Our “Recommend Me a Perfume” thread is open this week. You can use this space to find perfume recommendations, to share your discoveries and favorite scents, and to ask any questions about scents, aromas and flavors. Or you can just tell us what perfume you are wearing!

How does it work: 1. Please post your requests or questions as comments here. You can also use this space to ask any fragrance related questions. To receive recommendations that are better tailored to your tastes, you can include details on what you like and don’t like, your signature perfumes, and your budget. And please let us know what you end up sampling. 2. Then please check the thread to see if there are other requests you can answer. Your responses are really valuable for navigating the big and sometimes confusing world of perfume, so let’s help each other!

To make this thread easier to read, when you reply to someone, please click on the blue “reply” link under their comment.

Photography by Bois de Jasmin

Mimosa, violet, jasmine, incense. Our spring classes will cover different aspects of perfumery, so you have lots of choice. We will talk about the fundamentals of perfumery such as citrus, spices, woods. We will then explore the classical florals like rose, orange blossom and iris. Then, we will delve into opulence and study jasmine, tuberose and incense. Finally, my new series of classes will examine the violet family. We will discuss violet, mimosa and osmanthus. In the violet seminar, we will learn about this ever popular floral note and how it’s used in classical and contemporary fragrances. In the mimosa session, we will discuss powdery and green notes. In the osmanthus session, we will also talk about tea notes and I will explain how the famous tea accords in perfumery are created. In our more technical workshops, we will deconstruct Guerlain L’Heure Bleue and Eau Sauvage and learn what ingredients and accords power these iconic fragrances.

These classes are for students of all levels of interest in perfumery. They teach you how to smell like a professional perfumer, take apart complex scents, and sharpen your sense of smell. Together we will study the fundamental classes of perfume materials and discover how they are used in perfumes. The lectures are designed to improve your enjoyment and appreciation of scents. We will use readily available materials like spices and citrus fruit for these classes (for the violet/mimosa/osmanthus session, I suggest buying alpha ionone, but you can also use readily available violet-scented candy or any violet cologne for the exercises.) The classes are small enough to be offer everyone personal attention and guidance.

Perfume Fundamentals: Spices, Citrus, Woods

Location: Online, Zoom

Date & Time: 1h 30min

Spices February 28th, Wednesday 12:00pm-1:30pm EST/6:00pm-7:30pm CET  To Book $60 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here)

Citrus March 3rd, Sunday 12:00pm-1:30pm EST/6:00pm-7:30pm CET   To Book $60 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here)

Dark Woods March 9th, Saturday 12:00pm-1:30pm EST/6:00pm-7:30pm CET  To Book $60 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here)

3 class series: Spices, Citrus, Woods  To Book $168 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here)

Perfume Fundamentals: Iconic Florals

Orange Blossom March 10th, Sunday 12:00pm-1:30pm EST/5:00pm-6:30pm CET  To Book $60 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here) daylight savings is in progress in the USA, please double check the times in your time zone*

Rose March 13th, Wednesday 12:00pm-1:30pm EST/5:00pm-6:30pm CET To Book $60 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here) daylight savings is in progress in the USA, please double check the times in your time zone*

Iris March 23rd, Saturday 12:00pm-1:30pm EST/5:00pm-6:30pm CET  To Book $60 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here) daylight savings is in progress in the USA, please double check the times in your time zone*

3 class package: Rose, Orange Blossom, Iris  To Book $168 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here) daylight savings is in progress in the USA, please double check the times in your time zone*

Perfume Fundamentals: Opulent Florals and Incense 

Jasmine March 24th, Sunday 12:00pm-1:30pm EST/5:00pm-6:30pm CET  To Book $60 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here) daylight savings is in progress in the USA, please double check the times in your time zone*

Tuberose March 27th, Wednesday 12:00pm-1:30pm EST/5:00pm-6:30pm CET To Book $60 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here) daylight savings is in progress in the USA, please double check the times in your time zone*

Incense April 6th, Saturday 12:00pm-1:30pm EST/6:00pm-7:30pm CET  To Book $60 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here)

3 class package: Jasmine, Tuberose, Incense  To Book $168 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here)

Perfume Fundamentals: Violet Family Florals

Location: Online, Zoom

Date & Time: 1h 30min

Violet April 7th, Sunday 12:00pm-1:30pm EST/6:00pm-7:30pm CET  To Book $60 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here)

Mimosa April 13th, Saturday 12:00pm-1:30pm EST/6:00pm-7:30pm CET   To Book $60 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here)

Osmanthus April 14th, Sunday 12:00pm-1:30pm EST/6:00pm-7:30pm CET  To Book $60 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here)

3 class package: Violet, Mimosa, Osmanthus  To Book $168 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here)

“Create Your Own Package”

6 class “create your own” package  To Book $320 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here)

Deconstructing Classics: Guerlain L’Heure Bleue and Dior Eau Sauvage

Location: Online, Zoom

Date & Time: 1h 30min

Guerlain L’Heure Bleue April 20th, Saturday 12:00pm-1:30pm EST/6:00pm-7:30pm CET  To Book $60 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here)

Dior Eau Sauvage April 21st, Sunday 12:00pm-1:30pm EST/6:00pm-7:30pm CET   To Book $60 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here)

2 class Deconstructing Classics package  To Book $110 per person (if you wish to pay in euro, book here)

For more information, please consult the Perfume Classes page.

Today have a wonderful giveaway made possible by Bois de Jasmin’s reader Tamara. She would like to give away a nearly full bottle of vintage Miss Dior Eau de Toilette, 30ml (comes with a box.) She can send her package anywhere in the US or Canada (sanitized and well-wrapped, of course). “I found this perfume when I was cleaning out my aunt’s stash. It’s not at all my style and I would rather give it to someone who appreciates it. It’s a vintage bottle, so I imagine that it’s valuable.”

We are not responsible for leaks or damage during transit or for lost packages.

To participate, please answer these questions by commenting on Bois de Jasmin (email messages aren’t included.) I will randomly draw one winner.

1. Tamara would like help to find a woody fragrance with notes of iris. She tried Hermès Hiris, but it was too delicate for her.
2. Please let us know what perfume are you wearing today and why did you select it.
3. May I contact you via email to notify you of your win and share your email with Tamara?

The contest is now closed. The winner is Jesse. Congratulations. I will contact you via email shortly.

I would like to thank our entire Bois de Jasmin community for your generosity and kindness, whether it means giveaways like this, advice or comments.

Snow Mountain Pai Hao black tea (Trà Shan Tuyết Pái hảo) is a rare tea variety harvested from 300-year old tea trees in the central Vietnamese province of Ha Giang at an altitude of 1,300m above sea level. The tea is harvested in the “one leaf, one bud” fashion, which makes it one of the highest grades that you can find. The processing is mostly manual, which is becoming rare in tea-producing countries. Although fine teas can be produced with mechanical methods, a human touch makes a difference. This tea is not only one of the most beautiful black teas I’ve encountered, but also one of the most fragrant.

Fragrance is the main reason I wanted to share this tea with you. It has a rich chocolate nuance, with an undercurrent of caramel. The chocolate is complemented by a malty note, and the aftertaste is that of honey. Despite these voluptuous notes, the tea is not heavy on the palate. It remains refreshing and sparkling.

Continue reading →

“Bush warblers start singing in the mountains.” This is the name of the current season, according to the traditional Japanese calendar. The calendar is divided into 24 parts, called sekki, from Risshun (Beginning of spring) in early February until Daikan (Greater cold).  The 24 sekki are each split into three making up a total of 72 kō. Each kō is about five days and it has a poetic name adapted to Japanese climate.

To read through the calendar is to travel through the Japanese year, tracing the changes in nature and observing our surroundings in their minute detail. The names of the seasons are concise and yet descriptive, evoking perfectly the transformation as winter fades, spring undulates into summer and fall smolders into winter. As Murasaki Shikibu, the 11th-century author of the marvelous Tale of Genji noted, “It is nature that gives me the most pleasure, the changes through the seasons, the blossoms and leaves of autumn and spring, the shifting patterns of the skies.” If you’re curious to learn about 72 seasons, I invite you to read this article in Kyoto Journal.

Scent Diary is a place to write your observations about the scents around you–and about scents in your environment. Whether you write down 1 recollection or 10 matters less than simply reminding yourself to smell. You can add as many comments as you wish. You can comment today or over the course of the week; this thread will always be open. Of course, do share what perfume you’re wearing or what particularly good scented products you’ve discovered.

While looking through my articles, I found this article that I wrote a few years ago but that still remains popular and often-read: A to Z Tips for Enjoyable, Affordable and Rewarding Perfume Hobby. If you have any tips to add, I’d love to hear them.

Photography by Bois de Jasmin