A Flutter of Loveliness: Blush by Marc Jacobs

As I sit here in the doldrums of summer experiencing a humidity rarely felt in California I am feeling the extreme desire for nothing heavy or sweet. When it gets to this point I reach for colognes or a cooling fresh floral. My answer for the cooling fresh floral is Marc Jacob's Blush. Marc Jacob's Blush is one of those forgotten scents of the early 2000s. Once again it was a bit too early for its time. If released now I suspect it would have stayed on the fragrance counters for a bit longer than it did.

Blush is in the family of L'Artisan's La Chasse aux Papillons, in fact they smell very similar in some aspects that I have wanted to call Blush an almost dupe. Yet, I actually think Blush is the edgier scent for the inclusion of one note in particular: star anise. Blush takes the clean musky florist florals of La Chasse and adds a hint of spicy licorice star anise and in addition it then adds a green peach skin note. The scent then takes on an almost animalic cleanness that is furthered by the clean sweet jasmine note that I find so similar to La Chasse. Blush is interesting combo of the cool florals of La Chasse and cool green spiced peach note, it feels like an almost spiced peach oolong tea scent. In hot weather it is absolutely refreshing. The spiciness of the star anise lending exquisite grounding effect to the scent. It also is the rare scent that emphasizes jasmine that I can handle.

Try Marc Jacob's Blush if you like La Chasse aux Papillons by L'Artisan, Jennifer Aniston's original scent, Estee Lauder Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia, or Hermes Jour d'Hermes.

Image: Sigrid Hjerten 'Still Life' 1917

Cool tea for a hot day: Oolong Infini by Atelier Cologne

This starts with tea although I would not call it an oolong scent, years ago I worked in tea and coffee, and my favorite teas were oolong at the time (still a favorite of mine but my tastes expanded) and I can't remember smelling a tea quite like this. No, this is closer to a darjeeling, with lots of citrus while the listed notes say bergamot, I think is smells more lime like. The next part of it is a light musk with hints of neroli, vetiver, and melon (not calone style melon) think the green rind part of melon that is a bit grassy. It is cooling and refreshing and that is about it which in a heat wave is about as much as I can ask of a fragrance without wanting to knock myself over the head with frying pan for choosing something too heavy.

It also reminds me of Bvlgari Pour Homme Soir another tea scent (which is easily unisex in my opinion).

Will this scent knock your socks off no, but it is light, office friendly, and in a heat wave prone area is the perfect refreshing cup of cool tea when I can't have tea and can't cool down.

photograph by Jason Schmidt