Jo's Scent Notes: Olfactive O Skin

One way to think of this extraordinary fragrance is as ‘underwear’ for your chosen scent. It has an extraordinary power to somehow further personalise any other scent you layer on top of it. And (I think) make it last a wee bit longer, too.

Of course, Olfactive O – or rather, its beautiful-inside-and-out founder, Olivia da Costa – would rather that fragrance you layered was one of hers (and more about the story of this fragrance house shortly). But honestly, I’ve tried this under Frédéric Malle Portrait of a Lady, Diptyque Tempo and Guerlain Mitsouko and it somehow sprinkles a little extra stardust onto all of them. Indeed, in 2024 I plan to be trying it under absolutely everything on my dressing table, to see how it makes the scents in my fragrance wardrobe unfold.

Since it launched a couple of years ago, I don’t know how it took me until last autumn to discover this – at an amazing launch for Olfactive O Citrus, which Olivia hosted in her own Queen’s Park house. (That is one brave woman.) Yes, Citrus is gorgeous – a shaft of zesty sunlight – but I feel it literally needs a moment in the actual sun to come into its own.

However, we also all got to try Skin on that wonderful evening, and for me, it was love at first sniff. The vial we were given was gone in about three days, and so I hopped onto the Les Senteurs website and bought one for myself. (It says a lot that my friend, colleague on The Scented Letter and ‘On The Scent’ podcast presenter Suzy Nightingale did the exact same thing – although Skin is also available via Olfactive O’s own website, below.)

Technically, the notes include ambrette seed, cedarwood, magnolia flower, orris, sandalwood, vetiver and beeswax absolute. The result is a ‘clean skin’ – think, post-bath in fabric conditioned sheets – rather than down-and-dirty skin – scent, though. The blend of notes, adjusted by your skin’s own chemistry, smells deeply, deeply comforting. And such is perfume’s alchemy that what is created is something which is absolutely addictively nuzzleable; rather embarrassingly, when I wear Skin on its own, I often catch myself sniffing my own skin in public. (But TBH I’m long past caring if anyone thinks I’m weird.)

Having studied at Chelsea College of Art, then moving into retail (where she eventually became Buyer at John Lewis), Olivia found herself yearning to launch a fragrance brand which ‘spoke’ to different personality types. It was in lockdown that her business truly took off, with that Queen’s Park kitchen stacked floor to ceiling with orders for customers (all juggled with a toddler and a new baby, NB).

Working in tamdem with a ‘secret perfumer’ to create the blends, Olivia then writes a few very evocative lines designed to appeal to the person each scent is perfect for (though the idea is that Skin works on everyone).

‘Who am I?’, Olivia writes, about this particular fragrance. ‘I am the alchemist, the musician, the story-teller. I am confident in my own skin and never need to pretend. I confound expectations and you’ll keep coming back to me, intrigued and charmed. I am sun-warmed skin on the beach, tousled hair, the cool of cotton sheets at the end of the day.’

Each bottle comes with a little ink pad so that you can create your own thumbprint and personalise the bottle, reflecting the way that the scent becomes your own signature. Stupidly, I’ve ‘put mine somewhere’ – but when the inkpad turns up, I look forward to creating a personalised label like the one below (as seen on the Olfactive O website).

Underwear, outerwear – it’s become a must-wear, for this particular scent-lover.

£110 for 30ml extrait de parfum – buy here