L'Instant de Guerlain

Desirability: Full bottle

Source: www.osmoz.com

Milky sweet floral.

Despite the advertisement above, I don't find L'Instant to be seductive or wearing a little black dress. Instead L'Instant soothes me, it feels as relaxing as drinking a floral tea laced with milk and honey and smells like it too. Well if tea could be made out of a combination of the flowers ylang ylang, magnolia and jasmine. 

L'Instant is a strong scent but not suffocating, it's easy to wear even on the most humid days here thanks to its lightness. If it were a colour it would be the palest of pale honey and honey is definitely a major feature of L'Instant, proportional to the lush milky floral notes but despite all the flowers and honey the scent is not heavy on sugar, everything about L'Instant says delicate and feminine. In the drydown there is a wisp of clean musk that adds to the pillowy effect and L'Instant maintains its warm celestial glow until the very end many hours later.  

Ylang Ylang Lorenzo Villoresi

Source: Fragrantica

I love the smell of ylang ylang and having read about its multiple uses in aromatherapy including being a relaxant and sedative, I managed to track down two young trees to plant beneath my dad's window. Despite being a tropical plant I haven't found it growing around this city island and it wasn't too easy finding the trees either. Anyway home they came and the scent of the flowers is so strong that the night breeze carries it up two floors to me and helps with my dad's insomnia.

Lorenzo Villoresi has bottled the exact smell of the flower in this scent. Ylang ylang has a distinctive scent that stands out amongst other floral notes although I find it hard to pin it down in words for like patchouli it can play so many characters from spicy green to heady narcotic and fits beautifully in a tropical garland. It's restrained and elegant in APOM Pour Femme but Ilang Ivohibé showcases its multiple personalities. In Lorenzo Villoresi's Ylang Ylang, it's ylang ylang all the way as if I am holding a few of the golden-yellow spidery blooms in my hands. Simple and linear but a very pleasurable scent that is soothing and uplifting. 

Source: herbalriot.tumblr.com

On a happy note, two good friends of mine are getting married today and Lorenzo Villoresi Ylang Ylang will accompany me for the day's festivities and I've chosen Tauer PHI Une Rose de Kandahar to dress in for the dinner tonight. 

I leave you with a lovely poem by W.H. Auden that I find to be precious, it has such honesty shining through the words that makes it incredibly touching. My most-loved line would be "if equal affection cannot be, let the more loving one be me." 

‘The More Loving One’ by W.H. Auden

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well

That, for all they care, I can go to hell,

But on earth indifference is the least

We have to dread from man or beast.

How should we like it were stars to burn

With a passion for us, we could not return?

If equal affection cannot be,

Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am

Of stars that do not give a damn,

I cannot, now I see them, say

I missed one terribly all day.

Were all stars to disappear or die,

I should learn to look at an empty sky

And feel its total dark sublime,

Though this might take me a little time.

Five O'Clock Au Gingembre Serge Lutens

Source: Fragrantica

This takes me back to Sunday afternoons spent in my favorite out of many humid and noisy coffee-houses away from the outside cold, with faded peacock colored wallpaper that has seen legions of university students in its time, the massive palms busy exchanging carbon dioxide for oxygen, days when smoking indoors was not yet considered a crime to fellow humans. 

Masala Chai ingredients.

Us bright young things would exchange the previous night's gossip over endless cups of drinks ranging from actual coffee to a few tipples to help tide the hangover. It was here that I had my first Chai latte which became my pet drink for the longest time. I couldn't get enough of the spices-the pepper, cloves, nutmeg and green cardamom pods, the fiery fresh ginger and the decorative cinnamon stick, that reposes in the the piping hot milky Assam tea with a tinge of real vanilla beans. Unlike the coffee giants, this cafe made it all from scratch and the baristas would internally curse at the order of a Chai latte due to the extra preparation required. It's still the best Chai latte I've ever had.

When I met Five O'Clock Au Gingembre, the scent instantly took me back to that period of pure freedom, when the biggest responsibility was passing exams. Unlike a Chai latte, Five O'Clock Au Gingembre has a sheerness despite the bold and luxurious flavors it contains. The green cardamom is dominant among the spices, the others supplementing with some heat and herbal accords. The amber and patchouli add a dark, resinous texture and the honey instead of vanilla, adds some sweetness to the spiced concoction.

It does last for the better part of the day but due to its gossamer nature, you catch whiffs of it now and then, whiffs of nostalgic feelings and coziness like the laid back company of good friends.

In case this triggered a craving for Chai...

Spicy Chai Latte

Datura Noir Serge Lutens

I have loved moonflowers since I was a child, when I would wait excitedly for the night-blooming cereus in the garden to unfurl its flowers and release their sweet heady scent in the still of the dark night. Datura and the night-blooming cereus share the common name moonflower, along with a few other vespertine flowers. Datura is also known as angel's trumpet and is confused with plants of the genus Brugmansia, a major difference between the two being that Brugmansia plants have pendulous flowers rather than erect like Datura.

Datura Inoxia

Datura Noir is a very creamy white floral, so creamy it almost wanders into the gourmand section, specifically full cream milk. 

Citrus tinged, tuberose and almonds are predominant, vanilla and coconut milk contributing to its rich texture, a little bitter, a little resinous as it dries, but ever retaining its luscious, milky texture. It is sweet but a sweetness that is drawn from botany not candy.

Datura Stramonium

I find it a bit much on hot, humid days when I'm running about outdoors, it can get rather cloying. Datura Noir is better appreciated in cooler temperatures, where it shows its romantic side without becoming suffocating. 

The scent radiates around me without being obnoxious and intrusive, plus it lasts a long time, I got through a twelve hour day with its company. Those who love tuberose and enjoy creamy scents bordering on gourmand, would probably enjoy Datura Noir. 

Trivia: Datura plants contain potentially toxic tropane alkaloids such as scopolamine, hyoscyamine, and atropine (used in resuscitation for bradycardia and certain patterns of heart block) which are anticholinergic agents (read more here).

A common mnemonic for the main features of anticholinergic syndrome is the following:

• Blind as a bat (dilated pupils)
• Red as a beet (vasodilation)
• Hot as a hare (hyperthermia)
• Dry as a bone (dry skin)
• Mad as a hatter (hallucinations/agitation)
• Bloated as a Toad (ileus, urinary retention)
• And the heart runs alone (tachycardia)

The drug physostigmine (cholinergic agent) is used to reverse the anticholinergic effects. Benzodiazepines can be given to curb the patient's agitation, and supportive care is indicated until the symptoms resolve, usually from 24–36 hours after ingestion of the Datura.