SOTD: Parfumerie Generale Cedre Sandaraque

I continue to puzzle over the seasonal fragrance thing. Why should the same fragrance smell fundamentally different to me, depending on the season? I'm in a house, for heaven's sake! Heating, air conditioning, all that.

But Cedre Sandaraque is a completely different fragrance in the fall. I sniffed it a couple of times in the spring and summer, and was quite seriously debating giving it away. But now, on my first wearing in the fall, it's lovely, and it's not going anywhere.

In summer, it was dull and flat and mealy. Now, it's tangy, bright, sprightly, living wood, lit from the inside. I've raised my wrist to my nose a dozen times since I started trying to type this paragraph. For lack of a more literary description, it's great stuff. It's even better than I remember it being the day I bought it.

However, unlike almost everyone else, I don't perceive this as a gourmand. It evokes a cabinetmaker's shop, not a kitchen - freshly cut exotic wood, sawdust, glues and finishes. It's a little unexpected, a little bit foreign. And very civilized.

Review Roundup: Now Smell This and Aromascope and Sniffapalooza (scroll down).

Photo: Wikimedia Commons, by TUBS. Click for details.