Trixie. The Sign on the Gate
Updated: Oct 12
Olfactorium
She was wiring a cardboard sign that said «For Sale» to the gate, and the wire kept twisting loose and scratching her palm. It was July, past three in the afternoon, and her shoulders, burnt on the station platform, stung under the straps of her sundress.
Her grandmother had left her the dacha. For three summers she had come once a month: she mowed the grass, watered the apple trees, closed the shutters and left on the last train. The buyer had promised to come on Sunday morning.
That morning, before the trip, she had put Trixie on her wrists and neck. In the stuffy train carriage she forgot about it.
In the evening she went at the mint. Her grandmother's bed had crept out over the path, and she was ashamed to show that to a buyer. She pulled the stems out in fistfuls, the roots tore, soil spilled onto her feet, and mosquitoes whined right by her ear.
The sun dropped behind the pines, and coolness rose from the ground at once. She crushed a mint leaf over her palm, and the cold came instantly. The same cold was coming from her wrist, only cleaner, with menthol and a spray of lemon.
A minute later flowers came in over the cold. Lilac and water jasmine arrived like wet foam, and it felt as if a garden had suddenly spread out around her.
She sat down on an upturned bucket and stayed there a long time. The dacha around her was overgrown, yet the air smelled as if the lilac by the porch were blooming again, the way it did in May when her grandmother was alive.
She gathered the pulled stems in an armful and planted them back in the loose soil, firmly, roots down. Then she carried the watering can from the rain barrel and watered the bed until dark.
In the dark she unwound the wire on the gate, took the sign down and carried it into the house. In the morning she used it to shade the replanted mint from the sun.
«An elusive image, a fresh take on life, and always a smile.»
How it smells
The opening is icy. Menthol and peppermint bring the cold at once, clear as a breath by a river at dawn, and Sicilian lemon sprays its tartness.
Then the flowers come in like wet foam: lilac and water jasmine, softened by juicy lychee. The mint runs through the petals the whole time.
By evening cedar and leather take on the coolness, sweet musk settles softly, and the freshness stays on the skin into the night.
What makes it special
Trixie belongs to the Olfactorium collection, a fresh green scent for women and men for spring and summer. The brand calls it refreshing, natural and optimistic and speaks of a sunny spring day and a field of flowers whose scents shimmer in the wind. Its top notes gather eight kinds of mint, menthol and a frozen mint accord. On Fragrantica it is called the best mint in perfumery: beside Miller et Bertaux Menta y Menta it sounds more interesting and more many-voiced. A reviewer on Aromo describes the opening as a mint lozenge that slowly grows into a complex, beautiful, expensive bouquet. People wear Trixie in the heat, when they want coolness and a good mood.
Notes
Top: menthol, peppermint, pennyroyal, apple mint, field mint, spearmint, horse mint, water mint, frozen mint accord, Sicilian lemon, basil, mandarin, reed, lychee, raspberry, apple, green tea
Heart: lilac, green lilac, water jasmine, peach blossom, wisteria, red peony, Chinese osmanthus, amaryllis, water lily, white peach, pink pepper, rose, violet, cactus orchid
Base: white Lebanese cedar, blue cedar, vanilla, sweet musk, amber, patchouli, leather
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