Lassi Come Home

I can't tell you how much I've been looking forwards to using that line.


Anyway, Lassi is one of the spring scents from Haus of Gloi that went live today. This is Lassi's third year in the shop and I'm very excited to see it back. My relationship with Lassi has been a bit odd. I didn't always love her, you see. It's kind of like one of those movies where the hero chases after the high maintainence love interest and then, in the end finally really sees the less flashy one who's been there all along and falls for her.

photo courtesy Haus of Gloi

Lassi debuted originally with Maedwe (no longer available) and Seeress (renamed Selkie) both of which I adored. Lassi was okay but it didn't send me into paroxysms of rapture the way the other two did. Both of them are damp, earthy, wet grass and dandelions smells, the sort of thing that vividly invokes the first fresh, green days of spring. I bought both in every format available. I bought samples of Lassi, because I liked it, but my focus was on her two elegant, dewy sisters.


And yet...both of those smells are so very specific in what they conjure up for me. Selkie is the wetter of the two, "The break of waves, gurgling sea foam, kelp, rain tinged air, sand smoothed driftwood and wild sage" it has an oceanic tinge to it and always makes me think of "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,"* where the driftwood marker with Anna's name on it is shown aging to illustrate the passage of time, the ending of winter and the birth of spring, cycling by year after year. Maedwe, on the other hand, was "Pesky dandelions, red clover patches, creeping sweetpea blooms and the dense afternoon haze of blossoming fruit trees." It was the greener scent, a grassy wet spring rain fragrance, like that first day the dandelions start popping up in the grass. Britton only offered it the one year, but elements of the perfume went into both Ploughman and Milkmaid, which she is offering again this year.


And then there's Lassi. "Cool, fresh mango cream, Tunisian orange blossom absolute, black ginger to ground, splash of green tea and a soft squeeze of lime juice." Inspired by that tasty Indian beverage, it smells like an extra-fruity version of exactly that. In the jar, the sugar scrub has the sweetest smell, like a lime SweetTart. Both the lotion and the perfume format have the richest version of the scent, a burst of lime followed by the underlying green tea and creamy ginger scents with just a whiff of mango and orange. It doesn't smell like anything other than what it is, a sweet, delicious, fruity, beverage inspired scent. But somehow, it's turned into my go-to scent.

stock image from somewhere.

It's impossible to feel unhappy when you're wearing Lassi. It's like wearing laughter. It's bright, it's bubbly and it goes with everything. The longer you wear it, the more it grows on you. When I can't decide what to wear, when I'm not looking for anything specific, or when I just want to smell happy, I reach for Lassi. The second year it was available, I bought a large size in everything it came in, scrubs, lotion, perfume, the lot. It's one of the few products I've used up and need to replace, I wear it so often. Much as I like lime and other citrus-scents, I never would have expected this to become the olfactory equivalent of a best friend, and I find myself reaching for it, over and over again. It's not terribly exotic or heady, it doesn't transport me to some far-off place or inspire romantic visions, it just makes me happy. What more could you want from a bottle of perfume?




*The 1947 movie. Go watch it, it's great.