This year, we’re delighted to share a beautifully curated guide from fragrance writer Alex Musgrave. A thoughtful exploration of scents for him, for her and those worth coming to blows over. Happy Holidays!
In an ideal world, perfume marketing would have us believe that we can all wear any perfume we like and while this is ostensibly correct, it is also just as valid that some consumers like to know that certain scents are considered more masculine and others inherently feminine. By all means, break rules and wear whatever you like but the history of perfumery has been one of considered categories, fragrance families and styles. Fougères, amber, florals, citrus, aromatics, chyprés, woods, fruity, leather and oudh. It is a shifting and oft-debated topic as the advancement in technologies and continued search for innovation play their part in re-shaping definitions.
When it comes to gift buying, the less risk the better so here at Sainte Cellier we would like to offer up some of our suggestions from our beautiful niche and artisan brands that might help you decide on a special Christmas gift. Perfumes for Him, For Her, To Fight Over (a fun category of choices that might suit him or her and create debate about who wears it better!) and finally Stocking Stuffers, sample and travel sets to whet the scented appetite and provide a more detailed deep dive into a collection.)
Perfumes for Him
Freshly scented post shower skin is very sexy. Perfumes act differently, there is chemistry between body and scent, heat of water, warmth of blood. Shower & Smoke has bright notes of pink grapefruit, neroli and juicy orange mixed with piquant ginger and cardamom. Cedar and guaiac wood create the lingering sense of green forest smoke that radiates over a delicate whiff of ocean breeze, a touch of wind-lifted sand and morning sun.
Mandi Rhubi – Isabelle Larignon
An utterly joyful perfume, Mandi Rhubi is built around a lush, sparkling rhubarb note that smells beautiful. Like dancing barefoot in a wildflower meadow on a delicious spring morning, skin scented with citrus notes of bergamot, lime, green mandarin and sweet orange flavoured intensely with blackcurrant, elemi resin, galbanum, juniper, black pepper and a fabulous rubicund blush of rhubarb. Thirst-quenching and addictive.
Each perfume from this innovative Italian perfume house is a work of art in quirky intelligence and passionate craft. It seems only right to choose a scent for him inspired by the famous Italian racing car driver Tazo Nuvolari, soaked in vintage race nostalgia, leather gloves, racing masks, the scent of gasoline, screeching rubber tyres, explosions of excitement and the presence of danger. Nuvolari opens with blackened spiced rose over pepper, lemon and a bravura duo of fuel and motor racing accords thrillingly wrapped in peppermint and neroli. It smells of JG Ballard prose and vintage racing thrills. A scent like no other.
Simple name, but it hits the senses like an oily, camphoraceous thunderstorm, the soul of a Nordic forest, vast in its terpenic swathes of isolated, gloriously menacing pine trees. Evergreen, claustrophobic, death metal green. It is a huge shock of severe meaty green with a evergreen glitter and an unsettling sweetness. It is timber carrion, moss-clad and lichen shrouded. Smelling of crystallised sappy sweetness and scattered needles, forest nights and shadows that seem possessed. Yet as it evolves it becomes something entirely beautiful, the salty pine segueing into a scent of emerald leather and shimmering herbs. An evergreen wonder.
Escale en Indonésie – Les Indémodables
Escale en Indonésie is a sparkling, transparent hymn to ambergris, sometimes known as floating gold, a remarkable material transfigured by sun, salt water and time into an iris grey waxy, silken salted substance. Ambergris tinctures impart a subtle sheen to compositions, like a pale boudoir varnish. Escale en Indonesie suggests languorous dreams of distant places, where ambergris floats on a citrus sea of bergamot, orange blossom and Sicilian lemons. Pungent jasmine and sandalwood provide a light durable base for everything. Keep it in the fridge then spritz, on, momentarily chilling the air and senses.
Perfumes for Her
One of the most spectacular green perfumes in recent memory, Green Spell, a passionate bitter-sexy perfume from scent connoisseur and author Barbara Herman and Master Perfumer Antoine Lie. A fetishist rite of spring celebrating the shrill mulch of galbanum, blasted with blackcurrant leaf and the gentle aquatic touch of violet leaf. The nostalgic rub of tomato leaves and hedonistic narcissus revel in fig leaf and a cloud of white musks. A green supernova of a perfume.
Comme Un Gant – Voyages Imaginaires
Comme un Gant fits the skin like a bespoke suede glove. It is a milky take on the suede/leather genre, built around an unctuous coconut and Madagascan vanilla pairing, the creamy body studded with the aromatic cardamom and Haitian vetiver adds a grassy rootiness to a creamy sandalwood base. Voyages Imaginaires perfumes have a distinctive mood due to a 100% natural commitment. Wheatgerm alcohol lends a silken tenderness to the perfumes on skin. A languid nod to tropical gourmand perfumes and the nostalgic aroma of holiday skin.
There is delicious magic at play in Idìlios, the serenity of intense notes evoking the soft-scoop memories of a hush-hush love affair. Idìlios is a delicate, yet impactful blend of musks, vanillas, velveteen peach, green tea, coconut, Osmanthus and the honeyed tuberose tones of Champaca flower. Mandarine and bergamot hang at the top, aglow in the diffusive light of milky peach. There is beautiful boldness in combining peach with a pastel imagining of aerated candyfloss. Three different extractions of vanilla and a delicious coconut note exalt the alabaster drift of Idìlios, providing another whorl of enigma into this opaque synthesis of cosmic reverie. yet from Rubini Profumi. This is a sleight of olfactory hand that floods the senses with divine repose.
Annabel’s Birthday Cake – Marissa Zappas
Annabel’s Birthday Cake is a baroque gourmand gateau hung with white and pink frosting. Heliotrope and tuberose frosting tumbles down the sides, piped mounds and rosettes dusted in lemon sugar, decorated in ornate sugar roses. That just fresh out the oven aroma blurred with giddy tuberose. Named for Annabel Gat, astrologer and tarot card reader for Vice Magazine, there is a whimsical ‘balloons” accord, which is the perfect squeaky balance to the vanillic celebrations.
A delicious ephemeral gourmand from Eveilleur, a new Croatian perfume brand founded by Dajana Jukić. NOT INNOCENT is an indulgent patisserie romp inspired by a much-loved Croatian pastry called Cake Rozata; rich with caramelised vanilla and rose petals. A moreish gourmand with orange, almond and a dash of rum in the top notes. Toffee-flavoured milk and rose provide a swirling, unctuous heart with creamy vanilla and the sweet hay and spices vibe of tonka bean. A moreish delight.
Perfumes to Fight Over
Unisex is not necessarily a glamorous term but has been used for decades in the perfume industry. Perfumes like Ck1 and L’Eau D’Issey set out to transform how we smelled, promising freedom from gender definitions and letting a single scent be worn by anybody. This was all well and good, and without ignoring the huge success of such scents, sometimes you can set out to please everyone and end up actually doing the opposite. Unisex scents can often feel like compromises, uncertain creations that seem neither one thing nor another.
Far better to indulge in extraordinary perfumes that have impact and drama, sensuality and individuality. With that in mind, here are a few suggestions of scents stocked by Sainte Cellier that we think might cause a few hands off my perfume moments…
Belle Âme meaning Beautiful Soul, is a tapestry of finest quality orris and iris fumed with frankincense. Tonka bean and dark chocolate are balanced by blue ginger and cardamom that illuminate the perfume’s boudoir melancholy with a spicy, aqueous lemon vibe. Orris imparts a powdered veil of wistfulness that is utterly unique. Belle Âme is a nuanced composition, transforming from macaroon-tinted greenery to deshabillée allusion of draped boudoirs that lingers like a memory of lost love.
Vanille Havane – Les Indémodables
A woody, leather amber scent, the rich varnish hue of Vanille Havane is an indication of how this luxurious perfume might smell. While the complexity of this scent is instantly recognisable, three key materials, Egyptian Jasmine, Colombian cocoa extract and the all important Comoros vanilla infusion, a gorgeous material, unctuous and honeyed, but also boozy with a smoky stickiness as it settles. The grandeur of the perfume is a perfect reflection of the magnificent vanilla pod, orchidaceous, addictive and enveloping.
Milky Dragon – Isabelle Larignon
Milky Dragon is mysterious and opaque. Imagine an ancient white jade Chinese censer, shaped like a winged dragon wrapped around the base of a tree. His eyes are closed, just. Out of his mouth rolls delicate fumes of ambrosial incense that flows down his sculptured scales. An unusual bucchu note opens the scent, smelling of cassis and camphoraceous tropical fruits. A fascinating butter accord oozes around rose, iris, jasmine, milky violet ionones and noisette. Ozone and clary sage segue into fir balsam, woods and musks as the base anchors the enigmatic Dragon to skin.
Ajedrez, the Spanish word for chess, is unusual inspiration for Frassaï’s quietly devastating perfume. A contemplative love letter to orris, the nacreous material extracted from certain iris rhizomes. Cardamom, black pepper and lavender ignite the orris, while tobacco and ambered woods lift and smudge the notes with mossy hush. Ajedrez is elegantly incarnate, like tender whispers of piano in the background of a summer room that opens onto an emerald lawn, a golden breeze and light flickering over a marble chessboard, pieces on fire in the sun.
Oranger Sirocco Extrait Absolu - Les Indémodables
Oranger Sirocco is a shimmering coalescence of indolic orange blossom absolute, woody-green petitgrain and cinnamon. Ripening citrus, warm peel, and juice are balanced by the petitgrain distillation of orange tree twigs and fragrant leaves. Magic manifests in a honeyed dry sweet cinnamon, a mysterious echo of spice routes and piquant North African cuisine. The winds of the Sirocco deliver this perfume with sensual weather. A joy to wear and radiate.
Stocking Stuffers
Christmas is the most perfect time of the year to offer the gift of perfume and here at Sainte Cellier we understand the trepidation that might arise at the thought of finding a fit for a loved one, friend or colleague.
Voyages Imaginaires Discovery Set