Friday, October 13, 2017

Room Sprays as Personal Fragrance: Maximising Pleasure

Most people using home scent do so to refresh a room: deodorise smoke from cigarettes or staleness; drive away the miasma of fried oil cooking; re-invigorate the air with new stimuli instead of the same emitions its inhabitants produce daily. But there are some of us who actually use home scents -and sprays in particular thanks to their instant gratification benefit- to give an instant edge.
Moody fragrances with complex profiles, sprayed on the curtains and the cushions, can complement melancholic thoughts when one wants to wallow in them; make one more concentrated in their intellectual work; or induce greater peace of mind and serenity, when the world outside has gone a tad rougher than anticipated.

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I freely admit my fondness for sprayed forms of fragrance; the quick phssssst makes for instant gratification having the volatile molecules disperse to their room's air and surrounding me in waves of pleasure. I also admit to often decadently use some of my pricier scents in the home exactly for that purpose: suffusing a room with my signature scent, or altering its ambience in a couple of instants. Kids today say YOLO, do they not? They have a point. But there are scents purposefully meant for spraying in the home called "room sprays". Admittedly niche brands have limited their available scents in that medium which begs a question as to why, yet there are still a few excellent choices out there.

Aedes de Venustas for one developed a limited edition scent in collaboration with L'Artisan Parfumeur, which focuses on the mystical symbiosis of Japanese incense and tons of intense musk for a balancing act that creates a deep and resonant ambience. I fell in love the very first instant I smelled it; it was a gift from a special friend I knew from the US, directly from the source, but it also played on all my heart's fondest strings. I hadn't actually been so mesmerised by a room spray's apocryphal message since smelling Essence of John Galliano by Diptyque (now lamentably discontinued). It merited enjoying in full. Visitors to my house thought the same thing.

The niche boutique soon saw the potential and issued a proper perfume with this structure boosting the spicier aspects with pepper and cardamom as well as milder pink pepper and called it L`Artisan Parfumeur Aedes de Venustas eau de parfum.

In the room spray (the scent of which also comes in a candle, still available on the website) the balsamic tones which dominate are enhanced by a sensual and full-bodied musk that seeps through and takes the upper hand soon; they have a way of inducing thoughts of adventure and unbridled passions but the incense keeps things grounded. In the grander scheme of things I know I'm an armchair climber of Everest and not a literal one. But there's no shame in that.

More room sprays I have loved over the years include Figuier (Diptyque), Noel (Annick Goutal), Opopanax (Diptyque) which I reviewed here and the monumental Essence of John Galliano (by Diptyque, alas discontinued).

Do you do the same? Share your experiences in the comments.

5 comments:

  1. i've not had the pleasure of smelling the "aedes de venustas" in either form, but both have been on the wishlist for ages.

    oh, yes, i am a big fan of home scents. in my own home, i have different incenses for different rooms and moods, as well as diffusers for my own blends of essential oils. i make linen sprays for my sheets and curtains (and car), and switch things up seasonally as well. i have to be careful with commercially produced sprays and candles---too much of synthetic can trigger breathing issues and headache---but i've had no problems with the diptyque line thus far. and a huge, ravishing bouquet of white lilies is always a treat---they can fragrance a large room easily for days, blending beautifully with other scents.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're more detailed than I am, lol. :D I wish I could do that.
      But I do concur on natural lilies being a real olfactory marvel. They also blend quite well with frankincense tears being burned!

      Delete
  2. Anonymous19:17

    I just checked on the diptyque web site and the Galliano room spray seems to be still available, are you referring to something different?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True, but it only shows up in the local site and not the international one.

      Delete
  3. Elena, I do the same as you: although I own many room sprays, sometimes I substitute them with my favorite personal scents. And I must admit that using a $200 perfume as room freshener has never caused me any sense of guilt. Perfumes are there to be enjoyed, aren't they? And bottles… well, they have to be emptied, sooner or later!

    ReplyDelete

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