (insert head slapping emoticon here). 🙂

March’s Spring Picks:

I feel like this winter has dragged on forever. Maybe I feel that way every year? New scents that have been in recent rotation are Guerlain’s Encens Mythique, with a hot-radiator vibe that works wonderfully on a chilly March day. It prompted me to dig up another favorite along the same line at a much different price point: Fendi Asja. (Also I swear buried somewhere in the middle of the Guerlain’s drydown is a section that reminds me very much of Teo Cabanel Alahine, which only makes me love the Guerlain more).

When it gets slightly warmer outside I end up playing my favorite game of “sweet-tart” — take something spring-y and pretty and/but a hair too sweet (L’Artisan Mure et Musc) and layer it with something bracing like Annick Goutal Mandragore, Eau du Sud, or Chevrefeuille. When I get bored with all of that it’s back to basics, like the addictive earthiness of CB I Hate Perfumes’ Black March.

 

Tom’s Spring Picks:

The default scent of spring for me has always been Lilly of the valley. Where I grew up in New England they would pop up in people’s yards, and everyone would be careful to mow around them because of their beauty and their scent. Everyone knew not to pick them, since like many windflowers, they didn’t adapt to being in a vase well. (As Max deWinter said, “pure vandalism!)
So I get out my decant (now sadly depleted) of vintage Diorissimo, and my Comme des Garçons  Lily. If you have any suggestions of great muguet scents, let me know in the comments.

For more of top 10 spring, hop on over to boisdejasmin   Grain de Musc  The Non-Blonde and  Now Smell This .

  • Eloquaint says:

    I don’t necessarily thing you need to adjust your perfume for the season, only your application. So I’m going full steam ahead with the bottle of Kiste I just bought. Spring around here is so muddy, cold, and slow that by the time there are any actual leaves on the trees or flowers coming up, you can look at the calendar and it’s early summer anyway.

  • grizzlesnort says:

    Oh, Mercy. Spring. I now live in the Pacific NW where the spring season is gentle, pink and lasts until July (hooray!) and these recommendations are perfect- but when I think of spring, I think of places where I have lived most of my life, where spring is nasty, brutal and short. I will have to muse a while to come up with something appropriate for tornadoes and freak hail storms, late frosts, perma-drought, pollen storms and high allergen counts. For when I go home. Thoughts?

  • Dina C. says:

    Love all the spring suggestions! I was nodding my head along with many of those perfect spring pairings. My choices are: Gucci Envy (hyacinth), Bas de Soie (more hyacinth), Misia (violets), PdN Odalisque (lily of the valley), 28 La Pausa (iris), No. 19 edp (more iris), Le Labo Iris 39 (iris & earthy patch), Chamade (narcissus), YSL Paris Jardins Romantiques (floral), and Apres L’Ondee (violets, iris & heliotrope). I’m all about the green florals at this time of year.

    • Ann says:

      Hey, Dina, you must be my almost-scent twin! I adore Envy and BdS as well and Odalisque (wish I had a bottle of the original), and am starting to fall in love with Chamade. Yep, green florals rock!

  • Julie L says:

    They all sound lovely! Portia, I’ve read tons of good reports about Queen of Hearts…does it have a deep patchouli in it as well? Like say, Fancy Nights or Coromandel? Yeah, both ends of the spectrum with those two comparisons!….or more of a Kate Walsh, Boyfriend or Amber Sultan, “bite” of Amber vibe? What holds me back is a fear of it having that sour/acrid/screechy dey down.
    Asja! Wow! Another Fendi I bet I would love! Too sad that it’s so hard to find though!

  • Portia says:

    I love Top 10s and you guys hit all the right notes.
    Tom that CdG Lily must be quite a frag, you know the same perfumer made another lily for another house too?
    March, I have a bottle od Asja. Just saying.
    Anne, La Tulipe is one of my BFF Kath’s frags. LOve it.
    Musette, I can just smell you in Silences. Another of my faves.
    Portia xx