Juicy Juice: Citruses You Need to Know

Citrus scents are the perfect way to boost your energy! They make you appear youthful. They reduce stress levels. Lemon, orange, grapefruit, tangerine, lime. All vivid and tangy. Fresh, natural mouthwatering fizziness. A few citruses I adore: 

AQUA ALLEGORIA ORANGE SOLEIA by Guerlain 

This really is the PERFECT orange scent. Not too sweet, not too bitter... photorealistic orange. Projection is soft but not too soft, someone else could possibly smell this on me if they were a foot or two away. I keep rocking back and forth so I can get little wafts of it over and over. This is the quality I have come to anticipate from Guerlain. 

CHINOTTO di LIGURIA by ACQUA di PARMA

A mind bending citrus floral. Good enough to drink. Summer cocktails and sunglasses. Riding home on the back of his motorcycle. A fantastic geranium note in there too!

L'ETROG by Arquiste

This fragrance got me to learn about the holiday of Sukkot. I love how perfume reviews often take me down a rabbit hole of learning. I've sampled L'Etrog fairly heavily now and it's in my top citrus of all time category. It's up there with Acqua di Parma Colonia and Francis Kurkdjian Universalis Forte. I can smell the myrtle sharpening the edges and the date sweetening it up. Refreshing and irresistible.

ORANGE SANGUINE by Atelier 

I realize that I just called Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Orange Soleia "the PERFECT orange scent". Well, now that I consider it, I feel it may be tied for first place with this one. They are both the perfect blood orange! Soleia is a bit more citrus-y, with a brightness that pops and fizzes your nose. Sanguine is smoother, with hints of green leaves and geranium. But they are equally photorealistic. It's just like two different strains of oranges and here's me standing in the grocery store trying to decide which orange to actually buy. I guess Soleia is the orange juice I'd drink in a tiny glass for a delicious breakfast and Sanguine is the orange juice I would use to mix in a refreshing cocktail. I never thought I'd be a person who loved orange perfumes. My wallet says I should check out the Pacifica one next.

COLOGNE by Etat Libre d'Orange

This is such a bergamot BOMB! That might be all I can smell on this is bergamot, although I know there are other notes lifting and carrying the bergamot because its not like essential oil or anything. This makes me think that the creator wanted to make a posh version of 4711. Just like 4711 but with SILLAGE and LONGEVITY. It certainly is not as interesting as other ELDO creations, but as far as classic cologne accord goes, it is very very nice. Clean and sexy.

UNDER THE LEMON TREE by Maison Martin Margiela

A summer refresher scent like AdG or Ck1. For those hot days when everything else is too oppressive, you can slip into the light herbal aromas of Under the Lemon Tree. Petitgrain can be such a powerhouse note when used the way it is here. Reminds me a bit of an herbal shampoo from the 80s. People who are sad about the discontinuation of Love's Fresh Lemon will find memories stoked somewhat here.

A Fine Vintage, Aged to Perfection

A question I get a lot is "Are vintage perfumes still good to wear?" and the answer is ABSOLUTELY. Provided they have been stored in a cool dry place, away from sunlight and the bottle has stayed sealed well enough to not let in air, a perfume can stay wonderful smelling for decades. There are some perfumistas whose wardrobe is made up exclusively of vintage because they just prefer those type of scents over the candy sweet ones that make up a large percentage of what is on the current market. They don't make em like they used to! Perfumes of yesteryear had serious personality that cannot be compared to modern. There is a fantasy aspect to them, taking you away in a time machine. It's a piece of history in smell form. There is a character and depth as they unravel in layers over the course of wearing them. Here are a few vintages that I absolutely loved wearing. 

 

VOL DE NUIT by Guerlain 

This was the scent that not only turned me on to galbanum as a note (making me chase things like vintage Miss Dior and Ralph Lauren Safari) but Vol de Nuit also turned me on to the world of 1930s woody fragrances. The smell of real silk stockings in a drawer with a stash of perfumed cigarettes. Perfumes like Angelique Encens, Sous le Vent and Tweed suddenly entered my world, all thanks to a little sample of Guerlain Vol de Nuit holding the door open. This just smells so classy and old school, like the beautiful star of a black and white romantic comedy.

ARPEGE by Lanvin 

The first time I smelled Arpege I immediately thought "This one is going to need very careful wearing". Meaning light handed, meaning just the right weather, meaning just the right occasion. Not a perfume I would recommend to someone just starting out on a perfume journey. Not to sound like a snob but this is an old school aldehyde that to a newbie inexperienced nose will receive the dreaded "o l d l a d y" comment and scrunched nose. You have to know who you are and what you are doing in order to rock Arpege confidently. This is a lady, she knows what a finger bowl is for. She has monogrammed stationary. Her house is decorated in chintz fabric and everything is perfectly symmetrical. She is probably an Earth or Water sign. This is really musky and not at all light. If you are confident with your ability to pull off things like White Linen or even jLo Glow, you can handle Arpege. But yes, it takes a minute to "get" Arpege and it won't be everyone's thing. Smells shy but it's not for shy people.

FIRST by Van Cleef & Arpels

A fine aldehydic potion. Where White Diamonds uses aldehydes to showcase lilies and Ysatis uses aldehydes to showcase ylang ylang, Van Cleef & Arpels First uses aldehyde accord in the top notes to frame and highlight a green and fresh hyacinth. Very "ladies who lunch". I'm so impressed! 

 L'HEURE BLEUE by Guerlain 

I consider this the quiet, reserved older sister of the more cheeky and vivacious Mitsouko. About seven years ago, I first sampled it and couldn't really forget it once my sample was gone. I saw a vintage bottle of it in a thrift store of all places but for whatever reason, went home without buying it. Regret clouded my thoughts. A few days later my sister called and mentioned that she was shopping at that particular thrift store. I yelled into the phone instructions for what part of the store I'd seen it, which shelf it was on, described the curlique bottle shape and promised I'd pay her back right away if she could please please find it and buy it for me. It was still there (how did the other thrift store shoppers never see it??) and once she brought it to me, I knew why it had haunted my mind so badly. It's a haunted perfume. Mitsouko is also a haunted perfume. Otherworldly, possessed by a spirit of an era, unforgettable, larger than life, having a personality that takes the wearer on a fantastic journey to another time. The standout notes for me are heliotrope, anise, vanilla and tonka. It's powdery in the very best way a perfume can be. Reading through the other reviews, you'll notice how it reminds different people of different things. Some smell the gourmand notes more strongly and some sense it to be more floral, but almost everyone finds it nostalgic. It's soft and comforting, elegant in the way of old Guerlain. Images of the twilight hour are perfect for this. L'Heure Bleue came out in 1912, the year Titanic sank. I always wonder how many fashionable ladies were wearing it on that fateful night. Some of them went to a watery grave, making it the last perfume they ever wore. Others perhaps wore it and survived but could not bear to wear it again, due to the painful memory associations that fragrance has on our hearts and minds. I suppose this could be a signature scent for some people. To me, it's not an every day mood. It's melancholy, elegant, romantic and feels like it is meant for the most special of occasions