Easy listening with harmonious chypres

I have a passion for the easy listening music genre. I still love to dance myself daft to some grizzly drum and bass or steep a dark mood in the haunting howls of Beth Gibbons. But there is a peaceful joy in the honeyed jazz of Henri Mancini or the soulful samba of Brasil 66 from Sergio Mendes.

It’s all about mood. 

Moody marbles - it's a thing now

Our moods fluctuate. At times there may be euphoria, excitement and thrill or darkness, anxiety and melancholia. We hope for contentment punctuated by frequent moments of joy, but the reality is that much of the time we are in stasis, a state of unremarkable equilibrium as we go about our daily routines and habitual behaviour. 

Easy listening complements that equilibrium. 

When I prepare for a night out, I consider my scent choice with great care. Do I want to ooze glamour? Or lay a scented trail of indie quirkiness? Do I want to immerse my companion in a cloud of exotic spice? The selection of a special occasion scent is pleasurable, and one of the reasons why many fragrance lovers own far too many bottles of perfume!

When I consider my own collection, these ‘special’ fragrances are not my most valued. I often fear for their molecular breakdown as they are worn so rarely. I buy the smallest bottles available and store them with the care of a Museum Curator. I don’t own many.

My true love lies in my easy listening scents. The bottles that I can reach for early in the morning, those that will anoint me with companionable grace. Throughout the day I will catch gentle whiffs as they harmonise with my surroundings rather than shout for attention.  

My most melodic easy listeners are the classic chypres: Guerlain Mitsouko, Chanel Cristalle and Clarins Eau Dynamisante. There’s a theme here, they all smell natural. 

Mitsouko and Cristalle both feature an earthy dollop of oakmoss and lush layer of fruit. The mossy undergrowth is reassuringly grounding, the fruit, cheering and summery. They are the opposite of a Northern Winter. Whilst Mitsouko is warm, subtle and sensual, Cristalle is vibrant and full of daylight. Both have the capacity to be sprayed through my skin into my soul. They feel like me.

Oakmoss - prozac for witches

I rocket through bottles of Eau Dynamisante, at least one supersize Scarlett flacon per year. It’s the only bottle that I keep in my bathroom, safe in the knowledge that I’ll have used it up before the light and the humid heat can get their molecular meany mitts on my scent. Nothing refreshes like Eau Dynamisante and I will never be without her. 

A browse through the forums of Fragantica or Facebook often reveals threads where members ask ‘how much is too much?’ Or ‘when does a hobby become an addiction?’.  The answer is a personal one, we all know what we can and can’t afford to buy, what we can realistically use up before it turns and what will make us feel joy rather than guilt. 

When I observe my own collection, I see fragrant friends, the number of easy listeners far outweigh those that will only anoint only ‘the right’ mood. These infrequently worn exotic beauties are loved, but ruthlessly edited. I am happy in the knowledge that I will actually wear most of my perfumes to the end of the bottle. Maybe this is the answer to a carefully curated collection? 

Henry Mancini breezes easy in the med

Review: Clarins - Eau Dynamisante, my eldest fragrant friend.

This Saturday was probably some sort of scented anniversary. I say ‘probably’ as I’m being a bit over-romantic - I think it’s roughly the 25 year anniversary of the onset of my dependable and satisfying relationship with Clarins' stalwart scent - Eau Dynamisante. It has lasted longer than any of my relationships with men and seen me through life stages of goth, shoegazer, raver, art school libertine, festival queen, indie kid, grown up indie kid and whatever hybrid of nonsense I am now.

I marked it by buying yet another bargainous bottle.

What makes it’s so worthy of commitment? To me, it possesses all the qualities of a traditional European eau de cologne. It offers abounding refreshment (alike most lemony colognes) but has the addition of a whopping whiff of personality, a grand charisma far beyond what you would expect from something generally squirted to offer relief from heat or fatigue.

Clarins describe it as a ‘treatment fragrance’;

“Aromatic essential oils with treatment properties (Lemon, Patchouli, White Thyme, Petit Grain and Rosemary): scent, promote a wonderful feeling of freshness, vitality and well-being”

It’s true. It does. What they neglect to say is that it also offers a sense of exoticism, enabled by truly spicy elements of cardamom, carnation and coriander seed, which make it feel extraordinarily warm after the initial lemony blast dissipates. In fact it’s almost oriental, a kind of schizophrenic scent borrowing from several genres; the earthy dry patchouli offers a serious chypre quality, the spices a heady oriental nuance, and a citrus herbal blend reminiscent of a historic eau de cologne in the manner of Guerlain or Roger and Gallet. This multifaceted feel renders it a more riotous experience than the rather medicinal marketing bumph implies.

The original invigorating eau de cologne, Jean Marie Farina

What is curious about this scent is that very few menfolk wear it. Although often criticised for being ‘too masculine’, it remains firmly in the female domain. I assume that its sales point is the problem. It takes a brave man to approach the department store Clarin’s counter. Whilst us females happily play amongst the lotions and lipsticks, comfortable in a world of feminine luxury, men can often feel a bit shifty. I’ve seen it in action. Whilst shopping with boyfriends I’ve hurried my purchases to reduce the inevitable uncomfortable bloke syndrome. I don’t understand why they fail to feel the lure of sticking their fingers in a sample pot of cream and instead stand at least a good 3 feet away from the counter looking nervous. It’s as if touching a product will make their manhood shrink (possibly permanently).

Fountain of fearsome girliness

If you can get over the fear boys, please do go and take a whiff next time you find yourself in a department store. If you adore the Blue Acqua di Parma range or the Guerlain Eau de Colognes, you might be quite smitten with Eau Dynamisante. The only negative is that (alike most citrus rich colognes) it doesn’t emit its grandness for more than a couple of hours, so if you require a long lasting scent this is the wrong genre for you. However, a gift set with shower gel, body lotion and 100 ml of fragrance costs just £32 so you can layer the products to give it a bit more tenacity.

Maybe the act of making my boyfriends accompany me to Clarins counters could be the reason why Eau Dynamisante has stayed with me for so many more years than they have. To 'Insert multiple names here', I'm sorry...

Skincare for Scent Lovers - Part 1, Fragrant Faces

Are you thrilled by the lure of the lux beauty product? It seems that me that the love of scent and a desire to slap some wondrous lotion on your face and body parts are often linked.

In this post I’ll be revealing some of my favourite beauty products, all chosen because their scent is of equal magnificence to their ability to make your skin function pleasingly. Menfolk- you can use these too. Man stuff (unless it’s a specialist shaving unguent) often contains the same ingredients as girl stuff but just sports a grizzly/tecky name. For example, Clinique’s ‘Clarying Lotion’ for girls is the same product as their ‘Scruffing Lotion’ for boys. It’s just that the second sounds like it will make you the victor in a fight.

I’ve always been a beauty hall devotee. In fact, it was the discontinuation, some nine or ten years ago, of an enchanting spiced liquorice scented body mist by French aromatic skincare brand – Decleor, that set me on a (vast) mission to find a replacement. Googling led me to Fragrantica’s description of Caron’s exhilaratingly beautiful ‘Eau de Reglisse’, which I rapidly purchased. And that was it, niche fragrance obsession – the inception.

Here is a small selection of facial skincare products that delight my nose as much as my skin. They were all purchased myself and are products that I’ve used for a long enough time to appreciate how fabulous they are. Next month I’ll repeat the article focusing on body products for the scent lover.

Elemis – Pro Collagen Cleansing Balm (cleansing porn)

This is my nighttime cleanser. It’s a bit of a faff for the morning, but I’m the type that thinks that simply cleaning your teeth at 7am is a deed worthy of a round of applause. This gloopsome oily cleansing balm is an olfactory delight to use when you do have time in the evening for a joyous few minute’s pamper. Despite being very strongly scented, it doesn’t make my sensitive skin get shouty. In fact it calms it down. It basically smells like you’ve taken all of your essential oils collection and stuck them in a pot together. You massage it into your face (you can enjoy this for ages as it remains oily) and then remove it with a warm damp cloth. If you are feeling decadent you can lie in the bath and let it do it’s thing for ten minutes before you wash it off. Your face is left exceptionally soft and without any trace of oily residue. It helped to decrease my hormonal chin pimples and improve general moisture levels.

Recognisable notes:

According to the website, rose and mimosa are the key botanic ingredients. However it also contains essential oils of lavender, geranium, chamomile and eucalyptus which I sense are more aromatically prominent.

Price:

Elemis products are pricey if bought singularly from a department store. But by signing up to their online newsletter and those of partner retailers (QVC in the UK), you’ll find value sets or ‘try me’ packs that offer a significant saving. They are frequent and generous with discount codes.

Jurlique – Rosewater Balancing Mist

This toning and hydrating mist is simply an exceptionally good quality rose hydrasol with a few added active natural ingredients such as marshmallow and grapefruit extracts. The smell is exactly the same as my precious bottle of Rosa Damascena Absolute. I’ve never really seen the point of facial toners but I use this one therapeutically in the day time. I spray my face with it when I need a moment of euphoria, generally if I’m tired or fed up at work. It works. I feel better. It should be called rose rehabilitation.

Price:

Mid range. Again, signing up to newsletters and keeping your eye out for value packs reduces the expense. My £18 50 ml bottle tends to last about 6 months (unless I’m having a bad day and soaking myself upon every hour).

Nuxe – Crème Fraiche de Beaute 24H Soothing And Moisturising Cream and Masque Crème Fraiche de Beaute.

I love French pharmacies. There is seemingly one on every street in Paris, stacked full of allsorts of bottles of promise and bargainous eau de colognes that don’t exist in the UK. Nuxe is a classic French pharmacy brand that first seduced me many years ago on a trip to our holy city of scent.

Crème Fraiche de Beaute is one of those rare moisturisers that manages to be light and refreshing to use without being ‘light’. It’s deeply moisturising. But the lightness of texture means that your make-up doesn’t turn into a slippy fright mask over the course of the morning. Crucially for my eager nose, it smells decadently white floral, with an overriding neroli scent that lasts long into its wear. It’s basically an orange blossom garden for your face.

Masque Crème Fraiche de Beaute is a cream-gel hydrating mask with the same extraordinary scent. Again, it’s excellent for bathing decadence. As it doesn’t dry out, you can use it right up to your eyes which (if like me, you are discovering that you are mortal and thus beginning to get wrinkly) is pleasing. How did that happen?

Price:

Affordable. The Nuxe website has great offers and a loyalty scheme that actually means something. Currently, jars of the Crème Fraiche range are being sold with a free rose scented cleansing water which is equally lovely and great for taking your make-up off in bed after a late night when wobbling at the bathroom sink is a Herculean effort.

Clarins – Blue Orchid Face Treatment Oil

Clarins created three aroma therapeutic treatment oils that you use as a nighttime moisturiser (all in a light hazelnut oil base), selected according to your skin type. If you are scared of oiling up your face, please don’t be, skin likes oil. It doesn’t mean that you will be greasy.

The blue orchid variety aims to treat dehydrated skin. My skin is not particularly dehydrated but I do use this now and again simply for the delight of the fragrance. According to the website, the primary botanical oils are rosewood, patchouli and blue orchid. I have absolutely no idea what blue orchid smells like but there is more patchouli in this bottle than lingers in the air at a goth convention. It’s beautiful - sweet, earthy and powerfully sensual. For those of you who like to scent-up at bedtime, this might replace your perfume, and additionally present you with comforted supple skin in the morning.

Those of you with a dry skin type can opt for the sandalwood variety, which has ‘proper’ sandalwood in it, you lucky lucky people.

Price:

The £32 30 ml bottle will last a year, that’s rather good value. I’m currently using a sample bottle (pictured) which my local Clarins rep gave me when I bought some shower gel. In fact she gave me most of the contents of her sample drawer. I think it’s OK to present your Clarins rep with a thank you kiss.

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