Salvia Olfactive Pharmacy 2020

In 1983 the Munich City Museum hosted the photo exhibition "Grün kaputt" (Green kaput). In the accompanying book, titled "Koniferenland" (Conifer Land), it was vividly described in words that get under your skin what we do to our gardens: on one side of the fence desert poisoned with a lot of time and money - on the other side it blooms colourfully at the roadside...

Exactly this image of the blooming roadside, of herbs and wild flowers and much too high grass awakes the perfume "Salvia" in me. But not from the very beginning: when spraying it on, I always have to think alternately of alpine meadows and seven-herb shampoo - which I like, but doesn't stay as a fragrance impression for long. What follows is the memory of summer walks, past meadows and fields, along the river. To the left and right of me it is blooming and green, a light breeze comes up and blows a scent into my nose.
With this hint of scent, it stays. And that is at the same time unbelievably fitting and yet in my opinion the biggest shortcoming. A similarly fragile fragrance is already in my collection: "Hermessence Osmanthe Yunnan". A wonderful scent, which I unfortunately only notice for a short time when spraying it on... I find that a pity. A little longer I can sniff "Salvia" on me, but also only directly on the skin.

I cannot smell the eponymous sage in my little fragrance. It seems more like a potpourri of different herbs and meadow flowers. That's a good thing, because sage is not necessarily my favourite fragrance: since I harvested quite a lot of it in the garden a few years ago and hung it up to dry in the kitchen, I find it rather unpleasant and sweaty, at least from a certain fragrance intensity. Since "Salvia" also has some other fragrances in addition to sage, I consider the name here to be rather indicative (in the sense of a medicinal herb scent)
And yet: should the road take me once again (ideally in summer) to Cologne and possibly even to a certain perfumery - I would like to spray myself from head to toe with "Salvia". I would leave the perfumery, eat something good in one of the beautiful breweries, drink a cool Kölsch and let the scent take effect on me. I might weaken after all... After all, he is my absolute favourite from the small row.
Not everyone likes natural gardens. Not everybody likes "salvia." I do - both of them.