what bodies of water wear
looking for a perfume that smells like hydrangeas
november 2025
november 2025
in the context of me letting my hydrangea die, i have been on a quest to
1) make it live again next spring and 2) find what hydrangeas smell like.
i never even attempted to smell one, and now feel a kind of nostalgia about never being able to smell my one. so, i decided to do what i do best and wander around department shops, researching and smelling things to figure out what could smell like hydrangeas.
1) make it live again next spring and 2) find what hydrangeas smell like.
i never even attempted to smell one, and now feel a kind of nostalgia about never being able to smell my one. so, i decided to do what i do best and wander around department shops, researching and smelling things to figure out what could smell like hydrangeas.
i know how stupid this sounds, but i haven’t seen any hydrangeas lately, so i went to my smell-crazy friend madeleine and we did a fragrantica distalization.
hydrangeas are made of:
acid
aluminium
fertile flowers
sepals
i just realised i did see some hydrangeas on marylebone high street at the beginning of fall that i should have smelled. it was a dark one too. exactly how i imagine i’d want to be as a scent.
floral, sweet, baby-ish cologne type smell with a disturbing twist. baby cologne with tobacco undertones,
carrie bradshaw speaking with big ex-wife about a children’s book with magic cigarettes.
penhaligon has a perfume that fragrantica suggested, and i know creed´s eladaria could also work, but i don’t know, it’s too spring, too light.
it was missing raw aluminium, a january wedding texture feeling to the floral. i’m still on a hunt, but i did smell non-perfumy stuff that combined could make the perfect hydrangea smell.
i read a substack some months ago about how someone learned how to smell by going to waitrose,
and i couldn’t relate to that more, as someone who loves to browse supermarkets.
i especially love the ones inside department shops. and funny enough, i found some food that smelled like parts of hydrangeas:
lemon = acid
in clothing shops.
hydrangeas are very linked to fashion, at least in my brain.
when i applied to fashion school, i did a big piece about a missoni show looking like a hydrangea.
acid
aluminium
fertile flowers
sepals
i just realised i did see some hydrangeas on marylebone high street at the beginning of fall that i should have smelled. it was a dark one too. exactly how i imagine i’d want to be as a scent.
floral, sweet, baby-ish cologne type smell with a disturbing twist. baby cologne with tobacco undertones,
carrie bradshaw speaking with big ex-wife about a children’s book with magic cigarettes.
penhaligon has a perfume that fragrantica suggested, and i know creed´s eladaria could also work, but i don’t know, it’s too spring, too light.
it was missing raw aluminium, a january wedding texture feeling to the floral. i’m still on a hunt, but i did smell non-perfumy stuff that combined could make the perfect hydrangea smell.
i read a substack some months ago about how someone learned how to smell by going to waitrose,
and i couldn’t relate to that more, as someone who loves to browse supermarkets.
i especially love the ones inside department shops. and funny enough, i found some food that smelled like parts of hydrangeas:
lemon = acid
in clothing shops.
hydrangeas are very linked to fashion, at least in my brain.
when i applied to fashion school, i did a big piece about a missoni show looking like a hydrangea.
this is all to say: i’m open to recommendations of perfumes that smell like hydrangeas.
jacquemus lemons
alexander mcqueen 2000s phones
beijing dumpling floral tea
(perfect place for a post window shopping meal)
(perfect place for a post window shopping meal)
coat i saw while smelling santa maria novella’s perfumes