Parterre’s Festival of Scent 3rd-5th September

Parterre have announced a Festival of Scent, to be held in the glorious surroundings of their HQ, at Keyneston Mill, Dorset, from 3rd-5th September 2021. And we know that fragrant fans will want to mark their diaries right now (and get their perfume samples before the festival!)

Described as ‘A celebration of all things fragrant, with a myriad of different experiences that bring scent alive’, Parterre have organised everything from immersive rooms and interactive exhibition spaces exploring their fragrances, free mini workshops and scented garden tours (where they grow an incredible variety of botanical ingredients used in the scents), and a delicious selection of food and drinks. Evenings will be filled with live Parisian Jazz, French food and even a themed outdoor cinema – so ALL your senses will be indulged…

A British niche perfume house that uniquely grow and distill many of the ingredients for their fragrances on-site, Parterre champion ‘seed to scent’ fragrances, which make use of their fantastic variety of aromatic botanicals. If you’ve been looking for something different to do, this sounds like the perfect getaway for anyone interested in fragrance – and the perfect perfumed holiday.

 

Tickets are £18 and can be booked here.

Parterre explain their Festival of Scent itinerary:

Day Ticket includes talks, tours & demonstrations, mini-workshops, exhibitions & immersive experiences.

Your day ticket will include access to all workshops, tours and exhibitions

Arrival from 10am, wander around the botanical gardens and take alfresco morning coffee.

From 10.30am drop in to a variety of mini-workshops and demonstrations running through the day. Our creative workshops explore many aspects of the world of scent.  Our programme includes topic areas such as perfume, floristry, botanical cocktails and essential oils and includes:

  • The Essence of Plants – Distillery Tour
  • A Scent for September – Blending Workshop
  • The Healing Power of Plants – Aromatherapy
  • Scented Garden Tours
  • Exploring Scent & Wellness
  • Make Your Own Diffuser
  • Yoga in the River Meadow
  • Create a Wild Scented Bouquet
  • Discover Botanical Cocktails

These simple, hands-on workshops are aimed to give you a “taster” of the full programme of workshops that Keyneston Mill offers throughout the year. Learn how to make botanical inspired cocktails using a range of scented herbs and flowers and more.

From 11am Join a tours and talks to learn how plants are distilled into essential oil, with live working distillation and journey around the gardens dedicated to perfumery and scent.

There will be a range of food and drinks on offer, with delicious lunches available in The Scented Botanist Bistro (reservations essential) and flavoursome takeaways, plus ice creams, and coffees available throughout the day.

Explore the exhibitions; Nature, Art and Perfume. The relationship between scent, nature and art and how they inspire the creation of perfume. Spread across the estate, it includes the History of Perfume, and the Story of Parterre and Keyneston Mill. Artist Petra Dufkova showcases a selection of flowing watercolours, from flowers to fragrances and high fashion.  She has created illustrations for many luxury brands including Hermes, Vanity Fair and Ministry of Sound.

Between interactive workshops and scented tours we invite you to enjoy immersive experiences that bring scent alive. A collaboration with artists to create scented rooms that will change your perception of scent; from famous movies to idyllic gardens. Then visit The Scent Bar; where you can try different plants, ingredients, oils, drinks and perfumes; exploring scent in different ways.

 

Showcasing over 1000 varieties of plants in a 50-acre estate – the fragrant home of Parterre is buzzing with enthusiasm and expertise. And that ‘spirit of wild adventure’ will be yours to explore during the Festival of Scent. For those who can’t make it there in person – or if you’d like a pre-festival sniff of the scents themselves – we suggest immersing your senses in the Parterre Discovery Set. Created by Jacques Chabert – one of the world’s leading perfumers – in the set you’ll explore evocative names like ‘Run of the River‘ or ‘The Hour of Dusk & Gold‘, we can’t wait to hear which you fall in love with…

Parterre: EXCLUSIVE 20% discount for Perfume Society readers!

Parterre have very generously offered our readers an EXCLUSIVE 20% off discount – scroll down to find out about this incredible (and groundbreaking) British niche perfumery house, and how to claim your scented surprise; because there’s a way to make this EXTRA special and save up to 45%…!

When David and Julia Bridger decided to combine the ruling passions of their lives – art, gardens, travel and perfume – and gather a team of experts (literally) in their field, they set in motion a series of events that is poised to change the face of British fragrance forever. And put Parterre on the map.

There’s a lot to be said for following your nose on holiday – because you really do never know where serendipity might lead you.

In 2014, the Bridgers were motoring around the South of France, when Julia recalled – with affection – visiting the hillside town of Grasse, as a child. ‘I remembered the whole town smelling of roses,’ she recalls. They steered their car in the direction of the hillside town and made a bee-line for one of Grasse’s perfume museums. Later, walking through the museum’s garden – a-bloom with fragrant flowers – a seed was sown.

‘We thought: maybe this is something we could do ourselves…’

 

David’s family had been in farming for almost 400 years, so horticulture runs in his veins – even though most of his career had been spent in marketing. Julia, meanwhile, had wide experience in advertising, going on to run a luxury villa travel company. Together, the pair (at that point based in Hampshire) began looking around for a farm of their own to buy, before stumbling across the ‘sleeping beauty’ of Keyneston Mill. It had fields – 50 acres of them. A run-down mill house and some crumbling outbuildings. An overgrown orchard. But lots and lots of potential not only to fulfill their dream of actually growing and distilling perfume ingredients right there, in the Dorset countryside – but to show visitors how it’s done, as they’d so enjoyed in Grasse.

 

 

Embracing the concept of ‘from seed to bottle’, with Parterre, the Bridgers not only set out to to grow, harvest and distil many of their own ingredients – but they also had a longing to try growing crops that had never before been grown on British soil. Even including – astonishingly – vetiver. For Julia and David, this is about ‘reinventing perfumery by taking it back to its roots.’ Parterre‘s motto: ‘Where creative botany meets artistry and the wild spirit of adventure.’

The planting now expands into surrounding fields, with crop-scale ingredients producing incredible quality yields, which are then hand-blended by Jacques Chabert – one of the world’s leading perfumers, who works in Grasse alongside his daughter, Elsa Chabert, while his elder and equally talented perfumer daughter, Carla Chabert, runs their Paris laboratory. Meanwhile, Parterre’s creative team is headed up by Virginie Daniau, President of the British Society of Perfumers (BSP), who first introduced Jacques to Keynestone Mill’s owners.

 

 

This adventure in botany has taken over four years – but the vision has now become reality. Over 2,000 aromatic plants and flowers are now being grown just 20 minutes from Poole – including rose geranium (more of which anon), melissa, hyssop, chamomile, angelica, artemisia, clary sage, yarrow, bergamot mint and red thyme. Many of them have made it into the limited edition, numbered flacons of Parterre fragrance now on sale at spiffy Piccadilly department store Fortnum & Mason, as well as via their own website.

‘Our mission is to grow the most unusual plants we can source,’ explains Julia. ‘Each plant is then trialled, harvested and distilled on site – and this process captures the very essence of each aromatic variety.’

For Julia and David, this is about ‘reinventing perfumery by taking it back to its roots.’ Parterre‘s motto: ‘Where creative botany meets artistry and the wild spirit of adventure.’

 

 

Now you can take advantage of a fantastic 20% discount when you shop on parterrefragrances.com – simply enter the code PERFSOC20 when prompted at checkout.

Psst! It just so happens that Parterre are showcasing their fabulous home-grown vetiver scent, The Root of All Goodness, by already having discounted the 70ml & 100ml bottles by up to 25% off on their site. With our exclusive code used at checkout, it takes an extra 20% off that price, meaning Perfume Society readers will actually get 45% off The Root of All Goodness when purchasing the larger size bottles!

 

 

Those craving warmth should look no further than this golden elixir, an evocative blend of all things mellow and radiant. Even the top notes of bergamot and lemon have been enriched with the tingle of ginger, softly melding into the hazy heart of camphorous hyssop and herbaceous clary sage. The vetiver feels like a cloak of comfort – a grounding scent to help you stride forth with confidence in to the year ahead.

With the change of seasons (and all of us in desperate need of a treat), the code will be valid for THREE MONTHS. So what better time to explore these exquisite scents for yourself (and stock up on Christmas presents, perhaps…?

 

Come into the garden with Parterre

When David and Julia Bridger decided to combine the ruling passions of their lives – art, gardens, travel and perfume – and gather a team of experts (literally) in their field, they set in motion a series of events that is poised to change the face of British fragrance forever. And put Parterre on the map…

Embracing the concept of ‘from seed to bottle’, David and Julia not only set out to to grow, harvest and distil many of their own ingredients – but they also had a longing to try growing crops that had never before been grown on British soil. Even including – astonishingly – vetiver.

The English-grown vetiver is key in their sublime scent, Root of All Goodness, which you can try a sample of in our Niche Collection II Discovery Box:

 

Root of All Goodness

FAMILY: Fougère
TOP NOTES: ginger, lemon, bergamot
HEART NOTES: clary sage, hyssop, blue hyssop
BASE NOTES: vetiver, leather accords, amber

Those craving warmth should look no further than Parterre’s golden elixir, an evocative blend of all things radiant. Even the top notes of bergamot and lemon have been enriched with the tingle of ginger, softly melding into the hazy heart of camphorous hyssop and herbaceous clary sage.

 

To continue the story of this garen-centric house, the work that has gone into this project is nothing short of astounding. It begins with finding and restoring Keyneston Mill in the Dorset’s Tarrant Valley, bordered by the River Stour. There, a series of botanical gardens has been designed – hence the name, ‘Parterre’ – divided into ‘The Fougère Garden’ (with its ferns, lavender and mosses), the Padua Garden (roses, jasmine, geranium), and so on.

The planting expands into surrounding fields, with crop-scale ingredients, including rose geranium, mint, yarrow and the aforementioned vetiver. (Which we can report is incredibly smooth and pure: a vetiver lover’s dream!). For Julia and David, this is about ‘reinventing perfumery by taking it back to its roots.’ Parterre‘s motto: ‘Where creative botany meets artistry and the wild spirit of adventure.’

We think you’re going to want to explore this garden of fragrances quite thoroughly… You can vist Parterre’s Keyneston Mill gardens for a small £3 entry charge, and of course explore the Root of All Goodness in your own home, – along with twelve other fragrances – in our Niche Collection II Discovery Box!

Niche Collection II Discovery Box £19 (£15 for VIP Club members)

By Suzy Nightingale