Tag: decor

Anthropologie Floral Diffusers

We love an effortless scented solution, and most especially when they’re as attractive as Anthropologie‘s new Floral Diffusers. Forget all images of dusty old sticks in a vase, for these will be diffusers you’ll gladly display, front and centre…

Anthropologie have collaborated with a company called Herb Family for this range of stunning scented display pieces, the house starting life as DongSung Herb Farm in Korea herb farm back in 1987, which has now grown into a leading manufacturer of home fragrance products.

Anthropologie say: ‘Inspired by a floral bouquet, we have developed 5 floral bouquet in 4 fragrances that allows you to mix and match any of the four fragrances with the floral bouquet of your choice.’ And having had a look, we must say, quite fancy one for each room, really.

Chosing from Pussy Willow, Red Wheat, Baby Breath, Classic Wheat or Eucalyptus Pods, whichever you plump for, we think these would make great gifts for any home fragrance and interiors devotee – or for any friend that isn’t blessed with green fingers, and somehow manages to kill any living plant within a ten-metre radius. A fab option for your desk at work, too, we think – zero maintenance, fuss-free and they really radiate the scent around the whole house.

These Floral Diffusers are sold separate to the fragrance oils – available in the following options…

Fresh Cut Bouquet: Blend of fresh florals with soft hints of citrus and sandalwood

Mulled Cider: Blend of crisp apple, fresh mulled spices and a touch of orange and musk

Amber Woods: Blend of wood notes with white cedar, amber and sandalwood enveloped by a sweet vanilla touch

Autumn Spice: Blend of sweet pumpkin, brown sugar, cinnamon and creamy vanilla

But we think it’s a bit of a bonus, as it means you can use any home fragrance oil you currently have, or re-fill with something else entirely of your choice!

Anthropologie Floral Diffuser £32, Floral Diffuser Oil £8 for 4.5 fl. oz.

By Suzy Nightingale

Scenting the ‘sulking room’ with candles we covet…

Which candles should you scent a boudoir with? Here’s a list of just some we’re swooning over…

The word boudoir comes from the French ‘bouder’, meaning to pout or sulk, and for centuries has been a private, feminine space to indulge ones desires. Boudoir-type fragrances evoke images of face powder and rosy lipsticks, be-ribboned furnishings and velvet chaise-lounge to swoon on while reading love letters – or to recline on silken cusions while eating violet cremes and idly flick through the latest papers, searching for scurriolous gossip.

In fact, the boudoir was often the only place a woman could do as she liked, historically, and so they became intimate places of great mystery, a sanctuary to write and dream in, or a hotbed of sensual power.

In our just-published ‘We’ll Always Have Paris’ issue of The Scented Letter Magazine (which recently won another Jasmine Award from The Fragrance Foundation – we’re so thrilled to say!) we foucused on boudoir perfumes you should try; but there are so many more ways of scenting this ‘sulking room’, and here we’d love to share with you some of the candles we’re currently coveting for our own boudoirs and bedrooms.

A dreamier duo you’d be hard-pressed to find – burn this limited edition separately or (our favourite) together for a deliciously naughty infusion of soft, powdery caresses that follow, perhaps, a crack of the whip…?

Diptyque Leather & Violet Duo Set £94 for 190g candles

Evoking memories of orchid-hunting trips – tales regaled to you while you recline in something too sheer to be seemly – this blend of exotic blooms and smooth cedar will certainly get your senses swooning while he drones on.

Urban Apothecary Ambrée Noir Candle £30 for 300g

Lady Blanche is busy lady, dispensing ‘female-friendly advice’, so Penhaligon’s intriguing story goes, from within her boudoir. There, the scents of rice powder and makeup mingle with rose perfume, and (we gather) utter lasciviousness.

Penhaligon’s The Powder Room Candle £48 for 290g

Narcotic tuberose was once banned by polite, Victorian society, for fear the heady scent was causing flighty females to experience involuntary orgasms. My my. We can’t vouch for that, but it is very lovely.

Kilian French Boudoir Candle £60 for 220g

Written by Suzy Nightingale

This scratch 'n sniff wallpaper is B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

Once seen as terribly unfashionable, wallpaper is on the up as a must-have way of bringing art into your home, with companies like the ultra hip Brooklyn-based Flavor Paper using cutting edge designs in combination with traditional screen-printing techniques for results that are not only eye-popping, but now even smell good, too…
Remember Willy Wonka’s lickable wallpaper in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Well Flavor Paper were inspired to create something similar, but thankfully without the saliva. In a design range that looks like Wonka met Warhol, their range of Scratch ‘n Sniff Wallpaper currently comprises three scented images – B-A-N-A-N-A-S!, Cherry Forever and Tutti Fruiti – with the cherry version having been memorialised forever by being inducted into the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt arm of the Smithsonian Institute museum.

Jon Sherman, owner of Flavor Paper, explains the concept was ‘Designed with Michael Angelo [no, not that one] of Wonderland Beauty Parlor fame. B-A-N-A-N-A-S! is a pop art homage to iconic screen printing, with the added twist of scratch and sniff scent. Yes! The bananas can smell like bananas. Some people opt for unscented, but how can you resist?’
How long can the scents last? Well there are a limited number of micro-capsules embedded within the wallpapers, so they will run out over time. But with several million of the micro-capsules in a large surface area, it would surely take quite a few years of scratching and sniffing before you’d exhausted the scent completely.

Flavor Paper have developed colourful and creative wallpaper concepts for a number of stylish locations, from the W Hotel near Wall Street to Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. With all their wallpapers completely customisable, presumably you could opt for pink bananas scented with cherry on a cyan background, should you so wish – and why not?
Okay, perhaps not for redcorating your nan’s living room for Christmas (though we think Hilda Ogden would have adored these) but we’re very excited about the idea of ‘smelly wallpaper’, and hope it can’t be too long before fragrance houses release scented scenes – imagine whole meadows you could gaze at on your walls and occasionally scratch ‘n sniff… It would certainly give the neighbours something to talk about. Don’t about you, but we’re climbing (and sniffing) the walls in anticipation!
Written by Suzy Nightingale