Perfect Storm

Posse, my darlings!  It’s still Weather Talk because WEATHER!  My neck o’ the woods has been experiencing bucketing rain for the past two weeks, it’s so sodden that you can actually hear the ground squelching!  Nevertheless, the diehards are continuing to mow  – and I get it: the combination of torrential rains and extreme heat means the grass grows about 6 inches in a day (or so it seems) – but it does look bizarre to see a riding mower STUCK! in the middle of a lawn (out here we have some rather extensive lawns).  But enough about that – let’s talk perfume for rain! (I KNOW!  Get up off the floor.)

There are so many different types of rain, from mist to deluge (and I got binked by someone who didn’t believe that ‘mizzle’ is a real world.  Of course, that person also refuses to play Scrabble with me, ever since I scored nearly 40 points on my first pull :fwiw, never challenge a gardener when she has an X.  ’nuff said)… some rains are easier to scent – cool, early Spring rains means I pull out the galbanum-heavy Jacomo Silences and TDC’s Charmes et Feuilles, with that hint of peppermint, both of which work beautifully in rainy April & May but come July… they just get eaten alive.

For midsummer rain, I turn to Malle’s Geranium Pour Monsieur.  Fragrantica lists these notes:  Top notes are Mint, Geranium, Star Anise and Basil; middle notes are Clove, Cinnamon, Eucalyptus and Lily of the Valley; base notes are Musk, Sandalwood, Incense, Styrax, Benzoin and Ambroxan.  I think it might be the fact that there are warmer notes all throughout the perfume’s evolution but with the coolness of the Geranium always taking center stage, paying homage to the August heat thrumming under the relentless-but-refreshing rain.  Portia wrote a FABULOUS! post way back in …2013(?), extolling the intriguing nature of the perfume – I get what she’s getting without the WHOOOSH!  What I get is the weirdest Skin Scent, as if I just showered with some minty-fresh, superluxe bath wash.  It’s both invigorating and calming at the same time and it’s absolutely glorious on a rainy morning in August.

I love wearing this right now, as the weather is almost chiaroscuro, with thunderstorms showing up, unnanounced in the middle of brilliant sunshine, then vanishing and leaving the sky almost black.  It’s weird.  And kinda scary.  But as I sit on my PoRCh! feeling (marginally) safe from the elements, I also feel as if I’m vaguely part of the elements – remember when Portia wrote that exquisite line “smelling eucalyptus without smelling like eucalyptus”? Well, GpM evokes that feeling.  Minty-fresh skin without smelling like mint (even though geranium is part of the mint family).  It makes me want to improve my posture without feeling martial.  I do wish M. Malle had not marketed this as a masculine because it’s incredibly beautiful on my female skin (I think so, at any rate) and I think a lot of women beyond perfumistas would smell amazing in this!  I know that Dominique Ropion is more known for Malle’s Portrait of a Lady – but GpM’s elegant composition deserves as much renown as Portrait.  Especially during the onslaught of August thunderstorms.

Full disclosure:  I use both the body lotion and the perfume, for maximum fabulousness.  Unlike a lot of other scents, this one stays a bit quiet and very close, probably because of the elegant, deft handling of the mint.

Have any of you (male/female) tried Geranium pour Monsieur?  Thoughts?

Photo:  My new favorite rainchain!  Hanging off my New Favorite Gutter!  I was wearing GpM when I took this photo during yet another thunderstorm.