On Escentual this week – 7 fragrances you should wear from the main olfactory families. Click here to read.
Eau de Parfum
A celebration of our favourite fragrances, past and present, for National Fragrance Week. On Escentual now. Click here to read.
Sarah Jessica Parker, or ‘SJP’ as she is sometimes called, has always made fragrances that are a level above those of her celebrity counterparts. She is famously a lover of fragrance, having worn her own custom blend of Bonne Bell Skin Musk, Egyptian Oil and Comme des Garçons Avignon for years. Her first fragrance ‘Lovely‘ is iconic and beautiful and her collection of scents that followed always showcased something interesting whilst also managing to be accessible and wearable – the perfect balance. SJP simply gets it right when it comes to fragrance and her more recent offerings are further proof.
In 2016, SJP launched ‘Stash‘, her first fragrance in quite some time. The scent, which takes its name from the fact that it was passed around like an illicit substance during its development, due to its unique odour, had a big impact and many bloggers fell in love with it. I was one of those bloggers but I never got around to reviewing it. So today I’m featuring Stash alongside the latest addition to the collection ‘Stash Unspoken’. So from today Stash will no longer be hidden away and we will have the joy of, err, un-stashing it now (bad pun, sorry). Let’s get to 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.
I’ll be entirely honest and say that Twilly d’Hermès was a bit of a grower for me. Launched as an obvious attempt to court a new, younger customer, the fragrance, which was inspired by the brand’s famous Twilly scarves, was the first pillar from Hermès new in-house perfumer Christine Nagel. It is a very exuberant offering from the brand, with a giant shock of fresh ginger up top and a fresh, waxy tuberose note over a soft bed of sandalwood and musk. I thought it was cool last summer when I reviewed it but it wasn’t until the winter that I fell in love. Twilly and her quirky ginger-tuberose vibes are on regular rotation in my scent wardrobe, so imagine my excitement when I heard that Hermès were launching a range of accompanying body products. I died (figuratively, of course).
Out of all of the modern CHANEL fragrances, Coco Mademoiselle is the most iconic. It is the Nº5 for the modern age and since its launch in 2001 it has been the fragrance of choice for an entire generation of women. It’s hard to top a perfume this successful and rather surprisingly, Coco Mademoiselle hasn’t been subjected to the flanker treatment in its almost 20 year life span (for contrast, Chance, which launched after Coco M, has three flankers) – that is until now. Enter Coco Mademoiselle Eau de Parfum Intense from stage right.
Coco Mademoiselle Eau de Parfum Intense is a good example of a perfume that does what it says on the bottle – it’s essentially a more intense version of the original. CHANEL calls it “naturally excessive” billing it as a “fragrance with no intention of being forgotten”. It’s a bold statement and to achieve this, CHANEL has amplified each of the key facets of the original – the juicy citrus, dark patchouli fraction, and the glowing amber – to paint a clearer picture of Coco Mademoiselle. Let’s see if it is as ‘Coco Mademoiselle’ and ‘Intense’ as it thinks it is!
Mon Guerlain Florale, the new flanker, reviewed on Escentual (and there’s a giveaway too). Check it out here. There’s a giveaway too!
More! More! More! That’s what we want! Give us more!
Us greedy perfume lovers are very lucky because the perfume industry serves us up an all you can smell buffet with every kind of fragrance imaginable. There are fresh aperitifs, rich main courses evocative of exotic cuisines, and not to mention the desserts – oh the deserts! The perfumery dessert cart is filled with chocolate parfaits, rose macrons and candy floss knickerbockerglory sundaes. What’s more, this entire buffet is endless and brands are constantly us up more – more in the form of new treats, all for our insatiable appetite for scent.
This need for more doesn’t just apply to the volume of scent though, no, it also extends to the intensity of the fragrances we wear and one can guarantee that, when a brand launches a popular scent there will be an ‘intense’ or ‘extreme’ version that follows. Often, these flankers can be a little bit superfluous but sometimes they can do something really wonderful by giving more of the scented goodness that made the original so good. A perfect example of an ‘extreme’ done well is the new Straight to Heaven Extreme from By Kilian, which takes the booze and woods of the original, and intensifies them, resulting in something utterly excessive.
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 year Jo Malone London treats us to a quirky limited edition collection that explores an intriguing aspect of perfumery. To date we’ve enjoyed an entire tea party, taken a stroll through a herb garden and rocked the ages, amongst many other things. These collections are always really fun and they’re where Jo Malone London really stretches its olfactory legs, almost as if they get to test out their crazier ideas in these low-risk limited editions.
This year Jo Malone London brings us English Fields, a collection of five fragrances inspired by, and evocative of, cereals and grains. Created by perfumer Mathilde Bijaoui, who says that “to have cereals and grains as the main focus is a first” for her and that this is “somewhere in perfumery [she] has never been before“, English Fields is a celebration of a savoury style of gourmand that is not usually explored within perfumery. Across these five fragrances, Jo Malone London gets bready, grainy and a little bit yeasty, presenting new and intriguing facets, all housed within the most handsome pastel shaded bottles dipped in matt, concrete-esque paint.
Let’s sniff through this quirky little collection…
The Candy Perfume Boy 