Perfume

Fume Chat Picks up a Jasmine Award!

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Yesterday The Fragrance Foundation announced the winners of the Jasmine Awards 2018 and I am so thrilled to tell you that Fume Chat, the fragrance podcast that I host with my good friend (and perfume genius, let’s face it) Nick Gilbert, picked up an award in the Innovation Category for Episode 18 – The War of the Roses ft. Josephine Fairley. We put a huge amount of work in to making Fume Chat so it’s so wonderful to receive such recognition in the form of our very first award.

This is now my fifth Jasmine Award – I simply cannot believe it! Writing, or in this case talking about perfume, is my passion and to be recognised by the industry body so many times is hugely mind-blowing. Thank you to Nick for being my scented partner in crime and for bringing wit & wisdom to Fume Chat – Fume Chat would not be Fume Chat without you! Thank you to Jo Fairley for being the perfect podcast guess on our winning episode, and for sharing your expert knowledge. Finally, thank you too my husband Nigel for the unbending support – for each encouraging word, cup of tea when I’m struggling with a deadline or writer’s block, and for being there every step of the way.

The 2018 Jasmine Award winners are:

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Perfume Review: ANGEL FRUITY FAIR by MUGLER

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Creating a flanker of an iconic fragrance is no easy task. There has to be balance between the familiar and the unfamiliar, with the resulting fragrance smelling similar enough to the original to bear its name, but also different enough to justify its own existence. Now, that problem is amplified when the iconic scent in question has already been flankered (not a word, but go with it) numerous times already. How does a brand bring something new when they’ve given a scent the flanker treatment dozens of times already? Well, in the case of most brands, the answer is ‘not very well’, but when it comes to MUGLER, flankers are where the brand really gets to have fun.

ANGEL is the MUGLER flagship and it has had many, many, many, many, many, many (do you see where I’m going with this?), many flankers. Its incredibly bold signature makes it perfect flanker material because one can always recognise it, whilst its gourmand facets are begging for thousands of fantastical culinary twists – also there’s lots of stuff going on in ANGEL so there are lots of paths to go down in terms of flankering. So yes, ANGEL lends itself well to flankers and proof can be found in its latest incarnation ANGEL FRUITY FAIR. This limited edition celebrates “gourmand indulgence” evoking a magical carnival filled to the brim with feelings of unabashed joy. Sign me up!

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Speed Sniff: Nubian Musk by Sana Jardin Paris

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Speed Sniffs is a way to bring you ‘to-the-point’ fragrance reviews that are quick and easy to digest. They are perfume reviews without the faff.

Sana Jardin is a new eco and ethically conscious fragrance house that aims to create luxurious niche fragrance that brings real change for the growers of the materials, specifically women. This is done through their Beyond Sustainability™ movement which, as Sana Jardin puts it, “is a movement to create tangible and measurable social change through commerce, not charity. It’s a movement to create female entrepreneurs who are agents of change in their community. It is built on traditional, sustainable practices and fair trade. Beyond Sustainability™ is preserving heritage skills while inspiring the next generation of artisans.”

It’s always good for fragrances houses to take a socially-conscious approach to their manufacturing and for this to be at the heart of a luxury niche brand is really encouraging. There are currently seven fragrances in the collection, one of which is the focus of today’s speed sniff! That scent is Nubian Musk and it’s described by Sana Jardin as follows; “A seductive scent recollection…a physical encounter, a chemical attraction, limbs entwined, souls lost to pure, carnal desire. Fragranced with the intoxicating, raw scent of skin, amplified in the heat of passion.” Sounds like it’s quite something, doesn’t it?!

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Share a #SMELLFIE for National Fragrance Day

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Show us your #Smellfie!

To celebrate National Fragrance Day today, The Perfume Society is encouraging perfume lovers across the land to share a selfie with a fragrance – something that they call a ‘smellfie’. Now in its fourth year, the idea of the smellfie is simple: one takes a snap of themselves with a fragrance, whether that be a favourite or simply the scent one happens to be wearing, and share it on social media. Easy, right? Other than the fact that we all adore a selfie, there’s also further incentive to share your smellfie in the form of a competition. To enter, you just need to do the following:

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What’s in my Gym Bag?

 

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I’ve become a bit obsessed with working out. 12 months ago I worked out once approximately every, well, 12 months. Now I’m on a regular cycle of six workouts a week. The transformation in my physical and mental health has been tremendously positive and I generally feel much better about how I look, and how I feel, despite the fact that I still have a long way to go to meet my goals. So every week I run 5K twice (not bad for someone who previously despised running), do two days of weights, one day of core strength and on my sixth day, a mixture of all of these things dependent on my mood. I may ache pretty much all of the time but I feel fantastic for it.

Since I’ve been going to the gym regularly I’ve turned my life into one of routines. I have routines for working out, for eating, for the clothes I wear (basically EVERYTHING is Superdry, I don’t know why, I must like the colour orange) and for the scented things I use. So, in this article I want to briefly take you though the contents of my gym bag to show you some of the scented (and non-scented) things I swear by. There are things for the skin and for the shower, and of course there’s scent too, because I’m The Candy Perfume Boy and I kind of have a thing for fragrance… Anyway, into the gym bag we go!

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