The narcissus season in Japan is very long. I started seeing some opening up in December, they proliferate in January and February, but seem to be reaching a climax about now. Big clumps of them in every shade from snow to paper white to ivory to duck egg yellow to daffodil, jonquil; sometimes you cycle along and think before you get a visualizer on the whiff, blimey, whoever that was by the roadside had some seriously bad breath : they stink ! Of decay, of indoles, and yet there is often also something shudderingly erotic.
These you see pictured, picked along the way two days ago, have a purer scent, joyously vernal, almost like a house freshly covered in white paint (though I might be getting confused by the decorators on the scaffolding next door). I sit at my desk, writing, and the flowers sometimes breathe their perfume towards me, suffusing the air with the delicately narcotic
Love daffodils, jonquils, paperwhites, and narcissus. They’re waxy petals and bashful cups that hide sweet faces. But oh those insoles. Ranging from poopy diapers to mouldy breath to kale 🥬. Makes me wretch.
Oops. They’re = Their and insoles = indoles.
Reads hilarious both ways.
Like Hanami loving the insole idea but I agree: if someone adored all those notes unequivocally I might worry about them – the smell of these flowers is fascinatingly disturbing and quite beautiful, but they ARE toxic, and in a closed room can make you vomit, just in the physiological sense, not the aesthetic.
Still, I chose this blog name based on the damn things so there must be something I do like about them!
I have never noticed the leguminous aspect : shall look out for it next time.
They are lovely….enjoy!
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I am. Keep getting whiffs. And predictably wearing Caron Infini as usual just to set them off.
Do you like the scent of paperwhites ?
Kate, the “insole of a perfume” is a GREAT term for that musty, unlikeable note some things leave on your skin—the support they get from various chemical compounds. (I don’t know, maybe something like Villoresi Teint de Neige, which I find disgusting though it should be something I like; I’m sure you could be much more descriptive about some other insoles.) I do love narcissus, though.
Oh, Teint de Neige !
A lesson in how powders and musks can go wrong in so many ways.
I wish I had some Teint De Neige to resmell it and imagine the disgust. Where did that come from? Too thickly packed together, too sweaty? I used to love it, but tellingly never restocked.
What a fun coincidence! I just got Au Delà Narcisse by Fzotic (Bruno Fazzolari) along with a few others of his in the mail yesterday. It was the ‘real oakmoss’ and ‘authentic chypre’ parts that had me throwing my money. I was a bit terrified of the opening because florals do me like that. Fortunately, the (slight fem-leaning, unisex true chypre) dry down was worth the stress the (hyper-feminine floral) opening caused me.
Notes: Bergamot, Galbanum, Genuine Extracts of Rare Narcisse Des Montagnes, Jasmine, Orange Flower, Oakmoss Labdanum, Benzoin.
“ Modern vintage: made with real oakmoss, this authentic chypre is an homage to the bold classics of French mid-century perfume. Au Delà
– Narcisse is a white floral dream, loaded with genuine (and costly) botanical absolutes. Resins and woods in the base give this floral perfume the complex bone structure of a true chypre. The fragrance reveals a new facet with every wear.”
Covid, undoubtedly passed on to me by some hillbilly that coughs like a combination of a toddler and a cat retching up a hairball; had me down for nearly two weeks. That resulted in me spending a mortgage payment on random perfumes. I went as far as buying over 30 samples from an Indie brand. So now I have plenty of things to sniff on for the remainder of March. I’d planned to spring clean, declutter and all of those things in preparation for Nowruz and I’ve somehow managed to do the complete opposite. 😅
I’m not even embarrassed.
Neither am I : loving this and the sound of this perfume, and glad you got over the hillbilly
I am fond of those stinking narcissi but DH really cannot tolerate any smelly flowers in the house, not just narcissi. He’s obviously easier to poison than I am
!
A lily can be nightmareish; I have picked wild ones here and they are just dripping with magnificent secretions in a way that is utterly repulsive and I have to throw them out: I wish we had access to real tuberoses. Gardenias are fine for a few days, how I love them
DH can’t even cope with hyacinths or freesia. He finds some of my scents disgusting but he’s improving. He now loves Ambre Sultan but my chypres he refers to as urinal pucks!
I adore hyacinth and am fascinated by freesia, but in an enclosed space, I can see how for the sensitive they could be considered floral headfuckx
I am drenched in Madame Rochas today – been loving it in various iterations this week – not quite sure what d is thinking though
I smell of flu or whatever it is that DH passed onto me. My nose is bust. Don’t think it’s covid as we haven’t tested.
Last sentence is not the best form of diagnosis but odaji ni and may the nasal receptors soon be back in full daffodillian force!