One of my favourite luxuries is perfume and I have quite a few scents that I use according to my mood. I am a big fan of Jo Malone colognes - they are divided into Citrus, Fruity, Light Floral, Floral, Spicy and Woody fragrances and the idea is to mix and match them to create your own favourite combination. I still have some of my first bottle of Orange Blossom Cologne I bought 10 years ago - now that's pretty good value! I love the way that a scent can capture a moment and preserve that memory. I bought the Orange Blossom cologne - a heady floral fragrance - at the beginning of a trip across America with my husband and first wore it on Cape Cod. I can remember my husband commenting that morning that Cape Cod smelled beautiful! I hated to point out that I'd just been spraying Orange Blossom all over myself but now, every time I use it, we're taken back to that very happy time.
I've since added Wild Fig and Cassis (warm, sensual and good for 'grounding' a floral scent), English Pear and Freesia (sweet, summery and warm), and Lime, Basil and Mandarin (spicy, fruity, unisex scent that always gets comments when I wear it) to my collection and the Blackberry and Bay is on my wish list.
I've since added Wild Fig and Cassis (warm, sensual and good for 'grounding' a floral scent), English Pear and Freesia (sweet, summery and warm), and Lime, Basil and Mandarin (spicy, fruity, unisex scent that always gets comments when I wear it) to my collection and the Blackberry and Bay is on my wish list.
I'm hooked on combining scents now and I've found that another firm favourite of mine, Mitsouko by Guerlain, smells divine when mixed with Wild Fig and Cassis. Probably not what Jacques Guerlain had in mind when he created it!
Although some perfume bottles are gorgeous in themselves, I do like to decant perfumes into little cut glass or unusual bottles when I can. This tiny green bottle has a small glass stopper that can be used to dab a drop of pure perfume behind the ear or onto the decolletage. Very decadent.
At the moment my little green bottle holds the smallest drop of L'Air du Desert Marocain by Tauer. A very intriguing perfume that I recently bought a sample of. It's probably not for everyone - not at all floral or feminine but dry, woody and spicy, with some initial top notes of piney resin (or toilet cleaner according to my husband). Not that we don't both like it - there's something a bit addictive about it and Tauer has captured that dry, desert air combined with the rich spicy smell you get from Moroccan Thuja wood - heavenly! It also seems to go rather well with a drop of the Orange Blossom. I will definitely be trying some more of Tauer perfumes in future.
What's your favourite perfume and do you combine?
