Perfume Review: Ganymede & Ganymede Extrait by Marc-Antoine Barrois

I always wondered whether the noses and minds behind classic fragrances such as Shalimar, Nº5, Poison, Opium, CK One etc. had any inkling that these creations would be considered as masterpieces. Did they know they were making history at the time? Or was it years later that the classic status was bestowed upon them? If so, how quickly did this happen? I think the answer varies but the moniker of classic is something that is most often awarded in hindsight and it really is the test of time that is the true decider.

We can, I think, see fragrance history in the making and it’s easy to point to a number of creations over the last decade or so that have quickly become modern classics. These are scents that have broached entirely new olfactory ground and have become hugely popular because they smell so entirely unique. I’m talking about fragrances such as Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s fiery marine Baccarat Rouge 540, Le Labo’s crystalline woody Santal 33, and of course, Marc Antoine Barrois’ spacially ethereal Ganymede.

Ganymede comes from a creative partnership between couturier Marc-Antoine Barrois and perfumer Quentin Bisch. They speak of their kinship as part of this creative synergy and how it has helped translate Marc-Antoine’s emotions and imaginations into olfactory art. Ganymede is described as a fantasy, one inspired by the moon of Jupiter and the Trojan prince from which the satellite takes its name. That all may sound a little bit abstract, but Ganymede is an abstract, cerebral fragrance that presents an entirely new olfactory experience. Is it destined to be a classic? Well, I think the answer to that is incredibly simple: it already is.

In this review I’m sniffing Ganymede in both its Eau de Parfum and Extrait concentrations. Two perfumes born from the same creative spark but with completely different points of view.

Let’s Sniff!

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Effortlessly Cool Scents by D.S. & Durga

I do not think that for one single day in my 37 years of life I have been cool (0/13,745 is an impressively poor hit rate, let’s be real). I do not say this to fish for compliments or to garner sympathy, I say it as a stone cold fact: I am not cool. Cool people set trends and operate without really caring about what others think about them. I am not that kind of person. I barely follow trends, let alone set them, and I care far too much about what people think about me. So no, I’m not cool, but occasionally fragrance allows me to pretend that I am.

This is why I love fragrance so much. It’s smelly cosplay. I can spray on a scent and it will give a specific impression and convey to the world something I want to be and sometimes that thing I want to be is cool. I say all this because I think I have found a brand that has a collection of fragrances that feel like sprayable cool and that brand is D.S. & Durga.

Founded by husband and wife duo David and Kavi, D.S. & Durga’s mantra is “perfume is armchair travel” and I think that really resonates. Fragrance transports us, not just to places, but also to moments in time, emotions and feelings. Unlike me, D.S. & Durga doesn’t have to try to be cool, it just is. It has a simple visual aesthetic, with bold typeface, a quirky sense of humour that is attractive and, most importantly, fragrances that live up to the hype.

So, if you are in the market for a little bit of Eau de Cool or you’re just wanting a bit of an intro to the brand, I thought I’d share five scents from the collection that feel like highlights.

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Perfume Review: Ouranon by Aesop

When I think of brands that have mastered the very concept of “aesthetic” I immediately think of Aesop. Presented as a sort of modern apothecary, the Australian skin, hair, and body care brand has managed to strike that balance of style and substance with effective, high quality products that look good. Yes, OK, people would maybe judge you for having an Aesop hand soap in your bathroom these days because they’d perceive you as wanting to look cool, but also those people are dumb, snobby, and stupid and we should not listen to them. Aesop hand soap is lovely, that’s all that matters.

Aesop now has a decently-sized fragrance collection under its belt (11 at current count). I recently paid a visit to their Marylebone store to explore their olfactory offering and was impressed by the quality of their selection. Whilst their simple, amber-hued apothecary bottles may look unassuming, each scent has a clear story, told through interesting materials and unique olfactory twists. (Slight exception for Hwyl which, whilst being a beautiful incense, has a cluttered story of Japanese forests and Welsh names, but we can overlook that) I enjoyed them all in one way or another but it was Ouranon which stood out.

Ouranon is described by Aesop as a celebration of endings and new beginnings. Perfumer Barnabé Fillion used Jordan as a reference point and the result is a composition that unfurls slowly, revealing unexpected fragrant surprises at each turn. Whilst all of the fragrances in the Aesop collection are worth smelling, Ouranon stands out as the most beguiling, unique, and divisive. To me, that’s a scent worth exploring!

Let’s Sniff!

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Perfume Review: Air of Aquarius by Sana Jardin

There’s something to be said about beauty in simplicity and the latest launch from eco- and ethically-conscious fragrance brand Sana Jardin is a perfect example. It arrived on my doorstep after a long day working, followed by a long commute home. I spritzed some on after I’d got in, changed (sweats and slippers, if you must know), and had dinner. One sniff and I felt my whole body relax: there was nothing fussy, gimmicky or overly complicated, just a really beautiful scent to enjoy.

Air of Aquarius was inspired by cosmic alignment, specifically the “celestial symphony of Pluto’s return to Aquarius in January 2024” and the composition centres on the essence of lemon, which is described by the brand as being “a flower renowned for its spiritually cleansing properties and ability to enhance mental focus.” It’s a clean, crisp, citrus-soaked floral that certainly brings a sense of calm which, after a long day of doing whatever it is I do for a living (most days I’m unsure), is much needed.

Let’s sniff!

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Making Scents Make Sense: A Manifesto

I’ve recently undertaken a rebrand of my social channels, moving away from The Candy Perfume Boy to something new. Whilst the blog will remain under TCPB (it’s too SEO-embedded to change now), I’ve updated the website’s tagline to match my socials and my overall mission statement. But why the change? Well, after taking a two year break from all things perfume-related I’ve come back and re-evaluated what it is I want to do in the world of fragrance, or to be more accurate, what I want to keep continuing doing. It became clear to me that The Candy Perfume Boy no longer fit and I needed something to sum up my approach to fragrance writing and communication – a new manifesto:

‘Making Scents Make Sense’

I’ve always taken a conversational approach to speaking and writing about fragrance, holding the firm belief that perfume should not be exclusionary. It is something for everyone to enjoy regardless of how much knowledge they hold. So Making Scents Make Sense just seemed to fit. I’m here to make sense of a world that is often hidden, secretive, mysterious, and shrouded in complexity. It’s my goal to demystify this world in a way that makes sense to everyone. With that in mind, here are my five key missions.

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My Favourite Fragrances of 2024

As the year draws to a close it’s time to reflect on all that 2024 was. Personally 2024 was a year that can only be described as ‘hot garbage’ but we get through these things, as we do. We move. From an olfactory standpoint things were more positive and whilst I haven’t been writing about fragrance for some time, I have been keeping my finger on the pulse, or nose on the scent as it were. Yes, there is a lot of crap out there still (and dupes, so, so many dupes!!) but amongst the not so good there were lots of beautiful things that piqued my interest.

So what stood out to me in 2024? The answer is a few, very varied things. I discovered a new (to me) brand, fell in love with a perfectly-executed flanker, fanboyed over one of my favourite perfumers, was surprised by daring olfactory exploits, bought things on a whim, and loved yet another instalment in a fragrance franchise I already love. I think that’s a pretty good summary, so without further ado here are my six favourite fragrance launches of 2024! Please note that I fully intended to pick only five but I wasn’t able to be that strict with myself, soz.

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Perfume Review: The Britologne Collection by Thameen London

Christopher Chong, in-house Creative Director at Thameen London and I have something in common: we’ve both taken an extended break from the world of perfume but now we’re back! I’m certainly very happy to be back and to be smelling his work again. You’ll be familiar with Christopher’s fantastic work at Amouage, a brand that he really turned around and brought to the forefront of niche perfumery. The perfumes he creates are bold, innovative and often times challenging. He is not one to shy away from brashness, working with world-class perfumers to push the boundaries forward. You may have not loved everything he did at Amouage but you can never accuse anything he has worked on of being boring and for that, he deserves a huge amount of respect.

Having taken up residence at Thameen London, Chong presents The Britologne Collection. Consisting of six fragrances (as of now), this capsule collection within Thameen London’s wider oeuvre is an homage to Britain and the traditional Eau de Cologne, fusing both words together to create Britologne. The result is a collection that subverts that classic Eau de Cologne structure, pushing it firmly into the 21st century with fragrances that are dramatically unique and fantastic examples of olfactory storytelling. The Britologne Collection may be inspired by familiar themes, but if I’ve learned one thing from my years of sniffing perfumes created under the direction of Christopher Chong, it’s to expect the unexpected.

Let’s Sniff!

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What Makes a Fragrance ‘Good’?

What does it take to be a good fragrance or even a great one?

By far the most common question I get asked when I reveal myself to be a perfume nerd, other than “have you heard of Santal 33?” (sigh, yes I have, we all have) or “what is your favourite fragrance of all time?” (it is and always will be Angel, I’m hoping to do a Warhol and be buried with a bottle, instructions are in my will) is “what makes a fragrance good?” I like this question because it doesn’t have a simple answer and a response of “err, well, you see, actually many things make a scent good” doesn’t really cut the mustard. In fact it puts one’s olfactory poindexter status on the line and we simply cannot have that now, can we?

To avoid being booted out of the Perfumerati, I wanted to ponder this question in detail. But actually, the real reason I want to explore it is because fragrance can so often be unnecessarily mysterious. It’s usually a case of “pay no attention to the man behind the green curtain” where all of the inner-workings are hidden from view and as a consumer it can be completely overwhelming, with thousands of launches per year. So the real reason I want to answer what makes a fragrance good is to help point you in the right direction. To help you to know what to look for and most importantly, to guide you to find the right fragrance that is good for you.

So let’s hold the mirror up to the world of fragrance, take a long hard look and ask “what’s good?”

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Perfume Review: Infleurno by Eau de Boujee

Infleurno is the latest fragrance from Eau de Boujee (formerly ‘Boujee Bougies’), a British fragrance house that creates bold, high-quality perfumes with exciting and unique concepts. It is loosely based on their Hellflower candle, which was inspired by a terrible sci-fi novel with a fantastic name. They call Infleurno a “pyrotechnic burst of citrus and florals” with a description that channels Persephone, Hades, fruits, embers and demons. If that doesn’t have you intrigued, then I can’t help you, my friend.

I cannot be unbiased about anything created by Nick and Pia of Eau de Boujee because they have been my friends for a long time and I spent a few years working with them at their fragrance house Olfiction, where I specifically worked on one of the Boujee Bougies (Thorny). So I’m not going to try and hide my bias here, but I will say that if I didn’t like this fragrance (or any scent from their brand for that matter), I simply wouldn’t write about it. Make of that what you will. Anyway, disclaimers are boring so let’s move on to the fun stuff, i.e. the review.

Let’s Sniff!

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Perfume Review: Staccato & Mìneir by Miller Harris

The Miller Harris Stories Collection started with a simple idea: give two different perfumers the same evocative passage of text from a novel and see what they create. The results, Scherzo and Tender, could not be more different and were an exercise in showcasing how both Mathieu Nardin (Scherzo) and Bertrand Duchaufour (Tender) interpreted the text (from F.Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night) in entirely unique ways. I personally love this idea, after all, aren’t perfume’s just smelly stories that stir emotion, surprise and transport us in the same way as a novel?

Miller Harris have now added a total of four fragrances to the collection (and have since discontinued Tender) with the two latest being Staccato and Mìneir. For these new additions the text that serves as inspiration for each scent is different, with the “addictive and smoky” Staccato channeling Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence and the “aromatic marine” Mìneir diving into the pages of Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse. Despite my love of reading I must confess that I don’t know either novel but that is not going to stop me exploring their olfactory counterparts!

Let’s Sniff!

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