I am a bit of a perfume junkie. If you have been followinng this blog for any significant length of time you may have figured that out yourself. I think I have a slightly accute sense of smell and an infidèle addiction to perfumes. But there are a handful of scents that I truly, truly  love, and will hold onto for many years to come… They are quite a varied collection, with a different mood and humeur for different days, seasons and desires.

Annick Goutal created in 1998 a perfume dedicated to her daughter Camille, and called it Petite Chérie. (“Little Sweetie”). This perfume embodies to me, that ultime desire for a delightful snuggle, and soft, happy and wonderful hug from someone who loves you dearly. The perfume is floral and sweet with a strong hint of pear, but does not have that stickiness to its sweet side. It smells more like a fresh juicy pear that you just bit into. A discrete perfume. It is the smell of pure bliss.

Serge Lutens…one of my most favorite perfume artists, creates rather strong scents or creates perfumes from those elements which are most basic to the perfume artist’s atelier. One such element is musk. It is a base scent that when married to other sents can offer a deep level of intrigue and subtle sultry sensations that are detecable only when close up. This is what I most like about musk. And I think Serge Lutens captured that essence to perfection in his velvety, rich, soft and sensual perfume. This perfume is delicate and fleshy, and inviting.

I know that Laggridore is a very new perfume brand, and I have not had years to test this scent, but the Summer perfume captured me from the moment I lifted it up to my nose. I was a true “coup de foudre“. It is fruity and fresh with enthralling floral scents mélanged with delicate fruits such as pineapple and apricot, but what makes this perfume so addictive for me is the addition of amber and sandlewood. These rich elements that accent the lofty fruity floral ones create a creamy and nostalgic perfume that puts me up on a cloud all day…

Another intimate yet rich perfume (noticing a theme here?!?) that I am absolutely nuts for is Autoportrait created by Nathalie Lorson for Olfactive Studio. It’s a warm and woodsy scent, it reminds me of nature and simplicity, wide open spaces as well as cozy corners of the home, the smell of cut wood from my father’s workshop when I was a child… But this perfume isn’t only a round wooded odeur, it has a hint of sharpness to it that hugs the skin and defines your own personal scent according to your own chemistry. This perfume makes me feel like I am home, yet free to roam. It balances me out and makes me feel whole.

And then my one favorite perfumes that has a lasting “sillage” and lingers heavily in the air for all within my proximity is one that can be found in those large perfume stores (which will remain unmentioned here in this post) but it was Chéri’s first gift to me when we had met. It was at the beginning of a month of December and so we offered one another each a gift at the holidays…his was a bottle of Apparition, by Ungaro. He had taken note one day when I had mentioned a perfume that had completly enthralled me and of which I still had the tester strip in my pocket. I had let him take a whiff. He asked me the name of the perfume. He remembered. He offered it to me for Christmas. It is deep and reminds me of the color magenta, it is sweet and sexy and makes me feel like I have magnetic seductive powers… Perhaps that shouldn’t surprise me much as I wore it often during our first year together…and look where we are now!

My list of perfumes continues, and is forever growing and including more scents that I feel like I just cannot live without.. I can’t say I have one signature scent. I love too many of them and I have different perfumes for different moods… I cannot be defined by merely one perfume. I am too complexe of a person.

I would love to hear from you all, to know if any of you know and love these scents as well, and I’d love to hear what scents move and inspire you, and why!