Hi all, popping in to ask my perfumista friends for their suggestions on lavender fragrances to try. I have really been on a "natural" kick these days, moving away from synthetics in fragrances, but they are difficult to avoid. So I am open to any and all ideas, but would love any "natural" ones if you've got them. I am so happy to find out that my local "Perfume House" has a bottle of AG's Eau de Lavande for me to get if I end up loving it as I have heard it's a tough one to get your hands on these days. Anyway, thanks in advance!!

Also, what are your impressions of AG lavande?

My favorite lavender fragrances
BBW Moonlight Path
SJP Lovely

I haven't tried AG, but I find Caron Pour Un Homme a very stable choice, though perhaps sweeter than you desire, and Jicky has a lovely burst of it though it's not strictly lavender. I also like a lavender-scented body lotion, because lavenders tend not to last on me.

Le Male , seriously.

Caldey Island, although it gets a bit BO stinky for a little while there.

Dain, I am not strictly opposed to sweet by any stretch, so I will give Caron Pour Un Homme a try! Luckily The Perfume House has an extensive caron collection so I can give it a sniff when I go there on Tuesday (it's not open until then).

Jicky (Guerlain) and Pour Une Homme (Caron) are my favourites.

Hi Ayala! Two votes for the Caron, it's a must-sniff now! Is there anything in your collection you recommend? I know you use natural fragrances right?

Do you mean that "human cumin" kind of smell? I just can't do that, not even for a little while, LOL!

"human cumin" what a great description!

Yardley has a soliflor and I think Fragonard does too.

Truthfully, lavender in particular, and the fougère family in general, tend not to be some of my favorites. Nevertheless, I think very highly of JICKY, KOUROS and even the over-popular LE MALE.

I'm a dirty boy who tends to find lavender too "clean" a note.

Looks as if I am the only one so far who has tried the AG Eau de Lavande.

it is one of the most amazing lavender fragrances that I have tried. Because it's not quite a soliflore, the notes that are in it, add an extra dimension. To my nose, it has a slightl tobacco note to it, although it doesn't contain tobacco. It's rich and quite long lasting. I could imagine wearing it in a gentlemans club.

I also love the Caron pour un Homme, so I suppose that's another vote for that one.

If I had to choose between the AG and the Caron, I would choose the AG.

Barry

Guerlains Jicky and for a EDT Mont St Michal lavender cologne - cheap too! I put it in my fridge for summer .

Nothing original to add here - Jicky and Pour un Homme de Caron. The Caldey Island lavender is a true soliflore but lasts for about three seconds on me! Caron also does a lavender eau de cologne but I have never sniffed it. I think it may only be available in France.

AG Lavande is beautiful, I had a decant.

Jicky unfortunately the lavender doesn't come out on me just the woody feel. Caron because vanille based on me quickly too.

A great lavender to try is D'Orsay Arome 3, it is slightly woody but very big on what true lavender smells like. Oh and Lutens Ecens et Lavande, truly beautiful.

L'Occitane mainly bath products but lovely body lotion their OAC Lavender range. The candle for lavender lovers is orgasmic!

Haven't tried the AG either, never even noticed it, but I'll be sure to try it.

Here in France, cheap lavender is used in so many household products that it's hard to get rid of the association unless you go for fragrances that have a very high-grade essence of lavender.
In that range, I'd recommend Vero Kern's Kiki. It only comes in extrait and will be available at Luckyscent as of September: it's got a beautiful, playful, rich lavender on a sweet, croissant-smelling base.
I've also like By Kilian's A Taste of Heaven, where the slightly licorice-y facet of lavender is matched up with anisic absinthe on a vanilla base. Sort of like a high-powered Pour un Homme.

The Caron is lovely, but it's become such a cliché on middle-aged, middle-class Frenchmen (either that, or Guerlain Vetiver and Habit Rouge) that I can't bring myself to wear it, but if it has no associations for you, it's a pretty much perfect lavender-vanilla blend.

Haven't tried the AG either, never even noticed it, but I'll be sure to try it.

Here in France, cheap lavender is used in so many household products that it's hard to get rid of the association unless you go for fragrances that have a very high-grade essence of lavender.
In that range, I'd recommend Vero Kern's Kiki. It only comes in extrait and will be available at Luckyscent as of September: it's got a beautiful, playful, rich lavender on a sweet, croissant-smelling base.
I've also liked By Kilian's A Taste of Heaven, where the slightly licorice-y facet of lavender is matched up with anisic absinthe on a vanilla base. Sort of like a high-powered Pour un Homme.

The Caron is lovely, but it's become such a cliché on middle-aged, middle-class Frenchmen (either that, or Guerlain Vetiver and Habit Rouge) that I can't bring myself to wear it, but if it has no associations for you, it's a pretty much perfect lavender-vanilla blend.

Let me add the following:

Rêverie au Jardin, Tauer - very nice with bulgarian rose and tonka
Nicolai pour Homme - it´s like an updated version of PuH de Caron, along the lines of Le 3e Homme de Caron. Great!!

BTW, "Les plus belle lavandes de Caron" is a nice Cologne, quite similar to PuH without the ambery basenotes. It has no staying power and after a few minutes fades to nothingness

carmen, hah! Substitute "Englishmen" in the above and you have Mr F. He loves his classic Guerlains and Carons.

Raphael yes, les plus belles lavandes de Caron is the one I was alluding to in my post above.

Cool. I always feel nervous about recs, and I wasn't sure if you just wanted it fresh and natural and herbaceous. The stuff plain is nature's own perfume, I swear. If Demeter anointed her tanned throat with anything, it'd be simple lavender water. Now I'm just getting silly.

Hi Pikake, it's good to see you!

I'll add yet another vote for Caron Pour un Homme. Even better would be Caron L'Impact pour Homme, the "parfum" version of PuH. Just about a perfect lavender.

Others to try:

Penhaligon's Lavandula
Creed Royal Scottish Lavender

Good luck and let us know what you end up choosing!

Aeons ago, I used to own twin bottles of Manuel Puig ACQUA DI SELVA and ACQUA LAVANDA. They were both nice-- flinty and astringent--- though neither was really my type.


Sweeties and Orientals and Leathers are more my style.

If only American middle-aged, middle-class men jumped on this "cliched" bandwagon!

My favorites are Dior Homme, Hiris, and SL Encens et Lavande.

Double yup! Those two are definitely my favourties, too.

Not a lavender fan; besides Jicky, the only one I like so far is Hermès Brin de Réglisse, and I like it very, very much. Principle accord is lavender and a light licorice. If I read that, I wouldn't try it, but I tried it first and ended up with a full bottle. The lavender is airy and delicate and cool as though the tiniest most beautiful ice crystals had formed on top of lavender flowers and taken on their fragrance (extra virgin cold-pressed), and were harvested and crushed by hand. Unfortunately don't know anything about Ellena's work vis-à-vis the question of naturals. A review:
http://nowsmellthis.blogharbor.com/blog/_a.../3/3389108.html

Not a review of Brin de Réglisse, but a little essay on Ellena's style and methods:

http://graindemusc.blogspot.com/2008/08/je...d-water_04.html

I was thinking the exact same thing!!



You all have been so helpful. I knew it'd be fruitful coming back over here!! I will certainly let you know what I think after my trip to Perfume House on Tuesday. I simply cannot wait to try Caron's Homme and Prince Barry, AG's Lavande sounds wonderful and I think I will be scooping up a bottle of it. I guess it is no longer distributed in the US? Or possibly d/c'd? PH always has the hard to find gems.

It seems to have very limited distribution. In the UK, there are only about 3 places that stock it, along with the wonderful Sables.

I was speaking to an AG rep over the weekend about Sables and she had never even heard of it. When she pulled out her card with the fragrances listed and their notes, there was Sables. She was shocked.

Barry

Just read this review, thank you éprise de flacons so much for posting that! I have yet to delve into the Hermessences, maybe it is time? I will be in NY in less than a week, so it is a possiblity to do some sniffing at Hermes.

Unbelievable really....I'll ask the people at PH if the bottles they have are the last ones or if they are possibly the only distributers of Lavande in the US. I'll report back!!

There's lavender in Eau de Cartier. I think it's more pronounced in the Concentree version, but both versions are lovely.

One of my favorite ways to get my lavender fix is to put a drop of lavender essential oil on the back of my hand and I sort of rub the backs of my hands together to diffuse the scent a bit. Lavender EO is also great in the bath.

Oops. Sorry. My mind was on other flowers!!

SL Iris Silvermist, Encens et Lavande; Hiris; and Jicky

Tauer Reverie au Jardin

and

SMN Acqua di Lavanda Ambrata

I am very fond of Hermès Brin de Réglisse as well, although I have not yet bought a bottle. It is a very clean lavender (supposedly the result of JCE picking and choosing exactly which lavender components he wanted to include), and I love how he plays up the licorice note already inherent in lavender. I love your image of tiny ice crystals on top of lavender flowers.

My absolute favorite lavender is Serge Lutens Encens et Lavande. It's straight up lavender and incense. I can't speak to SL's use of natural vs. synthetic but nothing by Lutens ever strikes me as *smelling* artificial whatsoever.

I've never tried AG's Eau de Lavande...and I love AG. I didn't know she made a lavender. I would like to try that myself!

As far as naturals go, have you tried Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, Soivohle' by Liz Zorn, Ayala Moriel or Anya's Garden? I know they all lean toward natural ingredients.

Hey, pinklilac, Those are two of my favorites! Are you sure we weren't separated at birth?

I second the recommendations for Kiki (wicked lavender over a rich gourmand base, happiness in a bottle) and Tauer's Reverie (a green garden mid-July, with a touch of Tauerade. It's a summer staple in my house). Also, Serge Lutens Gris Clair. It's a sweet dusty-smoky lavender, I like it better on my husband than on my own skin, but sometimes I get a craving. It's a lot longer lasting than you think at first. The sillage fades away but the base stays on skin until I wash it.

I was going to bring up Serge Lutens Gris Clair. I tried it on from a sample a couple of days ago: incense and lavender, cool and flinty. I can see why you crave this sometimes, G., it's somehow deeply appeasing.

I like The Healing Garden Lavender.

Impact Caron (Pour Un Homme in extrait form), Encens et Lavande Serge Lutens
Eau Noire Christian Dior would be my choices.

I know most can't stand EN because of the use of heliochrysum which has that curry like smell or maple syrup smell depending on the person smelling it. I adore it in this scent with the lavender.

Belle de Rykiel by Sonia Rykiel is very nice.

My favourite is a concentrated fragrance oil that I originally purchased to scent my handcrafted bath salts & bath oil called Dark Amber & Lavender from Brambleberry. I loved it so much that I made perfume oil, body lotion, body butter, body powder & soap all in this scent. I wouldn't recommend that you use this oil neat, you need to dilute it with a perfumers alcohol or a carrier oil like fractionated coconut oil or jojoba oil.

Read more about the Kiki fragrance and it does sound wonderful. I can't wait until September to get a sample from Luckyscent! Thanks for that tip carmencanada!

Well Prince B, I think we have similar taste b/c the AG won me over. While the Caron was really nice, it became quite powdery/herbally on me whereas the AG morphed into a lovely balance of the lavender, vanilla and yes, the tobacco you mentioned...but not too much. At first I got a hit of maple which I never like, but luckily that quickly faded, and I am really enjoying it. The lady who helped me at The Perfume House spoiled me and gave me 3 sample vials...enough to fill a 5ml roll-on half way!! So I can really mull it over before I spend $80 on the 1.7oz size. Which by the way, they do keep in stock.

I also tried Speziali Fiorentini's Lavender EDP which was also a winner for me. (You can also get it on shoplondons.com). It's more of a soliflore, and maybe too "medicinal" for many, but I loved it and the dry-down is very soft and comforting. The last one I tried is called "Patrician Lavender" which is from a German perfume house. It too was nice, more straight-up lavender, but not as soft at the Italian one. She gave me samples of both of those as well.

I'm going to be getting DK's lavender essence soon from an MUA swap and hopefully will be able to try all of the other wonderful suggestions you have given me. Thanks so much!

Pikake, thanks for asking
As far as lavender goes, Lovender is a lavender soliflore (supported by base notes of sandalwood, orris and vanilla and a hint of lemon top notes for uplifting the scent. It's both fresh, soft and comforting. The disctoninued Petit Parfum also has a lot of lavender and is in an oil base (other notes include frankincense and agarwood and neroli). And then there is also lavender in my two fougeres - l'Herbe Rouge and Gaucho, but there are many other notes as well so I don't consider them to be lavender scents per se.



I don't "lean towards", I use only natural ingredients in my Ayala Moriel perfumes.

The only Lorenzo Villoresi I like is his Wild Lavender (previously known as Inglese). It's a beautiful fresh lavender scent. My other favorite is SL Encens et Lavande. Gris Clair is nice too, but a bit too masculine on me.

Ayala, Lovender sounds wonderful!! I will have to order the sample when I get back from vacation!! Thanks for the rec :-)

I am so pleased that you liked the AG Lavender. It's just a pity that it isn't more well known and appreciated.

Barry