Suggestions please - rose and datura

Hi,
It was suggested in the Just Starting Out forum that I post my query over here, so am reposting:

Have been reading the directory here for quite a while now, and have enjoyed lurking here. Thank you to all who so freely share their expertise. Am not new to perfume as a wearer, but would like to train my sniffer and experiment with some new scents. I have always had a good sense of what scent works best on me, so rarely pay attention to ads and promotions.

About 9 years ago hubby and I moved to the country to a small farm, and I no longer go into NYC if I can help it, which has limited my ability to sample scents walking through department stores. Unfortunately, all I have nearby is Macy's - and what they have to offer doesn't stimulate my sniffer. Buying scent unsniffed has been a disaster and I was surprised to discover "decants" and will now dive in to try some - it will certainly save me money.

I grow OGRs (Old Garden Roses) as a hobby, and would love to find a perfume that can equal the scent of some of my favorites, like La Reine Victoria, to wear during the cold winter months while I long for the return of bloom season. The other scent that fascinates me from my garden has always been datura, and would love to find a perfume that evokes it, and works on me.

I don't know if I have a signature scent, but if I had to pick which of the small selection I currently own that I wear most frequently, that I love (and so do folks who sniff me), I'd have to pick L'Heure Bleue, which I've been wearing since I first discovered it in 1971 on my first trip to Paris as a young woman. I'd love to find some other perfumes that work as well. My second pick would be Poeme, which my husband loves me to wear.

Would like to branch out and experiment, and with so many choices available I get overwhelmed.

Hope I can get some suggestions here now that I've taken the plunge to de-lurk.

Denise

Thanks for the suggestion. Have ordered a decant of the Datura Noir, and of a few other Serge Lutens while I was shopping; have read so many interesting reviews I can't wait to see if they work for me. I hope the coconut is not too prominent though - don't mind eating it but not sure I want to wear it. I noticed a few reviewers claim that the SL's fade rather quickly. Is that related to individual body chemistry or a flaw in the process?

Denise

Thank you Pellen,

Will let you know what I think when it arrives (making daily trips out to the mailbox hoping to find packages of scent instead of bills or junk mail).

Have also read through the lists and reviews here and found what might work for me in the rose line as well. Ordered Guerlain Nahema since Guerlain is my favorite perfume house, and got a clearance bottle of Ombre Rose EDT at bigdiscount. Also ordered decants of Rose Muskissime and Rose Opulente by Maître Parfumeur et Gantier.

Living on a farm and raising goats, and mucking out their stalls has made me appreciate the power of scent - eau de chèvre (male) is one of the most powerful scents in nature, only eclipsed by "parfum de mouffette" (skunk). One of my dogs seems to have a morbid fascination for making friends with Pepé Le Pew, and comes home wafting skunk aroma in waves.

I find I wear more perfume these days here on the farm than I did when working in an office in the city - though it may seem incongruous to get up in the mornings and pull on sweatshirts, jeans and work boots and then dab on liberal splashes of L’Heure Bleu.

But I am appreciating perfumes more - not for the reaction of others sniffing me, but for the sheer pleasure of pleasing myself and combating some of the more unpleasant aspects of farm life, like composting.

Thanks Renee!

Until I started reading perfume blogs and forums had never heard of Serge Lutens at all and will now get a chance to sample before dropping large sums. Figured I had better test before splurging ('tis rather pricey), and I did head directly to the rose thread...as a rose grower I have been very disappointed by rose frags in the past, especially since one blossom from a heavily scented Old Garden Rose can fill a room. The bottled juice just can't seem to hold up in comparision. I don't bother to grow many scentless roses - seems like a pointless endeavor - and have been fascinated by rose history for quite a few years; it is so intertwined with the history of perfumery, which is how I got enticed into reading perfume forums while surfing for posts on new roses to plant, and am now hooked on perfumes as well.

Glad you enjoyed your visit to one of our major art attractions - Opus 40
http://www.opus40.org/fite.htm

- a true wonder. So few folks have even heard of Saugerties - though neighboring Woodstock is well known. Saugerties major event is our garlic festival - I grow garlic too - it does well among the rose bushes.

Denise