Can scent help with grief? When my mother passed away I found solace in the four perfumes that she loved. Fragrance was a shared connection when we shared so little else in life and by revisiting her signature fragrances, I’ve gained a deeper understanding of who she was and how to manage my grief.
If you’re following me over on instagram you’ll know that I’ve had a bit of a rebrand to ‘Making Scents Make Sense’ (I will get around to changing the blog name at some point….). With that comes an exciting new venture: a podcast! Making Scents Make Sense the podcast is a series that is all about demystifying the world of fragrance. My aim is to talk fragrance in a fun, accessible way with no snobbery and no gatekeeping. The first episode is now live and you can listen below or wherever you get your podcasts.
“It’s chic to be drab” DS & Durga tells us in the tagline for their new fragrance, Brown Flowers. It’s an unusual statement from a fragrance brand, but DS & Durga is not your typical outfit and rather than trying to crowd please, like much of the fragrance industry, they’re not afraid to be different. The tagline and name of the fragrance come with tongue pressed firmly in cheek (Brown Flowers is so off-putting it comes full circle). But let’s not mistake DS & Durga for not being serious – they may not take themselves seriously (they have fun with what they do), but they certainly do take the creation of unique perfumes very seriously indeed.
At the London launch of Brown Flowers, DS & Durga perfumer and co-founder David Seth Moltz provided a very specific description of the inspiration of the fragrance, derived from a visit to Philip Johnson’s glasshouse in Connecticut. I shall paraphrase below:
“Perhaps someone’s aunt stays in the guest house, she’s a dilettante who gets into drawing classes, and starts making potpourri. She makes a perfume called Brown Flowers, made with a musk you can only get in Europe. Everyone’s wearing it. If she could just get a few bottles into Barneys she’ll have made it. She has a boyfriend who plays a guitar in a band, nobody knows his name. It’s a drab heavy ‘70s floral. Oh and her name is Simone by the way.”
I truly admire a brand that creates such vivid and specific olfactory stories and without a single material being mentioned in that description above, one gets a real sense of what this fragrance is trying to convey. So is Brown Flowers really a drab floral? Does it evoke the 1970s? And more importantly, should you seek it out and give it a sniff? Is it chic in a counter-culture way? Well, read on and you shall find out!
I’m a firm believer that fragrance should be approached much in the same way as fashion. You would not dream of having only one outfit for every single occasion or season, so why would you do the same with your scent? There is literally a fragrance for everything and I always try and match my scent to my outfit, whatever it is I may be doing, and the season of the time. For these reasons I’ve got into a cycle of curating a seasonal fragrance wardrobe which sits on a lovely little marble tray in my bedroom. I’ll be sharing this selection with you every season (whether you like it or not….)
Winter 2024/25 has been a very busy season life-wise and a mixed season for me from an olfactory perspective. I’ve focused on warmer scents (understandably) but have also craved freshness. I’ve leaned into the gourmand quite often (quelle surprise) and have worn a mixture of new launches and classics. There have even been one or two rediscoveries of things in my collection that I’d completely forgotten about. It’s been an exciting time fragrance-wise, so here’s a quick round-up of what I wore over the last few months.
Controversial fragrance opinion ahoy: I think the Tom Ford Signature Collection (i.e. the more mainstream, slightly lower priced collection that includes the likes of Black Orchid, White Patchouli, and Noir etc) has better fragrances than the higher-priced Private Blends. Maybe it’s the (slightly) more reasonable price point that attracts me but the Signature Collection is where the Tom Ford brand executes its most interesting ideas in the most successful way. In fact, they even tend to move some of their better Private Blends into the Signature Collection after a period of time (see Costa Azurra and Cafe Rose).
Bois Pacifique is the latest addition to the collection. The brand calls it “a woody spicy scent of majestic woods” which, I think means that it’s quite woody… They speak of “freedom” and “vitality” but the one word that best captures the experience of Bois Pacifique is “subtlety”. For a brand known for its heavy hitters, this is quite the turn of events and it fills a gap within the current collection: that of a soft skin scent that does not demand attention.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
The Candy Perfume Boy 