Hey there A Bottled Rose, It’s a Mood Scent 4 week. WOO HOO! This month the crew are looking at Made For Me. Sometimes you smell a fragrance and it is everything you dreamed a perfume could be. Suddenly there is life before and life after discovery. Fortunately for regular people this is the end of their search and they find a signature scent. As a perfumista though this may (hopefully) happen many times. I’m one of the lucky ones and it does happen fairly regularly around here. So I’ve picked a few that exploded in my life over time, some are still available, some not, all changed me because I found a new fragrance that felt perfectly Made For Me. Some of these I talk about a lot, of course I do, they’re Made For Me!
Obviously, these choices are subject to change, daily.
Can’t wait to read about your favourite Made For Me perfumes in the comments too.
So excited to be blogging with these three superstars again: Esperanza L’Esperessence, Megan Megan In Sainte Maxime and Samantha I Scent You A Day. Check theirs out too.
Mood Scent 4: Made For Me
Blonde by Versace
Versace Blonde is such a time capsule for me. I remember the first time I ever smelled it. We were doing a club night and giving out spray samples of Versace Dreamer, Mugler A*Men and we had about a dozen 5ml splash testers of Blonde. Well, that very first sniff had me swooning. Though I had loved the big white florals of the 1980s nothing came close to this ridiculously OTT tuberose/ylang bomb. It suited drug fucked drag queen ethos down to the ground. In the instant that I smelled it the Fendi I had been wearing faithfully for years fell out of favour and I was wearing Blonde. Oh, and can we talk about the bottle?
Granville by DIOR
This is the strangest Made For Me of them all. Released in 2010 with the original DIOR La Collection Couturier Parfumeur. The range was groundbreaking and took a bunch of fragrant chances that other design houses of the time were much too timid to contemplate. Granville is a riff on cologne but done so impeccably that it doesn’t even feel like the same genre. A peppery, herbal, lemon and pine fragrance that is called aromatic on Fragrantica. Intended as a womans fragrance but done in the masculine style. Its longevity is astounding and even still, wearing it feels exceptional.
Mohur by Neela Vermeire Creations
No surprises for anyone who has read much of my writing. Mohur changed the whole perfume game for me. Its rich, intricate style with sweet, heavy, thick roses and a truckload of whistles and bells is eye rollingly swoon worthy. Still when I spritz Mohur its tantalising story unfolds differently every time, the nuances are unbelievable. Not only did I adore the fragrance it prompted me to seek out this Neela Vermeire and find out what sort of person could inspire such magic in a perfumer. Since then we have become dear friends who talk regularly on the phone for hours and catch up whenever we can.
Niki de Saint Phalle
I admit the snake bottle was what drew me to Niki de Saint Phalle. Then researching her story and art pushed me over into obsession. The fragrance is one of the chypres of its era. A perfect representative of the style that I adore so much. When I finally got to try the scent it clicked in a way only vintage Miss Dior had done before it. They are same family but very different. Suddenly a couple of years ago Niki de Saint Phalle became very cheap at the discounters and I knew its time was up so I bought truckloads. I never want my collection to be dry of this beauty.
Shalimar by Guerlain
Shalimar has been part of my life since I can remember. Mum and a couple of her girlfriends wore it so I remember it as the scent of hugs and love. What’s not to adore fragrantly here? Every time I spritz that lemon gelato swirl descending into vanilla rich labdanum and incense with the lot it brings me a rush of joy so pure. No other perfume in my life has travelled so closely or felt so definitively Made For Me. Strange, isn’t it that something so fragrantly ubiquitous can make a perfumista feel like that. Another thing I love is that though the vintages in my collection are all slightly different, they all still feel like me.
Trouble by Boucheron
Luca Turin calls Trouble a mess, and I admit he’s right. Thing is though, it’s a mess Made For Me. There is something about the screaming, sweet, heavy, unbridled OTTness of it all. Suits my personality. You can see above I’m currently on a flanker called Trouble Iridescent Eau Legere. It’s a less bombarding attack on the senses and gives a much lighter, more spacious hit of the scent. Still based on a sticky rich amber accord it’s more modern and wearable. Another perfume I noticed becoming extremely cheap on the discounters and stocked up. PHEW! Prices have gone through the roof.
Don’t forget to go across and read the other three members of the Mood Scent 4 crew:
Esperanza L’Esperessence
Megan Megan In Sainte Maxime
Samantha I Scent You A Day.
So what are some of your Made For Me perfumes, and why?
Portia xx
A Bottled Rose 
Oh gosh, so many: Feminité du Bois, Byzance, Poison, Ysatis, Cabotine, L’Air du Désert Marocain, Nuit de Tubéreuse, Encens Flamboyant. But the most recent was 4160 Tuesdays Clouds. So incredible. A fluffy iris narcissus scent that is so incredibly perfect. But it cost an arm and a leg in both edp and parfum, so Sarah made a less expensive version using some synthetics to replace the $$$ naturals called Both Sides of Clouds, which I hope to smell next month and compare. There was a mostly synthetic version as well called Clouds Illusions, which just didn’t do it for me the way the natural version did unfortunately. It was a crowdfunded campaign she did last year.
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WOW TaraC,
I love the sound of Clouds. I’m not much in the 4160 Tuesdays crew, though I do love a couple of their scents. This sounds utterly fantastic.
Portia xx
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Hey Portia
Perfumistas are such complex people no single perfume could encompass us, haha. Great theme and choices. I loved reading all your stories.
Back in the day the first perfume that felt made for me was Obsession, which considering my youth, really wasn’t that appropriate. Then there was Aromatics Elixir and Gucci Envy.
These days I’d go with Vol de Nuit, La Fille de Berlin, Miss Dior and No.19.
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A veritable who’s who of fabulocity Tara! What a stellar line up of frags that felt Made For You!
Miss Dior! How could I forget.
Portia xx
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Funnily, I reference Miss Dior in the Niki de Saint Phalle section. Didn’t forget, it just didn’t make the list.
Portia xx
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Rozy by Vero Kern, Orient Rose from Solstice Scents, Orris Tattoo/29 by Parle Moi de Parfum.
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Hey Elizabeth,
I love to see Vero on lists. You’ve made my day. She was a wonder.
Portia xx
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Portia, I adore Rozy and now, use sparingly, as I can’t find it anywhere. I have the Extrait. Ephemeral beauty created by Vero Kern.
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Kicking myself that I never bought EVERYTHING in her oeuvre. We never know, eh?
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Portia, Yes, that’s so true – we never know. Wear the perfume and enjoy it every day. I too, wish I had purchased more Rozy. xx
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Hi Portia – Great choices and I was pretty sure that Mohur would make your list and Shalimar too. To be honest I could have added Shalimar too. xx
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Hey Megan,
Imagine how hilarious i f we ALL put Shalimar! That would have been excellent.
Portia xx
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Well Musc Ravageur is close!
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Hi Portia,
Love your choices, we both chose Shalimar! Mohur is such a caleidospic fragrance showing a different side every time. Liberte wasn’t made for you, I expected for you to include it too, 😉 Never got to try Blonde it sounds like a glamerous white floral.
XxxEsperanza
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Hey Esperanza,
There were SO MANY! I could have done a 50 bottle list. Liberté was in, then out, then in, then out. It should definitely have made the cut, but then which one would I remove?
Blonde is lavish. From the days when Versace created thoughtful, interesting, luxury fragrances.
Portia xx
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I also predicted Mohur would make your cut!
Shalimar is great, but I will go with Annick Goutal Songes, Mona di Orio Tubereuse, House of Cherry Bomb Immortal Beloved and DSH Cimabue, OJ Taif, Papillon Bengale Rouge…and quite a few more. They all feel “me” in different ways.
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Hey Vanessa,
Yes, different facets of us require different perfumes. 100%
I love Songes and Cimabue also. Beautiful scents.
Portia xx
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While I liked your list (and predicted Niki there), I can’t do my own because I feel that way about the most of perfumes that I bought and wear. I’m not sure if they fit me well, if others find pleasant or associate with me: I love them, and it’s all that matters 🙂
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So interesting Undina,
Of course, you are right. Silly to buy something we don’t love.
You are also a MUCH better curator than I. Glad you predicted Niki de Saint Phalle. What an icon she was, and that art. Amazing.
Portia xx
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