THE www.perfumesociety.org

NO.scented 46 SPRING 2021 LETTER

#SMELLFIES 50 SHADES THE FRAGRANT 2021 + OF SCENT + FOODIE THE ICONIC EAU DE PARFUM editor’s LETTER

The power of perfume to make us feel positive has kept fragrance-lovers going, for the past year. And despite the fact that it has been almost impossible to walk into a store and try fragrance on the skin, fragrance sales globally have actually accelerated.

You really only have to look at our amazing #Smellfie 2021 story on p.10 to see what fragrance means to all of us. So, so many of our fans, followers and industry friends posted #smellfies for International Fragrance Day on 21st March, and we are delighted to showcase our favourites. Not only were there more fragrance-lovers taking part than ever before, but I’m sure you’ll agree that the bar for creativity was raised even higher, for 2021.

I hope you enjoy the colourful feel to this edition of The Scented Letter. It reflects a wider trend: after the endless dreariness of successive lockdowns, we are totally ready for rainbows. It’s happening in décor, in make-up, in interiors – and in fragrance, too, with brightly-coloured ‘juices’ and bottles. On p.20, discover how perfume houses decide on which colour’s right for which scent – and swoon over some glorious, vibrant flacons that any of us would surely be happy to showcase on our dressing tables.

On p.34, Suzy Nightingale looks at how the future looks bright, for scent-lovers. When IFF (International Flavors & Fragrances) ran a recent survey, 79% of those polled responded that they’d like the opportunity to buy a fragrance ‘with emotional or physical benefits’. Suzy explores how the perfume world will be shaped by that research – while also reflecting on how civilisations have tapped into scent’s mood-boosting power, in the past.

I’m delighted to welcome two new regulars to the magazine. James Craven is a fragrance world legend and award-winning writer who will be sharing his expertise as our ‘Perfume Agony Uncle’, answering real-life scent dilemmas. And Pratap Chahal – also known as ‘That Hungry Chef’, who we first met at his scented London supper clubs – starts a new column, The Fragrant Foodie, which tantalises the senses by showcasing scented ingredients in food and drink, on p.43.

Our biggest-ever run-down of Latest Launches will ensure your finger’s on the pulse, meanwhile. Last year, fragrance houses pressed the ‘pause’ button on plans for countless launches. This spring, many of them are finally being released, and there’s palpable excitement among perfume devotees. Because who isn’t looking for the new, the exciting, after a whole year of – well, the wrong kind of adrenaline, frankly? Turn to p.56, to start planning your spring scent wardrobe.

And may I suggest when you get to wear it out, you celebrate with one of Pratap’s vetiver martinis? (Or maybe three.)

www.perfumesociety.org The Perfume Society @Perfume_Society ThePerfumeSociety

THE scented LETTER 3 CONTRIBUTORS

scentedTHE LETTER

Carson Parkin-Fairley Louise Woollam After many years at The Perfume Once an accountant and part- Society, Carson is now a prop-maker, time perfume writer, now an EDITOR copywriter, workshop organiser, artist almost fully-recovered anosmic Josephine Fairley and maker, successfully pursuing her and parosmic, Louise has [email protected] passion for all things colourful. Creator finally decided to follow her of our bright cover and author of It true vocation and is currently DESIGNER Jenny Semple Takes Me Right Back (p.70), Carson studying for her Master’s degree jennysempledesign specialises in creating fabulous, in comedy. With her first-hand @gmail.com colourful framed icons to celebrate the experience of anosmia/parosmia lives of famous and real people. When – symptoms/side-effects of ADVERTISING permitted, she will host her exhibition, COVID-19 – Louise was the perfect MANAGER Lorna McKay Paradise Found – An Exhibition of Joy, writer for the assignment on p.38, [email protected] at Vout-O-Reenies club in London. offering hope to fellow sufferers. Follow her @carsonparkinfairley Follow her @getlippie SENIOR WRITER Suzy Nightingale [email protected]

MARKETING/BRAND RELATIONSHIPS Victoria Evans [email protected]

BUYING/EVENTS Hettie Jones [email protected]

EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT Georgia Wellard [email protected] Claire Bowen Chloe Counter CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Claire – this issue’s Memories, Dreams, A computer geek at heart, Chloe is Maggie Alderson Reflections interviewee – runs seasonal responsible for The Perfume Society’s flower classes and 1:1 workshops from social media, e-mail marketing and the SOCIAL MEDIA Chloe Counter her studio in South Oxfordshire and as abundance of GIFs – and for this issue, [email protected] a guest florist at Daylesford Farm. She she was our ‘Smellfie Queen’, loves to teach environmentally friendly coordinating the hugely successful CONTACT US methods of floristry in a wild, natural campaign. Relatively new to the [email protected] garden style. She has collaborated fragrance world, she’s enjoying 07748-653288 with many different brands including exploring her fifth sense and building People Tree, Miller Harris and Berry her ever-growing fragrance collection, The Scented Letter is a Bros. & Rudd. Her first book, The all while sharing her new-found free online/downloadable Healing Power of Flowers (Ebury knowledge through fragrance tips and magazine for subscribers to The Perfume Society Press), see p.8, is out now. Find her on perfumery facts to our audience.

COVER: CARSON PARKIN- FAIRLEY PARKIN- CARSON COVER: Instagram @honeysuckle_and_hilda Follow her @seewhycomms

The Scented Letter is produced for The Perfume Society by Perfume Discovery Ltd. All information and prices are correct at the time of going to press and may no longer be so on the date of publication. © 2021 The Perfume Society. All text, graphics and illustrations in The Scented Letter are protected by UK and International Copyright Laws, and may not be copied, reprinted, published, translated, hosted or otherwise distributed by any means without explicit permission.

4 THE scented LETTER contents

10 26 scent gets social the perfume of all perfumes #SMELLFIE 2021 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, O For this annual celebration of CHANEL N .5 International Fragrance Day, 100 years an icon, we look into the our fans and followers got more crystal ball to imagine No.5 in a creative than ever century’s time

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX AROMA PERFUMERY

HAD AN INFERIORITY COMPLEX when I (and smells) a tea-soaked madeleine biscuit. With smell began working in the fragrance industry, informing 80% of what we taste that connection is clear, but compared to the doctors and scientists as Judith elaborates, ‘When we smell, it triggers the limbic in the world who are saving lives,’ admits system. Fragrance connects us to our memories. So we can Judith Gross, Global Marketing Director of use perfume to summon the people we are estranged from, The Perfumed Agony Uncle IFF, during a recent online seminar entitled or happy moments and places we love.’ Perfume: An Enabler for Positive Living, for the More than merely flipping through a virtual photo album, Fragrance Foundation in the UK. ‘But now I have come to being truly connected to our sense of smell and the myriad realise that perfume is essential to our lives, and we ARE benefits finding the right fragrance can bring allows us to Meet ‘Uncle James’, better known as JAMES CRAVEN – making people’s lives better in many ways.’ tap into a toolkit most of us were born with but few take Many of us working in fragrance in the past year have full advantage of. It works like this, according to Christina Jasmine Award-winning author, scent archivist and expert. at some point had similar tussles with our conscience. Salcedas, Global Director of Education & Wellbeing at (After all, nobody was standing on their doorsteps Aromatherapy Associates: the limbic system is ‘the part And now here to answer all your scent conundrums clapping perfume writers at 8 p.m. on a Thursday, were of the brain most concerned with survival, instincts and they?) Too often, we hear fragrance dismissed as ‘fluffy’, ‘inconsequential’, ‘non-essential’. (And though it’s a bit of a sweeping generalisation, those comments often come from men. Men who also, almost certainly, don’t wear scent.) Q: Where should I apply perfume so that it lasts? I know Marilyn But we know different, don’t we? As evidenced by the “Fragrance sparks Monroe apparently said she sprayed it wherever she wanted to amazing #smellfies on p.XX, fragrance lifts us up. Brightens be kissed, but I’m more interested in smelling fabulous all day! Q: I think I’m allergic our lives. Can turn around a difficult day, comforting us our emotions, it’s an A: Crucially, apply to the pulse points of the body: these radiate heat, thus to some fragrances or energising us or just making us feel at ease in our skin intensifying the expansion of perfume. But also spray on clean hair: being as I get a rash on again. This knowledge, for now, is entirely instinctive; while invisible, instantaneous porous, hair is an excellent retainer and diffuser of scent. (If you’re worried my skin and some make me there have been a few scientific studies into the mood- about the alcohol in a perfume drying out hair, try one of the many, many sneeze. How do I find out shifting power of aromatherapy essential oils, nobody emotional trigger” hair fragrances which have been launched in the past few years. what’s causing this, and any has yet run similar trials on complex fragrances, or even Spray on washable natural fibre clothing and dab perfume on the suggestions for how I can still their individual ingredient components. Nevertheless, that JUDITH GROSS, Global Marketing Director IFF eyebrows and ankles – yes, really! (They certainly do that in France, where enjoy fragrance? ability of perfume to nudge us mentally into a different they surely know a thing or two about the delights of parfum.) A: Keep calm. Make a list of place is something many of us know is absolutely real. But please also understand that perfume is a poignantly fleeting pleasure all the perfumes that you think And the good news is that over the coming years, the : like a lovely piece of music it enchants and then it fades. Re-application is have caused adverse reactions. fragrance industry will be exploring the mindpower of emotions. It’s thought the activity of the nerve signal a gracious and seductive ritual, not a chore. Enjoy it! Establish what notes they have perfume, using it as the springboard for a whole new scent passing through this region causes mood change by in common by reading up on genre. There’s no official name, as yet, but ‘emotional altering brain chemistry.’ More simply put: ‘Fragrance is a them online (I would of course support’ fragrance seems, to us, to nail it. In other words, way of making us feel good. And actually, we’ve known this Q: Is it true that point you in the direction of The functional-but-fabulous. for centuries,’ Judith smiles. fragrances are Q: I often hear about Perfume Society), then by process During her webinar for The Fragrance Foundation, Indeed, in Ancient Egypt, priests were also doctors seasonal and, if so, ‘green’ notes – which of trial and error try to discover Judith shared details of a survey that IFF had conducted, and perfumers. Beyond prescribing perfumes for health asking people what they needed from a fragrance. 79% benefits, including to cure ailments, they enabled mortals which styles of fragrance are are the green notes to the ‘joker’ in the pack. The help of look out for to give that cut- an experienced sales assistant in Fragrance sales blossomed during of people polled said they’d love the opportunity to buy to speak to the Egyptian gods through the use of scented best for spring? stem, outdoorsy scent? a sympathetic perfumery can be a fragrance ‘with emotional or physical benefits’. And it’s smoke. ‘Aromatic materials have had a triple purpose A: It’s certainly understandable A: That crisp energising smell very useful here – and hopefully lockdown as we tapped into easy to understand why. As Judith says, ‘Fragrance sparks throughout history,’ Judith recounts, ‘religious, medical that anyone might want to of spring gardens and early before very long at all, we will our emotions. It’s an invisible, instantaneous trigger.’ and hygienic.’ Fascinatingly, many of the ingredients used celebrate the emergence from morning florists’ shops... there once again be able to venture perfume’s ‘feel-good’ factor. Which at least partly explains why more than half of those in the time of the pharaohs are still part of perfumers’ an especially grim winter with are few things lovelier! As you into stores. Talking it over often surveyed reported that they wear perfume at home every palettes today, including frankincense, myrrh, Nile lotus, day, even if they live alone and aren’t going to be seeing Madonna lily and honey. a new scent for a ‘new you’. If suggest, there are many shades clarifies matters no end and Now the scent industry’s looking of green. For those sharp, sappy sudden enlightenment dawns. anyone else. As the centuries rolled on, the benefits of dousing you want to personify spring cool notes go for damp, grassy Allergies come and go, often to harness that unique power Already, the response a fragrance might evoke begins oneself (or one’s home) in fragrance became deeply in your own aura, then try vetiver; dark earthy galbanum abruptly. Don’t automatically before a single drop has been added to the formula is ingrained in many cultures around the world. And at leafy greens (see the question resin; spicy geranium leaf and blame chemicals and synthetics: to support us emotionally being taken into account at the big perfume houses. the same time, those scents, and the way we use them, below), light woody colognes bitter artemisia, also known as natural organic oils are now ‘Emotions are now used to drive the design of fragrance,’ became more complex. ‘During the Renaissance,’ Judith and fresh florals that echo the mugwort or wormwood (a.k.a. recognised as equally liable to through tough times, reports Judith reveals. ‘We can now understand which parts of says, ‘scent became a spectacle. Court perfumers were the brain react to specific smells,’ she continues, ‘so our hired; this it was seen as both curative and preventative, stirring natural scents outside. artemisia). You will probably be allergenic. Meanwhile you respond to herbs such as might still enjoy perfume as SUZY NIGHTINGALE perfumers can create perfumes that can be measured and also used as a hedonistic pleasure.’ You should always wear what tarragon, basil and mint; also our ancestors did – anywhere emotionally.’ To find out more, I spoke to Rose Byfleet, an historian excites and pleases you, and violet and blackcurrant leaves, but on the skin, so instead on ‘Now we know that “Proustian reaction” is rooted in completing her PHD in Florence, her studies focusing the start of a new season is a ivy and hyacinth – and perhaps scarves, the linings of coats, soft science,’ Judith continues, citing Marcel Proust’s seminal on the use of fragrance in this era. She rolls her eyes great time to kickstart exploring even green apple or mandarin furnishings... And remember, novel À la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance heavenwards at pandemic newspaper coverage which new scents, ingredients and accords which have had a certain sublime fragrances are all around of Things Past), in which the protagonist experiences occasionally reprinted illustrations of ‘Plague Doctors’ an overwhelming rush of recollections while he eats wearing beaked leather masks. ‘They generally fragrance families. recent vogue. us, not just confined to bottles. #fragranceisthenewhope CARSON PARKIN-FAIRLEY ILLUSTRATION: 28 THE scented LETTER 30 THE scented LETTER 25 16 THE scented LETTER 34 THE scented LETTER 17 I SMELL, THEREFORE I AM a walking scent encyclopaedia aroma perfumery the stimulus item still being in the vicinity. Papers are now with the smelling. Whilst not a cure, it could be considered being prepared on these conditions, but anosmia sufferers the olfactory equivalent of physiotherapy for a damaged have been discussing these anecdotally with each other olfactory nerve. THE PERFUMED PERFUME’S over a period of year. Without the sheer numbers of people I can personally attest to the effectiveness of smell reporting these symptoms, it is unlikely that they would training in my own case, as I used my (still frankly enormous) have been recognised at all. perfume collection in what I know now was a rudimentary AGONY UNCLE BRIGHT FUTURE Another common topic of discussion in the online form of training back in 2014-2015 – I was determined not groups is: ‘When will I be normal again?’ This is an to let my collection go to waste! – and I credit it almost extremely hard question to answer. As Chrissi Kelly puts it, entirely for my recovery. My sense of smell is not the same acquired anosmia is an injury, not an illness, and we don’t as it was, my left nostril remains dead, as the olfactory bulb ask that question of any other injury. A runner who breaks didn’t ever recover, but the right one works well enough for Meet ‘Uncle James’, better known as How the scent industry is looking to his ankle might not ever run again, and sadly, the same me to function almost as well as before. I still smell-train might be true for someone who has had their olfactory regularly, and recommend it to everyone. nerve injured through illness or trauma. We One thing COVID has done is to have James Craven, who’s here to answer harness fragrance’s unique power to simply don’t know, and currently aren’t able finally shone a spotlight on precisely how to tell, which groups of anosmia sufferers neglected our sense of smell has been by will recover completely spontaneously, will the medical establishment at large. Again recover partially, or will never recover, and COVID has and again, in anosmia support groups, all your scent conundrums support us through troubled times the really hard part for patients is that they “ stories are told about patient’s concerns won’t find out until they either recover, or finally shone being dismissed: ‘It’s just smell, you’ll live,’ they don’t. While it might not be a big deal doctors say. Or when patients admit to for some, for others, particularly in careers a spotlight on struggling with life with no sense of smell, that depend on smell-sense to be able to precisely how they are disparaged, and told they’ll ‘get do their jobs, such as cooking, nursing, over it.’ even firefighting (never mind perfumery), it neglected our But in what has to be extremely good can be a tragedy. news for anyone affected by anosmia, as a But it isn’t all doom and gloom. There sense of smell direct result of COVID’s effect on the sense are things that people can do that can of smell, medics, scientists, and researchers help them along the path to potentially has been around the world have formed a new group recovering their sense of smell. Smell dedicated to the study of the olfactory, taste, training, for instance has real evidentiary and trigeminal systems which together form proof that it can help some acquired our senses of taste and smell. Called the anosmia sufferers improve their chances of recovery. Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research (GCCR), the AbScent has a huge library of resources for this on their ”group now has around 630 members based in 64 countries website, and I highly recommend anyone who is interested around the world. Together, they are concentrating research take a look at their archives and try smell-training out on how olfaction works, and the impact on lives when our for themselves. Smell training in itself is ostensibly quite olfactive capabilities are destroyed. simple. People use a small library of scents (usually Already, we are seeing many groups looking into essential oils, purely for their convenience, rather than any making smell-testing (currently slow, specialised and very aromatherapy effects) and smell them for a few minutes expensive) cheaper, faster and accessible to many more twice a day, whilst doing brain training exercises along people. The very existence of GCCR has to be a good

ANOSMIA ACTION PLAN If you’re worried you have smell-loss, here are some things that might help.

1 Try not to panic. I know this is Sense have lively communities about smell-loss… easier said than done, but there who swap tips and share stories. 5 Smell train, smell train, smell are things that can help, and Or there’s my Facebook group, train. Even a fully functioning always remember you are not Living Well With Anosmia. olfactory nerve will benefit from alone. 4 Practise good self-care. By being able to discern scents better,

2 43 Get informed. AbScent and keeping informed, getting support, and at present, for those worried 38

Fifth Sense both have a wealth of and of course, speaking with your about smell-loss it’s the best resources to help get you up to medical team to determine the therapy there is. AbScent have speed on what is happening. cause of your smell loss, you’ll feel videos and information galore to 3 Find support. There are many better, I promise you. help get you started. I smell, therefore I am drink up groups dedicated to smell loss on And finally, and this applies to abscent.org Facebook, both AbScent and Fifth everyone, not just those worried fifthsense.org.uk THE YEAR THE WORLD THE FRAGRANT 26 THE scented LETTER DISCOVERED ITSTHE scented LETTER 27 FOODIE SENSE OF SMELL Join us in raising a glass to Pratap COVID-related anosmia and the path Chahal’s new column, blurring the to recovery, by Louise Woollam lines between taste and smell

regulars NOSING AROUND 6 A NOSE TO WATCH 46 MEMORIES, DREAMS, REFLECTIONS 54 LATEST LAUNCHES 56 IT TAKES ME RIGHT BACK 70

THE scented LETTER 5 ON THE SCENT OF NEWS nosing around We’ve a rainbow of fragrances and candles for you, with this round-up – discoveries to delight the eye, as well as the nose

WAXING COLOURFUL Echoing the joyful vibe of this issue, Lalique Voyage de Parfumeur limited edition Les Compositions Parfumées Candles. Electric Purple offers violet, moss, patchouli, berries. Pink Paradise flickers notes of citrus, Just say ‘spa-aaaah’ musk, heliotrope and jasmine. Frankly we should all be checked Sweet Amber into an ultra-luxe Aman resort wafts orange for R&R after the year we’ve had. blossom, We’ve a suspicion we’ll have tuberose, to make do with their divine Ambroxan, fragrant innovations, however: vanilla. So you a quintet of five transporting can match your scents created by ‘nose’ candle to your Jacques Chabert (in bottles scent preference – by Japanese architect Kengo or your décor. Kuma), and a trio of spa candles, £62 for 190g with Grounding, Purifying and lalique.com Nourishing scents that echo the fragrances of Aman’s skincare. Candles £65/220g Fragrances £220 for 50ml eau de parfum shop.aman.com LOEWE’S BOTANICAL RAINBOW This colourful new line-up includes 28 scents in six families: Agua, Aire, Aura, Esencia, 7 and Pour Homme – the joyful kaleidoscope capturing the character of each scent. Just gazing at the bottles gives us a mood boost! From £65 for 50ml eau de toilette perfumesloewe.com

6 THE scented LETTER +

Olfactory travels Creed’s Acqua Originale collection is inspired by perfumer Olivier Creed’s lifelong love of travel: Zeste Mandarine, Green Neroli, Citrus Bigarade, Vétiver Geranium and Iris Tubéreuse. While we’re confined to barracks, we’ll happily let these colourful scents transport us around the world, from Java to Tuscany, Italy to Sicily (and beyond), with this perfumed passport. £220 each for 100ml eau de parfum creedfragrances.co.uk

WE’RE SO EXCITED! Just-launched: The Perfume DAYDREAM IN COLOUR Society’s newest Discovery Box concept, Seasonal Scents Subscription, to introduce you to perfumes perfect for the upcoming season, with a line-up of surprise (but sensational) scents, with eight samples in each box including gorgeous 7ml minis. The number one question we’re posed is: ‘Which are the best fragrances to wear for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter?’ So these boxes will not only guide but also entertain and educate you, through online Smelling Notes, unboxing videos, quizzes We know it’s springtime when Jo Malone London unveil their Blossoms and tips. In our first (Spring) box, Collection, each year featuring limited editions to bloom alongside the discover Floral, Floriental and Fresh existing line-up. This year, discover Yellow Hibiscus (a sun-filled floral), Red fragrances… Hibiscus – the first Blossom Cologne Intense, its solar floralcy offering a truly Each box £18 or £68 for annual four- sunshine vibe – and a grab-it-before-it-goes Silk Blossom Diffuser. box subscription From £44-105 jomalone.co.uk perfumesociety.org

THE scented LETTER 7 ON THE SCENT OF NEWS

THE FRAGRANT BOOKSHELF

The Healing Furla’s fashionable palette Power of Flowers Soothingly hued in pastels recalling the tones of Do you Furla’s clothing, the spectrum was chosen to add speak to your plants? ‘elegance and identity to the perfumes.’ Available Well, did you in 100ml format and two travel-sizes (for when we realise that can, again) of 30ml and 10ml. your flowers From £17 for 10ml eau de parfum can talk furla.com back? This is an exquisite collaboration between photographer Éva Németh and Claire Bowen (see ‘Memories, Dreams, Reflections on p.54), an enchanting modern update on the Victorian language of flowers that makes a perfect gift. (Perhaps for yourself?) £12.99 (Ebury Press)

Nose Dive In this manual to reconnect you to your nose and enrich your life, Harold McGee introduces us to the aroma chemicals that surround us and colour the way we experience the world. A joyous book that should be read by cooks, perfumers, fragrance addicts and absolutely anyone who has been struck by a smell, wondered what it was and wanted to know more… £35 (John Murray)

Sense Hacking Subtitled How to Use the Power SANITISERS GET of Your Senses SOPHISTICATED for Happier, Had to happen. After the vats of the Healthier Living, stuff we’ve got through over the last this book aims year, it was time someone ‘pimped’ to demonstrate the hand sanitiser. So, a round of how ‘…our applause as we welcome… senses change how we think l Zenatti Luxury Hand Cleanser Eau and feel, and how by “hacking” them de Parfum, a sleek black atomiser of we can reduce stress, become more Jardin Aux Herbes fragrance, the productive and be happier.’ Its author, debut launch from this premium Professor Charles Spence, is head hand-cleansing brand, and the first of Oxford University’s Crossmodal we’d be happy to flourish at lunch at Research Laboratory, a specialist in our The Wolseley, frankly. overlapping senses. £125 for atomiser/vegan pouch and 3 x £16 (Penguin) 2ml fragrance refills zenatti.co.uk

8 THE scented LETTER DATE FOR THE DIARY: THE PERFUME BOTTLES AUCTION Collectors around the world are excitedly awaiting this year’s Perfume Bottles Auction, organised by Ken Leach (pictured) and taking place on 1st May . There’s a wide offering of precious bottles sourced from private collections, the glorious catalogue featuring an exceptionally rare Baccarat bottle on the cover, among other treasures. Bidders can take part online – follow the updates and join us in our lusting… perfumebottlesauction.com + (Paint) brush up your scent skills

Jo Loves have relaunched their Fragrance PaintbrushTM, which can now be refilled via a scent cartridge, in line with the industry’s increasing shift towards sustainability. A choice of seven spill-proof scents to stroke stylishly onto skin... £40 each/refills £35 for 3 x 7ml joloves.com

l Cedarwood-scented Gloved AND BREATHE… Moisture-Replenish Hand Sanitiser, With mask- joining wearing likely to perfumer continue for some Tom Daxon’s time, a bright Cartier’s bunch of roses fabulous hand idea from Officine wash and hand Universelle Buly: Resident perfumer Mathilde Laurent lotion duo. It’s stickers scented plays on the flower’s astonishing housed in a with uplifting versatility in Les Heures Rose beautiful bottle peppermint, lemon and eucalyptus, Collection, with classic rose L’Heure so generous, to ‘lighten up the atmosphere behind Osée, smoulderingly animalic Oud it could your mask’. Applied to the outer side, and Pink and lastly, Les Épures Pur potentially the olfactory relief lasts for around six Rose, a hyper-realistic rose that outlast the hours, depending on the type of mask. conjures up a bloom growing on a pandemic. They’re biodegradeable. (Um, unlike bush, stems and all. £25 for 375ml many actual masks!) £250-320 each for 75ml eau de parfum gloved.co.uk €11 for 8 stickers buly1803.com selfridges.com

THE scented LETTER 9 SCENT GETS SOCIAL #Smellfie Day 2021 For perfume-lovers, International Fragrance Day is the best day of the year. End. Of. And this year, for our annual #Smellfie extravaganza, our fans, followers and fragrance community got more creative than ever

#Smellfie

10 THE scented LETTER YOU MADE US LAUGH. You made us go ‘aaaah’. And Look for the stars indicating our four other winners but you wowed us with the effort that you went to, to mark because of all that’s happened in the last year, we did this landmark in the scent calendar. want to award an extra prize – or rather, three of them. In this, our sixth year of celebrating this landmark Among the entries was from @rookperfumes, featuring in the scent calendar, more of you got involved than doctor/perfumer Nadeem Crowe, who enlisted his medic ever before. But beyond that, the creativity was just so colleagues to make a short film which you can find on inspiring. Our #Smellfie community built sets, assembled Rook’s Instagram. The Discovery Boxes en route to them props – and in the case of the winning entry – from are our way of saying ‘thank you’ to the NHS, if you like. Tiffany Crawford (@tiffanycrawfo10 on Twitter) – even This year’s #Smellfie Day perfectly crystallised what reenacted a scene in ‘From Here to Eternity’ on a beach, fragrance has meant to us over the past year. The way with a selfie stick and two bottles of Calvin Klein. Now it has buoyed and uplifted us, kept us connected with THAT – in every way – is love. Tiffany and her partner our senses and been a hugely positive force in our lives, will be receiving this year’s star prize of £300 worth of generally. Enjoy sharing in the scented celebration, on fragrance – something for him and something for her. these pages...

THE scented LETTER 11 #SMELLFIES: OUR WINNERS HWINNER

HRUNNER-UP #Smellfie HRUNNER-UP

12 THE scented LETTER HRUNNER-UP

HRUNNER-UP

THE scented LETTER 13 #SMELLFIES: PERFUME SOCIETY TEAM

14 THE scented LETTER #Smellfie

THE scented LETTER 15

#SMELLFIES: THANKYOU TO OUR NHS!

#Smellfie #SMELLFIES: PETS’ CORNER

#Smellfie

I CAN SMELL A RAINBOW

Shades50of SCENT Perfume packaging is often ‘Seeing red’, ‘feeling blue’, going ‘green with envy’ – we’ve linked colours with emotions for centuries. But there is science behind rendered in eye-catching the pairing of certain hues with sentiment and sensation. And fascinatingly, some of your favourite fragrances may have been shades, while the ‘juice’ inside deliberately dyed a particular shade on the colour spectrum to evoke specific feelings, provoke memories and metaphorically may be coloured to convey a ‘colour’ the way you smell them. message about the scent. But it’s not always a matter of taking an ingredient’s literal smell and heightening the perception of it – for example, a delicate But can colour alter our rose scent being presented in pretty pink packaging. Certainly, there’s an element of expectation: if a sparkling citrus fragrance perception of how a fragrance was tinted scarlet, there’d be a moment of cognitive dissonance, where our eyes had led us to believe we’d be smelling ripe berries smells? And how do or something seductive, while our nose was detecting bright, zesty perfumers interweave lemons. It goes far deeper than that, when fragrance creators seek to trigger more complex emotions. colour and emotion in Colours are not a universal language, however – cultural differences shape our understanding of them, and the way we their compositions? integrate them into our everyday lives. But whether we live in Tunbridge Wells, Toronto or Taipei, one thing can be agreed SUZY NIGHTINGALE explores upon. As Kassia St Clair says in the introduction of her brilliant book, The Secret Lives of Colour [John Murray]: ‘Colour is fundamental to our experience of the world around us.’ You might imagine that that the savvy manipulation of shoppers via the use of colour is a modern marketing construct. But the first manifestation of a ‘colour wheel’ came from the German poet, artist, and politician Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In 1810 he

20 THE scented LETTER Summer

Smoochy

Love

Luck I CAN SMELL A RAINBOW

published his Theory of Colours, in which he deliberated on the psychological impact colours had on our moods. Colour theory debates have raged ever since, among psychologists, philosophers and scientists. Relevant to those of us who love perfume is the fact that colour wheels linking perfume preferences to colour have existed in the fragrance world since 1949. Departments dedicated to properly understanding colour theory in perfume design didn’t exist until the early 1980s, however. The most-used modern version of the colour wheel in the scent industry today was designed by fragrance expert Michael Edwards in 1992, to code relationship between fragrance preferences and the fragrance families. Céline Manetta, PhD, is the CSI Global Innovation Senior Manager at IFF [International Flavors & Fragrance], and explained to me that when they’re working on a brief for a client, colour is one of the first aspects of a scent that will be decided. ‘Our perfumers can type the name of colour in our database and it will pull up a list of ingredients proven to stimulate certain emotions and responses in people. We’ve used this tool for over thirty-five years…’ Exact details The Art of Smell of this ‘tool’ understandably remain top-secret; called

‘Art is about illusion and suggestion,’ says Arianne van Suchtelen, Curator of the The evidence from forthcoming ‘Fleeting: Scents in Colour’ exhibition at the Mauritshuis museum in The numerous studies demonstrates Hague. ‘It’s about inspiring the imagination, “ and artists will refer to all of our senses, that simply changing the colour including the sense of smell.’ of a fragrance can change the The exhibition will bring famous artworks to life by evoking the smells they represent: way it smells to us ‘Scented flowers and perfumes, foul-smelling canals and unpleasant body odours,’ as well PROFESSOR CHARLES SPENCE, Head of Oxford as ‘new aromas from faraway lands’ – spices, University Crossmodal Research Laboratory tobacco, coffee and tea – while also exploring ” more esoteric aromatic connotations artworks ScentEmotions, it was developed in-house for exclusive use can have. ‘We think that people “see more”, of the IFF perfumers ‘as an aid to their creativity’. when they can smell at the same time,’ It was her predecessor, fellow psychologist Stephen Arianne enthuses, ‘…that smell enhances the Warrenburg, who invented this colour algorithm. ‘We call experience of viewing art with its direct him “the father” of IFF ScentEmotions,’ says Céline, who access to our emotions and memories.’ explains that the hush-hush database has been extensively Bringing someone up close and (very) researched and added to over the years. ‘We’ve now personal to a painting can, she hopes, ‘be a thoroughly tested over 3,000 perfumes and people’s exact medium between the viewer and the artwork, responses to emotions and colours,’ she affirms. ‘We can making people feel connected to the art and also combine criteria – so if the brief is both blue and to the past.’ energising, those terms correspond to combinations of Pandemic allowing, they hope to open – ingredients, textures and the way they make people feel.’ with COVID-safe methods of transmitting the So you may think your scent collection merely reflects smells via foot-operated devices – on 29th your penchant for fruity perfumes or soft, skin-like musks. August. For those not able to travel to the But how fascinating to know that somewhere, on a database, exhibition in person, a ‘fragrance box’ will your mood has been extensively mapped in colour, to soon be available via the website. For €20 ensure that you make the perfect, sentiment-infused choice. (not including P&P), the boxed smells can be And that when a fragrance house submits a very particular, shipped worldwide, and will also give access emotionally-led brief, that influences the colour chosen for to a special online guided tour of the artworks the ‘juice’ or the bottle itself (or perhaps both). – though we can’t be alone in hoping that by Of course, many, many fragrances are colourless, then, travel restrictions will be lifted so that we housed in plain glass – but others have been carefully can see (and smell) the exhibition in person… thought through, to provoke a specific response. I was also Mauritshuis.nl/fleeting interested to find out more, then, about how a juice might be tinted, in order to help fit a brief. And at what point are

22 THE scented LETTER Opposite: Goethe’s dyes added to the Colour Wheel. Here: out not to be random composition? It happens Michael Edwards pairings, Spence reveals: at a critical stage, ‘right Fragrance Wheel ‘15 participants who at the end of the filtration were brought back to the process,’ Stephanie laboratory more than two Woimant, Technical years later showed a high manager of Scent Technology degree of consistency in terms & Innovation Fine Fragrances, of their colour choices.’ for IFF EAME (Europe, Africa and Fewer studies have taken place the Middle East), tells me. ‘First, neat with more complex fine fragrances, but fragrance oil is diluted into alcohol, then water Spence is sure it ‘demonstrates that simply is added. The solution is chilled then filtrated, and finally, changing the colour of, or adding colour to, a fragrance dyes are added.’ Of course, like any fragrance ingredients, can change the way it smells to us, and the emotional the dyes have to adhere to strict cosmetic and skin-safe associations it evokes.’ regulations, and though we might like looking at the colours, While colour can heighten the feeling of a scent, it can we definitely don’t want to dye our skin every time we spritz. also be used to deliberately ‘trick’ our noses. In the Histoires You might think that adding colour to a scent could de Parfums collection entitled This is Not a Blue Bottle, change the character – but the dyes are specially developed perfumer Gérald Ghislain playfully uses vivid cobalt to lure ‘so they don’t alter the smell at all,’ Stephanie assures me. our senses into ‘an olfactory hallucination’ – referencing Alas, a coloured dye won’t protect your perfume from being Belgian surrealist René Magritte’s famous 1929 painting, exposed to sunlight. (So to be on the safe side, always keep known as ‘This is Not a Pipe’, in which the artist sought to those prettily coloured boxes, people!) remind us that all may not be what it seems if we place sole Marianne Martin, an experienced perfumer currently trust in what we think we see. In HdP’s creation This is Not a working at the UK fragrance house and consultancy Blue Bottle 1.6, for example, the ingredients in fact suggest Olfiction, told me dyes are also used by some manufacturers juicy orange and green, with underripe citrus peel and to ensure consistency of the product. ‘For instance, if a geranium leaves atop cooling vetiver. quality of natural has to change for regulatory reasons, the Another house more faithfully representing recognisable customer will still expect to receive their juice with a similar notes in their colour choices is Brocard. In their recent Color hue to the original,’ she explains. It’s for that reason that Feeling collection, they asked perfumers including Bertrand sometimes a ‘disguising’ tint will be added to the formula. Duchaufour and Wei Ling Png to ‘imagine a colour as a Confirming that the colours of our scents – brightly- fragrance.’ So, for Feeling Yellow, Png picked narcissus, hued, or seemingly natural – really do make a difference lemon zest and freesias, while Duchafour selected cut grass, is the academic paper ‘Olfactory-colour Crossmodal violet leaf and wormwood in Feeling Green. Correspondences in Art, Science, and Design’, published For Italian niche house Jusbox, ‘the colour of the bottle is last year. In this, Professor Charles Spence discusses various decided upon by us before the composition,’ say founders methods used to test the links between colour, smell Andrea and Chiara Valdo. ‘Because all senses are linked, and emotion. In a 1996 study, 94 participants were given colour is very important for giving a different kind of feeling. ‘materials commonly used in commercial perfumery’, such The choice of colour for each bottle is absolutely related as bergamot, patchouli, galbanum and aldehydes, plus to the inspiration behind the fragrance it contains.’ So ‘11 possible colour terms to choose from.’ They were then the bottle for Siren & Sailors, inspired by the late London asked to ‘fit’ the colours to what they smelled. These turned chanteuse Amy Winehouse, was deliberately chosen as ‘a

Brocard’s eye- popping Color Feeling collection

THE scented LETTER 13 1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

24 THE scented LETTER I CAN SMELL A RAINBOW

dark pink. It reflects the innocent side of Amy’s personality, but the shade is deep in order to illustrate her darker side.’ To complicate matters, colour preference varies in An emotional spectrum different cultures – something which must be taken into of scents… account in an age of perfume globalisation. ‘We know that while colour is highly linked to perfumes in the consumer’s mind, they can have varying meanings in different places,’ 1 BDK Parfums Rouge Smoking

agrees Céline. In Western cultures red can signify strength Cherry lipstick on a cocktail glass and and passionate sensuality, while equally alerting us to the cigarette, still smouldering. Tendrils ‘DANGER’ signs and stopping at traffic signals. For Eastern of heliotrope-infused smoke escape the and Asian cultures that colour is associated with luck, long window as he watches her leave. life and happiness, and so brides traditionally dress in red to harness good vibes for a prosperous marriage. In India 2 Bohoboco Sea Salt Caramel Beneath

it’s used to specify purity of the mind, true love and natural the waves, tears are soothed with beauty, beckoning wealth and power, while in South Africa, addictive stickiness. Sweetness tempered scarlet can be used to portray sacrifice and mourning. with a sea breeze carrying lemon groves, The one consistency of red, for sure, is that it cannot be sunshine and optimism. is ignored – which may be one reason it’s so often used in fragrance packaging. In the case of Giorgio Armani Sì 3 By Terry Soleil Piquant Literally

Passione, for instance, it apparently took over a hundred sunshine, bottled: an uplifting fusion of tests to perfect the vibrant, red lacquered flacon. Designed neroli, mandarin, cactus, almond blossom to evoke ‘the self-assurance a swipe of red lipstick can and woods – an olfactory anti-depressant, instantly give the wearer,’ that emboldening scarlet slick is clearing the fog like a crisp Cap Ferrat then evoked with pink pepper and pear juice stained with breeze.

4 Carolina Herrera Saffron Lazuli Cool,

Our perfumers can type assured luxury prized by artists (soothing to artistic temperaments); blackcurrant the name of colour in our swathed in crocus, rippled with a golden “database and it will pull up seam of sophistication.

5 Chloe L’Eau de Chloe Twirling in silk, a list of ingredients proven to she radiates kindness (to herself and stimulate certain emotions and others). Sheer rosewater gently bridges responses in people joyful citrus and the sulkier tendencies of patchouli lurking below. CÉLINE MANETTA, PHD, CSI Global Innovation Senior Manager IFF 6 J.U.S Parfums Sopoudrage Rebellious

” rose twisted with lychee coaxes cold, blackcurrants, heady jasmine adding a silky gloss to the aqueous notes. Petals crushed, stems torn, deep roses of the heart. but thorns softened with a surprisingly But whether beguilingly blushed, slicked scarlet, blue tender caress of iris. bottled or hinting at nature’s own green, a great deal of colour psychology, scientific study and emotional artistry 7 Chanel No.19 The sixth-sense twinge

may well be at play every time you feel unconsciously drawn of weather changing, a vibrant snapped- to a particular perfume’s shade. So why not have a look at stalk galbanum freshness underpinned your own favourite scents? Chances are that it wasn’t just with the powder compact mirror’s a perfumer involved in creating a scent that ‘spoke’ to you reassurance: yes, you are wonderful. even before you’d smelled it, but a team of psychologists and packaging designers, too. 8 Map of the Heart Red Heart V.3

And at The Perfume Society, with our finger in the wind, Red apple studded with peppercorns, we’re betting on a huge trend for tinted ‘juices’ and bright smothered with spiced white flowers; glass bottles among upcoming perfume launches, tapping a velvety dry-down like flouncing on a into what sometimes feels almost like a physical thirst for feather bed after a night of carnal passion. stimulation, right now. We know that we are not alone, one year into the pandemic, in longing for colour, colour 9 Narciso Rodriguez For Her High-

everywhere – anything to cut through the Groundhog Day heeled marabou slippers and a silk ‘meh-ness’ of life under lockdown. peignoir, to be worn while wafting And you might like to start with the rainbow of scents Egyptian musk incense and tossing aside showcased right here... today’s love letters.

THE scented LETTER 25 THE PERFUME OF ALL PERFUMES HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHANEL NO5 Astonishingly, 2021 marks 100 years since the launch of this most iconic fragrance. Equally astonishingly, it smells as modern today as it did when first unveiled. But how, wonders JO FAIRLEY, might we be enjoying Chanel No5 in a century’s time…?

O N 5 IS the most famous fragrance allegedly declared: ‘I show my and indeed, I’ve been amazingly ever created. A rite of passage in so collections on the fifth of May, the fortunate to pick up and hold many women’s lives, it has come to fifth month of the year, so let’s leave her own crystal ball, on a trip to embody myth, mystery and magic, in the number it bears, and this number Chanel’s Rue Cambon apartment). one scented masterpiece. five will bring it good luck.’ (How So, to that end, we asked Chanel- Because there are no survivors of right she was.) wearers, admirers and perfume world that time, nobody can be 100% sure It is the almost alchemical mix figures to let their imaginations fly, whether the legend about its creation which has ensured No5 transcended predicting how we might wear and is true – but who wouldn’t want to fashion. No single flower can be enjoy this icon a century hence. buy into the romance of this tale? We easily identified in its construction – Because you can be sure of one are told that No5 got its name from not ylang ylang, or jasmine, or rose, thing: we may not be around to the fifth vial presented to Gabrielle nor those aldehydes, nor any of enjoy it, unless cryogenics really do ‘Coco’ Chanel by French-Russian the other 80 or so ingredients in its become a thing. But 100 years into perfumer Ernest Beaux, who Chanel, closely-guarded formula. A century the future, Chanel No5 will surely still as a successful couturier, had enlisted ago, it was utterly unlike anything be casting its spell. to create her debut perfume. Chanel ever smelled before, that synthetic had briefed him that she wanted overdose rendering the bouquet O ‘an artificial fragrance like a dress, almost abstract, and certainly as THAT N 5 BOTTLE... something crafted. I am a seamstress. avant garde as the music, the art and It’s the most famous fragrance flacon I don’t want rose or lily of the valley. I the literature in which the designer ever designed. The only one to want a composed fragrance.’ immersed herself. appear in the permanent collection It is said that he brought along a Today, there is much talk of of New York’s Museum of Modern number of samples to that meeting, ‘molecules’ and ‘synthetics’ – indeed Art (MOMA). And certainly the only for Gabrielle Chanel to choose from. there is nothing more modern, in one immortalised by Andy Warhol, Into the fifth vial, Beaux had added – the world of the perfumista. Then? in a series of nine silkscreens. Chanel by accident, or on purpose, who really In an era of pretty-pretty florals, it insisted: ‘I will put everything into knows? – an overdose of synthetic was utterly radical. But it is perhaps the perfume, and nothing into the aldehydes, which gave the scent its the abstract effect created by the presentation’. Until No5, fragrance champagne-like, signature opening aldehydes in No5 which have kept bottles had been fussy, feminine, ‘whoosh’, and a distinctive, crystalline, it relevant, decade after decade, flirty. Chanel rebelled, opting for clean edge. through wars and (now) a pandemic. absolute, pared-back minimalism For the superstitious Mademoiselle But enough of Chanel No5’s – taking her inspiration for the Chanel, there was also serendipity in fabled past. We thought we’d get bevelled-edge stopper from shape of the air. Since childhood, five had been out our crystal ball and look to Place Vendôme, viewed from her Ritz her lucky number, and it was Beaux’s the future. (Mademoiselle Chanel hotel suite. Thus, fragrance bottle fifth sample that she preferred. Chanel was extremely fond of those – design entered a new age…

26 THE scented LETTER THE scented LETTER 27 THE PERFUME OF ALL PERFUMES

O HAPPY 200TH BIRTHDAY, CHANEL N 5 Five imaginings of its fragrant future...

THE STUPENDOUS popularity of No5 means that something that started life as a profoundly anti-establishment statement now “masquerades as the establishment choice, rendering it perfume’s ultimate red under the bed. In its ubiquity, it has come to signify the category “woman” itself, meaning one can use it as a cloaking device to make oneself unreadable. Its great golden gleam appears to say so much, yet reveals very little. It’s a secret-agent scent. This is how it will be deployed 200 years after its inception, when it will be only more epically inscrutable. Some woman somewhere will be about to do something devastating and she will apply No5 as her olfactory rally cry, armour and invisibility shield. Planets will fall in her wake. HANNAH BETTS, journalist ”

WHEN PEOPLE try the original Chanel No5 in 100 years’ time, they will wonder at the extraordinary fact that the formula was created by one man, without the “use of algorithms, deep data or AI technology to create it, and from ingredients grown from the earth. Also, that you spritzed it just to smell good. By 2121, Chanel fragrance will be personalised and prescribed to augment and improve your mood and health. Every ingredient used will be created via sustainable biotechnology, with No5’s traditional naturals and aldehydes grown from fungi, yeast and upcycled waste, and sent out via pellet compounds that you will rehydrate yourself. It will also optimise your inner beauty and wellness, allowing you to radiate the now-famous Chanel Scented Glow, launched in 2100, a worldwide bestseller that stimulates the olfactory senses to maximise inner happiness. By 2121, we will also have the ultimate in fragrance luxury, the Chanel Scentronica, a device able to create your own, personalised version of No5 from reading your behavioural and health data, align this with your performance expectations for the coming season and create your own bespoke version of the iconic scent. AMANDA CARR, Wewearperfume blog 28 THE scented LETTER ” CHANEL, as a brand, has phenomenal IN 100 YEARS I imagine we will have scent adaptive powers to cultural and social moods, libraries. Like music downloads rather than a physical and they can forecast a shift a few steps before record. We’ll be able to “play” our favourites scents everyone else. In 100 years’ time, I see a Chanel “wherever we are, whenever we want. But there always “o N 5 Beauty package digitally integrated into your be the real thing, like vinyl, the bottle of parfum to bathroom. It includes a Gabrielle-voiced pod - dab on one’s neck, wrists, behind our knees. Because similar to an Alexa - uploaded into your bathroom it’s not just the scent; it’s the way it smalls on us. SmartMirror (which also, handily, selects the That’s what is so unique about Chanel No5 – it is specific Chanel skincare you need that day based famous, global, ubiquitous, but it becomes our own, on a quick and nifty hydration/pigmentation on our skin. I don’t know any other scent that face scan). is so uniquely transformed. Gabrielle asks you a series of questions about HENRIETTA LOVELL, Chanel No5-wearer, your mood, the day’s plans, your mental wellbeing founder of The Rare Tea Company and physical health. Once registered and analysed, ” a bespoke No5 scent suggestion appears behind the cabinet door. Over the years, Chanel will have adapted its original No5 formula with emotion- trigger notes pushed to the forefront, presenting 12 versions of the scent that smell almost identical, but with subtle nuances in the opening blast to counteract negative emotions or enhance a positive outlook. The original perfume is all there, but it’s manipulated for scented self-care in those vulnerable moments we spend at our mirrors. Once your No5 is selected, it is presented within your bathroom cabinet (which contains a concealed Chanel-branded electronic turntable) with a lip colour and base foundation that matches your No5 mood. But the bottle? Entirely unchanged, except instead of glass, it is crystalised biomatter from the green waste accumulated at Chanel’s rose and jasmine fields in Grasse. ALICE DU PARCQ, blogger and author ”

ASSUMING that we’re still permitted to have perfume in 100 years, No5 will still be loved and admired and revered. But perhaps “it will no longer be worn on skin. I imagine a future in which many, many more of us will be living in small, apartment-like homes. Our natural resources won’t be as plentiful as they are. The air will be breathable only because it is constantly being artificially purified. And one of our pastimes will be to visit ‘experience centres’ which will provide a multi-sensory impression of scenes and vistas from yesteryear. No5 will be used to scent the ‘experience’ of an endless, open space. It will conjure images of blue skies lit up by crystalline sunshine. It will evoke the feeling of opening your arms to a morning breeze. In short, it will be the smell of freedom and liberty. PERSOLAISE, blogger and author ”

THE scented LETTER 29 The Perfumed Agony Uncle

28 THE scented LETTER ASK UNCLE JAMES The Perfumed Agony Uncle

Meet ‘Uncle James’, better known as JAMES CRAVEN – Jasmine Award-winning author, scent archivist and expert. And now here to answer all your scent conundrums

Q: Where should I apply perfume so that it lasts? I know Marilyn Monroe apparently said she sprayed it wherever she wanted to be kissed, but I’m more interested in smelling fabulous all day! Q: I think I’m allergic A: Crucially, apply to the pulse points of the body: these radiate heat, thus to some fragrances intensifying the expansion of perfume. But also spray on clean hair: being as I get a rash on porous, hair is an excellent retainer and diffuser of scent. (If you’re worried my skin and some make me about the alcohol in a perfume drying out hair, try one of the many, many sneeze. How do I find out hair fragrances which have been launched in the past few years. what’s causing this, and any Spray on washable natural fibre clothing and dab perfume on the suggestions for how I can still eyebrows and ankles – yes, really! (They certainly do that in France, where enjoy fragrance? they surely know a thing or two about the delights of parfum.) A: Keep calm. Make a list of But please also understand that perfume is a poignantly fleeting pleasure all the perfumes that you think : like a lovely piece of music it enchants and then it fades. Re-application is have caused adverse reactions. a gracious and seductive ritual, not a chore. Enjoy it! Establish what notes they have in common by reading up on them online (I would of course Q: Is it true that point you in the direction of The fragrances are Q: I often hear about Perfume Society), then by process seasonal and, if so, ‘green’ notes – which of trial and error try to discover which styles of fragrance are are the green notes the ‘joker’ in the pack. The help of to look out for to give that cut- an experienced sales assistant in best for spring? stem, outdoorsy scent? a sympathetic perfumery can be A: It’s certainly understandable A: That crisp energising smell very useful here – and hopefully that anyone might want to of spring gardens and early before very long at all, we will celebrate the emergence from morning florists’ shops... there once again be able to venture an especially grim winter with are few things lovelier! As you into such stores. Talking it over a new scent for a ‘new you’. If suggest, there are many shades often clarifies matters no end and of green. For those sharp, sappy sudden enlightenment dawns. you want to personify spring cool notes go for damp, grassy Allergies come and go, often in your own aura, then try vetiver; dark earthy galbanum abruptly. Don’t automatically leafy greens (see the question resin; spicy geranium leaf and blame chemicals and synthetics: right), light woody colognes bitter artemisia, also known as natural organic oils are now and fresh florals that echo the mugwort or wormwood (a.k.a. recognised as equally liable to stirring natural scents outside. artemisia). You will probably be allergenic. Meanwhile you respond to herbs such as might still enjoy perfume as You should always wear what tarragon, basil and mint, as well our ancestors did – anywhere excites and pleases you, and as violet and blackcurrant leaves, but on the skin, so instead on the start of a new season is a ivy and hyacinth – and perhaps scarves, the linings of coats, soft great time to kickstart exploring even green apple or mandarin furnishings... And remember, new scents, ingredients and accords which have had a certain sublime fragrances are all around fragrance families. recent vogue. us, not just confined to bottles.

THE scented LETTER 31 ASK UNCLE JAMES

Q: Can men wear florals? Do they smell different Q: What’s your best tip for getting fragrance to on a woman’s skin? off the skin if I try it A: Most certainly men can. Why should they limit and I don’t like it? themselves? The males of ancient Assyria, Rome and A: O, glory! this can be such a problem. The more you dislike Egypt had no such inhibitions. The idea that flowers a scent, the longer it will linger are sissified is a boring 20th Western European trope, in your nostrils, long after it’s long past its sell-by date. The finest manifestation I ever washed off. This is because the brain is registering revulsion to smelled of Éditions de Parfums Frédéric Malle’s Une Rose warn you of a possible danger. was on a Brazilian male client at Les Senteurs. In any case That’s the animal nature of smell. many men’s scents are chocka with jasmine, rose, iris, Prevention is better than cure. Always spray fragrances violet and the like. The floral oils just don’t tend to draw on blotters, before trying them attention to themselves. directly on skin, and allow time The bottom line is that on a man’s skin, florals tend to develop before deciding to use on the body (or not). to manifest as deeper, darker, woodier - less sweet and When trying a new perfume more earthy. It’s a hormonal thing. be very wary of how much you apply. I know it’s difficult, but go slow and steady. Do Q: What styles of not douse yourself! Spray just a Q: How can I make fragrance might be small area of easily accessible fragrance last longer suitable for a 15-year- skin: usually the palm or wrist. on my skin – it old who’s just starting to get If you’re not happy – and give disappears too quickly. into perfume? And how can I tell the perfume time, don’t rush to A: Perfume is all about the her to wear it so that it doesn’t judgement – then wipe away seduction and intoxication of overwhelm those around her? with a proprietary moist the brain: it’s a phenomenon A: Your young friend is lucky cleansing tissue. Nip into the of smoke and mirrors. The to have you. Most 15-year-olds nearest loo and wash thoroughly, more you adore a scent the love analysing themselves so rinse with lots of cold water to more difficult it is to smell encourage this young woman to help remove the smell of the it. Fragrance flees the over- do just that. Ask her to define her soap. A small flask of denatured ardent lover. personality in her own mind, and perfumer’s alcohol is useful to You’ll know all about then introduce her to the most have on hand for removing scent layering – but increasingly empathetic sales consultant at your from skin, or failing this a drop I’m advising people to favourite perfumery. This maven of gin or vodka. Don’t drink it. apply a little less perfume, – if worth her salt – will assist the Clean your skin with it! not more. Sharpen the nose young person in interpreting and by compelling it to chase expressing herself via a fragrance the scent! Challenge your that fits like a handmade glove. olfactory responses by wearing Youth is best showcased by light, Q: How should I store my the scent in a different way: subtle – but not necessarily naive precious fragrances? on clothes instead of on the – scents. We are all allowed a few A: The honest but possibly skin; on the back of the neck; garish fragrance mistakes as we boring answer is OUT OF SIGHT! behind the knee rather than develop our tastes, and perfume A cool, dark, closed deep drawer behind the ear; in your hair. picking should always be fun. But or cupboard is ideal. No glorious Use the matching body cream I have found that most teenagers dressing table displays, I’m afraid. No instead of liquid perfume. naturally actually tend to shyness sunlight, no radiators, no fluctuating Don’t get your nose get lazy. and restraint when it comes to temperatures. Glittering glass in the And please! never apply choosing and spraying fragrance. bathroom is verboten. Store your scent directly after bathing. I hope I have not grown cynical collection in a spare bedroom or a Let your skin regain its normal with the years, but the surest way rarely used gloomy dining room. Keep temperature and balance to ensure an ingenue will NOT your beautiful bottles in their original before spraying: give the do something is to beg her to do packaging: they are born to blush perfume a base to grip. that very thing. So maybe pass her unseen. Hide your scent as you would the Giorgio and the Poison! conceal your deepest darkest secret.

32 THE scented LETTER Q: Are there any ingredients that you think I should be looking for if I want to feel calm and grounded? Do you have any rituals for using fragrance to calm yourself? A: Fragrance is all about the power of Memory. I seek those notes that remind me of happy tranquil times: each of us will have his own favourites. Rose, sandalwood, frankincense, jasmine and orange are well- known pacifiers. I find that brisk green scents are empowering and lavender wonderfully soothing, but you need to find the oils that hit the spot for you. As so often with perfume you must do a little homework. Browse the aromatherapy section; but above all, trust your instinct. What smells call to you? Your body will tell you what you need if you let it. A little of what you fancy, and all that. As to rituals: I find the very act of putting on scent is deeply calming snd elevating in itself.

Q: Is it ever worth buying those gorgeous bottles of fragrance you see in an antique store? And is there any way to tell before I buy it if it’s ‘off’, or it’s turned? A: The shortest, safest and kindest answer is NO. But then, life’s a lottery. By all means take a chance if you fall in love with the bottle or the packaging. If you find the contents to your liking look upon it as an added bonus. Perfume can keep its quality for a lot longer than you may think Do you have a general fragrance question? but my advice would always Then ask our Perfume Agony Uncle. Simply e-mail info@perfumesociety. be to consider buying only for org and put ‘Ask Uncle James’ in the subject box. He’ll endeavour to the look and feel of the thing; answer as many as possible in future editions of The Scented Letter. never for what’s inside.

THE scented LETTER 33 AROMA PERFUMERY

Fragrance sales blossomed during lockdown as we tapped into perfume’s ‘feel-good’ factor. Now the scent industry is looking to harness that unique power to support us emotionally through tough times, reports SUZY NIGHTINGALE

#fragranceisthenewhope

34 THE scented LETTER HAD AN INFERIORITY COMPLEX when I taste, that connection is clear. But as Judith elaborates, began working in the fragrance industry, ‘When we smell, it triggers the limbic system. Through this, compared to the doctors and scientists fragrance connects us to our memories. So we can use in the world who are saving lives,’ admits perfume to summon the people we are estranged from, or Judith Gross, Global Marketing Director of happy moments and places we love.’ IFF, during a recent online seminar entitled Beyond flipping through a mental photo album via scent, Perfume: An Enabler for Positive Living, for the being truly connected to our sense of smell allows us to Fragrance Foundation in the UK. ‘But now I have come to tap into an emotional toolkit most of us were born with, realise that perfume is essential to our lives, and we ARE but few take full advantage of. It works like this, according making people’s lives better in many ways.’ to Christina Salcedas, Global Director of Education & Many of us working in fragrance in the past year have Wellbeing at Aromatherapy Associates: the limbic system at some point had similar tussles with our consciences. is ‘the part of the brain most concerned with survival, (After all, nobody was standing on their doorsteps instincts and emotions. It’s thought the activity of the nerve clapping perfume writers at 8pm on a Thursday, were signal passing through this region causes mood change by they?) Too often, we hear fragrance dismissed as ‘fluffy’, ‘inconsequential’, ‘non-essential’. (And though it’s a bit of a sweeping generalisation, those comments often come from men. Men who almost certainly don’t wear scent.) But we know different, don’t we? As evidenced by the amazing #smellfies on p.10, fragrance lifts us up. Brightens “Fragrance sparks our lives. Can turn around a difficult day, comforting us our emotions. it’s an or energising us or just making us feel at ease in our skin again. This knowledge, for now, is entirely instinctive; while invisible, instantaneous there have been a few scientific studies into the mood- shifting power of aromatherapy essential oils, we surely emotional trigger” need similar trials on complex fragrances, or even their individual ingredient components. For now, that ability JUDITH GROSS, Global Marketing Director IFF of perfume to nudge us into a different place mentally is something many of us know to be absolutely real. So the good news is that over the coming years, the fragrance industry will be exploring the mindpower of altering brain chemistry.’ More simply put: ‘Fragrance is a perfume, using it as the springboard for a whole new scent way of making us feel good. And actually, we’ve known this genre. There’s no official name for it, as yet, but ‘emotional for centuries,’ Judith Gross smiles. support’ fragrance seems, to us, to nail it. In other words, For millennia, perhaps. In Ancient Egypt, priests were functional-but-fabulous. also doctors and perfumers. They prescribed perfumes During her webinar for The Fragrance Foundation, for health benefits, including to cure ailments, as well as Judith shared details of a survey that IFF had recently enabling mortals to speak to the Egyptian gods through conducted, asking people what they needed from a the use of scented smoke. ‘Aromatic materials have had fragrance. 79% of people polled said they’d love the a triple purpose throughout history,’ Judith recounts, opportunity to buy a fragrance ‘with emotional or physical ‘religious, medical and hygienic.’ Some of the ingredients benefits’. And it’s easy to understand why. As Judith which were used in the time of the the pharaohs are still says, ‘Fragrance sparks our emotions. It’s an invisible, part of perfumers’ palettes today, including frankincense, instantaneous trigger.’ Which at least partly explains why myrrh, Nile lotus, Madonna lily and honey. more than half of those surveyed reported that they wear As the centuries rolled on, the custom of dousing perfume at home every day, even if they live alone and oneself (or one’s home) in fragrance went on to become aren’t going to be seeing anyone else. deeply ingrained in many cultures around the world. And The response a fragrance might evoke begins before at the same time, those scents, and the way we use them, a single drop has been added to the formula, at the big became more complex. ‘During the Renaissance,’ Judith perfume houses. ‘Emotions are now used to drive the says, ‘scent became a spectacle. Court perfumers were design of fragrance,’ Judith reveals. ‘We are starting hired. This was seen as both curative and preventative, to understand which parts of the brain react to specific and also used as a hedonistic pleasure.’ This was scent as smells, so our perfumers can create perfumes that can be therapy, on a truly grand scale. measured emotionally.’ To find out more, I spoke to Rose Byfleet, an historian ‘We now know the “Proustian reaction” is rooted in completing her PhD in Florence, her studies focusing on science,’ Judith continues, citing Marcel Proust’s seminal the use of fragrance in the Renaissance era. There has been seven-volume novel Remembrance of Things Past, in quite a media focus on this lately, with recent pandemic which the protagonist experiences an overwhelming rush newspaper coverage occasionally reprinting illustrations of of recollections while he eats (and smells) a tea-soaked ‘Plague Doctors’ wearing beaked leather masks. madeleine biscuit. With smell informing 80% of what we At this, however, Rose rolls her eyes heavenwards. ILLUSTRATION: CARSON PARKIN-FAIRLEY ILLUSTRATION:

THE scented LETTER 35 AROMAthe master PERFUMERY of modern femininity

‘Press articles generally mention the fact the “beaks” were stuffed with scented ingredients to ward off sickness – but that’s a misunderstanding,’ she says. Those herb-stuffed beaks were not merely to guard against germs; in Renaissance Italy, she explains, scent was literally thought to nourish body and soul. ‘People believed smelling fragrance had a physical effect on “the spirits”’ – invisible yet physical entities that bridged our corporeal and spectral selves.’ The whiffs in the very air itself might be categorised as ‘good’ and ‘bad’, and were thought to have an impact on wellbeing. ‘Good smells were thought to strengthen our resilience,’ Rose continues. Bad smells, unsurprisingly, were considered to have a negative impact.

TALY’S POWERFUL and unimaginably wealthy Medici family were particular proponents of this olfactory wisdom, employing perfumers to create bespoke fragrances, which they used in almost every aspect of daily life, from scenting the home to fragrancing garments. (See ‘The Cure of Contraries’, left, for details.) The aromas that filled the air were believed to directly ‘feed’ the vital spirits (and the physical body), as they were inhaled. Continues Rose: ‘In the Renaissance, people thought smells contained minute particles which you 17th Century print of The Four Humours ingested and became part of you.’ Fragrance recipes were constructed so you could ‘feed your spirit daily with choice THE ‘CURE OF CONTRARIES’ odours. Today,’ Rose says, ‘this might be the equivalent of When you felt out of sorts in Renaissance Italy, wearing your favourite perfume to give you courage for a it called for a trip to your local perfumer – not to job interview.’ indulge in a bit of retail therapy, but to request a In one existing piece of contemporary research into bespoke recipe of scented ingredients to ‘balance’ the power of scent on our psyche, meanwhile, ‘Pleasant your emotions and, therefore, your physical body, ambient odours were found to enhance vigilance during as the two were believed to be bridged by our a tedious task and improve performance on anagram and ‘vital spirits’ and responded to fragrances. word completion tests,’ reports scientificamerican.com. Medicine was based on the idea the human They go on to explain that, conversely, ‘…the presence of body was made up of four main ‘humours’: a malodour reduced participants subjective judgments and Melancholic, Phlegmatic, Sanguine or Choleric. lowered their tolerance for frustration. Participants in the An ‘imbalance’ would be treated with fragrant studies also reported concordant mood changes. Thus,’ ingredients considered to be opposite in they conclude, ‘the observed behavioural responses are character: lemon, mint and styrax were considered due to the effect that the ambient odours have on people’s ‘cold’ and dry; ginger, pepper, clove and animalic mood.’ Not so far from what Medicis believed, actually. scents like ambergris and civet were ‘hot’ (and Maverick perfumer Geza Schoen harnessed this idea of thus might be deployed to treat a cold). feel-good ‘aroma-perfumery’ in 2006 when he launched This ‘cure of contraries’ involved ‘feeding’ his fragrance house Escentric Molecules, which set out those spirits with pleasant aromas in elaborate to revolutionise modern fragrance by showcasing single, ways: soaking your leather gloves in scent, eating synthetic aroma chemicals. In the case of his blockbuster perfume-laden pastilles or carrying pomanders, global bestseller Molecule 01, the ingredient is ISO filling your home with fragrant smoke, sprinkling E Super, a gently musky and vanilla-like synthesised scented vinegars or strewing the floors with ingredient discovered by IFF in 1973, ‘which stimulates one aromatic flowers among the fresh straw. Explains of our remaining pheromone receptors,’ he says. historian Rose Byfleet: ‘When you were smelling a Although Iso E Super had previously been used by rose, [they thought] you were inhaling tiny perfumers in small doses, it remained somewhat of an parts of the plant. What this meant in medical industry secret: that special something you couldn’t quite terms is that they believed that smelling fragrance put your finger on but somehow made a fragrance swoon- had a physical reaction.’ worthily irresistible – a truly feel-good smell. But when The science may have been off. But the belief Schoen first smelled Iso E Super, his mind was blown, and a itself, it turns out, has some basis… small olfactory grenade was set off in the perfume world. Follow Rose Byfleet@medicifangirl As he explains: ‘There’s a theory that it’s not only absorbed by our smell receptors, but also acts on ALAMY/CHARLES WALKER COLLECTION ALAMY/CHARLES WALKER

36 THE scented LETTER Jacobson’s organ [a patch of sensory cells within the main nasal chamber that detects heavy moisture-borne odour Rembrandt’s painting, particles], which perceives the so-called pheromones.’ The Unconscious Patient Geza’s theory is that Molecule 01’s popularity is at (Allegory of Smell), least in part ‘because it literally does something to us, 1606 – 1669, shows an physically…’ But it’s a still theory, and much of this work is attempt to revive the sick with scent currently still at the ‘theory’ stage, while scientists work to decode exactly why and how odours work on our brain. Here’s what we know for sure – and for now – though; 73% of respondents to that aforementioned IFF survey agreed with one very important statement: ‘My fragrance is essential’. The commercial proof of this can be seen in a report from business analysts the NPD Group: ‘Fragrance demonstrated its resilience in 2020, and is outperforming the entire prestige beauty market, helping to lead the market recovery.’ What makes that all the more noteworthy is that for over a year, now, since the start of the pandemic, it has been virtually impossible to walk into a store to try a fragrance on our skin. (A factor which has led to a boom in fragrance sampling, however, including record sales of The Perfume Society’s discovery boxes.) Although there’s so much more to understand about the fascinating science behind it, anyone who has felt that immediate whoosh of joy when wearing or surrounding themselves with a scent they love understands that LET US SMELL CAKE…

Just why do we find certain scents so irresistible? Vanilla has since been trialled A paper published in the scientific journal Psychophysiology in 1994 is one of the few in scenting particularly high- definitive studies, looking into the apparent calming properties of vanilla-like odours. Previously, it stress areas of hospitals, such was assumed that vanilla was simply ‘addictive’. Indeed it is often cited as the world’s favourite as MRI and CT scanning rooms smell because the scent infantilises us somehow – reminding people of mother’s milk or the childhood bliss of licking cake-batter straight from the bowl. However, the research proved that vanillin, an fragrance definitely does something, physically as well organic compound that’s the primary component as emotionally. Already, when you find a fragrance of vanilla bean extract, significantly reduced the that connects with you in that way, you’ve essentially ‘startle reflex’ even in animals that don’t suckle. been handed a precious key to uplifting or inspiring or (And which don’t share our nostalgia for cupcakes, grounding yourself, each time you wear (or perhaps scent or hanker after perfumes that remind us of ‘naughty your surroundings) with that fragrance. treats’ to be found at the patisserie). Frustratingly, Dominique Ropion, revered Master Perfumer at IFF, scientists don’t yet know how vanillin is working believes: ‘[Perfume has] a fabulous power. My undertaking such magic – just that it does. But vanilla has since is to try to create emotion in my fellow men and women, also been trialled in scenting particularly high-stress letting them feel more present in the world or step back areas of hospitals, such as MRI and CT scanning from it, contributing to building bonds of community, rooms, and for patients undergoing chemotherapy. religion or love, generating self-confidence, bringing If the pandemic could be said to have a silver people together…’ lining, it is that the sense of smell has never had so But while we play the waiting game a little longer for much media coverage. Its loss is a widely-reported fragrances that are specifically formulated and marketed symptom/side-effect of Covid-19 infection (see to power us on to a deadline, to kickstart our get-up-and- Louise Woollam’s article on p.38), and has thus go when it got-up-and-went, or to calm us in a crazy (and piqued scientific interest in this ‘fallen angel of our intermittently locked-down) world, the hashtag that IFF senses’, as Helen Keller described it. So perhaps, chose for their scented survey speaks for all of us who’ve finally, we can hope this so-vital part of our lives will long understood that perfume is an enabler for positive be more fully researched, in the future? living: #fragranceisthenewhope.

THE scented LETTER 37 2014 I LOST MY SENSE OF SMELL, and rotting food, or petrol where there is none. And then there’s my life hasn’t been the same since. No bite parosmia, which is where the patient can tell there is a ofIn food, no sip of drink, not even a single shower has gone smell, but it is distorted. So coffee, for example, might smell by untouched by anosmia and parosmia since I caught the like sewage, and peanuts or roast potatoes might have the cold that killed my olfactory nerve. I’m not even sure I truly flavour of mud and dust. For both parosmia and phantosmia knew what anosmia was at the time, and there was little sufferers, even simple everyday tasks can cause stress and information around to help me out. distress; many parosmia sufferers report difficulties in eating Since then, I’ve done my best to raise awareness of how or just leaving the house, where they’ll have no control over debilitating smell loss and dysfunction can be. I’ve written the smells they will encounter. countless articles about my experience in order to help out Pre-COVID, most people only realised they were anosmic other people who have suffered similarly. I’ve worked with over time, mostly because they initially noticed that food Fifth Sense and AbScent, lectured at the Royal School of didn’t taste as good to them as previously. In fact, a lot of Medicine and at international conferences; I’ve even made a people first mistake losing their sense of smell for losing couple of documentaries for the BBC! their sense of taste. While most people with anosmia But nothing, literally nothing has done more to raise have fully functioning taste buds, these perceive only awareness of the effects of smell loss than the current salt, sweet, sour, bitter and umami. What we generally pandemic of COVID-19. 2020 was an incredibly difficult year think of as “taste” is actually flavour, and we experience for an unimaginable number of people, and while I’ve been flavour primarily through our noses – so if your nose isn’t lucky enough not to have suffered the virus directly, I can’t functioning, you probably can’t taste food. say that I’ve been left entirely untouched According to Chrissi Winkelbauer by the pandemic. I help run a Facebook Kelly, founder of AbScent, and who group dedicated to helping people cope runs several anosmia Facebook groups, with acquired anosmia, and I see every one major difference between pre- and day the toll this previously little-known There are things COVID-related anosmia is that the onset condition has taken on people’s lives. I also “ of the latter can happen incredibly see how what is known as ‘long COVID’ can that people can quickly, and is noticed much sooner than also have unexpected effects on people’s in non-COVID sufferers. Prior to March sense of smell. do tO help them 2020 people would pitch up in her To the outside world, smell loss seems groups after living with the condition for so simple. So: you can’t smell. Big deal, along the path a while. Now, she says, they are joining how bad can it be? It’s not like being the groups within days of realising they blind or deaf. But truth is that anosmia to potentially have no sense of smell – and with it, can be a life-changing condition for many recovering their they’re bringing a much greater sense sufferers. And, as more and more scientists of both urgency and anxiety related to are finding out, olfaction itself is far from sense of smell their smell loss. Indeed, Chrissi had to simple. Experts estimated (pre-COVID) begin a specific COVID-related smell- that around 20% of the population would loss group, which has grown to almost suffer, or have suffered, from some form of 25,000 members in less than a year. smell dysfunction in their lifetime. That’s shot up: according Many of the stories that people tell about their smell loss to Scientific American, an estimated 80% of people with journeys in the Facebook groups are heartbreakingly similar. COVID-19 experience smell disturbances. ”People talk of isolation, feelings of detachment, the fear Smell dysfunction can have any number of causes and that they were alone in their suffering. Many also speak of takes a variety of different forms. Common causes include the ‘glass box’ feeling of anosmia, where you are present in viral infection, not just COVID; as I discovered, even an the events of your life, but also separate, apart, alien. I find ordinary head cold can be virulent enough to damage an myself in each of these stories, and I’m reminded afresh of olfactory nerve in some cases. Then we have brain injuries, what were some of the darkest days of my own life. And my polyps, chronic and recurring sinusitis, and chemotherapy is heart weeps for all of them, many of them who now face a also known to have smell dysfunction as a side effect. Some similar journey to my own. people are born anosmic and some cases simply have no However, the sheer numbers of similar stories from so known cause. In addition, various neurological conditions many patients in one place has highlighted that there may, have anosmia as a symptom, such as Parkinson’s disease. in fact, be two additional and previously undocumented Since the sense of smell naturally degrades as we age, it smell disorders. One is ‘smell perseveration’, where once a is estimated that up to 80% of people over the age of 80 smell is encountered, it then becomes ‘locked’ and refuses suffer some form of anosmia or hyposmia. (Strictly speaking, to dissipate when the smell stimulus is removed (effectively hyposmia is the term for a decreased sense of smell, but it becoming a “phantom” smell). isn’t as widely known as the term anosmia, so they’re used People may alternatively suffer ‘smell fatigue’, where pretty much interchangeably.) the patient smells things normally, but only for a second or Some sufferers develop phantosmia, where the sufferer two before the scent disappears completely, despite the experiences scents that don’t have any physical cause – for stimulus item still being in the vicinity. Papers are being instance, smelling burning when there’s nothing alight, or prepared on these conditions, but anosmia sufferers have

38 THE scented LETTER I SMELL, THEREFORE I AM

THE YEAR THE WORLD DISCOVERED THE Sense of Smell

‘You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone,’ goes the song. But with loss of the sense of smell a symptom of COVID-19, never have more people paid attention to the problem of anosmia, reports LOUISE WOOLLAM

THE scented LETTER 39 I SMELL, THEREFORE I AM

been discussing these anecdotally with each other over I can personally attest to the effectiveness of smell a period of year. Without the sheer numbers of people training in my own case, as I used my (still frankly enormous) reporting these symptoms, it is unlikely that they would perfume collection in what I know now was a rudimentary have been recognised at all. form of training back in 2014-2015 – I was determined not Another common topic of discussion in the online to let my collection go to waste! – and I credit it almost groups is: ‘When will I be normal again?’ This is an entirely for my recovery. My sense of smell is not the same extremely hard question to answer. As Chrissi Kelly puts it, as it was, my left nostril remains dead, as the olfactory bulb acquired anosmia is an injury, not an illness, and we don’t didn’t ever recover, but the right one works well enough ask that question of any other injury. A runner who breaks for me to function almost as well as before. I still smell train his ankle may not ever run again, and sadly, the same regularly, though, and recommend it to everyone. might be true for someone who has had their olfactory One thing COVID has done is to have finally shone a nerve injured through illness or trauma. We simply don’t spotlight on precisely how neglected our sense of smell know, and currently aren’t able to tell, which groups of has been by the medical establishment at large. Again and anosmia sufferers will recover completely again, in anosmia support groups, stories spontaneously, will recover partially, or will are told about patients’ concerns being never recover. And the really hard part for dismissed: ‘It’s just smell, you’ll live,’ doctors patients is that they won’t find out until say. Or when patients admit to struggling they either do recover, or they don’t. While COVID has with life with no sense of smell, they are it might not be a big deal for some, for “ disparaged, and told they’ll ‘get over it.’ others, particularly in careers that depend finally shone But in what has to be extremely good on smell to be able to do their jobs – news for anyone affected by anosmia, as a cooking, nursing, even firefighting (never a spotlight on direct result of COVID’s effect on the sense mind perfumery) – it can be a tragedy. precisely how of smell, respected medics, scientists, and But it isn’t all doom and gloom. There researchers from around the world have got are things that people can do to help them neglected our together to form a new group dedicated along the path to potentially recovering to the study of the olfactory, taste, and their sense of smell. Smell training, for sense of smell trigeminal systems which together form our instance has real evidential proof that it senses of taste and smell. Called the Global can help some acquired anosmia sufferers has been Consortium for Chemosensory Research improve their chances of recovery. AbScent (GCCR), the group now has around 630 has a huge library of resources for this on members based in 64 countries. Together, their website, and I highly recommend they are concentrating research on how anyone who is interested take a look at their archives and olfaction works, and the impact on lives when our olfactive try smell training out for themselves. Smell training in itself” capabilities are destroyed. is ostensibly quite simple. People use a small library of Already, we are seeing many groups looking into making scents (usually essential oils, purely for convenience, rather diagnosis through smell-testing (currently slow, specialised than any aromatherapy effects) and smell them for a few and very expensive) cheaper, faster and accessible to many minutes twice a day, while doing specific brain training more anosmics. The very existence of GCCR has to be a exercises along with the smelling. Whilst not a cure, it could good thing, too. But for the many anosmia sufferers who’ve be considered the olfactory equivalent of physiotherapy for been affected by this for years, the question is: why, oh why, a damaged olfactory nerve. did it take a global pandemic to make this happen…?

ANOSMIA ACTION PLAN If you’re worried you have smell-loss, here are some things that might help.

1 Try not to panic. I know this is Sense have lively communities 5 Smell train, smell train, smell

easier said than done, but there who swap tips and share stories. train. Even a fully functioning are things that can help, and Or there’s my Facebook group, olfactory nerve will benefit from always remember you are not Living Well With Anosmia. being able to discern scents better, alone. 4 Practise good self-care. By and at present, for those worried

2 Get informed. AbScent and keeping informed, getting support, about smell-loss it’s the best

Fifth Sense both have a wealth of and speaking with your medical therapy there is. AbScent have resources to help get you up to team to determine the cause of videos and information galore to speed on what is happening. your smell loss, you’ll feel better, I help get you started. 3 Find support. There are many promise you. And finally, and this

groups dedicated to smell loss on applies to everyone, not just those abscent.org Facebook; both AbScent and Fifth worried about smell-loss… fifthsense.org.uk

40 THE scented LETTER THE scented LETTER 41

DRINK ME THE fragrantFOODIE

Please join us in raising a glass to PRATAP CHAHAL (also known as ‘That Hungry Chef’) as we welcome his new column, which deliciously blurs the lines between smell and taste. Here, he explores vetiver

PHOTO BY LOUISE LYSHØJ ON UNSPLASH PHOTO BY LOUISE LYSHØJ Vetiver Martini

THE scented LETTER 31 DRINK ME

THANDAI In ‘It Takes Me Right Back’ (Issue 45 of The Scented Letter), I referenced a cooling Indian drink called thandai, a drink of almonds, fennel seeds, watermelon kernels, rose petals, pepper, cardamom, saffron, milk, sugar and vetiver, which is consumed in the summer, and in particular around the time of the colourful Hindu festival, Holi. So, as the days get longer and the prospect of warmer months is tangibly on the horizon, here’s a recipe for thandai that you can make at home.

SERVES 6-8

IN THE LAST ISSUE of The Scented 1 litre milk (can substitute any l Add the ground spices and soaked Letter, I shared my love of vetiver, the plant-based milk) nuts mix to a blender and add 200ml of milk to make a smooth paste. smell I’ve been obsessed with since 20 almonds, skinned my childhood – the (for me) dreamy 20 pistachio, shelled aroma that battled the oppression l Add remaining milk to a pan and of Indian summers and embraced 2 tbsp melon seeds (can use 1 tbsp bring to the boil. Add the vetiver the lust of the monsoon. ‘The scent sunflower seeds as a substitute) strands to the milk, turn off heat and 1 of ‘waterfalls and wet mud, dancing 1 /2 tbsp poppy seeds (preferably infuse for one hour, then bring it back with sunshine and flowers,’ was how I white) to a boil and strain out the vetiver.

described it. 1 1 /2 tbsp fennel seeds I’ve always been proud of my l Turn off the heat and whisk in the 10 green cardamom, seeds only own, home-made, somewhat rustic spice paste and saffron along with the liqueur concocted with vetiver, 1 inch stick cinnamon sugar/honey. Let the mix cool before sugar and vodka, feverishly pushing (or ¼ tsp ground cinnamon) putting it in the fridge overnight to a dram on anyone who came to my 4 black peppercorns let all the flavours mingle and infuse. Islington supper clubs so that they 4 tsp sugar (or honey) If using vetiver infusion, make the could infuse their tastebuds and souls dilution as per instructions (left) and Pinch saffron with this perfumed libation. But that add 1 tsp of the infusion, at the end. pride swiftly disappeared when I 1 tsp rose petals came across a unique collaboration 10 strands natural vetiver (as an l The next day, strain the mix through between the brilliant team at London alternative to vetiver strands, a sieve (make sure you press all the bar, Tayēr + Elementary, and De infuse 1 drop of vetiver absolute liquid out). If you prefer a smooth drink, Kuyper Royale Distillers. in 500ml water and whisk until the blend with a few ice cubes before Muyu Vetiver Gris is nothing short absolute is dissolved) drinking; I personally like to have it a of sensual and dreamy. It’s a 22% ABV slightly thicker consistency akin to a liqueur powered by vetiver, bolstered METHOD smoothie. If using the vetiver absolute by the most delicate notes of flavouring, add 1 tsp of the diluted patchouli, cedarwood and petitgrain l Soak the nuts, melon and poppy vetiver water to your drink – depending with a subtle warmth provided seeds in warm water for one hour. on your preference for how strong you by timur (Sichuan pepper). I can’t Grind the spices and rose petals in want the vetiver flavour to be, feel free begin to tell you just what a flavour a spice grinder to a fine powder. to add more if necessary. sensation this liqueur is. I’ve trickled it into a glass of prosecco, stirred it with a Negroni and used it to turbo- charge a lemonade. I even tried to recreate my VETIVER MARTINI childhood memories of cooling myself 25ml Muyu Vetiver Gris with vetiver by sipping this incredible 50ml dry gin (I like to use Sipsmith for this) liqueur with the heating on full blast, 25 ml Martini Extra Dry Vermouth tuned into rain sounds on Spotify, before my wife collapsed in hysterics. Shake or stir it, sit back and let the delicate flavour of But don’t let that stop you from vetiver’s verdant perfume wash over you. Alternatively, enjoying it your way. add a splash to a glass of prosecco for an afternoon pick-me-up! For more about Pratap’s delicious Muyu Vetiver Gris Liqueur/£29.99 for 500ml home delivered ‘Feast Boxes’ masterofmalt.com and future supper clubs, visit thathungrychef.com

44 THE scented LETTER Thandai THE scented LETTER 25 TOMORROW’S SCENT STARS

A Nose To Watch: Ezra-Lloyd Jackson

In a new series, SUZY AT THE PERFUME SOCIETY, we’re perfumery training at Olfiction – the used to interviewing A-list perfumers privately-owned fragrance house and NIGHTINGALE goes – the grandees of the perfume world, consultancy, founded by perfumer nose-to-nose with the with hundreds, if not thousands, Pia Long and creative director Nick of creations to their name. But for Gilbert. Specialists in perfumery and burgeoning talent of ‘A Nose To Watch’, we wanted to storytelling for a long list of clients, the fragrance world showcase up-and-coming talent – not they now also market their own least as an inspiration to the many Boujee Bougies candle range. – meeting perfumers perfume-loving readers who contact For many decades, the fragrance whose names will soon us asking how they might, perhaps, industry has been pretty much become perfumers themselves. a closed shop. The traditional be on your lips. And For our first focus, we spoke to perfumery schools were the whose creations will Ezra-Lloyd Jackson, an artist and ‘Oxbridge’ of the olfactory world, designer from south-east London, rarely open to those from more soon be on your wrists… who is currently completing diverse cultures and backgrounds.

46 THE scented LETTER But for Ezra, his heritage and such an alien field to me. But I designers using scent as a medium.’ upbringing plays a huge role in enjoy the challenges; it pushes me And perhaps it goes without saying: how he works, informing his work. a lot further.’ He particularly enjoys one day, he would love to develop his ‘Coming from a Caribbean-British working with certain materials. own brand. heritage I was raised in Black and ‘Cardamom CO2 is exquisite. Vetiver For now, at the Olfiction lab, Ezra multicultural spaces, as well as rural is also incredibly interesting, because appreciates the support he gets from British settings across London and of how multi-faceted and tenacious the whole team. Talking about the the UK,’ he explains. What he also it is.’ Other materials he finds company’s resident perfumers Pia brings to perfumery, though, is a trickier, ‘but I enjoy the challenge Long and Marianne Martin, it’s clear fascinating CV that includes ‘graphic of it all; it’s like solving puzzles!’ Ezra understands just how fortunate design, illustration, music production, As for memorising, Ezra reveals he he is to be able to watch these pros and creative coding – all of which often attaches ‘colours, shapes and at work, ‘and they both continue to play a key part in the creative process textures to smells, sometimes sounds, have strong impacts on my creativity.’ of perfumery, for me.’ which can help, but it really comes Other perfumers who inspire him Like many of us, Ezra’s exploration down to copious pages of notes and include Francis Kurkdjian – ‘I look of smell began early. ‘I loved making repetitive smelling.’ up to how he executes his work potions as a toddler and would with a refined, modern style’ – and imagine stories around them,’ he Jean-Claude Ellena, for his ability ‘to smiles. As an older child, Ezra also manipulate the opacity of fragrances, remembers ‘heavily associating scent without losing consistency.’ with certain places. I was very aware Individual fragrances have led to of the atmospheric home smells ‘aha!’ moments, too, for Ezra. He of a relative’s house, for example.’ Nobody“ in my recalls the moment ‘when Guerlain But turning that interest into a job Vetiver clicked, for me, opening with wasn’t on his radar. ‘Perfumery wasn’t family has sharp citrus-green spikes, expanding something I ever conceived as a in depth over time and eventually career. Nobody in my family has any any ties to warming, tangling and binding into ties to the perfume industry or trade, itself, submerging into the skin. I can and it was never something that was the perfume appreciate the poetry in the work.’ seriously discussed.’ When asked which fragrance he For his own interest and would most like to have composed, enjoyment, Ezra began assembling industry or Ezra replies: Amouage Interlude a collection of fragrances, which led Woman. ‘I appreciate its complexity him to research online the ingredients trade, and without it being messy. I think and construction of scents. He [perfumer] Karine Vinchon Spehner went on to explore articles about it was never found a curious way to borrow collaborations between artists and particular elements from certain perfumers, stumbling across projects something that materials – like the frankincense that that Olfiction had been involved in. has been stripped of all the smoke.’ Getting in touch with Pia and Nick was seriously There is still an enormous amount at Olfiction to find out more, Ezra of work to be done to make the realised perfumery could be ‘a real discussed world of perfumery more diverse job’: a door was opened, when they and representative. ‘I think it starts offered him a form of apprenticeship. with role models, so that younger He started as a lab assistant, in 2018, people can see themselves in certain and has since become a perfumer’s roles and senior levels, as well as assistant, a role that includes outreaching to different communities weighing and measuring fragrance Mentoring is” vital, providing that haven’t historically had access to ingredients for the perfumers to encouragement to young perfumers. this space. I’m excited by the idea of smell. Today, he is working towards In Ezra’s case, he mentions help opening the craft to new views and a Junior Perfumer role, with the aim from figures who are keen to see perspectives.’ ultimately of becoming a fully-trained the amplification of diverse voices But for now, Ezra has more perfumer. (It’s worth remembering in the scent world, including artist immediate challenges, on his path to that at perfume schools, including and niche perfumer Paul Schutze, becoming a perfumer – and no doubt ISIPCA, this process can take from as well as Michael Donovan – owner a role model, himself. ‘Just when you two to four years, after successful and founder of the Roullier White think you’ve understood a material, completion of a chemistry degree.) boutique and founder of St Giles something happens that reminds Learning that all-important fragrance house. With the skills he’s you that you know a relatively minute chemistry has, Ezra admits, ‘been gaining, Ezra ultimately aims ‘to detail about its behaviour,’ he smiles. tricky at times, because of it being collaborate with other artists and ‘They say that never stops…’

THE scented LETTER 47 Enjoy a complimentary Personal Fragrance Consultation at moltonbrown.co.uk #MBxMe IF WALLS HAD NOSES Perfume’s prints charming

JO FAIRLEY explores a colourful cross-Channel collaboration between the creatives at Parisian interiors brand Antoinette Poisson and London perfumer Lyn Harris IF WALLS HAD NOSES

alas, few historic records reproduce a domino wallpaper and we loved the process: it’s There are of the perfumes actually created from fabric fibres, and it gives such amazing soul to worn by Louis XV’s mistress and confidante, Madame de the wall. Looking back, I guess we were a little bit bored by Pompadour (see overleaf) – although it’s said that the scent conservation work. There’s not much room for creativity…’ of musk could still be found in the curtains of her chambers, But bébé, look at them now. The pair literally became an 20 years after her departure from Versailles. But I can’t overnight sensation, darlings of interior designers the world help feeling that a woman with such elevated aesthetic over, after unveiling their first domino decorative papers sensibilities would, in pride of place on her gilded dressing at Paris’s Maison et Objet show. John Derian, découpage table, have showcased the trio of exquisitely-packaged obsessive and purveyor of fabulous homewares, made fragrances newly launched by Antoinette Poisson. an order for Antoinette Poisson’s designs to showcase in Founded in 2012 by Jean-Baptiste Martin and Vincent his downtown New York store, which attracts journalists, Farrely, their company’s branding is taken from ‘Jeanne designers and fashionistas like moths to a candle. Antoinette Poisson’ – the birth name of Madame de And it’s no small achievement that their first collaboration Pompadour, a highly influential beauty who was also a was with Diptyque, whose creative dynamo Maryam Badault patron of the arts and wallpaper enthusiast. came knocking with an invitation to design a collection of Before launching their own wallpaper brand in 2013, candles, drawer liners, cushions and trinket dishes. Their Martin and Farrely worked in wallpaper conservation, next, even swisher #collab was with Gucci: not only did the painstakingly restoring interiors in the US, France and Italian luxury brand translate the designs of the domino England for museums and private owners. They had papers into fabrics for their 2019 spring/summer collection, met while studying at the Sorbonne and France’s Institut but an original Antoinette Poisson drawing was recreated on National de Patrimoine, where conservator-restorers train to a vast scale for the floor of Gucci’s SoHo store, at 63 Wooster work on public collections under the auspices of the French Street in New York. And then there were the Ladurée Ministry of Culture. macarons, offered in an Antoinette Poisson box… On a project in the Auvergne, the pair became So from its launch, Antoinette Poisson’s trajectory has completely fascinated by the lost art of ‘domino’ been near-vertical. And is it any wonder? In a mass-produced wallpapering, dating back to the late 17th Century. As world where ‘Made in China’ is stamped on half the products Martin explains over the phone from a semi-locked-down you pick up, there is a craving for the authentic, the artisanal, Paris, ‘Before wallpaper came on rolls, it was in the form the ‘different’. And they don’t come more artisanal and of sheets created by etched plates, then hand-blocked, authentic than this. ‘Everything is made in France,’ Martin stencilled and hand-painted.’ These would then be trimmed says. ‘The mill was restored about 30 years or so ago by a and applied to the walls of the homes of the rich and the Parisian paper-maker, who also renovated the 18th Century aristocracy – quite the status symbol. machinery. The paper itself is made with 19th Century ‘Some of the designs actually felt very modern,’ he vintage rags, brought mostly from nearby villagers: things continues. ‘So we started to buy examples at auction, as they get from their grandmothers, generally beyond repair.’ well as original designs. For one restoration job we had to When this stock is used up – as will happen, eventually – they’re unsure what will happen to that side of the business. ‘We’ve got a few years yet, but when you look at paper

Lyn Harris, made with modern linen, it’s quite different. Modern linens Antoinette are very bright, because they’re washed with detergents Poisson’s using optical brighteners and look quite different.’ perfumer So, with the knowledge that their flagship product may end up going the way of the dodo, Antoinette Poisson has savvily expanded into more traditional (non-rag, more accessibly-priced) wallpaper on rolls, alongside divine decorative objects. And, Martin explains, ‘We had long wanted to complete Antoinette Poisson’s very visual universe with the olfactory dimension, creating fragrances capturing key moments in the life of the Madame de Pompadour.’ There was an obvious contender to transform their vision and designs into fragrance. A good mutual friend introduced Martin and Farrely to the masterful Lyn Harris, who trained in Paris before going to work with Robertet in Grasse, was founder of Miller Harris and now has her own Perfumer H store on Marylebone’s Crawford Street. A long-time champion of craftsmanship and artisans, Lyn Harris was always going to ‘get’ Antoinette Poisson. ‘We just connected,’ she says. ‘I’d go so far as to say that we had a mutual fan club going on a creative level, which enables good things to come.’ As she puts it: ‘Everything Antoinette

50 THE scented LETTER “Everything Antoinette Poisson does is so beautifully executed, it seduces you”

LYN HARRIS

THE scented LETTER 25 IFthe WALLS master HAD of NOSESmodern femininity “We had long wanted to complete Antoinette Poisson’s very visual universe with the olfactory dimension”

JEAN-BAPTISTE MARTIN

Above: Inspired by 18th Century tapestries, the design for ‘Joli- Bois’ wallpaper is hand painted in tempera, a permanent, fast- drying paint made of coloured pigments, usually mixed with egg

Right: The ‘Bien-Aimée design is taken from floral pieces of embroidery from the designers’ personal collection

Below: The repetitive wallpaper pattern ‘Tison’ borrows from the tradition of domino papers. As the designers explain, ‘The stylised wood fire design refers to the muffled world of interiors and to the Marquise de Pompadour’s passion for printing and engraving techniques.’

“Tison is... the solitude, the library, the comfort of hot chocolate by the fire, the smell of beeswax”

LYN HARRIS 24 THE scented LETTER Poisson does is so beautifully executed, it seduces you. You just want to immerse yourself in their decadent world.’ So Martin, Farrely and Harris spent a weekend in London, ‘dreaming about it together. Spending time with Jean- Baptiste and Vincent was amazing: I got their energy, they got a feel for my laboratory and my work.’ The samples then ping-ponged to-and-fro from Paris to London. ‘In all, it took around a year,’ remembers Jean-Baptiste Martin. ‘But it all just flowed perfectly,’ adds Lyn. Despite the exquisiteness of the ‘wallpaper’ boxes in which the final fragrances are packaged, this wasn’t simply a case of taking three Antoinette Poisson designs, then creating a scent to fit. ‘For me, it was the story of Antoinette and the three different stages in her life that fascinated me. As Jean-Baptiste and Vincent told me the story, I began to visualise the setting – and then came the smells that expressed these three scenes.’ Though she knew something of Antoinette’s life, Lyn WHO WAS MADAME DE POMPADOUR? steeped herself in the history of this ‘king’s favourite’, to ‘Antoinette Poisson’ seems a kooky name, to kickstart the creative process of her formulations. Those anyone who hasn’t immersed themselves in three distinct stages are Antoinette’s meeting with the king, French history. But Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, her rise at the court of Versailles, and her latter years, far born on 29th December 1721 and elevated to from the frenzy of court life. ‘Madame d’Étiolles’ on her marriage, had the Each evokes a very different mood. Like stepping into the much loftier title ‘Marquise de Pompadour’ cool shade on a hot summer’s day, Joli Bois is woody-fresh, bestowed on her after she became the King’s Cologne-like, with its cool, green, vegetal qualities, notes of mistress and was given apartments at Versailles, green leaf, irone, angelica, juniper, incense and cedarwood connected to his own via a secret staircase. brightened by bergamot, orange bigarade and grapefruit. Because it was impossible to be presented at court ‘It’s about innocence, lust, attraction, a meeting, the green without a title, the king bought the marquisate of forest,’ she explains. In Antoinette’s timeline, it represents Pompadour for his love, with coat-of-arms, château 1743, the year she first charmed the king. and land – most definitely not to be sniffed at. The second, a bright floral, perfectly echoes its sunshine Patron of the arts, helping to found the royal yellow, flower-sprigged Antoinette Poisson carton. Bien- porcelain factory at Sèvres, supporter of authors Aimée (‘Beloved’), represents 1745, the prime of Antoinette’s and artists, architects and artisans (including those life. ‘It’s the garden of Versailles,’ Lyn says. In the words of who made wallpaper), Antoinette was overseer of the brand, this is ‘a bouquet of freshly-cut flowers on the many new construction projects. Ultimately, she arm of La Pompadour, the rise of a young bourgeoise turned persuaded the king, with the help of her brother Marquise, the blossoming of a woman, mistress of the (also ennobled, as the Marquess of Marigny), to king, mistress of her destiny.’ All evoked via armfuls of lilac, build the Petit Trianon palace in the grounds of orange blossom, jasmine, cassie absolute and ylang ylang, Versailles. On a more sensorial level, meanwhile, reclining on a bed – or perhaps a chaise longue – of iris Madame de Pompadour also had a fondness for absolute, cedar and white musk. truffle soup, champagne and chocolate, flowers And then there’s Tison – a perfect Sunday-afternoon-in-a- and gardens. bottle, representing the year 1750 in Antoinette’s life. ‘Tison At what seems now like the preposterously is the house she was sent to after they separated. It’s the young age of 30, however, having suffered a solitude, the library, the comfort of hot chocolate by the fire, series of miscarriages and no longer the king’s the smell of beeswax,’ explains Lyn. favourite (though having procured for him a string And of course, for Antoinette Poisson, not just any of younger mistresses), Madame de Pompadour flacon would do,. Martin and Farrely went to the historic, retreated from royal life to other homes purchased 100-year-old Waltersperger glassworks in northern France for her by Louis, including the Hôtel d’Evreux (now to source the perfect bottle design, which was then hand- the Elysée Palace) and the Palace of Bellevue, in etched with arabesque flourishes reminiscent of Madame de Meudon, just south-west of Paris. Pompadour’s time. Into each of those very special bottles Though remaining the great love of the king is then decanted an olfactory story. The fragrances take and his enduring confidante, she buried herself one of history’s most fascinating figures, weaving tales in in books and country living, before dying of scent of Marie Antoinette’s life that are both nostalgic and tuberculosis at the age of 42. King Louis remained utterly modern – that magic trick which Antoinette Poisson’s devoted to her right up to her death, nursing her creators have so cleverly pulled off, with everything they do. through that final illness. As Louis XV watched over And which – when worn on the body – are anything but her coffin’s departure from his first floor apartment wallpaper. overlooking the Marble Courtyard, it is said that tears fell down his cheeks. antoinettepoisson.com

THE scented LETTER 53 AN AROMATIC LIFE

MEMORIES, DREAMS, REFLECTIONS CLAIRE BOWEN is a florist, floristry teacher and author of THE HEALING POWER OF FLOWERS, with a devoted Instagram following for her exquisite arrangements. Here, Claire shares her life in scents

What’s the very first thing you Have you had different fragrances for The scent I love on a man is… Aesop remember smelling? In the 1970s, different phases of your life? Specific Hwyl eau de parfum. Such a good there was an ice cream shop next songs remind me of certain phases of smell on a man. Honeysuckle and Hilda to Sloane Square tube station, and my life, defined either by study or a (our two dogs) bought some for my once a week, if I’d been very good at job or a partner, and fragrance works husband Charles, which was really very nursery school, I was allowed a scoop for me in exactly the same way, as it thoughtful of them. of tangerine ice cream in a cone. It conjures up so many memories. As an smelled like nectar to me. undergraduate, I wore Feminité du The fragrance from the past that Bois by Shisheido. As a postgraduate I’ve always wanted to smell is… My When did you realise scent was at The Courtauld, I switched to grandmother’s hot cross buns. important to you? I was about 16 years Clinique Aromatics Elixir, which is much old. I didn’t get many compliments as heavier, but I particularly loved this. I What is your favourite book about a teenager, but friends always told me don’t know why I’ve changed scents in fragrance? In my mid-30s I was how nice I smelled. such clearly defined periods in my life. diagnosed with a rare autoimmune Perhaps it’s like getting a new pencil disease which, while there is no known What’s your favourite scented flower? case at the start of the autumn term. exact cause for it, was put down to In the winter I love paperwhites and ‘environmental factors’. hyacinths indoors. Gardenias also The smell that always makes me I was told to be very careful about smell wonderful in the house. But when happy is… Éditions de Parfums any chemicals I had around the I’m out in the garden, nothing beat Frédéric Malle Portrait of a Lady. Five home, whether that meant cleaning the scent of a rose. Except perhaps years ago, I had a small, surprise hen materials or make-up and perfume. I jasmine... May I have all of them? weekend in Paris with four dear friends. immediately went out and bought both As a treat they organised for me to go Sarah Stacey and Josephine Fairley’s What was the first fragrance you were to a Frédéric Malle boutique and try The Green Beauty Bible and also Romy given? Chanel Cristalle, by my mother. out perfumes in the scent chamber so Fraser’s Recipes for Natural Beauty. I I spent school holidays in Scotland that I could choose one as a present. I became an avid reader of books on and the biggest treat was Cristalle chose this and wore it on my wedding aromatherapy, too. I also love Christina bubble bath. The water was so soft that day. On the same day, in a masterpiece Strutt’s Green Housekeeping: Recipes the bubbles were huge and I would of planning, my maid of honour also and Solutions for a Cleaner, More languish in a hot bath for hours, not arranged two strippers on the Paris Sustainable Home. least because the house was so cold. Métro posing as ticket inspectors, All of this was to prove really useful which is probably the most I’ve ever recently, as I have just written a book What was the first fragrance you laughed. So it brings so many thoughts myself, The Healing Power of Flowers bought yourself? Clarins Eau rushing into my head at once, all (see p.8). Depending on the flower Dynamisante. While my friends were around the most fun weekend with my featured in each section, sometimes I out partying, I was investing any cash I girlfriends and then the happiest day talk about the traditional meaning of had in my skincare regime and staying with my now husband. the flower, or the energy it has in the at home with my face masks. As a fan garden, but I like to think about the of Clarins at the time, I discovered The smell that always makes me a bit aromatherapeutic properties it has too. their scents at an early age. This also sad is… Chanel No 5. In my 20s, I had All my earlier research certainly helped worked well as a room spray at school a boyfriend who was really particular to inform this book. if anyone had been smoking out of my that I wore it. I was perfectly happy to bedroom window (I hated the smell so go along with that until I discovered his honeysuckleandhilda.com much, I never took up smoking myself). mother had always worn it. @honeysuckle_and_hilda

54 THE scented LETTER Claire’s dogs, Claire’s five Honeysuckle and Hilda, with one of favourite smells her arrangements

1 PORTRAIT OF A LADY

(see main article).

2 FRESH-BAKED

SOURDOUGH BREAD Like so many other people, I finally mastered the art during lockdown, and the smell (and taste) of warm bread is incredibly hard to beat.

Scents worn by Claire and (right) her husband Charles

3 FRESHLY-GRATED GINGER

I’ve been perfecting my Japanese cookery recently, and love the clean smell of ginger. It makes me feel healthy even before I’ve eaten any.

4 MY GARDEN ON A

SUMMER’S MORNING The scent of lots of flowers coming together can be quite heady, in fact.

Tangerine ice cream, a nectarous childhood memory

5 A FRESH CHRISTMAS TREE

My most anticipated scent of the year is our tree, when it’s just gone up. The dogs and our cat all come and watch too – they love to drink the pine- scented water from the base of the tree. I like to call it their Christmas cocktail.

THE scented LETTER 55 FIRST WHIFFS latest launches A bumper crop of newness – some of it delayed by the pandemic – are waiting for NEW you to discover them ✶ The Perfume Society’s The Scented Retreat Box has been assembled to deliver much- needed TLC while we’re (mostly) still closeted in our homes, tapping into the amazing healing and uplifting power of scent. Find it at perfumesociety.org/SHOP, price £23 (£19 to our VIPs). Enjoy FIVE luxury extras, to create your own at-home spa... ● LA MONTAÑA HOME FRAGRANCE DISCOVERY SET ● ANIMA VINCI SESAME CHĀN ● HISTOIRE DE PARFUM 1899 ● SHAY & BLUE MERMAID KISSES ● INITIO REHAB ● ÅND FRAGRANCE MÅD

THE FRAGRANCE FAMILIES

As scentophiles know, fragrances fall into different ‘families’. So we’ve used the same classification system for launches as on our perfumesociety.org website. Just look for the coloured strip above the name of the perfume, which is your visual clue to the families. These are listed below. Most of us are drawn to a specific family/families: once you know which you fall into, that colour can act as a cue – and help you take a short-cut to the ones you may want to try first.

ORIENTAL

FLORIENTAL

CHYPRE WOODY

FLORAL

GOURMAND

FRESH FOUGERE

56 THE scented LETTER ABERCROMBIE & FITCH ÅND FRAGRANCE ARMANI/PRIVÉ Authentic Night Måd Cyprès Pantelleria

Frank Voelkl, senior perfumer at Vanilla as you’ve never smelled it – Whisking us to Pantelleria, the remote Firmenich, weaves sumptuousness, resonant of an orchid’s majestic Mediterranean outcrop which has mystery and a little sprinkling of warmth – is swirled through bright been a place of retreat for Giorgio stardust in a floriental fragrance that is blackcurrant, violet, creamy ylang Armani, an outdoorsy breeze of just begging to be dressed up and ylang and luminescent jasmine. woody-fresh air. Alberto Morillas taken out on the town. (As are we all, Touched with a tingle of cloves to captures its luminosity through neroli, of course.) When that night comes, wrap you in a soft, spacious hug, måd mandarin, bergamot and cedrat, with spritz generously this concoction of (for ‘Madagascar’) does good while waves of transparent clary sage and tuberose, jasmine, magnolia atop smelling great: ånd insist on sourcing cypress essence at the heart. Vetiver, lingering notes of sandalwood, from ethical, eco-friendly independent oakmoss, patchouli and an amber patchouli and cedarwood, which they producers, giving back directly to the wood accord tether the creation, just promise is ‘as surprising and indigenous people who grow and as the island itself might ground us. enthralling as a howl at the moon.’ harvest the fragrant ingredients. From £96 for 50ml eau de parfum £29.50 for 100ml eau de parfum From £35 for 10ml eau de parfum (from 1st April) escentual.com andfragrance.com armanibeauty.co.uk

ATELIER COLOGNE AUTHENTIC BEAUTY CONCEPT BATH HOUSE Lemon Island Eau de Toilette Climbing Trees

Ramping up the feel-good factor Not every fragrance can be spritzed A collab with British perfumer Ruth here is the partnership behind the safely onto hair (alcohol can be Mastenbroek, the name alone conjures star lemon oil ingredient, via a drying). But this can, launched by the wonderful images, while the scent project which supports 260 growers collective of hair pros behind the doesn’t disappoint. Memories of in Rodrigues, the ‘lemon island’ in disruptive Authentic Beauty Brand. carefree childhood summers and fields the heart of the Indian Ocean (and Inside a flacon created from 25% of sun-scorched grass are evoked how much do we long to visit that recycled glass (and a box that is through vetiver, cedar and amber. place?). Indian jasmine and a vanilla ‘climate neutral’), the ‘flower shop’ Clambering through canopies of infusion from Madagascar soften intro offers fresh-cut leaves, white aromatic green leaves, bergamot and the sharp citrus tang, evoking ‘the peony, rose, freesia and powdery radiant jasmine sparkle like dappled scent of the ocean with the perfume violet, softening on the skin to a sunshine, while lemon and rosemary of sunscreen left on your skin.’ downy base of cottony musks and feel like crisp countryside air. Basically, Oh. Yes. Please. soft woods. the scent of freedom, bottled! From £55 for 30ml Cologne Absolue £50 for 50ml eau de toilette £72 for 60ml eau de parfum

ALL STOCKISTS CHECKED AT TIME OF PRESS BUT DUE TO COVID-19 CHALLENGES THESE MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE TO BE SUBJECT THESE MAY CHALLENGES COVID-19 TO DUE TIME OF PRESS BUT AT CHECKED STOCKISTS ALL spacenk.com mewiesandcoshop.co.uk thebathhouseshop.co.uk

THE scented LETTER 57 BEL REBEL BJÖRK & BERRIES BOUGUE PROFUMO Bubblegum Never Spring Lita

One sniff and you’re immediately Scandi brand Bjork & Berries’ For this immense swathe of rum- propelled back to the days of flipping fragrances are inspired by the volatile soaked, floral-licked lusciousness, through teenage magazines, dancing seasons in northern Sweden, where perfumer Antonio Gardoni worked madly at the disco and illicit snogs they certainly have to be more patient with Luke Pritchard, lead singer of The around the back of the bike sheds, for spring than in the UK. Green notes, Kooks, and his singer-songwriter wife while covering your beau in fruit- crisp lemon and cedarwood open up Ellie Rose, to celebrate their new flavoured lip gloss. The photo-realistic to bittersweet blackberry, garlanded musical project, ‘Duo’. Gardoni says ‘I bubble gum scent bubble pops to by sprigs of jasmine, warmed by deep wanted to produce something that reveal a cool, chic wave of Cashmeran amber and soft musks, resonant of the echoed their dark, smokey, lustful on a base of sheer patchouli and sun rising over the frozen landscape. sound.’ Cue heady ylang ylang and vanilla, the sudden sophistication True to their eco-roots, this features plush gardenia wrapped in tobacco juxtaposed with the giggle-inducing 84% natural ingredients, 71% certified and champaca, ripe jasmine swooning joyousness of the opening. organic, and 100% lovely. to the sticky, resinous base. Encore! £139 for 69ml eau de parfum £85 for 50ml eau de parfum £190 for 50ml extrait de parfum belrebel.com bjorkandberries.com bloom.com

BYREDO CAROLINA HERRERA CHANEL Mixed Emotions Very Good Girl Les Exclusifs le Lion de Chanel

Mixed Emotions has been created, so Embodying the spirit of fun, fabulous With a launch postponed from last we’re told, ‘to reflect the tumultuous and fearless, even if you’re not ready summer, the fragrance world was on nature of our times’. Yet the fragrance to squeeze back into your actual tenterhooks for the Olivier Polge’s Le itself seems to offer something of a heels; we know many who’ll be Lion de Chanel – but it absolutely welcome antidote: a beautiful, cool reaching for the instant glam of this does not disappoint. Au contraire, all blend of maté tea, sharply sweet so-collectible new version of the hail to this absolute masterpiece: a blackcurrant, Ceylon black tea, violet bestselling scent. Redcurrant and smoky swirl of resinous, leathery leaves, tethered by papyrus and birch lychee make the mouth water before labdanum, sweet vanilla, with bright wood. ‘A refreshing reminder that it is a swag of red roses garland the heart flashes of bergamot for contrast. OK to not be OK – and that from (we imagine them draped around the Purring on the skin for hours – at unsettling experiences, a new reality shoulders, like a feather boa), while least till sun-up – this is a scent to be might emerge,’ conclude BYREDO. the base swirls seductively with worn as we dance on tabletops. (Just Here’s hoping. vetiver and vanilla. watch us. And smell us.) From £122 for 50ml eau de parfum £55.50 for 30ml eau de parfum From £169 for 75ml eau de parfum byredo.com theperfumeshop.com chanel.com

58 THE scented LETTER CLIVE CHRISTIAN DIPTYQUE DOLCE & GABBANA BEAUTY Matsukita Orphéon Dolce Rose

There’s such a tale behind this Taking its name from the bar in cool Perfumer Violaine Collas adds a woody-Chypre reimagination of the and groovy Saint-Germain in the 60s, perfect bloom to Dolce & Gabbana’s famous Crown Perfumery perfume, beside Diptyque’s first store, Orphéon bouquet of Dolce creations with an first created in 1892 and inspired by a sets out to evoke the warm, buzzy ultra-feminine fruity floral, contrasting fabled Japanese princess who wowed atmosphere where the brand’s rose absolute and crisp, fresh rosa the Victorian royal court. Conjuring up founders relaxed to the sounds of jazz, Centifolia with tart redcurrant, green that elegance, grace and mystery for a while exploring boundlessly creative apple, mandarin and white peach, all new generation are fresh top notes of ideas. Woody, floral and subtly spicy, wrapped in soft musks, snug as a pink pepper and bergamot, spiced by it’s a fabulous fug of tonka, cashmere wrap on a cool summer nutmeg, a floral heart of Chinese cedarwood, jasmine and juniper that is evening. The cap of the now-iconic Imperial jasmine and smoky black tea, a gender-free and super-wearable bottle is reinterpreted in a deep rose on a whispering base of amber, musk, ‘tribute’ to the inspiring heritage of red, adorned with a black grosgrain mosses and woods. this fabled fragrance name. ribbon that is too, too chic. £325 for 50ml eau de parfum £125 for 75ml eau de parfum From £68 for 50ml eau de toilette clivechristian.com diptyqueparis.com harrods.com

DOLCE & GABBANA DS&DURGA ELIZABETH ARDEN Velvet Black Patchouli Jasmin Yukatan White Tea & Ginger Lily

The dark, heady, shareable Not sure if we’re more Lara Croft or Rejoice, all you lovers of the counterpoint to Dolce Rose is this Indiana Jones, but wearing this it’s a phenomenally successful White Tea woody-Oriental, conjuring up a time whole lotta fun imagining exploring fragrances, because – as they like to when precious goods from the East ruined temples in a humid jungle. do each year – Elizabeth Arden have would arrive in the ports of Italy, filling Rather than face snakes and frizzy hair, once again unveiled a twist on the the air with the scent of the patchouli let’s spritz on this aqueous floral filled original, to keep you interest piqued. used to protect precious fabrics en with a rare white flower known as The exhilarating, bright floralcy is route. Davana, blood orange, clary ‘jazmin yucateco’ in Spanish, sweeter freshened by a burst of bitter orange, sage, tonka, caramel and sweet vanilla than (yet unrelated to) jasmine itself. with ginger lily blossoming at the build a seriously intriguing Laced with luscious bergamot, heart. Tethering it to the skin, construction that positively smoulders. entwined with passionflower and laced meanwhile, is a soothing, almost One for patchouli-lovers – but also, with drifts of lemon-y incense-like earthily sensual white cedarwood. Our one to convert patchouli refuseniks. copal. Exotic adventures await. cup of White Tea. From £200 for 50ml eau de parfum £148 for 50ml eau de parfum £40 for 100ml eau de toilette harrods.com libertylondon.com elizabetharden.co.uk

THE scented LETTER 59 ESCENTRIC MOLECULE ESCENTRIC MOLECULE ESCENTRIC MOLECULE Molecule 01 +Iris M+ Mandarin M+ Patchouli

Geza Schoen set the cat amongst the ‘Mandarin is all about the instant Geza Schoen tells us that he loves perfumed pigeons when he dared to hit,’ explains Geza Schoen. ‘It’s so patchouli for its ‘moody beauty’ and decant a single note with a complex alive, the way it radiates off the skin its cool, rather aloof woodiness. And olfactory profile – Iso E Super – into a with that citrus zestiness. But there’s do cast aside any notions of hippy- bottle, and market it as Molecule 01. more to mandarin; it’s very fruity dippiness, please: here, he takes The molecule – which some can’t and aromatic, as well. Its Indonesian patchouli oil and Patchouli even perceive, while others swear it’s transparency means that it vanishes Coeur, which has patchouli’s love-it-or- pheromone-like, in its power to quickly. I’ve touched it up with a hate-it camphorous quality edited out attract – has become a global cult little extra shading to extend it, via a process of fractionation, giving ‘a classic. Now, Molecule + perfectly adding a mandarin ingredient used sophisticated, clean patchouli that pair the original molecule with other in fruits to give it super-juiciness.’ pairs fantastically well with Molecule single ingredients – starting here with As the Molecule 01 syncs with the 01’. The perfumer’s words – but we creamy, powdery iris. citrus, expect fireworks. couldn’t put it better ourselves. £95 for 100ml eau de parfum £95 for 100ml eau de parfum £95 for 100ml eau de parfum escentric.com escentric.com escentric.com

GIORGIO ARMANI GUERLAIN IKON Sì Eau de Parfum Intense Mon Guerlain Sparkling 914 Bouquet

It isn’t every afternoon you get to A jewel-like bottle, a shimmering Part of the new Fragrance Shop Zoom with Cate Blanchett, but for the scent: in this latest addition to the exclusive vegan and cruelty-free launch of this super-sophisticated Mon Guerlain family, a pear accord in range, with an ethos of eco incarnation of Sì, the Oscar-winning the overture has been magnified to responsibility, the concept is to actress was joined by perfumer Julie juicy, fruity, joyful effect, to sparkle ‘like showcase ‘simple yet high-quality Massé to introduce this stunning a mischievously irresistible smile’, ingredients, materials, and Chypre-Oriental-fruity masterpiece. Guerlain promise. The resonances of messages.’ Here, bergamot, lime and Sì’s signature blackcurrant nectar is the original Mon Guerlain are tagetes fizz atop smoky oudh and paired with Ispartra rose and velvety apparent throughout – the floral heart, golden saffron, while a plump davana, imparting serious va-va-voom, with its aromatic lavender flourishes, cushion of musk relaxes to a mellow before your senses are enveloped by the jasmine scampering everywhere, base of amber, woods and mosses as patchouli, benzoin and sustainably- the vanilla and sandalwood in the it warms. Though powerful notes are sourced vanilla. Fabulissimo! so-feminine base. used, it’s a soft caress of gauzy layers. From £60 for 30ml EDP intense £70 for 50ml eau de parfum £60 for 100ml eau de parfum armanibeauty.co.uk guerlain.com thefragranceshop.co.uk

60 THE scented LETTER JIMMY CHOO JO MALONE LONDON JUICY COUTURE I Want Choo Scarlet Poppy Viva La Juicy Le Bubbly

Juicy succulence explodes in a A permanent addition to Jo Malone #PartyForOne promises the hashtag whoosh of mandarin and velvety London’s Cologne Intense Collection, for Juicy Couture’s latest – so: no peach, while jasmine gets twisted Scarlet Poppy is inspired by the rule-breaking required to crack open a with red spider lily in the heart – a overblown flower that cloaks the wild scent that pops champagne-drenched flirtatious pairing that sashays all the steppes of Asia. But poppies are pink berries, double pink freesia, way to a scrumptiously warm, sweet scentless, we hear you chorus. Well, blood orange and ‘fizzy’ mandarin oil. benzoin-soaked vanilla base. It’s it’s the flower’s exuberance that’s Sparkling with the ‘cheery brilliance of vivacious enough to boost your expressed here, via notes of velvety a crystal coupe glass’ are heart notes spirits, and effortless enough to iris, tonic bean, barley and luscious fig, of gardenia petal, jasmine and vanilla grant you a cloak of ‘I just woke up making for a truly grand, extravagant orchid, sweetened by praline, creamy like this’ glam. Think of it as your floralcy. We’re very taken with the new woods and golden amber. Any excuse fragrant filter: everything’s better incarnation of the classic JML bottle, to dust off the disco ball, eh? with it on! too: simply red, simply fab. From £13.99 for 10ml eau de parfum £45 for 40ml eau de parfum From £86 for 50ml Cologne Intense spray pen theperfumeshop.com jomalonelondon.com boots.com

JULIETTE HAS A GUN KENZO KILIAN Musc Invisible FlowerByKenzo EDT Love Don’t Be Shy Extreme

‘A fluffy scent as comfortable and The archetypal fantasy floral is shot Get ready to clutch your pearls, girls unfussy as your favourite old jeans,’ through with sunshine – each spritz (and anyone who loves wearing the Romano Ricci promises with his makes us feel not so much as though original), because this Kilian powdery-musk latest. ‘As we’re walking through the poppy bestseller has been ramped up with appropriate at work as on a casual fields, but soaring above them. The an extra dose of Bulgarian rose. Part date.’ Not so sure about that, in the wind gleefully ripples our hair as of the ‘Narcotics’ collection, they current climate – though we do of scarlet petals scatter beneath us, a warn us that it’s now such an course always wear scent while whisper of white musk dotted with addictive pleasure that ‘sensitive #WFH – but this is one to snuggle sparkles of lemon, fluffy clouds of souls are asked to abstain…’ With up to, dreamily blending jasmine organic vanilla sprinkled with heady orange blossom up top and absolute with almost nose-tinglingly Bulgarian rose water. If the original’s pillowy marshmallow in the base, the soft cotton flower, resting on a too powdery for you now, try this even-more-voluptuous floral heart featherbed of white musk. flight of fancy. won’t spare your blushes… From £20 for 7.5ml eau de parfum £41 for 30ml eau de toilette £225 for 50ml eau de parfum johnlewis.com boots.com bykilian.co.uk

THE scented LETTER 61 LANCÔME LANCÔME Maison Lancôme LANCÔME La Vie Est Belle Soleil Cristal Jasmin d’Eau Maison Lancôme Rose Peonia

How we love seeing ‘soleil‘ in the Exquisite bottles and precious scents The rose is the signature flower of name of a fragrance: a glimmer of are the signature of Maison Lancôme, Lancôme, and here, Givaudan’s sunlit hope and promises of outdoor who rolled out a big gun for this Marypierre Julien was charged with living (without the blankets and hot creation, enlisting Olivier Cresp for its making it bloom anew. As she puts chocolate). A solar brightness gives a creation. ‘My goal was to capture that it, ‘Imagine walking through a new twist to the bestseller, here, via wonderful moment, that first spring garden. You catch sight of a radiant mandarin, extravagant white encounter with a floral fragrance young woman wearing a delicate flowers and a trail of Madagascan based on a crystal-clear water jasmine, dress that looks like a collection of vanilla and patchouli, from Bali. And set off by hints of tea, plum blossom flower petals. Her light-footed steps oh, the bottle’s spectacular, with a and subtle musk.’ The result, create an airy blend of peony and shimmering, almost holographic concludes the revered perfumer, is ‘a wild rose, set off by a hint of finish that echoes the luminosity of moment in time suspended within a ambrette, musk and a dash of the scent inside. refined aquatic flower sillage.’ elegant raspberry.’ From £78 for 50ml eau de parfum £162 for 100ml eau de parfum £162 for 100ml eau de parfum lancome.co.uk lancome.co.uk lancome.co.uk

LOUIS VUITTON LUSH LUSH Étoile Filante The Perfume Library Confetti Keep It Fluffy

Vuitton’s Jacques Cavallier-Belletrud Perfumer Emma Dick has been part What’s with the ‘fluffiness’ trend we’re recalls that ‘Osmanthus absolute was of the ‘Lush family’ for 21 years, and seeing in scent right now? Well, at a my first revelation among raw there’s a personal story behind this time when we all need extra TLC, materials, when at 11, I discovered it in romantic perfume: she will be there’s something just so comforting my father’s lab in Grasse. Its wearing it at her wedding this year. about the idea of a fragrance that marvellous scent, as well as a name Confetti (as the name suggests) wraps you in an olfactory cuddle and that evokes distant horizons, couldn’t be more bridal-perfect: a holds you tight. Powdery, sweet and immediately fascinated me.’ With its romantic rose, with a touch of green cocooning, this fragrance previously nuances of apricot and cassis, this tiny, from violet leaf absolute, and smoky wafted forth under the B Never Too deceptive, powerful bloom is perfectly (sustainable) sandalwood, in the Busy to be Beautiful brand in 2004, amplified by jasmine, with a breath of base. Whatever summer’s and makes a welcome return here, white musks in the softly tender, restrictions on weddings, lovely to using a regenerative rose absolute enveloping base. waft down the aisle. from Turkey, caressed by vanilla. £200 for 100ml eau de parfum £35 for 35ml eau de parfum £80 for 100ml eau de parfum louisvuitton.com lush.co.uk lush.co.uk

62 THE scented LETTER MALIN + GOETZ MARC JACOBS MARC JACOBS Strawberry Daisy Eau So Intense Daisy Love Spring Limited Edition

Forget jam and berry shortcake: this is Daisy Marc Jacobs is renowned for its The boundless airy optimism of Daisy strawberry ‘reimagined’ by the artistic transparent airiness, in all its gets three limited edition seasonal team at Malin + Goetz. They manifestations. Until now. This is an twists for Summer 2021, our favourite ‘deconstructed’ the garden strawberry, addictive, altogether more grown-up (above) being the unfurled, new- invoking its luscious freshness via proposition by Alberto Morillas to shoots green of Daisy Love. Perfumer bright shafts of pink pepper and capture the fleeting feeling of ‘golden Alberto Morillas drizzles freshly picked, bergamot, given a floral flourish by hour’, before the sun dips – in this still sun-warmed figs with the powdery orris root, jasmine petals and warm case, ‘over lush fields of daisies’. Fruity blossoms of blowsy pink peonies, musks. ‘A dynamic scent that elements of strawberry and pear lapped by cool fig milk in the base. It’s challenges the conceptions around soften to sweet honey and pretty a gourmand-esque comfort to those the strawberry,’ they promise. What rosebuds, but it’s the trail of soft of us not nearly ready to ditch the the fruit has in common with this, vanilla, balanced by crisp green moss, tights but welcoming every lighter day however, is a decided moreishness. which lingers so beguilingly. with a whoop. £75 for 50ml eau de parfum From £55 for 30ml eau de parfum £60 for 50ml eau de toilette malinandgoetz.co.uk boots.com boots.com

MOLTON BROWN NANCY MEILAND NARCISO RODRIGUEZ Lily & Magnolia Blossom Gaia Musc Noir

An olfactory ode to Cornish We’re sensing a trend for Musk – or rather, musc, as it’s woodlands. Close your eyes and contemplative scents that offer referred to, here – is having such a sense the serenity of a patch of wild moments of meditation, and this moment, here pulsing mysteriously blooms at the first blush of daylight, limited-edition attar more than fits the at the heart of a darker, more daring lily of the valley’s delicate white bells bill. An ultra-soothing blend of incarnation of Narciso’s shivering in the breeze, creamy Calabrian bergamot, nutmeg, jasmine contemporary classic. Leather and magnolia shot through with crisp sambac, blue lotus, Atlas cedar and suede accords accent the skin-on- white tea and fresh, green mandarin. New Caledonian sandalwood is skin sensuality still further, while At once sparkling with optimism yet blended within an organic jojoba oil opulent heliotrope, dry white cedar still every-day demure, this is one to base. Delivered via a so-handy and rose become juicy and luscious, wear when you feel restless and need rollerball bottle, we’ve been anointing with a fruity flash of plum. Worth a spark of hope and something pulse points and taking a deep breath getting properly dressed up for, beautifully comforting. in moments of stress (read: often!) when we’re let out again. £120 for 100ml eau de parfum £45 for 30ml attar From £50 for 30ml eau de parfum moltonbrown.co.uk nancymeiland.com johnlewis.com

THE scented LETTER 63 NINA RICCI NISHANE ORMONDE JAYNE Nina Rose Nanshe Damask

Some of the prettiest bottles around Perfumer Cécile Zarokian dedicates Celebrating 20 years of British – we know many collectors who snap this to the Sumerian goddess Nanse perfumery, founder Linda Pilkington up every whimsical Nina iteration – the – a deity who looks after ‘fertility, water was inspired to showcase La Route de glossy bubble-gum pink here evokes and social justice’, believed to be ‘the Soie (The Silk Route), known for its cheeks rosy from a joyous (perhaps patron of dreams and prophecy.’ trade in precious materials and fragrant even coat-free!) walk in the park. Swoonsome rose flutters just beneath ingredients. Here, the trademark silky Olivier Cresp weaves bergamot, lemon buoyant bergamot, carrot seeds, pink pepper and slinky musks are and pear into armfuls of velvety cardamom and yuzu, then dips to punctuated by sharp blackcurrant, orange blossom absolute, neroli water fruits, luminous jasmine sambac pear and lemon on a supremely essence and jasmine. Those radiant absolute and creamy ylang ylang. The sumptuous base of vetiver and amber. florals are borne aloft on a whisper of dry-down’s a sacred caress of orris, Opulence abounds as you sashay forth musks and a contrast of smooth, dry musk, patchouli and sandalwood that in this – a damask robe to greet one’s cedarwood – instantly happy-making. feels as though you’ve been blessed. eager, tribute-bearing lovers. £50.50 for 100ml eau de toilette £185 for 50ml extrait de parfum £135 for 50ml eau de parfum superdrug.com harrods.com selfridges.com

PACO RABANNE PENHALIGON’S SALVATORE FERRAGAMO Olympéa Blossom Babylon Amo Per Lei

A new spring frock for the so- Inspired by the mysteries of ancient Turning the page on another chapter recognisable bottle, with this beautiful Mesopotamia, Penhaligon’s give us a of the Amo Ferragamo story, a fruity pen-and-ink floral flourish inspired by fragrant ticket travelling ‘to the dawn flirtation of succulent pear and ripe the blooms splashed across many of of civilisation’. If you’re wondering raspberry gets the juices going before designer Julien Dossena’s creations for what that smells of, it’s a warm waft of the romantic heart fully embraces you. the fashion name. Inside, the theme of spices tickling the senses, the trail of Then we’re waltzing into fuzzy apricot ‘the airiness of flowers’ is continued, coriander, leathery saffron and nutmeg notes of osmanthus and magnolia – a with fresh-cut roses and aromatic pink mingling with the grounding, warm graceful dance as a shower of delicate pepper. A note of blackcurrant and earth scent of cypriol. There’s a petals falls from above. The music frosted pear sorbet works like a palate decided woodiness to that last note slows, the pulse quickens, a sensual cleanser, before the creamy further elevated by the cedar and smooch of cedar, sandalwood, indulgence of vanilla, Cashmeran, sandalwood of the base, beautifully cashmere and musk that twirls in a patchouli and a sprinkling of salt. smoothed by vanilla. transparent haze. From £49 for 30ml eau de parfum £178 for 100ml eau de parfum £47 for 30ml eau de parfum johnlewis.com penhaligons.com theperfumeshop.com

64 THE scented LETTER SANA JARDIN SARAH BAKER SERGE LUTENS Incense Water Symmetry La Dompetuse Encagée

Cool and comforting, this is a fragrant Ancient Greek geometry inspires this As ever with Monsieur Lutens, the respite for frazzled nerves. Last year, composition – a symbiosis of opposing name and story are poetically written perfumer Carolos Benaïm worked ingredients. The bustling markets but sparsely populated, allowing the alongside ‘an up-and-coming NY evoked with a jolly jostle of juicy wearer to create their own narrative. based perfumer in lockdown’, we’re bergamot, petitgrain and neroli, the Apparently ‘La Dompetuse’ translates told, and for inspiration, took to his floralcy of the citrus picked up and from the French as a lady ‘animal garden, literally stopping to smell the carried aloft on a salty breeze as we trainer’, and we encounter her inside roses. The result? A scent that marries explore the port itself. Orange the cage… Whatever the story, the May rose to crystalline patchouli heart blossom continues the Cologne-like scent is sublime – a gourmand touch with the piquancy of pimento berries freshness but earthier, wet woody to this floral (we’re sensing another and raspberry leaf on a pellucid cypriol hint at the cargo hiding in trend) that plays a sensory trick, sandalwood base. Like wearing an ship’s hulls – a breeze of musk and creating a cold, creamy texture from echo of a comforting dream. oudh completing our odyssey. frangipani, almond and ylang ylang. £95 for 50ml eau de parfum £80 for 50ml eau de parfum £110 for 50ml eau de parfum sanajardin.com sarahbakerperfumes.com libertylondon.com

SHAY & BLUE SHISEIDO SISLEY Tallulah’s Camellia Ginza Izia La Nuit

Notorious movie icon Tallulah Into this scent, Takasago perfumers Izia was created as a tribute to a Bankhead inspires this latest Shay & Karine Dubreuil and Maïa Lernout unique rose that blossoms fleetingly in Blue fragrance, which is halfway decant elements of the sacred Sisley founder Isabelle d’Ornano’s between a classy afternoon tea and a Japanese Kodo incense ritual, in which garden. It takes on a new night-time walk in a bluebell glade, the spring participants ‘listen’ to the burning cloak of glamour, reconstructed as a breeze carrying the verdancy of the wood in order to purify body and Chypre-floral-woody scent for after blooms. Imagine a table for two in spirit. So there’s a meditative aspect dark by perfumer Amandine Clerc- the woods, the crisp white cloth set to this intoxicating floral, which gives Marie. Labdanum, patchouli, oakmoss, with china cups (one rimmed with us a whirlwind of magnolia, freesia, Ambrox and vanilla offer a trail that lipstick kisses), a plate of untouched Japanese orchid and jasmine swirling will follow you around for hours, while vanilla slices, a bundle of love letters in the heart, before the camphorous the Izia rose at the heart of this torn asunder, a cashmere shawl Hinoki wood, patchouli and cypress fragrance is bathed in moonlight by hurriedly cast aside... begin to smoulder, gently. freesia and magnolia. From £30 for 30ml eau de parfum £70 for 50ml eau de parfum £198 for 100ml eau de parfum shayandblue.com shiseido.co.uk sisley-paris.com

THE scented LETTER 65 THE ZOO TOCCA TOM FORD Smile & Shine Belle Tubérose Nue

In keeping with the uplifting vibe of Tocca’s scents are unashamedly Extravagant. Intoxicating. Sensual. this edition, we include Christophe feminine creations in dressing-table- Tuberose may be a love-it-or-hate-it Laudamiel’s creation from 2020, which worthy bottles. Belle by name note in perfumery, but its swooning just crossed our desks. Specifically and belle by nature, this citrus-floral- fan base will be head-over-heels for created to ‘brighten your day when musk is at first super-fresh (bergamot this. Rendering the white floralcy even you’re in need of some sparkling and petitgrain, further brightened by a more intoxicating, night-blooming energy’ (um, that’s all the time right touch of white pepper), with a jasmine trails through the heart, which now), it delivers cheerfulness with bouquet of freesia, tuberose and is spiced with Akigalawood and every spritz of Italian lemon, lime, magnolia at the heart, giving way to Nepalese timur pepper, resting on a grapefruit and blood orange.together skin musks, golden amber and snugglesome blanket of musks. An with narcissus, tagetes and creamy sandalwood. Utterly carefree and illicit encounter on a summer’s tolu balsam, inspired by Christophe’s optimistic (and boy, we need that). evening in a moonlit garden – in a study trip to sun-drenched Calabria. From £68 for 50ml eau de parfum deceptively virginal white flacon. €129 for 60ml eau de parfum (from April) From £228 for 50ml eau de parfum perfumelounge.eu lookfantastic.com tomford.co.uk

TOM FORD VALENTINO VERSACE Costa Azzurra Born in Roma Yellow Dream Dylan Turquoise EDT

Will we, won’t we be able to head Celebrating ‘a new beginning, full of Rivulets of Primofiore lemon trickle to the Med this summer? If not, life, hope and optimism’ (yes, through a multi-faceted mandarin that here’s an excellent evocation of PLEASE!) we’re imagining a golden encompasses juice, flesh, peel and that longed-for ‘refreshing plunge sunrise over Rome – lemon coloured pith alike, the succulence speckled into the ocean’, merging elements blossom carpets the pavement as a with piquant pink pepper. Guava juice of water and air ‘to transport the confident woman strides forth to adds a proper ‘ah yes, we’re on senses to the deck of a luxurious greet the new day. Floral yet fruity holiday’ note of exoticism that we’re yacht’. To salted air, add a tangle of (in the most grown up, effervescent all craving right now, while transparent aromatic juniper, cypress, pine way), this gives us vibes of just- jasmine and green freesia add an airy cone and myrtle and several washed hair gleaming in the sun, a floralcy. A heavy base would ruin such squeezes of lemons, then wrap the vibrant yellow dress, heels kicked carefully crafted spaciousness, but lot in the resinous, sunset warmth off, a musky trail followed in bare clever Clearwood® layers sheer amber of cistus absolute. feet on sun-warmed cobbles. atop white musk for glossy sex appeal. From £85 for 50ml eau de parfum £77 for 50ml eau de parfum £48 for 30ml eau de toilette tomford.co.uk boots.com boots.com

66 THE scented LETTER THE MEN’S ROOM

27 87 ABERCROMBIE & FITCH AESOP Sonar Authentic Night for Men Marrakech Intense

We first saw this young Barcelona- Perfumer Gil Clavien set out to Redolent of a Moroccan souk, the based indie house showcasing their create ‘a “see-through” effect, to tell richness of Aesop’s original has been fragrant wares at Florence’s Pitti the story of contrast and tension’, in stepped up a gear with an animalic Fragranze, and it’s lovely we can now this counterpart to Authentic Night intensity that somehow hums find them in the UK. The scents are for Women (see p.53). In a dark-as- intriguingly on the skin. Those who are genderless, carefree and quite unique night smoked bottle, it’s a spirited, allowed close enough to enter its – this one is inspired by the sense of multi-faceted fougère-Oriental fizz scented orbit should be prepared to sound vibrating, captured in the most of apple, rhubarb, lotus, lavender, swoon (we suggest velvet cushions to unlikely contrast of notes: beer and vanilla, oakmoss, tonka bean and the ready), as wafts of dried roses tuberose! It’s malty and hyper-white all leather notes. Free-spirited, weave with aromatic clove, smooth at once, a familiarity wrapped in energetic and extrovert, it demands sandalwood and a caress of cool iridescence, exuding freshness with an a night out on the town the very cardamom. Wear with silk PJs and electric crackle. moment that’s sanctioned. enjoy the intimacy. £140 for 87ml eau de parfum £29.50 for 100ml eau de parfum £67 for 10ml parfum sniph.co.uk escentual.com libertylondon.com

BRIONI CARTIER GIORGIO ARMANI Brioni Pasha Edition Noire Stronger With You Absolutely

Can a new launch be an instant Classics reinvented are another With their finger on the trend pulse, classic? We think this is! Characterful, definite trend for the year ahead, it’s encouraging to see Giorgio Armani suave and assured as the perfectly and Cartier’s iconic Pasha has a move even further in an eco-direction, tailored menswear line itself, which vibrant new edge with this limited with the vanilla for this sourced via the was founded in Rome in 1945, Brioni’s edition. The green and citrusy Solidarity Sourcing Programme to pared-back style is perfectly reflected freshness feels like the dawn of a support local communities in via Master Perfumer Michel new day, while the amber and cedar Madagascar, and the lavender heart Almairac’s genius. Green apple base is resonant yet ultra-fine. sustainably sourced in France. studded with pink pepper feels like a Interesting fact: the name comes Completing the cocktail: davana, cool sip of gin, while violet and from the ‘pasha’ on board a ship – glazed chestnut, cedarwood, resinous, Ambroxan are perfectly blended with someone ‘who had the most amber-y elemi and a jigger of rum, tonka bean and musk – like a second charismatic personality, who stood deftly composed by Cécile Matton skin. Absolutely sublime! at the helm and set the course.’ and decanted into a liquor-like flask. £70 for 60ml eau de parfum £94 for 100ml eau de toilette From £60 for 50ml eau de parfum brioni.com cartier.com armanibeauty.co.uk

THE scented LETTER 67 THE MEN’S ROOM

HERMÈS KAREN TIMSON L’OCCITANE H24 Pendragon Karité Corsé

For H24’s launch, Christine Nagel There’s definitely something magical We want to go to the Mediterranean. Zoom-ed us note-by-note through this about the melding of the verdant Soon. And while we play the waiting contemporary creation, which evokes herbaceous notes with smoky leather, game, we’ll allow this to escort us the sense of stepping into cool, mossy like a clandestine exploration of an there in our imaginations, first via spicy shade on a hot day, perfectly tapping alchemist’s garden. Sweet coriander’s cardamom, black pepper, clary sage into this past year’s joyous rediscovery shrouded in a haze of bright and bright bergamot. Then, we’ll enjoy of nature by so many. Green narcissus bergamot, a dry, peppery undertone a mellow surprise: a warm, gourmand and fresh, elegant rosewood are given uniting the green foliage and the swirl Oriental heart, mixing cocoa, coffee a so-modern edge by sclarene, which of incense-like sandalwood and and roasted shea nut accord, giving conjures up ‘the smell of hot irons on oakmoss beneath them. Picture that way to powdery orris, grassy Bourbon damp woollen cloth in Hermès’s mystical hour just before the sun sets, vetiver and cedarwood, captured in an sewing workshops.’ Gorgeous when even the familiar is rendered ombré bottle reminiscent of a longed- (refillable) flacon, too. peculiar and enticing. for sunset. From £61 for 50ml eau de toilette £99 for 100ml eau de parfum £69 for 75ml eau de parfum hermes.com karentimson.com loccitane.com

LOEWE MATIÈRES LIBRES MERCEDES-BENZ PARFUMS Loewe 7 Absinthe Gaiac Black

Housed in a brilliantly blue bottle (we A bitter green opening soon segues to Fizzing from the bottle with a party- find it refreshing even to look at), the powdery bliss of violet, rose and like ‘POP!’, luminous bergamot bursts Loewe 7 sits happily among the new the alluring ‘warm-skin-of-your-lover’s- forth, a joyously uplifting freshness Botanical Rainbow colour-led range – neck’ appeal. And there’s reach-out- that soon mellows to a beguiling showcasing scents bringing you closer and-stroke-me buttery soft leather, to heart of jasmine-infused incense. to nature. The name refers to the be found in the smooth base of Renowned perfumer Olivier Cresp succinctly curated list of ingredients creamy resins and rich amber. marries the gentle smokiness to a – red apple and peppercorns, an Wonderfully rounded, this shimmies in base of Ambrox that glows as it aqueous drift of incense like smoke on a very artistic, quite bohemian way warms on the skin with silky benzoin, a salty breeze, neroli offering dappled between comfort and sensuality. We golden woods and smooth vanilla. sunshine, while in the base cedar sighs imagine you wearing this while Come for the amazing architecture of dreamily to a whisper of vetiver and dancing to the radio, a paintbrush in the bottle but stay for the so- sexy wash of musk. one hand. wearable purr of this juice. £66 for 50ml eau de toilette €129 for 100ml eau de parfum £69 for 100ml eau de toilette selfridges.com jovoyparis.com superdrug.com

68 THE scented LETTER MERCEDES-BENZ PARFUMS MIHAN AROMATICS NISHANE Mercedes Benz Club Untitled Ege

Well, this is a veritable cocktail When we spritz this, there’s an image You remember that feeling of party in a fragrance bottle – not of salt crystals clinging to warm skin, absolute bliss when you stare into an that it’s boozy, but there’s a coconut sun lotion, a warm leather- impossibly blue sea? Allow yourself whoosh of zesty citrus, rhubarb bound book cast aside while gazing to be whisked to the Aegean while and piquant juniper that will, we at the sea. Josh and Julia Mihan are you wear this, the sparkle of yuzu-like predict, immediately put you in the so-cool couple behind the sunlight on water while violet the mood to cha-cha. It doesn’t super-hip, pared-back Australlian presages the cool, herbaceous really matter if it’s around your fragrance house, and this latest breeze of basil, mint and green own kitchen or while sitting at your fragrance remains unnamed because, cardamom. An intriguing ribbon of desk and filling your diary with officially, they tell us, it is still in liquorice leads to a rich base of *actual dates for meeting with development. We find that idea olibanum and warm woods – a friends again* – go with the flow, rather thrilling – and could you, perfectly perfumed cultural melting let the good times roll. perhaps, come up with the name…? pot of Greek and Turkish cultures. £63 for 100ml eau de toilette £52 for 30ml eau de parfum £185 for 50ml extrait de parfum superdrug.com mihanaromatics.com harrods.com

PENHALIGON’S VALENTINO VERSACE The Inimitable Mr. Penhaligon Born in Roma Yellow Dream Eros Eau de Parfum for Him

Vetiver lovers: put on your smartest This really does feel like wearing the ‘I envisioned a heroic, passionate man, attire and sashay forth for a meeting scent of yellow – a zip of zest radiating almost a Greek god. This fragrance is with Mr. Penhaligon himself. We’ve sunshine as Italian mandarin and made up of notes that express been wondering when he’d make an pineapple awaken the senses. sensuality and power, an extreme appearance in the Portraits collection, Lusciously juicy – actual mouth- force,’ says Donatella Versace, designer and here he announces his presence watering will occur, when you spritz and keeper of the Versace flame. with a distinguished blend of this – a gingerbread accord captures Nothing about this is shy and retiring; bergamot garlanded with jasmine in your interest, while the whole it’s a flirtation of woodiness (patchouli, his buttonhole. The heart will have you composition smoothed and speckled vetiver) with freshness (lemon, pledging your affections, that cool by creamy vanilla. From the Italian mandarin and candied apple), before vetiver encircled with cedar and curls architectural bottle inspiration to the the ‘fatal and provocative weapon’ of of incense swirling to the base of scent itself: we’re so there, sipping our vanilla and leather, bringing out Eros’s Ambrox, warm as his handshake. coffee while watching Rome’s crowds. Oriental side.’ Ker-pow! £204 for 75ml eau de parfum £75 for 100ml eau de toilette From £50 for 65ml eau de parfum penhaligons.com boots.com boots.com

THE scented LETTER 69 IT TAKES ME RIGHT BACK

THERE’S SOMETHING As I learnt about scent, deliriously good about the my nostrils were opened to scent of French body the countless other divine products. And that thing is smells the world has to offer. “orange blossom, although I And I observed that my wouldn’t really identify it till tastes did change. In the long after my first encounter. beginning, I liked citrus It was 2001 and we took a aromatics and pretty florals, family trip to the South of but after a few years I would France, staying in a friend’s be dousing myself in a house not far from Nîmes. It heady Oriental or buttery was picturesque to say the iris, embracing anything and least. If you looked up Orange everything. But rarely would ‘French cottage’ in the anything come close to the dictionary there might be a comfort I felt from orange picture of this very house to blossom, though. It will illustrate it. Cobbled- Blossom always be my favourite together limestone walls CARSON PARKIN-FAIRLEY recalls the joy ingredient, ranging from the enveloped in big, flowering, purity of neroli, sparkling climbing plants. Wooden, of her first encounter with this white floral and effervescent in its shuttered windows painted a note, marking the start of a love affair innocence, to the deep dark dusty green. Big slabs of depths of orange blossom: paving stones on the floors warm, hypnotic and inside, cool to the touch of a bare foot. A covered veranda altogether dirty. There’s something about it that just sings outdoors where we would play Scrabble, sheltered from the of summer – a tune we could all do with a little of on dark hot sun. And a winding path of wild flora that led to the most days. It’s a smell that makes me audibly go ‘mmm’, and exquisite little river I had ever seen, with a rock so perfectly while it’s immensely transportive for me, I’ve noted it’s positioned to jump off into the crystalline waters below, you deeply comforting to many others. I’ve rarely seen anyone might have believed it had been placed there by the gods turn their nose up at a lovely orange blossom perfume. It especially for us. seems, to me, to bring every nose a little bit of universal joy. Suffice to say, my 11-year-old self was in heaven. Running Orange blossom is the ingredient that embraces women about, swimming and eating baguettes stuffed with French in all our stages, all of the outfits we put on, from maiden to cheeses to my heart’s content. And then there was the body wild woman. It charmed me as a child and has mesmerised wash... I think they just had an old bottle in the shower; the me as a woman. And I love it in all its forms; from the branding wasn’t much to write home about but, boy, the green, bright neroli that tingles with verdancy, to the smell was something else. My nose was alive! And my skin honeyed, sun-drenched sweetness of orange blossom. So, smelt just like a dream afterwards, my nose dipping to sniff this is my ode to the bitter orange tree from which my my arms throughout the evening. Thus began my lifelong treasured orange blossom grows. Thank you, for your juicy love affair with orange blossom. Years later orange blossom fruits, your verdant leaves, and for your almighty blooms scented products would be something I never left a French which have created lasting memories for me. pharmacie without. And when my love and I do So I suppose it would come finally get to have our Covid- as no surprise that when I Carson and postponed wedding, I will on began to work in fragrance, any her family in the day be wearing Serge France scent that had a whack of neroli, Lutens Fleurs d’Oranger – the or blossoms of the orange fragrance I’d decided on, variety, had my name written all actually even before ever over it. At one sniff I would be getting engaged. Making taken back to that little French sweet new memories, village and the long balmy to layer over the evenings I stayed up playing precious, orange- poker dice with my brother and blossom-scented my mother’s boyfriend. childhood ones. “I’ve rarely seen anyone turn their nose up at a ” lovely orange blossom perfume”

70 THE scented LETTER

Adria Arjona THE NEW FEMININE FRAGRANCE I AM WHAT ILIVE