I think I’m thoroughly sick of the phrase ‘staycation’ being bandied about, aren’t you?
Yes, yes, we’re all making do and mending while (hoping) the sun shines, but if you’re pining for a cancelled holiday and considering your local (likely overcrowded) beach with a jaded eye, I’m here to tell you that now is the time fragrance can lift your spirits, and I’ve chosen five favourite ‘holiday vibe’ perfumes to wear in warmer weather…
In the U.K. we’re been having what the newspapers refer to as ‘a scorcher’. This means three consecutive days when it didn’t rain, and the temperature goes from cardigan-wearing weather to blast-oven blistering in hours. While our interpretation of the word ‘hot’ may cause scorn, please understand: few places here have air-conditioning, and it’s the kind of humidity that makes you want to clamber naked into a supermarket freezer and have done with it. Also, a sudden hot spell can play havoc with one’s scent choices, and the way they perform.
When temperatures soar, what you might normally wear can behave in a strange way. Suddenly, phantom notes can waft forth from your fragrance, or people across the rooms might catch a drift as aroma molecules travel further in hotter weather. As physicscentral.com explain, ‘Just as the kinetic theory of gases would suggest, scents are susceptible to the whims of temperature, flying high in warmer climes and hunkering down when it gets cold.’
Whether you’re making the best of socially distant picnics in the park or cursing over those ‘easily inflatable’ paddling pools in the garden, here are five fragrances to transport you somewhere infinitely more exotic in a flash…
Van Cleef Arpels Neroli Amara
Lip-smackingly juicy from the get-go, radiating wave after wave of gloriously bitter orange in a transparent wash of instant gratification (that happily lasts many hours).
£130 for 75ml eau de parfum
selfridges.com
Escentric Molecules Escentric 05
A walk from the sea through a shady pine forest, personified. Green figs lap bergamot, salty freshness trailing through the delicious cool, camphoraceous quietude of cypress and resinous Cashmeran.
£35 for 30ml eau de parfum
From The Perfume Society shop
Molton Brown Flora Luminare
So crisply green the air around you seems to shiver, this luminescent white floral begins with bitter almond, then gently bathes orange blossom’s sunshine in tiaré absolute’s luscious, creamy embrace.
£60 for 50ml eau de toilette
moltonbrown.co.uk
Parterre The Hour of Dusk & Gold
Lean in to the balminess with this languid sunset of a scent. Verdant angelica root and a powdered glow of spiciness from wild Persian carrot seed sparkle like fire reflected in the crest of an iridescent wave.
£160 for 100ml eau de parfum
bloomperfume.co.uk
Elizabeth Arden White Tea Mandarin Blossom
Think sunlit skin, crisp sheets, a good book, the day’s first sip of tea – sheer bliss, but we’re in a Sicilian citrus grove (all the better). Energising, then soothing in its apricot and musky wood dry down: succumb.
From £36 for 100ml eau de toilette
elizabetharden.co.uk
By Suzy Nightingale
