Jo’s Scent Notes: Officine Universelle Buly Les Jardins Français collection

Over the decades – nay, centuries – perfumers have explored woods, herbs, resins and of course, every flower under the sun. But there is a new trend in perfumery: for notes derived from vegetables. Which is how come I sit here, writing this, veiled in notes of carrot and sweet potato, writes Jo Fairley

I have to admit, I’m as surprised as you are. But a highlight of this beauty editor’s work, last week, was breakfast with Victoire de Taillac, the super-cool co-founder of Officine Universelle Buly, a ‘sleeping beauty’ brand which Victoire and her husband Ramdane Touhami, not only brought back to life but have built into an incredibly exciting ‘lifestyle’ cosmetics empire. One that was not so long ago acquired by the same parent company that owns Dior, Guerlain and Benefit, no less, and which will allow them to do even MORE sense-tantalising things.

At a breakfast table at The Connaught adorned by trugs of fresh vegetables (a first, for any fragrance launch I’ve attended!), a handful of journalists got to explore the six scents in Buly’s Les Jardins Français collection, which was inspired by Ramdane’s discovery of an old box of seeds at one of Paris’s flea markets (see below for this beautiful object, which now sits in his office but for some time completely took over the family’s dining table).

The Les Jardins Français scents are all intriguing – and actually, all lovely. (Click on any of the fragrance names to find out more, on Buly’s website.) The kitchen garden may have been the inspiration, but thanks to the alchemy (close to witchery, in my book) of perfumery, they are all much more wearable on the skin than a name like ‘Iraqi Beetroot and Egyptian Rhubarb’ might at first suggest. (I loved this, actually, with an earthy note of patchouli and some soft, come-hither musks, alongside the fruit ‘n’ veg.)

I’ve watched Buly grow since the very first days of its contemporary reincarnation: fabulous home fragrances and perfumes, creams and potions, utterly beautiful packaging (much too nice ever to throw away), and personalised flourishes: your initials on a lip balm, perhaps, or a calligraphed label on your bottle of perfume or other desirable. (They now apparently employ over 100 calligraphers, worldwide.) Their soaps are something I’ve often given as gifts (and indeed, the

Where Buly have been pioneering, ever since they first launched perfumes for the skin, is in the creation of ‘water-based’ scents. Which is not to say that they are at all watery or short-lived: the fragrance is suspended in a liquid more like a milk than a water, and the concentration of fragrant oils is really high, clinging to the skin and pumping its notes for hours, developing and deepening without drying out skin in the way that alcohol-based perfumes do.

I was hard-pushed to choose a favourite and sprayed all six on pulse-points, forearms, the crooks of elbows. ‘Oh, this is the one!’, I thought when first spritzing Andes Verbena and Ulu Basil: fresh, green, summery and as refreshing as a long, cool drink when you’re feeling over-heated. Then it was the turn of herbal, aromatic Indian Cucumber and Syrian Mint, which was really zingy and minty – and again, a great and somewhat Cologne-y choice for a hot summer’s day. ‘No, actually, I like THIS better,’ I thought to myself.

And so it went on, through green, woody and almost meditative Oriental Watercress and Sardinian Parsley, and Scandinavian Redcurrant and Peruvian Tomato, with the familiar, step-into-the-greenhouse plant-stem scent of tomato given a radiant twist, before softening to a powdery muskiness on the skin.

Then came the beetroot scent – and yet again, I thought, ‘THIS is my favourite!’, all the while sniffing up and down my arms to revisit the scents I’d formerly sprayed. (My advice, if you try this, is to write down what you’ve sprayed where. It’s only because I had them all lined up in front of me that I could remember what had been applied to which zone of my skin.)

And then finally, the big surprise: Afghan Carrot and Caribbean Sweet Potato, earthily sweet, but also breezed through by the dry grassiness of vetiver – a note I absolutely love – and warmed by a generous pinch of spices. It’s these spices that linger on the skin, hours after applying – and which ultimately made me settle on this, definitely the snuggliest and least ‘fresh’ of the six.

If you’re intrigued, I have two suggestions. The first, if you can, is to get yourself to Selfridges London on Oxford Street, where Officine Universelle Buly have a counter next to the swanky handbag department on the Ground Floor; over the coming weeks and months I’m going to be sharing tips and tricks for how you can use fragrance to improve your sense of smell, as well as to help you live in your body again (in a world in which we seem to spend most of our time living in our heads) – but the very basic and best way to do this is simply to smell, smell and smell some more. Their counter is a wonderful place to start (and I defy you to leave without buying a tube of Buly toothpaste, even if you don’t end up with a fragrance).

Alternatively, another great way to find out which of these ‘kitchen garden’ fragrances you most dig (sorry) is treat yourself to Le Sizaine Parfumée Les Jardins Français, an exquisitely-packaged kit of six generous (9ml) discovery vials (see below, for pic), to spritz and sniff at your leisure. (Bodycare is coming soon, I’m promised.)

Me? I smell almost edible. And I’d bet you the price of a full-size bottle of Buly that nobody could guess it’s all down to a serving of carrot and sweet potato.

Les Jardins Français/£145 for 75ml eau triple (eau de parfum strength) – buy here

Les Jardins Français Le Sizaine (6 x 9ml)/£108 – buy here

PS Brilliant Suzy Nightingale, writer at The Scented Letter (which I edit), recently won a Jasmine Award from The Fragrance Foundation for writing about the vegetable fragrance trend in a feature she wrote for the mag last autumn, ‘Time to Spray Your 5-A-Day’.

Sign up here to receive your free quarterly edition of this fragrance magazine from The Perfume Society, starting with the most recent edition, ‘The Perfumer’s Garden’, which features Les Jardins Français.