SCENT AND SENSIBILITY
Continuing to roll out through 2021 following its launch in the fall of 2020, The Peninsula Hotels has introduced a distinctive line of customfragranced, environmentally friendly guest room amenities at all its hotel properties. For The Peninsula Beverly Hills, Fragrance Curator Alia Raza has created a distinctly Californian scent, layering fruity top notes of lemon and apple blossom with native botanicals – palm leaf, plumeria bud, California Star Jasmine – and woodsy essences of sandalwood and cedar. The resulting fragrance is sunny, vibrant, and animated.
Continuing to roll out through 2021 following its launch in the fall of 2020, The Peninsula Hotels has introduced a distinctive line of custom-fragranced, environmentally friendly guest room amenities at all its hotel properties. For The Peninsula Beverly Hills, Fragrance Curator Alia Raza has created a distinctly Californian scent, layering fruity top notes of lemon and apple blossom with native botanicals – palm leaf, plumeria bud, California Star Jasmine – and woodsy essences of sandalwood and cedar. The resulting fragrance is sunny, vibrant, and animated.
The Peninsula Hotels is the first hotel group to take a truly holistic approach to honour the aromatic story of each hotel's individual location, while embracing a planetconscious ethos. It is also the first hospitality group to introduce bathroom amenities with packaging that is 99.9% petroleum plasticfree, featuring curated fragrances inspired by each Peninsula hotel and its home city. Created by talented fragrance curators in each Peninsula destination, the bathroom amenity sets feature locally created, bespoke fragrance, natural ingredients and sustainable packaging to enhance the guest experience.
In creating its new line of guest room amenities, The Peninsula Hotels aspired to do more than simply provide its guests with topquality bath products. The company aims to encourage a deeply distinctive sensory immersion in each of its hotel locations. To that end, the group sought out the most accomplished artisanal perfumers living in each of its property's home cities – fragrance curators whose knowledge of the region and native botanical ingredients facilitated the craft of custom scents embodying the essence of their locales. These bespoke scents are infused in all bathroom amenities (shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, body milk, and soap).
All fragrance amenities in the new signature line are made with natural ingredients and aromatic essences, including skinsoothing emollients like shea butter, sweet almond oil and olive oil. All are gluten-free, soy-free, and free of harmful chemicals such as parabens, silicone and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS).
In keeping with The Peninsula Hotels' commitment to sustainable luxury, the containers for body milk, shower gel, shampoo, and conditioner are made of aluminium from 45% recycled sources (which is easily recyclable in many parts of the world, unlike most other materials); container caps are also made from recyclable metal alloy. Additionally, amenities such as shower caps, toothbrushes, and razors which formerly incorporated petroleum plastics have been replaced with more ecologically minded alternatives made from corn starch, wheat, wood and recycled metal. Inner plastic wrappings for the amenities have also been eliminated. To maintain hygiene and humidity control, certified sustainable paper packaging is now coated on the inside with UV oil and externally treated with a perforated seal to be tamper-evident.
According to Gareth Roberts, Group Director of Brand and Operations Support for The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited, owner and operator of The Peninsula Hotels, the launch of the new amenity line heralds an important new chapter for the brand. “This creative endeavour is a ground-breaking achievement – not just for The Peninsula Hotels, but also for our guests. Now, those who stay at our hotels can rest assured that their luxurious, indulgent guest room products have been made with consideration towards minimising environmental impact.”
For The Peninsula Beverly Hills, Fragrance Curator Alia Raza has created a distinctly Californian scent, layering fruity top notes of lemon and apple blossom with native botanicals – palm leaf, plumeria bud, California Star Jasmine – and woody essences of sandalwood and cedar. The resulting fragrance is sunny, vibrant, and animated.
The fragrance is inspired by the California desert, which teems with abundant flora and is caressed by the iconic Santa Ana winds. Its aroma also strives to capture the experience of a luxurious day at The Peninsula Beverly Hills, spent lounging by the roof top pool and strolling through the hotel gardens, before relaxing on crisp white linens in a guest suite.
“This scent is meant to have the effect of a fresh, cold-pressed lemonade, topped with a slice of sunbeam-yellow citrus,” explains Raza. “It awakens and excites the senses.”
Raza began her career as a filmmaker and artist whose work, dealing with perceptions of beauty, has screened at museums and festivals around the globe. In 2014, in pursuit of her passion for fragrance, she founded Régime des Fleurs – whose line of boldly packaged scents draws inspiration from history, art and nature. The brand quickly became a cult favourite in the fashion and art worlds and an influential player in the beauty industry, prompting celebrity collaborations such as a recent partnership with film and fashion icon Chloë Sevigny.
“Working closely with a world-class luxury property like The Peninsula Beverly Hills has been a dream of mine since I began making perfumes,” says Raza. “Bath and body amenities – their scents and textures and design – have fascinated me since I was a child staying at hotels on family trips. It has been an honour to craft a signature scent for such an illustrious hotel.”