Linari Malva Room Spray

My obsession with fig has been well documented here. It's my favorite fruit and one of my favorite notes in personal and home fragrance, so every fig scent I find is a thrill. That's the case with Linari Malva room spray. It could have easily been an exquisite perfume, but I'm willing to take it as a home product (and I won't tell anyone if a spritz here and there lands on my person).

The fig is both a ripe fruity one and woody. It's smooth and almost creamy but uses cedar and not sandalwood, so it's a bit more dry than many familiar combination. The result is fresh and light but with enough depth to make me smile when I sniff the air, and extremely long lasting for such a product. I can still smell it over an hour after spraying.

Bottom Line: If the matching reed diffuser wasn't priced at $110 a pop I'd put one in every corner of every room in the house.

Linari Malva Room Spray ($47) is available from MiN New York (117 Crosby street) and online minnewyork.com

Image: Figs by Sandra Murray, watercolor, 2010

Aura Cacia Electric Aromatherapy Air Freshener (Bergamot & Orange, Lime &Grapefruit)

I've been buying Aura Cacia organic oils and the occasional body product for years now and always liked them, so when I stumbled upon their home scents I was happy to give them a try. I wanted a couple of electric air fresheners for areas I'd rather not put a reed diffuser, and the promise of aromatherapeutic scents lured me in, right with an ingredient list chock full of natural essential oils.

I chose Bergamot & Orange and Lime & Grapefruit and hurried home to plug them in. What a disappointment! While everything smells great if you shove the refills up your nose, the air fresheners have absolutely no throw and you just can't smell anything. I tried three different refills, so it's not likely a bad batch and also moved the gadgets from room to room and tested them in small closed spaces (both bathrooms). No luck and no scent. I'm sticking with reed diffusers. Thankfully the kittens have been good so far about not knocking them down, even if Giselle has been stealing reeds here and there to chase them around the house.

Bottom Line: Meh.

Aura Cacia Electric Aromatherapy Air Fresheners ($14.99, refills $6.99) are available at Whole Foods.

L'Occitane Fig Tree Leaf Diffuser

My home scenting adventure continues.

I was at the local L'Occitane store stocking up on my favorite hair products (yes, I know that a suspicious amount of posts starts with this sentence. What can I say? L'Occitane need to start selling their conditioner and hair mask in family size packaging), when I smelled something familiar and wonderful.

Fig.

My love for fig scents is well-documented here, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to discover the Fig Tree Leaf reed diffusers .They also come in other scents and I even got one, I think the Provencal Landscape, which I'll review when I break it open, but right now I'm all about the incredible aroma of a fig tree in the middle of summer, lush, green and heavy with fruit that is about to ripen. The thing about good fig scents is the balance between the leaf, wood and fruit, and this L'Occitane product is a really good one. Now I want a full range of body, personal care and perfume with this smell. And also a laundry line, while we're at it.

I only got the refills, not the entire set, because I prefer to hunt for nice bottles and containers in other places and I've been buying the reeds in bulk online ever since I discovered I can use diffusers all over the house as long as they are placed strategically out of cat and harm's way.

L'Occitane Fig Tree Leaf Diffuser refills ($16, 3.4 oz) are available from L'Occitane stores all over creation as well as online.

Image: Gelini's Fig Tree byDeborah J Humphries

Voluspa Italian Tangelo Reed Diffuser

I don't know what took me so long to realize that reed diffusers are an excellent way to scent the house. I guess I was worried about certain cats knocking them down and causing all kinds of domestic mayhem, so I stuck with messy lamp rings. But a couple of months ago when we moved house and replaced most of the floor and table lamps, I decided I no longer wanted to deal with the rings and gave diffusers a chance. I discovered they are perfectly feline resistant, as long as I place them out of the fuzzy ones' way.

I was in Bloomigdale's home store for some kitchen items when I saw the Voluspa display. I've smelled their products before and liked them a lot, but this time I was paying attention. The husband found several of them too sweet/foody for his taste, but agreed that they were all very nice and well made before ushering me back towards the Le Creuset section. But the following week some Voluspa products went on sale through one of the online retailers, so a couple of Italian Tangelo reed diffusers found themselves being shipped to me.

Italian Tangelo is a blend of citrus fruit- Italian Tangelo & Mandarin, Tangerine & Grapefruit, and that's exactly what you get. There's a nice balance between tart and sweet, it smells natural and edible and has a good through without making the area around it smell like it was sprayed with an air freshener. I turn the reeds upside down every other day, so the scent keeps flowing and true to the promise, it's very long lasting (they say four to six months. I've been using it for over a month now and it's still full and fresh). I keep the diffuser bottle in the base from its box for extra stability. It's quite nice and the black olored reeds add a nice touch. I see one in Baltic Amber in my near future.

Voluspa basic reed diffusers ($55) are available at Bloomingdale's, online and in store, as well as from several other online retailers.

Photo: florida-citrus.com

Bed Habits: Linen Spray from Jane Inc. and Crabtree & Evelyn

Part of my morning ritual of making my bed is spraying the pillows, comforters and quilt with a lavender linen mist (or sometimes with perfume. There was a week I used Louve every day, and another time it was Bandit. Don't ask). Some of the people reading this are raising an eyebrow. The rest are scent addicts and either already do something similar or are planning to start.

My linen mist of choice for years was the wonderful but little known Sweet Sheets Bedding Spray from Jane Inc. (they also have a laundry detergent and fabric rinse, both excellent, but their dryer sheets are pretty much crap).

The other thing I do to scent my bedroom is using Crabtree & Evelyn lavender home fragrance oil in a lamp ring. Occasionally I switch to the Rosewater scent, but most of the time it's lavender. That's why I decided to give their linen mist a try. I was quite enthusiast, because the Crabtree & Evelyn spray comes in a bottle twice the size of Jane's.

Scent-wise, I like both. Jane's is more astringent and very true to the fragrance in their laundry products, which satisfies me on some weird level. The Crabtree & Evelyn smells very much like the lavender in my back yard. It's a little softer than Jane with just a hint of powderiness. I could have been very happy with it if only it lingered and actually scented the linens. It's quite an amazing phenomenon: I spray it on the bed, but five seconds later I can't smell a thing, so forget about having a lightly scented bed. Jane's Sweet Sheets, on the other hand, is still detectable when I climb into bed some 16 hours later.

Spring Anticipation- A Joint Project From Two Sides Of The World

Helg from Perfume Shrine and I are here to bring you a taste of spring from Europe and the US, in a joint project that will hopefully be first of many.

Early March in the New York Metro area is as far from La Primavera as anything could be. It's cold, the trees are too stark and naked for Cupid to hang out, the grass dull and brown and no self respecting Grace would go dancing on it. While everyone is tired of winter and can't wait for a change in the air, we all know that there's more snow in our future before we even get to see the first crocuses. It doesn't stop us from hoping and anticipating, though.




It starts with a little spring cleaning. Out with the old, in with the new and smelling good while doing it. Caldrea just launched the Watercress Wild Lily collection of home products. It's supposed to be crisp and springy, though I'm not sure how a cool melon accent fits into a green and floral scent. Their French Lavender might be a better choice, and I've always loved the Lavender Pine range.

The "out with the old" process is supposed to leave us with some free space for new. I have a major case of lust for several Anthropologie little romantic tops. Feminine silhouettes, lace trim and fluttery sleeves all say "spring" without overdoing it with pinks and too many flower prints.

The floral accent can come from cute jewelry. Either a single flower pendant ($178, Anthropologie) or an elaborate, romantic victorian choker ($310.00, Michal Negrin, available from Mavrik Jewelry). It's all about the pretty.

The easiest way to make a small change and get into the spring spirit is with nail polish. I've been rocking the cute pinks from Zoya's Blissful collection for weeks now, but there's also a different approach. The India Collection from OPI has everything: light pink, deep pink, rich jewel tones and dark spice. It looks fun, though I'd skip the dark blue. It's a little too gimmicky (not to mention last season).



There's nothing like gorgeous makeup to finish up the look and perk up winter face. Embossed palettes that are so pretty you don't want to mess up are nothing new, but this season there's a lot to choose from:

1. Laura Mercier Violet Eye Color Quad ($38, available from Sephora, Bliss and most department stores). There's a shy violet and a wild violet options.

2. Clinique Fresh Bloom Allover Colour ($29.50, Clinique.com and every department store under the sun). It's another delicate bronzer/all-over face powder, combining a highlighter with a deeper color. I'd skip the very pink Peony and go for the more olive-skinned friendly Almond blossom.

3. Smashbox Green Room Eye Shadow Quad in Bamboo ($32 at Sephora, Smashbox.com and every Smashbox counter). This is probably my favorite of the bunch. There's also a softer quad, Blossom, which is soft peach/ deep brown/ taupe/ pearl.

4, 5, 6 are all Chantecaille: Protected Paradise eye and face palettes (both are $90, available from Blissworld.com) and Trio Les Passementeries, which isn't new but still gorgeous is an eye and face combo with a shimmery overlay ($82 Blissworld.com). I can't promise it's worth the price, especially since the cheek colors are too pale for me, but it's a beautiful eye candy.

Don't forget to visit Perfume Shrine for a scent-centered spring post.

A Pear for the Holidays: Caldrea

Speaking of limited editions, Caldrea has launched their Holiday Collection in three fragrance ranges: Cognac-vanilla-limon, Seville orange-amber and Italian cypress-pear. A liquid hand soap in the latter is now residing in my bathroom, and even I, a fruit-hater (in fragrance, that is) have succumbed to its charm.

The scent isn't cloying. The green cypress is seeing to that. Instead, it's spicy, festive and quite addictive. The soap is gentle and doesn't dry my skin. They also have a hand lotion and the usual cleaning products (dish soap and countertop spray), as well as a candle. The two other scents also come in a room spray (Caldrea room sprays are among the longest lasting I've came across). What I'd really like to see is a full range of bath and body products, like oils, bath powders and body balms, but their focus is on the home front and less on personal grooming.

If you sign up for their holiday newsletter, you'll get right away an email with a link that will enable you to get free samples (no shipping charge, either) of the three holiday scents.

Bring it Back

My favorite method for room scenting is to use lamp rings. It's the most practical way to go when one has an unusual number of cats running around, knocking things off and getting into everything. Candles are way too dangerous and reed diffusers are most likely to be chewed on and spilled.

Very few companies make the right kind of oils for these rings. I use oils from two companies. One is Crabtree & Evelyn: Lavender, Rosewater, Summer Hill and whatever new one they come up with. Currently I'm enjoying the fresh, crisp scent of Sarawak. It's a floral ginger blend that I hope stays in their collection for a while. I still miss the freesia scent they had for years and discontinued just before repackaging and reformulating the whole Freesia line.

My other favorite is The Thymes. They used to have a much bigger selections of environmental oils, both from collections that are no longer with us (a moment of silence for Lemongrass & Limeleaf) and as part of the current lines, only the oil was discontinued (just like the wonderfully addictive laundry detergent in Goldleaf. My unmentionables haven't smelled the same since).

I've always loved the Fig Leaf & Cassis collection. It's not exactly L'artisan Premier Figuier, but it's still good and quite complex for such a fresh scent. Despite the cassis, it's not very fruity. More like a full bodied green fig, a little dark, no coconut in sight, can feel chilly at times. I don't recommend the weak cologne, but the other body products are worthy of a separate review. There used to be an environmental oil in this scent. I'm still hoarding the last bottles I bought, and will be very sad once they are all used up. If there's one product I wish could be brought back from the eternal pastures of lost fragrance is this one.