(Slow down and smell the tea)
This is one of the first scents I tried for this project and truly loved. I got a 15ml second-hand sample on eBay (£14.50), and will likely commit to a proper big ol’ bottle when it’s done.
It launched in 1993 and was first intended as a masculine scent, got turned down, taken to a different house and was then launched, but marketed to women. Which illustrates the inherent stupidity of classifying a scent as ‘for men’ or ‘for women’.
It is soft, fresh, cleansing, light and refreshing, with citrusy lemon and green florals. It makes me think of delicate mousse-y green fronds, like my asparagus fern in the bathroom, or of a light lime sorbet. (I went for dinner recently to a fave Japanese-Korean restaurant, was intensely excited about ordering matcha ice cream for my dessert, but they had run-out as ‘it’s the end of the week’?! I consoled myself with big squirts of EPATV instead when I got home).
Most reviewers cite it as a summer, post exercise or a wear-to-work scent, and it fits the bill for all these, as it is so clean, easy to wear and not overpowering.
However I find I use it more to soothe and relax myself when tense and anxious. I like putting it on in the evening, doing wind-down yoga, pottering about and reading in bed before sleep. For me, it is calming, thoughtful and meditative.
It does fade fairly quickly… there is an Intense version, and several other eaux parfumées (blanc, noir, rouge, bleu) I hope to get my nose on. I also want to compare it to Elizabeth Arden Green Tea (cheaper!), and to find a perfume that smells like a nice smoky lapsang souchong.
It’s made me think I need to improve my hot drinks game. Good tea or coffee prepared lovingly is such a special sensory experience, but I rush it, taking whatever is provided for free at work, mashing the tea bag against the side with a “it’s hot it’s brown it’s got caffeine it’ll do” attitude and cracking on with my emails. I had a colleague who kept his own proper metal pot with a special infuser, his own nice mug and a range of proper decent loose leaf teas, in his cupboard, and he’d have a little solo afternoon tea ritual every day. Maybe he is on to something.
Next time I am in Glasgow I hope to revisit a wonderful tea house called Tchai-Ovna: I spent a restful afternoon there a few years back, with the paper, quiet, their café cat, and savouring the scents of the teas.
Perhaps this scent is reminding me to SLOW DOWN, to do one thing at a time and actually focus on it and enjoy it, instead of constantly rushing, trying to multi-task and pack things into my time.
