Smelling Like the South of France

For the last 15 years, my favorite fragrance has been Mariella Burani, by the Italian designer of the same name.  I wore her perfume almost every day. According to fragrantica.com, the top notes are tarragon, bergamot, brazilian rosewood, and lemon; the middle notes are iris, jasmine, ylang-ylang, lily of the valley, and rose; and the base notes are amber, sandlewood, tonka bean, patchouli, musk, benzoin, vanilla, and vetiver.  It had a very fresh, lovely scent when first applied that settled into something warmer and spicier which lasted for a long time but never turned rancid on my skin.  Over the years, many people asked me what it was so they could buy it themselves.

I am speaking in the past tense because a few months ago I finished the bottle I had been using and tried to order another, only to find that it has been discontinued.  I ordered what purported to be a NIB bottle from an online perfume warehouse with good reviews, but what arrived is not my scent.  The top note is almost all alcohol, and over time it turns into a bad copy of Obsession.  I don't know whether the manufacturer reformulated near the end to save money, or if this was a nasty knockoff in a real bottle, but I had to throw it out.

That left me on the hunt for a new signature scent.  I've made a few half-hearted trips to perfume counters without finding anything that really excited me.  Then I saw a YouTube video by Audrey Coyne that discussed, among other things, Bastide, a relatively new perfume company in Aix-en-Provence.  They now sell 5 fragrances based on the scents of southern France.  The four original scents - Ambre Maquis, Neroli Lumiere, Figue Amour, and Rose Olivier - are available as a set of four small sample sprays for $18; if you later order a full-sized bottle, you receive an $18 credit toward it.

I like all four scents.  I was prepared to hate Rose Olivier, because many rose perfumes are sickeningly sweet, but this is very light and fresh; I think I'm going to keep the sample bottle for travel.  The Ambre Maquis (amber, patchouli, labdanum) is a little heavy for my taste, but I loved both the sweet Neroli Lumiere and the fig-and-sandalwood Figue Amour, particularly when I layer them together.  And, importantly, none of these scents trigger my asthma.

Probably because they are heavy on natural ingredients and do not contain many of the chemicals found in more mainstream perfumes, these scents may need to be reapplied during the day, but that's no burden when something smells as delicious as they do.  I just ordered my two favorites and can hardly wait for them to arrive.

"We never test on animals, only ourselves. We don’t want these ingredients on us or the people we love, so we’ve left them out of our formulas to make room for more goodness from Provence. This is our Bastide Promise - 100% made with love, 0% from our blacklist." ~Bastide