♥ ♥ This morning, Franky talks about scent – and the perfume she chose to wear on her wedding day. I love how Franky writes, she has immediately taken me back to all those trips into town when I was trying to find my own perfect wedding day scent. Franky is the Love My Dress Intern and her own wedding feature here. You can view all other posts by Franky here too. We'd love you to response to Franky questions at the end and share your own experience of finding and choosing the scent for your wedding…♥ ♥
‘A woman should wear perfume wherever she expects to be kissed.’
Coco Chanel
The master perfumer Jean Paul Guerlain once said ‘perfume is the most intense form of memory’, and I’m inclined to agree.
A particular scent can transport you to another place, another time even. It can conjure up an incredibly vivid image of a loved one or flood your consciousness with memories of precious moments from the past.
Perfume has the power to alter your mood too. It can be uplifting or comforting. It can make you feel sultry and seductive, or pretty and naive. It can give you an air of innocence; it can create an illusion of confidence. Fragrance can make a woman feel playful and sexy, or it can immerse the wearer in sensations of simplicity, purity and cleanliness.
Personally, perfume is a non-negotiable part of my daily ritual. I’ll happily forgo mascara or lipstick on a quiet Sunday spent at home with my family, but you’ll never find me without fragrance. I even refresh my scent before I clamber into bed at the end of the day, such is my addiction. My brushed cotton pyjamas may scream ‘comfort’, but I like to think that final spritz of perfume creates an illusion of glamour as I slip under the covers next to my husband.
Image credit: Vintage Dior Perfume Ads via La Petite Gigi
I’d love to be the kind of woman who commits herself to one perfume. The idea of a signature scent that announces my presence in a room, or leaves an olfactory imprint of me long after I’ve left, is certainly appealing. However, the truth is I’m fickle, and easily tempted by the glossy ad campaigns and glistening glass bottles that announce the arrival of a new scent on the market.
So, instead of playing host to a lone bottle of scent, my dressing table seems to groan under the weight of my perfume collection. Each fragrance has its place in my life though and each one evokes its own memories. In fact, I could trace my relationship with my husband through the perfume I’ve worn….
Chanel Chance is the night of our first kiss. Gucci Envy is our first lust-fuelled weeks together. Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle is the birth of our daughter, mixed with baby lotion, lavender and the delicate scent of a newborn. Agent Provocateur smells like surfacing from the depths of caring for a tiny baby. It’s the first time we left Izzy with a sitter, and the first time we rushed dinner to get back to her.
Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb is the spring of my final year at university. It’s being pregnant again and it’s writing my undergraduate dissertation. Boudoir Jouy by Vivienne Westwood is getting to know our son. It is night feeds and nappy changes and watching the relationship between a brother and a sister grow and grow. It’s also July the following year. It is wandering into a moonlit garden in Bali. It’s my boyfriend proposing on bended knee.
Image credit:- Muse Coty Perfume Advert, 1948
From the moment we started planning our wedding I knew I wanted to create a new scent memory. Long after the confetti had settled on our big day, I wanted the subtlest hint of a particular perfume to take me right back to that moment with my husband, to us making our vows surrounded by the people we love most.
I sniffed an array of scents during my mission to find ‘the one’, but finally settled on Black Orchid by Tom Ford…
‘A luxurious and sensual fragrance, Tom Ford Black Orchid is evocative of iconic fragrances of the past that enhance the skin’s natural perfume. With its rich dark accords and alluring potion of black orchids and sultry woods, Tom Ford Black Orchid is modern and timeless.’ TomFord.com
Black Orchid is what fragrance connoisseurs would refer to as an ‘oriental cyphre’. It contains notes of black truffle, ylang ylang, bergamot, effervescent citrus, blackcurrant, jasmine, lotus wood, patchouli, incense, vetiver, vanilla, balsam and sandalwood. And it smells divine!
Black Orchid is definitely a statement fragrance, opening with a burst of citrus, sugar and intoxicating floral notes. There’s something a little dark and mysterious there too which, on first sniff, appealed to my inner glamour-puss and fitted perfectly with the look I envisaged for my wedding day, all red lips and Old Hollywood glamour.
As the day wears on, the scent becomes creamy and smooth as the vanilla comes to the fore. It reminds me of ice cream and chocolate, without ever smelling particularly foodie thanks to its exquisite floral notes. Later still, the vanilla fades and the warm, sultry earthiness returns.
I adore my wedding day scent, and imagine I always will. It honestly draws more compliments than any perfume I’ve ever owned, but its highest accolade comes from my husband himself. As he draws me close in an embrace he often whispers ‘Mmmmm… you smell like the wedding’.
Image credit: Vintage Bourjois Mais Oui advert
Perfume is such a personal thing, which is why I’m curious to hear your fragrance tales.
So readers, which scent will you, or did you, wear on your wedding day, and why?
Which perfume evokes the strongest scent memories for you? Where does it take you and who are you with?
Franky
♥
You can read all other features by Franky here, and view other perfume related posts here…
