Valentine’s Weekend, Single Or Smitten: My 5 Scented Answers

It is a lazy 3 day weekend and I’m steering it with perfume, not plans. Valentine’s Day, Singles Awareness Day, World Hippo Day, National Flag of Canada Day, Presidents Day. If love is complicated, my shelf is not. Here are five honest answers from a reporter who test-drives juice more than she dates.

1. What I’m wearing today
   I reached for Serge Lutens La Fille de Berlin. Tart ruby rose over pepper and silk, the kind of rose that doesn’t beg for roses back. It blooms on cold air, feels like lipstick and a secret.

2. Be mine
   If I could pin a paper heart on one icon, it is Guerlain Mitsouko. The peach skin, the mossy shadow, the hush after the storm. It is not cute, it is operatic. If romance had a backbone, it would smell like this. Runner up that keeps winking at me from my wishlist, Frédéric Malle Rose Tonnerre.

3. I’m single and perfectly happy
   Confidence without a chorus line is Hermès Vetiver Tonka. Crunchy vetiver, roasted hazelnut, a smile that does not need witnesses. On bolder days I go minimalist with Escentric Molecules Molecule 01, which says I am here, come closer if you can find me.

4. Free trip to Canada, where and what scent
   Banff at sunrise, snow grinding under boots, and I am wearing Zoologist Snowy Owl. Cool iris, mineral hush, a bright green shiver that mirrors alpine light. If I detour to Montreal for late-night oysters, I’ll switch to Chanel Coromandel for the lacquered cocoa-patchouli glow that turns a parka into velvet.

5. Share something wonderful
   Thrift-store miracle this month, a near-full mini of vintage Dior Diorissimo. One spritz and my kitchen turned into a lily garden in April. Also, I finally perfected a hot chocolate pairing with my scarf scented in Montale Chocolate Greedy the night before, ghosted cocoa all morning. Small things, big serotonin.

If you are romancing, let your bottle do the waltz. If you are gloriously single, wear the thing that makes your shadow look taller. Perfume is the only date that always shows up on time. Happy weekend, and may your wrists tell better stories than your calendar.