“You smell so good,” my husband remarks as I plop down beside him on the couch. It’s 6:45 p.m., and I’ve just spent a little over half an hour sardine-packed between fellow subway commuters, sweating underneath my wool coat as the train chugs across the East River. I smell like something, alright, but “good” isn’t it. I’m about to tell him that newlywed bliss is clearly messing with his senses, but then I catch it—a whisper of the sweet, crisp perfume I sprayed earlier that morning, lingering on my skin with a warm, spicy embrace.

I’m all for a cozy, winter-coded fragrance that evokes curling up next to a crackling fire, but a sophisticated, opulent blend (especially one with incredible sillage) will make my heart sing no matter the season. And this compliment magnet smells particularly expensive—aristocratic, almost, like it belongs on the wrist of a fancy royal. It’s a rumored favorite of Kate Middleton and Princess Charlene of Monaco, though, so maybe I’m just projecting; but I also suspect its intoxicating elegance comes from one wildly underrated note: camellia. Allow me to explain why.

First, I must discuss the fragrance that kickstarted my camellia scent obsession. Krigler’s Extraordinaire Camelia 209 is not a brand-new blend (it launched back in 2009 to celebrate the brand’s 105th anniversary), but it somehow took me until this year to finally give it a spritz. I’m beyond grateful I did, because it has since become my everyday signature. I’ve genuinely never smelled another fragrance like it; I can’t explain it, but it just smells like pure opulence. It’s sweetly crisp at first spritz, but not in a “grandma glamour” sort of way, especially when those notes of cardamom, cedarwood, musk, peppercorn, and vanilla shine through on the dry-down. While it starts as a bright, fresh citrus, it settles into a musky floral, one you can recognize hours after the initial spray.