To say that we live in very uncertain times would be an understatement. Society has constantly gone through struggles and upheavals, but what is now different is that we follow every twist and turn on twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and by SMS. There is no passage of time while we wait for information to come through; it’s now relentlessly instant. For the plot of her latest novel, Carol Drinkwater has collided the 2015 Bataclan attack with the perfume fields of Grasse, and produced a work that uses scented references to lift the very words from the page and resonate with the reader. THE LOST GIRL is an emotional roller-coaster.
Somerset House in London has to be one of the most beautiful venues for any exhibition, but it's even better on a hot summer evening. This is how it was on Tuesday when I visited the new installation simply entitled PERFUME. With a tag line describing it as “a sensory journey through contemporary scent” I really had no idea what to expect. Except for a few slips from Lizzie Ostrom, aka Odette Toilette, during a day out with baby Ostrom it was a total surprise. So, was my original impression that it covered everything from "semen to cookies" correct? Come with me into a "world of pure imagination".
Marilyn Monroe famously sang, “we’re having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave”, and those words couldn’t be truer of the last few days in Britain. Spring is finally gone and we are now basking in the glorious summer sunshine. Alongside the heat though is the ever present goal of the perfect tan and unfortunately, if you’re like me, something to soothe a sunburn. The majority of summer products have the usual aroma of tiare flower and ylang-ylang, which make them difficult to use underneath your favourite fragrance, but Leighton Denny has solved this problem with two products from his Sunbelievable range.
Inspiration comes from many sources but our memories can provide some of the most unusual and exciting. There is something about the way our brains store information about a place or a situation that can result in quite an abstract recollection, and it's this that Nick Steward has used to create the debut range from Gallivant, his own perfume company. After a career spent working for some of the industry's top perfume brands, Nick felt that the time was right to branch out on his own. So, let's take a closer look at London, one of his first four fragrances, which is far more than just Earl Grey and sandwiches.
It takes guts to start a new independent perfume company these days, but that is exactly what Nick Steward has done. After nineteen years working in the fragrance industry he has taken the plunge and launched Gallivant with a beautiful range of scents designed for “the traveller in us all”. So, let’s find out a little bit more about the man behind the passport as he answers “Stephan’s Six”.
It’s almost Father’s Day and if you’ve already made your purchases then I’m very impressed. However, in a similar way to Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day and even Christmas Day, there will be a lot of frantic dashes to the high street in an attempt to get that last minute present. You are going to be confronted with walls of fragrances, some of which you will know but many that you won’t, and so I’ve chosen three classics for you which should cover most budgets. In the end it’s the thought that counts, but one of these is certain to impress. So, let's have a look at Dior, Penhaligon's and Crabtree & Evelyn.
Sexy is different to sensual and sultry is not the same as provocative, but what these words all have in common is that they can be applied to every fragrance from one of Britain's finest independent perfumers. If Agatha Christie is the Queen of Crime then Liz Moores is surely the Siren of Scent. She always weaves a sexuality through her fragrances and this continues with her latest addition. An already impressive range of four fragrances is joined this month by a fifth in the form of the eagerly awaited Dryad, and it promises to entice and challenge in exactly the same way that her previous creations have.
The niche sector of the perfume market is an ever-growing one with new companies seemingly popping up at a rate of knots. Some of them are excellent; some of them miss the mark. Some are created by perfumers; some are envisaged by creative directors. Whichever way they come to market the most important thing is that the product is of an exceptional quality, otherwise they just get lost amongst a sea of Google search results. Enter Nick Steward and his company Gallivant. No stranger to the perfume industry, and with an approachable nature that is refreshing, I met up with him to find out more about Gallivant.
