HER LIFE IN SIX SCENTS
By top perfumer James Craven
Diana’s love of perfume is well- documented. she was often seen buying it in the upmarket stores of Kensington and Knightsbridge, including Harrods, where i worked representing annick Goutal, one of her favourite French perfumers.
The last time i saw Diana in Harrods she was dashing through the ground floor. it was Easter 1997. she was dressed casually in pink trousers, espadrilles and sweatshirt, and looked lean and athletic.
she swept up a bottle of cologne from French perfume house Roger et Gallet, a haphazard assortment of manicure accessories, paid, then vanished.
During the 30 years i’ve worked in perfumery as a seller and archivist, Diana crossed my professional path many times. she had that magical charisma shared by all true legends and icons.
Even to prepare goods chosen to be sent to her from Harrods, as i did early in my career, was a task imbued with vicarious glamour.
i heard she could be charming but obstinate. a beauty expert colleague, who served her on the Dior cosmetics counter, once told the Princess she was buying the wrong shade of foundation for her colouring. Radiant in cream wool, Diana dismissed the good advice with a mischievous laugh.
after Diana’s death, friends, staff and confidantes named some of her favourite scents in their memoirs.
These perfumes reveal not only her particular taste, but how she liked to be perceived by the world …
BLUEBELLS — THE SCENT OF HER YOUTH Bluebell by Penhaligon’s
BRiTisH perfumers Penhaligon’s hold two royal warrants and are best known for their beautiful glass bottles. Their cult scent Bluebell ( 1978) was a favourite of Diana’s in her youth, which makes perfect sense.
Diana spent her teenage years at althorp in rural northamptonshire — and back then all the country set loved Bluebell. it’s the heavenly smell of bluebell woods in april: the equivalent in scent of a carpet of brilliant flowers glowing against crisp green beech leaves.
With Bluebell’s innocent freshness, Diana was commemorating her roots.
A BRIDAL BOUQUET OF 15,000 FLOWERS Quelques Fleurs by Houbigant
QuElQuEs Fleurs is the scent Diana chose to wear on her wedding day in 1981 — and, indeed, spilled down that vast crumpled dress as she applied the finishing touches at Clarence House. it’s a vintage perfume, dating back to 1912, the year the Titanic sank.
a grand classic, using more than 15,000 flowers to create just one ounce of perfume, it would have given Diana reassurance and poise. it was perfectly in keeping with the pomp and extravagance of the occasion.
Houbigant is one of the world’s oldest fragrance houses — Marie antoinette was an early client — and to this day Quelques Fleurs is still produced in Grasse, France, where Jean Francois Houbigant first created his scents in 1775. The perfume itself is pretty and womanly, but sweet rather than sexy. My mother used to say it was one of the few perfumes perfectly safe for young girls to wear — and maybe Diana’s mother, Frances shand Kydd, thought the same.
it opens with beguiling fruity top notes of apple blossom and segues into a cascade of flowers, including rose, violet, lilac and orchid. it is tenacious and embraceable — but essentially pure.
A NEW PERFUME FOR A NEW MUM Eau d’Hadrien by Annick Goutal
EvERy woman knows how pregnancy and childbirth can have a startling effect on her sense of smell. What was your favourite perfume can suddenly become your worst enemy.
When William and Harry were babies, Diana was said to favour the glittering, refreshing Eau D’Hadrien (1981), a super- crisp citrus scent by French perfumer annick Goutal.
Citrus, or hesperidic, fragrances are very easy to wear. Eau d’Hadrien’s volatile oils of lemon, grapefruit and petit grain — an essential oil extracted from the leaves and green twigs of the bitter orange tree — make this scent exceptionally fleeting on the skin.
But Eau d’Hadrien’s brevity is part of the magic, like a flower that blooms for one day or a tantalising scent from an italian orange grove.
DIOR — DIANA’S SIGNATURE SCENT Diorissimo by Dior
i saW Diana spraying this once at the Harrods Dior counter, wearing a striking black and white suit. she was a big fan of Dior handbags, too, but that day she bought a bottle of Diorissimo, one of her very favourite perfumes.
Created in 1956 by perfumer Edmond Roudnitska, Diorissimo is an extravaganza of green and white lily of the valley — Christian Dior’s favourite flower.
it was also much loved by Princess Grace of Monaco — Grace Kelly — who Diana first met on her very first public outing as a princess-to-be, while wearing an ill-judged gown that displayed too much décolletage and sent Press photographers into a frenzy.
The story goes that Grace took Diana to the ladies’ room for a word of advice on a future in the constant spotlight. Perhaps they swapped notes on fragrance then?
Diorissimo is a captivating scent, and a head-turner, with notes of bergamot, ylang ylang, rosewood and jasmine. it is the very definition of spring: young and green and highly charismatic.
SEXY POST-SPLIT FRAGRANCE Mitsouko by Guerlain
anoTHER legendary scent, Mitsouko (1919) earned a place on Diana’s dressing table as she matured into her role as global fashion icon. it is not a fragrance for beginners, but requires a confidence and poise to prevent it dominating the wearer.
Curiously, Mitsouko is more usually associated with another tragic blonde bombshell — Thirties sex symbol Jean Harlow, who died at the peak of her fame and beauty at the age of just 26.
For me, though, Mitsouko is a scent for assured brunettes, and in time it may suit Diana’s daughter-in-law, Kate. it is earthy, fruity, mossy and intoxicatingly sexy. strikingly sophisticated.
This was just the scent to wear on that famous night at the serpentine Gallery — Diana in her little black ‘revenge dress’ — while the Prince of Wales appeared on television to confess his adultery.
GLAMOROUS SCENT FOR A GROWN-UP 24 Faubourg by Hermes
onE of Diana’s favourites later in life was 24 Faubourg (1995), a warm and sensual celebration of relaxed femininity.
With its complex blend of floral, amber and woody notes, Faubourg also needs a certain maturity to carry off, but it is more forgiving than Mitsouko. 24 Faubourg is intense but gentle; assured, yet also soft and gauzy.
it smells of faintly spicy sundrenched holidays, and yet it is elegant, too — a fragrance for a woman who has found a peace and acceptance in her life.