The late (and great) Gianni Versace once said, “Perfume puts the finishing touches to elegance… and invisible extra that completes a man’s and woman’s personality. Without it, there is something missing.”
And we couldn’t agree more.
While fragrance acts as the final accoutrement to your wardrobe, what makes it so powerful is how evocative it is of memory, thus playing on emotion. Your choice of perfume can literally and metaphorically take you places.
Whether it’s a walk down memory lane or a new adventurous spirit you’d like to call upon, here’s a simply scent-sational list of what we can promise you are really good perfumes (coupled with some really bad puns).
The rainforests of Sarawak
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Imbued with notes of pink pepper, ginger, and clary sage up top with water-lily, rose, orchid, jasmine, freesia and redcurrant at the heart, OLFAC3’s Borneo EDP (RM280) fragrance is an exotic interpretation of the rainforests of Borneo. Just imagine yourself under one of the forest’s lush canopies, breathing in the fresh morning air. It’ll all make scents.
Getting ‘peary’ peachy in France
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The sweetness of pear and peach enveloped by the loving embrace of a French rose made warm by vanilla and white musk, the Goutal Petite Cherie EDP (RM445) is a gift of love from mother to daughter. Although released back in 1998, this fragrance by Annick Goutal herself that she orchestrated for her young daughter has long been an icon of the perfume house. And it’s one of four absolute favourites. Available at Kens Apothecary.
A rose garden in France
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Okay, we know, France again! But hear us out — this is a country blessed with some of the most amazing scents to please your olfactory senses. And this time, we take you to a rose garden, where we celebrate the multi-faceted nature of this stunning bloom. The Diptyque Eu Rose EDP (RM759) is a flamboyant play on the various types — such as the Damascus rose, Firad rose, and Centifolia — and we’re in love. Available at Kens Apothecary.
On that Bali high
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When we think of traipsing through Bali, the scent memory that hits us is the little baskets of flowers we wake up to each morning, lovingly placed on our doorsteps. Part of its ultra-luxe The Alchemist series, Gucci’s A Chant For The Nymph EDP (RM1,469) takes us right there with its wondrous op note of frangipani, the heart of ylang-ylang and tiare flower, and vanilla base. Floral, warm, welcoming, this is like Bali in a bottle (a stunning flacon, we must say!). Available exclusively at Gucci Beauty KLCC Store and Gucci Beauty Boutique Mid Valley Megamall.
Rainy days in India
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Another oldie but goodie, Hermes Un Jardin Apres la Mousson EDP (RM630), is a woody-spicy scent that brings the more unexpected facets of India front and ‘scentre’. With a name translating to, ‘a garden after the monsoon’, the fragrance takes us on a trip to witness the rebirth of nature in Kerala, in a garden after a mighty rain, restoring to the earth what the sun and drought have taken.
Expect warm notes of ginger, cardamom, coriander, pepper, and vetiver — almost akin to a local recipe, but trust when we say that this orchestration is heavenly.
Sakura hunting in Japan
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We’ve got a fragrance as fleeting as a Japanese sakura flower this time around. A scent-imental symphony featuring top notes of cherry, blackcurrant, and freesia with a heart of cherry blossom and lily of the valley brought down to a base of Brazilian rosewood, L’Occitane en Provence’s Cherry Blossom EDT (RM245) conveys the smell of early spring. Specifically of strolling under Japan’s blooming sakura trees.
