Last year, I did a project called Scent of the Day. For a month, every day, I talked about a scent on Facebook. I have been asked by friends to make these musings available on the blog, as it’s impossible to find anything on Facebook. So I’ll copy my mini-reviews here, but it needs to be done in batches – otherwise it’d be an insanely long post. You can find the first instalment here, the second here, the third here, the fourth here, the fifth here, the sixth here and the seventh here (fortunately, the end is near, although I’ve said it before, but it really is – one to go!).

This time, we’ve got one of my favourite scents (Serge Lutens Fleurs d’Oranger), one of my least favourite scents (Giorgio Armani Si), a great masculine fragrance (Dior Homme) and a crazy good candle (Diptyque Feau de Bois) and My notes on availability are a bit – but not entirely – specific to Estonia; I’ve kept them, just in case. I have to apologise for the pictures again, as they were random snaps for Facebook, but I’ve kept these, too.

26 APRIL
Scent of the Day: Dior Homme (Christian Dior, obviously)

My profound thoughts on perfume are limited, so I’m coming back to the gender issue. As I’ve said, I believe dividing scents into masculine and feminine is silly and unhelpful. But it’s also true that playing with those codes can be fun. When woods, leather and tobacco are considered manly, it can be subversive for women to wear them – think Marlene Dietrich in a tuxedo. A man smelling of white flowers is even more unexpected and strikes me as supremely confident. Which, perversely, is a very traditionally masculine virtue.

Another thing that happens because of the male/female divide is that I automatically appreciate it when a brand comes out with an untraditional take on either category. Especially if a mainstream line does this, I almost feel like sending them a thank you-note. Dior Homme is a very good fragrance in itself, but it’s appeal to me is enhanced by the fact that it’s a major fragrance by a major company that presents a pretty unconventional image of a man.

It’s a very elegant perfume that for me is mostly about iris (and violets?) and woods. There’s also a soft suede note, a touch of herbs and gently sweet amber and cocoa. What makes it especially unusual for a masculine is its smoothness and powderiness. It’s not quite in the make-up bag smell territory, but surprisingly close. Dior Homme is beautifully blended and balanced and exudes intelligence, class and taste. If you want to communicate olfactively that in addition to perfectly tailored suits you also have an art collection and an impressive library, than I suggest wearing Dior Homme.

And if you are a woman, steal it.

A Note on Availability: it’s available almost everywhere, but make sure you’re not confusing it with other Dior fragrances in similar bottles (love the bottle, btw). I personally hate Dior Homme Cologne, so I’m sure it’s a bestseller and displayed much more prominently at every counter.

27 APRIL
The Day of No Scent: Fleurs d’Oranger (Serge Lutens)

This, my dear friends, is a deeply tragic picture. Not only because the bottle is empty, although that itself is tragic enough. What is worse, though, is that when I moved to Brussels and left that bottle in my drawer, it still had one third of the juice inside. A few months later, it was gone.

It is very, very tempting to think that this happened because Kalju Karl (J’s brother) is a secret fan of white florals and couldn’t resist the urge to spray himself a couple of times a day. Sadly, it’s much more likely that my imperfect storing technique caused the bottle to leak. This theory is supported by the fact that the drawer smells overwhelmingly of orange blossom and tuberose.

All this could be bearable, if FdO wasn’t my favorite orange blossom scent and I didn’t need it badly now that summer is close. This is a heady and sensual, but also very happy and sunny scent that reminds me of a vacation in Catalonia, where it fit perfectly. If I somehow could live on a diet of orange blossoms, tuberose, jasmine and sunshine, my skin would smell exactly like Fleurs d’Oranger.

As with many other white florals, some people find FdO simply too much. Others don’t mind the flowers, but dislike the cumin. If you are sensitive to it, cumin can be overwhelming, sweaty and curry-like, but in correct doses it makes everything smell more human and blend with your skin. Unsurprisingly, I don’t find neither the flowers nor the cumin difficult and I have actually worn FdO to work. And as I clearly recall getting a compliment from Evelin (who has an excellent nose), I plan to do it again. When I get a new bottle…

A Note on Availability: same story as with other Serge Lutens export line fragrances, Kaubamaja, online sites, Sephora, department stores and many scent boutiques have them.

28 APRIL
Scent of the Day: Feu de Bois candle (Diptyque)

I’m easily annoyed by the French, but I do admit they are very successful at making desirable, stylish things. Diptyque’s niche is the understated, not-trying-too-hard style that magazines these days identify as “quintessentially Parisian”.

This is not my natural habitat – I get profoundly irritated when long-limbed Isabel Marant-wearing muses tell me that their beauty secret is that they never brush their hair. But I do understand why this (seemingly) effortless Parisian style is so popular and I appreciate the alternative it provides to the dominant international discourses of girliness and sexiness. Diptyque does the olfactory equivalent of “ah, this old thing!” very well. I like several of their scents (mostly old ones, though) – Philosykos is probably the world’s best and most well-known fig fragrance, L’Ombre dans l’Eau is a wonderful interpretation of a greenhouse in summer and Vetiveryo is a nice, fresh vetiver cologne.

Diptyque is, however, even better known for scented candles and all the fragrances I mentioned are also available in candle form – as Figuier, Baies and Vetyver, respectively. They all smell great, as does the boutique-only Mousses, a slightly bitter blend of oakmoss and other forest smells. My favourite of the impressively wide selection is potentially also the most unique: Feu de Bois is intensely smoky and woody, it smells like the world’s poshest campfire. So, you know, when you don’t have a mahogany table and rosewood cabinet to burn in your marble fireplace, you can buy Feu de Bois instead.

Buying a Diptyque candle is, of course, an “investment” (magazine speak for “too expensive”). Whether it’s worth it, depends on how much you like scented candles and how much disposable income you happen to have. You get a very decent amount of burn time out of Diptyques and if you really like some of the more unique scents, it can be difficult to find a dupe. Then again, if you want your candles to have seriously impressive throw, there might be better options – Jo Malone and Byredo, for example.

A Note on Availability: if the staff speaks French, then the store probably carries Diptyque. (Edit: Crème de la Crème in Tallinn now also carries the line.)

29 APRIL
Scent of the Day: Si (Giorgio Armani)

Disclaimer: if you happen to love Si, just ignore everything I’m about to say.

The first time I sprayed Giorgio Armani’s Si, I could only smell generic, vanilla-ish sweetness. Now that I’ve tested it twice, I can report with confidence that I detect some generic fruits and generic flowers as well. I’m not sure that these syrupy, vague petals and syrupy fruit juice can be regarded as a significant improvement, though. It would be an overstatement to say that Si smells bad – it’s a competently done “sugar and spice and everything nice” fragrance, only without the “spice” part (there’s some clean patchouli, but that’s as far as it goes). It is, however, devoid of any character.

Si was one of the biggest launches of 2013 and I – naively, probably – expected it not to suck. Not just because it was fronted by Cate Blanchett (still, CATE BLANCHETT!!!): it was clearly targeted at non-teenagers, the bottle was reasonably sophisticated and the copy sounded almost sane. Armani has also proven that it can do refined fragrances – mostly for the Prive line, of course, where the outrageous price point prevents the majority of people from even trying anything. Alas, I really should’ve known better than to get my hopes up.

Objectively speaking, there are many worse fragrances than Si. It isn’t even the worst among the big launches of 2013 – La Vie est Belle smells almost exactly the same and is equally bland. The only reason I can work up less rage towards the Lancome’s effort is because its face Julia Roberts leaves me cold. I have already forgotten what YSL’s big one, Manifesto, smelled like, but I suspect it might have actually been less original than Si. Why is it that even serious brands with an adult target audience in mind expect us to smell like we swam in berry syrup and then rolled in sugar? And then giggled, mindlessly? Thinking of this brings me dangerously close to self-harm.

In conclusion: what a criminal waste of Cate Blanchett. You should just dig out your old Coco Mademoiselle, spray it lightly and you’ll be much, much better off.

A Note on Availability: unfortunately, it’s everywhere.