Tag: Floral Street

Blooming marvellous! A flower garden extravaganza of scents & scintillating reads

During the recent torrential summer downpours in the U.K. a phrase oft’ repeated was “…well, it’s good for the gardens!” Which may have been less than welcome to hear while staring forlornly out of the window, but IS true nonetheless.

 

A bit of sun these last few days has perked us all up no end, and now finally we might wear the summer dress we’d been saving and sit in our own gardens, if we’re lucky enough to have them – sans raincoat and brolly. The thrill! All of this has us appreciating our gardens all the more, and despite the weather, all things garden-centric really has been the trend of the year thus far…

Coinciding with the opening of an extraordinary new outdoor space at the Palace of Versailles, we themed our Summer issue of multi-award-winning magazine, The Scented Letter, around ‘The Perfumer’s Garden’. Talking to green-fingered perfumers, sharing recommendations for scented plants for your garden and showcasing a round-up of glorious modern florals (for the home and for the skin) that evoke gardens or greenhouses – bringing the outdoors in and savouring a garden’s verdancy on your skin, too, is all we want to do right now.

 

 

 

Here’s what you can enjoy in this 60-page PRINT issue celebrating the garden’s ability to inspire and delight…

  • The Perfumer’s Garden – inspired by a fragrant garden just opened at Versailles, our 10-page florabundant extravaganza celebrates gardens, florists and flower scents
  • #Smellfie 2023 – to mark International Fragrance Day 2023, our fans and followers got snapping to share their love of perfume
  • A Working Nose – natural perfumer Delphine Thierry
  • Gelat-eaux! How to wear one of the ultra-cool new gourmand scents – without smelling like Mr. Whippy
  • Memories, Dreams, Reflections – British supermodel turned scent and skincare creator Kate Moss shares favourite perfumes and blooms
  • When Your Back Garden is a Tuberose Field – we join Aurélien Guichard at the harvest-time of this heady flower

Plus, as always, discover ALL the Latest Launches – in home fragrance, as well as perfumes to wear – and get a whiff of news, in Nosing Around

And don’t forget: you can now take out a yearly Print Subscription to The Scented Letter, the world’s only magazine for fragrance-lovers, here.

 

Master Perfumer Alberto Morillas enjoying his own ‘Perfumer’s Garden’ in The Scented Letter magazine.

 

Meanwhile, can we encourage those of you who THINK you don’t like ‘floral scents’ to explore the contemporary delights of Floral Street’s Discovery Set for only £16? This groundbreaking, hugely sustainable and so-likeable British house has wowed the world with their modern take on a floral – using this family as inspiration rather than slavishly following old-fashioned notions of how such fragrances should smell. Get ready to have your pulse race with these blooming wonderful perfumes…

 

Wonderland Peony This not only features armfuls of that flower, but pink berries and violets, Anything but cutesy, it’s given a woody-balsamic warmth by cedarwood, alongside vetiver.

Chypre Sublime An utterly modern take on this sophisticated fragrance family, blending incense with Damask rose absolute, midnight violet, pink pepper and geranium, on a stunning base of benzoin, labdanum and olibanum.

Black Lotus The classic English-Rose dressed in a black leather jacket. Intoxicating, spirited, bohemian and alive. Complex and multi-faceted, the sweet honeyed scent of centifolia rose adds depth to lighter, spicy nuances by way of red peppercorn and saffron.

Iris Goddess There’s nothing shy about these violets. An explosion of powdery petals collide with ripe red fruits. Black vanilla, warm musks and earthy carrot seed bring exoticisim and depth, sparkling lemon zest and red chilli pepper add a jolt of life.

London Poppy A love letter to London: a city as tough as ever-lasting poppies. The scent that opens with a bright beam of light. Sicilian Lemon and Florida Orange bring the zing. A salt-spray marine note adds an unexpected sea-facing view.

Neon Rose You will never have smelt flowers like these. Freshly chopped jasmine draped around your neck. Roses around your wrist. And yet no roses were harmed in the making of this showpiece – these buds were cooked up in a lab for extra punch. Crisp, green Angelica leaves bring a botanical dimension, while fresh Bergamot floats overhead.

Wild Vanilla Orchid It’s vanilla, but not as you know it. A raw-edged confection of creamy vanilla beans, blossom, cassis and citrus, dressed in a bunch of just-plucked jasmine. Offsetting the lingering sweetness; bamboo and sandalwood bend and fold underneath.

Ylang Ylang Espresso  A strikingly modern blend of red rose, ylang ylang and jasmine cross paths with a soothing cloud of just-brewed coffee, fresh cream and Sichuan pepper – sustainably harvested from the foothills of the Himalayas. A fragrance to get lost in.

PS: It it isn’t just the fragrances which are strikingly innovative, but the packaging. Each of Floral Street’s full-size bottles showcases a stunning, decadent flower artwork by renowned fashion photographer Matthew Donaldson – whose flower-powered photography also adorns this Discovery Box.

 

 

Finally, those of you who haven’t yet grabbed out latest Garden of Delights Discovery Box [£23 /£19 for V.I.Ps] should sprinkle the seeds of your new scent addictions via this perfectly curated outdoors-inspired selection. Highgrove Bouquet by Penhaligon’s, created with HRH the Prince Of Wales, now King Charles, draws on his own garden at Highgrove. We’d also love to introduce you to new brands Adscenture, EAU.MG and COSMOSSbyKateMoss and Granado is new to the UK. More newness is provided by Floral Street Sweet Almond Blossom. There are also fragrances from Versace, Molton Brown, Mizensir, Juliette has a gun and Shay&Blue all highlighting various flowers and herbs. We’ve also added SBC Arnica Moisturising Gel for other restorative powers from the garden…

Might we suggest a scent appreciation session is in order, where you can sit and relax, perhaps sip a chilled glass of something lovely, and appreciate sniffing each of these garden-centric scents in turn, while browsing through The Scented Letter magazine? How much more salubrious that sounds than battling the throngs of school-holiday crowds – getting to try a whole new wardrobe of fragrances in your own home (or garden!), and in your own time. Bliss!

Written by Suzy Nightingale

Floral Street & World Earth Day – from plastic coffee cups to award-winning perfumes

Putting sustainability at the heart of their scents is not only for World Earth Day at Floral Street – their award-winning reusable, recyclable and biodegradable pulp fragrance box now contains 20% upcycled coffee cups, giving new life to previously unrecyclable waste, every single day. They’ve already upcycled 350,000 used coffee cups to date – proving you can have beautiful and sustainable packaging that is kinder to our planet, while still enjoying fabulous (and now multi award-winning) fragrances.

Founder Michelle Feeney explains…

‘There’s too much beauty packaging in the world already, particularly from fragrance brands. I get so frustrated with the amount of cellophane wraps and bottles that are not recyclable.

When I decided to create Floral Street, I was never in any doubt that it would be a sustainable beauty brand. I thought it was an opportunity to make a statement and do things differently in fragrance. I want to do good for the planet.

We are sustainable every step of the way, from the ingredients right the way through to the packaging. With ingredients, I care about our suppliers and growers being treated ethically. I know that I can ring Robertet (the perfume house that we partner with) and ask exactly where an ingredient is from and how it was farmed. They are experts in sustainable raw, natural materials

 

 

I’m so proud of our pulp cartons, which house our scents. They are 100% compostable, reusable and recyclable. That’s an industry-first. Created in under a minute, they use less energy, with waste water being cleaned and recycled and any waste pulp composted at local farms. Our packaging is printed with vegetable and soy-based inks, and the card and glass fragrance bottles are widely recyclable.’

‘We get it.’ Michelle continues: ‘You love fragrance, but you don’t feel so good about all the packaging that comes with it. We feel the same so, we made it our mission to create a totally new way to house your perfume, a way to deliver it to you without using the same amount of energy or incurring the same amount of waste.

 

 

We did it. Each floral street fragrance comes tucked inside a groundbreaking pulp carton with an embossed lid, made from recyclable paper packaging and held together with a re-usable brightlycoloured band. We’re proud that we can offer a totally recyclable and biodegradable box – a first for the world of fragrance…’

Cruelty free, ethically souced and vegetarian and vegan friendly, Floral Street prove that perfumistas can care for the planet while still enjoying fine fragrance. Read even more about their ethos in our page dedicated to this forward-thinking fabulous house…

Floral Street Sunflower Pop: fine fragrance meets fine art

If you’re looking for a flash of fragrant brightness amidst these greyest days, Floral Street Sunflower Pop is your go-to burst of olfactory optimism!

Having already proved that exceptional quality fragrance needn’t cost the earth, Floral Street’s fashion-forward and so-affordable approach combined with an impeccable sustainability and cruelty-free ethos, are now set on proving, as founder Michelle Feeney puts it: ‘fine art can meet fine fragrance.’

Celebrating their 4th year of scented success, with their perfumes now available to purchase in shops based in 20 countries around the world; this British indie house was thrilled to be approached to produce a fragrance based on the most famous painting in the entire world. Says Michelle: ‘When the Van Gough Museum people walked into the Floral Street shop and asked us to create some products based on the Van Gough paintings, it was a dream come true – they said we could choose any painting we wanted for inspiration! Of course… it had to be Sunflowers.’

Seeing the painting in-person really blew Michelle Feeney away, and she explains that ‘When I stood in front of the painting, I could really feel the brushstrokes, I could feel the movement.’ It was this vibrant energy Michelle wanted in-house perfumer Jerome Epinette to somehow bottle (indeed, the painting appears suspended in the bottle itself) and for Jerome, that meant capturing the feeling of the painting. ‘I love the different colours, contrasts of textures, and that’s what really inspired my creation to try and evoke those,’ Michelle chimes in, her face glowing with the passion she so obviously feels for the subject:

 

 

‘It’s also about the passing of the day,’ Michelle gestures toward an image of the iconic work; ‘…if you notice in the painting, it’s not just about bright yellow fresh and shiny flowers, they are captured in lots of stages as they change colour, which I love.’

 

‘We also discovered that Van Gough used to live in London,’ Michelle continues, ‘and spent a lot of time walking in Covent Garden, so that was quite spooky in a way – to think he probably walked past the place where our shop is, now!’

 The very definition of optimism, Floral Street’s Sunflower Pop (from £24 for 10ml eau de parfum) is both sunny to look at and sunny inside – vibrantly fizzing with fresh mandarin, Calabrian bergamot, and accords of vegan honey and Bellini cocktails. It settles to a smooth, nuanced warmth, a scented sunset that feels timeless. Oh yes, we’ll raise a glass to a happy scent that allows us to dream of sunshine with every single spritz. In a letter to his brother, Vincent Van Gough once wrote: ‘If one truly loves nature, one finds beauty everywhere.’ And what a beauty this is! 

 

Don’t forget – you can try a sample of Sunflower Pop in the Niche VII Discovery Box (£23 / £19 for VIPs, for ten fragrances + two treats) for a proper perfumed pick-me-up.

By Suzy Nightingale

Floral Street Home Fragrance Collection & how to ‘Scent-Scape’ your house

We’re currently being wowed by the new Floral Street Home Fragrance Collection – a vibrant range of uplifting candles and diffusers for instant pops of mood-changing colour, with similarly striking scents. What’s more, in a live-streamed launch event with founder Michelle Feeney and celebrity interior stylist, designer & TV presenter, Maxine Brady, we learned the BEST tips on the new trend for ‘Scent-Scaping’ your home…

London-based niche fragrance house Floral Street have certainly been blooming since their launch in 2017. With shelves-full of awards (the current count is twenty!) and stocked around the world, including the mega global beauty retailer, Sephora; their contemporary and fully-sustainable fragrances have met with acclaim wherever the scented seeds (so to speak) have been scattered.

Now, your home can smell just as glorious with the newly-launched Floral Street Home Fragrance collection. Spanning White Florals, Rose Garden, Urban Bloom and Night Bloom, the timing couldn’t be better. Home fragrance sales having rocketed since pandemic lockdowns, when we’ve been forced to spend more time than ever stuck in one space. And the wonderful thing about fragrance is its power to enhance your mood, encourage a feeling of wellness or even shift your focus when you desperately need to feel ‘somewhere else’ for a while.

 

 

Designed to uplift and revuive the senses and transform the space of your home, the range includes gorgeous candles (£34) and diffusers (£34) so that you can ‘bloom wherever you are’. Apart from ‘Scent-Scaping’ with a perfectly perfumed ambience, the collection has sustainability at its heart. All the Floral Street Home Collection products are made from natural cotton wicks, soy, and vegan oil. Hand-poured in the UK, each product is also free from alcohol, presented in reusable glass bottles, and responsibly sourced.

As a renowned designer, lifestyle blogger and TV presenter, Maxine was the perfect partner for Floral Street during the launch of their new home fragrance collection of candles and diffusers. A huge fan of using scented candles for shows such as Grand Designs, Kirsty’s Homemade Home, George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces and This Morning – Maxine revealed that, according to John Lewis, during the end of 2020 and the first half of this year, ‘the average online searches for home scents went up by 600%. For diffusers, the searches were up by over 1000%.’

Now, we’re delighted to share with you some of the brilliant styling tips and practical advice Michelle and Maxine gave us about making your home a scented sanctuary…

 

 

Michelle Feeney: ‘We want to encourage people to bloom where they are, blossom in their home environment. In the last year our homes have become our work places, office as well as the places we live, so I think we’ve all discovered how important it is to scent our homes accordingly. The Floral Street Home Collection includes some amazing new home fragrance products, and the candles are up to 14% fragrance oi,l which means they really fill the room!’

Maxine Brady: ‘Scent Scaping is an up and coming trend I’ve seen really grow the last few months. It’s about using aroma and scents to zone our homes, either room by room or during differing times of the day. I like using a different fragrance in the morning to evening. I like decorating a home with candles and diffusers, and arrange them much as I would art in a room, to bring them to life. I never think a room is finished until I put a candle on my sideboard. Lately our homes have been our whole world – that’s a lot of pressure on our surroundings, and it’s hard to set boundaries, so using home fragrance allows me to transfer from a work space feel to a more homely escape. It’s a very clever way to balance our mental health as well as making our homes smell beautiful.’

 

 

Maxine’s Styling Tip 1. Use your nose as well as your eyes to decorate your home. Perhaps a hallway is where you put a lovely diffuser to welcome your guests and having it smell gorgeous at all times? As a decorating tool, home scents are a really clever way to bring up & coming trends into your home without changing all the furnishings! Use complimentary coloured vessels to your wallpaper or furnishing colours. People are loving sharing #shellfies on social media.

Maxine’s Styling Tip 2. Use aroma to mark the changing seasons. Fresher sunny scents in summer, and warmer woodier scents in colder seasons. Changing those scents and bringing them into your house really helps stop one day blending into another. According to John Lewis, the average online searches for home scents went up by 600%. For diffusers, the searches were up by over 1000% A candle is an instant pick me up when you need a treat.” Michelle: “I like to use home fragrance to enhance my mood or to change up my mood.”

Maxine’s Styling Tip 3. Create an indoor garden bringing the outdoors in. We know home plants have become incredibly important – the flow between spaces can be between your garden and indoors. Dot plants and succulents around a diffuser – reuse the containers when empty as plant pots or the diffusers as mini vases.

Styling Tip 4. Press the reset button with the power of scent. After a busy and stressful day, it can be hard to mark a line between weekdays and your weekends – reclaim your home and say the weekend starts now. Clear away work things, laptops from tables, shove the kids toys in a box and light a candle as a scene-setter and mood re-setter.

Maxine Says: ‘All these tips are ideal if you rent rather than own, because you’re unable to change wallpaper and paint, or sometimes even furnishings, you can make the space your own by stamping your personality with home scents…’

 

 

We absolutely love the idea of ‘Scent-Scaping’ our rooms, and shall be dotting appropriately perfumed candles and diffusers amidst the potted plants forthwith!

Written by Suzy Nightingale

Recycle Week: Floral Street call beauty industry to action

It’s Recycle Week (21st-27th Sept), and award-winning, London-based independent perfumery Floral Street are ‘…calling on the Beauty industry to drive sustainable change.’

We once thought recycling was enough, but the concept of just throwing packaging into the recycling bin and hoping for the best is outmoded and most certainly not enough. ‘It is reported that more than 120 billion units of packaging are produced every year by the global cosmetics industry, much of which is not recyclable,’ Floral Street remind us.

This craziness has to end if we’re to make an impact on environmental change for the better, and so tossing that used container into recycling isn’t enough – even if it can be recycled, it will likely be turned into yet another single use packaging product.

It’s a subject Michelle Feeney, the Founder of Floral Street, feels passionately about. ‘The Beauty industry can do so much more to make products and packaging recyclable and reusable,’ she says. ‘Collectively we can innovate and drive real change. We are an industry of creatives, so let’s lead this responsibly, together.’

‘The majority of fragrance comes packaged in plastic wrapping and foam inserts with ornate caps and lavish additions – sometimes all in one purchase. Often the packaging that can be recycled is not done responsibly which results in unnecessary landfill and pollution of our oceans.’ – Michelle Feeney

 

 

From the get-go, Floral Street have championed re-using and up-cycling their packaging – the gift boxes are FSC certified, confirming they meet the highest environmental and social responsibility standards, and even the grosgrain ribbon they use is made from recycled plastic bottles! Personally, at The Perfume Society, we love using the boxes as seed trays and to store makeup brushes.

 

 

But as well as the boxes being fully compostable, Floral Street didn’t stop there, explaining that ‘…instead of cellophane, our fragrance packaging features reusable, brightly coloured, elastic bands. Our scented candles are presented in glass pots which are widely recyclable, but why not reuse them!

Our entire bath and body range is housed in sleek tubes made from sugar cane bioplastic which is recyclable and sustainably sourced. We have an accreditation to confirm this comes from a bioproduct of the food industry, so it’s not specifically grown just for beauty purposes.’

Why not get creative and have a look at some ideas we suggested on how to re-use your perfume bottles? They are far too beautiful not be given a new life, don’t you think? And we’re in total agreement with Michelle…
‘We believe recycling is good but reusing and repurposing is even better. This is the future of Beauty.’
By Suzy Nightingale

Floral Street supersizes: go BIG (and go to Harrods!)

Floral Street have already thrilled us with their Discovery Set samples and pocket-size scents, but die-hard fans will squeal at this news: they have also ‘GONE BIG’! with the launch of their NEW 100ml sizes!
During August, Harrods customer can experience these exclusively as they discover ‘who will I be today’? And because there’s expected to be a rush for these supersize-me scents, they will then roll out into stores nationwide from September.
Of course we always love trying sample sizes and minis before we commit to a full-size – and it’s something we have always championed at The Perfume Society. There’s nothing like being able to explore the full range of a house’s fragrances from from the comfort of you own hme, and deciding which of them makes your eyes roll back into your head with pleasure. And when you know, you know you’re going to need more, more, more…
That’s when you want a bumper bottle, to spritz with abandon (espcially duing this heatwave, we’re finding!) And it’s something customers have been calling out for. Michelle Feeney, the founder of Floral Street, and a passionate perfume aficionado herself, explains that:
‘After only two years in business we are thrilled that demand for a larger size has led us to launch our 100mls. We are finding that consumers often want three sizes of their favourite scents – 100m for home, 50ml for the desk and a 10ml on-the-go travel size’. 
Take two bottles… No, actually, we will take all three!
If you’re yet to try these incredible fragrances – each of them a stunning and so-modern take on a floral theme – we suggest you start small, with that brilliant Floral Street Discovery Set, but please know that you WILL be falling hard for at least one of these florals, and then you know what to do: supersize that scent and maximise your perfume pleasure.
Floral Street 100ml bottles, £98 exclusively at harrods.com
By Suzy Nightingale

Happy Birthday, Floral Street! The sweet smell of success

Florals, but absolutely not as you know them, were the driving passion that launched British niche house Floral Street in to the perfume world, and we’re thrilled they are now celebrating their second birthday (and the sweet smell of success!) So let’s take a look at exactly why we think they’re blooming…

When we first encountered Floral Street, suffice to say we were blown away by their concept – and oh boy did they deliver in the execution of the fabulous new spins on floral fragrances. Within their standalone Covent Garden store having expanded into several other department stores around the U.K. (including John Lewis and Liverpool’s Harvey Nichols), and now, completely thrillingly, recently having been stocked in the mighty Sephora internationally!

Time-travelling backwards for a bit, our co-founder, Jo Fairley, has known Michelle Feeney for longer than either of them care to admit – back to Michelle’s time at the Estée Lauder Companies, and then at the helm of revolutionary tanning name St Tropez. So when she announced she was unveiling a fragrance line ‘built on the streets of London’, we were rather excited by the whole idea and the stunning reality…

Floral Street’s fragrances are as far from traditional (what some see as ‘old fashioned’) florals as it’s possible to get – each created by the star perfumer Jérôme Épinette, who is known for his mastery of natural ingredients. As Floral Street put it: ‘These are bunches – not bouquets. Ingredients, not notes. And it’s about ease, modernity and joy.’ Michelle adds: ‘My mission is to bring fine fragrance to the modern female – so that she might build an entire fragrance wardrobe, which can express the many facets of who she is.’

At the heart of each fragrance is a specific flower (sourced by the legendary fragrance house Robertet) – but each creation brings an unexpected twist,   treated in a way that brilliantly ignites the senses.

The fragrance which most excited our editor, Jo, is Chypre Sublime: an utterly modern take on this sophisticated fragrance family, blending incense with Damask rose absolute, midnight violet, pink pepper and geranium, on a stunning base of benzoin, labdanum and olibanum which – as Floral Street nails it – ‘offers a resin-soaked wood table for the flowers to perch on. A fragrance for musicians, painters and poets.’ We absolutely knew this HAD to be included in our perfume pick for the Precious Perfumes Discovery Box.(Scroll down for more information and how to get your hands on the samples we chose!)

All of us in the office have recently been gravitating toward the daringly delicious Ylang Ylang Espresso: A strikingly modern and supremely wearable blend of red rose, ylang ylang and jasmine resting atop a soothing cloud of just-brewed coffee, fresh cream and Sichuan pepper – sustainably harvested from the foothills of the Himalayas. ‘A fragrance to get lost in’ they say, and oh how we love to do just that. There really isn’t anything to compare, you have to try it for yourself, among the myriad delights of the Precious Perfumes Discovery Box. (Scroll down to snag your scents today!)

Wild Vanilla Orchid (see main picture) is vanilla, yes, but definitely not as you know it – and we’ve ‘turned’ several previous nay-sayers with this one! A raw-edged confection of creamy vanilla beans, blossom, cassis and citrus, dressed in a bunch of just-plucked jasmine. Offsetting the lingering sweetness; bamboo and sandalwood bend and fold underneath. Laid-back but exquisite. White tulle and high top, in fragrance form. It’s such an unusual evocation of vanilla that we were untited in agreeing that it had to be the third pick for the Precious Perfumes Discovery Box…

Precious Perfumes Discovery Box £40 (£35 for V.I.P. club members)

Bursting with NINETEEN niche fragrances, many of them full-size or generous minis, prepare to be dazzled by each of the three Floral Street fragrances, and salivate over our curation of these fragrant gems for you to try at home…

By Suzy Nightingale

Jérome Epinette: A Working Nose

Had he not become a perfumer, Jérome Epinette says he’d likely have been a sommelier. Growing up in the famous wine region of Burgundy, he loves to attend wine tastings, comparing notes just as he does in perfume. And if it wasn’t wine, it could just as likely have been a food career that beckoned – in his spare time Jérome is an accomplished cook, particularly enjoying blending unique combinations of herbs and cooking traditional French dishes.

Luckily for us fragrance lovers, Jérome’s passion for perfume had also been realised at an early age – his mother worked in a fine perfumery, and he would join her there during school holidays to help out. Having earned a Master’s Degree in Biochemistry in Dijon, France and attended the Grasse Institute of Perfumery in Grasse, Jérome’s career really began when he joined Robertet’s Paris office in 2003 and was part of the U.S. team to launch the New York Creative Center in 2006, where he now lives.

Known for his love of exceptional quality naturals and how elegantly he blends them with the finest synthetics, you’ll very likely have worn and loved many of his creations already – houses from Atelier Cologne, Byredo, Frapin, Olfactive Studio to Vilhelm have fought for Epinette to be their nose. Now, Jérome has turned his talents to the self-proclaimed ‘upstart’ fragrance house of Floral Street, who won the Fragrance Foundation Retail Award 2019 and are wowing fragrance fans the world over with their contemporary spin on floral ingredients.

We had the pleasure of meeting Jérome at our Perfume Society event in their Covent Garden flagship store, just as Electric Rhubarb was launching – a fragrance collaboration with Chelsea Flower Show, and a fruity/floral like no other. Of course we couldn’t wait to ask this brilliant perfumer exactly what makes him tick, and how he goes about creating a fragrance.

Describe your office and how you like to work…

‘It’s a very neat, white office, a white wooden floor, everything very minimal. My desk is bright white, very clean, I try to keep very tidy as I can only work like that. I couldn’t have a pile of blotters tumbling everywhere and a mass of stuff around me, that would drive me crazy.

Usually my nose is more efficient in the morning, I start working at 8:30am and smell all of the drydowns from the night before, it’s only then you can judge their longevity or see which aspects need adjusting. You need that time for it to develop overnight, but you also need time to let go of thinking about it, to come to it fresh. A fresh mind and a fresh nose.’

How do you like to think about a fragrance – do you use mood boards, go for a walk, read, listen to music…?

‘For Floral Street we use mood boards, because Michelle [Feeney – Floral Street’s vibrant founder] is very visual, as is the brand. I get an immediate idea from the pictures and colours, and I work from there. I think I’m very lucky to go to work by walking. I have a 25 minute walk and that gives me time to set my head up for the day. It’s a treasured time to reflect. I couldn’t take the subway, that’s too fast.

When I go home I walk through Central Park, and I think about what I’ve done that day, but when I get home I switch everything off and just relax with my family. Although I do spray my wife with fragrances I’m working on… she’ll sometimes say “have you put that ingredient I don’t like?” There are some things she likes so much she wishes I wasn’t selling it! I can’t listen to if my family and friends like a perfume, as such, because I’m not making it for them, but I see how it works on different skins.’

What did you want people to experience when smelling Electric Rhubarb?

‘For me this is buzzy, it has an energy, there’s a luscious juiciness and then a surprising smoothness. It’s so important to try on the skin, only then do I know to push the wood or whatever tweaks I need to do. You need to follow the perfume, how it behaves. When you smell the ingredients, like the sandalwood I’ve used in this one for example, you only then get the creamy aspect, a silkiness that only happens when it radiates on your skin, the full evolution of the fragrance.’

What are your favourite ingredients, and why?

‘I have tonnes of flowers I love, but gardenia is one of my all time favourites – I have one on my terrace and I can smell it whenever I walk past, and I’m always transported – that’s why I chose it for Electric Rhubarb. In the woody character, I think part of my signature is using patchouli and sandalwood, I’d say I use these practically all the time, in differing ways of course, but every perfumer has their signature, and that’s definitely mine.’

What do you say to people who ask why you use synthetic as well as naturals in your perfumes?

‘I’d say we need both, it’s as simple as that. If you ask me tomorrow to make 100% natural perfume, that’s incredibly challenging to make it smell good – you have a much smaller palette for a start, and synthetics add a complexity, they allow you to link everything together, the beautiful naturals and the clever synthetics make something whole.’

Jérome Epinette interviewed by Suzy Nightingale

Fabulous Floral Street! The affordable niche house shaking the petals of the perfume world

When we first encountered Floral Street, suffice to say we were blown away by their concept – and oh boy did they deliver in the execution of the fabulous new spins on floral fragrances, and within their standalone Covent Garden store.

Our co-founder, Jo Fairley, has known Michelle Feeney for longer than either of them care to admit – back to Michelle’s time at the Estée Lauder Companies, and then at the helm of revolutionary tanning name St Tropez. So when she announced she was unveiling a fragrance line ‘built on the streets of London’, we were rather thrilled by the whole idea and the stunning reality…

Floral Street’s fragrances are as far from your granny’s florals as it’s possible to get – each created by the star perfumer Jérôme Épinette, who is known for his mastery of natural ingredients. As Floral Street put it: ‘These are bunches – not bouquets. Ingredients, not notes. And it’s about ease, modernity and joy.’ Michelle adds: ‘My mission is to bring fine fragrance to the modern female – so that she might build an entire fragrance wardrobe, which can express the many facets of who she is.’

At the heart of each fragrance is a specific flower (sourced by the legendary fragrance house Robertet) – but each creation brings an unexpected twist,   treated in a way that brilliantly ignites the senses. Take Wonderland Peony, which not only features armfuls of that flower, but pink berries and violets, Anything but cutesy, it’s given a woody-balsamic warmth by cedarwood, alongside vetiver.

London Poppy is ‘a love letter’ to the capital city, ‘a city that sees the sun through the crowds’. Bright as a sun-filled London morning, it bursts into life with Florida orange and Sicilian lemon, a marine note adding a splash of seaspray to the neroli, jasmine sambac and apricot blossom at London Poppy’s heart, before the base of hinoki woods, black amber and cedarwood ventures forth.

The fragrance which has scent critics and beauty editors most excited, perhaps, is Chypre Sublime: an utterly modern take on this sophisticated fragrance family, blending incense with Damask rose absolute, midnight violet, pink pepper and geranium, on a stunning base of benzoin, labdanum and olibanum which – as Floral Street nails it – ‘offers a resin-soaked wood table for the flowers to perch on. A fragrance for musicians, painters and poets.’

Perfumistas have recently been gravitating toward the daringly delicious Ylang Ylang Espresso: A strikingly modern and supremely wearable blend of red rose, ylang ylang and jasmine resting atop a soothing cloud of just-brewed coffee, fresh cream and Sichuan pepper – sustainably harvested from the foothills of the Himalayas. ‘A fragrance to get lost in’ they say, and oh how we love to do just that.

What’s more, all the packaging is recylable and sustainable, and the boxes have been cleverly designed to be used as seed trays, instead of being thrown away! You can read more about the ethos behind the brand on our page dedicated to Floral Street.

We could wax-lyrical about the entire collection, but the very best way is for you to try these exciting new ways to wear floral on your own skin (or to give as the perfect gifting experience). With that in mind, we’re so happy to be stocking the Floral Street Discovery Set, where you can try all 8 fragrance for just £14!


Written by Suzy Nightingale

Try the Floral Street Discovery Set!

If you think floral fragrances are a bit fuddy-duddy, think again! With creations by one of the world’s leading perfumers, the new perfume house Floral Street is going to shake up your opinions about florals with their contemporary spin.

Floral Street’s are as far from your granny’s florals as it’s possible to get – each created by the star perfumer Jérôme Épinette, who is known for his mastery of natural ingredients. As Floral Street put it: ‘These are bunches – not bouquets. Ingredients, not notes. And it’s about ease, modernity and joy.’

Smelling is believing, right? So we cannot urge you enough to get on board the floral revolution by wearing them on your own skin. Each scent takes a single flower as its theme – (sourced by the legendary fragrance house Robertet) – but each creation brings an unexpected twist, treated in a way that brilliantly ignites the senses, and builds an intriguing new chapter to the story. We guarantee these are quite unlike anything your nose will have discovered thus far…

Try all eight fragrances for yourself, with this must-have Discovery Set! (At just £12, we think it’s a total steal, by the way).

Which one will best suit your own scent style? Read the descriptions, below, for a glimpse of the fragrant journey you’re about to travel… and remember – you get to try them all!

Wonderland Peony This not only features armfuls of that flower, but pink berries and violets, Anything but cutesy, it’s given a woody-balsamic warmth by cedarwood, alongside vetiver.

Chypre Sublime An utterly modern take on this sophisticated fragrance family, blending incense with Damask rose absolute, midnight violet, pink pepper and geranium, on a stunning base of benzoin, labdanum and olibanum.

Black Lotus The classic English-Rose dressed in a black leather jacket. Intoxicating, spirited, bohemian and alive. Complex and multi-faceted, the sweet honeyed scent of centifolia rose adds depth to lighter, spicy nuances by way of red peppercorn and saffron.

Iris Goddess There’s nothing shy about these violets. An explosion of powdery petals collide with ripe red fruits. Black vanilla, warm musks and earthy carrot seed bring exoticisim and depth, sparkling lemon zest and red chilli pepper add a jolt of life.

London Poppy A love letter to London: a city as tough as ever-lasting poppies. The scent that opens with a bright beam of light. Sicilian Lemon and Florida Orange bring the zing. A salt-spray marine note adds an unexpected sea-facing view.

Neon Rose You will never have smelt flowers like these. Freshly chopped jasmine draped around your neck. Roses around your wrist. And yet no roses were harmed in the making of this showpiece – these buds were cooked up in a lab for extra punch. Crisp, green Angelica leaves bring a botanical dimension, while fresh Bergamot floats overhead.

Wild Vanilla Orchid It’s vanilla, but not as you know it. A raw-edged confection of creamy vanilla beans, blossom, cassis and citrus, dressed in a bunch of just-plucked jasmine. Offsetting the lingering sweetness; bamboo and sandalwood bend and fold underneath.

Ylang Ylang Espresso  A strikingly modern blend of red rose, ylang ylang and jasmine cross paths with a soothing cloud of just-brewed coffee, fresh cream and Sichuan pepper – sustainably harvested from the foothills of the Himalayas. A fragrance to get lost in.

PS: It it isn’t just the fragrances which are strikingly innovative, but the packaging. Each of Floral Street’s full-size bottles showcases a stunning, decadent flower artwork by renowned fashion photographer Matthew Donaldson – whose flower-powered photography also adorns this Discovery Box.