DSH Perfumes French Linden Blossom

I love to think about the beautiful linden tree-lined road that leads from Rome to Rieti, the city where I was born in Italy. Visiting my grandparents and other family was always associated with happiness and fun times growing up, so driving along that road created anticipation for all those joyful feelings to come.

By my grandparents’ apartment in the city, more linden trees grew and dappled the roads along the nearby houses and complexes, and also the park we often played at. The scent of the linden blossoms was especially inebriating as the wind blew through the large trees’ thick branches and foliage. Their aroma was penetrating and radiant with touches of honeyed, tea-like sweetness.

I had never encountered a fragrance with notes that even remotely reminded me of the scent of those blossoms, but when I sniffed DSH Perfumes French Linden Blossom I recognized a familiar aroma that brought me back to those blooming trees.

French Linden Blossom includes a light and refreshing linden blossom accord laced with honeydew and cucumber touches as gentle as fingertip kisses. I perceive a delicate, aquatic greenness along with a slight pollen-like quality and a sprinkle of lime zest, but without the sweeter, headier character of linden blossoms.

Discreet and sheer, this is a fragrance that remains intimate and close to the skin and, yet, persists and continues to surprise me with luminous gusts that transport me back in time. It’s a subtle fragrance that nicely expresses the spring mood.

A painter by trade, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz is the founder of DSH Perfumes and an incredibly prolific perfumer. She is very well known and liked in the perfumery industry, and her presence and mentorship are inspiring to many in the fragrance community. She is the first USA independent perfumer I discovered, and I have been very lucky to try many of her fragrances. The breadth of her offerings is impressive, and I look forward to talking about more of them.

The fragrance is described on the DSH website, as follows:

“An ethereal, almost cucumber-like floral note with sweet honey-melon nuances.”

“The epitome of early summer in fragrant form!  Nothing is quite like the delicate yet narcotic aroma of Linden trees in bloom…  Only bees can truly speak to their eternal beauty.”

I reviewed DSH Perfumes French Linden Blossom from my own 30 ml Voile de Parfum and body lotion flacons.

The Voile de Parfum contains a 15-20% oil concentrate that is both light and soft, and also easily absorbed by the skin. The lotion carries the same scent with a lush and smooth texture. The fragrance is also available as Eau de Parfum in different sizes.

Photos are my own.