Enchanted Orchid & Blushing Cherry Blossom by Bath & Body Works : Scented Reviews

The weather has been absolutely lovely the last few days: the sky a gorgeous blue without a cloud in sight, the chestnut trees blossoming, the central heating turned off (hopefully) for good and the French doors leading to my balcony left open all day long in order to let the light breeze caress my skin as I work. The days are lasting longer, and all I can think about as evening approaches, is how nice it would be to go out with my friends to sit on a terrace and lazily enjoy tapas, good wine and their smiles under the setting sun. Alas, the fact that my last midterms are only five days away means that I am once again confined in the house, conscientiously studying instead of indulging. But one has to keep thinking positively, right? I might not be able to go out, but I can still bring plenty of the atmosphere I am so craving in my own home. My ritual starts with a long, warm shower around 7 in the evening to relax, before I have to go back to the books. I spritz Enchanted Orchid Body Splash all over my still slightly dump legs and arms and slip into a summery shift. I then pour myself a tiny glass of wine and take my books to the balcony to enjoy the sunset, using an extra chair to rest my legs on. It might not be quite the experience of a buzzing terrace filled with people, and Multivariate Data Analysis is not quite as pleasant company as my friends, but hey, it is a slice of summer. And it makes me smile. The combination of the last couple of hours of warming sunlight with the light breeze and the scent of the Enchanted Orchid splash make me feel like I am transported to a summer resort, worries left behind. This deep, sultry fragrance is truly exotic and perfectly suited to the summer months. The opening smells strongly of apple and vanilla, but soon the scent blooms to reveal a lighter floral bouquet of gardenias surrounded by juicy greens. It is a long lasting, lingering fragrance that makes me feel feminine and refreshed. Its sultriness further makes me feel ready for a real summer evening filled with fun, evoking images of beach parties under the starlight. There’s also something in there that brings a positively tropical atmosphere to mind, even though I am not immediately able to detect any of the typical fruity notes that usually fit the description. The plastic spritzer bottle is going to be the perfect addition to my gym bag this summer. A light misting after the shower and I’ll be ready to enjoy the summer evenings after my workout!

Another Bath & Body Works product I’ve been enjoying lately is the Blushing Cherry Blossom Eau de Toilet. This utterly fresh, ethereal scent is perfect for sunny spring days, adding a touch of femininity to a casual daytime look. Despite the name, this is actually a scent built around a beautiful rose accord, which starts out very light and sparkling and gets progressively warmer and more complex as it warms on the skin. Supporting the rose but not distracting from its role as the star of the fragrance, a note of succulent pear adds playfulness, greens add freshness, while a touch of something dry, like a sprinkiling of dust, adds a realistic dimension to the flower. The drydown is warmer: a woody musk, which comfortably hugs the lingering rose scent. This happy, girly fragrance is great for those who want to add a springtime rose scent to their fragrance rotation without breaking the bank.

Images: Calypso Orchid & Rose Damascena, commons.wikimedia.org

Antonia’s Flowers by Antonia’s Flowers : Perfume Review

Two weeks of beautiful sunny days, not a hint of rain in sight. And then suddenly, the rain and cold are back, everything changed. The weather started taking a turn for the worse last night and today we woke up to overcast skies and dreary rain. When you live in a country dominated by the wind and rain, you start thinking about the weather a lot. Talking about it, even. It becomes a conversation point. Talking about the weather is so pedestrian, part of my mind tells me. But it can’t be helped; the joys of spring still flagrant in my mind, how can I not lament the loss of the sun’s warm rays on my skin? Who’d ever choose for the tears of rain on their face when they could have the fond caress of sun on their cheeks? They skies should never have to be so gray in May.

There are so many ways to choose a perfume, so many ways to use it. There are perfumes that are not so much part of my wardrobe but integral parts of my character that I use to underscore and highlight who I really am; perfumes that are one with my identity, my spirit. There are perfumes I use for seduction or to express my mood. There are yet others, which let me travel back to the past or help me reach grounds my feet have never touched. And there are still perfumes I’d never wear outside, so incongruent are they to my character, but that I still have to have to use as balm – soothing remedies for those times when not everything in my day is right. One such is Antonia’s Flowers signature fragrance.

It was for those qualities that I was looking for today in my perfume and I instinctively reached for it. I longed for its freshness, its cheeriness, its optimism. Antonia’s Flowers was created in conjunction with perfumer Bernard Chant and was launched in 1985. It focuses on the designer’s beloved freesia and even though it does not quite strike me as a soliflore, this is the only flower note I can clearly discern. It is softly accentuated by lily, but the jasmine and magnolia never make an appearance for me. Despite its ‘living flower’ technology, I have to assert that to me, natural freesia is much headier. The freesia in Antonia’s Flowers is soft and green, never quite as boozy as the bouquets the tables of my paternal home were always adorned with in Easter. Perhaps this is different in other concentrations of the perfume – I have only experienced the EdT. But this is far from criticism. It is this fresh, lush greenness that draws me to this perfume on rainy days such as this one. The overall effect of the fragrance is freshly cut grass, so luscious and juicy as can only grow in rainy countries such as this one. In the opening the green is joined by sparkling and slightly sharp citrus that dissipates before you even knew it was there, to give rise to the grassy field where the sun is projecting its rays between the shadows cast by the foliage of the trees. There is a slightly musty accord there too, that struggles to come through from time to time, the mildewy scent of dump clothes. Instead of finding it a turn-off, this is a smell that makes me happy in this fragrance, as though the green field was not eerily quiet, but alive with boys and girls laughingly drenching each other with water, partly to tease, partly to cool themselves from the summer’s heat. A game I’ve often played in childhood... It is this accord too, that makes me marvel at how lively the freesia in this perfume really is. It is a scent that often rises from the flowering bulbs, but not from the cut flowers. After a couple of hours of wear, the grassy smell becomes soft enough to allow the true flowery character of this fragrance to bloom. And it blooms in the softest, quietest manner possible. Unobtrusive, dewy and green, Antonia’s Flowers is simple and cheerful. The sense of spring, gentle and true: perfect balm for a rainy day.

Pictures courtesy of www1.odn.ne.jp and www.thebulbman.com respectively.