When Brooke Belldon drew on her long-term passion for fragrance to launch the retail website Sainte Cellier, she quickly gained a reputation for stocking a carefully curated selection of the best that niche perfumery has to offer. Brooke has been a well-known face in the fragrance community for over a decade but, even after becoming a go-to voice for the niche market, still playfully describes herself as “an obsessive collector and enthusiastic student”. With such a wealth of knowledge, it was great to finally sit down with her and discover her scented memories during “Stephan’s Six”.
The first fragrances released by a company can often set the template for everything that is to follow. Whether it’s favoured ingredients, particular scent styles, or even the inspirations, getting that first collection right is so important to the long-term success of any perfume venture. Even after the fragrances have been created, the amount of work that it takes to get them seen by customers can often feel like an uphill struggle. That’s where having an existing core base of followers can be a lifesaver. Country from Wales Perfumery is one of the company’s debut trio of scents, but is the land of song singing its praises?
Independent businesses in seaside towns have a habit of vanishing after a single season, but there’s one in Cornwall that's just celebrated its third birthday. The St. Ives Co. was founded by three sisters, Tegen, Ainslie and Safi, with the aim of championing the Cornish way of life through home, body and lifestyle products. While their iconic Grapefruit, Lime & Bergamot Body Cleanser was chosen for the G7 Summit, I wondered what other scented secrets The St. Ives Co. had? I settled down with Ainslie Fowler to discover more during her “Stephan’s Six”.
Simplicity is a word that seems to be rarely used in the world of fragrance, and is almost seen as a negative concept that should be avoided at all costs. Perfumes and aromas need to be complex, they need to have a structure that fascinates and astounds the wearer, but is it starting to become exhausting? Fragrances have always been experimental, but more and more they’re becoming an assault on the senses. Thankfully, in amongst the explosions, there’s someone that continues to strip back their scents and present the beauty of simplicity. I’m talking about Tessa Williams, and specifically her Lemon Candle.
The joy of travel was something that was taken away from us all during the two years of global upheaval, and so any fragrance that references the incredible ability that journeying has to reset our internal clocks is absolutely one to explore. The way that perfume can be used to balance emotions, as well as encourage decision making, is a trend that many companies are now actively promoting with each of their new releases, and that is definitely the case with TUMI. Their Atlas fragrance is described as “the spirit of a man who chooses his destiny with individuality and determination”, but did I discover mine?
An increasing trend in perfumery in recent years has been the desire to hunt out fragrances based on ingredients rather than the overall composition, so almost the reverse of the well-known saying “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. This quest for a specific ingredient can often leave the hunter disappointed, as there are multiple varieties and strengths available to a perfumer, so is this really the best way to choose a scent? Long counters filled with endless choices used to be the norm so, instead of an ingredient-focused approach, are you ready to choose by complementary odour profile instead?
Perfumery owes much of its magic to the actual ingredients found within a fragrance and, while the perfumer ultimately blends these into a finished scent, these building blocks can also often be the inspiration for a finished fragrance. Many flowers and resins produce one ingredient that can be harnessed and used in a perfume, but the bitter orange tree is a source of multiple oils. From the bitter orange fruit to the neroli flower, or the petitgrain leaves and twigs to the orange blossom absolute, it's a bountiful source. So, for their latest addition to the Flowers of the Perfumer series, Fragonard have chosen to celebrate Bel Oranger.
The world of perfumery is one that can draw an individual in many different directions, and that is certainly true of Alexandre Helwani. He's the founder and lead writer for The Perfume Chronicles, perfumer in his own right, and also the insightful brand ambassador for Histoires de Parfums. However, I thought it was time to dig a little deeper and discover his scented secrets during “Stephan’s Six”.
The reaction a customer feels towards a fragrance is something that is almost impossible for a perfumer to predict when they're creating a new release. Beyond the standard ideas of citruses being uplifting and vanilla comforting, the nature of fragrance is that it's individual to the wearer. This notion is challenged though when perfumer Liz Moores enters the line-up. She has an incredible gift of translating her inspiration into scent, and communicating it seamlessly to the wearer. This ability is instinctive, it cannot be taught, and her latest release proves once again why she is a leading British perfumer. It’s time to discover the astonishing Hera.
