Pride, Prejudice & Perfume: Scents for Events

The BBQ

No doubt you’re in a maxi, or a big tee shirt thrown on over wet swimmers. It’s hot, someone is mixing up some iced tea of the long island variety and you’re already in sensory overload with the food. No one likes a cloying fragrance on a sweltering summer’s day. Stick with something fresh and light.

Something like …

Clarins Eau Sunshine

This little guy isn’t a traditionally formed fragrance – it has active aromatherapy (aroma therapeutic?) ingredients that work towards making you feel more uplifted plus skin toning and smoothing agents. It’s the multi-tasker of fragrances.

Sicilian mandarin and grapefruit oils to uplift

Ylang Ylang, tonka bean, patchouli to promote sensuality

Watermelon to tone skin

Griffonia seed to promote good sleep, mood and release tension

Mimosa, linden and chamomile to keep skin smooth

The Garden Party

You say garden party, I say floral frock. Call me old fashioned and ask me if I still play tennis with a wooden racquet (to which I’ll say no, but if a garden party required it, I would) but if you want to kiss your English lover in a hedge maze, by the roses, rom-coms insist you don suitable wear. I insist you don a suitable fragrance. So you say garden party, I say gardenias, roses and Pimms. Whilst I’m working on sourcing a fragrance that combines the three (Pimms is proving difficult) there is no shortage of delightful floral scents. One might say they abound.

My pick for a garden party?

Vintage Gardenia Cologne by Jo Malone

Jo Malone’s fragrances are so beautiful they make me want to cry. And then bathe in them, perhaps whilst crying, to complete the lunatic picture. Her Vintage Gardenia fragrance combines the rich creaminess of gardenias with tuberose, sandalwood, cardamom and myrrh. Now go get that English lover, he’s by the fountain.

The Boat

Choosing the ideal fragrance for a day on the boat (anyone’s boat, even an imaginary boat) didn’t entail a vast deal of imagination on my part. I simply harked back to the advertising campaign that featured Gwyneth (face of) gripping the mast of a vast yacht (no phallic reference intended) and gazing out across, presumably, the Mediterranean. Wearing, of course, white linen.

Who doesn’t want to wear white linen, grip a mast, and gaze out across a sparkling body of water? Am I foisting a long-time personal fantasy upon my readers?

Regardless, this summer, if you do find yourself on a boat, make sure you’re wearing …

Estee Lauder Pure White Linen

An update on an old classic (and a very good update at that) Pure White Linen features some fruity notes which are, thankfully (because fruit doesn’t quite seem to fit with this chic number) overshadowed by white florals, green notes and a cedar-wood base. Perfect for a day on the boat.

The Beach

It’s tricky, the beach fragrance, because you’ll be going swimming and fighting with the scent of sunscreen. Part of me wants to say, grab a $13 bottle of Elizabeth Arden’s fresh delight, Green Tea, but another part of me wants you to wear the concept of the beach, whilst you’re actually there.

So, I’ve gone with the concept fragrance, and my pick is …

Vanille Abricot by Comptoir sud Pacifique

With notes of apricot, papaya, sugar candy and jack fruit, this fragrance will have people gravitating towards you in the surf and on the sand, so spray with caution. I have seen a table of grown men fawn over a girl in a café, who confessed to be wearing this heady concoction.

The Cocktail Party

Ideally, you’d select a ‘sophisticated’ fragrance for a summer cocktail party, but that doesn’t mean you have to go for a big brand. Large Italian design house is not the be all and end all of sophisticated fragrances (far, far from it, in fact).

You want something that people will notice as you brush past them, and something that lasts the evening. Go for an eau de parfum, for the lasting power, and choose something with a warm base note, perhaps a hint of patchouli.

I’d wear …

In Red by Armand Basi

This Spanish perfume was loved by one Nicole Kidman, before a certain Parisian design house stepped in and paid her the national debt of a small African company, to make her name a certain Parisian fragrance as her signature scent. This is a stunning potion of jasmine, ginger, mandarin and rose blended with citrus notes, on a base of musk and moss. It will stop traffic, we promise. Or at least the waiter with the champagne flutes, time and time again.

New Year’s Eve

Okay, so now I am going to throw a few big names at you. These feel good, luxury fragrances are the perfect way to usher in a big, new year. They’ll go beautifully with a classic LBD for those of us doing something special this NYE, or add a dash of European je ne sais qoi to those going for a more pared down look.

Gucci by Gucci – a flurry of, raspberry, pear, orange blossom, guava, chamomile, Tiare flower, honey, spider lily, patchouli, and musk. I don’t like the advertising campaign, but my God I love this fragrance.

The Beat by Burberry  - unleash your inner Agyness Deyn with this fresh, sparkly scent. Yes you will want to jump around wearing knee high socks and men’s ties. Notes of mandarin, Ceylon tea, bergamot, , pink pepper, cardamom, bluebell, iris, vetiver, cedar-wood and white musk.

Ma Dame by Jean Paul Gaultier – damn, I can’t say unleash your inner Agyness Deyn again. Curse her and her ubiquitousness. Unleash your inner Parisian punk-lady with notes of rose, grenadine and cedar.

Check them all out at Perfume Empire