6 Summer Fragrances for You, 10 Summer Fragrances for Me

I know, I know, it sounds unfair and uneven, but I promise I'll make it up to you -- with a shhhhhhhhh...giveaway. (Details coming soon.) In the video, I discuss the following six fragrances -- both mainstream and niche -- worth considering when you're wilting in the heat: Estée Lauder Bronze Goddess Christian Dior Homme Sport Fresh Sugar Lychee Guerlain Homme Ulrich Lang Anvers 2 L'Artisan Parfumeur Nuit de Tubéreuse And now for the ten perfumes I've been wearing these days. The change of seasons is the perfect excuse for a change of one's habits: the clothes you wear, the food you eat, the man you're married to...whoopsie, how did that get in there? I meant to say: the perfume you mist into every nook of your crannies. Except that sometimes, you don't need an excuse for change, because you're perfectly pleased with things the way they are. It would be hard to justify chucking my incense roses, furry ambers, and freckly husband just because the Los Angeles sunshine has become a weapon of organ-desiccating hyperthermia. So in the same way a snappy haircut and a couple of cool new shirts freshens up the husb, my current high-rotation fumes incorporate the same basic elements, but in a slightly different arrangement. Here's why I'm smelling wunderbar this summer: M. Micallef Rose Aoud -- the sheerest rose and oud ever, girly-fied with as much fruit as you'll ever find me wearing voluntarily. Guerlain Habit Rouge -- a buoyant puff of citrus and floral leather. Amouage Homage Attar -- I love it in the face-melting heat of summer for the same reason I do in winter's bastard chill: because it's perfect. Homage is incense rose, herbal leather, and joy to all who smell it. Bruno Acampora Musc -- it's the musk of spooning naps and sun-kissed skin. L'Artisan Parfumeur Nuit de Tubéreuse -- it's fruity! it's spicy! It's sort of tuberose, sort of incense! The name suggests something very “Jungle Gardenia”, all bombastic sexiness and groin sweat. Instead, NdT is positively sprightly: fresh and green, sweetly woody and “hi neighbor” friendly. biehl parfumkunstwerke mb03 -- a see-thru summer-weight incense from Mark Buxton. Wearing it is cooling, and it seems to purify the smoggy air around me. People of the Labyrinths A*Maze -- rose, oud, saffron -- and plenty of it. I don't care! Can you tell? Montale Aoud Damascus -- metallic rose, leathery oud, and incense. It has a sharpness that cuts through the mugginess. Prada Myrrhe -- fresh pine-y and resinous, crisp and slightly soapy. Myrrh is "the other white meat”: a change from my omnipresent frankincense. L'Artisan Parfumeur Côte d'Amour -- all right, here's my one true concession to the eyeball-mummifying heat of the desert summer. Côte d'Amour is mineral chalkiness and soft-focus beach flowers. It provides quiet delight without sucking oxygen out of the atmosphere. Please enjoy the Top Ten Summer Fragrances lists from these fine bloggers: Bois de Jasmin Grain de Musc Now Smell This Perfume Posse Perfume Smellin' Things Fumies, how can we tell it's summer by smelling you? What are you wearing?

20 comments:

  1. weeee! I'm wearing a LOT of Annick Goutals' Encens Flamboyant, Timbuktu, La Chasse aux Papillons, L'Ombre Dans L'eau, Creed Fleur de Bulgarie, Sur le Nil and that other one I have... And I'm completely out of Parfumum Ninfea *cries* as I used up my sample recently (apologizes if I botched the spelling of any of these - I'm currently at work and sneaking on your blog)

    Yes indeedy!

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  2. I'm wearing l'Occitane Paeonia, which reminds me of lacy white curtains drying on the line.

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  3. xaryax, I've got some l'Occitane-smellin' to catch up on.

    BF, sounds like the same blend of flavors on my list: incense, rose and a couple of freshies.

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  4. I've been doing lots of testing for reviews (today it's chypres: SSS Jour Ensolleile and Rose Barbare; yesterday it was Orange Star) but soon I hope to be wearing two new decants that are in the mail: TDC Osmanthus and Rossy de Palma. (BF, I've also been making good use of L'Ombre Dans L'Eau this summer.)

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  5. Elisa, ah, the bittersweet pleasures of wearing perfume for evaluation purposes while your BFFs languish in the cupboard! I was just wearing Rossy de Palma the other day, in fact. It put me in mind of Tom Ford Noir de Noir with its thick, nutty rose and saffron blend.

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  6. Guerlain's Cologne du 68 is making me feel cool and gorgeous in the summer heat. A satisfying neroli is the headliner and I love that it has a most uncologne like sillage and lasting power.

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  7. I've been reaching for Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Pamplelune a lot this summer. Same with YSL M7 Fresh. Apparently I'm craving grapefruit.

    Katie, I was wondering what your take on Bronze Goddess is as far as gender neutrality. I've been wanting a good sun tan lotion/beachy scent.

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  8. Mmm, you really sell Cd68, Dorrit.

    Spike, I do believe Bronze Goddess is gender neutral, because it wears so warm and close to the body, as opposed to being a shrill white floral. It's warmer and less piercing than Bond No 9 Fire Island, for instance, which is another suntan lotion scent.

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  9. Ive been wearing manoumalia, nuit de tuberouse and do son the last couple of days. I dont even like white flowers! Whats wrong with me this summer!?

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  10. So it's hot out there, eh?

    You really nailed Nuit de Tubereuse. It's so green and fresh and -- right, friendly. Not sure why the mixed reviews, maybe backlash from all the pre-release hype?

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  11. Katie, I haven't smelled Noir de Noir yet, but it's interesting -- I'm sensing that some people get the dark side of Rossy de Palma (the cocoa and patchouli) whereas to me, it's relentlessly bright and crisp and shiny, lemony rose and geranium all day. I had to fight to see the patchouli in it.

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  12. Katie,

    I like the choices you have made. Some are in my rotation. The one that I have to say that gives me the most enjoyment in the heat is Amouage Homage Attar. One of the most awesome smelling frankincense I have ever had the pleasure of smelling. I also added Oudh Lacquer by Soivohle, The heat seems to make them smell wonderful! I was surprised you didn't put Terre d' by Hermes in your rotation.

    Cheers!

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  13. Katie, thank you for reminding me about Habit Rouge! One of my absolute favorite summer scents! I can't believe this much of summer has gone by without my noticing that I haven't been wearing it. (Maybe because we still haven't really had summer here yet...)

    I prefer deeper, warmer, more fall/winter scents, but my summer favorites are Chant d'Aromes, Bill Blass Nude, HABIT ROUGE, Amoureuse, ELdO Vraie Blonde, AG Hadrien, Un Jardin Sur le Nil, and KM Peau de Peche.

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  14. I have a bit of crossover with your list on the men's side: Guerlain Homme and Anvers 2, and though I haven't been wearing them lately, they would be great for summer.

    Like Elisa, I have been mostly in testing mode recently, and must have worn Nuit de Tubereuse four times in the past week in a bid to make up my mind about it. I find it cool, almost mentholatedly so (is that a word?), but there is a strange, muddy, Juicy Fruit gum note with which I am also wrestling.

    In between duty dabbing, by choice I have been wearing TDC Bergamote, Blue Grass from the 70s, Prada L'Eau Ambree, Guerlain 180 Ans de Creation and IUNX Eau Frappee - the lemon sorbet cuts through the heat a treat - and the bottle is so darn humungous that you can afford to spray with abandon.

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  15. My six year old wants to know what is perfume prison. She gave me a long hard look implying I should be incarcerated. This summer I am in the attars and orientals. I WAS wearing AG Mandragore...but now have fallen in a rapture with EDT Mitsouko. Don't be scared folks it wears like a whisper and fades out quickly....no one is scared ..

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  16. Lennie, I think Manoumalia and Nuit de Tubéreuse are "white florals for people who don't like white florals". The first one is meaty-sweaty, and the second is greeny-woody. So you're pretty consistent, there.

    Olfacta, whenever interest is "pre-piqued" on perfume, folks do feel obliged to take a firmer stand, either yay or nay. I'm wondering if there was a little disconnect between the name and the actual fragrance, which doesn't seem nocturnal at all to me.

    Elisa, this perfume reviewing jazz is all a game of comparative analysis. I find Rossy de Palma metallic rather than bright, thick rather than crisp. But I'm probably enjoying it just as much as you are. And I'm sure I'd find it just as bright and crisp as can be if I smelled it against Tom Ford Noir de Noir. Oh, these shifting perfume goalposts!

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  17. Gojira, you're doing a good job talking up Soivohle' Oudh Lacquer - I'm curious! And Terre d'Hermès isn't one I wear. I like it, though.

    Angi, my favorite thing about reading everyone's summer smelling lists is that it gets me thinking on perfumes I'm ignoring or need to try.

    flittersniffer, "duty dabbing" - I like it! And that "muddy Juicy Fruit gum note" you're wrestling with in Nuit de Tubéreuse is one that gives me some hassle, too. I find myself trying to pretend it's not there, or talking myself into accepting it as an afterburn to something groovier like the tuberose-wood combo.

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  18. cheryl, what if the wardens in perfume prison were all 6-year-olds? It might be easier to get lollypops and ice-cream sundaes.

    I think Mitsouko edt in summer is reasonable. It has that resinous weight of Serge Lutens Ambre Sultan, which can be satisfying on a hot day.

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  19. I was at Heathrow Terminal 5 again last week. Sigh... I picked up a bottle of Chanel Chance Eau Fraiche (the one they released last year). Wore it today for the first time and am quite pleased with my guilty purchase. It's almost like a less-spicy ladygirl version of Dior Homme Sport and is less citrusy than L'Occitane's Ruban d'Orange. Sort of makes me less angry about fogetting to buy a bottle of the EL Bronze Goddess lotion. Sort of.

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  20. amber_j - ahh, you missed your Bronze Goddess chance! I like your "ladygirl" usage. Reminds me of my friend Alan's ridiculous coinage "back bottom" (the opposite of the prudishly-polite "front bottom") to describe a...um...bottom.

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