When we look at the never ending stream of reviews for any new perfume you could be forgiven for thinking that you’ve read it all before. Many of them seem to follow the press release from the company so rigidly that you can almost second guess what is going to be said. The real joy of fragrance is that different people can react in different ways to the same scent, so why not say so? This is what happened when I smelled the latest release from Liz Moores and Papillon Perfumery. Whilst it may have originally been inspired by ancient Egyptian rituals, Spell 125 took me instead to Germany and its annual celebration of Hexennacht.

The feeling of pride that we all experience when we do, or create, something special is instilled in us from childhood. However, we’re also taught the flip side of this, and that is that taking the credit for someone else’s work is wrong. The perfume industry’s history is littered with misappropriations, and we’ll never know the perfumers who created some of the world’s most famous fragrances, but it surely can’t still be happening? The short answer is yes, it does, and that was unfortunately highlighted in Too Good To Go’s latest campaign. So, let’s take a look at why the old-fashioned “credit where credit is due” is being ignored.