Bois de Jasmin will return on Monday, October 7th, and today we have our “Recommend Me a Perfume” thread. Autumn has started and there is no mistaking its nutty, damp scent of fallen leaves, musty chrysanthemums past their prime and bitter chestnut shells. Despite the chill and rains, I love the quirky beauty of fall and all of its scents. My perfume wardrobe now welcomes a few favorites that didn’t feel right during the dog days of summer: Kenzo Jungle L’Elephant, Lolita Lempicka and Bulgari’s intensely smoky Black.

My internet connection is intermittent this week, but I will join you whenever I can.

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 how your search goes and what you end up discovering.

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

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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I have a tea drawer, which is hard to explain to those who either don’t drink tea or don’t drink so much that they actually need a designated tea drawer. “What do you do with it?” ask bewildered guests suspiciously eyeing the dozens of packages that I keep in a credenza in the corner of my dining room. (Those guests become even more bewildered when they see my perfume shelf, but that’s another story). Although all tea comes from the same plant, camellia sinensis, it exists in such a range of flavors and tastes that one box of Earl Grey simply doesn’t cover all of my cravings. But since high-quality tea is best bought in small quantities and drunk as quickly as possible, the bulk of my tea drawer is made up of herbs and dried flowers that I use for tisanes.

Tisane usually refers to a non-caffeinated beverage made by steeping flowers, herbs, or spices in water. I’m very sensitive to caffeine, and after 6pm I don’t drink anything caffeinated. For this reason, linden blossom or cinnamon and honey tisane is one of my favorite ways to wrap up the day. Some infusions like linden, sage and ginger have health benefits, but I drink them for their aroma and taste. It takes less than 10 minutes to brew rose tea, but the boost you receive from a steaming cup that smells like summer itself lingers for hours.

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Serge Lutens is relaunching Datura Noir, Serge Noire, Clair de Musc as a themed Les Trois Nuits trio. The fragrances have not been changed. It’s a good way to discover them if you’ve missed these perfumes previously.

Datura Noir (2002) – “To lead the pleasure of a lover to wed her childish fear.”

Serge Noire (2009) – “She and he are made of the same stuff.”

Clair de Musc (2003) – “When one is light, the other is black.”

When I read the news, I realized that these three perfumes were among the ones I neglected the most out of Serge Lutens’s collection. Perhaps, it’s time for me to revisit them. Do you have a favorite among them?

If you’re interested in Serge Lutens’s work and understand French, I highly recommend the podcasts of Serge Lutens’s interviews with Philippe Bresson available at franceculture.fr.

I will be the first person to admit to my embarrassingly meager knowledge of Belgium before I moved here. On the other hand, maybe I shouldn’t feel so bad. The Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme didn’t even know the Belgian national anthem and once memorably burst into La Marseillaise instead of La Brabançonne. But the more time I spend here, the more layers I discover to this tiny but complex country. It features three official languages (Dutch, French and German), has more cheese varieties than France, the world’s best beer (according to the international beer pundits) and the world’s best chocolate (according to me). The two latter points make up for the fiendishly convoluted bureaucratic system, lots of rain and plethora of EU officials.

There are many more reasons to visit Belgium than beer and chocolate. You have the Gothic treasures of Gent, edgy fashion of Antwerp, fairy tale ambiance of Bruges, quirky charm of Dinant, and surrealism of Brussels. The Flemish and Wallonian lands are so distinct culturally that a trip from Knokke to Namur will feel like a visit to two different countries. But while the politics often overemphasizes the rift, the truth is that north or south, Flemish or French speaking, Belgians know how to kick back and enjoy their glass of wine or beer. The best souvenir you will bring back is the memories of tucking into moules-frites after walking through the same rain streaked streets that inspired painter Rene Magritte.

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