Step out of the shower on a sweltering day and even the steamiest bathroom air feels deliciously chilly on damp skin. As the summer days heat up, fragrances that help recreate that just stepped out of the shower feeling are very compelling. Clean scents linger softly during the day.  The hint of delicate soap whispers cooling memories.

Penhaligons Castile is the quintessential classic soap scent, with notes of neroli, petitgrain, bergamot, orange blossom, rose, woods and musk.  CB I Hate Perfume lets you choose from five different varieties of soap – Musky, Pine Tar, White, Tabac, and Plain Old. Philosophy Pure Grace claims to be simple soap & water, while Gendarme Carriere adds jasmine & lilac. And then there’s Bobbi Brown Almost Bare, reminiscent of a certain hair smells terrific shampoo. But that’s a whole other blog post.

Sometime in the last ten years I came to the realization that everything I observe, hear, taste, inhale, process,  digest, or soak up through osmosis I do in a sensory way. Translation: virtually everything makes me think of fragrance!

I don’t know why it took me so long to figure this out, I’ve been doing it since I’m four years old… when my grandmother Rose first brought me a little wrapped, triple-milled, highly fragranced soap from the Ritz Hotel in Paris and my sense of smell stood at attention, saluted and my potent attraction to scent was born.

I’m in the Strand bookstore – the sweet, damp smell of vintage books and brittle, yellowing newspaper wafting to my nostrils. And my thoughts immediately gravitate to CB I Hate Perfume In the Library, which really *does* smell like a room full of well-loved tomes. Or Chanel Cuir de Russie, a beautiful portrayal of pungent, tanned leather, worthy to bind   the      complete works of Shakespeare or Dickens.