On a summer evening cool enough to turn off the A/C and open the windows, or with evening rain dropping the temperature, I like to have the warm scent of perfumed candle burning while I am reading or writing. Taking advantage of summer's cool humidity to carry and magnify the fragrance, I can also use the flame to serve as a point of contemplation when stopping to look up and think from time to time. Then the perfume in the candle creates an atmosphere for my mind's fascination in the flame.
As is well known of the Annick Goutal house, each of the fragrances is inspired by a personal association or individual who has been closely connected to Annick Goutal, or now to her daughter, Camille, who continues this practice. Petite Chérie, inspired by Camille's emerging beauty as a teenager, is the one I have been using this summer…
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Denmark and India are two very different countries. In fact, I am hard pressed to imagine two countries with less in common. This is probably why, being half Danish and half Indian, I tend to notice the very few occasions when they share something. On a recent trip to India, in the garden of the house that used to belong to my grandparents, I was enchanted to see a whole wall covered with fragrant sweet pea flowers. I was enchanted not only because of their wonderful colors and fragrance, but also because as a child spending summers in Denmark, my most vivid fragrance recollection is that of sweet peas as well. They grew profusely in my Danish grandparents' garden and thrive in the mild Danish summer climate, while limiting their life span in India to the (very) early spring before the summer heat sets in. 
During our recent cold spell and rain-storms here in the Northeast, I felt a craving for a rich, comforting scent to bring some depth, light and warmth into my surroundings. I wandered around sniffing my half burnt candles trying to decide which to light, but nothing quite seemed to resonate. My all-time favorite blustery weather candle, Mure Sauvage by L'Artisan, was all finished, and I was about to give up my search when I came across an unopened box — African Lily by Red Flower. 
An archipelago is a chain of islands. A monogram is a single decorative letter, an initial. Here at Now Smell This, we all know what candles are: “hunks of perfumed wax with embedded wicks in extravagant containers that produce: scented air, warm light, and, in extreme cases, heavy debt or bankruptcy.”