My Top 10 Fragrances for Spring: Scents fit for goddesses

Here are my favorite new fragrances to celebrate the rites of spring, matched with a slew of goddesses – mythological or hollywoodian – just for the fun of it. Let a thousand blossoms bloom on your skin!

Mito Voile d’Extrait by Vero Profumo

Vero Kern must have worked some serious voodoo on the members of the Olfactorama Awards, founded by French bloggers. Last year, Mito eau de parfum got the “Prix de la Virtuosité”; last Saturday, the Voile d’Extrait beat Comme des Garçons Black and Tom Ford Shanghai Lily for the “Prix de l’Enthousiasme”. In Ancient Greek, “enthusiasm” meant “possession by a god”. Lusty, chewy and disheveled, the Voile d’Extrait sticks a delightfully turgid tuberose in heart of its citronella-lit Italian garden. Dedicated to Persephone, the queen of the underworld who emerges each spring as the maiden Kore.

Rozy Eau de Parfum by Vero Profumo

Again, there are two versions of this, the Voile d’Extrait and the Eau de Parfum. Both are rose honeys, the former topped with green-camphoraceous fumes, the second more powdery and spring-like with its spicy touches of hyacinth and lilac. The ghost of Onda haunts that honey note, but the so-good-I’d-nibble-my-arm Rozy isn’t quite as glowerinly animalic. It’s still a sexy beast of a rose. Dedicated by Vero to the she-wolf goddess presiding over Rome, Anna Magnani, for her role in The Rose Tattoo, written for her by Tennessee Williams.

Shanghai Lily by Tom Ford Private Blend

This is what Belle d’Opium might have been: a blast of pepper spray on a bunch of lilies with clove buds as stamens. Composed by Shyamala Maisondieu with input from Rodrigo Flores-Roux, it’s got all the drama of the original Opium, and the queen-bitch arrogance other lily-themed scents rein in. Dedicated, obviously, to Marlene Dietrich in Von Sternberg’s Shanghai Express: her character’s name, Magdalen, which is also the actress’s, an obvious symbol of redemption since it is that of the Christian sinner-saint…

Oeillet Bengale by Aedes de Venustas

The third Aedes, by Rodrigo Flores-Roux, has just been presented to the press as “a flower on fire”. If you mourn as I do for Caron’s Poivre and L’Artisan’s much-regretted Oeillet Sauvage, poke your nose into this carnation. But gingerly: it’s explosive.  Because of her Mexico-born author, dedicated to Lupe Velez (1908-1944), aka the “Mexican Spitfire”, whose first talkie was Tiger Rose (the Aztec goddess Chantico presided over fire and volcanoes).

Wisteria Hysteria by Comme des Garçons

For their second partnership with mad-hatter Stephen Jones, CdG take a stab at another purple flower, and one much-neglected by perfumers. Nathalie Feisthauer’s take on wisteria not quite the mutant the lilac in the blob-bottle was – it’s heftily floral --, but it still gives off the trademark CdG urban-weird vibe, as though the wisteria were growing along a brushed-steel wall. Despite its deceptively wistful purple blossoms, wisteria is a plant whose clinging vines can throttle what they embrace. An obvious femme fatale, then, dedicated to Louise Brooks as Lulu in Pabst’s Pandora’s Box.

Imperial Tea By Kilian

Tannic is the new fresh. I’m still swooning over Jean-Claude Ellena’s impeccable demonstration of this in Eau de Narcisse Bleu. Calice Becker’s hyper-realistic rendition of jasmine tea is another. Don’t expect the scent to be long-lasting: getting the fragrance just right meant foregoing the usual tricks to extend its life on skin. But it would have been a crime to tweak it: Imperial Tea combines the pleasure of a “wow, that’s exactly it” moment with the refreshing sensation of a cologne, the tannic bitterness of the tea cutting through the lovely jasmine steam. A pleasure-giving brew that could be dedicated to Guanyin, the Chinese goddess of mercy.

Terre Eau très fraîche by Hermès

I’ve onlyjust reviewed this, so I’ll just add that the glorious, brine-kissed citrus splashing Terre’s flint and wood is exhilarating. Dedicated to the Hesperides, nymphs who tended the orchard that gave its name to the citrus family: the goddesses of the golden light of sunset.

La Panthère by Cartier

This is what the mainstream can be when big-brand decision-makers remember that there is a public out there for grownup fragrances that don’t leave us smelling of jam or dryer sheets. That reference classics (Mitsouko and 80s-style rose chypres) while feeling utterly contemporary. Dedicated to Dionysus, the god who rode a panther – an animal with a smell so sweet it could seduce its preys without budging. Click here for full review.

Un Matin d’Orage by Annick Goutal

Inthe original 2009 eau de toilette, Isabelle Doyen and Camille Goutal set their gardenia in a Japanese garden before a storm, moist petals aflutter with crackling ozone and the first, prickling raindrops. The new eau de parfum picks up the story after the storm has cleared, steam rising from earth and leaves, carrying a headier floral scent, with boosted tuberose and vanilla. Dedicated to Lena Horne, one of the few African-American screen goddesses, for her trademark song Stormy Weather.

Eau de Magnolia by Frédéric Malle

While working on Carnal Flower, Dominique Ropion had come up with a tuberose so realistic it couldn’t be worn as a personal fragrance: it ended up as a candle a few years later. This time, Frédéric Malle started by putting out Carlos Benaïm’s rendition of magnolia based on the flower’s headspace as the home fragrance Jurassic Flower. It has now grown into a perfume.  Eau de Magnolia was presented to the press just yesterday, but since a new Malle is always an event, I thought I’d wrap up the list with it, pending a full review… Meanwhile, this Southern Belle may be dedicated to Bette Davis’s free-spirited vixen in Jezebel: “Listen... Can you hear them? The night noises? The Mocking bird in the magnolia. See the moss hanging from the moonlight. You can fairly taste the night can't you?”
ADDED: Please note that Eau de Magnolia will hit the shops mid-June.

For more Top Tens, click on the usual suspects:

Bois de Jasmin

The Non-Blonde

Now Smell This 

The Perfume Posse