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Smells like Provencal Landscape?

post #1 of 14
6/20/11 at 4:03am
Thread Starter 
Hi all

My first post, so apologies if I do this wrong! I've been reading around basenotes for a while now, trying to figure out what composes the divine L'Occitane Provencal Landscape room fragrance - can anybody help? Or perhaps suggest a similar women's/unisex fragrance?

I read with interest the discussions around 'garrigue' and 'herbs de provence' but none of the descriptions seemed to quite marry with my experience of this room fragrance,
which has quite a sweet, heady aroma that absolutely captures my memories of childhood holidays in Le Castellet, the sun shining, bread baking, the Mistral blowing... Perhaps some sort of resin together with various herbs?

I'm afraid my nose just isn't sophisticated enough to be able to figure out what it is that I love so much in this scent: I SO want to wear it!

Any help out there would be very gratefully received: fingers crossed!
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post #2 of 14
6/20/11 at 5:22am
Funny, I have some right here, and I've been wondering the same thing. It is really "abstract" for a home fragrance/room scent.

I think that it has the usual suspects of "Provençal" scents, it's just really well-blended. There has to be some lavender and verbena in there. Something else is softening it all up.

My little bottles of room fragrance have ingredients on them - I'm using the kind with the stick diffusers. I would look at the ingredients for this one, but I tossed it. Do you still have yours? I bet people here could decipher it.
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post #3 of 14
6/20/11 at 8:34am
I haven't smelled it. But try smelling l'occitan Labdanum of Seville (? or something like that), which has a sweet labdanum resin, to see if that's what generates the sweetness.

cacio
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post #4 of 14
6/20/11 at 5:44pm
I asked my husband and he said it reminded him of "bugspray" which is how he often registers jasmine. I was thinking jasmine earlier, but I thought it was not particularly "provençal". Maybe a similar floral.
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post #5 of 14
6/20/11 at 9:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by HazelMae View Post

I asked my husband and he said it reminded him of "bugspray" which is how he often registers jasmine. I was thinking jasmine earlier, but I thought it was not particularly "provençal". Maybe a similar floral.

Is Grasse considered in Provence? If so, it is the last place in France where jasmine is still grown for the fragrance.
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post #6 of 14
6/20/11 at 11:33pm
I'll have to see if our L'Occitane carries this - they seem to have a nice consistent line of stuff with this south of France type vibe. If they do I'll chip in and see if I can throw any light on it - the garrigue style appeals to me but there don't seem to be that many perfumes out there that pull it off - given it is a sort of nebulous category, nowhere near as defined as fougere etc.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Saintpaulia View Post

Is Grasse considered in Provence? If so, it is the last place in France where jasmine is still grown for the fragrance.

Not sure what this has to do with the OP's question?
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post #7 of 14
6/21/11 at 4:49am
Perhaps Prince De Galles although maybe not unisex enough for you.
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post #8 of 14
6/21/11 at 8:15am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for your thoughts, guys. I have a sample of L'Occitane's Labdanum on the way, so maybe that will help clear things up a bit.

HazelMae - bug spray? Really?!!

I too have the reed diffuser refill bottles but the ingredients list isn't helpful: Alcohol, aqua, parfum, linalool, geraniol. Other than that, it merely suggests that it "...captures the resiny scents of a sun-drenched aromatic scrubland."

I *think* I can pick up something like jasmine or - having just been out in the garden to sniff some, honeysuckle? Am I mad?

Feeling hopelessly ill-educated in the nasal department!



P.S. I looked it up - Grasse is in Provence so there might be some justification for including jasmine in a Provencal type sent.
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post #9 of 14
6/21/11 at 9:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Saintpaulia View Post

Is Grasse considered in Provence? If so, it is the last place in France where jasmine is still grown for the fragrance.

Yes, Grasse is in Provence, so maybe jasmine is one of the notes the OP is wondering about. However I have not smelled the room fragrance the OP is referencing. I will the next time I get to a L'Occitane store though; now I'm curious.
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post #10 of 14
6/21/11 at 3:13pm
Wishful..... if you can get into any L'Occitane shop, the staff there are always more than helpful and attentive - they may well be able to help you. They have a shop in the middle of Nottingham, also one in Leicester, both of which aren't too far from sunny Rutland.

Good luck!
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post #11 of 14
6/22/11 at 8:45pm
Glad to see this discussion. I started the discussion going a few years ago on garrigue scents. I continue to think of them as being (as said above) resinous herbs and scrubby bushes with a warm breeze wafting over sun-baked earth. I really like that sort of scent. What would the herbs be in that landscape? Lavender, thyme, rosemary certainly.
The person who introduced me to verbena aptly described it as "a combination of lemon, basil and freshly-baked bread" and I think that just about captures it.
PS I like L'Occitane's version, and have it in candles and diffuser oil.
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post #12 of 14
6/23/11 at 5:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wishful View Post

HazelMae - bug spray? Really?!!

Unfortunately this is a common thing people will say about a fragrance, usually about some floral. He dismissed my Gucci Envy as "bathroom cleaner". Which it does in fact smell like since LOTV is a very common note in bathroom cleaner. But there will always be at least one person who smells at least one off note in any fragrance, so I just totally disregard if I like something.

Husband and I have never been to Provence so I have no doubt about the authenticity! I am a fan of L'Occitane in general.
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post #13 of 14
6/26/11 at 8:55am
Though manufactured by an Italian niche house, the ranges within the "Blu Mediterraneo" series, even though the fragrance names designate the Italian flora, they actually convey the mood described above

Also, Dior's Escale a Portofino and Hermes Un Jardin en Mediteranee, might be worth testing for the very same reason - and all the aforementioned scents are very suitable for unisex wear
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post #14 of 14
6/26/11 at 10:16am
What about Haute Provence by Parfums de Nicolai?
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