Ormonde Jayne Sampling Kit Giveaway

Giveaway: A sampling kit of all Ormonde Jayne fragrances (except for Tiare.) The samples are full, never sprayed.

How it works: Please leave a comment answering the following summer vacation themed questions: "1) what was your most memorable vacation so far? 2) if you could bottle a fragrance of summer, what would it contain? " Each participant will be assigned a number, and 1 winner will be selected via a random number generator. Draw is now closed, please check back to see if you won early next week. Thank you for participating and sharing such great stories!

Giveaway explanation: anybody from the US or overseas can enter it as long as you answer specific questions explained in the contest rules.

Comments

[Natalia]

oh! now that's a giveway!
i have been contemplating purchasing those for the longest time...
read too many wonderful things about this brand.

my most memorable vacation so far must have been to Bulgaria.
it was our first romantic vacation together with my fiance, who is Bulgarian, and i have learned a lot of words, got to meet his family, his dad drove us around the little country showing us the monasteries, churches and little charming towns... all that in perfect weather and with delicious wine and food.
then we spent a week or so on the Black sea coast, eating crepes for breakfast, swimming for hours and taking fiestas. it was unforgettable.

if i had to bottle this, it would be the mix of sea salt, warm fig trees in the sun, a hint of sweet broiled bell peppers, a taste of dried grapes and a lot of incense...

should i mention i can't wait to go back? :)

[Samarkand]

Great giveway! They are so difficult to get where I live.

My most memorable vacation was visiting the Greek islands when I was in my 20th. The most fascinating one being Santorini. I adored the contrast between the intense blue of the sea, the sometimes whiteness of the sky, and the glittering blackness of the amazing volcanic craters. I remember the mixing of the salt and sulphur in the warmth of the ending summer giving to the air a very special, a unique smell.

I would not like to wear Santorini's perfume at all, as it would be more of an atmosphere fragrance. To put summer in a bottle, I would mix Mediterranean pine tree, dry herb, jasmine, tiare, a drop of salt, silver incense. Surely it would not give a great perfume per se! For me the fragrance reminding me of summer is Chaldée from Patou.

[Laura Dias de Almeida]

My most memorable holiday has to be my first time in Japan: it was the first time I found myself somewhere and really felt alien; all my referents had vanished and I was left free to experience everything afresh, with a rejuvenated sense of wonder.

If I could bottle a fragrance of summer, it would contain Monoi Tiare from Tahiti, coconut oil, ylang-ylang and eucalyptus. I wish a "nose" could make it for me! ^_^

[Daniele R.]

My most memorable vacation was a trip to Hawaii I took a few years ago with my boyfriend. It was our first real vacation alone together and it went better than I even could have hoped. Volcanoes, lava beaches, feral pigs and warm rain showers; so many good times.

If I could bottle a fragrance that smells like summer I'd base it on the warm months here in coastal British Columbia. It would smell like sun-warmed sandstone, cool forest paths with the scent of ferny undergrowth and last year's evergreen needles underfoot, and the smell of dried salt on skin. Come to think of it, I could live in that perfume.

[Kristina]

Oh, I love the OJ line! I had the most wonderful vacation three years ago in Corsica. I went on a hiking trip and everything was just perfect: the sea, the mountains, the weather and the food! We went to a small bar where they served freshly pressed lemon juice from the near orchard. My favorite summer scent would contain the smells of lemon, herbs, golden hay, the scent of warm stones in the sun and the slightest hint of incense from the village church.

[Audrey H]

My most memorable vacation was when our kids were younger we all went to Maui and had such a great time. the kids loved staying in a hotel, no chores for them and no cooking for me yaay! it was so carefree and relaxing.

Lets see, a fragrance of summer for me would include gardenia and maybe the smell of the ocean breeze. An imaginary scent lol Would adore this OJ set, thanks for the chance to win it.

[Hana]

Wow, this giveway has tempted me to post my first comment!

For me, the most memorable holiday was long time ago when I was a child and my grandparents took me to seaside for the first time. It was in the Mediterranean and I remember the incredible unknown taste of salt water and smell of all the seashells. I collected a huge bag full of the shells, obviously, from todays point of view it was full of the most boring ones.

My bottle of summer fragrance would have nothing in common with sea, though. It would be a blend of strawberries, vanilla ice cream, fresh cut grass and beeswax. I'm affraid, I wouldn't wear it but would love to smell it all together.

[Zazie]

Hands down, my two-month-long inter-rail trip trip through Europe, decades ago, as a sudent, with all my friends... It smelled of freedon! Venice, Vienna, Varsow, Cracov, Praga, Pudapest and Paris!

The smell of summer in the mediterranean has been bottled many times(let me play the lion comes to mind), but the ideal summer for me should smell as jasmine and tuberose, with a thirst quenching citrus top, and a lush, classic Guerlinade like drydown, lifted by an incense stroke. That would be an ideal perfume, no matter the season...

[Bellatrix]

Love Ormonde Jayne. Thanks for draw.

1. Portugal.
It was beautiful extension of summer (October, 2009.) and it was my first non-business trip abroad. It was great... going from town to town... enjoying sun and food... great.

2. Scent in the bottle
It has to have freshness (fig, ocean notes, citruses...) but also some softens, like a sunset (guiacwood, benzoin). There is no summer scent if there is not a bit of coconut inside. :)

[sara]

My most memorable vacation was the first time I went to Paris. The smell of summer should be fragranced with floral humidity and tangyness and the scent of warm rain hitting concrete. Please enter me into the drawing. Thanks!

[Agritty]

My best summer holiday was midsommer in Sweden - the lack of night and the festive garlands everywhere - I loved it. My idea summer fragrance would smell of fresh herbs like shiso and basil, salty sweat, and something nutty like vetiver. Nothing too sweet for me!

[meg jamieson]

My most memorable vacation would be the whole set from my childhood; all spent in the same place: one week on a small inland in Lake Michigan, full of cedar wood forests, birch trees and cold fresh water. If you could bottle summer, it would contain bonfires smoke, blackberries or cherries, a cool breeze on hot sand.

[Matt]

1) My most memorable vacation was my honeymoon to Dominica, a small island in the Caribbean. The water was warm and clear, the island was mountainous and lush, the people were friendly, and the whole place smelled of ylang ylang and West Indes bay at sunset.

2) My summer fragrance would combine a lush, sunny floral (ylang ylang, jasmine sambac, and a touch of rose) with a woody-spicy base, with a bit of citrus hovering in the background. It would strike a balance between light-hearted and contemplative, transitioning easily from the sunny beach to the veranda at sunset.

[k-scott]

(1) My most memorable trip so far was 2 1/2 months in Europe-- England, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany. It was fantastic!

(2) Summer in a bottle to me is honeysuckle and fresh cut grass with a hint of rainstorm.

[Monique]

What I remember most in summer is being at a friend's cottage. Each cottage is different, with different attending smells. One of my enduring olfactory memories is being on Georgian Bay in the North Channel, hunting for blueberries, and the smell of junipers and cedars being everpresent.

[Adriana]

1. My most memorable vacation is always my most recent one, this time to Tel Aviv with my husband and our (then) ten-month old. Lots of fatigue, especially that first week of jet lag and adjusting to travel with baby, but we were in an apartment with a direct view of the sea. A window was always open so there was always the scent of salt water and sand.

2. I'd love to bottle of salt, sand and jasmine. I'm lucky that many summer fragrances do this already--I'm enjoying Jennifer Aniston for this reason, I must say. But I'd add to it hints of coffee and red wine--what fortified us when our days and nights were confused!

[Victoria]

Welcome, Hana!
As a child, I also loved to collect shells. Well, I still cannot resist a temptation to pick some whenever I am by the sea coast. They always smell so strongly of salt and briny seaweed--the quintessential beach scent.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

[Diane]

1. I just returned from a trip to Minneapolis and cannot get over the mix of urban hip, natural beauty, and the kindness of the people. This city (which I have only just begun to explore - more trips to come) is almost beyond belief in its varied and beautiful offerings.
2. In homage to my new home away from home, I think the following notes should be included in its olfactory homage: green scents (a tribute to its lakes, unbelievable personal gardens, the world's largest outdoor sculpture garden; bicycle notes (this city has separate dedicated lanes for pedestrians and bicyclists! bicycles are available everywhere for rent and I have never seen so many people on bicycles in any other American city); frosty notes as a tribute to the long and harsh winters. So - green, rubbery/leather, and frost. Any takers?
What a wonderful giveaway; I have only two vials of OJ (Woman and Ta'if) and really want to explore more of the line before I decide on my FB purchases. Thank you!

[Danielle]

First, thanks for the give-away.

Diane, thanks for the good words about Minneapolis... I lived in Minnesota for five years and have fond memories. Try the bakery at the Hotel Sofitel in Edina (where I used to live) and its downtown funky shops, too. The Mexican corner cafe, if it's still there, was the local for myself and my mother.

1) My most memorable vacations are family car trips taken as a kid. Maybe not the most exotic, nor the most comfortable, and as dirt cheap as two working class parents saddled with two kids had to take them. But one vacation, ball lightening followed our car down the road on a dry sunny Montana afternoon before it skipped off like a mischievous kid... an experience none of us ever forgot.

2) Bottle the smell of summer? I'd like to bottle that dry wind and sage smell. I'd bottle the smell of the Western deserts, the clean freshness and the sense of distances.

[kjanicki]

My most memorable summer vacation was staying at a lodge in northern Ontario in the summer of 1978. We had a cabin in the woods with a fireplace, and my cousins and I ran around in the pine needles, caught frogs in streams, played with kittens in the hay loft, picked wild raspberries and jumped off the dock into cool green water.

My summer perfume would smell of pine sap, warm cedar planks, bonfires, hay, waterlilies, raspberries, green leaves and tan skin.

[Elise]

1. summer vaca was a surprise trip to China...in August! The heat was amazing, but the country (been there 3x) is more so...the food, the sights, the special smells of Chongqing that I will remember forever!

2. green with a thick floral running through it...jasmine always reminds me of summer...

[Suzanne Wlaschin]

My most memorable vacation may have been three weeks in Russia in June 1993. Fields of sunflowers, gingerbread-decorated dachas, and a small white church with a black onion dome reflected in the waters of the crescent lake which curves around it. Champagne and real Beluga caviar at dinner. Palaces of gold and marcasite. Summer kitchens in the country surrounded by wild cosmos in shades of pink, white and magenta. A cruise down the Volga river. A vacation romance with a sweet Russian tour guide that culminated in a midnight swim in the Volga together.

If I could bottle the smell of summer, I would make it Mediterranean - the smell of lavender, chamomile and wild thyme on a dry hillside overlooking the blue sea - so it would have salt spray, and why not some dry silvery wood, some citrus top notes, and a nice musky base?

[rosarita]

Great giveaway, thanks for the opportunity! My favorite vacation is visiting my sister in Montana. We spend time in Glaciar Park and explore the state. Mountains, rivers, hot days and cool nights. Gorgeous. My summer perfume, though, would include some of my favorite rural midwest smells: hosta blossom, sweet corn husk, maple sap, a faint note of the oil they put on the gravel roads to keep the dust down. A little bell pepper & tomato leaf, too.

[Victoria]

Reading your comment is making me wistful! Sounds like a perfect vacation. :)

[Maureen]

My most memeorable vacation was 2 weeks in Key West on my 25th wedding anniversary (March 16th, which just happened to be at the same time as many colleges' Spring Breaks). My late husband and I had the most wonderful time. We stayed in a B&B that use to be the Navy Commanders residence on the base for one week, and at a B&B owned by a curator at the Hemingway House for another. We explored the whole island, having many adventures, the funniest being a Sea Cat (plastic shell you are seated on with a teeny tiny motor on back) run aroung the island. We were on one Sea Cat, me holding on for dear life, the guide and a daughter of a minister on another, the minister and his wife on another. The guide asked if we wanted to stop for a drink on the Atlantic side of the island. We anchored our Sea Cats, and swam for the steps. We climbed up the barnacle covered steps and turned around to see a long wood deck of lounge chairs with mostly naked people...apparently this was a clothing optional bar! You should have seen the minister's wife's face...PRICELESS! We did not disrobe, but had a rockin' good time. We also did the sundset cruise on the Schooner America, all kinds of water sports, drank to the sunset every night on Mallory Square and did the Duval St. bar crawl...practically mandatory activities in Key West.
While in Key West, I checked out the Key West Aloe Co., I think it was called, and bought a Key Lime fragrance and a Frangipani Fragrance. Every time I smell Key Lime now, it reminds me of that vacation, and it is a very happy smell memory. (they have great Key Lime pies and cookies at the Key West Key Lime Pie Co...very yummy!)

Please enter me in the draw.

[Victoria]

Reading all of the comments is so much fun! I really feel as if I am going on vacation to all those places in my mind, as I read. Thank you, everyone, for sharing!

Natalia, your mention of Bulgaria is making me want to take off and go tomorrow. What a beautiful country and what a great way to explore it!

[Mo]

I couldn't choose one most memorable vacation so I'll need to pick 2. Once was when I went to Dublin with my Mom. It was the first time either of us had been across the Atlantic so we were really excited and nervous. She did such a great job finding our hotel which was so cute and in a perfect location. We just did a lot of walking around, people-watching and sight seeing. I loved our coffee and early breakfasts together.
My other most memorable vacation was in Hawaii with my husband and his parents. I miss eating all that sushi and smelling the plumeria and ginger everywhere.
My ultimate summer fragrance has already been made (Saffron James Nani), but if I could make one of my own, it would contain the smell of driving on Kauai (wet dirt and grass). I hope I have the opportunity to smell it again. I also like the smell of the Todai restaurant on Waikiki (weird I know!). Maybe another ultimate summer scent would be the combination of early morning mowed grass (or beach) combined with coffee. I love getting up early in the morning and smelling the morning mixed with coffee. It would have to be the coffee I drank in Ireland. I like how they steam the milk prior to mixing it with the coffee.

[Maja]

My most memorable vacation was a trip to the Urals nine years ago. I was with friends, travelling from Italy, and we had such an unforgettable time, meeting so many people, eating tiny cucumbers with a pinch of salt, baked potatoes, sour apples, admiring russian endless sky and taking long trips by train. And, yes, some vodka was included, too. :) We were guests in russian families. I still call Volodja - "my russian pa". It was an emotional, life-changing trip in every sense. Nobody was the same person afterwards.

As far as the summer bottle is concerned, I am currently fascinated by the smell of lemon balm growing in my mother's garden. The scent of its crushed leaves is just divine. Guess that would be my favourite this summer. :)

[snowcrocus]

The most memorable vacation was Paris last March, which was also the most fragrant (I bought Vanille 44 and Kiss Me Tender while we were there). I'm fond of the tomato leaf note (as in Stecca) for a summery fragrance, although that would probably be more of a stay-cation fragrance. But nothing is more evocative of the heat of summer than that note for me.

[Janet in California]

I spent 22 days rafting down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon years ago. Wonderful! A perfume that smells of hot rocks, warm sun, waterside plants and aromatic brush would work for me!

The OJ line is beautiful. Thanks.

[key change]

Thanks for the give-away!
My favourite summer vacation was probably when I was a child, and my family and I traveled to Pakistan for my sister's wedding; I was still a kid then, so I had (comparatively, at least) not a care in the world! if I had to bottle a summer fragrance, it would include: sun screen, citrus smells, lots of lilac, a hint of freshly mowed grass, that smell of sunshine on skin, a bit of sand, and end it off with some sort of green scent to evoke a shady forest.

[Jill Sigman]

Thanks for the offer! I wll never forget my first plane ride and tour of Italy with my grandmother. It was one of those 14 cities in 14 days tours. I fell in love with Florence. For my summer perfume I would include a sparkling, effervescent note reminiscent of sunlight, the smell of florentine leather, iris, mimosa, hay and a light amber base note.
Jill S.

[Irina]

great giveaway- thanks
my best ever summer vacation eas at 18, in love, at the Black Sea seashore

If I could I would bottle sun+ heated dry skin+ salty air- in short, happiness ( related to previous answer)

[Chi Nguyen]

Hello V,
This is my first time participating in your giveaway contest. So here we go...

1) Most memorable vacation so far: It would be my trek to the Fansipan peak (apparently, the highest peak in my country - Vietnam) back in 2006. I went with a friend of mine in highschool along with his cousins and another friend of mine. The team since then has become like a small family!
It is the most memorable to me because it was the first time I went on an adventurous trip that my family didn't really want me to go at first because they thought it was quite dangerous for a girl who had been raised within a city with endless protection and care from her parents as I was. The 1st time I had a chance to explore the life of a mountain-climber (taking a bath nude in the nature, dipping into the icy water of mountain streams; having dinner in an open-fire's light; sleeping in tent in the forest rain sounds and waking up to the birds singing... it was so wonderful!). We went through forest after forest (we also went through a serveral "black cardamon" forests and picked up some cardamons to bring home as sourvenir, too); climbed up and down from a mountain to another mountain in 30', one after one; walked on the clouds literally and breathed the freshest air we ever had into our lungs. It was one of achievements that I am proud of for I had conquered the "roof-of-Indochina" as they call.

2) My "summer in a bottle" (or more like in a jar) is Serge Lutens' Al Attarine. To put it in simple words, as it is described on the SL website, it is sunshine in a bell jar. What else can I pick for summer beside sunshine when it comes to typical tropical summer like in my country? Yes, abundance of sunshine, please!

Happy vacation season!
Chi

[irem]

Count me in the giveaway. I love Ormonde Jayne, had a full bottle of Tiare, so I know that one already :)

Let's start with the perfect summer scent:
- freshly mown grass
- a week old grass clippings with their sweet scent - is that coumarin? never smelled hay, but well aged grass clippings smell great
- petrichor
- the elusive scent of summer nights, possibly with a whiff of honeysuckle when the breeze comes from the right direction
- linden blossoms - the street next to ours is lined with linden trees, imagine more than 50 trees, in full bloom. it smells to die for. one of the most beautiful smells ever!
- ripe peaches
- hot, dry earth and Mediterranean vegetation
- the sea
I don't know how all would go together, though :)

OJ Frangipani strikes me as a good summer scent. This summer I have chosen to wear Kilian Beyond Love. I know, it shares almost nothing with my list above. I find it a sunny tuberose, if that makes sense, so even the scent of summer nights is out of question. But I find it a good summer scent, nevertheless. Maybe it is that sunny and carefree attitude :)

As for my best summer vacation: the one I didn't have yet. I never went to a summer vacation. Seriously! That is something I have to remedy.

Thanks for the give away, sorry for my long answer, I can't help waxing poetic when it comes to perfume.

[Fernando]

That's a great giveaway. I've always wanted to try the Ormonde Jaynes.

My best vacation so far wasn't a summer: it was spring break in Portugal with my wife. Simply fantastic, and coming from Maine we felt that Portugal in April was plenty warm enough!

A summer scent... you know, I tend to like them heavy and radiant, even in the summer. If I were to dream, maybe a citrus that actually lasts would be nice for summer. But some of the ideas above are neat too: cut grass, petrichor, salt spray, the smell of summer lightning. That'd be nice!

[Victoria]

Wow, what an amazing achievement! I have always dreamed of going to Vietnam, and someday I will make it there. To think that I spent so much time studying Vietnamese history in college and have never visited! The classes were not related to my degree, it was just a topic I loved; I even wrote my thesis on the economic consequences of the land reform.

[Victoria]

No need to apologize! This is the place to wax poetic about perfume. I certainly do plenty of it here, so I only welcome others to join in. :)

[Amanda]

Thanks for the giveaway! My favorite summer vacation was on the red sea in Egypt! The turquoise waters were different than the oceans I'm used to. Sitting on the beach til dawn drinking mint tea and eating delectable little bites of fresh seafood, salads, dips and of course the most tempting fruits and desserts. If I could put summer in a bottle it would include jasmine, juicy pineapple, coconut oil, fresh cut grass and orange blossom

[mondaylurker]

Most memorable vacation - I spent a week with my husband in Vienna recently. He was in the archives doing academic research, but I was fully on vacation, so I spent days doing every tourist site, all the amazing treasure troves hidden away by the Hapsburg magpies as well as their beautiful and beautifully-scented gardens, and especially worshipped at every shrine to music (I am a keen musician myself), which is pretty much every step you take in the old city. Evenings we had fabulous meals, and then we went to amazing concerts and operas. And yes, among the great meals there was the original Sachertorte, with its raspberry tartness splitting the chocolate layers, and the contrast of the frothy whipped cream with the silky dark chocolate glaze. And the perfectly robust but mellow coffee alongside.

Fragrance of summer - for me, the smells of Santa Barbara in the summertime, where my grandmother had a garden, would be perfect. Might have to be 2 fragrances. One would be lavender, warm earth and a touch of eucalyptus. The other would be ripe fig, lemon and tea.

[Alexander]

Great to hear that people nave visited my country Bulgaria,had fun and want to come back.I enjoy both the seashore and the mountain.I would recommend anyone to stay for two weeks in Bulgaria and visit the both destinations there is a lot to see in our little country.
My last vacantion was in the Pirin mountain.If I have to bottle it it will be a lot of different woods, moss,leather, incense perfume with a little violets may be.
I'm waiting for my next visit in Sozopol on the Black Sea cost.If I have to bottle it in scent it will be Fig (there are a lot of fig trees there)light cedar scent and salty air.

[Musidora]

Most memorable vacation so far was Iran. I'll never forget the smells of night-blooming jasmine, apricot-infused shisha smoke, black tea with saffron sugar, or the many conversations with the poetic, political people I met there. I still continue to write and report about the country... As for a fragrance of summer, perhaps the smells from Iran I described! I might add a bit of sun-baked stone, too.

[Patty]

Fortunately, I can say I've had a few memorable vacations. However, to pick one, I'd have to say Switzerland for its jaw-droppingly, awe-inspiring scenery. Mountains, lakes, fields - doesn't matter, it's all gorgeous.

As for a summer fragrance, I have ideas for notes for a perfume based on my haunts at the New Jersey seashore: fruity beach roses, a bit of tar and weathered wood from the boardwalk, the salty humidity of the air, sand, maybe a bit of lemon for the lemon ice!

[DianaWR]

1. My most memorable vacation was Christmas at Disneyland. My husband and I went for a week and it was the right combination of holiday magic and good old Walt Disney magic to make my first trip to a Disney park, at the youthful age of 26, the best vacation I'd ever had.

2. If I could bottle summer: fresh cut grass, light afternoon rain, warm sand, the feel of sun on my face and the smell of warm air when I close my eyes, berries (particularly strawberries), fresh cut flowers, and dirt.

[Chi Nguyen]

Wow, Victoria, you're "somebody" out there.
I dunno, I just admire people who do/follow what they have passion for!
Hope someday you'll make it here! While waiting 'til that day, we'll try to do some more reforms, haha. :-P

[Christof]

1) Travelling along the westcoast of norway. Sleeping in tents, our small eurovan and in norwegian huts. It was s remarkable hot summer for norwegian standards. Although we usually spend our holidays oin the mountains, we enjoyed the fishing andn the swimmin in cold clear lakes very much.

2) It will contain vetiver, petitgrain, neroli, very few ozonic notes and some sandalwood.

[Lena]

If I could bottle any fragrance it would be the smell of my italian greyhound's ears. I smell them all the time! I don't know what it is, but it smells kind of sweet. I wish someone with a better fragrance vocabulary could tell me what it is she smells of:) Her feet smells nice too, they have a kind of sweet nutty smell. The sad thing is that she has got muscle atrophy which keeps getting worse. So I would say my best vacation is now, since I am going to be home all summer hanging around with her!
Thanks for your blog!!!!

[Linda]

My most memorable vacation was a visit to New York with my sister. We have visited all of the major museums, spent lots of time shopping and watching people. We both fell in love with the energy of the city and its personality.

My bottled summer perfume would include basil, suntan lotion, jasmine, peach, hot asphalt, chlorinated water in the swimming pool. Not sure I would want to wear it, but it would be so evocative!

[Chi Nguyen]

I agree, seaweed smell is the quintessential beach scent!
I got bags of mixed seaweed for making some sort of drink, which I got from a trip to an island. I have to cook the stuff up to make the seaweed drink and when ever I do so, I always think to myself "I'm brewing a pot of ocean drink". The smell is memory provoking!

[Sharon Reading]

Ah, it's hard to say, but I think it was an autumn trip to Montreal as a young wife. I was thrilled to drive through the autumn leaves of Vermont and the beauty of Montreal! The hotel, the food and the elegance!

Summer fragrence for me usually include rose, but this year I am wearing Ollia's "Wish" which has a base of vanilla. It is sweet and strong and unusual.

Thank you for this opportunity! I just gave my Ormonde Sampler to my daughter, so I am missing it!
Always love what you write!

[Warum]

Wow, thank you for a fabulous giveaway! I bet there is not a perfumista that is silently crying, "memememe, please pick me!" :) OJ is a fabulous line (based on three fragrances I've tried so far).

1) what was your most memorable vacation so far?
I've had plenty of amazing vacations in my life, but one of the most memorable ones for me was a trip to Puerto Rico where I swam in the calm blue warm waters, ate some new and different foods, trying to ask for them in Spanish, drank at a pool bar and swam in the pool while the Sun was too much for me to be outside... that was wonderful!

2) if you could bottle a fragrance of summer, what would it contain?
Mine would contain grass clippings, honeysuckle, and a hint of pineapple enough to bring some zing but not enough to register pineapple. And I would love it to have that warm humid air feeling like Un Jardin Apres la Mousson does - but I don't know how to achieve that.

many thanks!

[Alnysie]

How great!

My most memorable vacation... the first time I went to Europe. Just walking around, watching, smelling, *eating!*, and talking to people.

I'd love to recreate the smell of days at my family's old house in July. A mix of hay, clover, earth, freshly cut grass, trees I unfortunately don't know, the river, wild berries... Although I like the idea of Linda's hot asphalt, that'd be an interesting direction!

[Elisa]

1) what was your most memorable vacation so far?

That would have to be the trip I took with my brother and two of our best friends to Spain, France and Italy the summer after I graduated from college. I was broke and had no idea what I was going to do with the rest of my life, but what a beautiful two weeks! We rented a car in Barcelona and drove across Southern Europe, with stops in Pamplona, San Sebastian, Nice, Monaco, Bellagio, Venice, Siena ... finally winding up in Rome.

2) if you could bottle a fragrance of summer, what would it contain?

Coconut and white flowers smell like summer to me, and luckily Beyond Love already exists. :)

[matildaben]

My most memorable vacation was when I went to Argentina with my now-husband when we had only been dating for 6 months. We had a wonderful time and fell in love with that country! As for the scent of summer, I think it would involve cut grass in some way.

[jirish]

My most memorable vacation was two weeks on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington. Such a beautiful site and such diversity, from wonderful, wild beaches, lush rainforests, stunning mountains, hot springs, and gorgeous lavender farms. I'd love to recreate it in scent - perhaps with some salt, seaweed, cedar and pine, moss, damp earth, smoke, and lavender.

[Julie]

As a child, we were too poor to go on vacation. Summers would be spent under a tree with a good book from the library. The scent that reminds me most of these summers would have to be CB I Hate Perfume's
"Im memory of Kindness". The scent of tomato vines in summer. Ah... life is good.

[dleep]

Oh, I have never tried any of these and would love to. My most memorable vacation was a cruise to Russia and the Scandanavian capitals which lasted 17 days. During the trip there was a beautiful meteor shower while we were in the middle of the ocean. It was spectacular. Have a wonderful weekend!

[Samantha Scully]

My favorite summer vacation would have to be the summer I was 12--the whole summer! We didn't GO anywhere, or rather we did. My best friend, Leonie Heckman, and I, were given permission,1st time, to take the bus to the beach, as long as we went together, were back by such-and-such time, etc...

It was a glorious summer, a long and arduous trek, requiring 3 buses and an hour and a half travel time each way. We kept meticulous track of our calendars, and still marvel that we made the journey all but 5 days out of the three month vacation.

We had boogie boards, learned to ride waves, conversed with derelicts and other fantastic creatures, got stung by bees, bit by jellyfish, turned shockingly primitive, dark-skinned! And hari-matted, sand-filled creatures.

Not altogether human, or so it seemed to me, both then and now at 44. I will say that my ideal summer fragrance would capture the indolic scent of the city bus, as the ocean air hit it as the bus exited the freeway and hit the coastal route. No coconut or pineapple, or whatever summer scents are generically thought to be..misty sea side fog, maybe patchouli? Mint of cold seasoned ice tea, the sugar of ice cream, vanilla, rich and moist. The heat of something citron, lemon the best. The clarity and crispness of that infinite blue, open sky, the miracle taste of 1st freedoms, and joy. Rose top note? Too cliche? Orange blossom? Jasmine, nestled in verbena.. Sandalwood, I don't know why.

[Andrea]

Last summer for our Honeymoon, my husband and I went backpacking in Yellowstone. We didn't see another human being for almost a week, and visited some of the most spectacular and luxurious natural hot springs I've ever laid eyes on. One in particular was the single most amazing place I've ever been, I didn't know such things existed outside of hollywood special effects! It's a legal soak hot springs about eleven miles into the back country the size of a small swimming pool. A cold water creek runs in and past on one side and a hot water creek runs down a mountain and in on the other. The water is crystal clear, the bottom is covered in white sand and in the middle (underwater) is geyser of constant bubbles that turns the whole thing into a giant hot tub. The pool is surrounded by wildflowers cascading down the slope and even hanging down into the water. And just across the creek is one of the largest constant geysers in Yellowstone, continuously spraying steam and hot water into the air that then runs down it's turquoise, blue and gold sides.

I think the perfect summer scent (and the one I would want to create if it didn't exist) is Bronze Goddess. Coconut, white flowers and salt is what I get.

[Joshua]

Best vacation would be to Hong Kong because that's where I bought tons of perfumes and perfume miniatures from the SaSas littering the streets every few steps (for those who don't know, SaSa is the fragrance/cosmetic equivalent of 7-Eleven or Walmart)

Best summer scent would be Beyond Paradise by Estee Lauder because of the lovely tropical abstract flower it conjures!

[Shelly]

My most memorable vacation is completely related to scent. At the age of 7 my father took our family to the big island of Hawaii. I clearly remember stepping off the plane and thinking how beautiful the air smelled. At night we would down to restaurants and the air smelled better then the food. We stayed close to a lagoon and you can smell the slaty air.

My summer fragrance would evoke the smell of evergreen forest in the heat of the day when you seek out shade near the lake edge. I spent many summer's on the edge of lake Almanor near Mount Lassen. Pine, lake, very clean scents.

[Yen]

My most memorable summer vacation was with my parents in Victoria BC. We spent some time at Buchard Garden, when the flowers were in full bloom and I can still remember the beautiful flowers in all their blooming glory.

If I can bottle the smell of that day, of the damp earth, sunshine and floral bouquet, it would be an expensive bottle indeed.

[Tiffany]

1. My most memorable vacation would have to be a road trip to Nashville this past spring with one of my oldest friends. We ate our weight in barbeque, visited Elvis' eternal flame (and could see into his neighbor's back yards, bought Loretta Lynn's greatest hits on honky tonk row, and stopped in the Smokies for some jawdropping scenery.

2. My own summer fragrance would contain the scents of sweetbriar and dry grass, fields of basil, and a bit of smoke from the wildfires that light every year and signal the beginning of fall.

[Julia]

The memorable vacation: a weekend in Vilnius, Lithuania. We cooked fresh trout in the fireplace at my friend's photography studio, picnicked on the grounds of a baroque estate, and stayed in an attic apartment in a beautiful, ramshackle old building. Strange, serene, and surreal.

The summer-in-a-bottle: the smell of honeysuckle bushes and linden trees in the early evening, overlaid with asphalt.

[Tom]

My most memorable vacation was to Ojai. A friend who had a high-paying and high stress job was taking a weekend at the Spa there and asked if I would like to come along. I spent most of the time by the pool under an umbrella reading. We walked in town in the summer heat, ate delicious food and enjoyed "The Pink Moment", the time near twilight where the mountains are incarnadined by the setting sun.

A fragrance that captures summer for me would have to contain summer flowers, citrus, vetiver and a clean skin musk. Perhaps just s hint of coconut to remind me of suntan lotion.

[Heidi]

Most memorable vacation: Cuba in the mid 90s. Hot, difficult, didn't know what I was doing, got mugged, saw Castro going by in a car, heard rumba and Yoruban music for the first time... and fell in love with Cuban culture.

Summer fragrance? Honeysuckle, fresh cut grass, campfire, hot pine needles and the smell of the sea.

Hooray for summer!

Heidi

[Vijaya]

Most memorable summer vacation: Two weeks in Costa Rica w/ husband, stress free enjoying sights and smells and experiencing a laid back culture.
Fragrance of summer bottled: Would contain ripe mangoes (which by the way, is what I smell in Womanity), guavas, night blooming jasmine, a little jack fruit, musk melon, tomatoes. I don't know how wearable this concoction would be, but it is my recollection of how the summers of my childhood smelled.

[Jenny]

1). I rarely travel in the summer, but my most memorable would probably be Athens in January. The sun coming up over an empty Acropolis and walking around a deserted Agora made me weep as a Socrates groupie. Not my favorite vacation, but perhaps the most memorable!

2). Hay, linden, a bit of musk and greens, the scent of a warm summer night (like wearing L'Ete en Douce, which comes close, on a warm DC summer night on a linden-lined street with some fresh hay bales nearby.)

Thanks for the giveaway! So glad you're writing lots.

[Kathryn]

Oh, thank you, another chance to play. My best vacation memories always include lightning in the mountains and the stimulation effect that fills the space before and while it comes. For some reason, my senses are exponentially heightened and the world starts looking, feeling and smelling like Pandora. Something similar to synaesthesia happens and I taste and smell things that originate in visual or aural stimuli. If I were to have a summer fragrance, it would include those Pandoran memories along with salt, warm and cold stone, wild rose, campfire smoke on skin, hot cedars, gentian, ferns, warm pine pitch and icy wild ginger stems.

[Maggie]

Best holiday was one I spent on my own housesitting for a friend. I spent the whole week reading and writing and sitting in their sunny garden - complete time out.
Bottled summer would include the smell of cut grass, the amazing smell that air has sometimes - 'like wine'- roses, always roses, , and the smell of billowing clouds in a blue blue sky - if only they had a smell...
thanks for the chance of samples!

[Shayda]

Thailand - without a doubt :)) Beaches, the water, the green, Amazing!
Bottled summer would be the ocean spray, still waters, light foral, with a slight vanilla, and sweet citrus notes. Something that is soft, but with long lasting sillage.... that you could put on, and lay on the beach, and have the wind keep bringing the scent to you nose:)

[Nina Z]

My most memorable holiday was a trip to Barcelona. Oh, the architecture! The art! The food! The people! The graffiti! Even the sidewalks! Now I've just got see the rest of Spain.

My ideal summer fragrance would be a carnation fragrance created by Ormonde Jayne (her sensibility is perfect for me, both the way her fragrances smell and the way they blend with my skin). It is often cool and foggy during the summer where I live (SF Bay Area) and a spicy carnation fragrance would brighten up my days.

[Sandra Levine]

As an adult, my vacations are usually in the spring and fall, but no vacation can compare to long, long days of childhood summers anyway. We lived in a house half a block from the Delaware River, which had a beautiful linear park alongside it. In the other direction, two blocks away, was a little branch of the public library. Almost every day, I would spend time in both places, with a stop at the glider on our porch in-between and maybe a snack of some honeysuckle nectar in the backyard. Sometimes after a visit to the library I would stop by the drugstore and start reading at the marble counter while I sipped a vanilla soda,but there was nothing better than lying on the porch glider, swaying gently back and forth while reading, guiltlessly, for hours at a time on a hot summer day.

A perfume capturing summer for me would have peonies, honeysuckle, freshly cut grass, vanilla, a "drugstore" accord, asphalt during rain and old books.

[Mila K]

My most memorable vacation was my summer trip after graduating business school. Over five weeks I covered London, Barcelona, Morocco, South of Spain and Istanbul, meeting with friends in some places and doing solo others. It was a hot summer and the Euro was at an all time high against the USD - but it was oh so worth it...

Because of that trip, Un jardin sur le nil is my idea for summer in a bottle, that's the fragrance I was wearing at that time. The sharp burst of green mango and citrus at the beginning creates the same sensation as opening your eyes in the morning and looking out of the window to see the sun-lit bright blue sky.

[Lyubov]

The 5 days spent in Corfu are the holy days ( I mean it) I will never forget! The abundance of orange blossom and the salty water molecules in the air were most inspiring and I would like to capture this aroma combination on a perfume!

[SarahY]

I've been overseas but, oddly, my most memorable vacation was in my home country. My husband (then boyfriend) and I decided to go on a camping trip up north. All our friends bailed and it was just us, which worked out well because I was having terrible mood swings - it turned out I was pregnant with our first child. I don't know how he put up with me but that holiday was the beginning of our life together as a family. And it was fun even if I was a big grump half the time. The photos are hilarious.

The perfume... lots of salt spray, hot sand, dry hayish grass, a hum of something shrill for the cicadas, a bit of rubbery tent smell, a wisp of burnt woods from the barbecues. Maybe a bit of fire for my mood (pepper?) and patchouli for my then feral (in the best way!) boyfriend.

[ana]

i will always remember my vacation in croatia. it's an achingly beautiful country, a scattering of wonderfull small islands,surrounded by the clearest waters.history and nature intertwined in a wonderful harmony. narrow twisted cobbled streets,medieval old buildings, the flickering light of candles shimmering in the dusky evenings, the smell of orange trees flowers and jasmin bushes everywhere. it's incredibly romantic, but i was there on my own and i missed my lover every second.the smell of summer for me should definitely have orange flowers, jasmin,a bit of citrus mixed maybe with a bit of incense and a salty note to remind me of the sea and the bittersweet taste of that long time ago holiday

[Beata]

Thank you for a great giveaway, Victoria! I'd like to hope to win, although I'm never lucky in raffles:(

My most memotable vacation so far was a trip to Norway, to Norwegian fjords, to be more specific. I'm lost for words to try to describe the beauty of this country's nature - so dumbfounded I was by it. That was a place where I probably came closest to fully appreciate and to be awed by the creative power of God.

If I could bottle a summer, I would have at least 2 bottles, perhaps.
1) apple blossom
There is a small apple orchard in front of my parents' house. I grew up in a cold country where apple trees start blossoming in late May-early June, that is why apple blossom and its gorgeous smell used to herald summer for me. It has been over 15 years since I left my family house, and every year I incredibly miss this aroma and a beautiful picture of apple trees in full bloom and of a ground covered by white petals, which I used to call 'summer snow' when I was a child:))
2) In my childhood, I used to spend some time every summer at my grandparents' house in the countryside. From those old carefree days I reminisce with a particular fondness the smells of hay, of wild cherries and wild strawberries we used to pick in the woods, and of the cherry jam my grandma cooked in her summer kitchen...yummy!

I think I would not wear these two as perfumes, but would love to have them as home fragrances or, perhaps, candles to transport me to the happy days of my childhood and make me less homesick...:))

[Ela]

I think Capri was my the most memorable holiday destination- especially keeping in mind my company. Lovely island and food to die for!
And "summer in the bottle"- citrus fruits, hint of incense, woods and rose. No aquatics please!

[Lynn Morgan]

My very favourite Summer vacation memory was at the end of summer, between my junior and senior years in college. On my way back to Massachusetts, I spent several days in New York city, and on one of those days, I met my friend Marie, on her way back to school from her home in Georgia, and we spent the day running amok and, as unsupervised kids will, visiting the Trump Tower, having Godiva chocolates for breakfast, visiting every jewelry store on Fifth Avenue (my first trip to Harry Winston!) and A la Vielle Russie (Marie was a Russian major), getting tossed out of the Plaza, getting tipsy at the Algonquin with the ghosts of Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley, and ending the day at the Russian Tea Room , where Marie chatted in Russian with an ancient yet charming man who claimed to be the descendent of a deposed Romanov prince. The best day of my life thus far. Nothing can really match being on the loose in a limitless city with a fake ID in your jeans.

If I could bottle summer in a perfume, I think it would be an aqueous magnolia, with a touch of neroli and salt-kissed skin. I live in Los Angeles, so orange blossoms and the ocean are the scents of home to me.

[Syl]

Favorite Vacation Memory- As a child on Hawaii- my parents were military NCO- and they took us for Easter to Beelows Base- on the East shore of Oahu to spend the week in an old 1940s bungalo on the beach. It had screened windows and was right on the beach! The smell of salt water, and plumaria, and hot sand, and suntan oil takes me right back to those six glorious days!
If I could bottle summer? I'd bottle the smell of that beach, sand, plumeria,and green vegetation, and pine trees in the distance.

[Julie]

Oh, I have been meaning to get the sample kit for so long - I have never tried and OJs and I would just love it.

My most memorable vacation was probably my honeymoon this past January. We visited Zihuatanejo, Mexico and had such an amazing time.

My fragrance of summer? Well, Bronze Goddess already does it so well! Suntan lotion, warm sand, some flower. Or maybe a non-beachy one, with grass and honeysuckle, my favorite fragrant summer flower (a la Chevrefeuille or EdCamille).

[Elisa]

1. best vacation was going to buenos aires in 2005 -- it was my first time traveling internationally alone and i just fell in love with argentina and its culture and people, this unique blend of spanish and italian (just like me!) that made me feel totally foreign and like i was coming back home at the same time. i also visited these huge waterfalls in northern argentina and was able to basically lean over a metal walkway and stare down into this sucking whirlpool that was hundreds of yards wide . . . it was incredible.

2. as for a summer scent, i think it would have to be something that smells like cilantro and lime and charcoal-y -- that smell/taste that food gets when it's been grilled -- and chlorine . . .

[yoca78]

My most memorable vacation was many moons ago, when I turned 18.
I went to a little valley town located in the South of Argentina and fell in love for the very first time. It was initially a coup de foudre, butterflies in my stomach, mad chemistry, the feeling of walking on clouds, all the cliches usually heard of. Lust turned into love and a deep connection. It lasted a few years, on and off. It was a bumpy road and as intense as only happens when we are young and discovering the mysteries of love for the first time. I have fallen in love after that, but I had never have butterflies in my stomach again :) . My scent during that summer years was Acqua di Gio

If I could bottle a summer scent it would definitely include a salty and rubbery skin accord (because my skin smells salty and rubbery during hot sunny days ,it´s a smell that only occurs during this season), gardenia, perhaps just a pinch of fruits, (or green veggies!), musk.

[Tammy]

1. My best vacation was a trip I took to a small town in Japan called Takayama. I ate rice patties smothered in soy sauce and roasted on a skewer and watched a fabulous traditional parade with the oldest floats in Japan. That was the same trip that my husband proposed to me. Loved it.

2. If I could bottle up a summer scent, I would want a scent that smells like lemon pez and never leaves. I could roll around in that scent and never get tired of it -- refreshing and cheerful, like a good summer should be.

[Julie]

My most memorable vacation was when my husband and I went to the mountains of northern Alabama to do some genealogy research and wound up discovering his father's family, which we knew absolutely nothing about. My husband had spent his whole life looking for/wondering about them and we were thrilled to finally track them down.
If I bottled the smells of summer it would be the smells from my childhood on a Florida barrier island: the smell of rain on a hot shell road, salt spray, Australian pine needles and books.

[dDub]

Most memorable vacation started with a few days in Rome, then a dive up the coast to the south of France where we rented a small villa in Grasse. It was not as private as we hoped it would be so instead of lounging by the pool we drove all over the coast, made our own perfumes (they stunk!) at Galimard, and even stopped by Julia Child's summer residence.

I bought a bottle of Baroque at Fragonard when I was there and that is the scent of late summer for me now.

[dDub]

To answer the second question I would try to bottle dry dusty olive trees, oranges, leather, salt, geranium leaves, and the scent of a crisp mineral-y white wine.

[Barbara]

My most memorable summer vacation was a three week trip to London and then Paris. Our daughter was finishing her MA in the UK so I traveled from NY and met her in London. We traveled via the Eurostar and arrived in Paris during the heat wave of August 2008. The heat didn't slow us down as we visited the Louvre, Monet's Giverny Gardens, the Eiffel Tower and many other historical sites. But of course, we found many of our favorite perfumeries: Les Parfums de Rosine newly decorated salon,Guerlain's Champs Elysees flagship store, Annick Goutal's place and finally, Royal Palais - Serge Lutens salon! I regret that I was such a neophyte back then and didn't truly appreciate the scents the way I do now, thanks to my favorite bloggers and Sniffapalooza's special events in NYC.

So the fragrance of summer for me is Serge Lutens Sa Majeste La Rose.

Thanks for offering this giveaway!

[Jennifer]

Memorable would be first trip to NYC as a child looking up at the World Trade Tower from the street level and having the impression that it was falling on me. Macy's at Harold Square was like a royal palace to a small town kid. The food in NY was absolutely delicious and not at all comparable to anything I had ever tasted back home. The street vendors scented the sidewalks with divine aromas of meat on a stick. The scents traveled well in the sticky heated air. The heat was unbearable coming off the streets like a shimmering mirage. A small breeze was like a devine gift. The whole place was a circus! Above ground the swirling chaos of traffic and cacophony of shrieking cars, buses and people everywhere. The subway was a baffling maze of crowds and noise and various odors and mal-odors. We walked until we could no longer feel our legs and they were set on robotic motion. Then we collapsed in a tiny room, woke up and did it again the next day...
Summer smells to me of reality super-heated: warm fruit, warm meat, smoke from the BBQ, sulpher smoke from fireworks, warm skin, sweat and suntan lotion, warm hair, warm grass, warm metal of baking cars, warm car and bus exhaust, warm scent of sun-baked plastic car interior, warm rubbery noxious tar fumes from the pavement and melting tar from apartment building rooftops where you go to escape the heat (ha-ha). All this juxtaposed by an occasional breeze or cooling shower. Summer in the city!

[Alexandra]

I have had quite many great summer vacation experiences, but the most notable has been in Jamaica in 2005. It was a life changing experience, a turning point signalling life before and after Jamaica. A summer fragrance of my choice would be smelling very natural, something like my skin only better; so maybe it would be in the form of body oils, like musc ravageur oil, because summer is sexy, and cannot imagine any citrus or too many flowers on me evoking this feeling. Musc, and spices but not in a spray, as it'd be overwhelming!

[KathyT]

A car trip to Prince Edward Island with my grandparents when I was 12 remains one of my most memorable trips. Living in the southeastern US, it was a treat to go somewhere cold in July, and I can remember the rocky coastline in New England because it was so different from my usual summer beach trips in South Carolina.

A perfume capturing summer for me would include honeysuckle, wet grass, ozone from summer storms, Coppertone and Hawaiian Tropic suntan lotion, and chlorine from the pool

[Alexandra]

Plus, the oil would be soothing for the tanned skin.

[Tourbillion1]

There are lots of memorable vacations, but since we are discussing summer, I'll mention a summer one. When I was a kid my parents got a cabin with another family on the shore in Maryland, we went to the beach every day. There were lots of horseshoe crabs there, which I'd never seen before, someone got a jellyfish sting (so I was terrified of them for a while). We got lobsters for dinner and I remember them escaping and running around the kitchen floor, my dad caught them and put them in the pot. It was a fun but relaxing summer beach vacation the likes of which I haven't been able to replicate.

My summer fragrance would be a beach one. The smell of the ocean, and coconut sunscreen. So, I guess it would be Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess, right?

[Lavanya]

Lots of memorable vacations- My trip to Italy being one of them- but that was during rainy fall, not summer- so racking my brains for another one.. Oh yes- to escape the unbearable heat during the summers in India- we'd often drive to a 'hillstation'. One such place was Kodaikanal (in Tamil Nadu), that we'd often visit. I am not sure about now- but about 10-15 years ago- it was untouched and I loved the raw beauty of the Western ghats. On one of these trips, we stayed at a guesthouse, where the cook had at one time been a Royal Chef- Imagine our delight at being fed by him (I still remember my sister overeating the fluffy idlis he made..lol).

Because of obvious reasons (heat) summer was never my favorite season in India (except for the mangoes)
Now, if I had to bottle summer in a fragrance - I'd chose the scent of raw mangoes laced with chili powder.

[Sunduri]

Most memorable vacation: There's a tie between India and Jamaica. I went to both places in my 20's with people who were born in each respective country. I spent a month in India, traveling from Calcutta to Jaipur, Agra, Deli. What I recall most from that trip is the smell of sandalwood and spices. The history and architecture in that country is breathtaking. In Jamaica, I spent time in Kingston and in the country. Memories from there include sunset on a beach, cooking fresh caught snapper stuffed with callaloo over a fire, the smell of incense and sensi, and the perfume, Poison, which I wore everywhere. Once night fell in Kingston, it seem like everyone lit a BBQ to cook dinner and the smell of charcoal burning drifted on the summer air. Lovely.

Best summer frag: for me, it has to be Poison. I know its heavy and not everyone's idea of a summer perfume, but because it immediately transports me back to Jamaica, it says "summer" to me, despite the fact I no longer wear it.

[Elizabeth T.]

My most memorable vacation was going to the Christmas markets in Austria with my parents. I was studying abroad in Italy and they came for a week visit! Ahh, gluehwein and snow....
If I could bottle one fragrance of summer, it would be a giant bouquet of peonies with and a dash of mint. I know those don't sound so complementary to each other, but if they did I would love it!

[samberg]

My best friend rented a cabin in upstate New York one July. While deep in the humid Catskills woods she married her boyfriend, with me and my boyfriend as the entire wedding procession. It was a simple, tasteful and very intimate wedding.

My bottled smell would be the fleeting tang of summer fling paramours; faded men's aftershave, the yeasty taste of beer, and roadside sweet rocket mixing with wisteria in the breeze.

[OperaFan]

Oh, must I choose between Yosemite, honeymoon in Italy, and a drive down the California coast? I cannot! But since I consider Yosemite to be my spiritual home, I will say that the most memorable times were spent within the borders of this incredible national park.

The fragrances that comprise Yosemite for me would have to include the various evergreens including western hemlock, jeffrey pine, fir, cedar, and sequoia trees, the sun-baked dirt and dust, the smell of the earth after a sudden rainstorm in the hot summer, and the smell of campfires with various foods cooking.

Thanks for letting me indulge in my mind!

[Denise]

The first vacation that came to mind was 6 weeks spent in Cuernavaca, Mexico in the 11th grade, as part of an intensive Spanish-language study program. Yes, there was schooling involved, but I had a lot of free time to explore, too. It was my first taste of independence and my first summer love, all wrapped up in perfect weather and lush mountain vegetation.

My ideal summer scent would have a sunny citrus tang, softened with an abstract blend of non-indolic flowers, plush musks, and a touch of woody incense.