This week’s latest launches will add more than a touch of chic to your fragrance wardrobe. From Art de Parfum Joker to Yves Saint Laurent Capeline, these sleek flacons smell as good as they look with notes of musk, amber, patchouli and saffron to name but a few. Round off your day with a trip to Strada Parfumerie Sloane Street with its opulent oud and supple leather.
ART DE PARFUM
LE JOKER
What a multifaceted character this one is! There’s a sense of a traditional fougère about the opening – Timur pepper’s bouquet of bitter herbs among a lemony, frost-tinged freshness. A backstage pass to a dressing room brings illicit love letters and lipstick kisses; motes of face powder caught in the curls of a cigarette’s smoke, the effervescence of passionfruit touched by salty tears of ambergris. You’ll be ready for your close-up wearing this, for sure…
£114 for 50ml extrait de parfum
artdeparfum.com
ÉDITIONS DE PARFUMS FRÉDÉRIC MALLE
PORTRAIT OF A LADY
Of course this isn’t ‘new’, exactly. POAL has been stopping strangers in their tracks for two decades, now, sparking thousands of ‘What are you wearing…?’ conversations. For a limited time, it’s available in this special edition bottle – one of seven fragrances whose 20th birthdays are celebrated this autumn (others include Musc Ravageur and French Lover). Its rosiness is accented by berries, sandalwood, patchouli, musk, amber and benzoin – unchanged, unmistakeable and unforgettable.
£245 for 100ml eau de parfum
fredericmalle.co.uk
SALVATORE FERRAGAMO
TUSCAN CREATIONS CUPOLA
The magnificent dome dominating the skyline of Florence inspires an olfactory ode by perfumers Antoine Lie and Luca Maffei. Softly nuanced tangerine and green angelica are lit by golden saffron – a reference to the first rays of sunshine that bathe the cupola, while dusty orris and amber invite us inside the echoing majesty of the cathedral itself, while labdanum, a rich trickle of patchouli and sacred woods evoke the chilled splendour of the space.
£195 for 100ml eau de parfum
harrods.com
YVES SAINT LAURENT
CAPELINE
Not a strange name at all for a fragrance, once you understand Yves Saint Laurent’s Le Vestiaire des Parfums collection sets out to interpret iconic designs from the designer’s oeuvre – here, the groovily wide-brimmed hats of which the couturier was so fond. Bergamot and mandarin make for a bright introduction to sweet yet elegant floral notes of lily, neroli and ylang ylang, with musk and vetiver sashaying in, for the dry-down.
From £155 for 75ml eau de parfum
harrods.com
STRADA PARFUMERIE
SLOANE STREET
With a tagline of ‘from the streets to the world’ these fragrances evoke travel via your nose. Here we’re sauntering along London’s Sloane Street, a fuzzy cloud of soft oudh countered by the sense of a freshly starched, immaculate white shirt. Hot tarmac sweetness swirls with motes of dust borne on a cool breeze, turning the corner from warm stone into sudden shady depths. The base is beautifully leathery – supple, strokeable, nonchalantly expensive. Utterly addictive.
£140.73 for 30ml eau de parfum
stradaparfumerie.com
