DIARY OF A COUNTRY BEAUTY
Kathleen Baird-murray samples fresh, warm-weather scents that transport her from the seashores of the Italian coast to the desert heat of the Middle East
Kathleen Baird-murray samples summer fragrances from far-flung shores
Afunny thing happened the other day. I was in a café with a friend who was feeling down and unburdening his problems one by one. It was an Italian café, the kind that flies in fresh burrata daily, dishes out those little hard-baked biscuits free with your espresso and plays the theme tunes from The Godfather, Cinema Paradiso and Il Postino on a loop. Just as I was grasping for suitable words of comfort to offer, the music welled up, as if in exaggerated sympathy with my friend’s dolour. Laughter replaced sadness – unstoppable giggles that ricocheted through our bodies – and all was well with the world again. You have to hand it to the Italians – they know how to set a scene, to give us what we want on a physiological and psychological level. And when it comes to summer fragrances, for me, it’s to the Italians that I repeatedly turn. It’s that long trestle table in the orchard, the grandma-in-black in the shade of the overhanging fig-tree, the bambino at the breast, the Dolce & Gabbana-clad matriarch that I visualise as I spritz on a fresh citrus cologne, something zingy that elevates and transports me back to the next plate of watermelon; a dive off the rocks into the Ionian Sea; a spin on the back of a Lambretta. (And by the way, Dolce & Gabbana has an excellent new lemon-inspired fragrance called Italian Zest that ticks all those boxes.) But occasionally, it’s good to push the nose to seek out other foreign climes, different scenes. Oranges are not the only fruit. And lunch at a long trestle table is not the only meal (besides which, in our family at least, there is often an argument and someone storming off ). For anyone brave enough to step out of their olfactory comfort zone, there are rich pickings to be had; as long as you pluck from the branch that’s just out of your normal reach.
IT’S GOOD TO PUSH THE NOSE TO SEEK OUT OTHER FOREIGN CLIMES
maison francis kurkdjian oud silk mood, £195 for 70ml