Weather Matters More Than I Thought

I used to not be the biggest believer in wearing scents for seasons or certain temperatures. I mean, I sort of have accepted that you don’t want to wear a spicy gourmand-like scent at the beach on a 90*F/32*C sunny day and that your blue freshie may not be the best choice for a 32*F/0*C day, but I generally think you can wear whatever, whenever.

Until now.

Full disclosure: I have been having some fun with ChatGPT and having it recommend me a fragrance to wear with the weather forecast for the day. So far, it seems to pick some pretty logical choices. It’s warm and sunny with some humidity, it generally gives me a few options on the lighter side, like Beau de Jour or Vetiverisimmo which do well cutting through the heavier air. When it gets cooler and more dry, it tends to pick slightly bolder and richer scents like Chypre Noir or Chypre Fulminare. I have actually been taking its suggestions to heart and wearing what it recommends.

Today I chose something different than it suggested. I told ChatGPT that it was 75*F with 67% humidity and it gave me the usual lighter choices to pick from. I instead chose Chypre Palatin from MDCI, which I rate very highly and it is one of my favorites.
Chypre Palatin has a vanilla note in its base and to me it’s not that sweet and very complimentary to the other notes found in the base, like Oakmoss, Castoreum, and Benzoin.

I focus on the vanilla because in a high humid environment, this once beautifully crafted Chypre scent turned into a balsamic vanilla bomb in the heavy air. It was dark and sweet and very heavy and sticky. Just generally not the most pleasant of experiences with a favorite scent of mine.

I am able to get into a climate-controlled room for an extended period of time and was interested to see if this scent would change at all. A relatively dry and cooler room at around 72*F, a change in the scent was noticeable in minutes with it becoming less vanilla heavy to a more balanced scent that I have known it to be. After thirty minutes? The scent (or my nose or both) have fully recovered and it is once again that magnificent fragrance I remember!

So a lesson learned, pay at least a little bit to the weather and choose wisely.