The Holiday season is probably the best season for those of us who lead with our nose. There is no other time of the year when scent seems to play such a big part. If you need to prove my point ask anyone, perfumista or not, you know to describe the Holiday season. I guarantee a very high percentage will come back with something scent related. The smell of the Christmas tree, nutmeg on egg nog, or the yule log burning in the fireplace; are just a few of the possible responses. My favorite sensorial aspect of the holidays is no different as my touchstone scent is gingerbread. When it comes to December I’m gingerbread 24/7 from my Gingerbread Latte from Starbucks to five fabulous gingerbread fragrances I wear throughout the month.

I thought I’d build a fragrant Gingerbread House of my favorite five fragrances, four walls and a roof.

One of the walls is CB I Hate Perfume Gingerbread. Christopher Brosius is at his best when replicating a particular smell; be it a library or a beach when CB is on his game he creates realistic magic in a fragrance. Gingerbread is one of his most magical as throughout the development it is like you are standing in front of the mixing bowl tossing in the best ingredients. Starts with ginger root, damp and pungent, add some nutmeg and cinnamon followed by a little vanilla for sweetness and all of a sudden the four notes combine and you’re a walking Gingerbread Man. Every time I wear this I marvel at this seeming olfactive sleight of hand. Not only is it one of my favorite gingerbread fragrances it is just one of my favorite fragrances.

 

‘Rude Food’ by Sara Jane Szikora
 

The next two walls come from a small online perfumery Possets founded by Fabienne Christenson. If you are a fan of intense gourmand fragrances Ms. Christenson has a beautiful repertoire of fragrances which can scratch almost any foodie fragrant itch you have. She also has a wicked sense of humor which peeks out from time to time in the name of her perfumes. Both of the gingerbread fragrances from Possets are examples of this. Their names are The Gingerbread Whorehouse and The Gingerbread Crackhouse.  The Gingerbread Whorehouse is more of a lush sensual experience and is rich full ginger plus a full house of spices. This is the gingerbread red light district, for sure. The Gingerbread Crackhouse is a more focused rush of a fragrance. In other fragrances you read about ginger being energizing in The Gingerbread Crackhouse you understand what that means. It opens on a rush of clean ginger and it is supported by an amazing dry cocoa powder note. It is simple in structure but surprisingly intense in experience.

The fourth wall is Serge Lutens Five O’Clock au Gingembre. When this first appeared I was underwhelmed by it and if you look at the three fragrances above, all of which explode with ginger; I was not ready for Christopher Sheldrake’s more subtle study, initially. Five O’Clock au Gingembre is an English Holiday milieu of afternoon tea and gingerbread. Bergamot and black tea create a pot of Earl Grey steeping next to a tray of sweetly frosted gingerbread right out of the oven next to a pot of honey to sweeten the tea.  If you just like gingerbread and don’t crave it, like me, this is the gingerbread fragrance for you. It is a tender evocation of a genteel afternoon tea underneath the holly roping in the drawing room.

The roof of my fragrant gingerbread house comes from Pierre Guillaume and his Parfumerie Generale line of perfumes. Un Crime Exotique is one of the best examples of M Guillaume’s gourmand aesthetic. His best examples are when he takes a well-known note like gingerbread and by an uncanny choice of notes to surround it creates a different appreciation of that accord. Like 5 O’Clock au Gingembre he uses a tea to contrast his gingerbread but this is mate and it adds an exotic counterpoint to the common gingerbread; cinnamon and anise also add piquancy to the opening moments. The heart, where he adds osmanthus, is where Un Crime Exotique truly creates a different gingerbread recipe. The apricot leathery quality of osmanthus splits the nucleus of the gingerbread as the apricot facets combine with the ginger and the leather takes on the spices in a maelstrom of sensory pleasure. Vanilla and sandalwood add a calming grounding effect in the base notes. Un Crime Exotique is the gingerbread of a mad scientist which comes alive on my skin.

I hope my suggestions will add a bit of gingerbread to your Holiday celebrations, all five instantly put me in a holiday mood when I wear them.

Disclosure: I own bottles of all five of the fragrances mentioned.

 

Thanks to a very special Secret Scent-a Claus we have a draw for a full bottle of Serge Lutens Five o’Clock au Gingembre. To be eligible tell us what your favorite Holiday scent is and which fragrance does justice to i tor what fragrance you plan on wearing on Christmas. Draw will end on December 28, 2011.

We announce the winners only on site and on our Facebook page, so Like Cafleurebon and use our RSS option…or your dream prize will be just spilt perfume

–Mark Behnke, Managing Editor