Spring: 105 posts

Two weeks ago my husband and I had a picnic at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, one of the most serene spots in New York. The pink confetti of cherry petals kept getting caught in my hair and the sky looked a perfect robin egg blue. I felt lightheaded and happy, both from our surreptitious sips of well-concealed champagne and the fragrance of peonies and wisteria. Two weeks later, the cherry blossoms were swept away, the rains robbed the lilacs of their perfume, and the weekly routine of meetings and household chores threatened to suffocate me. Since I live by my nose, scent invariably becomes my escape. That’s how I became determined to find a perfume that would put me in a springtime mood no matter what the calendar month.

The Financial Times “How to Spend It” Magazine has published my article called The Myriad Scents of Spring. In this piece, I search for spring in the bottle and discuss a few of my favorite fragrances. Since our East Coast spring has slowly segued into summer, I already miss the perfume of cherry blossoms and bluebells.

Spring flashes past me in a flurry of pink cherry petals. Every year I anticipate it with the same impatience, whether or not the winter tested me with too many snowy days. I just love the rejuvenation I feel in the air, the promise of something new, and fresh scents all around me. I immediately want to clean out my closet, throw things away, wash windows—what madness!—plan an exciting trip, read new books, learn a new language. I don’t make New Year resolutions; my springs are all about making changes.

In tandem with my bouts of energy, I also crave uplifting perfumes. Because I wear fragrances to match my mood, rather than my seasons, I noticed over the past few years that my springtime staples tend to be invigorating and energizing. They give me an extra jolt when my spirits begin to sag thanks to the nasty colds I catch as the seasons change, and they also make it easier to go through the day when the morning are still too dark and the evenings are still cool.

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Star rating: 5 stars–outstanding/potential classic, 4 stars–very good, 3 stars–adequate, 2 stars–disappointing, 1 star–poor.

To me few scents evoke spring more than the honey and cucumber fragrance of mimosa. Even before the snow melted on the streets of Kiev, sidewalk vendors would suddenly appear with large baskets of fluffy mimosa branches wrapped in wet newspaper. I could never resist the sunny yellow color nor the warm, sweet fragrance, and I happily traded my school lunch allowance for a smell of spring. Today I would gladly exchange the most precious perfume in my collection for the utter joy of burying my face in a soft cloud of fragrant mimosa orbs, staining my fingers with indelible newspaper ink and feeling my pulse quicken at the thought of spring being near. Therefore, I simply could not wait for Annick Goutal Le Mimosa to arrive on our shores, even if the real mimosa rarely does. Launched this month as a part of the soliflores collection, Néroli, Des Lys, La Violette, Le Muguet and Le Chèvrefeuille, Le Mimosa is Camille Goutal and Isabelle Doyen’s ode to spring.

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While any Russian will find an ironic reference in my title to the Soviet era film “Seventeen Moments of Spring,” for me it has less to do with Russian spies improbably masquerading as German officers than with a sense of nostalgia I feel around this time. As I watch cherry blossoms wilt in the puddles, I already miss their delicate pink haze. As I feel the sun burning my skin, I crave the chill of snow. As spring unfolds with all its holidays, I miss people who cannot celebrate them with me. Therefore, my scent palette this spring reflects my yearnings and moods with particular poignancy.

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Spring made a brief visit to the East Coast of the USA before being chased out once again with heavy snows. Yet, my intense longing for the freshness and lightness that spring tends to bring has sought an outlet in scents that can usher in the spring. Below are some of my favourite fragrances—besides those mentioned in my earlier Fragrance of Spring article—that never fail to make me feel as if I am smelling the spring air. Or else, they seem to capture the duality and the vibrancy of this beautiful season. Of course, it does not mean that these are fragrances to be worn only in the spring. On the contrary, they are perfumes that can evoke the spring any time of the year. …

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