Sunday, May 12, 2013

Happy Mother's Day!

My mom was always an au-naturelle kinda gal who loved real flowers but not perfume. So she never wore scent, but preferred floral prints instead, and would always pick beautiful flowers to cheer me up and weave a beautiful crown of spring flowers for my birthday. She even put edible blossoms in my salad (nasturtium and wild garlic flowers), and would cut the radishes into flower-shapes to encourage me to eat them. 
Although she never worn perfume - she always loved aniseed tea and caraway-studded breads. So it comes as no surprise that to this day, I associate her with anise and and the enigmatic notes of violets and iris, which I find as soft and mysterious as herself and the midnight-blue crushed velvet she liked to wear. Kinda like what I imagined l'Heure Bleue when I read about it and before I smelled it.

It was only years later that she told me that indeed violets, anise, chocolate and vanilla were her favourite smells (before she lost her sense of smell almost permanently due to chronic colds...). And she also loved the lilacs she picked for me in her first visit to Vancouver (which sadly ends tomorrow...) Years ago,
I created Indigo perfume in her honour, and I've put anise, caraway, boronia, violet, carnation, orange blossom, frankincense and amber in it... Now I'm thinking that although I was probably on the right track - I should make her another perfume, and hopefully she could smell it occasionally - with cacao and vanilla absolutes, violets and anise.  
What perfume did your mom wear as you were growing up? Or what scents do you associate her with?

Leave a comment and enter a draw for a mini of Viola, my violet soliflore, a decant of Patricia Nicolai's Sacrebleu and a few other goodies... And - a quick reminder, that today is the last day of my Mother's Day free shipping online event.

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13 Comments:

At May 12, 2013 3:31 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

My mum didn't wear much perfume, she did use lemon cologne though and later on she loved Lancome's Tresor that she still wears!
MariaA

 
At May 12, 2013 6:14 PM, Blogger Princess Ellie said...

My mom wore White Shoulders most of my childhood. She still wears it occasionally. I also remember her wearing Jafra lotion, she smelled like almonds. I bought her other perfumes as a teenager that she wore like Samsara and Safari. Then introduced her to some natural perfumes too more recently. She always returns to White Shoulders.

 
At May 12, 2013 6:26 PM, Anonymous Felicia said...

I can remember a bottle of Paco Rabanne on her bathroom shelf, can't recall a smell. Lots of Eau d'Issey in my earlier adulthood. An aunt I can remember wearing lots of Antilope.

 
At May 12, 2013 6:50 PM, Blogger Dionne said...

Three that I remember my mother wearing were White Shoulders, L'Air du Temps and Forever Krystle.

 
At May 12, 2013 8:33 PM, Blogger Melis said...

Hi Ayala! Happy Mother's Day. And same to you Dionne :). Please don't enter me into the draw. My mom has always liked to smell good. The scented memory I have of my mom is Emeraude perfume. Funnily, she doesn't remember wearing it. But she did, lol. I pretty well buy all of my mom's perfumes for her nowadays, she is only willing to spend money on cheap drugstore perfumes. She's a fan of orientals, like myself. Her favourite perfume is Ange ou Demon by Givenchy. She has amassed a small collection of fragrances......Hypnotic Poison, Angel, Flowerbomb, Must de Cartier and most recently for Mother's Day a bottle of Nuit de Noel.

 
At May 12, 2013 9:26 PM, Blogger Ayala Moriel said...

MariaA,
Tresor is lovely! And so is lemon ;-) I think moms have a special scent that we all recognize them by regardless of perfume wearing habits though!

Princess Ellie,
White Shoulder is such an iconic scent. I'm so jealous that you can share your perfume love with her - Samsara & Safari are excellent choices!

Felicia,
To me Paco Rabanne is always a man's scent - I don't think I ever smelled any of their feminine fragrances! Isn't that strange? l'Eau d'Issey is marvelous, albeit so overused and over-copied that it's charm was undermined...

Dionne,
Ahh - another White Shoulders lover! White florals are the best sellers, did you know that?
l'Air du Temps is quite something. Never heard of Forever Krystle though. There's always something to discover, isn't it?

Mellis,
Happy Mother's Day to you too!
Your mom is lucky to have you as her personal perfume shopper :-) I kinda do that for as many members of my family that I can convert into perfume-loving... They are getting a bit fed-up with all my fragrant gifts. But I really can't think of anything better to give them... My youngest brother is the one that receives them the best ;-)

 
At May 12, 2013 11:29 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Though my mother occasionally wore Chanel No5 (EDC) that she had been given by one of my much older sisters, I mostly associate my mother with the smells of her flower gardens, especially lily of the valley, lilac and roses. In her later years she frequently wore the Flora Danica I had given her. It was a beautiful aldehydic floral with a powdery drydown that came out in 1980 and is, sadly, discontinued. I still have one of the empty bottles with its handpainted flowers.

-- Lindaloo

 
At May 13, 2013 12:13 AM, Blogger yash said...

Hello Ayala! Happy Mother's Day!
Actually my Mother is the reason I love perfume so much today.. She collected them from travels abroad and gifts received from visiting relatives. Whenever she was going out she would call me up and ask for advice regarding which perfume to wear. it was a very fun moment for me. I would always associate Lancome's Tresor and Guerlain's Shalimar with her as these were the only perfumesnmy Father would buy for her and ther were on heavy rotation..
Thank you for this draw and I do wish you have a scented Mother's Day!

 
At May 13, 2013 7:15 AM, Blogger Susan said...

My mom doesn't wear perfume, either. I associate her more with the smell of her flower garden - she loved gardening for butterflies. I also particularly remember the datura in her garden - I found mysterious, weird, and strangely attractive.

 
At May 14, 2013 4:37 PM, Anonymous Fiona said...

Mine wears Femme, both pre and post reformulation. I got her a vintage mini of the old stuff, and it smelled just the way I remembered it.
Thanks for the draw!

 
At May 14, 2013 8:57 PM, Blogger nekosan said...

Aqua Net unscented hairspray - which does have fragrance added, "unscented" not being the same as "fragrance free". =) I can't remember her ever wearing perfume.

 
At May 18, 2013 12:21 PM, Blogger Ayala Moriel said...

Lindaloo,
Hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day as well!
How does the N.5 EDC compare to the parfum? Is it more like the EDT?
Thanks for sharing the description of Flora Danica. It does sound very motherly - as are LotV, Lilacs and Roses!

Yash,
What a wonderful heritage to continue with your mom's and your passion for perfume :-)

Susan,
Flowering garden is such a wonderful way to remember your mom by. I don't think it's a coincidence that flowers and gardens are a prominent feature of Mother's Day symbols (i.e.: wearing carnations, enjoying tea and garden parties, etc.).

Fiona,
Your mom smells fabulous! Femme is one of the best perfumes in the world. Have you tried Anima Dulcis? It's a beautiful variation on a similar theme - very womanly scent, and similar to the Femme reformulation, but not as loud as it could be.

Nekosan -
Is Aquanet the same they featured in Mad Men? I thought that was hilarious... How would you describe the scent?

 
At May 25, 2013 9:58 PM, Blogger nekosan said...

The best i can think of is intensely fake lilacs ("intensely" modifying "fake" here). And yes, it probably was the same as featured in Mad Men, it's been around for a long time including that era. =)

 

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