So, I just got back from two weeks in Nova Scotia and I am feeling REFRESHED. I spent a good deal of time in the ocean, and when I wasn't doing that, I was eating things from the ocean. It was an aquatic adventure!
But, of course, it wasn't a total vacation, because a vacation implies a sort of leave of absence from life-as-usual, and I spent a lot of time thinking about a big part of my life-as-usual: beauty. Yes, even when I was lying in the sand, trying to zone out, I was daydreaming of lipstick articles I could write and the best polishes for my next pedicure.
And on a day hiking through a boreal forest situated on cliffs at the edge of the Atlantic ocean, I thought to myself, "I want this smell." I needed the smell. Specifically? It was salty ocean air (obviously), with a mix of wildflowers and balsam fir sap. It wasn't your stereotypically tropical beachy smell, but something earthier and more natural.
It was the smell of my many childhood summers, the smell of mermaids and forest nymphs and other Disney babes without the sugary cuteness. Essentially, it was perfect, and I needed to have it in perfume form so that I could remember how happy and alive I felt standing on the rocks by the waves, even in the upcoming dredges of city life in the middle of winter.
I went on a mission to find this scent and found myself bombarded with scents claiming they were "beachy" but what they meant by that was that they were sweet and coconutty. Which is totally fine, but not what I was looking for.
My search ended when I sniffed Tokyomilk's Marine Sel No. 54 Parfum. It's blended with notes of sun-bleached driftwood, mineral salt, fresh ocean water and deep, warm woods. Basically, it was EXACTLY WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR. Praise the beauty gods for being on the same wavelength as me, right?
What's the greatest smelling place you've ever been? Have you ever been able to find a fragrance that captures it? Would you rather be sniffing the inside of a bakery than the air of a beach?