Our new edition of The Scented Letter just went live – and we’re delighted to bring you highlights from the Latest Launches section. Be sure to check in at the beginning of each week, to ensure your finger’s on the pulse-point of everything that’s newly-unveiled.
ANGELA FLANDERS
LAWN
Doubly inspired by her mother’s love of fabrics (Angela Flanders was a costume designer before opening the eponymous Columbia Road shop), and a reflective poem written by family friend/journalist Vicci Bentley, Lawn marks the first fragrance from Flanders’ daughter, Kate. Dewy freshness bequeathed by galbanum melts like morning mist to reveal pepper-speckled jasmine, translucent tuberose and lemon balm – cool as a soothing hand stroking your brow – before earthy patchouli grounds the base, beautifully.
£65 for 30ml eau de toilette
angelaflanders–perfumer.com
BULGARI
LA GEMME REALI NYLAIA
Delving deep into the heart of the iris – the floral alter ego of the sapphire gem, suggests perfumer Alberto Morillas – Nylaia truly explores this exquisite perfume ingredient. He captures the ‘deeply serene yet tactile warmth’ of the flower, blending it with the warmth of benzoin, giving it an almost-honeyed, comforting sweetness. Ambergris and white musks give a soft glaze over the scent, downy and smooth. The chicest kind of skin-scent.
£235 for 100ml eau de parfum
harrods.com
L’ARTISAN PARFUMEUR
CHAMP DE BAIES
Two dazzling new Colognes are making a splash at L’Artisan Parfumeur. Champ de Fleurs will appeal to lovers of airy florals, while Champ de Baies is altogether more unconventional, setting out to capture ‘the aerial footprint of a mulberry tree in early morning, just before a heatwave’ via a tangle of wild brambles and raspberries, and the sorbet-like freshness of nashi pear, rose rhubarb and bergamot bark in the heart. Jasmine, white musks, amber and patchouli deliver staying power and an elegant sillage, not often experienced with Colognes.
£105 for 100ml eau de Cologne
lartisanparfumeur.com (from April)
MAISON FRANCIS KURKDJIAN
OUD EXTRAIT DE PARFUM
Francis’s Kurkdjian’s love affair with oudh continues, expressed visa this richly intense extrait de parfum concentration ‘born of sand, wind and gold’. Ambrée/woody/spicy in character, in Francis’s hands the oudh-iness is tempered by a gourmand vanilla note, alongside ambretolide (fruity, musky and with pear accents), together with saffron, Indonesian patchouli and elemi, from the Philippines. Definitely one for after-dark – in our dreams, while glamping in an exotic desert somewhere.
£275 for 70ml extrait de parfum
lessenteurs.com
FLORIS
ISLAY
Inspired by a whisky-distilling Scottish Isle of the same name, Islay is a strong, peaty scent that softens to an incredibly moreish, wearable blend of woods with floral subtleties. The top – like opening the whisky bottle for a first potent sniff – is dry and boozy. Cade oil and patchouli deliver the peatiness, but once their strength melts away, we find the delicate sweetness of vanilla, with an orris note that buffs the whole fragrance.
£180 for 100ml eau de parfum (limited edition)
florislondon.com
