Monday 23 November 2009

Rainy day perfumes


As I stood staring at the perfume shelf this morning I wondered, what is the best scent to wear when it’s constantly raining? Lots of scents smell of rain, or try to anyway, but few work well in the kind of typical English weather we are having at the moment.

Truthfully all I can smell most of the time at the moment is damp clothes, or clothes drying on the radiator and getting that slight burnt toast quality. I had a long, glorious bath yesterday and in some way hot baths filled with the kind of healthy, lung expanding scent of pine are the only thing I’m interested in at the moment.

Still I tend to feel most things in life are improved by a good perfume and that must surely include heavy rain- for I can certainly think of lots of scents that are charming in light, showery rain- so there must be some that are wonderful under heavy grey skies filled with buckets of angry tears.

There isn’t a perfume I love to wear when everyone and everything smells of bad dog- not very many of them ‘do well’ in those conditions. Today I decided the best bet would be something with a good dose of warming, mood enhancing, wintry oils and thought Nuit De Noel would be the best choice. Thinking on it more the more contemporary the scent the less well suited it seems to be to inclement weather- so many modern scents have a heavy dose of calone or want to be terribly ethereal and whispering and on a day like today you need a scent that is going to speak up for itself, not to be overbearing but to be quietly confident and assertive. Nuit de Noel is just that- but what else would work- would warm you up but not react badly with the damp wool smell which will inevitably prevail if you leave the house for more than a split second?

No Wet, No Cold picture from allposters.co.uk

8 comments:

Linda said...

Dear Rose,

I think I'd go with Apres L'Ondee - melancholy and beautiful... But you rchoice is absolutely right!
Best wishes,
Linda

The Daily Connoisseur said...

I would say... Prada Infusion d'Iris!

Fabulously French said...

I am intrigued by the perfume that you mentionbed so am off to find a bottle.

Trouble is that it does not rain that much here in SW France :-)

Leeann x

Rose said...

Hi Linda- I thought of that too, it's a great favourite of mine.

Hi Daily- Aha now that is one I like a lot on other people but don't wear myself. Very classy though.

Hi Leann, Oh I do hope you like it, I think it's really wonderful and if you like the classic Guerlains or even No 5 then I think you might love this. Good luck! and we have all the rain for SW France by the sounds of things- you have all the sun and good seafood!

Norma said...

Maybe Vol de Nuit?

Metropolitan Mum said...

I am usually not a huge fan of designer perfumes, but what about Narciso Rodriguez? Or even better, YSL's Elle? The latter being my current favourite, very spice with strong pepper and cinnamon notes.

skirmishofwit said...

My favourite 'rainy day' perfume is 'l'air de rien' (Miller Harris). Gorgeous!

I've always wanted to try a Caron perfume though so top of my list is Nuit de Noel - sounds lovely.

Rose said...

Hi Fountain girl- that's a very chic choice. Although I worship the vintage Guerlains I don't know any VDN, I really need to get into it more as it's beautiful. Santa?

Hi MM- both good choices- I'm a big NR fan. I think it'll go down as a classic in years to come

Hi Skirmish- That is a good scent- so unlike anything else- plus the Miller Harris packaging is very easy on the eye isn't it.

Nuit de Noel is my favourite Caron- although I know many people favour others. I hope you like it if you get to try it.