Artparfume

To me, hay is the backbone of this perfume, it's always there somewhere despite how much the perfume changes. The opening is green, with a crispy apple and a powdery almond.

Then, linden blooms, adding an elegant and light facet to the perfume. It balances out the honey which drizzles in the background and brings warmth and an animalic facet. I can smell a hint of leather in the background, like a memory of a saddle.

This perfume feels like a day in the countryside when I was a kid. It’s bucolic, like running in the fields and climbing on straw bales.
Painting: A Peasant Girl Knitting - Jules Breton (1870).

This perfume starts with a kick of freshness thanks to the ginger. I definitely smell the solar spiciness of immortelle too (I’m starting to think I’m very sensitive to immortelle because I smell it intensely right from the start). I get a beautiful and starchy rice smell mixing with a tannic green tea, almost like the deposits at the bottom of a cup. This is a subtle fragrance; none of these notes takes over, but I wouldn’t say this is a clean or skin scent in any way. It’s muted, and everything is right where it should be.

You’re lying on a mat after a satiating meal, your face turned towards the garden where the breeze is animating the vegetation. You can still detect the lingering smell of your meal, the starchy rice, and the green you drank. Breathe in. The sun is warming your hair, and the wind caresses your cheek. Breathe out. Time has stopped. Nothing can reach you right now.

Painting: Woman Watching the shadow of a pine branch cast by the moon - Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1892).

Is this a summer fling in a bottle? Maybe.

It starts green and citrusy. The basil is really shining; it’s aromatic and a little sweet. It’s a stroll in a park in Italy with your date and the promise of a homemade plate of pesto pasta. You walk between rows of lemon trees and near an aromatic garden.

It has something fresh, a reminder of an iced dessert with pistachios. The dry-down is musky and sweet. It’s quite a light scent that stays close to the skin, but it keeps you in a little aromatic bubble.

Painting: Villa di Marlia, Lucca: A Fountain - John Singer Sargent (1910).

In true Olivia Giacobetti’s fashion, this is diaphanous and airy. It starts with a sparkling ginger and warm spices that stay muted and light, like a chai made translucent. The tea is there, but it’s soft rather than tannic. There’s honey, light and fluid, like liquid gold dripping down from a honeycomb.

This feels like drinking a warm cup of tea on an evening spent chatting with friends. It’s peaceful and warm, almost quiet despite the gossiping.

Painting: Jeunes Femmes au bord du lac - Destin Enjolras.

This starts with a powdery mimosa and a burst of ocean spray. On the skin, it warms to the smell of skin salted by the sea. An oceanic scent, but make it delicate. It has a cottony texture.
People tend to be harsh with aquatic scents (probably from the overdose of calone in the 1990s). This one is pretty, though, and to my nose, calone is not what’s most prevalent.
It has that powdery and vintage Oriza touch. The mix of powdery and aquatic notes is a surprising mix, reminding me of the scent of a vintage, expensive soap. I don’t really think this is for me, but it’s pretty nonetheless.
I feel like a wealthy, older lady in her villa by the sea.

Painting: Idleness - John William Godward (1900).