Dedicated entirely to scent

Posted by Robin on 30 July 2025 2 Comments

Taking advantage of this British beauty boom, Boots is further cementing its reputation as a household name committed to modern evolution with the launch of Boots Fragrance—its first standalone boutique dedicated entirely to scent. Set to open just in time for the holiday season rush in autumn 2025 at Broadgate Central in London, the 2,150-square-foot store will house over 400 luxury and niche fragrances, including more than 20 brands that will be entirely new to the retailer, as well as several UK exclusives.

— Read more in The Scent of a Retail Revolution: Boots Launches Fragrance-First Concept Store at BeautyMatter.

Beds full of scented flowers and shrubs

Posted by Robin on 26 November 2024 2 Comments

On the levels below, clipped box, hydrangeas and laurel hedges add structure to beds full of scented flowers and shrubs including lily of the valley, peonies, lilac, osmanthus, sarcococca and tuberose “which smells divine and we use a lot in our scents, including our new release Bukhara”. A palette of pinks, purples and whites are cut with lots of glossy dark green. A winding gravel path disappears into a backdrop of trees, increasing the sense of space.

Ripe with olfactory potential

Posted by Robin on 4 September 2024 Leave a Comment

The product of that ambition can be sampled in Aqua Tofana, a new opera by the young Sardinian composer Gaia Aloisi, which premieres as part of London’s Tête à Tête festival next month. It tells the true story of Giulia Tofana, an alchemist in 17th-century Italy whose poison enabled women to dispatch abusive or inconvenient husbands. It is ripe with olfactory potential for McCartney, who has been tasked with creating the “deadly” potion that gives the opera its name.

— Sarah McCartney of 4160 Tuesdays scents an opera. Read more in Perfumer Sarah McCartney is making the arts smell good at Financial Times.

Maison Diptyque, part 2

Posted by Robin on 29 May 2024 2 Comments

The new Maison Diptyque store at 107 New Bond Street in London (the Paris Diptyque spot is here).

An aroma that will change from week to week

Posted by Robin on 11 October 2021 Leave a Comment

The hall will also be filled with another, less tangible, suggestion of microbial life: an aroma that will change from week to week, conjuring the fragrant history of the Bankside area around the museum, from the Precambrian and late Jurassic eras to the Machine Age. Among the scent profiles Yi has created are those that represent more noxious periods in London history, including the smells of cholera and the bubonic plague.

— Artist Anicka Yi's Turbine Hall takeover starts tomorrow (and runs through mid-January) at the Tate Modern in London. Read more in The Artistic Aromas of Anicka Yi at The New York Times.

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Now Smell This

a blog about perfume

Dedicated entirely to scent

Beds full of scented flowers and shrubs

Ripe with olfactory potential

Maison Diptyque, part 2

An aroma that will change from week to week