Thursday 27 February 2020

SEA SALT & DRIFTWOOD by OSMIC

The fashion for home crafting seems to be at an all-time high at the moment with new businesses springing up every day. The Etsy platform has really helped to push these companies to greater prominence but it’s come at a cost. The majority of them are producing products based on other companies’ fragrances and many don’t even alter the name. How many times have you seen Lime Basil & Mandarin or English Pear & Freesia? One company that is trying to do something a little different though is Osmic. Their latest scent, Sea Salt & Driftwood, is a great example that home crafting can dare to be different.

Monday 24 February 2020

STEPHAN'S SIX - DIDIER GAGLEWSKI


Didier Gaglewski was born in Grasse and, very quickly, became fascinated with the world of perfumery. Being brought up the spiritual home of fragrance meant that a career in the industry was inevitable and it led to debut collections being presented in Paris, Germany, and Switzerland. I met Didier at his beautiful boutique in Grasse to discover his scented secrets during “Stephan’s Six”.

Thursday 20 February 2020

INCENSE CITY by AllSaints

The idea of a clothing company expanding their range to include a fragrance line is nothing new. From the early days of Chanel right through to a more modern Missoni, giving the customer the opportunity to own something more than just fashion or makeup encourages them to fully immerse themselves in the brand. Now, this has been done with varying degrees of success, mainly down to the quality of the final scent, and it’s widely recognised as a bit of a risky enterprise. However, for every failure there is also a triumph and that can certainly be said of AllSaints and their remarkable Incense City.

Monday 17 February 2020

STEPHAN'S SIX - BARBARA HERMAN


Barbara Herman became well known to the fragrance community through Yesterday’s Perfume, a blog which concentrated on her love of vintage scents. This subsequently inspired her bestselling book, Scent & Subversion, and sowed the seeds for her own perfume range, Eris Parfums. With a fascination for classic fragrances, I wondered what scented secrets Barbara would reveal during “Stephan’s Six”.

Thursday 13 February 2020

VILLANELLE by Kamila Aubre

There are times when fate can take a bigger hand in the exposure of your company than any amount of carefully placed articles or reviews. You are always at the mercy of the reader engaging with the piece in order for them to learn more about the brand and the fragrances, and by that I mean actually clicking through to the website at the end of the final paragraph. This is completely out of the hands of the writer, or even the company, but sometimes something else can take over. One person that has experienced this first-hand is Kamila Aubre with her wonderfully named perfume entitled Villanelle.

Monday 10 February 2020

COCOROSA BEAUTY - The Scent of Sandalwood

The advertising slogan that started a revolution, and is lodged in most people’s minds, must surely be “not perfumed, not coloured, just kind.” Those famous words are credited to Alex Pearl, the copywriter on the 1986 advert for Simple, and it made a generation begin to question what was actually in their skincare. The reason for adding fragrance back then was to simply make it smell better but, over time, the beauty industry started to revert to ingredients that were naturally perfumed. One such company is Cocorosa Beauty and their Sandalwood Soothe & Restore Face Oil continues to harness the power of scent.

Thursday 6 February 2020

GULA by Memoize London

In the constant rush for “newness” we often forget about companies that are confidently, and successfully, continuing to walk that niche road. These brands become whispered favourites rather than trumpeted crowd-pleasers, and often find themselves relying on loyal fan bases. These fantastic companies start to disappear from the magazine editorials in favour of the “new young thing.” This is the case with Memoize London, a fragrance brand that deserves much more exposure. Now in their fourth year, it’s time to revisit this memory based collection and rediscover one of their original fragrances, the wonderfully exciting Gula.

Monday 3 February 2020

TABAC ROSE by bdk Parfums

You often hear the word “exclusive” applied to perfumes within a company’s range but, more often than not, they tend to be a discontinued fragrance that’s been rereleased under a new name. This is wonderful news for fans of the original but it can smack of a laziness on the part of the company. What is always exciting though is when an “exclusive” is released from a young niche brand because, as they don’t have a huge archive, the fragrance is likely to be a new creation. This is the case with Tabac Rose from bdk Parfums, the Harrods exclusive that has definitely set temperatures racing.