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ON THE LAUNCHES l CREATIVES l NEWS l COMMUNITY

SCENT

How to bottle luxury in 2026

ISSUE #3 AUTUMN 2026

£10

IRIS HAS A MOMENT IN THE SUN

Fabulous flacons from the past

THE ART OF GLASS

HAILEE STEINFELD

THE NEW EAU DE PARFUM

CONTENTS

5 NOTES FROM THE EDITOR 6 SPRITZ!

New stores, collections, books and more

16 FABULOUS FLACONS

Vintage treasures to swoon over from the Perfume Bottles Auction 2026

24 THIS CREATIVE LIFE

Designer Marc-Antoine Barrois invites us into his inventive world

28 THE ART OF GLASS

Without bottles, there’s no perfume – we meet the master makers

37 IRIS RENAISSANCE

The blue gold of perfumery takes centre stage again

46 MEMORIES, DREAMS, REFLECTIONS

Writer, author and now perfume brand founder Liz Astor shares a life in scents

49 THE SCENTSCAPE

The season’s key trends and launches

62 THE ART OF PAPER

Amanda Carr sniffs out beautiful blotters

68 ON THE SCENT OF... AUTUMN

Thomas Dunckley has the last word

CONTRIBUTORS

ON THE

SCENT EDITOR

Jo Fairley

jo@josephinefairley.com DESIGNER

Jenny Semple

studio@jennysemple design.com SENIOR WRITER/ PODCAST

Suzy Nightingale suzy.nightingale @gmail.com

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Maggie Alderson CONTRIBUTING EDITOR/ PODCAST

VÉRONIQUE NYBERG

MARC-ANTOINE BARROIS

We wanted to give a big shout-out to Véronique for her help with Amanda Carr’s ‘The Art of the Blotter’ feature, which you can enjoy on p.62. The Vice-President of Fine Fragrance Creation at fragrance house MANE even photographed her own collection of blotters for the article – as if she wasn’t busy enough creating for a wide range of clients that includes Lancôme, Mugler, Molton Brown, BORNTOSTANDOUT, Granado and Jovoy. Merci beaucoup, Véronique! @veroniquenyberg_offical

The French couturier founded his own maison, Marc-Antoine Barrois, in 2009, at the age of just 25. He honed his couture craft alongside Dominique Sirop (who formerly worked with Hubert de Givenchy), later joining Jean-Paul Gaultier at Hermès. In 2015 he began a working partnership with perfumer Quentin Bisch, which he talks about on p.24. Their fragrances. including the cult Ganymede and Tilia, bring together exquisite materials with truly imaginative storytelling. @marcantoinebarrois

LIZ ASTOR

THOMAS DUNCKLEY

Liz – or Lady Astor of Hever, her proper title – is an author, autism campaigner, adventurer, traveller and now founder of her own eponymous fragrance brand. She wrote the memoir Loving Olivia, about raising her autistic daughter, and has also written a novel, Since You Went Away. Liz’s most recent (ad)venture, born from a life-long love of scent, is a trio of elegant fragrances that draw on personal memories and travel, created with Grasse-based perfumer Hélène Prévot. @lizastorlondon

Thomas is a six-time Jasmine Awardwinning fragarance expert, copywriter, content creator, podcaster, trainer, consultant and event host (phew!), with over a decade of creating fragrance copy and content. His ‘Candy Perfume Boy’ blog earned him a dedicated following, now equally loyal to Thomas’s ‘Making Scents Make Sense’ podcast, which sets out to demystify the complex world of fragrance. He shares his love of autumn (and his pugs) with us on p.68. @makingsensemakesense

Nicola Bonn CONTRIBUTING EDITOR/ EVENTS

Amanda Carr BUSINESS: ADVERTISING/ BRAND PARTNERSHIPS

Sharon Whiting

sw@sharonwhiting.com

On The Scent is published by On The Scent Media Ltd. All content is protected under UK and international copyright laws; reproduction or distribution of any material, in whole or in part, is not permitted by a third party without our written consent. However, the original copyright of individual features, words, and images remains with their respective writers and creators. All details and prices were correct at the time of going to press. Note: affiliate commission may be earned via any links which appear in the online edition of the magazine; this will never influence our editorial choices and coverage. On The Scent is an independent publication, and neither this magazine, nor the website onthescentmedia.com, has any assocation with The Perfume Society, its publication, website or any of its products. © 2026 On The Scent Media Ltd.

4 ON THE SCENT

NOTES FROM THE EDITOR A season of scent abundance Perfume-lovers, your cup runneth over. Prepare to do some rearranging of your dressing table or bathroom shelf, making space for some truly fabulous new fragrances to expand your collection. At On The Scent, we’ve honestly never known an autumn like it for launches, both individual scents and whole collections. There is so much to smell, to delight the senses – but the aim of our section ‘The Scentscape’, to be found on p.49, is at least to help you know where to start. In this edition, we focus on the amazing art of bottle design and creation. We wanted to pay them some attention, because it’s easy to take for granted the flacon that your fragrance comes in, as you reach for your #SOTD. For ‘The Art of Glass’ on p.28, I delved into the world of glass-making, in particular a little-known area of Normandy known simply as ‘The Glass Valley’, which produces a staggering 1.5 billion luxury bottles a year. And on p.16, we share with you the glories of this year’s Perfume Bottles Auction. As for those useful little pieces of card that you gather while scent-shopping? Most of us just close our eyes, inhale, then overlook them altogether. But on p.62, Amanda Carr explores the art of blotter creation, an idea inspired by her recent find of a stunning out-of-print book of examples of these mouilettes, as the French call them – a discovery that the rest of the On The Scent team is more than a little envious of, I can tell you. We don’t just love fragrance itself. We are fascinated by every aspect of this creative world – and we love sharing it through these pages.

THIS AUTUMN… I plan to curl up on the sofa with a stack of books. In fact, I’m going to need a bigger perfume bookshelf, with so many new titles launching on the subject of fragrance. (Including one by me!) More on p.10. And I’ll be marking my place with scented bookmarks. That’s what I do with scent strips and fragrance blotters from events and shopping (and it’s amazing how long the perfumes last). I might just turn into a scent shopaholic, while I’m at it. With new fragrance boutiques (and a scent shopping ‘studio’) appearing on the map (see p.12), I’m planning my route right now.

JO FAIRLEY Editor

ON THE LAUNCHES l CREATIVES l NEWS l COMMUNITY

SCENT

I’m looking forward to the fragrance event of the year. The IFRA [International Fragrance Association] conference always blows my mind, sharing the science of scent. And the lectures will be free to all to view online, afterwards, at ifra.org.uk.

How to bottle luxury in 2026

ISSUE #3 AUTUMN 2026

£10

IRIS HAS A MOMENT IN THE SUN

Fabulous flacons from the past

THE ART OF GLASS

PS If you’d like your outlet

to join our portfolio of bricks-and-mortar stockists of On The Scent – listed on our website – do e-mail: info@onthescentmedia.com

FROM TOP: New books from Alice du Parcq and this magazine’s Editor. From CHANEL, one of this season’s beautiful blotters. ABOVE: The IFRA conference is always illuminating

I’m planning the autumn ‘scent swap’. Out with light summery scents; in with cosiness, smoochiness, comfort. The fragrant equivalent of the wardrobe changeover. I’m ready. Are you?

ON THE SCENT 5

SPRITZ! FRAGRANT READS, NEW FACES AND ALL OF AUTUMN’S SCENT NEWS

JUMP FOR JOY

ABOVE: Khadija Mellah, the pioneering new ambassador for Sunnamusk

HAT’S just what we did, hearing the news of Sunnamusk’s new brand ambassador – a truly ground-breaking appointment. Khadija Mellah is the first hijab-waring jockey to compete in – and win – a British horse race, a 25/1 victory in the Magnolia Cup at Goodwood. (She’d only been training on racehorses for a few months.) Going on to found the Riding A Dream Academy, which invites youngsters from diverse backgrounds to experience riding (and even pursue careers in the sport), Khadija has become an inspirational

6 ON THE SCENT

figure for young people, women and underrepresented communities. And as Sunnamusk’s founder Kazi Abidur Rahman explains, ‘Khadijah’s story immediately resonated with everything we believe in as a brand. She has entered a world where there was no obvious path for someone like her, remaining completely true to her faith, heritage and identity throughout.’ Great news for the fragrance world, as it seeks to become more diverse. And give us role models over supermodels, anytime. sunnamusk.com

NEWS

STONED LOVE We’re so taken with the tactile, almost elemental flacons of Kylie Jenner Mood Stones: Cashmere Muse, Velvet Brew and Blush Wood. Impressive scents – and very impressive prices – with it. £48 for 50ml eau de parfum boots.com

What all the bestdressed bathrooms will be wearing Matière Première reimagine their hand and body care packaging with a new silhouette that is a scaled-up version of the vials perfumers use each day. Joining the range are Falcon Leather and Metal Lavender. Run those taps now! Body Wash/£50 for 300ml and Body Lotion/£60 for 300ml matierepremiere.com

VANILLA – WITH THREE TWISTS Working alongside ‘nose’ Margaux Le Paih-Guérin, the artistperfume creator Sarah Baker has given this deliciously dark pod a grown-up makeover. Three extrait-strength scents take the note from boozy, espresso-laced seduction to smoky leather and – with just-launched Year XOXO – an ‘anti-gourmand’ vanilla, the final instalment in her vanillic trilogy. Divine, divine, divine! From £155 for 50ml extrait de parfum The Vanilla Trilogy £275 for 30 x 30ml extrait de parfum sarahbakerperfumes.com

ON THE SCENT 7

NEWS

YOUR NEW DIPTYQUE RITUALS

Neal’s Yard Remedies move into fragrance – naturally Certified natural and with at least 76% organic ingredients, NYR’s debut perfume collection harnesses the power of aromachology oils in fine fragrances: soul-steadying, frankincense-powered Petrichor, honeyed rose Rubor (to open the heart) and energy-boosting, neroli-rich Ardeo. Certifiably gorgeous, all of them. £85 each for 50ml eau de parfum nealsyardremedies.com Diptyque’s Les Rituels de Soin collections – Le Matin (morning) and Le Soir (evening), are based on neuroscience, with fragrances composed by Natalie Gracia-Cetto. Body, skincare, home fragrance and accessories elevate pampering while inviting us to slow down and tune into our senses. From £55-76 diptyqueparis.com

DOLCE&GABBANA’S MIST OPPORTUNITIES A trio of new hair fragrances – Velvet Passion Oud, Velvet Desert Oud and Velvet Blue Musk – offers a new luxe way to enjoy these scents, with every swish, swish. £117 each for 30ml harrods.com

Yardley’s Magic Carpet Ride The Middle East continues to exert its influence on British perfumery, as Yardley Signature Collection swaps the English garden for a moonlit souk with four exotically fabulous new fragrances. Heritage, but with a seductive twist. £35 each for 100ml superdrug.com 8 ON THE SCENT

SERIES I, CHAPTER II Sounds like a Netflix show – but it’s the airing of six new Jil Sander fragrances in the Olfactory collection: Shiso, Salt, Lily, Sesame, Mahogany and Vanille. (Absolutely unmissable, nevertheless.) £190 each for 100ml eau de parfum or £50 for 6 x 8ml selfridges.com

FACE TO FACE A shameless excuse to feature the new ambassadors for Valentino Vendetta, composed by Marie Salamagne (Uomo) and Dominique Ropion (Donna). And so, we give you the ‘Vendetta lovers’, actors Dakota Johnson and Alexander Skarsgård, photgraphed by Inez & Vinoodh. (You’re welcome.) Uomo from £64 for 50ml eau de parfum; Donna from £75 for 30ml eau de parfum theperfumeshop.com

300 YEARS OF GOOD GROOMING Floris Santal offers layerable options for this refined, masculine fougèrewoody fragrance, spanning Shaving Soap to Facial Moisturiser, via Deodorant, Aftershave and more. It’s based on a perfume formula from the archives – we love this! – which dates back to the 19th century. £20-70 florislondon.com

Who has a crush on Gracie? The new face of Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu, singer Gracie Adams, has danced her way into our hearts. (And so has this smouldering, addictive, blend of lychee, amber and patchouli.) From £117 for 50ml eau de parfum chanel.com

ON THE SCENT 9

PERFUME YOUR POOCH Nothing’s too good for Fido, is Jo Malone London’s philosophy. Their dog shampoo collaboration with WildWash is scented with orange and cedarwood natural oils – and in store, you can choose the label to match your mutt. £18 for 285ml jomalone.co.uk

SCENTED READS Put the kettle on. Find your comfiest chair. And relax, with these new books… The Philosophy of Perfume Alice du Parcq distils perfume’s history, psychology and artistry into a pocket guide that’s absolutely entrancing. £12.99 (The British Library) How to Speak Scent Jo Fairley makes fragrance language accessible: notes, families, emotions, sharing how to choose perfume with confidence. £12.99 (Kyle Books) The Cultures of Perfume: Scents That Shaped History Founder of the Institute for Art and Olfaction, Saskia Wilson-Brown, gives us a scent atlas that delves fascinatingly into perfume’s power across culture and history. £32 (D.A.P. Books) Sniff: A History of Smells William Tullett’s absorbing odyssey explores the weird and wonderful world of smell – and even its role in shaping humanity. £25 (Yale University Press)

10 ON THE SCENT

THE CLEAN TEAM The debut trio of wellbeing-focused eau de parfums from The Lab Co. offers us modern perfumery with a rigorous ‘clean’ formula philosophy (if that matters to you). Sophisticated scents, created to lift, calm or restore – beautifully. £75 each for 60ml eau de parfum thelabco.com

Liz’s scent memories Capturing places and aromas from her fascinating life (see p.46), Liz Astor’s fragrances explore rich florals, warm woods and her spirit of adventure, in Hethersett (the village Liz grew up in), Adrift 8.7°S 118.3°E (recalling a nearshipwreck experience) and Nadira No.9, conjuring nights under canvas in the desert. Riveting – and ravishing. Discovery Luxury Collection/ £25 for 3 x 1.5ml eau de parfum lizastor.com

NEWS

A pocket full of perfume

CANDY CRUSH Confected by Master Perfumers Honorine Blanc, Caroline Dumur and Amandine Clerc-Marie, prepare to be led into temptation by Viktor & Rolf Bonbon Caramel Crunch, Bonbon Berry Jelly and Bonbon Cola Fizz. Quite the toothsome trio. £79 each for 50ml eau de parfum theperfumeshop.com

PUT A (SCENTED) RING ON IT

Swivel-up, refillable – and tapping into the hot trend for solid perfume, Floral Street Scent Sticks are the ultimate in portability, available in bestselling Wild Vanilla Orchid, Arizona Bloom, Electric Rhubarb and Wonderland Peony. Gorgeous! From £117 for 50ml eau de parfum floralstreet.com

Carolina Herrera bejwels La Bomba: this butterfly features an 11ml spray that slips onto your fingers, so you’ll never be parted from its floral-fruityambery fabulousness.

MOODY MICHAEL KORS

£67 for 30ml EDP carolinaherrera.com

Four stellar perfumers, four escapist scents. Pick a colour to reflect the mood you’d like to shift to: Violet Sunset (sophisticated), Green Infinity (vibrant), Blue Dusk (sensual), Pink Horizon (playful). We feel better already! £85 each for 100ml eau de parfum theperfumeshop.com ON THE SCENT 11

NEWS

Quite the welcoming committee

1 2

UPDATING LONDON’S OLFACTORY MAP

Rosard’s room sprays and diffusers are based on Middle Eastern home-scenting traditions reinterpreted through a British lens, with real oudh at the heart of extrait-strength Santal Safari, Oud Wajj and Amber Dunes. £40 each for 100ml extrait rosardparfum.com

Three new destinations to excite your senses…

Ajmal oversee every stage of their scented journey, from the growing of 10 million agarwood trees (you read that right) to cultivating rare botanicals in India – and you can now check out their unique farm-to-fragrance approach at the Dubai perfume house’s first London outpost. Ajmal Dubai, Westfield London, Ariel Way, White City, W12 7GF uk.ajmal.com

Bringing perfume-lover Brooke Belldon’s Sainte Cellier website to life, she invites you into a drawing room-style studio in Ladbroke Grove to enjoy a considered edit of brands and fragrances. With the promise, as she puts it, of ‘no counters, no hovering, no rush. Just you and the perfume.’ Sainte Cellier Studio, Unit 60a Pall Mall Deposit, Block C, First Floor, 124-128 Barlby Road, Ladbroke Grove, W10 6BL saintcellier.com

Over in East London’s Redchurch Street, Aussie house Flâner – which means ‘the joy of wandering through cities without a destination’ – has touched down, taking a slow perfumery approach to workshops, events, candles and their nine-strong fragrance line-up, in a restfully minimalist setting. Flâner 52 Redchurch Street, E2 7DP flanerfragrances.com 12 ON THE SCENT

LATHER LUXURIOUSLY Marc-Antoine Barrois and perfumer Quentin Bisch have transformed five of his iconic fragrances – including Ganymede and Aldebaran – into luxurious soap bars: palmoil-free, 99.5% naturally derived and traditionally made in France. All part of the Big Bodycare Revival… From £45 for 170g bar selfridges.com

14 ON THE SCENT

PERFUMED PARTNERSHIP

WHERE WILL SCENT TAKE YOU?

Follow your mood with the new Michael Kors fragrances – composed by the world’s leading perfumers to offer emotional escape

f you’re longing to escape right now, you’re not alone. Those holiday vibes can fade faster than tan lines – and if you didn’t manage to get away, the longing only intensifies. But this is where we feel fragrance acts less as an accessory than a portal to the emotional escapism it offers – as these scents so perfectly illustrate. We don’t have to leave our homes to be transported; fragrance is a permission slip to step beyond the confines of the everyday. One spritz can lift the mood of a grey morning, lend confidence before a difficult meeting, summon the gilded hush of evening, or whisk us somewhere altogether more sun-drenched, shimmering and free. For us, fragrance is all about mood. The traditional fragrance families can be useful reference points when finding a new scent – yet most people visiting a perfume counter or looking online are not yearning for a technical classification or a list of notes to decode. They are asking something far more intimate: how do I want to feel today? That’s why, in The Scentscape launch review section of this magazine, we choose mood-led headings over potentially mystifying terms such as Chypre or fougère – because what actually matters is the alchemy, atmosphere and the way a fragrance clicks into place like a perfumed puzzle piece, on our skin. Mood-matching and the desire to escape are certainly echoed in the hundreds of Perfume Prescription requests sent to the ‘On The Scent’ podcast. Listeners seldom ask for a particular top note or accord. More often, they seek something to make them feel courageous, comforted, glamorous, playful, sensual or calm. And really, isn’t that how we should all choose scent? By being open to a perfume that feels right and promises an escape with every spritz. Michael Kors’ new Eau de Parfums meet that innate desire beautifully. Created by four renowned Master Perfumers and inspired by the house’s enduring philosophy of travel and freedom, Violet Sunset, Pink Horizon, Green Infinity and Blue Dusk each offer a different emotional destination. Rather than dictating who should wear them, the fragrances invite us to follow our mood. And while Violet Sunset and Pink Horizon may sit within a traditionally feminine universe, and Green Infinity and Blue Dusk within the masculine, we would suggest they are for anyone drawn to their vision of escape. Even before the first spray, the bottles set the scene. Luminous, curvaceous faceted glass reveals the saturated,

high-definition colours of the fragrance within – a bold reimagining of the Michael Kors chain motif. Violet, pink, green and deep blue gleam like swatches of a sunset dreamscape, their hues offering immediate emotional shorthand. Colour theory goes beyond decoration, here: it’s the opening scene of each scented journey. Violet Sunset was composed by Guillaume Flavigny as the sophisticated escape: a golden hour reverie where the horizon dissolves into berry, violet and warm light. Raspberry leaves bring an airy sparkle, while an irresistible blueberry muffin accord adds a deliciously unexpected twist. Cedarwood, Ambrofix, Sylkolide and vanilla give the drydown a creamy, enveloping glow. It feels polished but never prim, for slipping into the evening with luminous ease. Pink Horizon, created by Pierre Guéros, is all bright possibility, its cherry-pink mood conjuring the fizzy feeling of a new day before plans have been made. Mandarin and pomelo oils flash like sunshine through open windows, followed by jasmine and magnolia, while vanilla, Ambronova and musk lend warmth and lingering softness. Sweet, radiant and buoyant, it’s a playful escape for moments when anything might happen. Green Infinity, from the legendary Sophie Labbé, captures the vibrant thrill of a horizon without end. Lime and green melon offer cool, crystalline freshness, enlivened by aromatic cardamom and geranium. Oakmoss and vetiver ground the composition. It is the scent of clarity, bright Mediterranean light and reaching a summit to find the world stretched before you. Then comes Blue Dusk, composed by Ilias Ermenidis, the sensual escape: a velvet-indigo descent into the electricity of a city after dark. Juicy plum provides opulent warmth, cinnamon sparks at its heart and cypriol brings smoky, woody mystery. Tonka bean lingers beautifully on skin, deepening the pull. Think: magnetic, shadowy and quietly self-assured, like a night that has only just begun. These four fragrances pose an enticing question: where would you like to go, how do you want to feel, and who would you like to be when you arrive? So, we suggest you perhaps allow yourself to be drawn first to the colour that connects with you. Then, as the scent melds with your skin, something in your soul will say: this is the one I need today, to escape. No passport required.

“

Fragrance acts less as an accessory than a portal to the emotional escapism it offers

”

£85 each for 100ml eau de parfum theperfumeshop.com ON THE SCENT 15

PERFUME BOTTLES AUCTION 2026

GOING, GOING…

GORGEOUS! Join us in swooning over exquisite expressions of the glassmaker’s art which went under the hammer at the 2026 Perfume Bottles Auction BY SUZY NIGHTINGALE

ew events are as gasp-worthy for fragrance devotees as this annual sale, which took place this year on 2nd May. Organised by expert Ken Leach with the International Perfume Bottle Association, the auction is based out of New York but attracts a global audience online. The On The Scent team always eagerly awaits the beautifully photographed, deeply researched catalogue for this sale, and this year noted that estimates had risen sharply – reflecting fragrance’s growing cultural impact, we feel, and the keenness of fragrance-lovers to build a unique collection. Ken has been a leading figure in the fragrance world since 1979. In addition to being a keen collector and dealer, he has judged the Fragrance Foundation Recognition Awards, contributed to the International Perfume Bottle Association and advised on books, articles and museum exhibitions worldwide. The yearly auction – this was its 38th year – keeps him busy, visiting locations which include Hollywood mansions, castles and even caves (!) in search of rare flacons. Perfectly timed for our ‘Art of Glass’ issue, this year’s sale was, Ken says, ‘specifically curated… to exemplify excellence in glassmaking and design across all existing bottle categories.’ Pressed to choose a favourite, Ken selects Lot 22 (see p.23), designed by René Lalique for Forvil Le Perle Noire, which sold for a pretty heart-stopping $36,000. He describes it as ‘a masterwork of imagination, technical invention, and hand finishing’, giving the three-dimensional effect of a black “pearl” penetrating the bottle’s surface, enhanced by the perfume within. Its pronged stopper evokes a pearl ring, while the signed box repeats the motif with a glass element.

THE NAMES TO KNOW

As we explore in this issue, perfumery’s history is inseparable from glassmaking. Yet beyond household 16 ON THE SCENT

The 2026 Auction Catalogue (pictured below) is available at a price of $85 International Priority Mail), or $96.95 (International Express). You can simply send a PayPal payment to kenleach47@aol. com, and he will dispatch the catalogue.

names such as Lalique, many bottle designers surely deserve greater recognition. ‘Julien Viard, Maurice Dépinoix, and Heinrich Hoffmann are the top designer-glassmakers,’ says Ken, adding to that list the name of Georges Chevalier, creator of memorable Baccarat designs. Within Ken’s own extensive collection, he especially treasures presentations by the perfume houses Delettrez and de Marcy, because ‘I’ve always appreciated the trompe-l’œil style. Specifically, bottles that are made to look like 1920s jewellery, where they could appear to be a pearl necklace, pearl ring, or gem bracelet when seen in their presentation boxes – but open to reveal themselves as a suite of tiny perfume bottles.’

HAVE YOU SEEN JOSEPHINE BAKER?

Asked which modern bottle designs he not only personally admires but has an educated hunch could become collectible in the future, Ken replies, ‘the limited-edition Lalique and Guerlain bottles are fine, attractive additions to any collection. Although, as with all the items that we feature in our auctions, it will take decades for them to appreciate in value.’ When we questioned Ken further and asked if there was, perhaps, one perfume bottle that had so far proved elusive, and which he dreams of one day discovering, he says: ‘I’ve seen a black and white image of a very simple perfume bottle with a Josephine Baker label on it. I don’t quite recall the perfume name, or if it was merely a concept drawing – but it would be wonderful if it surfaced.’ Keep your eyes peeled in charity shops and boots fairs, then. Your perfume bottle discoveries might end up in next year’s auction. (If Ken can resist snapping them up for himself, of course.)

Johann Umann atomizer in Original Box

$4,500

2 Guerlain perfume bottle produced by Pochet

$8,500

PERFUME BOTTLES AUCTION 2026

3: 1900 Barracuda perfume bottle case

$30,000

4: 1913 Baccarat bottle for Goden Mondanite

$800 5: 1920s ‘The Faery Fan’

$500 6: Modernist 1930s bottle for Gabilla ‘Intrigue’

$1,300

6 7

7: René Lalique ‘Fleurs Concaves’ perfume bottle

$2,000 8: René Lalique Phalene bottle for d’Heraud

$17,000

8 ON THE SCENT 19

PERFUME BOTTLES AUCTION 2026

9: 1910 Baccarat inkwell bottle

$50,000 10: 1920s Ota perfume atomiser

$1,200 11: Rare bottle for Bababi Secret Princesse Nefertiti

$900

10 11 12

12: Julien Viard rare bottle for Dorilly Parisienne Jolie

$5,500 13: 1924 Rochambeau’s Radio perfume presentation

$2,300

14 14: René Lalique ‘Mille Fleurs’ perfume bottle

$2,600

20 ON THE SCENT

XXXXXXXXX

Legrain bottle for Chantage (Emotional Blackmail)

$9,000

ALL PRICES LISTED ARE SALE PRICES REALISED AT THE PERFUME BOTTLES AUCTION

1952 Corday Rue de la Paix presentation as street lamp

$1,320

PERFUME BOTTLES AUCTION 2026 19: René Lalique blue glass perfume bottle for Canarina Les Yeux Bleus (Blue Eyes)

$3,000

17: Extremely rare René Lalique blue perfume bottle for Les Parfums de Cécile

$8,500 18: Rare green Bakelite bottle

$500

20: Rare Paul Poiret Rosine Bon Voyage suitcase perfume

$20,000 21: René Lalique for Forvil Le Perle Noir

$36,000

22: 1940s set of three figural Lanvin perfume display bottles

$1,600 23: Elizabeth Arden It’s You

$1,500

ON THE SCENT 23

FOUNDERS

THIS

CREATIVE Already a rising-star couturier, based in Paris, MARC-ANTOINE BARROIS made a splash on the fragrance scene in 2016 when he launched his debut fragrance, created with Quentin Bisch – a working partnership which has blossomed into a multi-award-winning fragrance line. JO FAIRLEY discovers his myriad inspirations

ter studying Fine Arts, Marc-Antoine Barrois trained in couture alongside Dominique Sirop, who had worked with Hubert de Givenchy and Yves Saint Laurent. Later, Marc-Antoine went on to work alongside Jean-Paul Gaultier at Hermès, before boldly creating his own men’s fashion house in 2006 at the age of just 25, ‘with the aim of rediscovering the traditional fundamentals of haute couture: service, quality and creativity.’ Marc-Antoine’s debut fragrance – created with Givaudan perfumer Quentin Bisch, in 2016 – acquired an almost immediate cult following from day one. A spicy-leather fragrance, B683 was named for the asteroid in The Little Prince, as well as Marc-Antoine’s birth date (6th October 1983). This working partnership’s success was cemented when Ganymede (2019), with its distinctive mineral-leather accord, won both the Fragrance Foundation France’s Expert Award for an independent niche brand, and the Fragrance Foundation UK’s Perfume Extraordinaire (which is judged blind). Fast forward to 2025 and Tilia, with its unique scent of linden blossom, pulled off another double, winning both Perfume Extraordinaire and Best Independent Fragrance at these prestigious UK Awards. Today, MARC-ANTOINE BARROIS fragrances are distributed in around 40 countries. Is the space you work in important for creativity? For me, quietness and nature foster the best environment to create. I have an office at home in Brittany, where we’re currently doing renovations, so I’m in between the office and the house. I can walk to the office from inside the house, but I prefer to walk outside to access it. 24 ON THE SCENT

LIFE

I try always to work in a separate, dedicated space, with good lighting. I used to work mostly at our office in Paris, where my studio is right at the back, in the least accessible, quietest space. I need to be uninterrupted, so I have my phone on Do Not Disturb. This is really important not just for the creative process, for putting ideas on paper – but when you have a fragrance brand, a business, you have to develop those ideas, perfect all the details, make things happen. That gets tougher as our company grows, because I create more, which means there is more to be finalised. How many times a day are you struck by ideas? I capture ideas constantly across my Moleskine notebook and phone and then share them with my deputy art director. I see myself more as an artist than a designer, and my process is rooted in deconstruction. For you, what is the relationship between couture and fragrance? Both carry a sense of elegance and a creative signature. You create both fashion and fragrance. How does that creative process differ? Creating a fragrance is really something quite different. I work closely

‘I’M BASICALLY A SPONGE. I ABSORB INSPIRATION FROM EVERYTHING I SEE, AND TRY TO TRANSLATE IT INTO MY WORK LATER ON’

ABOVE: Marc-Antoine with Quentin Bisch. FROM TOP RIGHT: Moleskine notebook. Alpine forest. The Brittany coastline, where Marc-Antoine likes to walk

LEFT: Three of the bestsellers from Marc-Antoine Barrois: Ganymede, Aldebaran and Tilia

ON THE SCENT 25

with my creative partner, perfumer Quentin Bisch; I share my ideas with him through text messages and written letters. Quentin has so many clients, he gets so many e-mails and is working on so many different projects, I like to be respectful of his time. I never call him. At the beginning, when I have lots of ideas for a new project, I write them down in a letter and post them to him. There might also be some drawings. Then Quentin can decide to open the letter when he has a moment, rather than feeling the pressure of yet another e-mail in his inbox. Tell us a little more about that working relationship, which has been so important for your fragrances… Creating an exceptional perfume takes deep dedication and time. Together with Quentin, we often spend years perfecting a single scent. My process relies entirely on our unique creative osmosis. I am not a perfumer, so I never dictate to Quentin. Instead, I share my emotions, energy and artistic vision, granting him complete freedom as a master of his craft. We only launch a fragrance when we are madly in love with it. Beyond a unique, elegant scent, every creation must deliver a signature LEFT: Essential morning cappuccino. BELOW: Graphic novel inspiration. BOTTOM: Paris’s Babi restaurant

trail and long-lasting quality. We also firmly commit to a ‘less but better’ approach, focusing on sustainability, 100% French craftsmanship and ethical practices, without ever compromising on perfection. Does caffeine play a role in your creative mood? Caffeine shapes my social life rather than the creative process. My morning cappuccino at the café is a daily ritual; it’s always shared with someone, so it also serves as my very first meeting of the day. Does food – and eating out – inspire you? When I’m working at home, I don’t care what I’m eating. I spend 20 days a month at home in Brittany, and the rest away – around five days a month in Paris, then London, New York. But when I’m away from home, I like to eat

‘EACH RAW MATERIAL CARRIES A COLOUR FOR ME AND EACH SCENT RESONATES WITH A TEXTURE’ out. It’s really important to me. Every meeting is inspiring. I can meet a friend, spend some slow time with my PR director, sit down with an actor or an artist and get really deep into topics. Lunch can last two hours, and the more time I spend, the more I understand. That’s what designing is about: understanding the world. In Paris, the bar in the Sofitel Paris Le Faubourg on the rue Boissy d’Anglas has been my canteen for years, during the daytime. It’s a quiet place that’s good for thinking and talking, just beside our office. And for night, I love to eat at a restaurant called Babi, which is run by three kids from three-star Michelin restaurants who wanted to do something different. It feels like my company: a group of people having a true adventure together, and the food is amazing. Do you like to visit exhibitions? I tend to visit art fairs more often than museums, but I recently loved the ‘Clair-Obscur’ exhibition at Paris’s Bourse de Commerce/Pinault Collection, especially a masterpiece by Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya, which created a fog within the Bourse’s rotunda, like a walk-in cloud. For creative inspiration, I am always drawn to the serenity of Monet’s waterlilies. Do you use sketchbooks or your own illustrations, when it comes to fragrance creation? What about moodboards? I use a sketchbook for my fragrance ideas, keeping all my packaging concepts and perfume notes drawn out in one place. I don’t really use moodboards, which is why I love working with Quentin Bisch – we just create stuff out of the blue.

26 ON THE SCENT

FOUNDERS

What was the creative process behind your newest fragrance, B87.135 Extrait? It is a sensory interpretation of Harrods, that luxury institution, and takes its name directly from the physical address of the iconic store, at 87-135 Brompton Road. It was designed as an exclusive creation to mark our presence at Harrods.

ABOVE: Monet water lilies. RIGHT: Marc-Antoine loves tree-planting. BELOW: B87.135 Extrait, for Harrods

What about the role of nature…? It’s really important to me. I like to walk on the cliffs in Brittany, near my home; for Ganymede, I had a vision of the ocean, and I could truly describe that to Quentin. Aldebaran came from the memory of pine forests near where my grandparents lived in the low Alps, where you had to walk through trees and forests before coming to a clearing. You can’t build an imaginary world out of nothing; it comes from your experience.

Do you create in your sleep? I am not sure if I actually create, but I write throughout the night and jot everything down in a notebook. What books/magazines inspire you? I am a big fan of graphic novels, particularly Olivier Rameau: La Merveilleuse Odyssée, about a notary who is very much a poet, and loses himself in a fantasy world. I read all 12 books in the series as a young teenager – we didn’t have a TV – and it gave me a sense of playfulness, which has stayed with me. Graphic novels still feed my imagination. What else in the world inspires you? I’m basically a sponge. I absorb inspiration from everything I see and try to translate it into my work later on. Do you listen to music while you work? Not really. When I work, I prefer complete silence or natural ambient sounds.

What’s your ideal state of mind for creating? Calm. Always calm. Off-duty, do you like to do anything else creative? Gardening is my secret passion. Before I had kids, I was able to spend hours and hours gardening, but now, not so much. I would love to be remembered as the man who planted trees; I like to imagine the size they will grow to, and the perspective they will create – very architectural. But I also just like weeding and dead-heading. I don’t just do it at home; if I am talking to friends, I’ll bend down and pull out their weeds, too! MARC-ANTOINE BARROIS fragrances are available from Harrods and Selfridges, from £120 for 30ml eau de parfum, and at marcantoinebarrois.com The Harrods exclusive B87.135 Extrait is priced £295 for 50ml extrait de parfum at harrods.com ON THE SCENT 27

BOTTLE MAGIC

The art of

GLASS With so much fanfare about the perfumers who create what’s inside our bottles of perfume, JO FAIRLEY turns her attention to those who transform sand into objects of beauty. We promise: you’ll never look at a fragrance bottle in quite the same way again

have a hunch. It’s a pretty educated guess, actually, that as you read this copy of On The Scent, you’re wearing fragrance – a #SOTD, something that suits the cooler weather, rich and toasty, or maybe mood-lifting, to banish the leaden sky you woke up to. But actually, I have two hunches – because I’m pretty sure that you barely registered the container that your fragrance zooshed out of. We pay so much attention to perfumers, talking about their mind-blowing ability to conjure emotion almost out of air. But by contrast, we tend to give precious little thought to the objects those fragrances are decanted into, born from ordinary sand and transformed into something weighty, light-filled, clear and perhaps even shimmering. Without bottles, though, there would be no perfume industry. A flacon safeguards the artistry inside, protecting the volatile oils. (Never mind the moods and stories held within that crystalline shell.) But beyond that, perfume bottles offer us something precious enough to keep, to refill, perhaps to display on our dressing tables – even though we

know that’s the worst thing for the fragrance inside! – and to treasure. And Francis Kurkdjian nails it when he says, ‘When you open a bottle of perfume, it’s a silent world that steps out.’ The bottle is the physical promise of that world within. It’s the first thing we see and the last thing we put down, when we apply a scent to our skin. And sometimes, when we’re sentimental (or nostalgic for a scent that has sadly disappeared from the marketplace), it can be an object that remains long after the last perfumed drop has been used up. So, for this edition, we wanted to big up the bottle. To celebrate the art of glass. And in particular, to explore a little-known area of France that is responsible for producing 70% of the world’s luxury perfume bottles – 1.5 billion of them a year...

‘WITHOUT BOTTLES, THERE WOULD BE NO PERFUME INDUSTRY’

THE GLASS VALLEY

Sitting on the border between the provinces of Normandy and Hautsde-France, in the Bresle Valley – which stretches between the Normandy coast and Picardy – this region has been a hub for glass-making since the Middle Ages; the first recorded glassworks in the area was established at SaintMartin-au-Bosc as long ago as 1430. As Mark Loveday, of leading perfume bottle distributor Pochpac, explains: ‘There are three reasons why the glass industry grew up here, related to natural resources. First, it had huge amounts of silica-rich sand, from which glass is made. Secondly, there was water. And thirdly, there were forests which could provide the wood to heat the furnaces.’ Beyond providing the firewood, meanwhile, the forests were also carpeted with ferns, which provided potash, a vital ingredient in the sand-melting process. (NB Today, the sand must be imported from further afield, while the furnaces run on electricity and gas, with an ever-keener eye to sustainability and energy use.) From the Middle Ages, glassmakers began to flourish in this geographically perfect spot – first making ‘flat glass’ for windows (notably stained glass for grand châteaux and churches), along with glass beads. But as perfumery itself began to take off among the Parisian bourgeoisie, with the rise of fragrance houses (notably Guerlain, who were based in nearby Abbeville), the industry truly boomed – especially after the opening of the railways, which could transport fragile, highvalue glassware to Paris, helping to transform the valley into the global

A Pochet bottle emerges from the

1600°C furnace

FAR LEFT: Molten glass being poured from a hopper. ABOVE: A huge range of skills is required for glassmaking, including engineering. LEFT: One of the thousands of moulds retained by Pochet, from designs copywrighted to the brands themselves

ABOVE and RIGHT: Stages of production on the factory line, which ultimately result in a clear glass bottle, ready for the final step – polishing

30 ON THE SCENT

BOTTLE MAGIC

epicentre centre for high quality perfume and cosmetics bottle-making that it remains to this day.

KEEPING THE FIRES BURNING

Today, La Glass Vallée has a cluster of around 65 member companies, with around 7,500-8,000 people said to be engaged in specialist jobs within the glass ecosystem. That means glassmakers, mould-makers, decorators, lacquerers, packers, engineers, machinery specialists, quality controllers, furnace operators – never mind the machine specialists and logistics businesses that have grown up around this industry, and the legions who work in packaging and warehousing. (And we can’t help imagining the rest of the infrastructure – not least the bakeries producing enough baguettes to fuel the workforce!) Glassmaking itself is incredibly skilled work, taking between 10-15 years to master. Across the member companies in La Glass Vallée network, apprenticeships are vital (alongside higher, formal qualifications) to ensure that the skill level remains world-class. Where once the craft of glassmaking might have been passed down the generations, that know-how is now more formally transmitted. Note: while you might not find women at the furnace doors forming hot glass for a living, women have for many, many years held other roles, checking and inspecting the work of their colleagues. Important business. One of the most fabled names

of all in this extraordinary valley is Pochet de Courval. Founded in 1623 (and still essentially family-owned), Pochet played a hugely important role in turning the perfume bottle into an object of covetable design. (Never mind technical skill and brand identity.) Their big break, as it were (!), was the creation of the luxurious, gilded bee bottle for Guerlain’s Eau de Cologne Impériale, made in 1853 for Empress Eugenie and adorned with the now-famous imperial bee motif. It is the exact same bee bottle that Guerlain offers today, featuring 69 bees hand-painted in gold, and it marks one of perfumery’s longestrunning collaborations between a glassmaker and a perfume house. The bottles for Chanel also come from Pochet. So do those of Lancôme, Cartier, Frédéric Malle and Jean Paul

‘EACH AND EVERY PERFUME BOTTLE IS A MONUMENT TO IMAGINATION AND CRAFT’ Gaultier, among so many others; the site can produce nearly a million bottles a day, to precise designs whose intellectual property belongs to the brands themselves. As Pochet de Courval put it, ‘glass flows in our veins.’ Explains Pochpac’s Mark Loveday, ‘when you go to the factory, what you see is a conveyor belt with huge trays of sand, being emptied into the three furnaces. Controlled by computers, the precise amount of other ingredients will be added – certain minerals, essential to the process.’ These may include lime, dolomite (calcium magnesium carbonate), for durability and stability, as well as alumina and soda ash – and crucially, the furnaces must never stop working, which calls for a threeshift system to keep them firing at 1600°C degrees.

Out of destruction, beauty For the Amouage Royal Drops collection, the Oman-based brand sought out glassmakers Thomas Segaud and Antoine Boudet, alongside metal sculptor Pierre Salignac, who each brought expertise to the creation of this organically shaped flacon. The design itself – by marquetry and cabinet-making expert Dimitry Hlinka – was inspired by the shape of frankincense ‘tears’, the drops produced from small cuts in the frankincense bark which yield the resin. The bottle creation used an age-old hand-blowing technique, with each one absolutely unique: each mould has to be destroyed, to release the flacon, and can never be used again.

The ‘frankincense tears’ bottle for Amouage Royal Drops

THE SCENT START-UPS ABOVE: Examples of the iconic Guerlain ‘bee’ bottle, produced by Pochet

97% of the bottles produced by Pochet via those blazing furnaces are sold to those high-profile customers, so ON THE SCENT 31

BOTTLE MAGIC

And over in Venice... The history of glassmaking in Murano dates back even further than La Glass Vallée’s – to 1290, when the Venetian Republic ordered the city’s glass furnaces to relocate to the island, to avoid the fire risk posed by intense heat to timber-built Venice. Murano has evolved into hugely popular tourist attraction, where you can be mesmerised by the spectre of the maestri vetrai (glass masters) coaxing shapes from glowing gobbets of glass – a bead, a horse, even a chandelier… but probably not a perfume bottle, as these are produced behind closed doors, including for The Merchant of Venice, the hugely successful brand founded by the Venetian Vidal family in 2013. Centuries before the town of Grasse was a twinkle in perfumers’ eyes, or Cologne saw the creation of its first eau de (in 1709), Venice was the global hub of perfumery, born from its trade in ingredients that included spices, resins, woods, ambergris and musk (which at one point was worth its weight in gold). But for reasons including plague, wars and (most notably) an invasion by Napoleon, Venice was all but written out of perfume’s history books. Until The Merchant of Venice came along... While not every flacon they offer is produced on the island, The Merchant of Venice has collaborated with Murano’s artisan glassmakers since the brand’s launch. The Murano Art Collection sees the signature shaped bottle for the perfume house adorned with a multi-coloured glass murrina, as it’s called, created by slicing a patterned, molten glass cane, and then – once cooled – mounted and suspended from the neck of each opulent black lacquered bottle like a jewelled pendant. Drawing further on Murano’s glass traditions, The Merchant of Venice have also launched their exquisite Nectars perfume oils collection, precious (and at £1,800 each, pricy) hand-blown treasures created from Venetian bullicante glass, a technique of trapping bubbles inside layers of glass, which seem to float within the finished object. Just 50 of each Nectar exist in ruby, amber and deep green bottles, making them true collector’s items, whether for the glass aficionado – or the perfume-lover. LEFT: The Merchant of Venice’s The Murano Art Collection, with its multi-coloured glass ‘pendant’. BELOW LEFT: Murano artistry at work. BELOW: Bullicante glass for The Nectars collection

many of them household names. But the other 3%, explains Mark, ‘are what’s known as “stock bottles.”’ These designs, which number more than a dozen different shapes, are made available via a licensing agreement to Pochpac, the Suffolk-based British company for which Mark is Sales Director. And through Mark and his dedicated (and, can we add, lovely?) team, they are then made available to smaller – indeed, sometimes absolutely tiny – brands. Now, there’s no question that since the pandemic, Pochpac’s sales have boomed, echoing the growth in interest in fragrance itself. But you could, in fact, quite legitimately turn that around – and say that the phenomenal growth in niche would not have happened without Pochpac. ‘Earlier this year,’ says Mark, ‘the team visited Pia Long and Nick Gilbert’s Pop-Up Perfumery, in London. We looked around, and every single brand showing there had been supplied by Pochpac, either for bottles or sample vials.’ Proud moment, for sure. Olfactive O, 4160 Tuesdays, Maya Njie… what they have in common is that they all source bottles from Pochpac. Yes, the bottles are beautiful – but what this distributor will happily do is supply them in really quite minuscule quantities, requiring minimal investment from that brand while they dip a toe in the (perfumed) water. Mark likes to relate the story of Maya Njie, who came on the bus with an IKEA bag to pick up one of her first orders. (And baby, look at her now!). Papillon Artisan Perfumers, meanwhile, would put in an order for as few as 50 of their bottle design, in the early days, as founderperfumer Liz Moores began to grow her fledgling fragrance house into the globally respected, multi-awardwinning name that it is today. What’s more, says Mark: ‘Despite having 1,000 customers around the world, we remain very hands-on. I know all about Liz’s horses, her kids, her owls…’

SMALL ORDERS, BIG DREAMS

It might seem inconsequential to outsiders, but it was a big moment for niche perfumery when a few years 32 ON THE SCENT

LEFT: Quality control at Pochpac’s factory in Suffolk. ABOVE: A Pochpac ‘Harmonie’ bottle – and how it looks, when filled by Maya

Njie’s awardwinning perfume BELOW: Precarious work, carrying boxes of bottles! BELOW LEFT: Pochpac-printed bottles and vials

ON THE SCENT 33

BOTTLE MAGIC

ago, Mark and his team made the decision to start offering pumps and caps, in combination with the bottles. Again, for a bootstrapped start-up, the ability to order just a few dozen of each to kickstart their business can help to green-light the launch of their brand. ‘What I’m passionate about is being able to give small indie brands the same chance as the big guys,’ he says. ‘Many of them may never have even dreamed of having a bottle of the quality that Pochet offers – but we make it possible.’ (By contrast, I was recently talking to the founder of a high-profile start-up fragrance brand who was chewing her pencil over the very future of her business, lamenting that her wholesaler – not Pochpac, note – was requesting a minimum order for 7,000 caps for the next production run, which was completely beyond budget.)

A WORLD OF BOTTLES

As a result of this flexibility, Pochpac now supply an increasing number of overseas fragrance houses, especially in the US. ‘We field enquiries from all over the globe, and it’s one of the most exciting parts of this job,’ explains Mark. ‘They tell us their vision, share their dream. I recently talked to a customer who wants to translate their passion for classical music into fragrance; every story is different, and every story is fascinating.’ And while Pochpac don’t officially offer a ‘hand-holding’ service, there’s no question that Mark and his colleagues’ insights into the experiences of hundreds of other startups can perhaps help new customers to avoid some of the elephantsized pitfalls involved in founding a perfume brand. ‘We really like to support independent perfumers, helping them with any question they may have,’ he says. That help comes in many forms, actually: Pochpac also offer welcome support to the indie perfumery community in a quite different way, sponsoring the Art and Olfaction Awards, as well as the Barnes Fragrance Fair. There’s another vital, practical service that Pochpac offers, too. Those ‘stock bottles’ (see p.33) are beautiful – but they come unbranded. 34 ON THE SCENT

ABOVE LEFT: Pochpac also print the bottles they provide to Miller Harris with their characteristic illustrations and branding. RIGHT: Pochet bottles for Chanel

They need either a paper label, or a screen-printed design, to become recognisable; that branding, those designs, make up the fairy dust that transforms a plain flacon into something worthy of a bathroom shelf or a dressing table. So, at Pochpac’s Suffolk factory, bottles can be screenprinted – again, a highly specialist process. ‘The blank bottles are put through an oven and heated to 600°C,

‘GIVE A THOUGHT TO THE DOZENS OF HUMAN HANDS WHO WERE INVOLVED ALONG THE WAY’ Mark explains. ‘That’s essential, to ensure that the name or the design on the bottle doesn’t just smudge or wash off.’ (And we’ve surely all had that happen.) On the previous page, see a selection of brands who use Pochpac’s screen-printing service on their Pochet bottles – and above, an example from Miller Harris, whose twining botanicals have become such a storytelling signature for that brand. We aren’t just talking screenprinting on 50ml or 100ml bottles, though; Pochpac also print brand and fragrance names onto literally millions of perfume vials each year. Those make their way into the discovery sets that have helped fuel growth in

the market generally, as so many of us have taken to low-commitment sampling before we splash out on the big size. (Or simply prefer to slip a few teeny atomisers in our handbags or hand luggage, rather than hauling around a hefty glass bottle – no matter how gorgeous it might be.) Overall, unsurprisingly, Mark Loveday certainly wishes that as perfume-lovers, we paid a bit more attention to ‘this little miracle’ we hold in our hands, as we spray or spritz or dab. So, next time you reach for a scent – whether it’s Chanel Chance, Miller Harris Rose Silence or something from 4160 Tuesdays – why not pause for a moment or two? Consider the journey that bottle went through. Sand, quarried and refined. Furnaces kept blazing around the clock. Molten glass, blown or moulded with precision (most likely in a valley in Normandy), then cooled, inspected, decorated – way before a single drop of perfume was even poured into it. Give a thought to the dozens of human hands that were involved, along the way, working in the shadows, while the perfumer (or sometimes just the perfume house) basks in the kudos and acclaim. For each and every bottle is a kind of monument to imagination and to craft. And really ought to serve as a reminder – a glimmeringly beautiful, tangible reminder – that the magic of perfume is actually about much more than what we smell.

Oh, la Lalique! As François Coty understood, as early as 1906, the bottle is no afterthought. It is a vital part of the proposition to the perfumewearer. The celebrated perfumer/brand founder is quoted as saying, ‘Give a woman the best product you can compound, present it in a perfect container – beautifully simple, but of impeccable taste – and a great business will arise.’ Coty’s partnership with René Lalique helped to transform the perfume bottle into an accessible work of decorative art, and an essential element of a fragrance’s identity. As you can see from our report on The Perfume Bottles Auction on p.16, vintage Lalique bottles are truly prized by collectors. That owes much to the way that René Lalique saw how bottles could communicate glamour, character and actually, the very mood of the perfume within. Before Lalique and Coty teamed up, beautiful bottles were mostly costly, unbranded crystal objects, aimed at an elite clientele. Lalique’s genius was to apply sculptural design to more affordable moulded glass, putting gorgeously presented perfume within the reach of a far, far wider public. Luxury for the masses. At Lalique’s Alsace factory in Wingen-sur-Moder – opened in 1922 – René began to develop a distinctive visual identity, which endures to this day. Lalique’s glass was not merely transparent: he contrasted clear surfaces against a soft, almost misted satin finish, creating effects of light and shade. Floral forms, female figures and animals almost seem to emerge from the material itself. And later, geometric Art Deco motifs brought a modern, architectural look. FRANÇOIS COTY The processes that Lalique developed were as inventive as the designs. For hand-made glass, molten material is gathered on the end of a blowpipe, then blown or pressed into a mould. After cooling comes cutting, sanding and polishing. But Lalique’s spot-itat-40-paces satin finish is achieved through painstaking hand-finishing, which buffs glass to that almost velvety, luminous texture. Lalique also essentially created a template for the relationship between the perfumer, designer and manufacturer. His bottles gave fragrance houses a distinctive look – but the craftsmanship made them TOP: A gobbet of into objects that scent-lovers kept, long glass in after they’d dabbed the last drop. Lalique’s furnace. Today, the process stays true to its CENTRE RIGHT: heritage – but of course, with Each ball of glass is contemporary equipment, including a huge shaped in a mould tank furnace. The skill, the eye, of the by an artisan. glassmaker remains hugely important, ABOVE RIGHT: Sand though. Industrial heat and technical – the humble but precision, then cutting, polishing and precious natural raw satin-finishing each piece into an object in material for glass. RIGHT: A finished which to showcase a perfume, or the Lalique flacon flicker of a Lalique scented candle.

‘Give a woman the best product you can compound, present it in a perfect container – beautifully simple, but of impeccable taste – and a great business will arise’

INGREDIENTS

THE IRIS renaissance The ‘blue gold’ of perfumery has taken centre stage again. From hushed, skin-close elegance to full-throttle va-va-voom, this precious root is suddenly everywhere, reports SUZY NIGHTINGALE

INGREDIENTS

RIS is one of the most wonderfully contrary notes in perfumery. The flower arrives in a flourish – those sumptuously structured, silken petals, veined like forked lightning and coloured in every shade from inky purple, bruised violet to palest milk-blue. Yet perfumery’s real treasure lies unseen. It is buried in the earth: a fleshy, knuckled rootstock resembling something from folklore and called a rhizome, which must be patiently coaxed, harvested, dried, aged and transformed before it reveals the scent that perfumers prize above almost all others. And which proves so costly to purchase, it earns the nickname ‘blue gold’.

And oh! What a scent. Iris – or orris, as the perfumery material extracted from the root is more properly called – can evoke vintage face powder, cool marble, supple suede gloves, freshly laundered linen, bleached woods, violet petals, butter, earth after rain and the strangely intimate warmth of skin. Think beyond the whole ‘your skin but better’ cliché to encompass skin that might be a tenderly chaste brush of lips on the back of a hand, a lover’s neck nuzzled, or the rather racier smoothness of an upper thigh pleasurably explored. It is at once aristocratic, almost standoffish in its reserve, and yet completely familiar and reassuring – even licentiously bawdy, depending on how it is used and the other materials it cosies up with. No wonder this incredibly nuanced material is having a glorious renaissance. Today’s iris scents segue from classically inspired compositions that revel in lipstick, soft leather and precious woods, to thoroughly contemporary explorations of iris as mineralic, metallic, vegetal, gourmand, transparent or distinctly salty-skinned. It can be a shorthand for retro refinement and ‘quiet luxury’, but also speak to our increasing urge to subvert gender norms in scent, especially when metallic, marine-like facets juxtapose the opulent frivolity of powdery froufrou. No better time, then, for Guerlain to celebrate the fragrance that arguably began fine perfumery’s enduring love affair with iris: L’Heure Bleue, named for the magical moment at dusk where day turns to night, turning the sky to a still-glowing ink. ‘After thousands of trials, months of wait,’ says Guerlain Perfume Creation Director & Perfumer Delphine Jelk, the new L’Heure Bleue Eau de Parfum – internally codenamed ‘Project Blue’ – could finally be revealed to the world. (Guerlain shared part of Delphine’s moodboard with us, which you can see opposite.) Be not afraid: the original remains – first launched 114 years ago and now retitled L’Heure

Bleue 1912, sitting within the Les Légendaires collection of the house’s treasured icons. In fact, Jelk’s intention was ‘not to modernise the original L’Heure Bleue from 1912, nor to revisit it, but to pay tribute to a masterpiece and to translate that emotion into the present through a new palette of ingredients.’ A home-made iris tincture was created exclusively for this perfume, Guerlain explain, which is ‘woven into a fresher-feeling ozonic blue sky accord, designed to evoke the crisp, cool air – and the shiver – of the blue hour’. To this, they add the softness of orange blossom, on a base of vanilla, woods and musk, creating what Jelk calls ‘airy, powdery sensuality’. For Olya Bar, contributing editor at perfume blog ÇaFleureBon, these two ‘blue hours’ differ most profoundly in their emotional atmosphere and the contexts into which they arrive. ‘The original held something more fraught in its stillness,’ she says, ‘the quiet before a world went to war.’ Jelk, she feels, ‘returns to that same emotional core but reaches for a different palette entirely, reimagining the concept through new materials rather than restaging the past.’ Daniela Andrier is a master perfumer whose work helped shape the modern understanding of iris with Prada Infusion d’Iris in 2007. A true master of this material, which appears time and again in her creations, she also perceives iris – which she admits is one of her most-loved materials – as a gloriously complicated conductor of emotional responses. ‘What I find most beautiful about iris is that it gives a soul and depth,’ she says. ‘It is so faceted: powdery, woody, cool or warm, even metallic. You can stretch it in so many different ways.’ Yet, for Andrier, iris’s technical versatility is not the whole story. ‘What I love most is this deep soul – the emotions it brings. It’s just perfect.’ That sense of a note with an inner life may explain why iris remains so compelling. Smelled as a raw material, it has no obvious prettiness. It can be aloof, rooty, dry and faintly carroty – indeed, carrot seed is often employed to add a greener, more freshlyplucked-root, rustic ‘kitchen table’ quality to certain iris compositions. Sometimes orris has a chalky, almost medicinal quality, like lozenges discovered in the long-forgotten pocket of a lacquered handbag. But set against the right materials, it becomes transformative, granting texture and depth, draping a soft-focus veil around flowers, sharpening woods, smoothing leather or lending a lingering sensuality and lasting power to compositions that might otherwise fly away. Antoine Lie, one of perfumery’s most individual voices, has his own deeply personal connection to the material. He remembers scents his mother wore when he was younger, saying: ‘so many of them were shaped

‘IRIS… IS SO COSTLY TO PURCHASE, IT EARNS THE NAME “BLUE GOLD”’

38 ON THE SCENT

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Part of Delphine Jelk’s moodboard for the new Guerlain L’Heure Bleue Eau de Parfum

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INGREDIENTS

by orris’. He feels this early imprint ‘may have made me especially sensitive to iris.’ On its own, Antoine says, ‘orris can seem dry, earthy or too powdery for some people,’ he explains. ‘But when you combine it with other ingredients, it becomes exceptional. It really is about the way you use it.’ To understand iris’s mystique, first consider the patience required to make it smell at all. The velvety blooms are not the prize. Rather heartbreakingly, the flowers are often removed so the plant can direct its energy underground, into the rhizomes. These roots remain in the soil for years before harvest. Once lifted, cleaned and dried, they must mature for roughly two and a half to three years, to develop fragrant compounds known as irones – the molecules that give orris its distinctive violet-powdered, woody and suedelike character. The aged roots are then ground and distilled into iris butter, a rich, waxy material that may be further processed into an absolute. We can look at this as less an agricultural harvest than an exercise in faith: an investment of land, labour, knowledge and years of storage, long before a perfumer can use a single scented drop. And the yield is almost comically stingy. One hectare may produce many tonnes of fresh rhizomes, yet only a relatively tiny quantity of butter – and less still of the most refined extract. Little wonder that orris has long sat among perfumery’s most rarefied and expensive natural materials. Antoine Lie calls it ‘pure gold in perfumery’, estimating that, depending on quality, origin and production, iris can cost between £12,800 and £25,700 per kilo. As a result, in most formulas, it is deployed sparingly, a whisper that alters everything, or is buoyed by clever modern synthetics, including myriad musks, to grant a fuller-bodied boost. The monumental effort and perpetual patience required to produce orris make its present moment on centre stage all the more thrilling. One of the most intriguing new players at the heart of this revival comes from Danner & Flemming, a company whose story began not with market research or a moodboard, but with a research project to establish iris cultivation in Bavaria. The company is involved at every stage, from plantlet to raw material, combining farming, biological expertise and perfume development in a genuinely hands-on, field-to-flacon approach, working with the aforementioned Antoine Lie. Their patented refinement method, say Danner & Fleming, massively shortens the traditional period for the material to mature, drying rhizomes quickly and

‘IN MANY FORMULAS, IRIS IS DEPLOYED SPARINGLY, A WHISPER THAT ALTERS EVERYTHING’

Rooting out your perfect iris PRADA Infusion d’Iris Daniela Andrier’s cult iris is sheer genius: crisp yet smooth, evoking clean linen and warm skin, lifted by neroli and mandarin, sharpened with galbanum, cedarwood and vetiver, then softened by that utterly sublime, butter-like iris. HERMÈS Hiris On the cusp of the 2000s, Olivia Giacobetti ushered in a steam-cloud iris; less powderpuff, more earth-rooted, its delicate dryness yielding to a damp, lightly honeyed, hay-like dry-down. BIENAIMÉ Vermeil From the house founded in 1935, newly revived by Cécilia Mergui, this is vintage powder compacts and a racy slick of lipstick. Raspberry heightens iris’s rouged glamour, while carrot seed, heliotrope and sandalwood soften deliciously, dusting with powderiness. GUERLAIN L’Heure Bleu [new] A metallic sea breeze crests L’Heure Bleue’s misty 1912 DNA, as the bespoke iris tincture meets orange blossom, warm vanilla and woods, the original’s atmosphere made softly sweeter, rounder and comfortingly confident. CREED Iris Debonair Masterfully merging classical fougère and floral elements, iris and Castle Farm’s Kentish lavender blur at the edges, creating a superbly wearable fragrance with an aristocratic air that feels thoroughly, elegantly modern. ON THE SCENT 41

INGREDIENTS

‘IRIS POSSESSES HERITAGE WITHOUT FEELING FUSTY, LUXURY WITHOUT REQUIRING BLING’ gently. This helps them mature without the mustier odours that can sometimes develop, to produce a fresher, warmer raw material with a higher level of fragrant compounds. To create their own perfumes from the harvest was the natural next chapter, via limited millésime editions shaped around the character of each harvest and iris variety. Lie was invited to compose using Danner & Flemming’s iris at concentrations that would usually be financially prohibitive. ‘Normally, iris might be used at around 0.1% in a fragrance,’ he says. ‘Here, it can be between 2.5% and 4.1%.’ Danner & Flemming’s own iris sits at the heart of these formulas, allowing him to work without the usual cost constraint. ‘It is not marketing nonsense,’ Lie says plainly. ‘Because they grow and process it themselves, there is no intermediary. I could use it in overdose and really let the iris show itself.’ The distinction is not only one of quantity. Lie describes the Bavarian material as unusually rich in irones, and therefore more powerful, fuller and more expressive. ‘It is the best I have smelled,’ he says, praising both its unprecedented origin and the care taken in its processing. Kate Thompson, of Brighton’s (aptly-named) Wild Iris, was one of the first retailers to smell and to stock this collection. ‘In a world of mass consumerism, the story behind Danner & Flemming’s “overdose” iris fragrances made my heart sing,’ she says. Kate further acknowledges the evident care behind a collection in which the iris is ‘unapologetically the star’, describing their millésime idea as having ‘a real sense of time, craft and intention’. Perhaps that is why iris feels like an emotional lightning rod in perfumery. It asks us to slow down, to look below the flower’s showy surface and appreciate the unglamorous, laborious work beneath. It possesses heritage without feeling fusty, luxury without requiring bling, with enough olfactive gender fluid contradictions to continually feel right for right now. By turns it is cool but comforting, rooty yet radiant and – as you will discover if you explore some of the iris fragrances showcased here, for yourself – it can shape-shift into being powdery, woody, leathery, creamy, mineral, skinsoft, chicly classic or coolly contemporary, while still remaining sensorially surprising. How utterly wonderful, for perfumers and perfumelovers alike, that iris is having such a moment. A note capable of stirring the most nuanced emotions, and one to fall in love with anew, as it continues to put down unexpected roots in perfumery’s evershifting landscape. 42 ON THE SCENT

DANNER & FLEMMING Trousseau Utilising their own meticulously extracted Bavarian iris, Antoine Lie enriches that feathery plushness with rare Piedmontese hazelnut extract, layering tonka, sandalwood and cedar for an exceptionally swoon-worthy experience we can’t get enough of. JO MALONE LONDON Iris & White Musk Cologne Intense Gorgeous, gossamer-puffed iris feels silvery and slinky, here. Clean and naughty all at once, it is as softly sensual as slipping silk underwear onto just-bathed and powdered skin. Boudoir-perfect. ESSENTIAL PARFUMS Velvet Iris Languorously steamy, Dominique Ropion lavishes velvety textures of iris with flecks of pink pepper’s fizz and a subtle tingle of turmeric. Sap-laden galbanum segues to milky sandalwood, caressing carnality from iris as it warms. NANCY MEILAND Iris Nebula Throbbing with skin-like warmth, this ‘crystalline yet potent love potion’ coaxes and coos, as ripe white pear juice trickles to creamy iris butter, rippled with caramel and suede for the final seduction. BOOTS LAST NOTE Echoes of You Fabulously affordable (£12.99!) this smells more expensive than it has any right to do. Glimmering dryly with flecks of pink pepper and a lovely, elegant rendition of lily of the valley, the cashmere stroke of iris hovers throughout.

HOW WILL YOU FIND YOUR NEXT SCENT LOVE? Fragrance is about feelings. Which is what Kaorium – the awardwinning scent selection technology – cleverly taps into. Here, our firsthand report on how it works

PERFUMED PARTNERSHIP

n the previous issue of On The Scent, we highlighted Kaorium, a.k.a. The Scent SommelierTM – the Fragrance Foundation Award-winning technology which is helping to steer scent-lovers to new discoveries. But for this issue, to experience how it works, we sent along a Kaorium ‘virgin’, to discover how this so-clever fragrance selection tech works in real life. Not just any old virgin, mind – but this magazine’s Editor, Jo Fairley. Jo headed to independent fragrance retailer Parfum Le Dance, in Richmond, the beautiful destination boutique owned by scent expert Derya Turkan, to try Kaorium out for herself. ‘Parfum Le Dance is most definitely a world-class fragrance store,’ reports Jo. ‘But on the shelves are hundreds of bottles, dozens of brands. And not everyone wants to have their hand held by a sales consultant or a store owner – even one as unquestionably charming and knowledgeable as Derya.’ So, while Derya is happy to guide the customer through their Kaorium ‘consultation’, should they wish, the technology’s so simple to use that you can easily ‘fly solo’ to find your next scent, in stores where Kaorium is available. FRAGRANT WORDPLAY On Kaorium’s interactive stand are arrayed 16 cork stoppered vials. ‘Discover your perfect fragrance,’ beckons the screen – and with a touch, you’re off. Explains Jo: ‘Kaorium wanted to know: was I looking for a fragrance for myself (which I was), or for someone else? And having made that selection, a series of phrases appeared on the screen. “What kind of scent are you looking for?” Kaorium asked. “Fresh & Energetic”, “Warm & Cosy?”, “Refined & Polished?” Of the nine phrases on the screen, the one that resonated most with me right then was instantly obvious: “Calm and Reassuring.” So, that’s what I touched.’ ‘I’d had a series of tech nightmares,’ explains Jo. ‘I needed something truly Zen-like, to soothe my frazzled nerves. Now, I absolutely know that fragrance can do that – but I’ve rarely needed it so badly.’ That first step completed, three potentially ‘Calm & Reassuring’ vials were indicated by the screen, to be opened and inhaled; inside each, a dipped strip. Of the three, vial 01 made Jo’s hunched shoulders instantly relax. A series of adjectives then appears on the screen, asking which sums up that scent in one word, from a lexicon of 18 suggestions. Modern, perhaps? Familiar? Sunny? Comforting? ‘No question: the feel of the 01 scent was quite simply “Serene”’, says Jo.

Via Kaorium’s touch screen, the scent-lover taps into their emotions, to be steered cleverly to a shortlist of three potential matches

Jo settling on 14. ‘Soothing’ was the word for that one. Next, Kaorium asked: ‘Which one of these scents do you like best?’ The three ‘shortlisted’ vials were smelled again. And pondered over. And re-smelled. ‘I did like them all,’ says Jo, ‘But 07 was the one I kept coming back to.’ Kaorium promise that ‘AI will match your selected scent to an expression.’ But for Jo, ‘the magic of Kaorium is that it isn’t so much “Artificial Intelligence” as true emotional intelligence.’ Before finally prescribing three possible fragrance matches, the technology summed up the profile of vial 07 as ‘A gentle breeze on a cosy afternoon’ – which, for Jo, conveyed exactly the sense of soothing that she was seeking. Tailored to each retailer, Kaorium points the perfume-seeker only towards that particular store’s stock, which is matched to each emotion. In this case, Nissaba Chaco, Gallivant Istanbul and Blanc Sada, from maverick perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour’s L’Entropiste range, made up Jo’s final shortlist. And of those three – tried first on blotters, then on Jo’s skin – it was Blanc Sada that truly pulled off the desired, calming conjuring trick. Explaining that she discourages impulse shopping – wanting customers to live with and love a scent before they buy it – Derya then presented Jo with a sample of L’Entropiste Blanc Sada to take home, in order to live with its blend of rice powder, iris, vanilla and (unexpectedly) straw on her skin. And you know what? ‘Clever Kaorium – and clever Derya – because I’ll be back for a full size,’ says Jo. Not just calmed, soothed and suitably de-frazzled – but impressed, too.

“

Not just artificial intelligence – but true emotional intelligence

”

IN SEARCH OF SERENITY Jo then placed vial 01 on the screen just in front of her. Glowing orbs on the screen beckoned Jo to smell three further vials, numbered 07, 08 and 14. This time, it was 07 that pushed her buttons – and once more, invited her to pin-point the word that best captured it, in one. Irresistible? Warm? Rich? Captivating?’ ‘Peaceful’ leaped out at Jo, from the adjectives. One last time, three vials were set aglow, with

Parfum Le Dance, 8 Paved Court, Richmond, TW9 1LZ parfumeledance.com For other locations where you can try Kaorium for yourself, visit kaorium.com ON THE SCENT 45

MEMORIES, DREAMS, REFLECTIONS Liz Astor

For the first in this series, author, charity fundraiser and campaigner Liz Astor – who has turned a life of adventure and memory into her own fragrance brand – shares her touchstone smells

hat is the very first thing you remember smelling? My mother’s fragrance. She always smelled so lovely, compared to my grandmother who lived with us, who smelled of old face powder – which was ghastly! When did you realise that scent was really important to you? When I was about four years old. I used to sit on the kitchen counter when my mother was cooking, swinging my legs and chatting to her. Leeks were a particular aversion when I was a child, but I could always dive my nose into a bowl of roses to reset.

ABOVE: The first fragrance Liz received. BELOW: Liz Astor with one of the debut fragrances for her perfume house

What was the first fragrance you were given? A small bottle of Chanel No5 by my first boyfriend, because his mother loved it. I was too young to know if that was a compliment or not! What was the first fragrance you bought for yourself? Fracas by Robert Piguet. It was the musky rose in it that I loved so much. Roses have always been an important part of my garden planting; I always start with them and work the rest of the garden around them. Have you had different fragrances for different phases of your life? Absolutely. Floris Night Scented Jasmine was a definite favourite, as it crossed from spring to winter but was never too heavy; I find some floral fragrances unbearably sweet and sickly. Also, patchouli in my hippy days, which I can’t stand now! Penhaligon’s Bluebell is completely true to British bluebells. Because I lived in Kent where the woods abound in bluebells in the spring and the season is so short, it makes capturing the scent so precious, which this does so well. In my twenties, Chanel No5 was a definite favourite, as was Fracas. The smell that always makes you feel happy… is the scent of a baby. It is so soft and sweet and only lasts a few months, and comes with the joy of its safe arrival.

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ABOVE: Roses reset Liz’s nose. BELOW: Fragrances worn through the decades – and her stepfather’s Old Spice

INTERVIEW 1 2

LIZ ASTOR’S 5 FAVOURITE SMELLS…

FRESH LINEN There’s nothing like the ozone hit when you breathe in the delicious scent of sheets and shirts which have been dried outside on the washing line.

The smell that always makes me feel a bit sad… is Old Spice. My stepfather used it. I adored him, but he died far too young.

SUNCREAM Not that I actually like the smell, does anyone? But it immediately transports me to beach holidays and adventures I have had on several walking or cycling trips with friends.

The scent I love on a woman is… Liz Astor Hethersett, named after the English village where I grew up. It was the first scent for my brand, and it is exactly what I wanted and love. It is fresh, not overly floral and carries the scent of spring, bursting with enthusiasm and joy, which is what I always feel after a long dark winter. The scent that I love on a man is… a Chanel deodorant that I think is obsolete, alas. I also like Creed Aventus – fresh and citrusy with smoky, woody base notes – and of course my own Liz Astor 8.7S, 118.3E Adrift, named after being adrift in the Indian ocean. I love to smell it on my husband, but also love to wear it myself.

The fragrance from the past that I long to smell is… Jean Patou Joy. It reminds me of my mother, who used to dab a little behind each ear every evening as she ‘freshened up’ before my stepfather came home. I liked to offer her my ‘concoctions’, which I’d created during the day in a pestle and mortar from fallen rose petals, lemon scented geranium leaves and whatever else I could find in the garden, in return for a tiny dab on my neck of Joy. What is your favourite book about smells? I love The Story of Perfume by Elisabeth de Feydeau, which my daughter Natalya gave me. Natalya takes most of my photos for my fragrance brand’s Instagram account as she is a brilliant photographer – I trust her implicitly – and she also makes me laugh. In a word, what does perfume mean to you? Joy. Find Liz’s fragrance collection, priced from £40 for 7.5ml eau de parfum at lizastor.com

SCENTED LEAF GERANIUMS Always so fresh and refreshing – and lavender which reminds me of all the wonderful times our family has had in the South of France. I grow French lavender all around our house. TOP: Favourite smells. ABOVE: Creed Aventus, a favourite on men. BELOW: her book choice and the scent she loves on women

TOAST I am a creature of habit and toast with marmalade is my breakfast absolute must. But I am very fussy about the quality of my bread and marmalade. I don’t make marmalade these days but buy it from The Grange, which is where my autistic daughter lives. It is delicious and supports their wonderful work.

GRASS AFTER RAIN I love lying face-down on grass after rain and breathing in the earthy newly-washed lawn.

ON THE SCENT 47

florislondon.com | 89 Jermyn Street, London | +44 (0) 3301 340180

THE SCENTSCAPE WHAT WE’RE SEEING – AND SNIFFING – FROM AUTUMN 2026’S LAUNCHES

Many of the launches showcased in this issue offer a sense of snuggliness, with new gourmands, a whole cabinet of deliciously warming booziness and a plethora of perfumes focusing on comfort, happiness and feeling confident in your own skin. Prepare your senses to be tantalised by lusciously RIPE FRUITS drizzled in HONEY and SPICES, bruise-dark berries, seriously grown-up CHOCOLATE and RUM-rippled enticements, while IRIS really takes centre stage for floral and strokeable, skin-like scents (see also p.37). Echoing our urge to purchase new pyjamas and a start a good book are the hot beverage-infused fragrances incorporating BLACK TEA, nutty

COFFEE notes, milky lattes and GINGER-tingled chai. And if that all sounds a bit goody-two-shoes for your tastes, you’ll be pleased to hear that naughtiness abounds in swoon-worthy TOBACCOlaced temptations, to which we developed an instant addiction at first spritz. So, what do this season’s scent trends tell us about our current needs? That we need to slow down and embrace the gentle golden light of autumn, perhaps. If you’re thrilled by the prospect of reaching for boots, coats and soft scarves again, you’ll feel similarly excited about the new releases we’ve curated and reviewed over the coming pages. There’s a LOT to fall in love with...

TRENDS & LAUNCHES

ACQUA DI PARMA Cedro Virtuoso

AESOP Unforeseen Aer

AKRO Heat

MOOD: Harmonious

MOOD: Outdoorsy

MOOD: Glowing

‘A tailor-made co-infusion of Virginia cedarwood and hazelnut’ opens this latest from AdP’s Signatures of the Sun collection. But whereas hazelnut might normally be regarded as gourmand, Fabrice Pellegrin explains, ‘it actually reveals beautiful woody facets.’ Seamlessly blending Calabrian bergamot’s luminosity with the creamy base, this is harmony rather than contrast. Layerable body care, plus a candle and diffuser, are available for 360° olfactive immersion. £257 for 100ml eau de parfum harrods.com

Its classic fougère construction – lavandin, rosemary and geranium, subtly warmed by nutmeg – doesn’t tell the whole story, as a mineralic breeze gusts throughout. Aesop tell us this is suited to ‘wayfarers, kintsugi practitioners, meteorologists’ – but we think any lover of airy, aromatic scents will fall for its cool-in-everyway freshness. An elemental extra: the cap was inspired by basalt, the rock on which Aesop’s home town of Melbourne is built. £160 for 50ml eau de parfum aesop.co.uk

It’s one of perfumers’ cleverest conjuring tricks to convey a sense of temperature with a liquid that remains at room temperature. For Olivier Cresp’s own line, which is based around addictions (‘accro’ means just that, in French), the stellar perfumer warms our senses, setting us a-tingle with notes that truly deliver a feeling of warmth, with ginger, hot pepper and cardamom, glowing beside cedarwood, coriander, juniper, musk and Ambroxan. Addictive? You bet. £160 for 100ml eau de parfum jovoyparis.uk

ALEXANDRE J

The Royal Peacock

AMOUAGE Essence Elsewhere

Destin de Balmain

MOOD: Regal

MOOD: Adventurous

MOOD: Glam

Infused with the spirit of Art Nouveau, this delectable concoction delivers wafts of cinnamon-sprinkled nutty coffee, swirled with the sweetness of maple syrup and brown sugar. As it develops, the regal blend segues to a soul-warming, rum-laced base of rich vanilla. And that bottle! All Alexandre J flacons are fabulous, but this peacock really struts its stuff. Taking its colours from historic tiles in Harrods’ famous food hall, the perfumed plumage is veritably resplendent. £320 100ml eau de parfum harrods.com

‘Inspired by the Opera Sindbad, an original production imagined and created by the Royal Opera House Muscat,’ a balmy breeze carries honeyed fruits (apricot, mango, and tangerine) spiced with cardamom and ginger. As it warms on skin, the nose is beckoned further on this fragrant journey, discovering a surprising blend of black tea and cappuccino entwined with davana (think: dried fruits soaked in something boozy), offering a sensually smouldering, woody dry-down. £375 for 100ml eau de parfum selfridges.com

A parfum concentration of this stunner of a scent ramps up the glamour factor from the moment you lift this weighty, gilded version of Destin de Balmain’s striking graphic flacon. With the surprisingly sophisticated fruitiness of strawberry in its luscious opening, the creaminess of Australian sandalwood and the rich velvety sensuality of champaca enfold you in lingering woody warmth. Glamorous on the dressing table; even more gorgeous, on skin. From £64 for 30ml parfum theperfumeshop.com

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BALMAIN

TRENDS & LAUNCHES BOADICEA THE VICTORIOUS

BON PARFUMEUR

BORNTOSTANDOUT

MOOD: Shimmering

MOOD: Reviving

MOOD: Delish

Perfumer Paul Guerlain really is making a mark, here preserving the bracing freshness of windwhipped coastal air via the longlasting citrus spark of Australian finger lime, its caviar-like pearls of intense freshness equally beloved by chefs for the way they burst in the mouth. Melded with tomato leaf’s fuzzy verdancy and a warming burst of ginger, this is a joyous pick-me-up for the senses to blast the cobwebs from the greyest of days. £185 for 100ml extrait de parfum jovoyparis.uk

As gourmand as gourmand gets – but with the innovative twist that earned founder Jun Lim the Rising Star Award from The Fragrance Foundation, this year. Golden Milk tempts from first spritz, swirling the sweetness of a condensed milk accord into vanilla and caramel. Saffron, Ambrofix, cypriol and the note du jour, orris, introduce intrigue, while leather, tonka and oudh tether to skin. Comfort, yes – but with spoonfuls of intrigue and sophistication. £250 for 100ml eau de parfum harrods.com

Andraste

Created by Céline Herbette and Kamila Lelakova and named for the Celtic goddess of courage, this captures ‘medicinal herbs, abundant flower beds and shaded woods that flourish in the pollen-soaked air.’ Andraste is a sublimely wearable and ultra-feminine floral, honeyed and powdery, freeze-framing the scent of a perfect garden, lavishly swagged with wisteria and roses, humming with bees. And we’re completely mad for the gilded floral shield, too. £295 for 100ml eau de parfum harrods.com

Riviera Absolue 005

BRIONI

Golden Milk

BYREDO

BURBERRY Goddess Amber Vanilla

Mare Assoluto

Future Memories

MOOD: Conf ident

MOOD: Luminous

MOOD: Mindful

Amandine Clerc-Marie reached for three complementary vanilla extracts to deliver a moreish gourmand edge to bestselling Burberry Goddess, with an amber accord in the base amplifying the soft, enveloping velvet vibe. The counterpoint? A luminous lavender essence stops it tipping into oversweetness. Whether you’re aiming to project Aphrodite’s energy (love, beauty, desire), or Artemis’s untamed individuality and strength, prepare to have your inner olfactory goddess unleashed. From £78 for 30ml eau de parfum boots.com

As far as we’re concerned, Brioni haven’t put a stylishly loafer-ed foot wrong with their fragrance collection – and here, Romain Almairac maintains the standard with a scent inspired by the Mediterranean at dusk, arcing from day to night in an outdoorsy aromatic fougère whose woody freshness is accented by moss and tethered by vetiver. Designed as an ‘ode to infinite blue’, the fabulous, inky blue flacon is marvellously on maritime message. £125 for 100ml eau de parfum brioni.com

Luscious blackcurrant and leafy galbanum balance vanilla’s sweetness as BYREDO invites us to make scent memories, and ‘to live fully, to choose deliberately, to imprint the present with intention’. Powdery iris is buoyed aloft on cloud-like aldehydes as the snuggly veil of labdanum, musks and vanilla surrounds and swaddles. Magnificent on skin and truly memorable, it’s one to reach for when everything seems too much, and we require both comfort and coaxing. £155 for 50ml eau de parfum selfridges.com ON THE SCENT 51

Coco Mademoiselle Crush Absolu

CHANEL

Atelier des Fleurs Cedrus de Nuit

CHLOE

D.S. & DURGA

MOOD: Magnetic

MOOD: Narcotic

MOOD: Flirtatious

Ooooh, B-I-G news for Chanel, with a truly watchable new ‘muse’ (Gracie Abrams, see p.9) bringing to life Olivier Polge’s spin on global blockbuster Coco Mademoiselle. ‘Crush refers to the irresistible power of attraction at its most potent’ – and in scent terms, Olivier pulls that off via an accord of lychee-grapefruit, a heart of jasmine and rose drawing you towards patchouli and lingering amber notes. Definitely a new crush all-round, for us. From £117 for 50ml eau de parfum chanel.com

Chloe’s Les Fleurs de Nuit collection embodies blooms that transform at nightfall. Few, though, are as precious as the Queen of the Night, a white flower which unfolds just once a year in darkness, captured via a unique extraction process that gave Quentin Bisch and Louise Turner the chance to freeze-frame its honeyed intensity alongside dark vanilla, resinous benzoin, amber and woods. Romantic assignations in dusky shadows beckon. From £115 for 50ml eau de parfum selfridges.com

Playful and passionate, this is, as founder and perfumer David Seth Moltz puts it, ‘a gourmand for people who don’t like gourmands.’ The date is deliciously malty rather than syrupy: if it is cake, it is a slice shared in a hipster coffee shop, with little throbs of passion punctuating the intellectual conversation. Creamy milk, lilies and praline lend softness, while myrrh, cinnamon and patchouli keep the Bourbon-vanilla, spicy trail pulsing with things yet unsaid. £155 for 50ml eau de parfum libertylondon.com

D’ORSAY

DIESEL

Ain’t That Sweet

DIOR

La Collection Privée

Vanilla Affair

Only Desire

MOOD: Passionate

MOOD: Energetic

MOOD: Heavenly

Being ‘reminiscent of forbidden encounters and fierce passion’, you’d expect this to smoulder – and oh, from first spritz the tendrils of sweet tobacco smoke surround and seduce. The vanilla is dark, a pod slit and seemingly slathered straight on skin. The smokiness is infused with airier white musk to beckon you closer – an addiction you’ll willingly submit to as this sizzles to a warm, nutty base of tonka and rich patchouli. £220 for 90ml extrait de parfum libertylondon.com

Nelly Hachem-Ruiz and Paul Guerlain collaborated on a scent which ‘celebrates feminine desire as a force of confidence, creativity and self-expression,’ with a ‘metallic vanilla’, which offers orchid twining through vanilla, for sensual contrast. Featuring Dove Cameron, the campaign ‘invites women to embrace their individuality, instinct, and inner strength through the statement: “My Desire, My Power.”’ Let’s face it, Diesel’s debut scent for women was never going to target shrinking violets, was it? From £60 for 30ml eau de parfum lookfantastic.com

Sometimes choirs of angels seem to sing when you uncap a bottle and spray onto skin. This was our experience of trying the latest in Dior’s La Collection Privée – a hypnotic reverie on in-house perfumer Francis Kurkdjian’s dream of a field of jasmine flowers at dusk. Softly luminous, as though lit from beneath, the white floral notes segue to a sunset warmth of liqueur-like fruitiness, fuzzy apricot and wild strawberries bathed in nectar. £380 for 80ml esprit de parfum dior.com

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Jasmin des Anges Esprit de Parfum

TRENDS & LAUNCHES DIOR

DRIES VAN NOTEN Velvet Violet

ÉDITIONS DE PARFUMS FRÉDÉRIC MALLE Northern Love

MOOD: Bold

MOOD: Caressing

MOOD: Cocooning

To quote DIOR’s Francis Kurkdjian, tasked with the challenge of creating the most intense concentration yet of this blockbuster, ‘Sauvage is a fascinating composition, a classic fougère that is immediately approachable yet richly nuanced. It stimulates the imagination and makes you want to push all the boundaries. So that is what we did!’ Warm, spicy, animalic, it’s a powerplay of lavender, Ambroxan and contrasting woody notes – the absolute quintessence of boldness. £153 for 50ml extrait johnlewis.com

Draping the delicate bloom in an altogether more textural outer robe, this violet has more swagger than you’d assume. Shot through with aromatic herbaceousness via clary sage extract and a glint of pink pepper, the richness arrives with ripples of toasted sesame, roasted barley and grilled tonka. That smooth, rich nuttiness nuzzles the resinous, vetiver-infused base, feeling intellectual, yet smoochily comforting, when it finally relaxes and unbuttons itself. £250 for 100ml eau de parfum harrods.com

Bruno Jovanovic’s second fragrance for this perfume house – where Frédéric Malle’s legacy, encouragingly, feels safeguarded – this amber-woody creation sees creamy sandalwood dusted with cinnamon, ‘as a nod to spicy speculoos cookies’, then enveloped in vanilla. It’s yet another expression of the strong trend for comforting scents, but with the sense of a cool breeze gusting through – like an open window, in a room warmed by a crackling fire. Quite masterful. From £62 for 10ml eau de parfum fredericmalle.co.uk

ESTÉE LAUDER

ELLIS BROOKLYN Vanilla Rice

Demon Dancer

MOOD: Cheering

MOOD: Super-soft

MOOD: Energising

Glimmers are those little moments of happiness you can hug to your chest and feel buoyed by the whole day – a glorious inspiration behind what is (astonishingly) Lauder’s first mainline fragrance launch for 12 years. How we celebrated, first smelling the deliciously lifelike ‘macaron rose accord’ – you can practically ‘taste’ the crisp shell giving way to creaminess within – as a shimmering patchouli glows the way to the enveloping amber hug of the dry-down. £95 for 50ml eau de parfum esteelauder.co.uk

We feel like our pudding plate runneth over, with yet more gourmand gorgeousness – this time, blending freesia dew (a new one to us), toasted rice, coconut milk, Sakura blossom, tonka, vanilla and skin musks. But Ellis Brooklyn’s tag-line is ‘Soft Girl. Strong Aura.’ And that nails the vibe: don’t be taken in by the angora sweater, because the wearer has a mind like a steel trap, and is really not to be messed with. From £35 for 10ml eau de parfum spacenk.com

There’s an almost electric surge as this quicksteps out of the bottle – fizzing rhubarb, bergamot and blood orange cooled by peppermint, freshened by a sharp bite of blackcurrant in the heart. If we imagine these notes as frantically angular dance moves, the luscious orange blossom and trailing woody incense are silken ribbons sensually softening the silhouette, fluttering in the breeze and trailing deliciously. One of the longest-lasting fresh fragrances we’ve ever tried, NB! £260 for 100ml eau de parfum selfridges.com

Sauvage Extrait

Glimmer

EX NIHILO

ON THE SCENT 53

FRAGRANCE DU BOIS

FRENCH COWBOY Vanilla for Breakfast

Moody Dream

MOOD: Lingering

MOOD: Indulgent

MOOD: Sensual

Oudh, but make it fruity. Definitely a trend, right now, and this luscious embodiment by perfumer Dalia Izem offers a sensory escape into dark, velvety woods and rich florals. Spiced plums are lit by Italian bergamot, with a rum accord enriching Indian tuberose, whipped cream adding a spoonful of gourmand sweetness. Those who trail in your wake, however, will enjoy the sandalwood, patchouli and oudh dry-down. No question, this is magnetically magnificent. £370 for 100ml extrait harrods.com

Immediately delectable, this vanilla doesn’t need time to bloom on skin: it’s snuggle-ready and radiantly addictive from the getgo. With sweet almond extract made from upcycled almond milk (exclusive to Givaudan), it’s a marriage made in heaven as smooth, deep vanilla infuses cool milkiness and sighs into silky benzoin in the base. We’ve got our eyes (and noses) on this young niche house; every launch thus far has massively impressed. £90 for 100ml eau de parfum wild-iris.com

Velvety rather than sugary, this takes chocolate into a darker, more dressed-up realm. The cocoa is thickened with the antique-petal softness of dried rose, its faintly powdery floralcy keeping the richness from becoming dessertlike. A shaded thread of oudh arrives beneath, lending polish, smoke and a quietly insistent sensuality to the dry-down. Cosy enough for close quarters but with a flickering, after-dark glamour, it wears like a favourite, softly sumptuous velvet jacket. £24 for 50ml eau de parfum ghostfragrances.com

GHOST

GRANADO

GIORGIO ARMANI

MOOD: Comforting

MOOD: Seasonal hug

MOOD: Enduring

Milk notes and softly steamed rice lend this a cloud-like creaminess, the kind that feels less like pudding and more like fresh linen warmed by dappled sunlight. There is sweetness, yes, but it remains beautifully restrained, airy rather than edible. Smooth sandalwood floats through the composition, adding its familiar woody hush and making the whole effect quietly enveloping. A fragrance for unhurried mornings, soft knits and restoring one’s composure. £24 for 50ml eau de parfum ghostfragrances.com

Steeping the verdant, milkysweet fruit in an ambered, almost gourmand glaze, this feels like the moment late summer begins to loosen its grip. Petalled rose and lily of the valley lend a dewy luminosity, while Cashmeran wraps them in a soft-focus, skin-warmed haze. Dates deepen to a caramelised richness, their plushness threaded through labdanum and dry, pencilshaving cedarwood. Comforting but not cloying, it somehow has that lovely in-between quality of foliage turning gold. £135 for 75ml eau de parfum granado.uk

First, sign Jonathan Bailey as your ambassador. Then, infuse a captive molecule called ‘wood leather’ to create unprecedented staying power and depth in a striking blend of Calabrian bergamot, aromatic lavender and violet leaf accords, on a rich base of vanilla absolute. I Will’s launch is a blueprint for how to get a scent noticed, while the juice itself sets the bar for long-lastingness: in tests with 69 consumers, its intensity ‘lasts all day’. From £87 for 60ml eau de parfum johnlewis.com

Forbidden Plum Oud Extract

Sunday Dream

54 ON THE SCENT

Figo Confit

GHOST

I Will

TRENDS & LAUNCHES GIVENCHY

GOLDFIELD & BANKS Sunset Hour Dark Peach

Violet Venom Extra

MOOD: Dark glamour

MOOD: Sultry

MOOD: Elegant

Black cherry plunges straight into a darkly lacquered sweetness, sharpened by the marzipan-like bitterness of almond before the familiar white floral bouquet begins to unfurl. Orange blossom, tuberose and jasmine are voluptuous rather than pristine, their creamy petals shaded by the deep grain of oakwood. A boozy, almost liqueurlike warmth follows in rum, davana and vanilla, giving the dry-down a plush, skin-hugging depth. Opulent and theatrical, it renders femininity deliciously nocturnal. £81 for 35ml eau de parfum thefragranceshop.com

Here, peach slips from sunlit orchard into something considerably duskier: juicy with nectar at first, it’s quickly steeped in the mellow, woody warmth of Jamaican rum. Mandarin and pink berries lend a final flicker of brightness, before ginger gives the fruit a tingling, almost flambéed heat. Benzoin, vanilla and tonka then draw everything into a plush, ambered embrace, with scorched smokiness keeping the sweetness smooth rather than sticky. From £30 for 10ml eau de parfum uk.goldfieldandbanks.com

Opening with the pale shimmer of bergamot and the clean, faintly tannic lift of white tea, this airy floral knows precisely when to soften its voice. Neroli and orange blossom glow with an almost weightless radiance, while osmanthus brings a suedelike textural nuance. Gradually, sandalwood, Cashmeran, and vanilla gather warmth around an amber-musk base, giving the transparent opening a more tactile, gently addictive finish. Polished, serene and quietly seductive. £230 for 100ml extrait de parfum harveynichols.com

L’Interdit Elixir

GUCCI

GRITTI

HERMÈS

The Alchemist’s Garden Ambrosia del Deserto

Gucci Flora Orchid Intense

Ginseng Biloba

MOOD: Showstopping

MOOD: Mesmerising

MOOD: Poised

Way too few Chypres are launched nowadays, we feel. But if you’re a fan – and oh, we are – expect to have your buttons pushed by this elegant offering. With a sweet, fruity edge of candied date alongside rose, blood orange and patchouli heart, we’re told it ‘uses alchemical techniques to ignite the senses’. This sophisticated swirl is housed in a deep red bottle adorned with a golden dragon: a showstopper, inside and out. £196 for 50ml eau de parfum harrods.com

This Eau de Parfum Intense ramps up the exoticism. If Gucci Floral Orchid was a flower-strewn silk frock (in a classic Gucci print, naturally), this shrugs a velvet shawl over the shoulders, taking you from blazingly sunny day to soft, dusky evening. It’s actually less sweet than the original, with a salty, ozonic overture, its familiar floral-gourmand sweetness is darkened by dark cocoa. Gorgeous amber flacon – and we love that it’s refillable. £109 for 50ml EDP intense lookfantastic.com

Christine Nagel wanted ‘...to create an Hermessence that strongly evokes curves and graphic lines,’ and there is something architectural about this meeting of root and leaf: ginseng’s dry, earthy texture giving structure to the silvery-green luminosity suggested by ginkgo. Rather than pursuing overt drama, it traces a fine woody line across the skin, at once softly bitter, botanical and quietly radiant. Pared back but never severe, its nuances catch the light like brushed gold. £300 for 100ml eau de parfum hermes.com ON THE SCENT 55

JEAN PAUL GAULTIER

JEROBOAM

MOOD: Vintage

MOOD: Delicious

MOOD: Bewitching

At last, a new pillar fragrance from JPG, by Quentin Bisch and Amélie Jacquin. Who knew that there were two different types of benzoin resins? These feature at the heart, one vanilla-like and almost syrupy, the other liqueuresque, its vintage vibe enfolding exotic white florals – Queen of the Night, jasmine sambac and ylang ylang. And what a bottle, the figurine posed in a black Gaultier gown, submerged in this floralambrée juice. From £75 for 30ml eau de parfum theperfumeshop.com

What’s a perfumer’s favourite breakfast? Not the start of a joke, but scented inspiration, with Vanina Muracciole leaning into memories of eating freshly baked blueberry muffins while studying at Oxford University. Those blueberries give an inky juiciness, dark-stained fruitiness caught in the balsamic glow of gurjum and leathery heat of saffron. Polished Indian oudh is further softened with suede, dry cedar and a fleeting violet murmur, segueing to the soft, woody base. £290 for 100ml extrait de parfum harrods.com

A flash of mandarin slices through smoky guaiac and saffron, gathering into a richly upholstered heart of leather, oudh and plush florals. Jasmine and rose soften the darkness without dispelling it, while cardamom, pink pepper and an airy ozonic lift keep the composition intriguingly in motion. Beneath, raspberry turns patchouli unexpectedly jammy, cushioned by sandalwood, vanilla and ambered woods. Lavish and shadowy, it’s beautifully burnished rather than bombastic. £290 for 100ml eau de parfum selfridges.com

JIMMY CHOO

JO MALONE LONDON

L’ARTISAN PARFUMEUR

MOOD: After hours

MOOD: Romantic

MOOD: Shadowy

Blackberry granita gives this an immediately flirtatious, almost chilled-sorbet brightness, sharpened with the peppery fizz of pink pepper and the tang of blackcurrant bud. Night orchid and crystallised rose create a glossy floral heart, with violet leaf contributing a soft, lipstick-like nuance. Creamy benzoin and cedarwood smooth everything into a warm, glowing trail, while Ambrofix supplies a contemporary, skin-clinging radiance. A polished fruity floral, with lights turned low. From £55 for 40ml eau de parfum jimmychoo.com

A deep, dark pairing of oudh and leather initially gives the rose its dramatic framing, but it is the flower that holds one’s attention. This is a truly lifelike living rose, captured in all its beauty – dewy, plush and red-petalled rather than abstracted into powder or jam. Earthy patchouli lends depth beneath its stem, while amber diffuses a golden warmth through the dry-down. Romantic, yes, but a handsome, softly smoky gravitas keeps the bloom compellingly modern. £164 for 100ml Cologne Intense harrods.com

Daphné Bugey revisits 2022’s Abyssae, the inky bottle for this intense extrait inviting us down, down, down to oceanic depths. Quoting the perfumer, ‘to reinvent Abyssae, I intensified its contrasts. I immersed myself in the vibrant freshness of eucalyptus resin and incense, sculpted a more sensual rose, and anchored it all in a resinous woody depth, where sandalwood, cypriol and ambergris resonate with intensity.’ Happy to dive right in to this one. £230 for 75ml eau de parfum artisanparfumeur.com

La Favorite

I Want Choo Midnight

56 ON THE SCENT

Oud Morning

Rose & Oud Leather

Eliksiro

Abyssae L’Extrait

TRENDS & LAUNCHES L’OBJET

LE MONDE GOURMAND

LES EAUX PRIMORDIALES

MOOD: Laid back

MOOD: Spicy

MOOD: Emboldening

Founder/Creative Director Elad Yifrach recruited Cécile Zarokian to capture the spirit of California for this pair, ‘one rooted in the landscape, the other more ethereal.’ Ojai (inspired by the sunlit, spiritual valley of that name) is fruitily floral, with a sensual amber radiance, while Alento is named after the Spanish word evoking ‘breath, spirit… and vital energy’, expressed through layers of orange and aldehydes, before ambergris, white musk and lactones transport the wearer. £200 each for 100ml EDP l-objet.com

Not just for Halloween, we are invited to snuggle up in this surprisingly sophisticated gourmand play on pumpkin spices and nutmeg sprinkled over a frothed milk note, simmering away on a so-cosy base of sandalwood and musk. Also launching: Chai Épicé, which steeps warming spiced tea alongside violet fig and blonde woods. Both just perfect for the season of long walks, hot drinks and roaring fires – and reassuringly affordable, with it. £28 each for 30ml eau de parfum lookfantastic.com

Pear has a bright, almost watery shimmer here, though it’s quickly given substance by the roasted nuttiness of hazelnut and sesame. Cardamom lends a fragrant, coolspiced lift, while orange flower and freesia keep the heart petalled and luminous rather than overly gourmand. In the dry-down, vanilla turns woody and softly smoky via guaiac, Ambroxan and clean musks. Rich but carefully aerated, it’s gently encouraging, and tailored with real precision. £165 for 100ml eau de parfum lessenteurs.com

Ojai and Alento

Pumpkin Crème/Chai Épicé

Elevation

MAISON FRANCIS KURKDJIAN

MAISON NOIR

MOOD: Self-Assured

MOOD: Opulent

MOOD: Illuminating

Marc Jacobs has a favourite mantra: ‘Perfect as I am.’ We’re all for that level of self-confidence – and he invites us to be unapologetically ourselves, via this gourmand-leaning, amberfloral-fruity eau de parfum by Marie Salamagne and Fabrice Pellegrin. Red apple, strawberry and passion fruit make for a juicy ‘hello’, before jasmine sambac tangles through vanilla absolute and caramel. With its glittery bow and white charms, it’s certainly a new MJ collectible. From £66 for 30ml eau de parfum boots.com

Francis’s OUD Mood collection takes inspiration from fabrics: satin, silk and the richness of velvet, explored here by pairing oudh with apricot-y osmanthus, peach and a supple suede accord, in an extrait version of one of the collection’s bestsellers. We love imagining the fabric that a fragrance conjures up – they all convey a texture – and this certainly has the softness and elegance of luxurious velvet. And if it was a colour? Deep burgundy. £225 for 35ml extrait de parfum selfridges.com

You are standing at dawn. The air is still. The sky is lit by the first rays of sunlight, bringing warmth, waking the world. A precious moment, captured here in an ambery, woody creation illuminated by aldehydes, sparkling with pear and pink berries, then smoothly segueing to incense, jasmine, patchouli, ambergris and musk, gently sweetened by dulce de leche. As days shorten, a fragrant way to make the most of every last shaft of sunlight. £130 for 50ml eau de parfum gloriousbeauty.co.uk

MARC JACOBS Just Perfect

Oud Velvet Mood Extrait de Parfum

Solaris

ON THE SCENT 57

MATIÈRE PREMIÈRE

MEGAN MORONEY

MILLER HARRIS

MOOD: Dramatic

MOOD: Shining

MOOD: Enriched

Something unexpected, for Aurélien Guichard’s first Harrods exclusive. Forget the sweetness of jam or liqueur; the perfumer-founder overdoses French blackcurrant absolute, teasing out its intriguing green, tart, dark facets. There’s rose oxide for metallic brightness, while Indonesian patchouli, a leather accord and plenty of Bangladeshi oudh deepen the fruit into a shadowy, contemporary fruitywoody-chypre extrait, with a really dramatic presence, great projection and a memorable sillage. £250 for 50ml extrait de parfum harrods.com

The debut fragrance for the American country music phenomenon, Calliope is inspired by the Greek muse of epic storytelling. In a pink heart-shaped bottle with echoes of the Japanese art of kintsugi (see that crack?) and emblazoned with the handwritten lyrics of Megan’s hit ‘You Shine’, this floral-woody has impressed us with its accomplishment, showcasing jasmine, frangipani, peach blossom, orris, musk and Ambroxan. At just £25, we predict an absolute hit. £25 for 30ml eau de parfum superdrug.com

The original’s tangerine-anddavana sweet fizziness remains, but here feels steeped in richer, more golden light. Peony and pittosporum create the familiar abundance of petals, while rose becomes bohemian: velvety and honeyed, laced with creamy vanilla and the cool smoke of incense. Then comes the shade: oudh, patchouli and moss, tempered by smooth amber woods. Still exuberant, undeniably glam, it now wears with a more sumptuous, close-to-the-skin sensuality. £145 for 50ml extrait de parfum millerharris.com

MONTBLANC Explorer Infinite

NISHANE

Thorns Become Roses

ORMONDE JAYNE

MOOD: Adventurous

MOOD: Rebellious

MOOD: Smouldering

This time our explorer (embodied by football player/actor/model Justice Joslin) ventures into ‘the infinite desert... where the day’s fiery heat gives way to the cool mystery of night’. The initial juicy lemon is invigorating, energetic – before we segue to more untested terrain. Jordi Fernández and Antoine Maisondieu collaborate to craft untapped depths from an exclusive Montblanc-only patchouli with cocoa-esque – rather than earthy – nuances, buoyed by softly resonant musk. Mmmm. £65 for 60ml eau de parfum montblanc.com

Lychee and raspberry flare brightly against the contrasting metallic gleam of saffron and aromatic coolness of cardamom, before the rose makes its entrance. This is no demure floral; velvety and full-bodied, it’s sharpened by violet leaf’s green, almost leathery edge, softened with mimosa’s puffs of golden pollen. Amberwood and patchouli lend a resinous depth below, while sandalwood keeps the finish creamy. A rose of beautiful contrasts: thorned, tender and chicly contemporary. £195 for 50ml extrait de parfum harrods.com

Imbued with a slinky, simmering warmth, this is a profoundly textural fragrance, all supple suede, powdery iris and softly skin-like ambrette. Bergamot is spiced with the molten glow of saffron and Timur pepper, raspberry flickering like a crimson lining contrasting dark tailoring. Madagascan vanilla adds silkiness while oudh and musk give the dry-down a second-skin depth. Elegant, tactile and compellingly close wearing, it feels less sprayed on than shimmied into. £225 for 88ml eau de parfum selfridges.com

Blackcurrant Extrait

58 ON THE SCENT

Calliope

Scherzo Extrait

Suede Silhouette

TRENDS & LAUNCHES PARIS HILTON

PENHALIGON’S

RALPH LAUREN

Iconic

The Manoeuvres of the Baroness

POLO Est. 67 Extreme

MOOD: ‘That’s hot!’

MOOD: Elegant

MOOD: Polished

Incredibly, this marks Paris Hilton’s 30th fragrance, an eminently wearable, confidently stylish affair. Pear blossom, raspberry and peach nectar tumble out in a bright, juicy rush, before peony, lily of the valley and magnolia turn it soft, clean and prettily petalled. There are definite girlie-shampoo vibes, but they arrive with the self-assurance of a glossy hair flick, with sandalwood, amber and musk adding warmth, polish and a touch of fabulousness. £60 for 100ml eau de parfum theperfumeshop.com

We cannot help thinking of the sophisticated, confident yet somewhat scheming Baroness in The Sound of Music, when smelling the latest persona to join the extended family of Penhaligon’s Portraits. She is, however, unquestionably beautiful – ravishingly so – making quite the entrance veiled in spiced cardamom, coffee and jasmine, giving way to creamy vanilla. The overall impression? A creature who is glamorous, seductive, slightly dangerous – but always in control. £245 for 75ml eau de parfum penhaligons.com

A deeper, duskier take on Ralph Lauren’s sporty-citrus bestseller, which references the designer’s debut in 1967, this is just so smoothly confident. The tailored backbone owes much to vetiver and cedarwood, with bergamot and lemon sharpening a juicy pineapple accord, while the aromatic fougère structure is cemented in place by Provençal clary sage and geranium. The finishing touch? Est. 67’s midnight blue flask is finished in matte silver. Classic and classy. From £59 for 40ml EDP extreme boots.com

ROJA LONDON Serenity Blend

SOLFÉRINO

Lumière d’Automne

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

MOOD: Calming

MOOD: Golden

MOOD: Opulent

And now, reward yourself with a moment of peace and quiet. Joining Roja Dove’s ‘Art Collection’, Serenity Blend is inspired by the timeless ritual of tea, with both black tea and maté adding soothing warmth and a sense of Zen. Chamomile is also infused into the blend, steeped alongside magnolia, soft citrus notes and radiant florals, while adding a teaspoon of honeyed sweetness are tonka, vanilla and chamomile. Stop, spritz, b-r-e-a-t-h-e. £345 for 100ml eau de parfum harrods.com

We love Paris in the autumn. Rustling leaves. Golden light. And, captured here, the savourysweet scent of chestnuts, roasting on street corners. This feels all warm and bundled up against the breeze, as we snuggle into sandalwood and vanilla, enjoying the gourmand treat of that nutty note. Can a fragrance make you wistful for shorter days, winter coats and knitted scarves? We rather think Lumière d’Automne does exactly that. £140 for 70ml eau de parfum selfridges.com

In this ultra-luxe, intricately designed blue and gold flacon, joining The Murano Exclusive Collection from The Merchant of Venice (read more about them on p.32), the green of galbanum gusts through orange flower and saffron, beckoning us down an olfactory passageway with its swirl of incense, vanilla, musk, iris, leather and patchouli. As mysterious as a lamplit Venetian evening, with tendrils of smoke curling in the air, alongside the promise of magic. £288 for 100ml EDP concentrée selfridges.com

Renaissance

ON THE SCENT 59

TRENDS & LAUNCHES TOM FORD

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE

THOMAS DE MONACO Luisant Haze

Ombré Leather Reserve

MOOD: Unforgettable

MOOD: Uninhibited

MOOD: Wild

A second launch, also joining The Murano Collection – more swirls, more lustrous blue glass! – this shareable addition is inspired by ‘the lavish elegance and playful spirit of the Rococo era’, which so shaped Venice. Notes which once arrived in the city via trade routes – saffron, clove, patchouli – are showcased here, jasmine tangled throughout, while a velvety base of cocoa, creamy vanilla, tonka and benzoin lingers on skin. Elegant, graceful and so, so charming. £288 for 100ml EDP concentrée harrods.com

Stripping away the faintly standoffish air that tuberose sometimes has, this feels breezy, fun and gloriously frivolous. Wild strawberry, pink pepper and cardamom give it a giddy, sugarrush opening; cotton candy turns the white bloom soft, fluffy and cheeky, while tonka, amber and white musks keep it close and glowing. This is tuberose with its hair down, running wild and taking risks – a wild ride, fondly recollected. £245 for 50ml extrait de parfum wild-iris.com

Ride ‘em, cowboy – and trust us, you’d do a lot worse than misting yourself with this before saddling up. Its woody-leatheriness designed to capture ‘the sweeping, wild spirit of the American West,’ this harnesses cypress essence for pine freshness, silver juniper ScentTrekTM, black pepper and the green floralcy of violet leaf absolute, which ‘shines a sundappled light on the mountainous landscape.’ We suspect it will conquer many hearts, if not actual territories. From £46 for 10ml eau de parfum boots.com

Rococò 26

TOM FORD

Tobacco Chocolat

Polite Oud

WIDIAN

YVES SAINT LAURENT

MOOD: Phwoar!

MOOD: Unexpected

MOOD: Thrilling

Deeply smouldering and honeyed, the tobacco feels steeped in bitter dark chocolate and simmering cognac-like warmth, Peru balsam thickens the cocoa-smoke accord into something plushly resinous, while earthy patchouli and Ambrofix add a velvet-dark thrum. Orange is a distant, fleeting illumination (no, no danger of smelling like a Terry’s Chocolate Orange). Instead, it’s a burnished, ultra grown-up gourmand with a slow, addictive glow we find utterly irresistible. Bravo, Daniela Andrier! £121.60 for 30ml eau de parfum johnlewis.com

A seemingly oxymoronic premise, oudh not generally known for its quiet manners, this proves unexpectedly well behaved. Rather than growling or roaring, it arrives softened by juicy apple, peach, plum and orange, their brightness meeting a floral heart of rose and white blossoms. Coffee lends an intriguing roasted darkness, before vanilla, balsamic woods and musk ease everything into a smooth, discreetly luxurious finish. Oudh, apparently, can charm without needing to shout. £295 for 50ml extrait de parfum harrods.com

A must-sniff for amber lovers, we reckon you’ll soon join us in swooning. Daniela Andrier takes the expected molten resins of amber, myrrh, cistus and patchouli, then slices through them with a shock of icy aldehydes, for a fascinating metallic shimmer. Powdery, butter-soft orris and aromatic lavender offer cool, violet-tinged elegance, while almond and cedar lend a subtly plush strokeability. A totally modern amber: smouldering, sensual and beautifully unusual. From £125 for 30ml eau de parfum yslbeauty.co.uk

60 ON THE SCENT

Cœur Fetish Amber

POCHPAC

THE BOTTLE BEHIND THE BRANDS pochpac.co.uk

THE PAPER TRAIL

THE ART OF THE

BLOTTER

Fragrance tester cards are getting a revamp with artful designs and new technology. AMANDA CARR investigates the magic of the mouillette

t all started with an innocent holiday wander around a secondhand book shop in Île de Ré, where among the well-thumbed Flaubert and Proust sat Cote Générale des Cartes Parfumées*, a slim paperback by Geneviève Fontan, published in 1997 to celebrate the art of the scented card. I’ll pick up any book on perfume, because there aren’t that many, but there are even fewer on perfume blotters, and this one was an absolute gem. Its beautifully glossy, full colour pages are packed with collections of scent cards dating back to 1860. From the exquisitely embossed detail of Fleurs de Bagdad by Fontanis to the dramatic black and yellow Le Mimosa by Molinard, the book is crammed with tiny vintage works of scent art. Standouts with collector’s item vibes include the fold–up chinoiserie silk screen blotter for Chanel (likely Highlights from perfumer Véronique Nyberg’s blotter collection

for Coco, but unlabelled), which is inspired by Madame Chanel’s own apartment screens, while Guerlain’s neat collection (from the 1980s/90s) gives each perfume its own embossed blotter, illustrated with its bottle’s silhouette for instant identification. They all celebrate a moment when the blotter became an essential communication tool between a perfume and the customer. When fewer fragrances were launched and social media influencers were yet to be invented, this slender fragrance card became a treasured keepsake that would perhaps be stashed in a handbag or slipped into a closet, where its scent could be a daily reminder of what could be. The modern blotter evolved in the 19th century when paper became more widely available and fine fragrance as we know it started to take off. Early perfumers used strips of paper or

cloth, before specific designs were created to cater to both the perfumer’s and the retailer’s needs. Retail environments need decorative scent cards that encourage sales, whereas perfumers require a consistently stable tool to aid scent creation. One allows for imaginative storytelling, the other needs to be absolutely, reliably neutral. Edmond Roudnitska, the famed Dior perfumer (from 1948-1976) is said only to have used plain white blotters that were exactly seven inches long.

THE PERFUMER/COLLECTOR For this article, I reached out to perfumer Véronique Nyberg, who has created fragrances for Paco Rabanne, Guess, Lancôme and many others. An avid blotter collector, she started saving them long before she became a perfumer and now has boxes full of paper designs in many shapes

XXXXXXXXX

and sizes. ‘It’s a great way for me to remember all my “wins”,’ she says, referring to the many fragrances she has created for brands over her career. ‘A blotter takes up less room than the bottles and acts as a quick memory jogger for me to remember all the elements,’ Véronique says. She particularly values those that have somehow captured the DNA of the brand in the design, such as the boldly glamorous Cartier La Panthère, or the visually captivating crocodile for Lacoste. Hot tip: nowadays, Véronique recommends airport terminals as a great place to pick up good examples. These fun collectibles, however, are made to delight the scent-lover – not the scent creator. So, in the lab, Véronique strictly uses the same

‘DIOR PERFUMER EDMOND ROUDNITSKA WOULD ONLY USE BLOTTERS THAT WERE EXACTLY SEVEN INCHES LONG’ standard white strip, with a tiny gully in the centre to allow for folding into a dippable ‘V’ shape. ‘I need to ensure all of the testing I do is on exactly the same style of strip,’ she says. ‘It’s very important. I even take my own strip blotters with me if I’m travelling, to maintain consistency’. A globetrotting perfumer with clients all over the world, Véronique explains that quality

Véronique’s blotters represent her ‘wins’ (the fragrances she won the brief for), acting now as memory-triggers

can vary from country to country, affecting the smell of the fragrance she is presenting to clients, or working on herself while away from her Paris base.

ALL BLOTTERS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL

The exact ‘recipe’ is a secret carefully guarded by manufacturers, says Andy Hudson, MD of Maximise, the UK’s biggest supplier of blotters. What he will share is that most are made from highly absorbent, pressed wood pulp or rag, specifically engineered to hold onto scent oils. Many brands demand sustainable options, made from Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) approved board. French brand Scentis, meanwhile, makes a paper card made from long-fibre tree pulp, FSCapproved, which claims to attract and hold the scent for longer. Andy continues: ‘Design is dictated by what you want to do with the blotter. We make everything from a thin dipping paddle for essential oil through to a bespoke design for a brand, using precision dye cutting and embossing.’ Paper weight also comes into play, Andy explains. ‘Perfumers are very exacting and prefer a highquality weight of 300g to 350g, which absorbs more of the scent, but a brand will often want to add colour

or metallic finishes,

LEFT: Maison Noir’s fragrance wheel blotter. ABOVE: Solférino’s ceramic and a blotter for the car mirror

or metallic finishes, which need to be carefully handled to ensure the aroma remains neutral’. There’s even a beer mat weight, which can be used – for example – to dangle from car mirrors, scenting the vehicle. The fragrance retailer, meanwhile, requires a blotter that tangibly expresses the beauty of something that’s essentially invisible. According to Tracy Moores, founder of Glorious Brands (who sell and distribute many leading fragrance brands around the UK), ‘blotters are far more than a simple sampling tool. They are a powerful bridge between brands, retailers and consumers. It’s tough out there in the fiercely competitive fragrance landscape, and a memorable blotter can turn a fleeting encounter into a moment of discovery and education, bringing a scent to life.’ In the days when magazines were the life blood of the fashion and

THE PAPER TRAIL

FAR LEFT: Véronique Nyberg, who took the photo (LEFT) of her collection. ABOVE: Barnes Fragrance Fair blotter by Maximise, the UK’s biggest blotter manufacturer/ supplier

LEFT and BELOW: The blotter book discovered in France by writer Amanda Carr, which inspired this article

RIGHT: ‘Spray-andreveal’ blotters start as blanks, the image emerging once the perfume is spritzed

LEFT/ABOVE: Marc-Antoine Barrois devised tall blotters shaped like tuberoses for the centrepiece at the launch of his fragrance Aldebaran. BELOW: Sisology’s ‘photo strip’ blotters Copies of Cote Générale des Cartes Parfumées (published by Arfon) occasionally appear on secondhand book sites – so keep your eyes peeled

beauty industry, glossy tomes such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar could be almost identified by their smell. Advertising pages were often stuck with scratch and sniff scent strips, to seduce and impress. While talking me through their own extensive blotter collection, Scentis noted that in this highly digitised world, a beautiful quality paper blotter is regaining appreciation by brands and consumers. Ceramic discs – the blotter’s posh cousin – are also having a resurgence as scented keepsakes that extend the scent discovery process; French brand Solférino, for instance, offers a beribboned one for spraying and hanging in wardrobes.

INFO CARDS

As well as being beautiful, today’s blotters can help fragrance fans learn about scent. Brands such as Maison Noir use a ‘fragrance wheel’ design to help customers understand aroma families, while Korean brand Sisology lists major ingredients, as well as a lifestyle image, to indicate each scent’s particular vibe (pictured below). New technology is also creating joyful micro–experiences with scent blotters. Spray-and-reveal cards (Scentis call these ‘wet and see’) are like tiny Polaroid pictures, which emerge when sprayed with a fragrance, revealing an image, perhaps an ingredient within the scent, or an atmospheric visual. They are very engaging for customers to use, as the image disappears after a few minutes, to be magically revealed all over again with another spritz of scent. Akro founder Olivier Cresp told us that he uses these ‘perfumed Polaroids’ as part of his brand’s selling experience, to make it fun for younger customers and to show what ingredients are in the fragrance. QR codes also now feature on many blotters, offering an information-

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FAR LEFT and ABOVE: more of Véronique’s blotters. LEFT: Acqua di Parma’s ‘spray-andreveal’ card

rich connection in a digital world; Acqua di Parma includes a QR code on spray-and-reveal cards for its Boungiorno collection (above right). Everywhere, artful design is on the increase. But Marc–Antoine Barrois (see p.24) took things to another level at 2025’s Salon di Mobile in Milan, when his fragrance house turned the launch of Aldebaran into an immersive art experience, using towering, sculpturally shaped flower blotters inspired by the tuberose

‘A MEMORABLE BLOTTER CAN TURN A FLEETING ENCOUNTER INTO A MOMENT OF DISCOVERY AND EDUCATION’ TRACY MOORES

scent. Titled ‘Mission Aldebaran’, the brand created a ‘field’ of scented floral blotter spires which visitors could ‘pick’. Marc–Antoine told us he wanted to design an object to be kept and cherished. ‘The goal was to craft a decorative piece you would want to leave on your desk in a pencil holder,’ he explained. So, in today’s expanding fragrance landscape, an engaging blotter experience, wherever it happens, offers a glimmer of pleasure connected to a new scent discovery. But it’s also an area with fabulous potential for nerdiness. Do you prefer a consistently neutral blotter, like a perfumer? Or is your heart swayed by the smileinducing ‘scent and see’ moment? We’re off to start a collection…

BLOTTER FACTS...

A WHOLE LOTTA BLOTTA • Blotters are called mouilettes in French, which references sticks of bread cut and toasted to dip into soft boiled eggs. • The thicker the blotter, the more scent can be absorbed and the longer the scent will last. • Only ever use one fragrance per blotter. • The best way to make the scent last on a blotter is to slip it into an individual glassine envelope or plastic bag after smelling. • Older blotters can have the scent revitalised by warming the blotter – experts suggest a quick iron. (We do mean quick.) • Always write the perfume name on the blotter because you’ll forget. Keep a pencil in your bag at all times! • Upscale your sniffing. Professionals fold back the top quarter of the strip blotter tip to stop contamination when a blotter is placed on a surface. • Spent blotters make perfect bookmarks – scented reading! • If you do find yourself starting a collection, look out for vintage stamp collecting folders (minus the stamps) which are great for storing.

ON THE

SCENT

Fragrance is art, crafted to be treasured.

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NANCY MEILAND

ON THE SCENT 3

THE LAST WORD

ON THE SCENT ...of Autumn

Podcaster, blogger and scent expert THOMAS DUNCKLEY can’t wait to layer up for the coming season

PERFUMER H PATCHOULI All damp earth and mineral-rich moss

DIPTYQUE CAFÉ CANDLE The cosy smell of coffee wafting up from your cup, bitter and roasted

68 ON THE SCENT

utumn is the best season, and this is very much the hill I will die on. Sure, summer is beautifully sunny, but it’s also hot and sweaty. And please, don’t get me started on winter. I love a long, cosy coat as much as the next guy, but I do not like freezing to death daily. No, thank you. Seriously, autumn is unmatched, because it hits that Goldilocks sweet spot of the best of everything. It’s as beautifully colourful as summer without the constant reminder of the impending climate apocalypse. You can also rock a giant scarf if you want to. For me, autumn means one thing: long dog walks. I’m the proud dog dad to two pugs (well, they say they’re pugs but I suspect they are actually just sentient potatoes; all evidence points that way). And as autumn hits, the cooler weather means we can take them deep into the woods for extended walkies. There’s a nature reserve near where I live that was formerly a quarry and it provides a varied landscape for the perfect walk. We head there, let the pugtatoes off the lead and watch them race through damp leaves, traipse over moss, and try their best to avoid anything that remotely resembles a puddle. They are precious little princes, after all. It’s the smell of the autumn air that completes the scene for me. It’s cool and mineral, rich with the scent of damp earth. A waft of smoke from a distant chimney adds a silvery filter to everything, whilst steam rising up from a cup of coffee, tea, or most likely a matcha latte (millennial here, guilty as charged) brings a roasted warmth. It’s heaven with every single step. The toolkit for happiness in life is delightfully simple. All you need is two slightly muddy pugs (a.k.a. dirty potatoes), a cool autumn day with all the rich, evocative smells it offers, and your walking boots. The giant scarf is entirely optional.

JIL SANDER SMOKE The silvery scent of a chimney caught on chilly autumn air

LA VERRERIE BORN OF FIRE

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