Years ago, when I was still at the beginning of my perfume-blog-reading career, I happened across a comment where someone described wearing Frederic Malle’s Carnal Flower in the deep winter of Moscow. While I didn’t categorize perfumes by season, it had never occurred to me to wear that iconic tuberose in January. The description was such that I had to try it immediately and indeed, that luscious white floral was beautiful in the cold: greener and more refined, with its magnificent structure more clearly visible.

Floral perfumes, and white florals maybe in particular, are almost never associated with winter. But after this experience with Carnal Flower, I realized that I liked some of them better in the cold. My other early success was Diorissimo, the quintessential lily of the valley fragrance and many people’s spring favourite. I wore it on a sunny February day and it worked beautifully amidst the record levels of snow. And I don’t even like lily of the valley.

There are many, many different types of florals and you can of course wear them all in winter. If you are slightly scared of the lush, creamy, sexy, heady big white florals, winter months are good for giving them a try: cold tames everything and will not let Robert Piguet Fracas or Serge Lutens A la Nuit to bloom into a suffocating monster. But for the purposes of this post, winter whites are white florals that have a crisp or green or even a metallic aspect, or something else that in my head connects them to the ice and snow and the austerity of winter.

Lily fragrances, for example, are in my opinion often suited to cold. It might be simply because I find the flower has a certain Snow Queen quality, it’s less sensual than the best known white flowers – tuberose and jasmine. Lys Mediterranee, another Frederic Malle masterpiece, might sound sunny, but this true lily is great for winter. Tom Ford Lys Fume is my personal favourite: I don’t get any smoke, but it’s elegant and grown-up, something that people who manage to look stylish in winter coats and never slip on ice would wear. Serge Lutens Un Lys, a likable combination of lily and lily of the valley is almost virginal in winter. If you are looking for something mainstream in the same genre, Cartier Baiser Vole is definitely worth trying. There are three concentrations, all different, all well done.

Gardenias are my favourite white flowers and I love the scent in perfume, ranging from the realistically mushroomy and sensual to pretty and dewy. For winter, I think the greener versions work best. One of my favourite gardenias, Arquiste Boutonniere No 7 has a dark green, vetiver-y base and I often wear it in winter. Maria Candida Gentile’s Lady Day is a green gardenia well worth trying if you have access to it. I struggle to think of a good mainstream gardenia that would fulfill the criteria for winter whites, but leaving that aside, Narciso Rodrigues Narciso is certainly worth trying – it’s just more white cashmere than snow.

One thing that can turn a white floral into a winter white is adding aldehydes. There are different kinds, but they usually add sparkle and brilliance – something that goes perfectly with a crisp winter morning. No 22 is one of the greatest examples of aldehydes at work. It’s a classic Chanel, an abstract floral that includes jasmine, lily of the valley and ylang ylang and makes me think of very high quality champagne. It’s not modern and not necessarily easy to like (as I said, like good champagne), but when it works, it works marvelously. I think I’ll wear it tomorrow.