Slow Life

I have been thinking a lot about the contemplative state. It is that focused attention that brings insight and nurtures creativity, and lately I've seen just how much it seems to be eroding in humans through device use; all the scrolling and passive consumption that fills any space that would otherwise be fit for such inactivity. I have resolved to deliberately slow down, as if my my whole well being depends on it, leaving room to notice, to reflect. There is something profound about allowing time to slow down especially as we know that what holds our minds captive actually takes so much time (and life) away from us, essentially making us grow old faster. I am allowing the portal for inspiration back into my day to day: the slow life is the way for me. Christèle Jacquemin's Slow Life, inspired by her photographing her time at an artists' residence in the Japanese Alps where she was moved by the her entry into slowness, is an invitation to give heed to our contemplative state. When wearing it, I think of times I've visited the Smith College Indoor Botanic Garden and enter their greenhouse from the bitter cold of winter. I would love to wander through and take in the balmy green scent from all the specimens—various tropical plants with strange blooms, orchids with all manner of smells. There is something about Jacquemin's combining a tart guava leaf oil and nutty-bready sesame absolute that lends that same captivating botanical peculiarity of large, wet, rubbery leaves and savory undertones. It is the Himalayan spikenard oil, however, one of my favorite natural materials for which I hold sacred, that encourages the slowing down in the heart of this creation. A grounding oil, a calming salve for the nervous system, it is similar to Valerian without the sweaty-sock funk. It is sweet earth, top soil, wetland ether and vegetation. Combined with Jasmine sambac here, it feels like a therapeutic elixir to deliver one closer to deliberation. It's lightly dewy and humid sensations soon evaporate into a woody and earthen coda, as slowly as the wearer's state of mind allows it to. See, if our mind is already on to the next thing in queue, then we lose out on the moment to moment, and an experience feels more fleeting than it really should. This is the lesson in this greenhouse of slowing down.

This is my favourite of the ones I tested from the brand. Slow life has a humid floral smell, suggestive of greenhouse. There is also woodines from the sandalwood and fruitiness from the guava. Very unique for sure.

I admire this fragrance for being extremely photorealistic in its green plants floral accords. Though not necessarily jasmine-forward to my nose, so perhaps it’s the nard? I feel like I need to sample this again in spring but having tried it in early September I’m just not sure. I feel like it has little to no sillage and disappears within an hour so for that reason it just doesn’t call to me.

Slow life is a strange work of art. Opens very savory for me- oddly I thought of mac and cheese 😆 but the sesame note is strong and gives a gourmand vibe. Then comes the white flowers and the green- but the sesame is too strong for me and overpowers. It’s a strange one because I do keep going back to smell it because it’s so interesting, but I cannot imagine actually wearing this perfume anywhere. I’m glad I got to try it but this is my least favorite from the line.

Like sticking your nose into a dewy bouquet of flowers, but as the reviewer below said this doesn’t really smell like jasmine, so maybe a bouquet of nard (?).