Serge Lutens - Five O'Clock au Gingembre

Cozy comfort on a cold day

It's a numbingly cold February day, and I'm wearing the warmest perfume I could find: Five O'clock au Gingembre. Sweet, spicy and cuddly, FOaG is the perfect antidote to winter.

FOaG starts with a chewy, sweet ginger. The ginger is gradually surrounded by hot cinnamon and pepper and sweetened with honey, turning it into gingerbread cookies. FOaG drifts back and forth between this ginger-spice aspect and a bergamot-tea aspect, making it seem like the gingerbread cookies are served with a steaming cup of Earl Grey tea. The slightly astringent smell of black tea balances the sweet ginger. The perfume dries down to a nice woody amber.

I don't know how I missed FOaG when it was released in 2008. Its woody, spicy comfort is exactly my cup of tea.

If you like Five O'Clock au Gingembre, you might also like Like This and Omnia.

House: Serge Lutens
Nose: Christopher Sheldrake
Notes: Top notes are tea and bergamot; middle notes are ginger, cinnamon and woodsy notes; base notes are cacao, honey, amber, patchouli and pepper.
Where to buy: In Toronto, you can find Serge Lutens at Andrews, or online from The Perfume Shoppe

Photo: Tea Party by Charlyn W

Bulgari - Omnia

Gingersnaps on a fresh plank

Today, for a refreshing change I'm sure, I'm going to review a non-niche perfume. Bulgari's Omnia is one of my favourite perfumes ever, and you can buy it at Sephora, or at Shopper's Drug Mart. I got my bottle on sale at Winners.

Or, at least you could. I just checked Bulgari's website and they don't even mention the original Omnia anymore. Just the flankers, Omnia Amethyst, Omnia Cristalle and Omnia Jade. I highly recommend picking up the original Omnia in the brown bottle soon, if you get the chance.

In Perfume, The Guide, Luca Turin gives Omnia four stars and says its construction is original and influential. Why are they cancelling this?

Anyway, back to why I love it. Don't read the list of spice notes and wood and think that this is going to be too heavy for you; Omnia is sheer and transparent. It's a perfect woody, fall perfume. Omnia as impressive sillage, and lasts like crazy.

It's fairly linear. The opening has a juicy feeling from the mandarin, and there is a tea note as in all the Bulgari perfumes. But mainly, Omnia is the wonderful melding of three notes: a fresh spicy gingersnap, a creamy "white chocolate," and a wood note like a buzz saw. The wood turns what could have been a boring sweet gourmand into an amazing dry, warm scent. The wood is like fresh sawdust. Combined with the spices and white chocolate, the wood reminds me of a freshly sawed maple plank. Sitting on the plank is a plate of warm gingersnap cookies.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go find some bottles to hoard.

House: Bulgari
Nose: Alberto Morillas
Notes: mandarin, saffron, ginger, cardamom, Masala tea, lotus, clove, cinnamon, white chocolate, sandalwood, tonka, guaiac wood (from Perfume Posse)

Photo: kidmissle

Etat Libre d'Orange - Like This, Tilda Swinton

The warm smell of home

The famously unconventional beauty, Tilda Swinton collaborated with the famously unconventional perfume house, Etat Libre d'Orange, on their latest perfume, Like This.

Inspiration for the perfume came from a poem that Swinton loves called "Like This."

If anyone wants to know what "spirit" is,
or what "God’s fragrance" means,
lean your head toward him or her.

Keep your face there close.
Like this.

Swinton asked for a perfume that she could travel with, one with the smells of ease, simplicity and the spirit of the home in Scotland that she cherishes.

The warm ginger of new baking on a wood table, the immortelle of a fresh spring afternoon, the lazy sunshine of my grandfather's summer greenhouse, woodsmoke and the whiskey peat of the Scottish Highlands after rain.

Notes of tangerine, ginger and pumpkin are obviously references to Swinton's red hair. This is the only perfume I know of with a pumpkin note but Etat Libre d'Orange makes some of the most unusual perfumes. Then again, this pumpkin is surprisingly wearable. It's not gourmand; it doesn't feel like I'm wearing pumpkin pie, or some kind of candle scent, but it is warm and it does smell orange.

The pumpkin is like freshly carved flesh with the seeds still stuck to it. The ginger is lightly spicy and smells almost wet at first, with a curl of tangerine peel. There's a nutty smell, like a hint of nutmeg and a woodiness, like the skin of the ginger roots and vetiver and maybe woody licorice roots. Like This also has a sweet note like warm grasses with wildflowers and hay.

Like This is a very comforting perfume, like a warm, dry kitchen while it rains outside; a cup of ginger and licorice tea; the smell of something baking; skin. The next morning, there's still a nice warm muskiness on my skin.

House: Etat Libre d'Orange
Nose: Mathilde Bijaoui
Notes: yellow tangerine, ginger, pumpkin accord, immortelle flower, Moroccan neroli, Grasse rose, vetiver, heliotrope, musks

Creed - Virgin Island Water

Perfume: Virgin Island Water
House: Creed
Nose: Olivier Creed and Erwin Creed
Notes: white bergamot, Jamaican lime, Sicilian mandarin, coconut, Indian jasmine, hibiscus, ylang-ylang, ginger, musk and white rum

Put the lime in the coconut, and call me in the moooooorning

It's the summer solstice and I'm in the mood for a pick-me up summer scent. Virgin Island Water is my beach vacation in a bottle. VIW was created by Oliver and Erwin Creed, 6th and 7th generations respectively of the luxury perfume house Creed. Creed was founded in 1760 by James Henry Creed and has many famous clients. Creed's perfumes aren't cheap, but they are constructed with high quality ingredients.

Like many of my favourites, VIW is green in my mind but this time it's a neon green of lime and fresh coconut husks. The first blast of this scent has strong citrus and coconut notes, both of which I love. But make sure those around you love it too - VIW is a sillage monster for the first couple of hours, so spray carefully.

After the first few minutes, the creamy tropical florals, jasmine and ylang ylang, creep in, like a lei draped around your neck. Underneath everything is the sharp boozy scent of white rum. VIW is a unisex fregrance, and smells absolutely delicious on a man as well.

VIW isn't shy, as I mentioned it's actually a little loud at first, but it's so darn cheerful I don't mind. VIW is a friendly tanned hunk in a Hawaiian shirt bringing me a tall fruity rum drink with an umbrella while I lounge near the brilliant white sand and blue water of my dream beach.


Photo by Celine Nadeau