REDHEADS, CARROTS & FRAGRANCES!

The most seductive redhead of Hollywood - Rita Hayworth

"Gentlemen may prefer blondes, but it takes a real man to handle redheads!" (unknown author)

I am fascinated by red hair since I was a little. I was once told that children with red hair and freckles were in fact rusty by water, and it happened because they had stayed too long in the bathtub. Probably that was sad attempt to shorten my baths - I say that because I till today I have the habit of taking very long ones, but I don't really recall if this was was said to me in that context. Truth is, all the friends that I loved the most for being naughty, witty and cheerful, were redheads. The more freckles they had, the wittier they seemed to be!

JULIENNE MOORE 

Ever since I have been trying to change my blonde locks to auburn (something like Julianne Moore's), but never succeeded. Every hair dresser I consulted told me the same thing: technically it can't be done. Seems that I have a special texture of hair that color won't spread harmonically, and I will end up with stains. So my last and final attempt, ended in frustration, so I decided to settle with my blond color, and that the fantasy of having the looks of Debra Messing from Will & Grace had go for good. I am considering a wig thou...
Fact is that redheads cause more impact on people than any other. I went to look in the internet what kind of emotions redheads cause on people, to try to understand why I am so drawn to it. I found some curious things. For instance, during the Middle Ages redheads were considered witches that have stolen the fire of hell. 
Many magical potions used red hair and they were also ingredients to make certain poisons. Greeks believed that redheads turned into vampires when they died. Russians once believed that people who had redhead were mad, although Russia means "the land of reds". Myth or not, redheads are said to have a hot temper and fiery. I first heard this in my life in Israel, where coincidentally there are a lot of Russians.
On a second thought, having red hair is not such a good things according to history. Redheads were not exactly loved as I thought they were...(ok, we blondes are not alone..I don't know what is worst - being called carrot top, or having to listen to all the dumb blonde jokes).

Carrot top... That gave me a super good idea! If I cannot be a redhead and look like a carrot, at least I can have a whiff of carrots in my life! I love carrots, and there are some great fragrances with carrot notes. Carrot seeds, carrot juices...So let's leave the thoughts about redheads aside for a while, and focus in what we love the most: fragrances!

I LOVE LES CARROTES EDP by HP

In 2010 French organic niche perfumery brand Honoré de Près launched the so called "Bugs Bunny" elixir called I love Les Carrotes EDP, crafted by brilliant perfumer Olivia Giacobetti. It is controversial. A love or hate perfume. Usually, people love it. But some people thought Olivia has gone mad (probably under the spell of a redhead). In my opinion it is quite exquisite. It is the very essence of the carrot, that it seems like to be pulled from the soil (remaining a bit dirty), and squeezed right into the perfume bottle. What I found interesting about this fragrance is the crunchiness of the carrots, combined with the freshness of citrusy notes of oranges. Seems like a juice coming from the kitchen! But there is also a spicy earthy aromatic patchouli-orris combo that drives us away from the kitchen straight back to the garden. It is sweet, it is strange, and irreverent just like Bugs Bunny!
Olfactive notes are: orange, orris butter, vanilla, patchouli and benzoin.
You will find this fragrance at HP's website.

LIKE THIS - TILDA SWINTON EDP by ELO

Another carrot extract also launched in 2010 is Like This - Tilda Swinton EDp by Etat Libre D'Orange, developed by perfumer Mathilde Bejaoui. Here I must say, you will find the liquid representation of the orange color. According to the muse of the fragrance, celeb Tilda Swinton, in her fantasies, there is a lost chapter of Alice in Wonderland, that after drinking from the bottle of Drink Me and after eating from the cake pleading Eat Me, Alice on her way down the rabbit hole finds a flacon with a ginger stem reaching down into a pale golden scent that suggests "Like This" . Well, if it this fragrance would indeed smell like carrots, it would not last inside a rabbit's hole don't you think? Like This could easily be added to my list of Delicious Perfumed Goumandises posted some months ago. It does also remind me of Serge Luten's Jeaux de Peau EDP, but with much less butter, much less pastries, and a very intensified Immortelle.
Olfactive notes composing this fragrance are yellow tangerine, ginger, pumpkin, immortelle, Moroccan neroli, Grass rose, vetiver, heliotrope and musk.
You will find this fragrance at ELO's website.

SEVEN VEILS - BYREDO

Seven Veils by Byredo is another fragrance with an exquisite carrot accent. Click HERE for my full review. Here carrots are combined with pimento berries and liquor notes, using the iris-like quality of carrots, progressing thou to a less tempting vanilla perfume. It is worth sampling due to the carrots. It is really a brilliant opening for a fragrance.
You will find this fragrance at Essenza Nobile website or Byredo's.

NIRMAL EDP BY LABORATORIO OLFATTIVO

Another fragrance reviewed by me with an interesting facet of carrots is Italian niche Nirmal EDP. Usually carrots bring the idea of soil, of earthy - muddy root. It is found underground, and this is exactly why we have this dirtiness sensation about carrots. Here in Nirmal, you will find a fragrance that brings the notion of white. Despite the fact that you think of a clean, fluffy, serene perfume, still you will find some earthiness to it due to the fact that it contains carrots notes. The idea of including a "dirty-earthy" note to create the idea of a clean white cloudy perfume amazed me. To read the complete review of Nirmal, click HERE.
You will find this fragrance at LO's website.

IRISSS EDP by XERJOFF

Luxurious brand Xerjoff oferrs a superlative iris fragrance with many S's - XJ 17/17 IRISSS.
Belonging to the XJ 17/17 collection which fragrances are created by master perfumers in Grasse, using extremely expensive raw materials, IRISSS brings a Florentine iris combined with ylang ylang absolute, violets and carrot seeds.
Well here you will also find a bergamot oil that will combine perfectly with the iris _ ylang and the result is a luxurious and divinely balanced perfume.
You will find this fragrance at XJ's website.


We can also add to the list of fragrances with carrots the following perfumes:


Un Jardin sur Le Nile by Hermès - carrots, tomato, grapefruit, green mango
Iris de Nuit by Heeley - carrots, violets and orris
Sienne D'Orange by TDC - carrots, orange, watercress, suede, cardamom
Mon Numero 8 by L'Artisan Parfumeur - carrots, coriander and apricot
Hiris by Hermès - carrots, coriander and ambrette
Essenza Del Tempo by Trussardi - carrot seeds, bergamot, ginger, ambrette, amber
L'Eau en Blanc by Lolita lempicka - does not contain carrot as a raw material, but certainly it has the carrot seed effect!
Mohur by Neela Vermeire - carrot seeds, cardamom, coriander, ambrette, back pepper, elemi




Well, the list could be long, but a chose some examples that are worth trying...
What we learned today is that carrots can bring dirtiness & earthiness to fragrances; it helps to compose irises notes; and it is mostly seen combined with oranges, coriander, ambrette, cardamom and violets.


OBS.: I have also seen carrots combined with vetiver - which makes perfectly sense to me. I also like Verdoracine by Givaudan, where carrots are freshly peeled, combined with galbanum.

YES TO CARROTS DAILY FACIAL MOSITURIZER

The last but not least, king of carrot products: YES TO CARROTS, owned by lovely Ido Leffler, an Israeli shinning worldwide with his natural, high quality organic cosmetic products.
The reasons why I will always say YES to Ido's products is the fact that he started this business with the idea of offering natural products that really work. The positiveness and the high vibe of the company (say YES to something, embrace it) is contagious.
When I first tried YES TO products 02 years ago in a store in the Dead Sea - Israel, I knew absolutely nothing about the brand. A fragrance freak as myself, I started to smell all the products on the counter. Suddenly I opened a shower gel that had such an amazing comforting scent. So soft, so delicate, sweet-powdery and yet, a bit of an earthy accent of carrots, that brought such a huge smile on my face, that 2 minutes later my husband was negotiating with the attendant a huge discount to take the entire line. And YES!!! I got all the YES TO carrots product, and a bonus: a cucumber calming moisturizer (needles to say, amazing as well). 
I ran to the hotel, filled the tube with warm water (it was a winter vacation) and bathed with the shower gel. To complete the experience I used the shampoo and the body lotion. The thing is, I have never found any product to layer with irises fragrances. And here I was, vacationing on Dead Sea shores, when this carrot scent stroke me as loud as Ido says YES every time he checks his bank account ;-). Maybe he says IECH? I wonder...

IDO saying YES!!

Also adding info, my sister was pregnant and living in NYC where she purchased the products. One day she came to visit me and saw the products in the shower. She told me that the only beauty products she could use while she was in her first trimester was YES TO CARROTS. To me it was very easy to explain to her. Because it is so delicate, so gentle to the nose, and so natural, that her body accepted it immediately. 

Well today I know that YES TO CARROTS awards, so I went on line to look for them to complete this article - the truth is, they received so many prizes and awards (more than 30), that I can't really list here...

I truly recommend this line to be layered with irises fragrances. Needless to say, recommended regardless the layering. It is top quality stuff.

So here you have it my darlings, 

I won't be ever a redhead, but one thing I can say: I can smell naughty, cheerful and be on fire with many fragrances such as the ones listed here!