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Old Favourites
The most obvious scent I picked this spring is Lanvin's Oxygène. The olfactory reception I get in Oxygène is quite something, as it recalls and depicts vividly one of my favourite flowers, the wisteria, or glycine in French. It's an early spring flower and, therefore, associated with cool air, dewiness, and a certain hesitant expectation. The heat and the sun have not come in to orgiastically lavish upon it. Its peppery spiciness, inherent also in mauve lilacs, is due to eugenol. A fusion of spicy goodness reveals itself from the core: a middle ground between a peppery twinkle, a clove-y note, and carnations, with a side of a somewhat oily green nuance reminiscent of hyacinth and lilacs. It's first and foremost FRESH.
Rose fragrances that I had put aside when winter came include Paris by YSL and Rosarine by Parfums Dusita. Rosarine is like a breath of fresh air, rose-tinged clouds of sweet dawn - a beautiful and refined rosy fragrance that is so much more than just roses. Sweet and fruity greens mingle. It's cooling yet warm, not just a morning scent, but an evening one too. It consists of two varieties of roses: Bulgarian rose and Rose de Mai from Grasse. Bergamot, jasmine, frankincense, ambrette, iris, and coriander emphasize their aromatic qualities, lending a rich and lasting aura. Paris by Yves Saint Laurent, on the other hand, especially in the EDT version, which is the one I prefer, has a massive violet note that engulfs me into a mauve tinge of silent dusk.
Incense scents are another beloved genre that reads well in springtime for me. Santa Maria Novella's Incenso is one such. In Incenso, we have a great fusion of personal introspection and pleasurable outward accountability; the composition reads as both zen for a spiritual mood, but not too ecclesiastical or sombre. Beginning with a dense myrrh and rosy-spice mélange that is not very distant from the chord in Messe de Minuit, it is already ripe and airy, with juniper and patchouli, as well as woody, serene, and earthy, evoking soil and plants growing in a cloistered monastery. It feels buoyant and airy, like a pigeon's feather traveling on the wind, blowing in some secret garden, hiding beneath the walls of the Florentine city.
Newer discoveries:
Bijou Zafran by Ormonde Jayne, the 2026 offering by the British niche brand, spice (a golden saffron) that is paired with quite sweet pear, rendering it into fire spun in silk, with suede leather, and unearthly woods. It's a novel fusion of compote gourmand with Middle-Eastern themes of saffron.
Alhambra Bakhoor by Ricardo Ramos is a way of showing how Andalusian Muslim society allowed itself freedoms that were unthinkable for the Muslims of the caliphates of Damascus and Baghdad. . Alhambra Bakhoor isn't a spicy fragrance per se, with wine and spices mingling in order to render an abstract, creamy feeling of contemplation with a sensuous, hedonistic heart. Shockingly, but in a good way, there is a whiff of brand-new-objects made from leather and woods (specifically soft, buttery woods like sandalwood). It is akin to the experience of unboxing something brand new.
Iris Bianco (L'Erbolario) is a newer iris to the collection and to me is piquant, delicate and at the same time melodious, as if made of wind chimes, a canon that is reprised by angelic voices on a crisp sunny morning. The complex air under a bitter orange tree (with its neroli and citrus effect), full of clarity, and beside it a blooming rose bush, with just a soupçon of spice. It comes off as "clean girl aesthetic", not particularly ground-breaking. The iris in the name is potentially fodder for disappointment for those who seek a powdery cosmetics smelling fragrance.
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