After having a little internet break due to colds and fatigue, now it’s time to tackle Emerald Green, the color of the year 2013. A full green, not forest green, but a green leaning a little towards blue but not all the way to teal. When thinking about perfumes for this hue – all in mega greens. So, here is what I’ve been reaching for when focusing on this color:

The prize of the best emerald green goes to Frederic Malle, Angéliques Sous La Pluie. Of all green scents, this might be the greenest one I have ever smelled. It starts out with a liquorice like, dark green, tarragon note that just keeps going and going and going and I suppose this is the Angelica referred to in the name. At Fragrantica Angelica is listed under ”musky notes”. Maybe someday, if scientists will discover that some of us are actually descendants of green giant vegetable beings, I might understand how that can be. Until then, I’m greatly bewilded. It is so far removed from my own skin scent that it rather teams up with ”alien” than anything else. A perfect match for emerald green, though.

Mona di Orio Vetyver. More of a murky seaweed green than emerald, still, one of my favourite vetyver scent. The perfect balance between smoky, earthy, salty and a weird but determined presence of silky sea cucumbers.

L’Artisan Piment Brulant. This is a funny one, it’s supposed to be all about the chilli/chocolate combo and on it’s Fragrantica page there are mostly pictures of red-ish ingredients, like red chili, poppies, cocoa bean, amber and cinnamon. What I get is jalapeno pepper green. I think my skin emphasizes the pepper note, turning it green in the process. I do get an oriental base somewhere in the background but it’s not chocolate on my skin. This is a scent that makes more sense to me in summer when the wearmth in the air meets the green peppery bite.

Kerosene, Creature. Starts with a smoky, brief mint note, closely followed by freshly moved lawn, similiar to the grass note of DelRae Debut, mentioned in the Tender Shoots post. But that’s just the warmup (if you can call mint that). What I find most intriguing and what I’ve come back to again and again in this scent is the dry down. There is patchouli, oakmoss and different herbs and while the greenery in Angeliques sous le Pluit took a turn for the alien, here it’s just the opposite. Somehow all those green notes come together and and smell – human. Maybe I’ve managed to stumble upon the little swamp MY green ancestors descended from.

Comme des Garcons Amazing Green. Yes I know, reaching for these color tagged Comme des Garcon scents is almost cheating, but I saw a tester and just had to give it a go. This one smells indeed very green. It smells like if they took every green vegetable they could their hands on, a few green fruits as well, swirled them in a blender, creating an ”Amazing green chlorophyll smoothie” and labeled it as a perfume. Unfortunately, the characteristics of the  ingredients got lost and the result is sadly generic. I rather drink this than wear it as perfume.

Vagabond Prince, The Enhanced Forest. An blackcurrant soliflore, how on earth could this one be green? It starts with a big jammy blackcurrant blast, as fushia/berry colored as anything could ever be. Then it has a middle phase when the leaves of the blackcurrant bush are played up and to me, during this phase, the Enhanced Forest is very green. There is also a sulphuric note that reminds me a bit of armpits. This is not a bad thing, it merely helps put some animation into that greenery, making it come alive, and I greatly enjoy the ride. During drydown, we’re out of the forest and heading into oriental territory, full of benzoin and opoponax. No greenery then, but still a very enjoyable scent and since it takes such sharp turns color-wise, I’m not even going to try pinpointing it’s greenness.

Estee Lauder, Private Collection. I must thank the commentors that pointed me in this direction, I only managed to try it once when I hardly had any sense of scent at all due to my cold, so I’ll be very vague here. A very dark green floral with smoky undertones. I don’t smoke but when I wore it I couldn’t stop wondering it this scent was engineered to hide the smell of smoking two packs of cigarettes a day? Anyway, I enjoyed it very much and I’ll be trying this one more!

What did I learn? Scentwise, this was a good week! These type of green scents don’t demand much, I feel comfortable wearing them both to work, to social gatherings and at home. But I do miss the drama of darker scents, so it’s not like I’m getting a green ”signature scent color” anytime yet, but wearing a green scent something like once a week isn’t bad.

And you, what do you think of green scents? And what are the greenest scents you know of?