Patricia: 29 posts

Patricia compares Atelier Cologne Silver Iris to several other iris perfumes.

Iris perfumes, the little black dress of fragrances, seem to be appropriate for all occasions and all seasons. Got a job interview? Grab an iris perfume. Going out for dinner and can’t decide which perfume to wear? An iris has got you covered.

That said, there is much variety within the iris family of fragrances, and Atelier Cologne’s Silver Iris is a prime example. For starters, like all the Atelier Absolues, it has a higher than usual concentration of perfume oil, in this case 18 percent, which gives it richness and longevity. It is one of two perfumes created by Jérome Epinette for Atelier’s Collection Métal, the other being Gold Leather, which I have not yet sampled.

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Patricia draws a portrait of her favorite season with her beloved scents.

Autumn is the gift we New Englanders receive in exchange for putting up with a sometimes severe, but always long, winter. Although I am rapidly reaching the age when “snowbirds” fly south to Florida for the winter, that prospect holds no appeal for me. I appreciate all four seasons, with autumn, the bittersweet reminder of approaching winter and our own mortality, remaining my favorite.

Pulling out the spicy orientals, the deep rich roses, the smoky incenses, and the warm ambers from my perfume cabinet in September is an annual ritual for me. They are old friends, hidden in protective darkness since April, and it is good to see them again. Into the cabinet go the sparkling citruses, light florals, and tropical concoctions that I have enjoyed all summer.

Still, never one to plunge into bracingly cold water, I ease myself into the fall perfumes, toe by careful toe. September, technically still summer for most of the month, can be quite warm and humid and not conducive to heavy perfume, so I wear what I refer to as my transitional trio.

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Patricia talks about an endless summer in a perfume bottle, from Bobbi Brown Beach to Estée Lauder Bronze Goddess.

In his novel Remembrances of Things Past, Marcel Proust used petite madeleines, little cakes shaped like scallop shells and dipped in tea as a literary device to bring his character instantly back in time. One sniff of Bobbi Brown’s Beach does the same thing to me. It transports me to a certain carefree summer many years ago, a summer of wearing madras shorts, skate boarding, kissing my first boyfriend, listening to the Beach Boys and Rolling Stones on the radio, and slathering on Coppertone, a popular American sun lotion.

Beach isn’t an exact match for Coppertone, but sweet jasmine and orange blossom combine deliciously with salty and marine notes in a way that is strongly reminiscent of it. It maintains the same balance of notes throughout, and there is no real progression from the top notes to the dry down. Although Beach wears very close to the skin, it lasts from five to six hours on me.

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Today Patricia, our new contributing writer, talks about the dilemma of picking a perfume for vacation and why she decided to make her latest vacation a rose scented one. Patricia graduated from her mother’s perfume table to her very own bottle of Miss Dior as a young teen. This discovery started a lifelong love of perfume in general and green mossy fragrances in particular. After 30-plus years in the publishing industry, she works as an office manager in Boston, Massachusetts. Besides perfume, she loves long novels and spending time with her horse. Please give her a warm welcome!  

In Massachusetts we have a saying, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute,” so I wasn’t unduly concerned when the first few days of our summer vacation were cloudy and rainy. Still, the beachy fragrances such as Estée Lauder’s Bronze Goddess and Bobbi Brown’s Beach that I’d packed in my suitcase seemed to mock me, and even my favorite summer citruses didn’t satisfy me.

Fortunately my packing style has always been of the “everything but the kitchen sink” variety, so I had brought plenty of sample vials and small decants, including many roses, many of which I had not yet tried. But it turned out that variety was not what I wanted. What I craved were roses, and lots of them. Even after the sun came out on the third day, the roses and I were on a roll.  Rose perfumes turned out to be unexpectedly versatile: the heavier, darker blends suited the foggy and rainy days, while the crisp, bright ones were perfect companions for sunny beach outings. Here are six that I enjoyed on my vacation.

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