dream perfume

Sunday morning, right before I woke up, I dreamed of a perfume. In my dream I was in San Francisco or maybe Italy, in a Prada boutique. Once I realized where I was, I started searching for Infusion d'Iris, a perfume I had been reading about but hadn't smelled. The saleslady found it for me and sprayed it on my arm. I sniffed: a very strong, bitter scent, of green shoots and leaves, and white pepper, and jet fuel. It filled my nostrils and made my eyes sting, but it wasn't a totally unpleasant experience. But it didn't smell like a flower. I sniffed some more, then woke up.

Today when I came home, I got some more samplers in the mail (these are the last for a while. I swear.). One of them was Prada's Infusion d'Iris, so I eagerly dabbed some on my wrist, to see if it smelled like I dreamed it. It smells, in a word, heavenly. A delicate, sweet (but not sugary) floral, with a hint of warm woods, and just a little bit of a green edge. It is a beautiful, pale purple perfume. In other words, nothing at all like the one in my dream. But a real beauty. It has won some awards, and I can see why.

Two other perfumes that I got in the mail, both from CB I Hate Perfume, are worth mentioning here. One is called Memory of Kindness, and I couldn't quite place the smell - grass? leaves? - so I looked it up: the main note is tomato leaves. And it smells exactly like tomato leaves - bitter, peppery, earthy. The other one, called Black March, smells exactly like clean, fresh dirt with some green shoots poking through. I really like it. Put them together and they actually smell pretty close to the perfume in my dream, except for the jet fuel.

I love I Hate Perfume.