This week’s new launches have more than a touch of decadence about them. From precious elixirs to glittering gold, swoon into roses, woods and luxury leather. We’re powerless to resist and we think you will be too.
ATKINSONS
GOLD FAIR IN MAYFAIR
Atkinson’s Gold Fair in Mayfair is like a love affair between cacao and nutmeg – and for us, that’s a union that was surely meant to be. Housed in a flacon inspired by their luxe boutique – head-to-toe gold leaf – it fuses absinthe with spices. The heart of soft iris is cocooned in warm cocoa beans, on a base of vetiver, sage and Ambrox that feels like a warm embrace. Gentle, delicious and all kinds of comforting.
£180 for 100ml eau de parfum
harrods.com
CLOON KEEN ATELIER
ROISIN DUBH
Inspired by a subversive 16th-century Irish song, still sung to this day, this Roisin Dubh (‘little black rose’) smoulders beguilingly with smoky incense, tobacco absolute and those velvety rose petals sprinkled in pepper. We sense ringlets romantically tangled by the wind, a softness of candlelight on ink-stained love letters and the peaty depth of patchouli swirled throughout. A glorious Galway-based house to be celebrated, Cloon Keen combine contemporary elegance with emotional lyricism.
£136 for 100ml eau de parfum
lessenteurs.com
JO MALONE LONDON
BRONZE WOOD & LEATHER
You might want to keep this under lock and key. Although all Jo Malone London’s creations are technically shareable, this is more unisex than most, as warm and smoky as an evening by the fireside in a book-lined library, its blast of juniper and grapefruit evoking the citrus-infused gin & tonic in your hand, with a pulse of vetiver adding to Bronze Wood & Leather’s distinct air of mystery, in the lingering dry-down.
From £75 for 50ml Cologne Intense
jomalone.co.uk
ROJA PARFUMS
ELIXIR POUR FEMME
A powder-pink bottle hints at a juice to bring out the soft side of even the most kick-ass scent-lover. The latest from fragrance expert Roja Dove is the richest of bouquets, with a fruity intro of raspberry and peach segueing to armfuls of geranium, rose, jasmine, heliotrope, ylang ylang, lily of the valley, cooled slightly by violet leaf. The conclusion is definitely rated 18+, melding cinnamon, cedar, sandalwood, cashmere woods, ambrette and musk.
£225 for 100ml essence de parfum
rojaparfums.com
AMOUAGE
OPUS XI
Amouage’s The Library Collection sets out to ‘defy all preconceived notions and transcend gender, age, race, trend and time.’ For the eleventh olfactory exploration in the Opus line-up, Christopher Chong combines oudh with marjoram, styrax and a note of Woodleather to deliver a smoky, mysterious, powerfully animalic sillage. The tactile box and bottle, meanwhile, are inspired by the shape and feel of a small book – a pleasure to hold, and to spray.
£235 for 50ml eau de parfum
amouage.com
