Tag: Perfume

Friday 22 January 2010     Leave A Comment

A stomach-lurching scent

Carthusia is one of the smallest, privately owned perfumeries in the world.  It’s in Capri and it makes Mediterraneo, one of the best, ever, lemon perfumes.  Irritatingly, I have run out.  So you can imagine my glee the moment a bottle by the same people, lands on my desk.  It’s called Caprissimo.   One waft and I’m back to bed time.  The baby sitter has just arrived and it’s the late 70s – my mother is putting on her velvet evening coat and I catch a waft of her favourite scent, Caleche.  She and my father are about to go out to dinner.

It’s because like Caleche, Caprissimo is a chypre  (sounds like ‘sheep’ – kind of) scent.   Unlike a floral scent a chypre has a dry, green kind of smell.  And the classic chypre has oakmoss in it, which together with things like patchoui, vetiver and spices (I’m just dipping into a scent book by scent expert Roja Dove), makes it rather sophisticated, yeah-huh.

Thing about this one is that you put it on, and after a few further moments it gives you a surge at the pit of your stomach like you get when you catch a glimpse of the sexiest boy in class, or taste the most disgustingly, chocolatey pudding, or are having a snog.  It really is quite something.  Both nostalgic and damned sexy.

(Illo by Emma Hill)

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Monday 30 November 2009     Leave A Comment

Vogue: Daphne, the new British scent by Daphne Guinness

Vogue Nippon, December 2009

And here are a few words about the scent in English:

‘If it were a painting it would be The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch. If it were an outfit it would be a vintage sequined jacket; something classic, well worn, timeless… If it were a piece of music it would be The Ring Cycle by Wagner,’ says the heiress and fashionista, Daphne Guinness of her first scent, Daphne, which launched at Dover Street Market in London in September.

Daphne is a rich, sensual scent, which incorporates smells associated with her past. There is tuberose for example, which she used to gather as a child from the family garden in Cadaques and frankincense, which is associated with her memories of church rituals. It also contains Florentine iris, bitter orange from Sicily, rose, jasmine and patchouli.

It was surely only a matter of time before Guinness should try perfumery. The socialite, known for her idiosyncratic style had already turned her hand to designing (a collection of white shirts for Dover Street Market in London), writing, styling and filmmaking (her second film coincided with the launch of Daphne). She created the scent in collaboration with Comme des Garçons following a suggestion from the company’s president, Adrian Joffe. Considering their often unconventional, approach to perfumery this was an apt partnering – Guinness is by no means ordinary. This might account for her aligning the scent with one of the most extraordinary paintings ever made and the longest piece of music ever written. To the woman who likes her scent opulent and exotic, this is fantastic.

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Friday 14 August 2009     Leave A Comment

Anais Anais – still a hit but not with the young

Cacharel Scarlett Pen & Ink

Does this surprise you? In the UK, one bottle of Anais Anais is sold every two minutes. For a scent that launched 32 years ago that’s pretty good going. But why?

Nostalgia. Word on the street is, it’s hot among older women, who’re going back to it for a whiff of the carefree years of their youth.

Funny when you think of it. Cacharel, the people who make it are masters at creating scent for young women. Yet Anais Anais has become an older woman’s tipple. Younger women are buying things like Daisy by Marc Jacobs (Little Boots loves it).

Yet the Anais smell is good. Its dry, flowery-ness is a welcome departure from the sickly, fruit pastille-like gait of some of today’s teen scents. It smells kind of new again.

In a twist to the tale, Cacharel has just released a new scent. Scarlett. Named after Gone With The Wind’s strong-willed heroine (no coincidence) it’s clever. There’s a whiff of Anais Anais but it’s laced with other things like citrus, pear and hints of honey. More in tune with the nose of today’s younger women, perhaps.

I love the bottle’s heavy, white lid, decorated with Japanese-style flowers in relief. It was inspired by an antique compact. Check it out at cacharel.com – meantime I’ve done you a painting. The actual bottle is of course far, far prettier.

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