I’m always crushing on something scented or other. My nose knows no limits. Candy Crush is where I showcase the beautifully scented things I’m crushing on right now so you can hopefully develop a crush too.
Halloween is very much now a thing in the UK, more so than it ever was and I for one, am for it. I mean, what’s not to love? Sweets?! DRESSING UP?! It literally combines my favourite things and it’s a wonderfully scented occasion too, with candied apples and pumpkin flesh providing a rather intense scent to the season. Not to mention the fact that Halloween is set during the most fragrant time of the year. So yes, I’m here for Halloween and do you know who else is? The Body Shop, that’s who.
I’m always crushing on something scented or other. My nose knows no limits. Candy Crush is where I showcase the beautifully scented things I’m crushing on right now so you can hopefully develop a crush too.
I’m pretty much obsessed with CHANEL body products. Their Bleu de Chanelshaving products are some of the best I’ve used and I fell massively hard for their Nº5 Body Oil, like really hard. So when CHANEL launch a scented something for the body I want it on my body, and I want it on my body right now. This is exactly how I felt when the press release for the brand’s exciting new hand cream ‘La Crème Main‘ landed in my inbox – I needed to have it. So now I have it and I want to share with you just why it’s my latest Candy Crush.
“I’m always crushing on something scented or other. My nose knows no limits. Candy Crush is where I showcase the beautifully scented things I’m crushing on right now so you can hopefully develop a crush too.”
I’m always here for BVLGARI and their fragrant offerings. I feel as if everything they do is very well-crafted with an attention to detail and quality that is often disregarded in the mainstream. For the most part their perfumes are accessible and easygoing, with high quality materials favoured over a unique or challenging signature. Think your typical mainstream fragrance but elevated – that’s BVLGARI. So I crush on BVLGARI quite regularly, but I’m crushing hard right now on their new limited edition: BVLGARI Man in Black Essence.
“I’m always crushing on something scented or other. My nose knows no limits. Candy Crush is where I showcase the beautifully scented things I’m crushing on right now so you can hopefully develop a crush too.”
Look at this! Just look at it! Isn’t it beautiful?
When Angel launched way back in 1992, Thierry Mugler was very keen on the bottles being refillable. The purpose of this was for two reasons; firstly, it’s ecological, but also the bottle was to become a beloved object that one kept forever and refilled whenever it ran out. The creation of Angel’s iconic star bottle was a technical feat that took years to get right, so it’s only fair that it should become such a treasured item. I remember speaking to a MUGLER Sales Assistant years ago who told me that she often refilled a vast variety of battered, bruised and well-loved Angel flacons at the source. So it seems that the wearers of Angel have fulfilled M. Mugler’s vision.
“I’m always crushing on something scented or other. My nose knows no limits. Candy Crush is where I showcase the beautifully scented things I’m crushing on right now so you can hopefully develop a crush too.”
Every now and then I like to revisit a perfume that I’ve not smelled in a long time. I find that one’s tastes can change dramatically over time, especially as the nose becomes educated more and more. I often find that fragrances I have dismissed previously leave a completely different impression when sniffed many years later. I’ve even owned bottles of perfumes and swapped them away because they weren’t ‘me’. But as I change, what I enjoy as a fragrances changes also. In certain cases I simply think that my nose wasn’t ready to appreciate what a fragrance has to offer.
So as part of my regular Candy Crush series (where I showcase scented things that are my latest obsession) I’m going to include the occasional fragrance that I’ve recently revisited and I’m crushing over. My tastes change so much over time and something I’d written off as ‘not for me’ years ago can be my latest obsession. My nose just wasn’t ready but now it is. So this week’s Candy Crush is just that: a perfume I’d previously ignored but I have found new love for. Enter Miss Charming by Juliette Has a Gun.
When the opening page of an fragrant magazine is a short essay on the fact that perfume has no gender I know for a fact that I’m going to be fully on board. That’s exactly how Issue 3 of Nez (‘Nose’) starts and it very much proceeds in as positive a vein. I first encountered the new olfactory magazine in the gift shop at the Somerset House Perfume Exhibition earlier this summer and I was initially struck by its presentation, which can only be described as absolutely gorgeous in every way.
Published twice per year, Nez aims to explore the world of fragrance around us and provides a host of articles about perfume and other scent-related topics. I was kindly sent a copy of Issue 3 (the spring/summer issue) to read and I’ve included it as this week’s Candy Crush because I was really struck by just how interesting, unique and extensive its content was. Did I also mention that the presentation is absolutely drop dead flipping gorgeous?
Candy Crush: Blenheim Bouquet Classic Candle by Penhaligon’s
I’m always crushing on something scented or other. My nose knows no limits. Candy Crush is where I showcase the beautifully scented things I’m crushing on right now so you can hopefully develop a crush too.
Scented candles are much loved at Candy Perfume Towers. We like to have them in every room to ensure that each wing, turret and chamber is appropriately scented. Apparently we also have delusions of grandeur and for the sake of honesty I really should inform you that Candy Perfume Towers is actually an end of terraced abode (a rather lovely one it must be said) and not a castle. It’s not even officially called Candy Perfume Towers. Boo to reality, we say. Boo to it!
Anyway back to scented candles. These lovely objects are great because they can really set the mood in a room and they feel like a true indulgence, making for the perfect gift or even the ultimate treat. Good candles are those that have a strong presence but don’t overwhelm and I think I may have just found one that strikes that balance perfectly. That candle is the Blenheim Bouquet Classic Candle from Penhaligon’s, which boasts a timeless scent worn by all sorts of gents, from the gentry of the early 1900s to the hipsters of today. Oh and Winston Churchill too. That’s quite the endorsement now, isn’t it?
I’m always crushing on something scented or other. My nose knows no limits. Candy Crush is where I showcase the beautifully scented things I’m crushing on right now so you can hopefully develop a crush too.
There are many ways to wear perfume that sit outside the conventional spraying and dabbing of alcohol-based scent. For years one has been able to splash on an alcohol-free aftershave or even rub on a solid perfume. There are even shower gels and body lotions that one can use to extend and intensify a fragrance. So brands are always trying to find new and exciting ways to wear scent and cult Swedish niche brand Byredo may just have come up with one of the coolest, which earns them the honour of being this week’s Candy Crush!
Powder perfumes are nothing new, but they are out of fashion. Historically, many brands offered scented talcum powders or makeup powders that could be puffed on with reckless abandon, but these products sort of fell out of fashion post the drama of the ’80s. Byredo however, has decided that powder perfumes need a revival and they are bringing this method of perfuming oneself into the latest century in an innovative way with their Kabuki Perfume. Fusing the idea of makeup brushes and contemporary perfume, these perfumed brushes allow one to apply a soft powder scent in a more subtle way. Colour me intrigued!
I’m always crushing on something scented or other. My nose knows no limits. Candy Crush is where I showcase the beautifully scented things I’m crushing on right now so you can hopefully develop a crush too.
I LOVE a body product, especially a shower gel. There’s something just so luxurious about slathering on one’s favourite scent in a lotion, cream or a gel. These products are the perfect thing to layer with a beloved scent, extending and emphasising it or for mixing it up with something unexpected to create contrast. They also make perfect gifts especially if it’s a treat yo’self kind of gift (i.e. the best kind)…
L’Artisan Parfumeur recently (well, relatively recently anyway) launched a new range of Shower Gels and Body Lotions in five of their emblematic scents. Celebrating the iconic classics of the range, these products are housed in the most handsome packaging ever: sleek black pumps that are as functional as they are pleasing to look at. So what is there not to crush over? New ways to wear iconic scents: check. Beautiful packaging: check. Amazing smells: check. Consider it a Candy Crush!
I’m always crushing on something scented or other. My nose knows no limits. Candy Crush is where I showcase the beautifully scented things I’m crushing on right now so you can hopefully develop a crush too.
I have struggled with my mental health.
It took a lot for me to type that sentence and I think it may take more to publish it. There’s a negative stigma around mental health and it can take a lot of guts to come out and admit that one has struggled. Mental health is a topic people don’t like to talk about much, which is a massive travesty because mental health is something that’s very important to talk about it. So talk about it we shall and if you’re wondering what on Earth this all has to do with a Jo Malone Candle of all things, then bear with, Dear Reader, bear with…
I’ve always been an anxious person and for the longest time I just thought the level of nerves I felt was normal. I mean everybody gets nervous before speaking publically or attending interviews, right? But it wasn’t just those situations that made me feel nervous – sometimes it would be paying for something in a shop or talking to somebody I didn’t know. At my worst it was any interaction with another human, even with people I knew. Luckily for me I was able to seek help and remove myself from the situations that exacerbated my anxiety. I now have mechanisms in place help to deal with anxiety and for the most part, I am a happy person. Because of this I am very lucky.
The Candy Perfume Boy 