Floral women's perfume: rose and white flowers
For rose lovers
If you love rose, you can choose it by variety and by the notes that surround it. For a fruity rose there's Delina by Parfums de Marly, built around Turkish rose with lily of the valley and peony, alongside lychee, rhubarb and bergamot. Maison Francis Kurkdjian offers À la Rose, a musky floral that pairs centifolia rose from Grasse with Bulgarian Damask rose. Soie Malaquais by Dries Van Noten is also built on centifolia rose, hand-picked over just a few days in May.
For white flower lovers
For white florals there are tuberose, jasmine, orange blossom and linden. Fracas by Robert Piguet, created by Germaine Cellier, is built on accords of tuberose and jasmine, and the perfumer wanted a fragrance with a hypnotic effect on anyone who encounters it. Inspired by Fracas, Petit Fracas opens with citrus notes, has a heart of tuberose and white flowers and a base of musk and sandalwood. La Chasse aux Papillons by L'Artisan Parfumeur is a citrusy floral eau de toilette with a clear composition, featuring the same white flowers along with orange blossom and linden.
If you'd rather have a single flower front and center, there are perfumes devoted to tuberose or orange blossom. Tubéreuse Vertigineuse by Molinard sets tuberose over a base of sandalwood and white musks, and Dries Van Noten's Jardin de L'Orangerie, created by Daniela Andrier, is all about orange blossom.
For vanilla lovers
Choosing a vanilla comes down to what sits next to it, from caramel to coconut to galbanum. You could start with Vanille West Indies by St Barth, which pairs it with a creamy caramel accord and orchid, or with Coco Vanille by Mancera, with vanilla and coconut. Dries Van Noten's Vanille Camouflage sets vanilla against resinous galbanum for a green vanilla.
Then there are vanillas with a flower beside them, rose or chamomile. Mancera's Roses Vanille combines rose Turkish delight with vanilla sugar, and Dries Van Noten's Camomille Satin pairs vanilla with chamomile.
For a spicy or clean scent
If you want a spicy perfume, you'll find the spices next to florals or next to caramel. Raving Rose by Dries Van Noten is the rose Louise Turner wanted to be ultramodern and spicy, far from classicism, and Jasmin Rouge by Tom Ford is a spicy floral that combines sepal absolute with clary sage and unusual spices. Casamorati's Lira has caramel, citrus, lavender, cinnamon and licorice.
If you prefer clean notes, look to the musks. Among them is Not a Perfume by Juliette Has a Gun, which Romano Ricci built on a single ingredient, Cetalox. In perfumery it's usually used as a base note, while here it takes center stage.
Choosing the concentration: eau de toilette, eau de parfum, extrait
When a perfume comes in more than one version, it helps to know that eau de cologne, eau de toilette, eau de parfum, parfum and extrait indicate increasing concentrations of essences, and here the range goes from eau de toilette to extrait. L'Artisan Parfumeur has Mûre et Musc, a 1978 eau de toilette built on blackberry and musk, and Mûre & Musc Extrême, the eau de parfum the house describes as more intense than the original, with a sweeter blackberry. Montale does the same with Roses Musk, a rose and musk eau de parfum, and with Intense Roses Musk, the extrait version with a hint of amber and jasmine.
Refilling your bottle or scenting your body
If you already own the bottle, a refill contains only the fragrance and is used to fill it up. Soie Malaquais, for example, has its own refill in recyclable glass, with a funnel and key for transferring, while the original bottle has a porcelain base handmade by REVOL in Valence.
If you want the same fragrance on your body too, you can choose the lines matched to the perfume. Delina comes as a scented body cream with a melting texture and a shower gel with the notes of the eau de parfum. For Soleil Blanc, a floral solar amber, Tom Ford has the Shimmering Body Oil, an oil that illuminates the skin with gold and platinum reflections.
If you prefer a spray, choose the Soleil Blanc All Over Body Spray, which the house suggests on its own or together with the eau de parfum. Finally, Creed's Love in White has a scented oil and a bath and shower gel.
Other refills are in the refill section, and for gifting or trying several fragrances there are gift sets. If vanilla is your note, the vanilla perfumes collection gathers them regardless of gender, and for independent houses there's niche perfumery.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between eau de toilette, eau de parfum and extrait?
It's the concentration of essences that changes. The lightest is eau de cologne, followed by eau de toilette and then eau de parfum, while parfum and extrait are the most concentrated forms. For Montale's Roses Musk, for example, the catalog includes both the eau de parfum and the extrait, Intense Roses Musk.
Which women's perfumes come with a matching body cream or shower gel?
Parfums de Marly's Delina has a scented body cream and a shower gel with the same notes. For Soleil Blanc, Tom Ford offers the Shimmering Body Oil and the All Over Body Spray. Creed's Love in White has a scented oil and a bath and shower gel, and Narciso Rodriguez's For Her has a body lotion.
Which vanilla perfume for women should I choose?
You could start with Vanille West Indies by St Barth, which combines vanilla, caramel and orchid, or with Mancera's Coco Vanille, which adds coconut. Montale's Sweet Vanilla has apricot, Casamorati's Dama Bianca has iris and kumquat, and Dries Van Noten's Camomille Satin pairs vanilla with chamomile.
Which rose perfume should I choose?
For a fruity rose there's Parfums de Marly's Delina, with lychee and rhubarb. Delina la Rosée adds pear and a base of woods and vetiver. Montale's Roses Musk pairs rose with clean musk, and Dries Van Noten's Soie Malaquais is based on centifolia rose harvested in May.
Which perfumes feature white flowers?
Robert Piguet's Fracas is an eau de parfum created by Germaine Cellier that combines tuberose and jasmine. L'Artisan Parfumeur's La Chasse aux Papillons is a citrusy floral eau de toilette with jasmine, tuberose, orange blossom and linden. Then there's Petit Fracas, inspired by Fracas, which opens with citrus and has a sandalwood base.
What's the difference between Mûre et Musc and Mûre & Musc Extrême?
Mûre et Musc is L'Artisan Parfumeur's 1978 eau de toilette, based on blackberry and musk. Mûre & Musc Extrême is the eau de parfum that takes up the same accord at a higher concentration and with a sweeter blackberry, and which the house presents as more intense than the original.
Which floral women's perfumes have citrus or spicy notes?
L'Artisan Parfumeur's Mémoire de Roses, created by Christophe Raynaud, pairs rose with mandarin, bergamot and a veil of musk. Dries Van Noten's Raving Rose is the rose Louise Turner wanted to be ultramodern and spicy, and Tom Ford's Jasmin Rouge is a spicy floral with sepal absolute and clary sage.
What are perfume refills and how do they work?
They're bottles that contain only the fragrance and are used to refill the one you already own. Dries Van Noten offers its refills in recyclable glass, with a funnel and key for transferring, and this collection includes those for Soie Malaquais, Fleur du Mal, Camomille Satin and Jardin de L'Orangerie.
