This week’s selection of new fragrance launches includes some truly fabulous bottles. From the classy Clive Christian Noble XX Water Lily bottle to the stunning Penhaligon’s Blazing. Mr Sam, with its gold statuette lid. These scents smell as good as they look – so time to go shopping…?
CLIVE CHRISTIAN
NOBLE XX WATER LILY
Joining the Noble Collection and inspired by Art Nouveau, Water Lily is an utterly enchanting Chypre that commands attention from first spritz. After a fizzy aldehydic introduction, it soon unfolds into rich green elements, with florals wafting airily through the composition – the sweet, addictive nature of jasmine and tuberose is counterbalanced with green leaf and a super-soft, supple orris, while the base swirls with patchouli and vetiver. Sophisticated, rich and dark.
£350 for 50ml eau de parfum
clivechristian.com
DIOR
JOY BY DIOR
How does a perfumer dare to create a perfume with the same name as one of the scent world’s true icons? With great care and consideration, as François Demachy brings us a Joy by Dior for the 21st Century filled with crystalline shafts of bright sunshine from mandarin and zingy bergamot, which fade into an explosion of airy Grasse rose absolute and jasmine, enfolded in sandalwood and powdery musks, for a skin-like effect. Joyful, truly.
£75 for 50ml eau de parfum
dior.com
ELIZABETH ARDEN
MY FIFTH AVENUE
Reese Witherspoon is an apt choice for the ‘face’ of My Fifth Avenue: she recalls looking up at the tall buildings on 5th Avenue and feeling ‘totally overwhelmed and intimidated’. But baby, look at Reese now – and as she acknowledges, ‘5th Avenue is about ambition – and ambition is beautiful.’ How do you express that in scent? Via a chic, contemporary floral blend of mandarin, lotus flower, jasmine and an orris accord, in a suitably skyscraper-esque flacon.
£35 for 50ml eau de toilette
feelunique.com
GUERLAIN
MUSC NOBLE
From Absolus d’Orient series – this time in a red lacquer version of its signature bottle – Musc Noble is Thierry Wasser’s latest play on traditional Middle Eastern perfumery ingredients – after oudh, sandalwood and incense. But it’s equally alluring to those of us closer to home, a floral-woody-musk that smoothly progresses from pink pepper and geranium to a mist of white musks, settled on a cloud of rose, a-swirl above warm cedarwood and a flourish of white amber.
£129 for 125ml eau de parfum
harrods.com
PENHALIGON’S
THE BLAZING MR SAM
Penhaligon’s Portraits would now like to introduce you to ‘an American abroad – in London to be precise – who spends freely, lives fast and talks loudly.’ Known ‘for his proud claims of opulence’, we’re told, this note-perfect composition runs hot and cold with spices – cardamom, black pepper and cumin – on a base that thrums with sensual woodiness, bringing in tobacco, patchouli and the snuggle of cashmere. He’s going to feel right at home on the bathroom shelf.
£185 for 75ml eau de parfum
penhaligons.com
