Get ready to reset your senses with Molton Brown Wild Mint & Lavandin – a totally new (and completely contemporary) take on the classic fougère fragrance…
Firstly, forget everything you think you know about lavender – there’s nary a trace of the dusty, somewhat old-fashioned note in Senior Perfumer Nathalie Koobus’ creation for Molton Brown. Instead, she used lavandin – a far greener, fresher, and more powerful raw ingredient that’s infinitely preferred by those noses who create fine fragrances.
Secondly, rethink all you’d assumed about the fougère – that classic character found in fragrance families since 1882, and perhaps also one of the most overlooked. The time was ripe for a revival from its ultra-trad (dare we say ‘fuddy-duddy’ perception by some?). But it took the always fashion-forward house of Molton Brown to masterfully reinvent it, with the launch of their new Wild Mint & Lavandin collection.
Koobus explains she wanted to ‘…capture the forest walks in my home of Provence, where nature’s invigorating air of verdant herbaceous shrubs is edged by purple fields of lavandin.’ Think bright but lightly frost-tinged air, the silvered ripples of a crystal-clear stream, the sense of nature surrounding and emboldening you to take an off-grid adventure in the heart of the forest. And the fragrance takes further surprising twists depending on your choice of Wild Mint & Lavandin Eau de Toilette or Eau de Parfum.
The EDT revives flagging spirits via wild mint, the vivid verdancy of freshly torn basil leaves grounded by a caress of orris, silky sandalwood and rounded by tonka bean.
Molton Brown Wild Mint & Lavandin eau de toilette: £85 for 100ml
For the EDP, meanwhile, Koobus balanced the coolness of mint with a touch of nutmeg as the counterpart amidst the supporting notes – the resulting tingle of warmth its distinctive signature.
Molton Brown Wild Mint & Lavandin eau de parfum: £120 for 100ml
Molton Brown’s first foray into fougère a rugged coastline, bottled, via the marine-tinged Coastal Cypress & Sea Fennel collection. Wild Mint & Lavandin ventures further off the beaten path by beckoning us to explore the further inland. Whichever format you plump for [and here’s a fabulously soul-reviving Bath & Shower Gel [£25 for 300ml) as part of the collection, too]; Wild Mint & Lavandin is an utterly unisex, fragrant invitation to get back to nature, with Molton Brown’s finger firmly on the fragrant pulse.
Written by Suzy Nightingale
In 1921 Bayleys was acquired by Cussons Sons & Co, and it wasn’t until 1938 that Cussons conceived the idea of launching a soap based on their archive scent, initially called ‘Imperiale Russian Leather’, but soon renamed to ‘Imperial Leather’.
Curls of smoke swirl through a Siberian pine forest, leather-bound books infused with a campfire’s glowing ember scent.
Butter-soft leather liberally dusted with baby powder, the comfort of warm skin embraced with an open heart.
Chic aldehydes bely smoky scandal insinuated beneath – supple leather waited for with baited breath.
Frosty air tinged with lavender, frozen herbs gathered at dusk in a fur-lined leather coat, ice-crystals on eyelashes.
