As it’s always healthy to change ones perspective, I’ve made up a little mind game for myself. For a few days I’ve focused on a certain color, and tried picking my perfumes according to that color (as I wrote about in my previous post Pantone Challenge), just to see what happens.
When I started this out I knew I had a rough week coming up, lots of work at my dayjob and a cracked tooth acting up, but I couldn’t get a dentist appointment until a week later (it was uncomfortable, but not uncomfortable enough to pay for emergency dental care). So I figured I needed all the happy energy I could get and went for Lemon Zest 13-0756.
It’s a mid-toned yellow, neither warm nor cold, leaning slightly toward the softer end of the brightness spectra. For me, this color mediates energy, friendliness, boldness and free minded-ness.
When confronted with a color bearing ”Lemon Zest” in its name, it’s hard not to think about lemons. So I have been going through my collection of colognes, trying to find the most lemony ones to see if they match. But I also tried to think out of the crate and several yellow fruits and flowers came to mind, such as yellow apples, pineapples, plums and mangoes, or narcisses, ylang, mimosa, sunflowers and dandelions. When white flowers smell heady and intoxicating, yellow flowers are more down to the earth, leaning towards spice, pollen and honeyed notes.
So, in my opinion, which scents are the most Lemon Zest 13-0756? I have two winners here!
Annick Goutal, L’Eau d’Hadrien. Ripe Amalfi lemons displayed from their best angle, laying on a delicious cushion of soft ylang. The perfect mix between sharp and soft, aromatic and sweet. It’s the most beautiful and realistic lemon scent I know of. As an added surprise I discovered it’s wonderful to wear while watching the snow fall outside. There is something about the contrast between the brightness of the scent and the whiteness of the snow that brings out the best in both of them.
Vero Kerns Mito. I know, I know, this one is technically supposed to be a ”green scent”. The intro I agree on, when I tried it now it starts sharply green and mineral, a good match for Grayed Jade 14-6011. But when that stunning magnolia heart kicks in, I get the most exquisite sensation of soft yellow creaminess, and somehow when all facets are taken into account, IMHO they do sum up to Lemon Zest 13-0756. Also, this is another great match for snow.
And here are the runner ups. They are very good perfumes in their own rights, but they just do not convey the exact shade of yellow I’m looking for:
Kenzo, Summer. Narcisses and dandelions. Grass and summer. The most yellow-feeling scent I know of. Beautiful but brighter feeling than Lemon Zest 13-0756 as I tend to see a big bunch of happy daffodils whenever I wear it.
Parfums de Nicolaï, Cedrat. A masculine lemony citrus scent. The base contains peppery patchouly that gives the composition a slightly medicinal feel, therefore the color I get is more of a lemon drop-hue.
Donna Karan DKNY, Golden Delicios. Yes, I did do a little foray into my local mainstream perfume store, spraying on everything yellow-looking in sight. Golden Delicious is the only scent from that trip worth mentioning. A good match, but a tad too genericly ozonic freshy-feeling. But some of the other scents in the store… How can people promote and sell such dregs without feeling very ashamed of themselves??? I don’t understand.
The Different Company, Limon de Cordoza. Another good citrus, feels like a lighter version of Kerosenes Santalum Slivers. The vetivier base gives it a grounded feeling, thus the color I get is leaning towards brown.
Neela Vermeire Bombay Bling. The best mango cocktail I’ve ever had and my goto scent when I want to forget all about winter. Warmer and brighter than Lemon Zest 13-0756, as it’s so full of tropical fruits.
L’Artisan Mimosa por Moi. A great little spring scent. Delicate mimosa, complete with fennel and almond-y facets. A pale pastel yellow.
So, did I learn anything useful from this? Yes, actually, surprisingly much:
- Lemon scents help me see the beauty in snow. Let’s never forget that!
- When focusing on yellow I seem to unconsciously buy and eat more fruits, both citrus and tropical ones. I didn’t notice this until this morning when I did the weekly shopping list, and my husband asked if I really wanted to get twice the amount of fruit we usually eat. This makes me think, if I ever take on a dark brown for a similar exercise, I’ll seriously have to watch my intake of chocolate, coffee and aged cognacs, and remind myself I don’t smoke a pipe…
- I do like yellow but I noticed that it’s a virtually non existent color in my life. In my house I found a few yellow kids items, there are some Easter ornaments tucked away in a cupboard somewhere and there is some yellow fruit in my fridge, but that’s it. What can be made out of this information, I don’t know.
- To be honest, I’d thought I’d come up with something like 3 scents, wear them, write about them and that would be it. But once I started thinking about lemon zest-yellow scents, my head went into spinning mode and it just wouldn’t stop. I now have a list of scent I’d loved to try wihtin this context, only I don’t have samples of them, so if I ever do more of this, here is my wishlist:
- Caron, Narcisse Noir
- Humiecki & Graef, Bosque
- L’Artisan, Fleur de Narcisse and Ananas Fizz
- Miller Harris, Citron citron
- Profunum Romana, Dulcis in Fundo and Acqua Viva
If anyone else has suggestions for scents to match Lemon Zest 13-0756, I’d love to hear!
Special thanks to Parfumistan and Portia of Australian Perfume Junkies that provided me with samples of Cedrat and Limon de Cordoba, THANKS 
Images: Pantone.com and myself, and keep in mind that color shades can look different depending on how your monitor is set.
Being color-obsessed (and how!), I was captivated by your initial description of this project. Now that I’ve seen in this wonderful post how it can be done, I’m even more delighted by your brilliant concept. If I may and if I can, I might find a way to join in…. but even if not, I can’t wait to experience your full spectrum! You & color have lit my fire!
Meg, you are very welcome to join in! I suspect the way I get colors from scents is dependent on my previous personal experiences so I’m very curious to hear what colors others get! I’m looking forward to talk to you more about this matter
Ooh, I hope you continue this series! I am a color nerd, too, and I absolutely love this idea.
I’m already planning my next post
But I’m a little worried if I’ll be able to come up with anything for the blues…
A crisp lemon yellow is one of my favorite colors, it always makes me smile! : )
Looking for perfumes, in my own collection, that make me ”see yellow” there is CB I Hate Perfume I am a Dandelion – a pale yellow that I love to wear spring and summer – and the new Via del Profumo Tawaf, a rich heady floral scent that gets its darker yellow color from the ground cumin stirred together with the white jasmine blossoms. From looking at your color chart I would probably put this perfume into your Bombay Bling yellow box and even though it’s a fairly intense perfume I can see it working in any season. Will definitely need more of this one when my decant is all gone!
I really like the thought of making dandelions get center stage in a scent as in I am a Dandelion! They are so green, cheeky, cheery and very capable of taking care of themselves. I very much understand that you like it
Tawaf also sounds lovely! I think the spicy note I’m thinking of when I’m talking about what sets white flower scents apart from yellow flowers scent is something very like cumin, so it makes sense that jasmines with the addition of cumin will turn yellow!
I went through my collection thinking about ”your” color.
I was wrong when I told you (in the opening post of the series) that I would tend to connect the color to a packaging or a name. I found one more culprit: notes. As soon as I read the color name, I started thinking about all the different citrus scents… There are a couple more that would kind of fit but I ended up with Eau de Fleurs de Cédrat by Guerlain.
Yes, I found that in myself as well, if ”lemon” is written there in letters and all it’s hard not to think about it
I have not tried Eau de Fleurs de Cédrat but after doing a quick lookup at Fragrantica, it sounds like a good choice for Lemon Zest 13-0756
I’ve only tried two scents on your list, Bombay Bling and Mimosa pour Moi, but I really like both of them and own MpM. My other yellow scents would be Jour Ensolleilé, Golden Cattleya (both definitely near the golden end of the spectrum) and Le Temps d’une Fete, which is far more about spring flowers than green on my skin. Oh, and I’ve got a great little sample called Lemon Ice from Wing and a Prayer perfumes that I’d put in the Kenzo Summer box on your diagram.
I can’t believe I didn’t think of trying Jour Ensolleilé myself, it’s one of my favorite perfumes! The other ones I haven’t tried, but I see that Fragrantica lists daffodils as major components in both Golden Cattleya and Le Temps d’une Fete, and the scent of daffodils are pretty much my definition of yellow
Sigrun, your charts and your insights are fabulous. I can send you some Profumum Roma Aqua Viva (I bought it at Cow!) and it might actually match up pretty well to your Lemon Zest pantone color, as it smells very realistically of lemons.
I quite agree with you on Mito, though my read on it is slightly different from yours. (I get the lemon-zest yellow in the opening salvo.) And yay! I love that you thought of Kenzo Summer and Bombay Bling … they present themselves to me very, very similarly to the way you describe them both in words and in terms of your color chart.
I did your color meditation, as you know from my email, focusing on red. Don’t bother to link to my post … it’s not nearly as nice or complete a study as yours, and I posted it in one of my ”At the Moment” posts about seemingly everything and nothing.
But it was fun, and like you, I discovered that I love red but have very little red in either my wardrobe or my home. Think I’ll change that!
I would absolutely love a sample of Profumum Roma Aqua Viva, I have only smelled it once, on paper, but it has haunted me since then. The way I remember, it was the perfect blend of lemon and sweetness, and for some reason it made me think of Italian desserts, but not any particular dessert, just in general, which I think is a bit odd.
Mito is such a shapeshifter
I get it differently every time and do you remember I used to complain that I didn’t get any florals in the heart? Now I most certainly do 
I feel very intrigued about your description of Habit Rouge in your ”red” post. Shalimar meets Coromandel…on steroids, now that’s something
[...] even though we’re in the depth on winter here. It’s cheeriness and energy, just as with Lemon Zest 13-0756 was a needed contrast to the calm and dampening snow surrounding [...]