World Soil Day: Earthy Perfumes That Smell Like Real Ground

Let everyone else chase cupcake clouds. Today is World Soil Day, Repeal Day, and the 90th birthday of Calvin Trillin. I’m celebrating with perfumes that smell like gardens after rain, boots in the woods, and a little grit on the hem.

My morning started with CB I Hate Perfume M#2 Black March. Christopher Brosius bottled snapped green stems, potting soil, and that cold rush you get when you pull last year’s leaves from under a stone. If geosmin had a diary, this would be the first page.

If you want earth without pretense, reach for Demeter Dirt. It’s literal. It’s charming. It’s the perfume version of sticking your hands in a bag of soil and sighing in relief.

Craving something mineral and grown up. Hermès Terre d’Hermès gives you flint, orange rind, and sun-warmed gravel. Polished, not sterile. If I had to wear one “boardroom soil” scent, this is the tie clip.

Forest-floor elegance. Ormonde Jayne Ormonde Woman wraps black hemlock, cardamom, and resin in a velvet cloak. It smells like you discovered a shaded clearing that belongs to you and no one else.

When roots call, I answer with Frédéric Malle Vetiver Extraordinaire. It’s vetiver stripped to its wiry bones. Bitter, clean, a little smoky. Think roots drying on a linen cloth near an open window.

Vetiver but barefoot. Diptyque Tempo hums with damp leaf, patchouli, and three vetivers. The texture reads mossy more than sharp, which I love on cool Fridays.

Stone and temple air. L’Artisan Parfumeur Dzongkha feels like iris dust on wet slate with cardamom breath in the background. It’s meditative without going monk-mode.

Deep woods maximalism. Slumberhouse Norne pours conifer resin, sap, and a peat-like shadow into a green-black monolith. Wear it if you want your sweater to smell like it spent the week in a cabin.

A side toast to Repeal Day. If soil puts you in a sipping mood, finish the evening with woody smoke from Aesop Hwyl, or a boozy wink from By Kilian Apple Brandy or Maison Margiela Jazz Club layered over your earthy base. Dirt first. Drink second. Always.