Fragrant Offerings (and more) for Valentine's Day

Beyond the juvenile "I love you" teddy-bears, the kitchy sentimental magnets and Hallmark postcards, Valentine's Day is just another chance to celebrate that which should be celebrated each day of the year: true love. And what is love but that force that surpasses all obstacles, all hindrances, to make possible the impossible?
In that vein and collaborating with The Non Blonde, my friend in arms Gaia, today we embark on a small homage to the world's most powerful god of them all: Eros or Cupid!
My first acquaintance with Scarborough Fair, the 16th century folk love ballad, had been in the version (immortally) sung by Simon & Garfunkel (contrapuncted with Canticle, a song about a soldier) in the iconic film of the 1960s The Graduate. Who can forget it, put into that memorable segment of chasing after phantoms? Yet other versions might focus our attention more to one "fragrant" passage in it, namely the line "parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme" which gets told and retold throughout.
More than meets the eye, Scarborough Fair talks about Love Magick. It talks about a couple who have been estranged: She has left him, he yearns for her and to rekindle their love, all delivered in a lengthy message over the song ("remember me to one who lives there, for once she was a true love of mine"), they exchange challenges consisting of impossible tasks which would prove they still have love for each other: she has to sew a cambric shirt with no seams or needle work, then wash it in a dry well, or find an acre of land between the sea and sand. Is it a reaffirmation of his pain or can love do the impossible?

Amy Nuttall sings Scarborough Fair.

The fragrant part of Scarborough Fair is indeed full of symbolism:

Thyme: Girls once used thyme sprigs in ceremonies to discover the identity of their true loves. A more upscale lady of Medieval times would embroider a flowering thyme sprig along with a visiting bee as a token to be given to a favored knight. A woman wearing thyme was once held to be irresistable.

Sage: Sage was once used to help childless couples conceive, and is associated with wisdom and longevity in plant lore. It was also used magically to honor weddings and to ensure domestic harmony.

Rosemary: Was once held to represent love and faithfulness. The plant was used in wedding ceremonies in place of rings as a sign of fidelity, and carried by newlyweds and wedding guests as a charm for fertility. But it also has the meaning of remembrance, as Shakespeare noted in Hamlet 'there's rosemary for remembrance.' Often used in love potions, it is also said to attract elves.

Parsley: It was once believed that only witches and pregnant women could grow this herb--Sow parsley, sow babes, was an old expression. The herb has been associated with witchcraft in England and also with death since ancient times. But more importantly, it is said to provoke lust and love.

Additionally, these herbs have long stood as "messages" to higher ends: Thyme stands for devotion, sage implies dependancy, rosemary (as Ophelia well knew) stands for remembrance, while parsley denotes a desire to procreate with said partner.
Keeping in mind these fragrant succulent herbs enter into many a delicious recipe (or even a scented herbal tea which lovers can share), perhaps the modern herbalism could recreate a powerful love potion, not only for Valentine's Day but for every day!
[source]

Music takes into other places as well, where the impossible is taking shape:

Greek-cypriot singer Alkinoos Ioannidis sings "Whatever love dreams".

"Whatever love dreams,
life lets them stay dreams.
But whoever falls in love
turns pain into a prayer,
turns the kiss into a boat
and leaves abroad..."

Extreme sing beautifully "More than Words".

True love is nevertheless often denied...due to inexperience. Or supressed manners. As in Lucy's and the reverent's case in E.M. Forster's A Room with a View (1985) where the possible becomes impossible for no apparent reason at all...until it dawns on her in the end.



Or it can be denied because it's just seems wrong. When it's possibly the only right thing in a messy situation.

Clip from The Priest (1994): One of the most passionate kissing scenes I have ever seen.



My own perfume preferences for Valentine's Day wearing?
Grand Amour by Annick Goutal: Because "love is everything" and he never fails to notice.
Passion by Annick Goutal : Because he loves it so...
Molinard de Molinard : Because this was his first fragrant gift to me and it holds precious memories.

Boxeuses by Serge Lutens : Because it's so darn sexy!
Amaranthine by Penhaligon's : Because a little skank never hurt no relationship.

Kiki by Vero Profumo : Because it's the perfect "morning after" eating-croissants-in-bed scent.

Hope your Valentine's Day is filled with passion and true-felt, beyond-the-commercial feelings!
Don't forget to visit Gaia's blog to read her own musings.

Pontevecchio W by Nobile 1942: fragrance review

"'Leonora,'" he read, "'sat pensive and alone. Before her lay the
rich champaign of Tuscany, dotted over with many a smiling
village. The season was spring.[...]A golden haze. [...]Off the towers of
Florence, while the bank on which she sat was carpeted with
violets. All unobserved Antonio stole up behind her--"

From E.M Forster's novel Room with a View.


Sometimes you come across a visage that speaks where no words are uttered. There is a nobility in the brow, vulnerability in the eyes, lips of petal soft promise and your heart aches a little. It doesn't matter where or when you see it, your psyche remembers it with a longing that remains unexplicable and beyond the carnal. True beauty in the spiritual sense has this effect. If that emotion was bottled in a flacon to be tentatively dosed for reminiscence's sake, it would be Pontevecchio W by Nobile 1942.

A feminine scent that compliments the male Pontevecchio, it is based on Iris Florentina, the precious rhizomes of which are proving to be so popular these last few seasons. Of course the Florentine rapport is not lost on us: Pontevecchio is the bridge over Arno, bien entendu.
And what does this journey to Florence smell like you ask?

"A young girl, transfigured by Italy! And why shouldn't she be transfigured? It happened to the Goths!"

It is those memorable words by Eleanor Lavish, the quirky and melodramatic novelist played by Judi Dench in Merchant-Ivory's film 1985 film "Room with a View" that come to mind.

Nobile 1942 chose well in picking Florence as the backdrop for their feminine tour de force. Please take a moment to see the promotional presentation devised for this perfume:click here

The mood evoked is also matched by the sublime music of Zbigniew Preisner’s “Van den Budenmayer concerto in Mi minore” for Krzysztof Kieślowski’s film “La double vie de Veronique”. (The soprano is Polish singer Elzbieta Towarnicka).
The effect is trully haunting in its beauty...

(uploaded by mixailaggelos2004)

Pontevecchio for women plays upon the delicate iris like a harp in the hands of an angel. The softest caress of magical powdery rose enfolds it, singing together like crystalline soprani melancholic tunes. The citrusy top notes bring cool air straight from behind the Pearly Gates it seems with a virginal feel of silent luminosity. It combines elements of both Bulgari Pour Femme and Creed's Fleurissimo into a lovely garland of precious flowers. The apricoty cheek of a Madonna with child, O mio Bambino Caro from Gianni Schicchi by Puccini, a karyatis supporting on her delicate head a florentine palazzo floor; pure unadulterated classicism beckoning you into succumbing to its charms.
It cools down into an indefinable emrace of musk and wood that is silky skin soft.

Pontevecchio Woman comes in both colonia intensa (eau de toilette) and fragranza suprema (eau de parfum), the former being a little more citrusy and crystalline and my personal preference. They both have very good lasting power on skin.

Official notes:
Top: bergamot, mandarin, coriander seeds
Middle: iris florentina, bulgarian rose, jasmine from India
Bottom: white musk, ambery woods, sandalwood from India

Live the dream renting this filmand read the book online here.

Pic of actress Rose Byrne from the otherwise terrible, terrible film "Troy" (allmoviephotocom)