To a person in shock we administer brandy. The perfumed equivalent – a warm, nerve-smoothing balm – may well be Teint de Neige….
Lorenzo Villoresi’s creation is perhaps the ultimate comfort scent : so warm, huggable and calming it can make you sigh. The wintery name might suggest some cold, snowy scent, but don’t be fooled: the only snow in this picture is outside. You yourself are cuddled up, bath-clean and contented, with a mug of coffee, an iced donut, and your favourite magazine. From the kitchen window, snow flakes are falling on the garden – gently; languidly, in a slow, muffled world of silence.
The teint ( ‘complexion’ ) of the name refers to the Florentine perfumer’s stated aim of capturing the essence of a powdered, snow-flushed cheek – a honey-rich, almond-tinted dusting: ambered; musked; with rose and powdery heliotrope; thick, sweet, poudré, and plush.
Rather than the fin-de-siècle Guerlainish refinement you might expect from such a treatment, however, this scent is no coddled and puffed up odalisque: no, this is more a simple, and instant, pleasure; lovable; instantly familiar, like all the comfort smells rolled into one (Johnson’s and Johnson’s Baby Powder included). Soft as a baby’s bum: sweet, soft; lovely.
