A Field Guide To Modern Florals

Flowers can go sexy and animalistic or fresh and airy, depending on so many factors. Here, a primer on the latest bloom-based scents.

- Jennifer Goldstein

Smelling like flowers hasn’t always been cool. Some garden-variety perfumes, like traditional rose blends or heady white florals, have a reputation for being old-fashioned, even fussy. Scents like sage, patchouli, oud, and smoke are much more fashionable. Or they were. But this fall, the classics are having a resurgence. As perfume creator Frédéric Malle puts it, “These days, cool girls want the heritage thing.” And in perfumery, the “heritage thing” is flowers.

The popularity of different blooms may wax and wane, but building blocks like rose, jasmine, and tuberose are always there, so anyone who thinks she doesn’t like florals needs to check her preconceptions. With perfume, you simply can’t make blanket judgments based on one or two things you’ve smelled, explains Adriana Medina- Baez, a perfumer at Givaudan and one of the cocreators of Lancôme’s new scent, Idôle. “Florals are in most fragrances. You just have to find one that speaks to you and you feel comfortable wearing,” she says. “Maybe you think you don