HEALTH & BEAUTY • SCENT
PERFUME
THE DIRTY FLOWER FACTORY Motorbikes and perfumes aren’t natural partners but the new Kerosene collection is intriguing B y M I C H A E L D O N OVA N
I
recently experienced one of those Hallelujah moments that all perfume zealots pray for. One of those rare occasions when we discover an outstanding talent that reinforces our adoration of perfume and makes us want to shout their name from the rooftops. The House Of Kerosene is the olfactory vision of John Pegg from Michigan. John is actually a motorcycle mechanic or wrencher by profession – Michigan is the capital of the automotive industry and, as John tells it: “Where I’m from, if you didn’t work in the automobile field, you were most likely unemployed. While each factory may produce a different car part, every factory was exactly the same: production and numbers. To get out of that scene, I learned how to paint and wrench on motorcycles.” I took this to be a sign. I too love the smells of oil, leather, petrol and a day’s labour and in my debut collection for St Giles I released a fragrance called, prophetically, ‘The Mechanic’. There are currently a handful of selftaught perfumers emerging as the leading lights of a new generation and John is certainly among them. These are the rulebreakers who make scent simply for the joy of it and indulge in the daring and the different. They have no marketing teams or shareholders to please and with this autonomy comes the freedom to create the extraordinary and to raise the bar in terms of the olfactory experience.
I love the smells of oil, leather, petrol and a day’s labour
The Kerosene fragrances are exciting, transporting conflagrations that engulf the senses and wrap them in a warm embrace. My first encounter was with Black Vines, which John originally made for himself. The central note is liquorice, an ingredient much feared by the mainstream perfume industry, is both exotic and familiar, blended with balsam of Peru, incense and star anise, a dash of green fig and a dusting of vanilla. It is a cashmere sweater of a scent, enveloping you in its soft, comforting layers. Copper Skies envisions the early evening, with sweet basil wafting over cedar trees with tobacco leaves beneath the bark. The dark, spicy notes of amber, clove and honey add a nuanced sweetness to the smokey air. The truly remarkable R’Oud Elements completely redefines the ingredient of the decade, Oud, inviting us to enjoy the sunset with smouldering cedar and sandalwood dancing across the flames of oud and amber and all viewed through a haze of titian orange bitters. Broken Theories takes us further into the night as inky clouds of agarwood and incense drift over spiced skin while occasional firey flashes of blood orange illuminate the warm forest floor of sandalwood and vanilla. And finally we emerge into the light with Pretty Machine the scent of crisp, spring air with uplifting notes of lime and linden blossom, a hymn to rebirth, resonant with expectation. Further energising scents include Walk The Sea, a bracing combination of sea salt, white florals, ambergris, cedar and musk that imagine a memory of hide tide clinging to the skin and, for those that don’t want to smell ‘pretty’ all of the time, I would choose Dirty Flower Factory, a fallen angel of jasmine, rose and orange blossom attractively sullied by chilli pepper, peppercorns and musk. Kerosene is a collection of exceptional scents, handcrafted by a singular talent whose raison d’etre is to create complex perfumes that both seduce and transport. A B S O L U T E LY. L O N D O N
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20/12/2018 12:07