London Craft Week: scented events 8th – 12th May

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the pioneering London Craft Week, and we’re thrilled to see so many scented events are included! From sniffing bespoke fragrances inspired by ‘rebels and reprobates’ to multi-sensory experiuences and the world’s first ‘sleep bar’, there truly is something for everyone to explore…

From 8-12 May 2019, hundreds of venues across the capital will participate in ‘a five-day celebration of global creativity – its biggest, boldest and most ambitious event to date.

More than 240 makers, designers, brands, artists and galleries from 15 countries will participate over the course of the week, inviting the London public to a packed programme of exhibitions, hands-on workshops, talks, creative experiences and one-off events.’

Of course our eyes (and noses) were immediately drawn to the fragrance-themed events in particular, and so we’ve included a selection to whet your appetite, below.

Rebels & Rogues: Creating Bespoke Perfumes
Beaumont Hotel – A collaboration between The Beaumont and individual perfumiers; Ormonde Jayne, Paul Schutze, Penhaligon’s, Experimental Perfume Club, Cire Trudon, Floris, and 4160 Tuesdays who were asked to create a bespoke perfume creation – personal or ambient, in any format (candle, body spray, oil) – based on the theme of Rebels and Reprobates, inspired by one of the people depicted in The Lotos Room, the hotel’s Private Dining Room. Exhibition runs 8 – 12 May 10:30 – 20:30, no booking needed: FREE.

 

 

Sleep Bar at the anatomē store 
Celebrating Crafted at Bergdorf Goodman’s New York and London Craft Week sees the launch of the ‘anatomē sleep bar’. A collaboration between the anatomē nutritionist and aromacologist alongside visual artist Joao Zabaleta.

‘We live in an agitated and often uncertain world, politically and socially. Most of us are digitally savvy, but our attachment to social media and online living has tended to make us more rather than less anxious in daily life. The pressures and stresses of our busy lifestyles take their toll on our bodies and minds and a good night’s sleep has been one of the key casualties. As numerous scientific studies suggest, the importance of sleep has been overlooked for too long and doctors are now serious about getting us to sleep better. Healthy living requires restful sleep as part of the daily routine.

We’ve worked with the best nutirtionists, aromacologists and nutritionists to create this unique sleep map. The anatomē Sleep Bar at a is here to help you achieve just that and a worlds first launching at ‘B’ store at Bergdorf Goodman followed by out store in London. We’ve created a bespoke customer experience that tailors our x4 Recovery + Sleep aromatherapy oils to individuals’ needs in helping to ensure a more restful sleep, night after night. The cities of New York and London that never sleep will now sleep more soundly with a bespoke, unique oils to support your rest.’
Piccadilly of London, 8 – 12 May, & ‘Crafted’ at Goodman’s ‘B’ Store, 5TH Avenue NY NY, 27 & 28 April 2019, no booking needed: FREE

 

 

Scented Candle-making Masterclass with Earl of East London
Learn the art of candle making with Earl of East London at their flagship store, bonds. Kings Cross. Alongside this, take part in bath salt workshops in celebration of their new Japanese bathing-inspired line, and enjoy a collaboration with Japanese ceramic curators Gallery Eclectic. Exhibition, 8 – 11 May 10:00 – 20:00, 12 May 12:00 – 18:00; Workshop, 8 May 11:00 – 12:30, 11 May 10:15 – 11:45. Tickets £45, booking required.

 

 

Made to Measure, the Ultimate Bespoke Fragrance Experience at Burlington Arcade
Penhaligon’s Made to Measure is a programme created exclusively for Penhaligon’s with Fabrice Pellegrin, featuring four exquisite pure perfume bases: chypre, woody, amber and ambrée. Once you have selected your preferred base, personalise the scent with the addition of one of four raw and beautiful essence signatures: Rose Cetefolia Absolute, Oud Wood Essence, Iris and Sandalwood. Sit back and relax with coffee, tea or champagne, while your Penhaligon’s Made to Measure fragrance is blended and bottled in front of you. Demonstration, 8 – 12 May 10:00 – 17:00 Booking necessary via [email protected], only 10 places per day available, tickets £400

Do have a look at the full programe for London Craft Week  – we’re sure whichever scented or crafty session you choose, you’ll be learning and exploring skills and creating memories that will last a lifetime…

Written by Suzy Nightingale

Perfume: A Sensory Journey Through Contemporary Scent opens at Somerset House… follow your nose!

The perfume world has been abuzz with news of the Somerset House summer exhibition –always a treat, this one had fragrance fans practically fainting with pleasure at the mere prospect…
Perfume: A Sensory Journey Through Contemporary Scent seeks to explore modern perfumery in an artistic setting – bringing together (hashtag alert) #PerfumePioneers renowned for their challenging, ground-breaking work. Treated to a press preview yesterday, we packed into the East Wing Galleries and couldn’t wait to follow our noses…

10 landmark fragrances greet visitors in the first room of the show

Somerset House say: ‘These pivotal perfumers have been carefully selected by Curator Claire Catterall and Lizzie Ostrom, the fragrance writer also known as Odette Toilette, for the creativity and ingenuity they bring to their work. Whether self-taught or classically trained, each perfumer within the exhibition challenges a long-held convention in scent-design – from creation and communication, to gender and good taste – pushing their craft in daring olfactory directions.’
The 10 perfume provocateurs in the exhibition are a veritable who’s-who of contemporary perfume: Daniella Andrier, Mark Buxton, Bertrand Duchaufour, Olivia Giacobetti, Lyn Harris, Antoine Lie, David Seth Moltz, Geza Schoen, Andy Tauer and Killian Wells… We could list all the perfumes featured but don’t want to spoil your scented surprise, because as you walk in you’re handed a blank sheet for impressions. And knowing what they are definitely shapes your impressions.
The room setting for Daniela Andrier’s Purple Rain for Prada

So what can you expect? Well, again, we don’t want to give too much away – this truly is an exhibition where you need to encounter the scents first hand (well, nose). But during your fragrant travels you will encounter rooms reflecting the inspirations of the scents in their design – from the heat of the desert to the wild Scottish Highlands, with a lover’s boudoir (ooh la la!) followed by a trip to a Catholic confessional, and even a water theme-park! Each fragrance is experienced in a differing, uniquely interactive way, and taken out of context (with no bottles or perfume notes guide) you really are forced to challenge your expectations and concentrate on the smell alone.
It’s not all about the newness, though. Homage is paid to the classic perfumes that have shaped the way we feel about fragrance, fittingly arrayed in the first room you come to – an olfactory time-travel through ten of the most trailblazing scents of the time, one for each decade of the 20th Century.  Beginning with the legendary L’Origan de Coty (1905) – a hallmark perfume, now out of circulation, but specially recreated by Coty for the exhibition – this whisk through the ages ends with ck one (1994), the original ‘unisex’ fragrance that gave us the whole ‘clean’ scent trend.
An original bottle of Coty’s iconic L’Origan

At the end of the exhibition there’s even a mini perfumers’ lab, complete with noses going about their business of carefully creating fragrances, weighing the materials and more than happy to explain the process and let you sniff as they do.
A working Givaudan lab has been transplanted to Somerset House

Following our noses all the way to glorious gift shop, we must admit swooning somewhat at the plethora of perfume books, scented postcards (genius idea!) fragranced pens – with, we’re delighted to report, many of the fragrances available to buy.
Blogger/journalist Persolaise makes sure to exit via gift shop

If the world of fragrance used to be a stuffy old secretive place, we believe the past few years have seen a tide-change, with perfumers stepping out from their laboratories and becoming superstars in their own right. The Somerset House exhibition is a fragrant tour de force that continues this wave of accessibilty: the very ethos of The Perfume Society, in fact!
The organisers worked in association with Coty and Peroni Ambra, with additional support from Givaudan and Liberty London – clearly many hours (weeks, months… years!) have gone in to making this a feast for all the senses.
We cannot urge you enough to go along and sniff for yourself.
Perfume: A Sensory Journey Through Contemporary Scent 21st June – 17th September 2017/tickets £11 (or £9 concessions)
Somerset House, East Wing Galleries
Written by Suzy Nightingale
Pictures by Jo Fairley
A confessional has been created for Bertrand Duchaufour’s incense-rich Avignon

Paints and a classroom have been chosing as the setting for Andy Tauer L’Air du Désert Marocain