Take 5 Petrichor Perfumes to Bring the Rain
Petrichor is the evocative smell of raindrops hitting parched earth, a magical moment when the earth seems to sigh with relief alongside us, releasing its cool, earthily verdant and calming scent. Here are 5 petrichor perfumes to enjoy whenever your nose needs…
WORDS: SUZY NIGHTINGALE
Are you a pluviophile? That is: a lover of rain - someone who finds joy and peace of mind during rainy days. We imagine many of us in the UK whooped with joy the moment raindrops kissed the earth this week, having struggled through various heatwaves, droughts, and wildfires. We need much more, of course, but even a few minutes of cooling rain were relished, and surely the smell of petrichor wafting through open windows has never been quite so welcome.
petrichor /PET-ri-ker/. noun. The smell of rain on hot earth or pavement. From Greek petra (stone, rock) + ichor (or I-KORE) which, in Ancient Greek mythology, was the liquid that flowed in the veins of the gods.
“It’s like a distillation of the world around us, magnified and intensified, that dusty, damp, mineralic yet verdantly alive smell so instantly evocative and calming”
The word ‘petrichor’ was invented by scientists Isabel Joy Bear and Richard Thomas in 1964. They used it in their scientific article, The Nature of Argillaceous Odour, to explain the evocative smell that wafts from the earth following rainfall. During their studies, they’d observed that cattle seemed to react strongly to this smell, and were following the scent to seek fresh drinking water.
The second a raindrop hits parched earth, it releases geosmins – micro-organisms hidden in the ground mixed with the smell of plant oils and ozone itself: that’s petrichor. It’s like a distillation of the world around us, magnified and intensified, that dusty, damp, mineralic yet verdantly alive smell so instantly evocative and calming.
Perfumers love the smell of petrichor, too, and through ingenious accords (mixtures of fragrant materials) create little olfactory microclimates of their own, gentle showers or full on rainstorms, captured and bottled for us to spritz whenever we wish.
The ingredients they use often include galbanum – a bitter, aromatic gum resin extracted from the stems and roots of giant fennel, which smells of freshly snapped stalks and crushed leaves; along with other naturals like vetiver (damp, grassy, cooling), patchouli (wet earth, freshly turned soil) and even those geosmins themselves. A huge number of synthetic aroma molecules can also be employed to recreate rainfall, such as Floralozone, which mimicks clean, watery air and the electric freshness of the atmosphere following a lightning strike.
With much of the country having been converted to ‘pluviophiles’ now, if you’re desperately seeking scents to cool and calm, we have you covered.
Worn on sweltering days as a kind of rain dance in a bottle, or sprayed to rejoice in actual rain showers, we regularly douse ourselves in the following petrichor perfumes, and urge you to seek out these five rapturously rain-filled fragrances to try for yourselves…
Perfumer H Rain Wood
Lyn Harris makes perfumes that feel like wearing poetry, and this one was ‘Inspired by Lyn’s childhood memories in the vast Scottish Highlands.’ The handblown, refillable bottle is of course highly covetable, but in any format this soulful scent sings of wide open spaces, the stillness of a rain-soaked forest, droplets carrying leafy galbanum and fresh elemi to a deeper hush of resinous myrrh, black pepper and wet patchouli leaves.
From £150 for 50ml eau de parfum perfumerh.com
Goutal Un Matin d’Orage
Capturing ‘the fragile moment when the garden wakes up after the rain’, this luminous scent evokes flowers and foliage seeming to gather themselves and shimmy, scattering a rainbow of droplets as sun rays emerge from glowering skies. Shiso and ginger feel airily aqueous, while a crystaline tuberose reveals a green and subtle fruitiness. Gardenia glows softly, as damp bark and shady resins prolong the perfumed picture of nature gloriously reborn.
£126 for 50ml eau de parfum johnlewis.com
Vallense Spirit
Transporting us to the mossy banks of a river, raindrops stipple silvery water and the air seems newly washed. Perfumer Pia Long opens with an invigorating rush of Mitcham mint and geranium, crushed green leaves beneath a clearing sky revealing a resinous heart. As it settles, cedar wood, box tree and patchouli entwine with holy grass – earth exhaling its mineral, mossy scent; wet bark darkening beside the riverbank, a cool veil of rain still sparkling in the air.
£197 for 100ml eau de parfum vallensefragrances.com
Norfolk Natural Living Coastal Walks
‘Like being caught in a sudden shower, then watching as the light shifts everything into gold’, their lyrical description perfectly encapsulates this ever-evolving scent, which segues from salty, wind-whipped beach walk air to shadows of clouds reflected in the silvery stillness of rock pools. Within, a glow of bergamot and lemon lifts a breeze of pine trees and jasmine petals, warming to a woody base , enhancing ‘That feeling of standing at the edge of the world, wind at your back, salt on your lips, completely and utterly present.’
From £20 for 10ml eau de parfum norfolknatural.com
Neal’s Yard Petrichor
Bottling ‘warm rainfall on bare earth’, wearing this new scent from Neal’s Yard feels like standing in a doorway at dusk, listening to the gentle patter of rain and then stepping into the garden, head tilted skyward, eyes closed and smiling, breathing in the sense of relief and calming earthiness surrounding you. Cool, dampened lavender meets warmer, ambery woods as drifts of frankincense evoke curls of incense melting into petrichor’s mistiness. An instanst mood-shifter.
£85 for 50ml eau de parfum nealsyardremedies.com
NB Always written by humans, never AI.