Fragrance should be one of the most important elements of your wedding day, there is nothing quite like the nostalgic sense of smell to bring you back to a special moment in time. Choose carefully and select something unique that you truly love, your wedding fragrance will be come one of life’s true joys and can be worn again and again on special dates or anniversary days and nights and will transport you back to your wedding day. The same goes for a special event, birthday or other important life milestones. We have curated a collection of some of the worlds finest and most desirable fragrances, these are scents created by boutique fragrance houses that are luxurious, emotive and not as common as some of the more mainstream or commercial perfumes. Nothing but the best for the happy couple…
Santa Eulalia ‘Albis’ eau de parfum—Santa Eulalia, one of the oldest stores in Spain, has a history that spans 170 years. Founded in 1843, this storied fashion house was one of the first shops to offer an on-site tailor to create bespoke pieces — quite an achievement for its time. Today, it caters to Catalan people who crave style, veering away from ostentatiousness, and Santa Eulalia’s fragrance collection supplies this. The latest is Albis, a floral woody musk, suitable for both men and women. With notes of orchid, sandalwood, Valerian, lilac and jasmine, this is as fresh and welcoming as an early morning breeze. Available at worldbrand.co.nz
Van Cleef & Arpels Rose Rouge—The “Queen of Flowers”, the rose has inspired poets, artists and perfumers alike with its immemorial scent. So, how do you make a rose perfume new? Van Cleef & Arpels has attempted to craft a rose from scratch, approaching the task like a botanist aiming to create a new breed. Its sensual heart is composed of Turkish Rose essence and its base is built, surprisingly, from Cocoa Absolute, intermingling with precious woods, patchouli and vetiver. A mix of old and modern, you could say it symbolises both constancy and a new life together. Available at Smith & Caughey’s
Eight & Bob Annicke 1 — This message in a bottle begins with the character of Albert Fouquet, a Frenchman who crafted his own fragrances. In 1936, at a swanky dinner in Megève, he met and fell for Annicke, the Austrian daughter of a Hungarian noble. The epic beauty had to leave for Paris at sunrise, so he wrote her the first of many love letters, concocting a perfume as precious as she. From that day, whenever they met, he gave her a new creation, which Eight & Bob replicates. Our pick is Annicke 1, a dreamy floral with peony, jasmine and white musk. Available at worldbrand.co.nz
Amouage Honour— In Puccini’s famous 19th Century opera, Madame Butterfly is a young Japanese geisha who marries an American naval officer. He deserts her shortly after their wedding, but for three years, she waits for his return, raising their son. When his ship sails into the harbour, she’s wildly excited, but when he arrives with his new American wife to collect their child, she takes her own life. From luxury Oman perfume brand, Amouage Honour is an Oriental floral as beautiful as the opera it’s based on, with tuberose for danger, jasmine representing attachment, gardenia to symbolise secret love, lily of the valley for purity and white carnation meaning innocence. This combination of white flowers is given a dark twist, with base notes of frankincense, amber, and opoponax heralding Madame Butterfly’s untimely end. Available at worldbrand.co.nz.
Clive Christian No 1—Our relationship with fragrance, which evokes such strong memories and emotions, is complicated. Clive Christian totally gets it, and created the Original Collection of three deeply personal and complex perfumes to prove it. No 1 is our number one, with hers and his versions crafted from some of the world’s rarest ingredients. The result is utterly bewitching. No 1 Feminine is a floral oriental with hints of pineapple, plum and white peach cut with cardamom and pimento oil, a heart of carnation and rose, and a base of cedar, Tahitian vanilla and tonka bean. No 1 Masculine is its woody oriental counterpart, with hints of bergamot, lime, mandarin and pink grapefruit, cardamom, pimento and nutmeg, plus thyme, artemisia oil, rose, jasmine, lily of the valley and heliotrope. But wait, there’s more: at its base is a 50-year-old Indian sandalwood, plus musk and vetiver. Available at worldbrand.co.nz.
Boucheron Collection Santal de Kandy— Maison Boucheron is part of French history, selling luxury goods to well-heeled Parisians from the Palais Royal and then Place Vendôme, for the last 160 years. Its latest fragrance collection takes inspiration from the house’s gem hunters, who would scour the world for highly prized stones to make its fine jewellery. Santal de Kandy pays homage to the Sri Lankan city which captivated the hunters with its colourful character and the riches of its mountains and forests. It contrasts the biting warmth of black pepper with the spicy freshness of cardamom and bergamot, while resinous swirls of Styrax are enhanced with elegant floral notes — delicate jasmine, powdery violet. Base notes of sandalwood, patchouli and cedar give this hypnotic fragrance warmth, and a sense of sanctity man. boucheron.com. Available at Smith & Caughey’s
Boronia by Grandiflora—With a love affair of flowers that spans decades, it’s no wonder that internationally acclaimed florist and author Saskia Havekes added a fragrance collection to her repertoire. This year sees the fifth Grandiflora scent joining the family of Sadrine, Michel, Madigascar Jasmine and Queen of the Night. Boronia, composed by Bertrand Duchaufour celebrates the native and somewhat unassuming Australian flower. An intense chypre floral, this juice takes you on a journey. With enticing notes that include cognac, suede and tobacco, you are transported to a smokey jazz bar after hours before being greeted with verdant florals, black tea and caramel giving the scent a sweeter, softer edge. Finally expect dry woods in the composition which works to celebrate the Native environment this pink, pint-sized bloom calls home. All available at worldbrand.co.nz
Lubin Princesses de Malabar—For the Nair people of India’s Malabar Coast, women customarily hold a central position in society. According to their oral history, in days gone by, splendid blue birds with golden collars appeared in the surrounding forests to pay everlasting homage to these Nair princesses. Today, believers who listen closely might hear their honeyed tributes wafting on the breeze – but failing that, you can transport yourself to that wonderful world with this wistful scent by Parisian perfumery Lubin, who’ve been crafting fragrances since 1798. Perfumer Delphine Thierry (who trained at Chanel) has blended a beguiling combination of notes, among them cotton flower and amber, to create what really is the prettiest of oriental floral perfumes. Available at worldbrand.co.nz
LUBIN ‘Epidor’—Originally created in 1912 by the famed French perfume house of Lubin, Epidor’s joyous scent has carried itself through history with poise and savoir vivre. The perfume’s symbolism is based on ears of wheat, an emblem of wealth and fertility since ancient times. With its golden packaging and generous use of tonka bean, Epidor evokes summer and harvest time in the French countryside, and the joyous celebration of nature’s bounty. After musky head notes of cedarwood, vanilla and sandalwood, there is a softer floral accord of violet, jasmine and orange blossom swirling into a mood of gentle summer reverie. Available at worldbrand.co.nz
Map of the Heart – Pink Heart V.6—Australian perfume house Map of the Heart is undertaking nothing less than an attempt to describe the heart’s characteristics in a series of beautiful fragrances. There are light and dark scents, careless and intense ones, and the sixth in the series is the heart at its most ecstatic. A “narcotic floral”, notes of shiso leaf, neroli and basil open into narcissus, jasmine, iris and broom, before settling down to notes of sumac, tobacco, citrus and Australian Sandalwood. A unisex style that’s both sweet and sexy, it’s housed in a distinctive, anatomically-correct heart shaped bottle that would make it a gift full of meaning. Available at worldbrand.co.nz
PENHALIGON’S—Iconic British perfumers Penhaligon’s has launched two new additions to its beloved Portraits, a collection of fine perfumes created as an ode to a family of fictional (but no less entertaining) British aristocrats. Ladies and gentlemen, may we introduce The Duke and Duchess Rose. After The Tragedy of Lord George (that’s the perfume’s name) and The Revenge of Lady Blanche (his wife), two new characters are ready to make your acquaintance. The Coveted Duchess Rose is the pampered heiress to Lord George and Lady Blanche, a romantic creature with a heart of roses, headstrong mandarin notes and a base of musky wood. She’s married the eccentric Duke Nelson in the hope of escaping a stifling life, but Much Ado About the Duke is a gin-soaked, sexually ambivalent mix of peppery florals and leathery, wood notes. Heartbreak seems to be on the horizon for the handsomely packaged pair. Adorned with a gleaming gold-toned hound’s or fox’s head, these two new scents, and the characters they are crafted around, are a delightful sequel of olefactory fiction, a story rich with luxury and intrigue. Available at worldbrand.co.nz
Arquiste Sydney Rock Pool—Designed to transport the wearer to evocative moments in time, Arquiste is a fragrance house steeped in history. The latest juice, Sydney Rock Pool, takes inspiration from white sand beaches at golden hour — the period shortly after sunrise or before sunset when your skin glows under the warm sun, and sea salt glistens on your body. Developed by Rodrigo Flores-Roux, this mineral amber musk welcomes you with notes of sea salt accord, driftwood and coconut redolent of having just dived into clear, crisp seawater. And like a gentle breeze blowing aromatic floral scents through the balmy Australian air, you will be greeted with notes of frangipani and jasmine sambac. This evocative fragrance is a complex yet perfect marriage between delicate white tropical petals and wild, rolling waves crashing against sunlit sandstone rocks. Enticing and addictive. Available at worldbrand.co.nz
CIRE TRUDON ‘Olim’— Maison Trudon has extended its expertise in the craft of luxury scent, unveiling a unisex line of stand-alone fragrances. Though firmly rooted in the brand’s centuries-old heritage, Trudon perfumes introduce a subtly subversive note to its customary themes of religion, royalty and revolution. Neither feminine nor masculine, these scents achieve an olefactory complexity that hints at a character rather than a gender. Olim, for instance, is full of a sense of history, conjuring the vanity and emotion of a royal era by combining powdery notes with decadent spices like pink peppercorns and clove, and ancient, resinous base notes of benzoin, myrrh and musk, to hint at courtly opulence. Olim is Latin for “once”, and it’s intended to recall the laws and registers delivered to the King’s court during the 13th and 14th centuries. The pomp of its rich base and heart notes lies beneath a lighter, more elegant veil of bergamot, lavender and anise. In this way, it conjures history, but also comments on it. trudon.com/us_en/perfumes/olim. Available at worldbrand.co.nz.
