For me, Labor Day always means the end of summer. While summer is my least favorite season, I always find the time around and just after Labor Day to be a bit melancholy, as everything green wilts tired and yellow in the weakening sunlight. Etro’s Heliotrope, with notes of heliotrope, sweet almond, vanilla, fruit notes, ylang-ylang, and petit grain, is the perfect scent to wear to say goodbye to summer.Heliotrope is slightly powdery and a little bit old-fashioned, a soft pink silk party dress faded by time. This powder is a nostalgic powder, soft and gentle. It conjures up a hazy and humid yet cooling late summer nights, where twinkling lights in the trees glow softly in warm wet air.
I don’t catch much in the way of the fruit notes, to be honest, but the scent of almond adds to the powdery softness of the heliotrope, and the vanilla makes it slightly sweeter and alcoholic. Petit grain adds just enough sharpness in the dry down to keep this scent from turning into your Grandmother’s dressing powder, giving it a decidedly modern edge.
I look forward to the crisp days of fall, when I can wear the heavier woods and incense-based scents that I have lined up to try. I’ve been trying to pick some samples for the coming weeks of warmth that will neither knock me back into the flowery brightness of summer nor push me forward too soon into the fiery leaves and bright-blue sky of fall. I would wear this scent again during this time of year—I can almost imagine it becoming a late summer staple. I also think this would be a wonderful scent to wear after a long day full of hassles. It’s so calming and sweet, comforting.
*photo from Aedes
