№ 17 Laundrette Frau Tonis Parfum 2018 Eau de Parfum

There are many of us who are immediately hooked by "Oooh, that smells like freshly washed laundry!" and who would instantly reach for a fragrance called Laundrette in its modern-minimalistic bottle. But why exactly?

I was curious about the scent and wanted to think it over, so I ordered a sample. The fragrance is as clean as expected, not soapy-clean, but floral-clean, for me not really pure white, more light blue with a slight tendency towards lilac, splashes of iris and freesia, light and cool and fresh, yet with a certain melancholic depth that I attribute to the blackcurrants. It stays close to the skin and won't turn a subway ride into a Persil meadow full of flapping bed sheets in the wind, but on my skin, I can still smell it after about 7 hours and on my sweater the next day. A beautiful, fresh, pleasant scent, a spring walk on a Sunday, sitting with loved ones in a flower meadow. Almost bought it.

Back to the original question, what is so special about fresh laundry? It's actually quite ordinary and easily accessible at any time: turn on the washing machine, throw in the dirty laundry, wait an hour, fresh laundry comes out. Do I need to pay 80 € for that? No, unless the need for the fresh laundry scent goes deeper. Someone is taking care of you, it’s clean and tidy, someone means well for you. Around you, it’s clean and organized, and that’s how it smells, at least a little bit of laundry day in a Bullerbü-Idyll in this dirty and chaotic world. A small comfort patch.

And then came the memories of my visits to the laundromat. This is where we met, those of us who had no money and no space for our own washing machine. There was always something (or someone) to observe, students with hand-rolled cigarettes and laundry in huge backpacks, scolding mothers, the rattling of laundry carts on the tiles. I liked sitting there, reading, watching, a small microcosm. Or back then, when I felt as alone as I had ever felt in my life, the small-town girl interning in the anonymous big city, and an older lady in the laundromat was the first person who really wanted to talk to me, it was so human, so approachable.
And right at this point of the laundromat association, Frau Tonis' Laundrette falters for me. It lacks that very human, loud, perhaps a little bit messy quality of the laundromat that I find essential for perfection, because the straightforward freshness also feels a bit distant, stepping back from the dirty laundry, not taking you by the hand and not letting you participate in everyday life. Minimalism may be liberating, but it is also always a bit unapproachable, and that’s not me. I sometimes spill coffee on my pants. A little twist in the scent, a small stumbling block, and it would be a great love. As it stands, still: Almost bought it. I'm still thinking about it. But first, I should get my laundry from the basement.