Atelier Cologne – for autumn and beyond

Think Colognes are only for summer splashes and searing heatwaves? Atelier Cologne‘s deeper twists on the classic will make you think again…

Having enjoyed the hottest summer on record in England (joint hottest for UK overall since 1976), there’s no doubt we’ve all been reaching for those fresh fragrances to cool things down. The traditional Cologne is a thing of joy – but apart from the first splash, that joy could be fleeting, until Atelier Cologne took the best elements of the tradition and infused them with more complexity, depth and a hugely boosted lasting power.

This means we can enjoy all the benfits of their range well into the cooler months – good news for those already grieving the loss of summer and who perhaps need a spirit-reviving spritz before we get those opaque tights and cardis out of storage. Here’s our guide to five Atelier Cologne fragrances you should try for an olfactory change of seasons…

 

Top notes: Bergamot from Calabria, limette from Mexico, saffron from India

Heart notes: Sandalwood from New Caledonia, gaiac wood from India, white musk

Base notes: Papyrus from India, cedarwood from Texas, vanilla from Madagasca

Satisfyingly spicy without feeling too bundled-up already, the warm glow of saffron suffuses the zestiness of the opening like autumnal sunshine filtering through trees. Gorgeously layered woods with a wisp of soft musk and the tenderness of vanilla in the base feel like a late afternoon walk through the park.

Atelier Cologne Santal Carmin £160 for 100ml eau de parfum

 

Top notes: Calabrian bergamot, Sicilian mandarin, Guatemalan cardamom

Heart notes: rose oil, Indian tuberose, coffee

Base notes: Madagascan vanilla, cocoa pod

A unique blending of white floral and modern gourmand, the coffee really shines here, all toasty and delicious with a touch of cardamom and a swirl of milky vanilla and cocoa in the dry down. Think of those days it’s still warm enough to grab a coffee outside, chic people-watching while devoring pastries.

Atelier Cologne Cafe Tuberosa £115 for 100ml Cologne absolue

Top notes: green mandarin from Italy, Sicilian bergamot, tajetes from Egypt

Heart notes: orchid nigritella rubra, cinnamon from Sri Lanka, benzoin from Thailand

Base notes: cistus labdanum from Spain, amber, tonka bean from Brazil

A little tip-toe into snugglier scents, this amber benefits from the fresh breeziness of the green mandarin as a welcome change from your usual citrus. Gentle spices never feel dusty, bringing a sense of comfort to the richer notes, instead, and adding a real spring in your step as chillier weather sets in.

Atelier Cologne Ambre Nue £115 for 100ml Cologne absolue

Top notes: bergamot from Calabria, orange flower from Morocco, black pepper from Vietnam

Heart notes: iris from Morocco, lavender from Provence, rose centifolia from Grasse

Base notes: Gaiac wood from Central America, patchouli from Indonesia, white musk accord

Just the most whisper-soft embrace of cashmere-like fluffiness and a pretty bouquet proffered throughout the composition, imagine the sigh of contentment while wearing your favourite suede jacket and shopping at the flower market. The woody-musk base feels reassuring, a scented hug to last all day.

Atelier Cologne Iris Rebelle £165 for 100ml Cologne absolue
Exclusive to Selfridges

Top notes: bergamot from Calabria, ginger from China, Turkish rose essence

Heart notes: Turkish rose absolue, incense from Somalia, velvet oud accord

Base notes: patchouli from Indonesia, papyrus from India, benzoin from Laos

Those of you not yet ready to let go of your roses (and we count ourselves among you!) fear not – here’s an opulent plunge into the more sensual side that flower. We’re especially loving the textural richness added by a drift of incense and smooth oud accord, a fragrant trail you’ll love all day and after sunset.

Try Atelier Cologne at selfridges.com or in their stand-alone Covent Garden boutique.

Written by Suzy Nightingale

5 fragrances that guarantee winter sunshine…

There are those who claim certain scents should only be worn in summer – the lighter, more citrus-laden ones for the most part – and that we should reserve the heavier, more opulent fragrances for our winter wardrobes. But is this once foregranted ‘fact’ still true…?
Certainly, in hot weather you may find your fragrance seems ‘stronger’ or more overpowering, the heat causing the notes to evolve on the skin more rapidly and bloom around you in fragrant waves.  This is exactly why brands sometimes offer lighter versions of their bestselling scents for the summer.  Indeed, some people prefer heavier more full-bodied, comforting, almost ‘cocooning’ scents in the winter – but again, this is completely individual.
Personally, at The Perfume Society, we do tend towards richer fragrances that we love to rediscover at around the time when we reach for our opaque tights, our socks (and vests!), switching to airier perfumes for the warmer months. But never let anyone tell you what perfume to wear and when – just do what feels right for you. We say: scent ‘rules’ are made to be broken, so just follow your nose…
We find winter is actually a perfect time to refresh your senses, and re-visit those scents you perhaps didn’t quite get on with in summer – cooler weather and damper climates makes your skin react completely differently, so why not try some fragrances you may have written-off forever?
While you’re at it – have a dig around in your collection for ‘spring fresh’ or ‘summer-y’ scents that you already love and see how differently they bloom on your skin at this time of year. Just as too much turkey and endless chocolates can have you yearning for a crisp salad, it’s good to go over to the light side for a change of scent-scene now and again.
Here’s our list of five transitional scents to try for a time-travelling experience out of your comfort zone. So, shake off those heavy layers and prepare to get zingy with some winter freshness…
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Zesty to the point of mouth-watering excess, the energising burst of crushed ripe fruit uses the darker extract of sweet blood orange juice juxtaposed against bitter orange peel and warming wafts of geranium for a feel-good cloud of happiness. Formulated to last far longer than traditional Colognes but losing none of their zippiness – hoorah!
Atelier Cologne Orange Sanguine £49.50 for 30ml Cologne Absolue
Buy it at John Lewis
Ignore the grey skies, close your eyes and imagine the Provençal setting sun, still warm on your skin (move closer to the fire or add another layer of clothing, if necessary…)Aromatically fresh with the fizz of bergamot and pink pepper, the true heart of honey infused lavender is balanced by the milky acacia blossoms, the nuttiness of tonka beans and balsamic warmth of the earthier base.
L’Occitane Terre de Lumière Limited Edition bottle, £58 for 50ml eau de parfum
Buy it at loccitane.com
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A lusciously fruity mixture of milky fig cut through with Turkish apricot and green tea for a deliciously refreshing blend that still feels nurturingly comforting. A wearable panna cotta with just enough wobble and topped with glistening slices of that succulent fruit – we have no doubt you’ll want to dive in.
Fresh Fig Apricot £76 for 100ml eau de parfum
Buy it at Harrods
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The tart, raspberry freshness of Turkish rose and the subtle woodiness of thorny stems enhanced by geranium melt slowly to a softly cushioned fuzziness of peonies and vibrant freesia, gently sprinkled with black pepper and drizzled with honey. Every bit as delicious as it sounds, it’s a ballerina dancing in a garden as the sun rises and blushes the sky the colour of her frothy tutu.
Aqua di Parma Peonia Nobile £78 for 50ml eau de parfum
Buy it at Selfridges
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Ripening tomatoes lovingly stroked in a greenhouse, sunlight glinting on frosty hedgerows and mint leaves floating in a pitcher of homemade lemonade – this enlivening scent whisks you to the home of the Mitchell family at Foxbury Farm. Sparkling citrus rubs shoulders with herbaceous greens and English flowers grown in their fields; drying down to the classically elegant combination of musk and cedar wood.
Mitchell and Peach English Leaf Fine Edition £55 for 50ml eau de toilette
Buy it at Roullier White
Written by Suzy Nightingale

Flash, bang, wallop, what a picture! More fragrant Instagrammers we think you’ll enjoy following…

Maybe it’s because our eyes are increasingly too weary to look at an endless scroll of words on a teeny screen.

Maybe it’s that with the prospect of Twitter soon allowing limitless soundbites, we’re slightly falling out of love with that social medium (while still posting regularly, anyway!). Half the fun is keeping it brief, eh?

And although we still hold Facebook dear, it seems that we’re not alone in finding Instagram a most enjoyable way to keep our finger on the pulse-point of fragrant thoughts and happenings. Scent may be about the nose, primarily – but it can be visually thrilling, too.

Among our own 6,500+ followers (and counting), there are some brilliant scented Instagrammers – and we thought we’d share a second wave of those we think you’ll love: vintage bottle collectors, brilliant brands and sexy shops. Just click on the blue name to find and follow. (And follow us here…)

1. Grandiflora Fragrance

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Grandiflora is Sydney’s most famous florist – and last autumn, founder Saskia Havekes launched her own signature fragrance line, a-swirl with white florals. Many of these posts combine our two greatest loves: stunning floral displays and beautiful bottles.

2. Atelier Cologne

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Christophe Cervasel and Sylvia Ganter, the co-founders of this ‘intense Cologne’ line, are both very visual – you’ve only got to look at the montages they create for each new fragrance launch. But their Instagram feed is super-colourful and fun – and features odd little ‘flicker-book’ or video, further bringing the collection alive. (See also main visual for this post from Atelier Cologne‘s Insta-feed.)

3. Memoirs of a Perfumista

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Nyal Dillimore is scent-obsessed full-time mum who dreams of opening her own perfume boutique and has a real eye for an arty Instagram shot or stylish montage.

4. Beaufort London

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From one of the new ‘rising star’ perfume houses, this Instagram feed is characteristically dark, moody and occasionally captures really atrocious weather (well, the name is inspired by the BeauFort wind scale). We’re blown away. (Almost literally.)

5. Odette Toilette

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A great way to catch up with one of our favourite perfumistas, the extremely witty and clever Lizzie Ostrom, author of Perfume: A Century of Scents. It follows her scented adventures and travels. (Above, see ‘Paula’, her travelling scent trunk – which is alas too heavy to lug around, as Lizzie explained to us in The Scented Letter). Great vintage bottle shots from Lizzie’s collection are regular highlights.

6. Scent of the Day

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This Instagram feed features mini-reviews of masculine scents – one for every day, as the name suggests. Sometimes packshots, often taken by the perfumista himself. One for the chaps, perhaps.

7. Peony Melbourne

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This Australian perfume shop’s feed has us wanting to cash in some airmiles for a visit Down Under. Absolutely swoonworthy flower shots show up alongside beautiful bottle pix, fabulous architecture (because we’re not only interested in perfume, right?) and even the odd scoop of ice cream. What. Is. Not. To. Love?

8. Guerlain

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The official Instagram account of the legendary French perfume house also brings us news of skincare and make-up, but it’s the go-to destination for official Guerlain news about upcoming fragrance launches. (And we really like the short films which often feature.)

9. Vetyyver

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Subtitled ‘A German perfume diary’, this guy’s a seriously cool photographer, documenting an impressive collection. If you’re looking to fine-tune your own Instagram shots and filter choices, there’s a lot to learn here.

10. Iscentyouaday

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An ultra-dedicated perfume blogger (who also happens to be a big fan of ours!), Iscentyouaday pledges to review a perfume a day (and succeeds) – her sub-title is ‘1001 Days of Perfume’ – and while featuring more than the odd cat picture (what IS it about fragrance fans and cats?), her Instagrams are sweet and often alert you to worthwhile posts such as ‘Perfume for Paupers: How to Smell Good on a Budget. And we like to think we’re all about encouraging new talent as well as showcasing established names.

Happy scrolling…!

Written by Jo Fairley