Tag: fragrance

British niche brands we love

There’s a plethora of British niche perfume houses to be excited about these days – how many have you heard of and got to try thus far…?

Niche-lovers have surely never been so well served as right now – there’s a continuing bubble of enthusiasm in the rise and rise of niche perfume brands; and thrillingly, British houses are surging in popularity, much of it spread by word-of-mouth.

The personal recommendations are from hushed whispers of industry-insiders right through to fans declaring their love through social media. These houses are ‘indies’ (independently owned) and don’t have access to huge marketing budgets; so we wanted to share and celebrate just some of those our noses are currently loving…

 

 

Holly Hutchinson founded Memoize London in 2016, but her heart started beating faster for fragrance far earlier – at the age of seven, to be precise. On her birthday, she was gifted her very first set of miniature perfumes… the way many of us are reeled in to the world of fragrance fever! Following a career at a prestigious perfume house, Holly branched out to create her own niche brand, believing that perfumes should evoke memories, so drawing on her own, such as ‘a French holiday in the sun, a ride across the waves by boat, venturing through trees in a garden of ferns and Laurels…’

 

There’s eight fragrances, currently, from the provocative, smoky passions of Era to the lazy Sunday morning of Tristitia, cocooning you in floral and vanilla scented sheets with an amber snuggle. One of our favourites has to be Superbia – created for self-confidence, encompassing rose bushes, the smell of a leather satchel and a mother’s proud hug.

 

 

From the creative expression of one woman’s strong belief in the power of fragrance and the positive effect it can have on your heart, mind and spirit, Anima Vinci was born. That insightful and passionate founder is Nathalie Vinciguerra, and her background as creative CEO of what many consider the first true ‘niche’ house, L’Artisan Parfumeur, along with British heritage house Penhaligon’s, gave her great grounding (and the best contacts) in the business. ‘Anima Vinci is the creative expression of my strong belief in the power of fragrance,’ she says, ‘and the positive effect it can have on your heart, mind and spirit. I believe that scents have the power to immerse us in the universe’s energy and nature’s beauty.’

With Rose Prana you’re fully immersed in the rose fields of Grasse, smelling the earth below the bushes abundant with fresh, almost raspberry-scented Rose de Mai blooms, and a sense of the sky above. Jasmine Ylang is symbolic of divine hope with sandalwood and frangipani, a holiday for the soul; while Wood of Life is our go-to de-stress scent – a meditative whisper of mint atop sublimely smooth palo santo, sandalwood and vetiver. It’s truly other-worldy and totally wonderful to wear.

 

 

With a green ethos that flows through every fragrance, Prosody London take equal delight in their scents being so beautifully composed, so harmoniously sophisticated, that many people don’t even realise they are – gloriously, unashamedly – all natural and organic. Perfumer and founder Keshen Teo has worked tirelessly to ensure his scents have this aesthetic quality as well as the ethical purity they strive for. As he explains: ‘The intrinsic complexity of naturals means you have to work hard to keep things well structured and balanced,’ because it’s vital the fragrances are stunning on first sniff. ‘I like the challenge of this,’ he smiles, going on to admit: ‘We know that sometimes people buy Prosody London without even realising they’re organic and 100% natural. I’m perfectly happy with that!’

Their voluptuously feminine Jacinth Jonquil entwines hyacinth with that mesmerising jonquil itself – think daffodils in sunshine, a crispness to the air like the first breath of spring, flecked with juniper berries and nestled on a softly woody base. Mocha Muscari uniquely blends the richness of coffee with a surprisingly seductive twist of mango, jasmine and lavender on a base of black agarwood and sandalwood, and Rose Rondeaux is decadently laden with fresh raspberry and juicy blackcurrant, dusted with iris and warmed with patchouli: all of them all-natural, and all-beautiful to wear.

 

 

Angela Flanders was a fragrant phenomenon: an woman with a life-long passion for perfume, who was still working – and creating beautiful scents – into her eighth decade. Now, through her daughter, Kate Evans, Angela’s legacy endures… From her career as a television costumer designer to opening a store in the heart of the bustling Columbia Road market in 1982, the perfect restoration of a Victorian shop featured bowls of scented pot pourri made by Angela, beautiful fabrics and all manner of desirable things. The pot-pourri fragrances were so popular, customers begged her to make room scents and perfumes, and Angela’s world soon became exclusively fragrant as her perfume selection grew notoriety – Precious One, an exquisite jasmine/tuberose that softens to a green chypre – winning a Fragrance Foundation Award for Best New Independent Fragrance in 2012.

From the golden tobacco and spice of Ambre Noire to the perfect white flower wedding fragrance of Bouquet D’Amour, Angela excelled at seamlessly blending precious ingredients. Now, inspired particularly by her mother’s history with and love of fabrics, Kate uses those years spent at her side (learning the craft of perfumery and often advising) to continue their line of so-unique scents. Lawn captures the smell of crisp cotton sheets drying in a dewy floral-scented summer breeze, while the more recent Taffeta evokes decadence with heady hyacinth, soft iris and a fruity rose. What’s more, it’s up for another Fragrance Foundation award this year, so the family talent fully blooms.

 

 

Modernist Fragrance founder, John Evans, entered higher education, as he says, ‘late and non-traditionally’. Embarking on what he calls ‘an accidental corporate career’, trying his hand as a successful novelist before finally settling on his sense of smell to guide him. ‘My dad installed and restored wooden floors,’ John recalls, ‘early memories of fresh cut pine and newly sanded mahogany. Somewhere along the way these merge with the smells of church, incense especially, when I was an altar boy – capped off by a six week spell in hospital when I was five years old and all sorts of odours pervaded my life.’ Travelling to Grasse, he immersed himself in the techniques of fine perfumery, painstakingly experimenting with building his own irreverantly mischevious compositions.

Designed to be genderless, they’re inescapably memorable but never allow the integrity of the wearer’s character to be compromised. So for The Modernist, expect succulent citrus, then greenness dripping with juice, freesia , a hazy flicker of dry frankincense and labdanum before a smoothly woody base. In Nihilism, get ready for a majestically bombastic rose that’s up close and personal with icy aldehydes and a definite sense of a furry embrace in the bezoin base; and for Geist, lemon freshness is suffused by a seamless blend of honeysuckle, musk and gentle amber. Transformative and complex, utterly intriguing, these will all keep your nose hooked all day.

 

 

For the founder of Stories by Eliza Grace, Tonya Kidd-Beggs, being born into the heart of Northern Ireland’s ‘troubles’, and struggling to come to terms with thinking about the future for her children, curated each blend’s inspiration as a personal testament to the power of fragrance in her own life. And Tonya’s own appreciation of fragrance began early. As she recalls: ‘My grandmother’s pearl necklace hung on my tiny neck and I rubbed one of her furs across my cheek. It was laced with Chanel No.5. I breathed in the scent of a woman I would never know. A courageous businessperson who paved the way for Northern Irish women to succeed in a male-dominated market place.’ Named for her twin children (Eliza and Grace), inspired by precious memories, the fragrances feel remarkably like part of your own life as soon as you wear them.

Stories No.1 is all luminescence: bergamot, grapefruit and orange blossom leading to the deep, warm embrace of cedarwood, with delicate touches of jasmine, heliotrope and a fig-tea accord along the way. Ultimately, snugglesome amber swaddles sandalwood and the earthy cool of the so-grounding vetiver. For Stories No.2 Tonya drew on childhood memories of her grandparents’ garden, and it evokes the exuberance of running barefoot on dew-flecked grass, exploring flowers face-first, curls of tobacco smoke exuding from a steamy greenhouse. So special, and so personally evocative to experience.

 

 

The worlds of whisky and fragrance have much in common, believes founder of Kingdom Scotland, Imogen Russon-Taylor. After a distinguished career in the aromatic world of Scotch whisky, Imogen has now gone on to create her own fragrance house – incredibly, the very first to be based in Scotland. Both whisky and perfume are produced by traditional distillation methods,’ she explains. Both evoke a complex sensory experience and both rely upon the innovative use of ingredients or flavours to distinguish themselves from competitors.’ And thus was born her vision to ‘bottle Scotland’ – using perfume to share old narratives in brave new ways, tapping into the rich stories associated with perfume and natural ingredients in Scotland.

Composed in a thoughtfully contemporary way, they unfurl as fragrant tales alive with possibility. Gusting with outdoorsy botanicals and fresh bergamot, in Portal verdant florals rest on a forest floor of shady vetiver and soul-soothing aromatic pine; while for Albaura the landscape’s conjured through the freshness of snow and ice, blended with berries and botanicals in a scent that is bold, fresh and independent in spirit. Metamorphic‘s geology is composed by black pepper, tobacco, incense, minerals and rose absolute infused with a splash of whisky and amber-rich leather. Before long, Kingdom Scotland will be a fragrance name on the lips of perfumistas-in-the-know, far beyond that country’s borders…

We like to offer as many opportunities to try new niche brands as possible, and are aware that (unless you live within walking distance of a niche perfumery) it can be really difficult to try samples for yourself. That’s why we offer the chance to explore these houses through their own Discovery Sets in our online shop,  – a selection of niche brands we think deserve to be celebrated and available for everyone to try.

We also love to bring you our own, carefully curated niche selections, and you can try samples from all these British brands mentioned in our Niche Collection II Discovery Box, so we invite you to test their fragrant wares at your own leisure.

If you love niche, here’s a teaser to keep your eyes peeled and your nostrils primed, as we have a VERY exciting and ultra-exclusive Limited Edition Niche Discovery Box worth OVER £75 (but costing you FAR less!) coming your way TOMORROW (Friday 26 April)… It’s expected to sell-out quickly, so do be sure to grab yours ASAP.

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

Gentle Fluidity – Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s new duo

‘Same note, two identities…’ So says perfumer Francis Kurkdjian – (pronounced coor-shone, by the way) at the end of the mesmerising film for his new fragrance duo of Gentle Fluidity. Scroll down to watch it, here, and find out how you can get samples of BOTH to try at home…

The idea was to create two fragrances that smell very different – using exactly the same notes but crafting them in such a way, the scents evolve their own distinct characters.

Such elegant playfulness can be said to be something of a signature for Kurkdjian throughout his lustrous career; begining straight out of perfumery school and slap bang into composing his first commercial scent, then aged just 25: Le Mâle for Jean Paul Gaultier.

An instant success and still a best-seller, fragrance fans and perfume industry peers could already see this was a special ‘nose’, setting out to do something different, with an insouciant dry humour and ultimate sophistication. From there, young Francis set about creating Iris Nobile for Acqua di Parma, Lanvin Rumeur, multi-award-winning Elie Saab Le Parfum, and a duo of fragrances for the newly-revived Carven perfume house, among many others. Finally, in 2009, he got to found his very own house, Maison Francis Kurkdjian, near the Place Vendóme in Paris; and his subsequent creations have wowed the fragrance world ever since.

Talking of what creative freedom owning his own Maison affords him, Francis told us ‘…it is my way to express what I think about the world of fragrances, it is my take on luxury. It is nurtured from my background as a perfumer and a composer, my artistic sensibility and sensitivity.’

Put quite simply: the man’s a genius. And we don’t say that lightly.

You can read much more about his upwardly-mobile career and other fragrances on our page dedicated to Maison Francis Kurkdjian, but in the meantime, let us introduce you to his two newest fragrant launches – the Gentle Fluidity duo…

The inspiration: ”Working the ingredient to express its full potential and meeting the challenge of composing two different eaux de parfum with the same notes: juniper berries, nutmeg, coriander, musks, ambery woods and vanilla. The Gentle Fluidity duo was born of the perfumer’s imagination to offer two distinct olfactory silhouettes, for her or for him.’

gentle Fluidity Gold Edition £150 for 70ml eau de parfum selfridges.com
‘In gentle Fluidity’s (gold) generous, enveloping trail, we can find coriander seed essence and an overdose of musks and vanilla. The floral, spicy note of coriander seeds brings, just like musks, ethereal volume and a lingering trail. In the base notes, the gourmand, reassuring notes of the vanilla accord enhanced by the ambery woods reveal a radiant, bright silhouette.’

Gentle fluidity Silver Edition £150 for 70ml eau de parfum selfridges.com
‘In Gentle fluidity (silver), nutmeg and ambery woods are dominant and release a vibrant, comfortable trail. As for juniper berry essence, it leads to an ascending, ultra-fresh, aromatic note, similar to a “gin frappé” effect, balanced by the dry, slightly balmy, spicy notes of nutmeg. The base notes reveal ambery wood facets ranging from sweet and enveloping to powerful and dry.’

It’s really quite remarkable how unique they both smell – the Gold version warmer, a more snuggle-up-and-nuzzle-me type scent, perhaps, which is sure to be a hit for anyone who adores a more decadent, sensual side of perfumes. For the Silver edition, we find an unexpected freshness, a luminescence that shivers beguilingly and feels like wearing a lace shawl spun from dew-speckled spiderwebs. And yet, we must remind ourselves, these are the same ingredients…

It’s a useful reminder that we should never merely glance at a list of perfume notes and assume we know what something will smell like – it depends entirely on how and where the perfumer has used them in the composition; how they react to the other notes around them, the rate they evaporate on the skin depending if they’re used dominantly in the top, heart or base notes. So many factors can utterly transform how a perfume smells on your skin.

And so then – how to choose between them? Well we’re thrilled to offer you the opportunity to try samples of BOTH the gentle Fluidity Gold AND the Gentle fluidity Silver in our Launches We Love Discovery Box – among over a dozen new fragrances we’ve curated for you to explore at home!

Launches We Love Discovery Box £19 (£15 for VIP Club members)

We’re pretty sure whichever of the Maison Francis Kurkdjian fragrances you fall for, it will be just the start of your love affair with this always-exciting niche house… and we cannot wait to see (and smell) what comes next.

Written by Suzy Nightingale

 

Miller Harris get Lost with Violet Ida – try sample sizes here!

Miller Harris are one of our most-beloved British niche fragrance houses, and they continue to breathe colour and life into the classic perfumer’s art – complex fragrances ‘designed to tell vivid urban stories.’

They start with nature, with distinct greens and woods, with carefully sourced floral notes, iris from Florence, French violet leaf, jasmine from Egypt, Tunisian orange flower – but frame these precious botanicals in complex and unconventional ways, often inspired by artists, or more recently, urban foraging escapades and ever-cool, cult novels.

 

As Miller Harris puts it: ‘We honour nature by sourcing the finest raw materials and preserving the delicacy of our ingredients, then curate, combine and harmonise them to create perfumes that combine Parisian elegance with London’s eclectic street styles.’

We wanted to celebrate the fantastically diverse and always-exciting scents Miller Harris are producing, and so as part of our curated selection of Launches We Love Discovery Box, are thrilled to include samples of not one but TWO Miller Harris fragrances we think you’re going to love… Lost and Violet Ida.


Inspired by urban foraging, Miller Harris’s trio turned city greens into scents of dreams. Lost (in the city) is a celebration of that sharp pink ingredient, rhubarb, splashing fruity blackcurrants across a bed of wild rhubarb, rose and geranium. Earl Grey tea, crisp amber and musk settle in –but not before you’ve had your fill of bright fruits. It’s tart, fizzy and moreish – do prepare to have your inner child brought out by this one.

Lost (in the city) £95 for 50ml eau de parfum
millerharris.com

Brighton Rock’s big-hearted Ida Arnold is the muse for this proper-handbag, lipstick-kissed, buxom embrace of a scent. Think glamorously disordered dressing tables and delightfully déshabillé dames up to no good (but with best of intentions) amidst a powdery orris, carrot oil and heliotrope affair. The amber-rich and vanilla-infused dry down is something to snuggle up to and savour for simply hours, and we predict this will be a huge hit…
Violet Ida £75 for 50ml eau de parfum
millerharris.com

Both of these incredible fragrances were composed by brilliant perfumer Mathieu Nardin, and you can read our exclusive Working Nose interview with him, here.

Before deciding which (we predict BOTH) of the Miller Harris fragrances you’ll be indulging in a full-size flaçon of, and exploring their delights in your own time – why not try them out at home in sample-size, in our Launches We Love Discovery Box – along with thirteen other scents, two scented shower gels and a full-size Nails Inc. nail polish (our extra gift to you), that’s worth £15 on its own?

For only £19 for the whole lot (£15 for VIP Club members). You know it makes sense…

Written by Suzy Nightingale

7 70s-tastic scent ads you have to see

A little while ago we regaled you with our selection of reto perfume ads from the 1980s, and you loved them so much we just had to continue the theme. Here, we shift the focus to 1970s fragrances, and you’d better hold on to your bell-bottoms, because there’s much to take in…

She’s been sweet, and she’s been good, she’s had a whole full day of motherhood, and she’s going to have… a bottle of gin. In fact no, she’s going to have an Aviance night. We, the viewer, are not informed as to what ‘an Aviance night’ might comprise, but the way she so seductively peels off those cleaning garments suggests someone’s in for a great time. We can only hope it’s her, alone, with the bedroom door locked, a Demis Roussos record turned up to eleven, and that aforementioned bottle of gin.

You have to hand it to Prince Matchabelli, they sure knew how to roll out attention-grabbing advertising campaigns. Here, we are introduced to the novel idea that a woman can have two sides. Yes, TWO! She might be at work, in a suit pointing at things; she might be at a fancy restaurant behaving all ladylike… ‘but up close, she’s something else.’ Did we mention she has two sides? Explore both of yours by watching, in awe.

We desperately want Mrs Slocombe from the 70s sitcom Are You Being Served to turn up in the middle of this, saying something, crossly, about her cat. Be careful how you slap on that Hai Karate, chaps, because we can’t see many department stores putting up with this kind of tomfoolery in the fragrance section anymore.

This Tabu ad is actually rather subtle and well done (especially when compared to other 70s-tastic scent ads on our list), with a countdown to seduction… but are we shallow for thinking ‘those EYEBROWS!’ when she finally turns around? It’s in comparisson with today’s rather bushier brows, we know, but still. Also, she looks a little nonplussed and about to burst out laughing. Back to perfume – if you can get your mitts on a vintage bottle of Tabu, you really should grab it, because it’s sublimely filthy in the very best way.

‘When a woman puts Denim on a man…’ well, she probably shouldn’t wipe it all over his mouth, no? We’ve seen lots of men put fragrance on all by themselves, and have yet to witness one rubbing it into his lips, but perhaps this was something all 70s dudes did? We like to imagine after the director yelled ‘cut!’ on this one, the male model was immediately asking his female colleague what the hell she was playing at. Perhaps a pre-fragrance-filming tiff!

Enjoli is the ‘8-hour perfume for the 24-hour woman’, which has us wondering – why not a 24-hour perfume to match her cut and thrust lifestyle? If she’s not ‘cooking bacon in a pan’, she’s ‘blowing kisses’, and somehow managing to go to work in between. It’s non-stop (unlike the perfume, apparently). Yes, this entire advert’s take on Peggy Lee’s “I’m A Woman” might leave you wondering why, quite often…

Finally, for deliberately funny one, watch this commercial for ‘Charming’ (clearly a spoof of the Revlon Charlie ads) which was a sketch on the Donny & Marie Osmond Show. We love commedian and actress Ruth Buzzi as the second ‘Charming girl’ trying out for the part – a more realistic representation that we can definitely relate to!

Written and selected by Suzy Nightingale

Spring clean scents: How to have the best-smelling house

We’ve all heard of influencers, but did you know that ‘cleanfluencers’ are a thing? Oh yes. There are several hundred hours of YouTube videos, blogs and even new glossy magazines dedicated to making cleaning fun – or at least, watching other people cleaning.

It all follows on from the recent Marie Kondo craze of tidying up (and how to de-clutter your life), but this one got us interested because now many brands are making household cleaning products less hum-drum, and something we aspire to buy, rather than merely functional items.

With packaging that’s cute or cool and scents that (thank heavens!) don’t put you in mind of public rest rooms, their perfumes have moved way beyond pine. Here’s some of our favourites that might even persuade us to get the mop out…

The cult company of Yope are a Polish brand that began with handwash and haven’t looked back. Housed in cool, cartoon-ish illustration covered bottles that we’d actively want to be seen, the French Lavender Floor Cleaner smells good enough to make us feel we’re in Provence (if we close our eyes anyway).

Yope French Lavender Floor Cleaner £5.99 for 1000ml
Buy it at Waitrose

Some might chuckle at the idea of such a luxurious laundry detergent, but perfumer Francis Kurkdjian wanted his clothes to smell as good as his scents, making one of his best-sellers – the sparkling luminescence of Aqua Universalis – the base of this. There’s also a version available for dark colours, along with a matching fabric softener.

Maison Francis Kurkdjian Aqua Universalis Detergent €32 for 34fl.oz.
Buy it at franciskurkdjian.com

Fragranced with blue chamomile, white cedarwood and sweet musk, Cotton Poplin smells like an expensive hotel room and crisp white sheets that have dried in summer sunshine. It’s a more ‘considered purchase’, as they say, but we’d be inclined to spritz this on scarves and jacket-linings (first checking it doesn’t leave marks by spraying on a tissue), as well as scenting our rooms.

Byredo Cotton Poplin Room Spray £85 for 250ml
Buy it at byredo.co.uk

British perfumer Ruth Mastenbroek’s fragrances are now available in a range of room diffusers, which, she says, ‘will create a freshly scented room for hours.’ We happen to know from experience these scents fill the room for MONTHS, making every time you walk in your home a perfumed pleasure. Amorosa is inspired by Umbrian vineyards, sunlight and olive trees – just divine.

Ruth Mastenbroek Amorosa Room Diffuser £30 for 150ml
Buy it at ruthmastenbroek.com

A rather lush-looking washing up liquid if ever did see one, this is part of Method’s on-trend Rose Gold Collection, and smells of lemon zest, juicy pomelo, freesia, amber and pink peppercorns. It won’t do the washing up for you, but at least your hands will smell gorgeous, afterwards, and it’s naturally derived and biodegradable, too.

Method Rose Gold Washing Up Liquid £4.99 for 532ml
Buy it at methodproducts.co.uk

This zesty blend of natural ingredients has been specially formulated to clean and add sheen to all your wooden work surfaces – including any bowls you have dotted around the place that could do with a bit of a buff. Added to smelling great, it promises to provide long lasting protection against scuffs, spills and woodworm. Which is more than your average perfume offers!

Town Talk Wooden Surface Wax £8.99 for 150ml
Buy it at johnlewis.com

Written by Suzy Nightingale

Oil’s well that ends well: layering with perfume oils

Fragrance oils fell out of favour for a while, but there’s no doubt they’re back – a trend we’ve watched build over the past year in to a full-on fragrant flurry.

Perfume oils are perfect for layering scents – you can prolong the strength and life of your perfume by adding an oil (on top or underneath – both ways are absolutely fine) in either a complimentary fragrance that enhances the notes of your chosen perfume, or a contrasting scent to boost an aspect you wish was there.

So, if you have a perfume that’s too sweet for your tastes now, try adding an oil that’s citrusy and fresh; if a fragrance smells too harsh, soften the edges with a vanilla or musk-based fragrance oil, and so on.

Think of it like cooking a recipe, and ‘tasting’ as you go – balancing the flavours until you reach the perfect blend. Or, if you’re a perfume purist, of course you can simply enjoy wearing these fragrance oils alone…

We can’t get enough of Ostens oils – impecable quality (they source them directly from IFF and, uniquely, make them available to the public for the first time), and they actively recommend you try layering them with any fragrances you already own. We love ramping up the rose in a perfume by adding this one – it’s like diving head-first into a mountain of freshly plucked petals. Exquisite examples of Jasmine and Cedarwood are also available, with Patchouli Heart and Cashmeran coming soon. We can’t wait to play!

Ostens Rose Oil Isparta £65 for 9ml perfume oil

If your Summer scents still seem a bit flighty to wear, add some depth with this deliciously fragrant oil – an unexpected mix of spice-infused bergamot and plum with an addictive leather/amber dry down that lingers for hours. Malin & Goetz like to surprise, and all their perfume oils are cleverly blended and rather sophisticated scents – so with this one, don’t worry, you wont smell like you’ve been hitting the bottle! The roller-ball application makes this especially useful for travelling or touching up your scent on the go.

Malin & Goetz Dark Rum £40 for 9ml perfume oil

Presenting the dinkiest trio of roll on perfume oils to allow you to create a signature scent by layering together, using in combination with other perfumes you have or wearing alone. Mocha Bloom has infused espresso with musky floral tones, Leather Haze fuses smooth woodiness with ripe berries and Vanilla Satori mixes spiced honey sweetness with the freshness of citrus and rich undertones of tobacco leaves.

& Other Stories Tailor Your Story Layering Scents £19 for 3 x 4ml perfume oil

As part of the gloriously packaged, apothecary-style The Alchemist’s Garden collection, Gucci spoil us with14 scents, comprising seven Eaux de Parfums, four Perfumed Oils and three Perfumed Waters, all composed by brilliant perfumer Alberto Morillas. Designed to be layered in the most luxurious way, the four oils are poetically named and elegantly scented – and we think they look fit to be displayed on Marie Antoinette’s dressing table. We loved the violet oil that walks a tightrope between powderiness and verdancy, a perfectly delicate touch to layer with green and forest-y scents.

Gucci Alchemist’s Garden A Kiss From Violet £295 for 20ml perfumed oil

Fragranced body oil are another great way of layering (and making your perfume last longer). Fans have flocked to this warm fragrance, and now you can smother yourself in the decadently rich oil as well – it’s powerful enough to wear alone, or really lovely layered with lighter scents. Warm ambergris and cedarwood are buoyed by luminescent jasmine, with distinct undertones of caramelised brown sugar to my nose. Argan, sweet almond and apricot kernel oils have been used as the base, making this gorgeously moisturising but never greasy.

Maison Francis Kurkdjian Baccarat Rouge 540 Scented Body Oil £75 for 70ml

Written by Suzy Nightingale

Jasmine Awards Winners 2019: we’re celebrating!

The Jasmine Awards are the most prestigious literary awards in the UK for fragrance journalism – think of them as the Oscars for olfactory writing – and every year, The Fragrance Foundation nominate a list of finalists for the fragrant categories, and finally, announce the winners.

We waited with baited breath… and are thrilled to have won the Practical Guide Award, with our Scented Alphabet issue of The Scented Letter Magazine!

The Scented Letter is delivered digitally, for free, to our VIP Club members, or you can subscribe for glossy print copies of the magazine – and now International Online Subscriptions are available for only £20 for a full year.

But as a special treat, we’d like to make the entire award-winning issue available for you to read:

Simply click on the picture above, make yourself a cuppa and lose yourself in the wonders of fragrance history, design and innovation… we tried to cover everything fragrant from A-Z, and it was a huge effort to research, write and put together, so we really couldn’t be more pleased to have won this award.

Continuing with the celebrations, we are jumping for joy for all the winners this year, and wanted to share them with you. Do make time to go and have a look at their work – in each case, you’re in for a treat…

We were especially thrilled for Viola’s piece winning an award, written after joining us at one of our How to Improve Your Sense of Smell Workshops – and highlighting the importance of this, our most neglected of senses.

Congratulations, again, to everyone involved and all of the finalists – we don’t envy the judges having to make the final decisions from such a wealth of creative talent!

Now, you’ll have to excuse us because we’ve got to find time to eat celebratory cake while getting ready for National Fragrance Day tomorrow (Thursday 21 March) and our social media scented take-over with our #smellfie campaign. Make sure you join in – and WIN prizes up to £300 of scented goodies…!

Written by Suzy Nightingale

Feeling balmy: 5 fragranced balms we’re obsessed by

A couple of weeks ago we experienced something of a mini heatwave in the UK, with temperatures reaching the twenties and t-shirts making an appearance… now of course we’re back in a sort of Winter/Spring with hailstorms and bright, cold sunshine the order of the day. But we’re still feeling ‘balmy’ by reaching for some of our favourite fragranced balms – something of a scent trend it seems.

Often multi-use and perfect for travel, we also love the fact a balm represents a private moment of stopping to smell the roses (or rosemary, or whatever the balms are fragranced by) – they feel extra special because we kind of annoint ourselves when using and enjoying them. Here are a few of our favourite balms we cannot urge you enough to sniff out and try for yourself…

Sometimes we just need a quick blast of wake-me-up concentration: long (dull) meetings, exams, important events when we need to concentrate, all these occasions require some extra help, though it might not be appropriate to reach for a bottle of perfume and start spraying. So we reach for this 100% natural focus balm – from an exciting new(ish) name in aromatherapy – gliding onto pulse points, it’s powered by memory-boosting rosemary, crisp peppermint (known to help with mental alertness), and clary sage which combine to help relieve mental fatigue. It’s like a shot of sudden awareness and immediately clears mental fogginess.

Psst! You can try a darling mini-size in our Feel Good Box…

Scentered Focus Therapy Balm £14.50 for 5g
planetorganic.com

First created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Diptyque, this innovative solid perfume is named for their first-ever boutique – at the iconic 34 Boulevard Saint Germain. It’s the perfect transitional season scent, too, with blackcurrant leaves and moss atop warm spices and fig, it aims to recreate the scents that filled that shop floor over half a century ago, and in surely one of the most chic (and satisfyingly hefty) containers ever. We like to smooth it through the tips of dry hair, too, to get little wafts of perfume the whole day through.

Diptyque 34 Boulevard Saint Germain Solid Perfume £40 for 3.6g
diptyqueparis.com

A much loved, multi award-winning and multi-tasking product, this is a one-pot wonder for all skin types. With antioxidant-rich, organic wild rosehip oil and a balancing blend of organic geranium and patchouli essential oils, this cult favourite nourishes skin and enhances your skin’s radiance, for a natural glow. It’s rich in rosehip oil, featuring pro-vitamin A (a source of retinol) and vitamin E, and apart from perfectly cleansing, you can: leave it on overnight for an ultra-rich face mask, use as a lip balm, cuticle oil, hair frizz-tamer, or skin-soothing salve – all while enjoying the heavenly, rosy aroma!

Try a travel-size pot in our Feel Good Box, and we’re betting you’ll fall in love, too…

Neal’s Yard Wild Rose Beauty Balm Cleanser £40 for 50g
nealsyardremedies.com

There are definitely times you need to feel like a goddess, and now you can carry a cute little scented pot of balm to apply whenever you need reminding. Lush have a number of solid perfumes in balm form, but this is their most recent release (and perhaps their most lavish!) Featuring Turkish rose, jasmine and smoky sandalwood, there’s also some oudh from responsibly managed nurseries in Thailand, all on a solid jojoba oil base. It’s great to smooth on decolletége for some va-va-voom that comforts while creating confidence.

Lush Goddess Solid Perfume £9 for 6g
uk.lush.com

Encased in a weighted metal compact that’s been sculpted to perfectly fit the curve of your palm and thumb, with an addictively flippable hinged swivel. You simply swing it open, press your finger into the scented balm and glide onto skin wherever you please. Beautifully designed and so-satisfying to use, this is Glossier’s ‘your skin but better’ perfume in solid form. It’s slightly salty, lightly musky and has a powdery pink-pepper note that kept our noses coming back for more. A quiet, contemplative scent for when you just want to smell like yourself (but better).

Glossier You Solid Perfume £19 for 3g
glossier.com

Written by Suzy Nightingale

Show us your #smellfie & join in the celebrations for National Fragrance Day!

National Fragrance Day is on March 21st every year, and we want you to all join in by putting your best face – and fragrance – forward for a #smellfie, to have fun and be in with a chance to WIN amazing perfume prizes...

Five years ago, at The Perfume Society we came up with the idea of the #smellfie – a selfie with a scent you love – to highlight this special day.

Little did we know it would lead to thousands of fragrance fans all over the world sharing their photos, with celebrities (including Little Mix, Katy Perry, Charlotte Tilbury, and Richard E. Grant) joining in and, last year, the combined photos people posted getting over 41,000 likes!

This year we want you to help us make it even bigger, and to join in some of the great celebrations the Fragrance Foundation have planned, so scroll down to see how you can get involved.

How to post your #smellfie:

On Instagram: hashtag #smellfie and tag @theperfumesociety in your photo

On Facebook: hashtag #smellfie and tag @ThePerfumSociety in your photo

On Twitter: hashtag #smellfie and tag @Perfume_Society in your post/photo

After all the images are in, we’ll be choosing our top 5 favourites: the most inventive, the most artistic, the ones with the best captions! Every winner will receive a subscription to The Perfume Society’s VIP Club. The overall winner will receive a subscription and a fragrance bundle worth £300!

Overseas winners will receive an International Subscription to The Scented Letter, our online magazine dedicated to scent, so an entire year’s worth of fragrant reading.

Now you’ve set March 21 in your diary, we asked The Fragrance Foundation what they have planned. Head to their Calendar of Events for some fabulous scented happenings and giveaways spread over the entire week.

Written by Suzy Nightingale