My husband has taken the children to their grandparents for the weekend. So, MyPerfumeLife has been snooping around some of the best perfume shops in London's West End.
Marylebone High Street is a great starting point for some sniffing delights.
It’s great to move away from European perfumes and try something out of the US for a change. I received a parcel yesterday which included CB I Hate Perfume’s Eternal Return. Smelling it immediately took me straight back to Brighton beach, where I spent a lot of time as a teenager. I’ve never smelt anything remotely like this before – extremely evocative of the seaside. What’s interesting is that the British seaside is far from glamorous. It’s all washed up seaweed, dead jellyfish, cuttlefish shells and rotting crabs. Nonetheless, Eternal Return manages to capture the seaside atmosphere perfectly.
The question is whether Eternal Return is actually wearable. This is how my family would naturally honk after a day on the beach. My inclination would be to go home and have a hot shower and put on something more sweet smelling. If I went out to dinner with my friends in London smelling like the seaside, eyebrows would be raised. Not everybody would understand that this is an insanely cool fragrance from New York.
Eternal Return was initially released in 2007. Christopher Brosius is the ‘CB’ behind this range of fragrances. He is the creator of the perfumes as well as the name behind the brand. His perfumes are evocative of times and places, rather than following the traditional portfolio of ‘perfume’ smells.
If you love the seaside, then DEFINITELY try this. It’s perfect.
Just as I finished today’s earlier post, I opened a package of perfumes sent to me by the lovely Left Coast Nose. Lo and behold it includes another fig fragrance – Revelation by CB I Hate Perfume. Having just waxed lyrical about the delights of Philosykos by Diptyque, I think I actually prefer Revelation.
Revelation is more musky, and I suspect longer lasting than Diptyque. But if you like fig fragrances, then both are definitely worth a try.
If I had to identify the fragrance ‘of the moment’, without doubt it would be Diptyque’s Philosykos. I’ve tried it several times. Although the smell itself doesn’t directly appeal to me, it’s interesting to get to grips with its popularity.
Philosykos has only two listed notes; fig and cedar. So it appears much ‘purer’ and simpler than many of its forerunners.The new IFRA restrictions on perfume ingredients have been widely met with consternation by commentators on the perfume industry. However, as a consumer, I don’t want to be applying anything to my skin that might be harmful; carcinogenic or otherwise. The IFRA rules have been generated by public pressure, not only for more information about what’s included in perfume, but for harmful products to be banned. The take home message for perfume manufacturers should be that consumers want a more natural product, and yes if it’s ethical, sustainable, etc etc, so much the better.
In many ways current consumer demands are matched perfectly by the products that the Diptyque range has to offer. The fragrances are based on natural substances, usually fruit and other food.They appear to contain very few ingredients, which implies a more natural, less chemical product. Their packaging has an intentionally home-made feel to it. So immediately you assume that it’s ethically produced by a small family business or such-like.
The Philosykos fragrance itself is very unusual. Very few mainstream perfumes are based on fig. The only other one that I’ve come across is Hermes’ Un Jardin en Méditerranée. Many reviewers describe Philosykos as smelling, not just of the fig fruit, but of the fig tree, the branches, the leaves and the soil itself. So Philosykos represents a wholesome, non-sweet, fruit fragrance that typifies our modern concerns with an organic and wholesome approach to life.
Philosykos has been in production since 1996. The perfumer is Olivia Giacobetti. Giacobetti created another fig fragrance, namely Premier Figuier for L’Artisan Parfumeur. It’s interesting how some perfumers carry a theme through their work – often improving it along the way.
Philosykos embodies the next generation of perfumes. It’s isn’t musk or amber based. It’s not floral, or fruity in the traditional sense. While CK one, L’Eau D’Issey and the fragrances we associate with the 1990s smelt of natural elements, they were still chemically based. The new generation of fragrances will be not only of naturally occurring aromas, but created by natural ingredients.
As it’s impossible to resist the allure of the Diptyque brand, I treated myself to the Diptyque hand balm. Beaume Genereux is rich in Apricot Kernel oil. It smells terrific and leaves my rough hands feeling extremely smooth.
My perfume odyssey is finally endearing me to the ways of amber. I wasn’t wearing fragrances in the 1980s when it was all about Opium and Poison. I’m part of the CK one and Eau D’Issey generation. I grew up thinking that I should smell fresh, watery, summery and that’s about it. Fabulous up to a point. But it gets boring. And I feel too old to be smelling like a combination of cucumber and the seaside.
Many modern fragrances, such as Prada’s recent L’Eau Ambrée tend to use amber notes to excess. This amber overload was my sole experience of the note until I started delving a bit further.
Recently I wrote about Hermes’ Ambre Narguilé. I tried Ambre Narguilé largely because it features on Make Up Alley’s list of top perfumes from 2007. This list makes an interesting read, you can see it here. It provides a great starting point for somebody, like me, who loves perfume and wants to understand the greats but has a very limited knowledge.
Like several other scents from the house of Hermès, Ambre Narguilé is a fragrance with an extremely light touch. Although it’s an amber scent, it’s regularly referred to as ‘gourmand’, ie foody. Narguilé definitely fulfils the foody brief. It conjures up all sorts of lovely spices like cinnamon and nutmeg; things you associate with warming winter fare. I began to understand that amber needn’t always be that excessive, eye-watering overdose of synthetic materials. In fact it can feel warm and mildly spicy and soft.
So, back to Guerlain’s Attrapé Coeur. This is a floral fragrance swaddling a tender heart of amber notes. Until now, I haven’t understood the appeal of many of Guerlain’s delights that critics rave about. However, I’m beginning to get the point. Attrapé Coeur is warm and cosy and wintery. It’s got an amazing depth and is even slightly musky too. It’s a sexy sophisticated smell. It smells like a woman should smell, ie not girly – but genuinely grown up.
If you want a warm, sexy, sophisticated smell, then Attrapé Coeur should be at the top of your list.
