Hey Crew. Scent Semantics?
We get a word, we get a date, we have to choose a single fragrance that fits the word and then have to explain how it fits together, in our way. As much or little as we feel the word/fragrance connection needs. We are going to probe a little into how each of us bloggers see the world, fragrance, ourselves. We get to see how one word can inspire different directions in connection. or not.
FAMILY: Scent Semantics #10
FAMILY! Wow! What a word, chosen by Daisy. Her reasons for this word are myriad, go check her post. So, FAMILY, fraught with mixed emotions. The joy of unity, the despair of exclusion and loneliness, the love, the fights, the happy memories and shared sense of place, the never-ending tensions and traumas that play out on a daily basis. Family can be heaven and hell, all within the space of a few moments. It’s a juggling act. I often joke that the reason Jin and I have lasted so well as a partnership is because all my family is dead and all of his live on different continents. It’s a cynical joke I also believe to be true.
FAMILY
- a basic social unit consisting of parents and their children, considered as a group, whether dwelling together or not: the traditional family.
- a social unit consisting of one or more adults together with the children they care for: a single-parent family.
- any group of people closely related by blood or marriage, as parents, children, uncles, aunts, and cousins: to marry into a socially prominent family.
adjective
- of, relating to, or characteristic of a family: a family trait.
- belonging to or used by a family: a family automobile; a family room.
Picking something to show how I feel about FAMILY, families in general, the function and fallout of FAMILY proved difficult. The fragrance needed to be at once alluring, common, confronting, beautiful, comfortable and terrible. I want to pick a perfume that inspires complete devotion and also the need to flee far away.
Hyde by Hiram Green
Hiram Green gives these featured accords:
Lemon, bergamot, birch tar, cassie, labdanum, vanilla, oakmoss
Even the ad picture feels womb like with that deep pulsating maroon. Perfectly pitted against the shine of the gold lettering and lid.
The top notes leap past my nose, we are straight into a deep, resinous, burnt asphalt and wood. Confronting and perfectly balanced, it swirls around me. Already labdanum and birch are king. Enveloping, rich, feral, thick and luxuriously syrupy. Hyde is the darkness in all of us with a beautiful, flawless facade. Smoke screens, shadows, bright sparks and flame.
I’d not noticed the vanilla before doing this review. It has that magical myriad personalities and poured in with the other notes here gives a spectacular backing performance. Holding the date, sweet, deep and light together brilliantly.
The longevity is astounding. Linear but also in constant flux. I will wake tomorrow morning with almost the same amount of heft that I go to bed with. The darkness will have all the spiky edges shorn off and I’ll be left with a burnished beauty. Amber with the scratch of birch memory and the furry dankness of oakmoss for shadow and dappled sunlight to peek through.
By lunchtime tomorrow I’ll get lovely warm hints wafting towards me like the smell you get when walking past a house with their fire crackling inside. One of the best, most romantic and homely smells of all. Alluding to the warmth, joy and the best that word FAMILY conjures. A picture perfect finish, a Christmas card, a wish for happy families.
Hyde is the closest thing to FAMILY I can find in my wardrobe. It has so many parallels to the mixed emotions that come with how I see the word.
How do you interpret and what perfume would you associate with the word FAMILY?
Portia xx
Elena https://theplumgirl.com
A Bottled Rose 
Yeah, family can be complicated…but some things are simple.
My grandmother and my mother wore Chanel 5. I do too, and today no 5 EdT, a bottle of my late mother, so vintage I guess. It smells so very good.
I gave my niece no 5 Eau Premiere for her 21st birthday. She loves it. Four generations in my family love the same perfume!
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That’s a seriously beautiful story Hamamelis. thanks for sharing. No 5 is special.
Portia xx
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This is a fascinating choice for such a difficult word to sum up in a perfume.
Hyde is wonderful and I totally get that push and pull.
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Hey there Tara,
Thanks. Yeah, I really had to go through my cabinets and it took ages to hit upon Hyde.
You’re so close to your family, it would be overwhelmingly good but sometimes I bet it’s also otherwise. It’s just human nature.
Portia xx
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I know! I picked a tough one lol
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That’s such an interesting question, not so easy to come up with a definitive answer. This weekend I have been immersed in family and friends, a big gang staying in my house, the last ones left early this morning and another gang on the way. The beds and towels turnaround is hard work but I’m not complaining – much. When I think of family I go back in time to my childhood and what I smelled then was Old Spice, Brut, Youth Dew, talc, Fenjal, L’Aimant, Kiku, Imperial Leather and more besides. It would be impossible for me to pick just one thing as these were used by the different family members.
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I bet family get togethers were EXTRA fragrant back then Cassieflower. Sounds like heaven.
Portia xx
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I can’t conjure up a single scent for this word, as my family are gone or dispersed and there never were any strong fragrance memories amongst us really, but respect for your inspired choice of Hyde What a provocative multi-tasker!
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Yes, FAMILY was really hard to condense into a single scent Vanessa. This was by far the hardest word yet.
I’m glad you like my choice. I’m fairly chuffed to have finally worked it out myself.
Portia xx
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But you all picked the gauntlet up wonderfully!
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My parents have passed, my siblings are far flung and busy (as am I), extended family is also far away; my family today is husband, son (now 18) and me, along with my husband’s side of the tree. But I also consider our groups of friends – some long time, some from when our son was little, some more recent through his sports – as family. When you have an only child, you try to create “family” groups for him. I hope we have succeeded. My perfume pick, then, is one that I can wear any time, any place, with any of these groups of people. SJP Stash. If I was a signature scent type of person this would be in the running. (I do have a backup bottle, thankfully, as it’s nearly impossible to get these days.)
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Yeah, We are in much the same boat MMKinPA but without kids. (I do have a small crew of Godchildren that I mainly ignore but some are getting to the age where they’ve become interesting people)
We have a varied and colourful friend group who are everything to us, plus Jin who is a find of one in 7 billion.
LOVE that you’ve chosen Stash. It is a fabulous scent, fits every situation and is super affordable too. My kind of scent.
Portia xx
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Thank you for rising to the challenge, dearest Portia! I love that the word made you think of all the sometimes loving, sometimes crazy, and definitely conflicting emotions that our families can bring out in us. I have not had the chance to smell Hyde yet, but I adore all of Hiram’s work do I am sure that I will love this one.
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Heya Daisy,
This is EXACTLY the kind of word we should be doing. Something that stirs up emotion, gives us some uncomfortable moments of reflection along with all the good stuff. The simplicity of the word family and the rich tapestried construct of what it actually means are perfect for Scent Semantics. Well done you.
Portia xx
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Aww! The whole collaboration has been a genuine pleasure ❤
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