Australia Archives - The Perfume Society

Goldfield & Banks – the blissful Botanicals series of scents

Dimitri Weber launched his house of Goldfield & Banks in 2016, showcasing for the fist time in the fragrance world the stunning native ingredients of Australia. And WHAT a wonderful treat for all fragrance lovers this proved to be…

When he started, Dimitri explained to us, nobody was talking about Australian ingredients at the various trade shows he visited, but ‘…now I notice more people are showcasing and highlighting their provenance, and the big houses like Firmenich and Givaudan are now exploring those ingredients, and that’s so wonderful!’

It was a fragrantly fateful 25 years ago Dimitri first travelled to Australia for a fragrance launch. He’d worked on fragrances in France for over twenty years before that trip that was to blow his mind and shape the course of his scented life and career. A friend suggested extending his trip, seeing as he’d flown for 24 hours to get there, to explore the wilds of the Australian landscape. While there, Dimitri says he totally fell in love with both the place and a special person, eventually moving to Australia and completely immersing himself in the wonderful ingredients he found there.

With this idea of combining the refinement of French perfumery with a hitherto under-explored palette of fragrant ingredients, he was proud to start his own brand to highlight unique materials of incredibly high quality: ‘Some of the farmers we work with are growing their ingredients in such remote locations in Australia that there’s no pollution whatsoever – they are completely pure.’

There are so many scents to adore within their collection – which you can read about along with the full founding story and inspirations of the house – in our page dedicated to Goldfield & Banks; but here we’re going to the Botanicals Series (easily distinguishable with their gilded bottles), beginning with the most recent…

Goldfield & Banks Island Lush

Perfumer: Amélie Jacquin

They say: ‘South Pacific Sandalwood; the epitome of wild tropical beauty. Carnal and bountiful, Island Lush is a sumptuous perfume with a heart of modern woods. A wind of exoticism transports you on a journey to islands beyond the horizon, where radiant spices, powdery orris, vegetal roots and luscious resins envelop smooth wood species.’

We say: This is beguilingly buttery from the get-go, a scents that seems to melt into skin, becoming one with you, as that unique quality of sandalwood – somehow green yet spicy – radiates throughout. The orris offers a powdery finish which melds the supple softness of the leather to the grassy cool of vetiver and richly unctuous resins in the base.

Botanicals & Essences in Island Lush:
Sandalwood South Pacific
Sandalwood Australia
Bergamot Italy
Pink Pepper
Nutmeg Indonesia
Agarwood
Ginger
Geranium Egypt
Guaiac Wood Paraguay
Cedar Wood Texas
Patchouli Indonesia
Vetiver Haiti
Benzoin Laos
Leather

£180 for 100ml pure perfume harrods.com

Goldfield & Banks Purple Suede

Perfumer: Ilias Ermenidis

They say: ‘An olfactory imagination expressing the scent of aromatic fields of sunburnt lavender, where blossoms are crisped by the fierce heat of the sun. Paired with the scent of rust-coloured saddles, this sensual perfume reveals a distinctively rich and dry sillage. A contemporary and unexpected take on lavender and leather.’

We say: Intensely aromatic, this is a lavender so pure (flourishing in Tasmania’s unspoilt landscape) that we swear we feel better simply smelling it. Definitely not the dusty, fusty lavender you may have previously experienced, within Purple Suede it feels rich, luxurious, even decadent in its herbaceously surprising, oakmoss-swathed softness.

Botanicals & Essences in Purple Suede:
Lavender Tasmania
Pink Pepper Reunion Island
Hyssop Flowers France
Woodleather
Patchouli Indonesia
Oakmoss
Civet
Amber
Oud

£180 for 100ml pure perfume harrods.com

Goldfield & Banks Silky Woods

Perfumer: Hamid Merati Kashani

They say: ‘The perfume is a more subtle, luxe and modern interpretation of agarwood (also called oud). One that is delightful to wear on any occasion and which offers a sensation of a distinctive gourmand and musky fragrance on a silky smooth skin.’

We say: If a fragrance can ever smell like liquid gold, this is it – a smooth, molten swoon of Australian sandalwood, harvested sustainably for the first time in the Daintree Rainforest in Tropical Queensland. Spiced with a tingle of saffron, swirled with smoked vanilla and the hug of tobacco leaves in the trail, it’s an all-day (and night) wrist-sniffer, for sure.

Botanicals & Essences in Silky Woods:
Agarwood Tropical Australia
Cinnamon Ceylon
Tobacco Leaves
Ylang Ylang Madagascar
Vanilla Tahiti
Sandalwood Australia
Incense

£180 for 100ml pure perfume harrods.com

Written by Suzy Nightingale

Map of the Heart – an Abundance of Creativity

In the recent Esxence fragrance fair in Milan, one of the highlights was smelling the aptly-named Abundance – a new fragrance by Australian perfume house, Map of the Heart.

We’ve long been huge fans of this always-artistic fragrance house, and love the way their scents imbue a sense of the landscapes they are inspired by. Indeed, many of the ingredients are indigenous to Australia and brilliant perfumer Jacques Huclier collaborated with Amelie Jacquin for this latest launch.

For V.8 Abundance, the verdancy and freshness billows forth from the first spritz – it was composed during Lockdown in Australia, so co-founder Sarah explained to us, and was borne of a sense of longing for nature and wildness that we all seemed to experience, no matter where we were based in the world.

Bitter orange fizzes with pops of pink pepper, a mellow drift of incense on the breeze suggesting adventure, exploration. The intriguing note of Christmas Tree or ‘Flame Tree’ is in the heart, but cast aside thoughts of yuletide celebrations and instead think of wide open vistas clustered by vast forests, shady places, an ancient place of sanctuary. As with all Map of the Heart fragrances, seams of Australian Sandalwood ripple throughout, here, joined by White Sandalwood, deep rivulets of Akigalawood and resinous benzoin, adding to the sacred nature of the scent as it warms on your skin.

This is a sneak-peek, because Abundance isn’t yet available on their website, but you may be sure when it is, there will be a rush of fragrant fans clamouring to own it – either in the heart bottles which made them so famous (and look for all the world as though they belong in an art gallery); or the more conventional bottles they now also produce.

Intrigued? You should be! We are thrilled to say the Map of the Heart Discovery Sets are now back in stock in our shop, and there you may try the rest of the collection to date. The only questions is where will you begin your Map of the Heart journey…?

Clear Heart v.1 – Australian summer: surfing, swimming, hot days, cool breezes and the salt that hangs in the air promising more.

Black Heart v.2 – Smoky. Impolite. Dangerous. It’s smoky heart of mysterious spices is shot through with shards of fresh eucalyptus and citrus to create an impolite mix of opposites.

Red Heart v.3 – Explosive. Seductive. Addictive. A composition of feijoa, tuberose and spices with sensual notes of musk and vanilla.

Gold Heart v.4 – Nurturing. Precious. Ancient. An exotic warm breeze that wraps around to protect and nurture.

Purple Heart v.5 – Brave. Instinctive. Triumphant. Inverying the olfactory pyramid by opening darker and then brightening

Pink Heart v.6 – Mingles on the skin with the spiciness of the sumac accord and cistus absolute for a mesmerising ride.

White Heart v.7 – The ethereal and sharp opening of French lavender, aldehyde and cardamom coolly invite us into the vast landscape of love.

Map of the Heart Discovery Set £35 for 7 x 1ml samples eau de parfum

Written by Suzy Nightingale

Mihan Aromatics – redeem your code for $50 off + FREE worldwide shipping at Australia’s all-natural fragrance house

How about this for some sunshine on a rainy day – Mihan Aromatics have given us an EXCLUSIVE code to share with Perfume Society readers. Granting you a whopping $50 AUD off 100ml parfums, and FREE worldwide shipping, it lasts 30 days. What are you waiting for? There’s so much to explore!

Code: MASOCIETY50

How to use: Go to mihanaromatics.com and use at checkout when purchasing 100ml parfum

Hailed as ‘the BYREDO of Australia’ by glowing press reports when they launched,, and proudly all-natural from the get-go; Josh and Julia Mihan are the so-cool couple behind the Mihan Aromatics fragrance house, having wanted to combine native floral and spices – including Australian sandalwood, now being deployed by the fragrance industry as a sustainable alternative to Indian Santalum album – alongside ingredients from further afield that are pillars of the perfumery’s art.

Although Australia has a thriving niche fragrance scene of enthusiasts, its only fairly recently we’ve witnessed actual fragrance houses beginning to blossom there, and Mihan Aromatics are a very welcome addition, as you’ll see (and smell) for yourselves when you explore their fragrant wares.

Popular Australian fragrance blog theaccords.com raved that: ‘Mihan Aromatics‘ capsule collection of nostalgia, from autumn park hangs to sweaty summer dance sessions, is pulled off to perfection. It feels authentic, intelligent, thoughtful, ernest. There’s a very clear style, here – a lightness, a dreamy character to all the fragrances… Each one is a mood and while the stories are specific, the space and softness of the scents allow plenty of projection (of your imagination, that is; these are creations that stick close to the body…)’

Style-driven blog minimalissimo.com, meanwhile, enthused that Mihan Aromatics debut collection was ‘…a thing of sublime and considered beauty. Each element that comprises the Melbourne-made collection is grounded on the individual connection each of us has with scent (and the senses), through a purposed tactility. A sensory journey of discovery.’

All of the fragrances are immediately transportive – an olfactory magic trick we so sorely need our perfumes to perform right now – and will whisk you to evocative, seasonal memories captured in each bottle. The initial scents – Guilty Story, Mikado Bark and Sienna Brume – were inspired by Melbourne’s inner city suburbs of Carlton, Fitzroy and East Melbourne, during autumn months. (Which crackle with bronze and golden leaves just as they do here, and where days can be almost as crisp.) Now they’ve been joined by Petrichor Plains, conjuring the drenching of earth and rock after a storm – a specific smell regularly cited as a favourite by people all over the world; and Munlark Ash, which The Perfume Society’s own Hettie has been wearing a lot of, lately…

‘It’s like adding an extra layer of comfort and warmth before I leave the house, with the richness of incense, amber, vetiver and cedarwood. Yet I find it super uplifting and airy (which is exactly what we all need a little of right now!) with tangy bergamot and black pepper. A seasonal must!’

From cosily warm scents that wrap around you to storm-drenched verdant undergrowth, or vibrant perfumes that pulsate with the energy of a summer’s day – which will you choose, we wonder?

Want to try samples before you decide what to spend your $50 AUD off discount code (with free worldwide shipping) on? No problem! We have the Mihan Aromatics Discovery Set in stock, where you can try the FULL collection of five fragrances for £33, PLUS a sneak-peek at an ‘Untitled’ scent that’s still in devlopment. How cool is that?

Already tried them, or are immediately drawn to a particular perfume? Don’t forget, you can use your code MASOCIETY50 for 30 days at mihanaromatics.com – so let your nose travel and the sunshine in!

By Suzy Nightingale

Ask your questions for a LIVE with Dimitri Weber from Goldfield & Banks!

We are thrilled to offer you another moment of fragrant distraction from the world: a LIVE Q&A with Dimitri Weber, founder of the cult Australian house (and makers of none other than Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban‘s favourite fragrances), Goldfield & Banks!

Going live from The Perfume Society Instagram account on Wednesday 15th April 2020 at 12 midday U.K. time (9pm Australian time), our Co-Founder, Jo Fairley, will be asking Dimitri a selection of YOUR questions – ask away on the form, below:

MY QUESTION FOR GOLDFIELD & BANKS' DIMITRI

Belgian-born Dimitri so fell in love with both the place and a special person, he eventually moved across the world to Australia and completely immersed himself in the wonderful ingredients he found there. You can read all about how the fragrance house began on our page dedicated to Goldfield & Banks, and if you’ve yet to smell their scents, oh what a treat you have in store…

Goldfield & Banks are making great waves in the world of perfume, using these unique ingredients, often indigenous to Australia, to make their fragrances truly stand apart. From the wild boronia oil used in Southern Bloom, to the Australian coastal moss accord of Pacific Rock Moss, these are some of the highest quality (and polution-free) perfumery ingredients to be found. So how did Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban come to among the brand’s biggest fans…? Well you’ll just have to ask Dimitri and stay tuned, tomorrow at midday on Instagram…!

By Suzy Nightingale

Fabulous new fragrant reads to get your nose stuck into

Make room on your shelves immediately – not for more bottles of fragrance, this time, but books about them. There’s a perfumed plethora of fragrant reads out there that we’ll be reviewing in the coming months, showing the ever increasing lust for more, more, more fragrance facts and behind the scenes peeps in to the perfume world.
Here are just a few of the favourites we’ve read already, but fear not – there are many more fragrant reads to stack up on your bedside table, and we shall attempt to cover as many as we can possibly get our noses stuck in to…

The Scent of You by Maggie Alderson (HarperCollins AU), 32.99 AUD

‘I experience the world through smell – I always have.’ So begins the latest novel by Maggie Alderson, and we couldn’t agree more. Central character, Polly, is a perfume blogger who loses herself in the world of fragrance while her own world falls to pieces around her – something many of us can empathise with. We love the fact Maggie was inspired to name her after falling madly for Vilhelm’s perfume, Dear Polly, and that she even created a blog and Instagram account for Polly to share her perfume reviews.

Having grown up surrounded by the beautiful perfume bottles of her ultra glam (ex-model) mother, and learning to explore the world by sniffing ‘…everything!’ Polly now distracts herself with, among other things, ‘Guy, the mysterious, infuriating and hugely talented perfumer.’ We’re rather wondering who this may have been based on, as that description doesn’t sufficiently narrow it down…
Currently the book has been launched in Australia, but having been utterly gripped by the first chapter – which you can read for free, here – we’re crossing everything that the book will be published in the UK and other territories, soon.

CHANEL – The Art of Creating Fragrance by Lionel Paillès (Abrams Books), £125

A breathtakingly beautiful – and lavishly presented – six-volume set of books that foucs on single ingredients, revealing the artisinal techniques used to create those famous Chanel fragrances. Following the journey of the five main flowers from which the majority of Chanel perfumes are made, we learn about the growing, harvesting and meticulous processing of May rose, Grasse iris, Grasse jasmine, rose geranium and tuberose.
Stunning photographs by Pierre Even ensure a feast for the eyes, with fascinating facts dotted throughout. Did you know, for example, that since the very first bottle was made in the 1921, Chanel No. 5 has been made with flowers from the same picturesque patch of land between the Alps and the Mediterranean, known as the Pégomas Valley?
Gloriously celebratory, this visual tour of the French Rivierea by way of its fragrant flowers just makes us want to jump on a plane and run through the fields in a gauzy white gown and a straw hat, stat. Yes, it’s far pricier than your average book but you are getting a set of six, and these are volumes you’ll want to treasure forever – or give as a really special gift for that ultimate Chanel fan.

Flacons Guerlain: Collection de Sylvie Guerlain, by Bernard Gangler (Chêne), £42.24

Imagine being a member of the Guerlain family (oh, imagine…) and becoming obsessed by the bottles (easy enough even when you’re no relation at all, we find!) and then setting about making an extensive collection of them by scouring the flea markets and antique shops of France to hunt down every last rare example you can find. The book is written in French, but really it’s all about the lovingly documented flacons themselves – page after page of them – with greater emphasis on the visual joys than the writing itself, so even if your French is sub- Sixth Form, you’ll get by just fine.
We think this is the perfect ‘coffee table’ book with which to flagrantly display your love of fragrance – hours of flicking through, gazing and sighing happily are pretty much guaranteed, we feel. It’s so interesting to see how some of the bottles change through time – and those that barely change at all. Definitely one for your Christmas List if you can’t quite swing for it yourself right now.
Written by Suzy Nightingale

Invigorate your senses with Aesop – and be in with a chance to win tickets to discover Australia's Impressionists

The proudly Australian brand of Aesop have partnered with The National Gallery for the exhibition Australia’s Impressionists, showing until 27 March, and the very first UK exhibition of its kind. Featuring works by Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton, Charles Conder and John Russell, the show ‘…unveils a distinctly Australian interpretation of the movement,’ and Aesop are offering a limited number of free passes to the show, if you can answer the artistic question on their website…

Established in Melbourne in 1987, Aesop’s main objective has been to formulate skin, hair and body care products by souring the very best of both plant-based and laboratory-made ingredients, and harmonising these precious essences in everything they do. Furthermore, Aesop explain they like to venture forth from the many boutiques and points of sale they’ve amassed around the world, and ‘…alongside our commercial activities, we explore and support the arts as an avenue through which to inspire, learn and communicate.’

To get you in the mood for gazing at artistic representations of glorious sunshine and flowers, why not pamper yourself with a fragrant spa-like, at-home treatment? As we write this, the sun is shining but the frost glitters cruelly, and what with the dehydrating side-effects of central heating and rapid temperature changes playing havoc with our skins, it’s a good time to slough off the despondencies of winter with an invigorating body scrub. And luckily, Aesop have our backs (and fronts and sides…)

Crisply camphorous to awaken your senses with essential oils of pine needles, the warm tingle of clove bud and richly herbaceous sage leaf, this enlivening scrub contains finely milled pumice and bamboo stem to meticulously buff away residual grime and prime your whole body for your chosen pampering product (we suggest a richly moisturising body oil, to be layered with your favourite fragrance for an extra long-lasting scented treat that will leave you glowing!)

Aesop Redemption Body Scrub £25 for 180ml
Buy it at Aesop
Written by Suzy Nightingale

Tag: Australia