Jardin de France

The Loire Valley in France is often called The Garden of France (Jardin de France on french). Jardin de France is also the name on a perfume house established 1920, in the small town of Amboise, situated in the Loire Valley. Until the 70ies Jardin de France produced eau de colognes, but now they also offer the serie of Culture & Nature. Culture & Nature consists of six different eau de toilettes with belonging skincare- and bath products. The six fragrances have been inspired by nature and culture in six countries in different part`s of the world.

Anandita represent India and is a sweet and bright fragrance with notes of cotton flower and angelica. A fragrance of Brasil is what Inahe offers, with notes of peru balm and rosewood, it is warm and woody. Shaiming with sweet and calm notes is inspired of China, it is floralfrutiy without being to sweet. Svetlana is offcourse the russian part, aromatic and green with notes of brich, larchthree and iris, the less sweet in the collection. Madagascar is interpret in Diamondra and it is a sweet fragrance with a lot of different fruits and berries such as black currant, melon and peach, the sweet notes are balanced with paperthree bark wich gives a fine, soft and dry base. And for last, Hassana wich is the morrocan contribution, the opening is fresh and clear with notes of orange and hyachint, it warms up with notes of rose, jasmine and cactus!

All the fragrances in the Culture & Nature collection is sweet, fresch and soft. Youthful, easy to wear and nice. My favourites among them are Hassana and Inahe, wich both manage to smell familiar but still personal.

But my big favourites among Jardin de France fragrances (this far) you can find in the classic Eau de Cologne collection. I have come to really enjoy Naturelle and Angelique.

I must admit that I have some prejudice, because I was sure I wouldn´t be impressed with something called Naturelle. I tought it would smell nice, unexiting and well, natural. And yes, it does, but it manage to do so in a very attractive way. Naturelle is like a balm for my sometimes strained nose. Naturelle starts with a pleasant and bubbly citrus, and ok it´s a nice citrus but nothing way-out or interesting. I forget about Naturelle for a while, but then the interesting and nice happen, it is something smelling good! I sniff and realise it is Naturelle that has developed on my skin. The nice citrus is still left, but much more in the background and has made room for a more transparent, close to skin and beautiful fragrance of... yes... well, something familiar but elusive. For a while I am convinsed it smells like incense, but then it smells more like wood and again, no it must be jasmine! Or? After a while i decide Naturelle smells like a long time forgotten wooden box wich used to contain jasmine incense. Naturelle is a fragrance so transparent and subtle it remind me of the memories of a fragrance. Among perfumistas skinscents is a familiar concept, skinscent is a fragrances that stays close to your skin and smells like your skin but better. Naturelle is qualified to the higher divisions of skinscents, it is very, very delicate. It is natural, in the best possible way. I could spray myself with Naturelle all over, and convinse, at lest myself, that I smell this great all natural. Tres chic, tres naturelle!

Angelique has a lot in common with Naturelle, but it is also in many ways a different kind of fragrance. Angelique is also a close to skin, calm and transparent fragrance. It is soft and beautiful. But, while Naturelle develops a lot on the skin and play hide and seek with my sense of smell, Angelique is quite linear and constant. It is sweeter than Naturelle and I find it more feminine. Here it is the flower, angelica, that plays the main part, and well, it is magnificent. In any occation when you want to stress down and relax Angelique could be a great choise. It is excellent to finnish the day with or when you feel a bit tired or if you are looking for a fragrance that submissivly will follow you wherever you go, without taking such a big space itself. Also Angelique has that character that can convinse that you smell this good by your self. So if you are found of angelica in perfumes, you really must give Angelique a try!

Both Angelique and Naturelle feels timeless, elegant and very french. Offcourse they aren´t so longlasting, they will smell marvellous during a coupple of hours and the you have to re-apply. Naturelle and Angelique has make me curious of other fragrances from Jardin de France and they have a lot to chose from. If you want to know more about Jardin de France, you can read here: http://www.jardindefrance.net/