Around the world in 80 sprays
Stuck at home? Try the perfumes that can transport you...
EVER smelled a fragrance and been ‘Tardised’ through time and space to a holiday memory?
I always pack a new perfume to wear away for that reason; every time I smell it, even years later, I’m transported. It happens because the part of our brain which analyses aromas sits next to the areas that process memory and emotion.
For many of us, a foreign holiday this year remains a dream. So a fragrance’s ability to make us travel in our minds is this summer’s superpower.
Perfumer Ruth Mastenbroek likens it to reading a novel. ‘You open a book and it triggers your imagination so you’re transported to that place and time,’ she explains. ‘The skill of the perfumer is to do that with fragrance.’
Ruth’s own Amorosa fragrance was designed to capture the essence of Umbria, Italy. Ruth and her husband have a holiday home there, which for the first summer ever they won’t be visiting.
Fragrance guru Jo Malone also bases many of her scents on trips abroad. ‘Holidays are such carefree times,’ she explains. ‘That sense of not having a worry in the world is what our lives are missing.
‘When I smell rose petals, I think of the South of France, while citrus fruits take me to the Mediterranean, especially Capri.’ Her latest perfume, Mango Thai Lime, was inspired by a trip to Thailand’s luxury Amanpuri resort.
‘We ate mango with a squeeze of lime, and I wanted to evoke that honeyed fruitiness, contrasted with tart lime. Every time I wear it, I want to go back!’
So whether you’re pining for a fast-paced city break, the laid-back glamour of a Greek island or the languid warmth of a tropical escape, prepare to journey around the world in 80 sprays …
A SUN-DRENCHED CALABRIAN TERRACE
Acqua di Parma Bergamotto di Calabria (main picture), €89 for 75ml eau de toilette.
TAKE yourself to a sunny terrace overlooking the Med with this play on bright citrus Calabrian bergamot, warmed by red ginger and with notes of skin-like musk and grassy vetiver (a fragrant grass).
A POLYNESIAN ISLAND ESCAPE
Molton Brown Flora Luminare, €65 for 50ml eau de toilette.
YEARNING for a languid tropical paradise? Lie back and let Flora Luminare’s fusion of exotic white flowers waft you there. Perfumer Maia Lernout was inspired by Polynesian women using tiare flowers as a love potion, smoothed through their hair.
THE ESSENCE OF UMBRIA
Ruth Mastenbroek Amorosa, from €100 for 50ml eau de parfum (ruthmastenbroek.com).
AS RUTH puts it, her uplifting creation is designed ‘to transport you to a holiday feeling, where you have left your worries behind.’ Exactly what we’re all missing, right now — and this really makes the wearer feel somewhere else, with its sun-warmed, flower-powered headiness, and juicy fruit twist.
PARISIAN PERFECTION
YSL Paris, €74 for 50ml eau de parfum.
A CHIC fragrance designed to conjure up the modern Parisian woman, capturing armfuls of roses, flashes of violet and orange blossom. Like walking into one of the French capital’s flower shops.
THAILAND’S STUNNING BEACHES
Jo Loves Mango Thai Lime, €75 for 50ml eau de parfum.
JUICY mango is perfectly counterbalanced by zesty kaffir lime in this brilliantly uplifting tribute to Thailand’s lush, palm-fringed coastline.
A GREEK MOUNTAIN DRAMA
Diptyque Philosykos, €79 for 50ml.
MISSING Greece? Notes of green leaves, juicy fig fruit and milky sap were chosen to conjure up childhood memories of summers at Mount Pelion. It’s fig groves and sparkling coves, bottled.
A CALIFORNIAN ROAD TRIP
Atelier Cologne Clementine California, €60 for 30ml Cologne Absolue.
PUT the hood down, start the engine and take an imaginary drive through California’s citrus groves with a squeeze of clementines, a dash of juniper and gusts of cool vetiver breezing through this cologne.
DOWNTOWN NEW YORK CITY
Kierin NYC Sunday Brunch, €72 for 50ml.
THERE’S nowhere with the energy of Manhattan, bottled by this New York label with luminous bergamot, lemon, jasmine and Earl Grey Tea. Meet you Downtown. (If only.)
THE GLAMOUR OF AN INDIAN PALACE
Etro Rajasthan, €130 for 100ml eau de parfum.
IS A visit to the jewel-hued land of the Maharajahs on your bucket list? You’re one step nearer with this boho woody floriental scent, spiced with pink pepper, grown in India.