GLASS BRINGS you a selection of our favourite recent fragrance launches – exploring richer flavours like wood, amber and even tobacco.
These feature creations from some brilliant master perfumers such as Aurélien Guichard, Francis Kurkdjian and Delphine Jelk as well as some reimagined classic fragrances.
Matiere Premiere – Vanilla Powder
£205 for 100ml – Available here
The name Vanilla Powder evokes the most delicious confection and this, the most recent launch from the innovative French house Matiere Premiere, certainly serves it up. The founder, master perfumer Aurélien Guichard, says, “Vanilla is a raw material I’ve always wanted to include in the Matiere Premiere collection. This fragrance is a refined vanilla. Its dark richness meets an explosion of white modern powders.”
With rich, perfectly complementing ingredients – including coconut powder, palo santo, vanilla absolute, white musk and vanilla absolute Madagascar – Vanilla Powder is beautifully composed, comforting and very wearable.
Dior – L’Or de J’adore
£144 for 50ml – Available here
This is a very exciting reinterpretation of the Dior classic, J’adore, by its new perfume Creation Director Francis Kurkdjian. His first creation for the house, working on J’adore was “essential for him”, he says. To make it, he strips back and streamlines the original formula to foreground and elevate its beauty – mining more gold from J’adore.
He then celebrates its glorious flowers, jasmine, rose, lily of the valley and violet. “Flowers are the true gold of J’adore,” Kurkdjian says. L’Or de J’adore is already on its way to becoming a cult classic.
Guerlain – Tobacco Honey
£290 for 100ml – Available here
Tobacco Honey is the most recent addition to Guerlain’s premium, L’Art & La Matière collection. It is made by Guerlain Perfumer and Creative Director, Delphine Jelk, who says, “I had long wanted to combine honey and tobacco.
On one side, we have the dried leaves of tobacco with their powdery swirls of scent; on the other, we have the honey like a delicious, enveloping nectar.” Tobacco Honey beautifully plays with the tension between the facets of the sweetness of honey and the smoky woody taboo of tobacco.
Van Cleef and Arpels – Thé Amara
£145 for 70ml – Available here
From the house’s exquisite Collection Extraordinaire range, the most recent launch, Thé Amara, is multi-layered and refined. It is created by perfumer Nadège Le Garlantezec, who was inspired by tea. She says, “I wanted Thé Amara to be a modern, faceted interpretation, inspired by the unique atmosphere of the tea valleys, where the scents evolve with the wind and the sun.”
Infused with top notes of bergamot, peppermint and tea accord; rose and sweet peach in its centre, with cashmaren, white musk and cedarwood at the base, this is an exceptional perfume.
Jo Loves – Amber, Lime & Bergamot
£115 for 100ml – Available here
This autumn, British perfume trailblazer Jo Malone CBE has launched Amber, Lime & Bergamot for Jo Loves. Delicately and seductively playing citrus against wood and amber, this balmy yet rick perfume was inspired by an extravagant and glamourous Great Gatsby-esque Concours d’Elegance party she went to.
Amber, Lime & Bergamot also has accents of amber and cedarwood as well as suede and patchouli in the base.
Hermès – Tutti Twilly d’Hermès
£129 for 85ml – Available here
The latest flanker in the Hermès Twilly range of eau de toilettes, Tutti Twilly d’Hermès is created by the house’s perfumer, Christine Nagel. It is fun, irreverent and playful – even cheeky.
With its ginger, Tutti Twilly is sweetly surrounded by lychee and deeper musk tones. Its bottle and cap echo the colours of the lychee, while its fun white cap is a feminine version of the bowler hat.
LilaNur Parfums – Zafran Boisé
£225 for 100ml – Available here
From the luxury Indian perfume brand LilaNur Parfums, the intoxicating, deep spicy and rich Zafran Boisé takes its cue from the Kahwa tea ritual of Kashmir. Composed by master perfumer Honorine Blanc, the nose behind scent for distinguished houses such as By Kilian, Giorgio Armani, Lancôme and Tom Ford, Zafran Boisé is intriguing, exotic and compelling.
It contains green tea leaves and spices, flower petals and honey, all “slowly brewed over a wood-burning fire”. I highly recommend you try it.
Nest New York – Indigo
£78 for 100ml – Available here
The home scenting company, Nest New York, has debuted its first collection of perfumes. And how lovely they are.
Nest New York founder, industry legend and pioneer in the home-scenting space, Laura Slatkin, wanted to create a perfume line “different from everything else on the market”. Inspired by her trip to Europe in 1992 at the start of her career, she learnt much about the history and origins of fragrance.
Indeed, Indigo is inspired by a visit to a tea shop on Bond Street, London, which had an “amazing Moroccan tea aroma”, a scent that was outstanding and unforgettable. Aromatic and fruit-filled, Indigo has delightful accents of Italian lemons, orange bergamot, Moroccan tea, Kashmir wood and wild figs from the south of France.
Banana Republic – Dark Cherry and Amber
£28.99 for 75ml – Available here
Created by leading perfumer Claude Dir, the nose behind fragrances for Amouroud, Bond No 9, Calvin Klein and Beyonce among many others, Dark Cherry and Amber is a delicious pairing of rich and light.
It is housed in a very classy looking and feeling bottle that is topped with a nice heavy cap. Its ingredients include pleasing balanced fruit and wood notes such as black cherry, pink freesia, cherry blossom, praline, blonde cedar and red amber.
This is a delicious, warm and succulent perfume that smells expensive – although it’s priced very reasonably.
by Caroline Simpson