The orange blossom I bring back
On a small bottle I always pick up in the South of France — and on the case for having one luxury aromatic that you do not use casually.
There is a small bottle of orange blossom essential oil on the top shelf of the bathroom cabinet that I bring back from a small distillery near Grasse whenever I am in the South of France, which is perhaps once every two or three years. The bottle is small — fifteen millilitres — and it costs about forty-five euros at the distillery. The same oil, bought in a perfume shop in any major European city, would cost about eighty. I always bring two or three bottles back, both for myself and for friends who have come to expect them.
I use the orange blossom sparingly — perhaps two or three drops, on perhaps two or three occasions a week. A drop on the inside of the wrist on a particular morning. A drop or two in the diffuser when guests are coming over and I want the apartment to smell slightly more luxurious than usual. A drop on the small handkerchief that lives in my pocket when I am going to a small important event.
On the case for a luxury aromatic
Most of what I write about is in the spirit of using simple things consistently. The orange blossom is the small exception. It is the small luxury aromatic that I do not use casually, and the not-using-casually is the part that makes it work. Used every day, the orange blossom would, within months, become background. Used three times a week at most, it remains the small special thing it is.
I think there is a small case to be made for having one such item in your aromatic collection. One thing that is too good to use daily. One thing that you reserve for the specific occasions that warrant it. The reservation is, in itself, a small piece of structure in the week — and the small occasional use is, in itself, a small mark of an important day or a special evening.
The orange blossom, in our apartment, has earned its small luxury status by being, more or less, the only oil I use this way. Every other oil is for daily use. The orange blossom is for the special occasions. The structure works. The bottle lasts. The small ongoing supply from Grasse, every two or three years, has become one of the small constants of my aromatic life.