Following Up: The Daphne Perfume Comparison

So my random musings on trying to capture the scent of daphne have inspired me to see what I can find. And, judging by the Google searches we've been getting for daphne perfume, I'm not alone.

Thus, in the interest of science, I went out and bought three different daphne perfumes to try them out. I then sat outside with our daphne bush and sniffed and compared. (My methods are super-scientific, in case you can't tell!)

For the sake of clarity, our daphne is the Daphne odora "Aureomarginata", or variegated winter daphne. I'm going in holding this as my standard of daphne; however, because there are so many different types and breeds of daphne, your perception of daphne (and the perfumers' perception!) may be different than mine.

- On my left inner elbow, I sprayed Laboissiere Daphne Eau de Toilette. I went and visited Jacqueline Perfumes in Union Square -- what an amazing place! Beautiful vintage perfume bottles, and lots of fragrances that I've seen sighed over in the blogs. The sales associate was very kind and very French, so much so that I felt it necessary to finish the transaction with a "Merci", as if I were in Paris again.

Laboissiere's Daphne is a very powdery warm scent, which isn't what I really associate with daphne. It's a lovely scent, but it feels more like something that one would wear in the cold days of winter; it's not light and floral, and lacks that almost citrus note that daphne has. I still bought it, as it's still very nice, but I'd save it until next winter to wear with a nice coat and cold rosy cheeks.

- On my left inner wrist, I dabbed Cielo by Napa Valley, which I'd bought a sample of from LuckyScent.com. Compared to Laboissiere, it smells much more like daphne, but has a note that rings a little more tropical to me -- it's almost similar to one of the notes in Kai. There's no question that it's a floral, and it's certainly a nice scent. At $60 for 50 mL, it's not much of a price difference from the Laboissiere, and is definitely more in tune of a spring fragrance.

- On my right inner wrist, I tried the Demeter Daphne fragrance again -- I bought the $5 cologne splash in the hopes that maybe my previous judgment of it was wrong. Once the initial alcohol-y smell of the Demeter dries down, there definitely is the strongest scent of daphne among the three perfumes. However, it then becomes very sweet, almost to the point of not being floral anymore. It's very girly and not very strong; I would recommend it if that's your sort of perfume, but not if you're really looking for a true lasting daphne scent. I've found that Demeter fragrances vary in their lasting power; Tomato lasts for a long time (and I love it), but Ginger Ale isn't half as strong or as lasting. Daphne doesn't seem to be one of their longer lasting ones.

So what's my final judgment? All the perfumes have their good qualities, and I can see what they're trying to pull out from the daphne scent. Laboissiere is a very adult, warm, almost powdery fragrance that works well for the winter; I've heard daphne described as "spicy", which I don't really agree with, but maybe we're thinking of different types of daphne. Cielo is the closest to achieving the actual spring-y floral scent of daphne, but does have that odd little undertone of something else (I want to say banana, but I'm not that good at picking out notes!); I'm assuming it's the honeysuckle, as Cielo is a blend and not just pure daphne, but I may be wrong. Demeter's Daphne is cute and light, but not quite the same as the flower itself, and would need a lot of reapplying to maintain the scent.

...Which I guess means that my final judgment is that it all depends on what you're looking for in your daphne perfume. Ultimately, if I had to pick one of the three as the best daphne perfume, I would pick Cielo.

Are there any other daphne perfumes you know of? Have you tried any of these three? Let me know what you think; what am I missing from this list?

image from greatplantpicks.org