Spring Essentials - Part Two: Spring Greens

Cycas revoluta leaves uncurling, originally uploaded by Amelia PS.

After the bursts of flowers have been shaken up by storms or sun, and been run down to the grown, little green leaves emerge and cover the trees with what is at first a very pale, transparent green, growing stronger and darker as the sunshine unfolds.

Crushed green leaves are perhaps the second most powerful smell we associate with spring. Perhaps freshly turned soil is another, if you are in the gardening circles. Crushed leaves in perfumery have an interesting double-standard, meaning at once nature at its best - and also class, restraint and well-mannered elegance.

If simplicity, nature or spring cleaning appeal to you, you may enjoy these fragrances more than florals during this time of year. Here are a few leafy-green fragrances that particularly appeal to me.

Clean, sharp and somehow, even 30-something years after its launch it still feels very current. No. 19 is like jeans and pearls and can be equally enjoyed by a nature girl roaming through the forests or a sophisticated urban-bound gal trotting up the street promptly accessorized with a dog and purse to match.

Laura Ashley No. 1 - a scent that is unfortunately discontinued; sophisticated green floral that brings to mind an English garden at spring time with flowering bulbs of lily and hyacinths. It’s lady-like, well-mannered, romantic and only very tiny bit melancholy, a quality which I usually find to underline most green fragrances.

Similarly romantic, and with a more cheerful, fruity and soapy attitude is AnaisAnais by Cacharel. With its fresh galbanum notes, Madonna lily and a mossy base it’s a classic for this season, without being too sharp.

Warming up the florals with its signature Guerlinade of vanilla, iris and tonka bean, Chamade by Guerlain has all that spring has to offer - the sharp galbanum, the heady hyacinth and the mossy base of freshly turned soil.

Lastly, Masakï Matsushïma’s Mintea, a minty green tea scent, with a musky base. What I like about it is it’s freshness that lacks sharpness despite the fact that it is green; unlike most greens, it also stays close to the skin and has a beautifully soft, skin-musk like base.