Jane and I are a tad worried The Women’s Room is turning into a beauty blog, what with all the perfume and skin care products we’re being introduced to. With perfume, I’m starting to run out of adjectives when describing how they smell.I ‘m working on a sniffogram chart….but I digress…
I was much taken with this newish smell from independent perfumer Puredistance, called Antonia. The first wash of scent made the ground shift slightly for me as it rocketed me back to my teenage years, becoming aware of my mum’s perfumes and how her dressing table smelled. Although it smells nothing like the Madame Rochas my mum wore, it does remind me of hanging around her perfumed space. It has a softly, comforting floral fuggi-ness about it, there’s jasmine and rose in the mix which I love, so I guess this one really had my name written all over it.
I was sent a small (beautifully presented) sample but I felt so connected with it I had to go and buy a whole bottle to own. Gorgeous as in a’ 60s/70s-feel, maternal wrap-around-floral with a kick of serious style’ way, it feels totally right that it was created by a woman, Annie Buzantian, I can’t believe a man could have invented something so gentle yet lushly feminine.
You can buy it from here or at The Haute Perfumerie 5th Floor at Harrods. Mine came with a protecting leather pouch for your handbag (I bought it from the Haute Parfumerie- ask for Annette) which nicely ties in with the origins of the modern perfume industry, so a little history lesson for you here from Roja Dove, who told me…..
“Grasse, home of the French fine leather industry, used to produce green leather gloves using extract of violet leaf, a specialty of the region. The glove makers used scented oils to remove the smell of urine which was used to help soften the leather. Henry II was so taken with by the scent of a specific pair of gloves that he ordered others specifying how he wished for them to smell – this caused a rage at court for scented gloves which in turn brought about the first perfumers guild of France, the guild of Gantier-Parfumer”.
You learn as you sniff here at TWR…
