Unforgettable fragrances are lighting up our lives once more

IT IS often said that our eyes are the windows to our soul. I believe them to be merely observers, whereas our nose absorbs the world’s life essences. This power is being explored at Somerset House as part of its exhibition, Perfume — A Sensory Journey Through Contemporary Scent, running until September 17.

Since the dawn of civilisation, perfume has been with us, evolving within the complex fabric of the human psyche and culture. Scent can touch us, move us and inspire our very being. It can transform us into seducers or seductresses, elevating and transporting us to an ethereal realm of memories and fantasies.

Unlike fashion and nature, fragrance disregards age, colour and vantage. As we age, our bodies start their slow decay, our skin starts to shout the truth, our clothes betray the metamorphosis we wish would not occur. Like a true friend, fragrance is loyal, non-judgmental and kind. Sit with someone and breathe in their scent and they give you one of the most beautiful of all gifts — the gift of memory. You may not have seen someone for years but, with one breath of their scent, the memories come flooding back. Fragrance has the ability to bring a smile to our lips, or tears from our eyes — it can both repel us and attract us.

When I was a child, fragrance was a luxury item — created by perfumers using fine materials, sold only in perfumeries and reserved for special occasions. Then commercialism cottoned on, and now most modern scents are often made without passion or fine-quality materials. Images and names are created by people in marketing departments, made to a brief — cold, cynical and clinical. They managed to take the creative genius out of this art, replacing it with something driven only by profit.

A great perfume does not need to convey itself in a glossy magazine by way of a sexed-up advert. A great perfume simply needs to be great. It is interesting how the digital landscape has made it easy for people to become aware of the breadth of great creativity that is the modern fragrant landscape.

As I write this I am thrilled to say a renaissance is stirring in perfumery. The cognoscenti are turning their back on mass-marketed fragrances. There is a revival in creative perfumery, shifting the craft back to the perfumer.

Pockets of creativity combined with quality are starting to lighten up the darkness of mediocrity and the art of perfumery is once again in the hands of the gifted. As the saying goes, “without marketing you have creativity, without creativity you have nothing”. This movement is accelerating at the most breathtaking pace.

Roja Dove’s Roja Parfums are available from The Burlington Arcade and rojaparfums.com