Thing #20 on the 30 Things is done, and the winner is L’Heure Bleue, by Guerlain. Created in 1912, this is described by Guerlain “a bouquet of roses softened with iris, violet and vanilla,” but you have to go read some of the reviews on Basenotes: “An old woman sobbing softly in a church” (?), “a mixture of White Diamonds and baby powder” (!), “thawing earth and sulking, hardy blossoms.” Apparently, it is a love it or hate it sort of smell.

To me it smells mostly like violets (I’m no perfume expert), but expensive violets–kind of how I imagine someone’s apartment in Paris would smell. It seems calm, and kind, and confident, and those are all good things to be when you’re 30.