Crunchy green perfumes for Imbolc and early spring

^{Surrounding yourself with easy care house plants is a brilliant way to help manage the grey gloom of early spring.}

Imbolc is a Celtic festival that marks the beginning of spring during the early days of February. It’s the first celebration after the Winter Solstice as the wheel of the year turns towards the light. Often marked with snowdrops which symbolise purity, fire to represent the increasing daylight hours, and ewe’s milk as a sign of brighter days and more plentiful food to come.

I’ve chosen five green and sprightly perfumes that are delighting me in these dark days. Imbolc may be the beginning of spring, but here in stormy Scotland, it feels like we’ve got a way to go before it feels lighter, brighter and warmer. Maybe they’ll cheer you too.

As usual in my fragrance blog posts, I’ve written wee scent stories to give you the impression of a perfume. If you’re interested in the specific fragrance notes stated by a brand, feel free to click on the name of the perfume and that’ll take you to their website.

Celadon – Early Modern

_{Light, dewy and fresh. Celadon by Early Modern is an uplifting perfumed reminder of warmer days to come.}

Crafted by Clara Weale in Glasgow, Early Modern scents are intriguing insights into experiments with perfume materials. Discovery sets are available from their website.

Diffuse light filters through fine, white muslin kitchen curtains. A hand blown, shallow glass bowl full of the freshest, crispest and most appetising green vegetables. Translucent celery stems, frilly lettuce leaves, a bead of moisture on a green pepper’s glossy skin.

Cool but not chilly or forbidding, there’s a warming touch of freshly ground black pepper. Soft musk smooths and softens. Altogether lovely.

Verdant – Eau de Boujee

_{An exuberantly green and radiantly joyful perfume, Verdant is literally a breath of fresh air in early spring.}

Pia Long and Nick Gilbert are the founders of Eau de Boujee. Now they have five perfumes in their range, all fabulously flamboyant and filled with fun. Discovery sets are available from their website.

A ruined glasshouse where supersized plants have burst through the windows. Watery cucumber nestles against fleshy gardenia and a whitecurrant bush sprinkles its moonstone fruits generously. A glimmer of pale sun starts melting fior di latte gelato in a rough dish left on a potting bench—who was here…and where have they gone?

Athenean – Heeley Parfums

_{Softly green and with a hint of herby, fruity sweetness, Athenean is a glorious perfume for early spring.}

My first foray into indie perfumes about 20 years ago was when I discovered Cardinal by James Heeley at Les Senteurs. Very easy to fall in love with and wear, all his perfumes have slightly – and surprisingly – subversive characters that keep you guessing. These are probably my most worn perfumes.

Soft linen scarf billowing in a gentle breeze. A much loved picnic rug spread over a camomile lawn, delicious morsels of food artfully arrayed in charming dishes. Bright and juicy bluebell stems ooze as your excitable puppy dashes around—bubbles of laughter escaping from your friends.

Gorse flowers flicker golden from the hedge. You take a sugared almond, tuck it in your cheek and whistle up your pup to explore the chattering stream. The dainty titbits can wait; they can’t.

Fathom V -BeauFort

_{Big, powerful and definitely not for the faint-hearted, Fathom V is gloriously alive with perfumed contradictions.}

BeauFort is an unashamedly bold and swaggering brand. Firmly anchored in maritime history, they have some bewitching, and sometimes challenging perfumes. Leo Crabtree works with highly skilled perfumers using overdoses of intriguing materials to create unforgettable scents.

A breathtaking perfume that joins the sea with the land. Such a cornucopia of contrasts, skilfully composed by perfumer Julie Marlowe. Darkness and light; earth and brine; sharp juiciness and voluptuous petals.

As a tall ship sailor, there is much that is familiar to me about this perfume. Like when you’re berthed alongside a mossy, seaweedy and decomposing gangway, where there happens to be a fabulous florist. An unusual combination to be sure, but it works.

Spirit – Vallense Fragrance

_{Delicately ethereal, Spirit is a perfumed portal to another land. Maybe a kinder, gentler one, where it’s safe for mythical creatures to roam in abundant woodlands.}

Ex-award winning spirit distiller, William Borrell, worked with perfumer Pia Long, to create his first three jaw-dropping fragrances, launched in 2024. William’s experimental laboratory is based on a narrowboat moored in London, where he tinkers with distilling croissants. Aren’t some people amazing?

Spirit embodies all that is best about living in Northern Europe. Bright and invigorating yet never chilly or forbidding. Pine trees sway above tufts of crushed mint and trampled sappy stems.

Who knows which mythical creature has just passed through this enchanted glade?

A solitary white flower basks in a beam of watery sun. The vibrance of spring’s green leaves now turned to amber and maple, tumble down into rich and fecund woodland earth. Peridot velvet moss dappled with soft musk embraces you warmly as you lift your face to the light.

Another sensational perfume by Pia Long. Like all of her perfumes I’ve worn, Spirit has a marvellous luminosity to it. You can almost breathe in energising yet calming light when you smell the perfume.

And I need all the light and hope I can get these days.

Maybe you do too.