To Smoulder in the Heat

Los Angeles is in the middle of a withering heat wave — the kind that makes me only want to come out at night — and all I can think about is cable knits and trench coats, hot mulled apple cider, crisp breezes, and all things autumnal. Lucky people live in places where the weather is just starting to cool, and the stores are already breaking out the ubiquitous plasticky pumpkin flavored everything, but here the sun beats down relentlessly and the temperatures are steady at 100° F with no end in sight.

So what do you do when you’re ready to bring out the deep, dark, mysterious Oriental perfumes and settle into your cashmere cowl neck, but the heat won’t break? Sometimes perfume is too much altogether, and you’re just in no mood for citrus, or tropical florals, or anything else in the world but autumn spice.

L’Occitane’s Vanille & Narcisse Body Milk has been getting me through the days. It’s the equivalent of silk stockings – the vanilla is cool and smooth, much like the airy Vanille Insensee by Atelier Cologne, but with a subtle, pervasive wood lurking underneath. Maybe cedar, or a touch of sandalwood – I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s a powdery wood with a cinnamon-like heat to it. This body milk is so potently scented that a little smoothed on the legs in the morning will give a light scent to last the day. I would even wear a dab on each wrist in lieu of perfume. It’s cooling in the heat, like a luxurious dusting powder, but spicy and warm as well.

The nights bring out my craving for something seriously vampy, and the night I went to see the fantastic Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, I discovered that one of my favorite heavy hitters not only matched the dark, gritty glamour of the movie, but also didn’t kill us all in the outrageous heat of the night.

L’Agent by Agent Provocateur is a seriously dark and feminine oriental that reminds me in character of older Orientals like Must de Cartier and Paloma Picasso, and the sleaker, more citified Donna Karan New York in the black and gold swan bottle from the early 90s – all complex rosewood and pie spices with hints of leather and a streak of green. But the old familiar Orientals like these and the more traditional Shalimar, Opium, and Obsession, are relentless and sickly sweet in any kind of heat because they rest on a traditional base of amber and vanilla.

Instead, l’Agent relies on a pervasive, smoky incense that characterizes the entire composition, beginning to end. It’s not one of the ubiquitous genderless incenses that are popular right now. This incense, while smoky, is kid-glove soft and struts in on stilettos, and if you’re close enough, you can smell her expensive lipstick and face powder, a hint of fabric softener, and hints of her boyfriend’s vetiver cologne. L’Agent is all woman. And it works in the heat because, as they say, it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity. Where other Orientals can suffocate with their swampy sweetness in warm temperatures, l’Agent is a dry heat. L’Agent in the heat of September in Los Angeles is like the forboding relief that comes with the Santa Anas.