The Third Garment – Scent

I don’t write often on the more feminine aspects of life that tend to lift and enrobe us in comfort and pleasure, like the tactile feel of certain fabrics,the weather; things combined with scent.  Scent is one of my all time favorite mood drivers. In this arena I am always torn between the natural and the synthetic both for home and personal fragrances.

I have a tendency to be bold in my fragrances and fabrics (I know, you are SO surprised…smile).  My current favorite is Alien Les Parfums de Cuir (Alien Jasmine Absolute cured in Leather).  I alternate between this, Ange ou Demon, Le Secret, Le Elixir and the gourmand version of Angel which blends cocoa with the notes of vanilla, caramel,mandarin,passion fruit,chocolate, patchouli and more. While many people cannot carry off these heavier fragrances, my skin seems to love them, and I’ve only once been cornered with “That perfume smells like dirt.”  While they might have meant that as an insult, as one who loves the fecund and vibrant fragrance of good healthy dirt, I did not take it as such.

I also create my own blends using Vetiver, Vanilla, Cedarwood, Balsam of Peru, Lemongrass and other scents. I have a preference for deep, woodsy, green or resinous fragrances.  Burning in my tea light burners right now is a blend of the above from my own essential oil collection.

Scent creates memories.  My daughters will tell me that when they smell a certain scent that it reminds them of me.  One of them even purchased a gift set for me of a scent I used to wear when they were all young. Back then I favored deeper notes as well; J’Adore, Narcisse and  Dior’s Addict.  Vanilla, Jasmine, sandalwood and cedar have all been notes that run through whatever I wear.  Sometimes I even buy scents for men (gasp!) because they appeal to me.  I am rarely conventional with scents, although I am lucky that my skin effuses scents that others cannot wear in a pleasing way.

One of my deepest scent memories is of woods, from back when we would vacation in the Ocala National Forest and of ocean and woods mingled out on the outer islands of Jekyll in Georgia. Another one is of a building we used to gather in for religious activities.  I can close my eyes and remember the scents of both of these places.  Pine and cedar make me smile when I encounter them in the outdoors, along with the scent of leaf mould; that green, black, living scent of soil being made better, stronger, more able to support life. I am my happiest when I am in a wooded place after a good, deep rain.  You can literally smell living things at that time. At least that is how my mind envisions the smell.

When I went primitive camping this past spring I would have rolled in that scent if I could. It is the scent of balance, of rightness – the lack of man’s touch perhaps? Fall mornings contain it – the way it sits in your consciousness, graces your skin with its light touch. Even Winter and snow have their own clean erasure smell – cool clarity. And when Spring bursts forth in a place with seasons, you can smell it on the warmth of the earth.

What are your favorite scent memories? Are there scents that can take you from here to there?  Are there things that make you smile when you smell them?

Or am I a scent freak? 🙂

~SE  smelling and feeling her way through this amazing thing called Life.