The Power of Perfume During Lockdown: Your Stories

Sylvaine Delacourte’s Message

Hello everyone,

Just before the end of lockdown, I took out my old perfume vials intended for the next Collection to evaluate and smell them with a fresh nose that has taken a step back. This phase truly enchanted and stimulated me. While perfume is not essential, wearing your favorite scent is like a ray of sunshine passing through the window. Just like when you smell a beautiful flower, when you wear perfume, you tell yourself that life is beautiful and that softness is essential. I realized that we are more than ever a whole, a community that helps each other and shares the light pleasures of life.

Indeed, sharing is a way to restore optimism and look at the future differently; it would be wonderful to benefit from your experience. I want to hear your feelings and impressions on a perfume you enjoyed wearing during this lockdown period. Perhaps a Sylvaine Delacourte perfume changed your way of apprehending this period?

These last few months, I chose to wear comforting and tender fragrances, notably Florentina and Dovana. It healed me, soothed me, and did me a lot of good during this difficult time.

You can reply to this email by answering the following question in a few sentences: how did perfume help you get through this period? We will then share your answers with the entire Sylvaine Delacourte community!

Thank you in advance for your testimonies,
Sylvaine Delacourte and the whole team

Many of you sent us your olfactory testimonies. We took great pleasure in reading you and we wish to share your messages with you.

Softness and Comfort: Your “Cuddly” Perfumes

Claire
I received my first perfume from you, Ozkan, for my birthday in January. It accompanied me with its softness and comforting warmth throughout the lockdown, with the added appropriate lightness given the beautiful Provence sun. I am delighted with my choice and congratulate you on your refined creativity.

Delphine
Dovana, my comforting and reassuring cuddle…

Anonymous
Hello, during all this time, incense perfumes accompanied me. I perceive protection, soothing, and the sacred in incense. Thus dressed in its swirls, I fear no danger; they were and are my rituals against gloom…

Marianna
I adore your perfumes. I have the 2 vanilla and musk test sets. During the lockdown period, I took pleasure in perfuming myself with Dovana and Florentina, which correspond to the soft notes I am looking for. Bravo and delighted to have known your perfumes.

Source of Happiness and Energy

Isabelle (Canada)
I am in Canada and I was lucky enough to receive Sylvaine Delacourte’s three Collections during my lockdown. It brought me a lot of happiness, joy, and comfort to have the chance to discover these splendid perfumes.

• The smell of pine needles in Oscarine and in Virgile brought me directly back to my childhood. I lived in a pine forest and the smell of pine represents protection and calm for me.
• Smeraldo and Valkyrie gave me energy and enthusiasm.
• Vahina rocked me in the evening in a soft and soothing caress.
• Lilylang brought me happiness and dreams.
• Ozkan gave me strength and solidity during my grayer moments.

During lockdown, the one I was most eager to smell, the one that gave me the most well-being and a sense of wonder is the sublime and magnificent perfume Osiris. A fabulous and intoxicating powdery scent.
Before receiving the samples, as I am a nurse and osteopath, I wore Guerlain’s Angélique Noire during my workdays, and I had the profound feeling that this perfume brought me physical and psychic protection to face my workdays.
I ordered Virgile and Osiris; I am waiting for them impatiently and since I fell under the charm of several, I will order others soon. Decidedly, these perfumes will be one of the very good things that will remain in my memories of this somewhat sad period for humanity. Thank you.

Anonymous
I just put on Dovana and I am very happy.

A Form of Therapy for Morale

Corina
Perfume is therapy for me. During this special period, I perfumed myself more than ever. And yes, your perfumes, Madame Delacourte, were among my choices. One day, when my morale was really very low, the icy and invigorating magic of Oranzo worked wonders! I fell in love once again with this perfume. And Olyssia was my dose of well-being, joy, and softness.

Antoinette
For me, Oranzo was the perfume that helped me every morning to fade this sadness that accompanied all my awakenings.

Elisabeth
Hello, good idea this exchange on this subject! For my part, perfume is very important. I loved wearing Kenzo ça sent beau, which I managed to order to console myself for a somewhat special birthday this year; I hadn’t worn it for 29 years! A flashback in short… I don’t have a perfume from your brand yet, I tried them all thanks to the sample boxes and if I could have, I would undoubtedly have worn Dovana. I think I will decide on this one even if the choice is difficult! The 3 collections are very beautiful! Maybe a fourth one soon? To make us even more undecided.

Catherine
In a period like the one we are going through, it is important to keep rituals, to do as before, not to let oneself go, to sink. Perfume is part of this ritual. It ends the washing rite; it completes an outfit. So even if we get up to find ourselves behind a computer at home, it remains important for oneself to do good, to take care of oneself. Perfume is part of the adornment. Every day. Best regards.

Emmanuelle
A few months before lockdown, I bought a small box of perfume samples on the theme of vanilla, Delacourte Paris perfumes. During this period, I was able to test the different creations around vanilla and I “feasted.” I can’t choose which one I could wear regularly. They are all delicious. Morally, these different vanilla perfumes soothed me because for a year I have been going through a horribly difficult period… There, your perfumes are absolutely refined, delicious, and do a lot of good.

Immobile Journey and Memories

Nicole
Dear Madam, I wore Vanori with great pleasure. For me, perfume has accompanied me since my earliest childhood, the time when I made perfumes for my dolls with herbs from the surrounding garrigue. I also tried Helicriss which is magical for those who love the wild spaces of the South. That’s it for my impressions, long life to your so exceptional perfumes!

Thierry
Perfumes helped me stay optimistic and connected to who I am. They made me travel and I even dared to go beyond what I wear to the office for example. Perfumes were companions in this strange adventure. On the other hand, imagination and creativity to create were at a standstill. Thank you for this publication.

Pascale
During this lockdown, my perfume Valkyrie brought me back to memories. Laughter with girlfriends, dance evenings where the scents of my perfume embalmed… It gave me hope to find the happiness of life again.

Marie-Christine
The smell of perfume is associated with our experience! With good times and less good ones… When I wear a perfume I appreciate, I always associate it with my best moments… It makes me travel in my memories, it deliciously intoxicates me and makes me pleasantly relive the beautiful things in my life!

Pleasure of Discovery

Elise
Hello to the whole team behind Sylvaine Delacourte,
To answer this question about the impact of perfume during lockdown, here is what I will say: I am incredibly lucky to be a stay-at-home mom happy in her house and garden, surrounded by her husband and three children, so lockdown was not in the least difficult for me to bear… Nevertheless, the discovery of Delacourte Paris perfumes at the beginning of lockdown via the sample box illuminated these particular weeks. I immediately glimpsed in Florentina my new spring-summer perfume (and surely not only): it is wonderfully soft and feminine, sensual without being flashy, discreet yet present. An olfactory revelation for me, who loves iris enormously, whether in the garden or in my perfume bottle…
What fascinates me with perfumes that correspond to us and amaze us is that they elevate us, in my opinion, just like a work of art. Beauty is not only a matter of art, and to my eyes (or to my nose) a perfume that fulfills us will mark our life and our being just like a painting or music… The memories that a beautiful perfume dresses are stronger, more colorful, and more accessible.
Florentina was for me this delicious note that magnifies peaceful days in the garden sun, moments of joy shared with family, the sweetness of spring that one perceives in the blooming of a rose. I therefore went through this strange period at home peacefully. But adorned with Florentina, like a jewel, I also lived and appreciated it like a celebration.

Heiner
Good evening, excellent initiative!
During lockdown, I used my favorites from the first 2 collections as usual, among which Florentina, Lilylang, and Vahina, no more, no less. However, it was the bottles from the latest collection that particularly delighted me during these 2 months: Osiris mixed with Insolence with a hint of Olyssia which remains my favorite anxiolytic, and without taking anything away from the qualities of the elegant Olyssia alone or the virile Ozkan depending on the mood, I was finally able to discover “in their seasonal juices” with the warm spring days in Lyon the two bottles I had kept for this, the exquisite freshness of Oranzo which was able to replace the swimming pool and especially the sublimissime Oscarine which turns out to be a great masterpiece! This brilliant flower dressed in aromatic veils (the blackcurrant at the heart is perfect after the basil top note!) on a “hinoki-like” woody base that enhances the whole… This Oscarine sticks to my skin like second nature.
It seems (according to the Academy of Medicine) that vitamin D protects against Covid, just like the sun which makes us produce it through its UV rays in the skin. I will have to ensure that Oscarine does not eclipse my sun too much because, reason dictates, both will be needed…

Anonymous (Canada)
I was lucky enough to receive my kit of three samples right in the middle of lockdown in Canada! I wore them all. They gave me joy, pleasure, soothing, comfort, and dreams. They are very high-quality perfumes and the smells are sublime. Virgile, Oscarine, Smeraldo, and Osiris were my favorites. For the night Vahina was so soothing. Thank you for these magnificent perfumes!

Christina
Hello Sylvaine,
Happy to participate in this Perfume and Lockdown experience! I was very lucky “to be” among your creations during Lockdown. Through the notes with the 3 groups introduced by you, I could choose from almost all the scents in your Collections. Perfume is necessary and is part of my life every day without exception! Strangely enough, I had chosen much fresher notes apart from one from the Vanilla Collection Vahina which I liked especially at night after a bath. The very vanilla notes are very enveloping and encouraging for a very good sleep. In the Musk Collection I turned to Dovana which smells of heliotrope without being invasive. That was very important. This perfume is powdery and made me happy and soothed. In the Orange Blossom Collection my preference turned towards Oranzo which transported me to gardens in Croatia, sunny, a place I adore where there are many orange blossoms. This perfume is very fresh and you can really smell the “white” of the petals. You can put a lot on all day long, without restriction. Sometimes it was necessary with all the other restrictions inflicted on us. I think it was Oranzo that lifted my spirits during lockdown.

Françoise
Hello Ms. Delacourte,
First of all, I wanted to share a video with you that illustrates very well what I felt. I follow many videos of YouTubers who speak admirably about perfumes and yours too. Iris Factice, Clémence CC Fragrance, Parfum (the Belgian Delphine), Ma Note de Cœur, Des Paons Dansent 100 Heures. But also many Italian, American, and English channels; it gives me a little exercise.

That’s a bit what I felt; I took refuge for my part in the regressive vanilla.
But as a nurse, I had to be rather warrior-like and I found your Valkyrie fabulous in every way. Lots of character and energy. It is complex, fascinating; its evolution and its staying power are exceptional. To make me reach for a beach where I won’t go this summer, I savor Vanori which gives the best of itself right in the base notes; it plays hard to get but on the skin, it is of a very classy exoticism.

Helene
Working from home since the start date of lockdown, I took advantage of being quiet at home to test all the perfume samples lying around in the bathroom; I made some beautiful discoveries by the way. I also used my free time to perfect my knowledge of perfumery and thanks to manon (@manotedecoeur) and clothilde (@irisfactice), I wanted to discover niche perfumery. It is therefore towards Delacourte Paris perfumes that I turned first and it is with great pleasure that I tested the vanilla and musk kits, delivery timing obliges, during the first days of lifting lockdown in France. I wanted to make this difficult period positive by plunging my nose into the most varied perfumes. I think this will allow me not to associate a particular perfume with this period but rather to associate lockdown with an experience of olfactory discoveries.