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Beauty
THE FRAGRANCE REVOLUTION
4 Of The Best Womens Designer Perfumes
When it comes to selecting a scent, there is no rule book - one person’s true love is another person’s nemesis. However we are here to make things easy and have matched perfumes with specific personalities, along with a little history of perfume for you to peruse before purchase…
For the trailblazer
#1. Burberry Bespoke Limited Edition, 150ml, €340, personalisation in store.
For haute hippies
#2. Giorgio Armani Privé Pivone Suzhou Soie de Nacre,100ml, €140.
For Parisian style devotees
#3. YSL Le Vestiaire Des Parfums Blouse, 125ml, €215.
FOR THE SUN WORSHIPER
#4. ATELIER COLOGNE Clementine California, 100ml, €100.
Find incredible exclusives and fragrance gifts in the Beauty Hall and the Marvel Room in store or shop our fine selection here.
A LITTLE HISTORY OF PERFUME
A return to the rare and elite elements of the perfumer’s palette and historic formulation methods signals a new direction for luxury brands. Perfume has always been the ultimate mark of luxury and taste but the classic scents we know and love were the lifelong work of a revered nose and the end result – the juice – was considered a great work of art.
By the mid-20th century, talented noses were recruited by brands like YSL, Dior, Estée Lauder, Coty and Chanel in a bid to open up the fragrance market beyond the noble classes. Perfume production became more automated, synthetic notes improved, and brilliant formulations became widely available and more affordable. Cult scents such as Chanel Nº5 were hallmarks of the modern perfume era. As the 20th century progressed the industry changed.
The commercially driven perfume trade of the 1990s favoured image over the perfume itself. On-trend packaging and advertising campaigns took precedence over the actual juice or fragrance development. Noses, for the most part, lost all creative freedom and had to adhere to a marketing brief, tight deadlines, tiny budgets and a pallet of synthetics notes and cheap raw materials prevailed in most juices. Perfumes as works of art were dying, along with the artistic status of their makers.
Frédéric Malle
But a fragrance revolution has been taken place over the past decade. Both niche and larger beauty houses, are once more seeking out talented noses and are allowing them artistic licence to use natural and rare ingredients, with no restrictions on the cost of sourcing and a blank olfactory canvass to work from; in customer’s quest to wear the ultimate signature scent and embrace a daily luxury ritual.
The fruits of these artistic endeavours are evident in exquisite blends from the likes Kilian, Atelier Cologne, Frédéric Malle and Memo Paris, while the magic has manifested in larger houses with couture lines such as Tom Ford's Private Blends, Giorgio Armani Privé, Yves Saint Laurent Le Vestiaire and Burberry Bespoke, all capturing the zeitgeist of the discerning consumer.
“It takes time to create something excellent,” says celebrated perfumer Francis Kurkdjian, who spent the last four years devising the new collection of scent stories, for Burberry Bespoke and we think the time and attention from the great noses of our time has been worth the wait.
Take a virtual tour of our Fragrance Hall and Marvel Rooms in the link below or call instore to customise your own signature scent...
You're almost Christmas party ready! Now to pair your expertly blended scent with the something extra special to wear from Self-Portrait. Read our interview with the designer here...