Beauty Bible Loves: Matière Première Radical Rose Hand & Body Wash and Hand & Body Lotion
Fact: ‘layering’ on fragrance by using ‘matching’ hand and body products really does make your perfume last longer. There’s a simple reason: fragrance loves oil. It clings to it. And – especially if you’ve a tendency to dry skin, as we do – it makes a real difference.
Think of these products, then – especially the rich lotion – as a ‘base coat’ for your perfume. Of course, perfumer-founder Aurélien Guichard would prefer you to spritz his Radical Rose scent itself over the top. Winner of The Fragrance Foundation’s Perfume Extraordinaire, an Award which blind-judges fragrances (Jo is one of the judges), this is a stupendous scent, teasing out Rosa Centifolia’s darker side with notes of saffron, patchouli and labdanum. Definitely worth a sniff, if you happen to be near Harrods, Selfridges, Harvey Nix…
But actually (ssssshhh), the body works well to enrich any rosy-posy scent that you might have in your fragrance wardrobe, adding the smoochiness which is Radical Rose’s signature. And in fact, the concentration of fragrance in the body lotion means you can wear it alone, and still get lovely rosy wafts as the day wears on and your body heats and cools.
Radical Rose happens to be our choice from Matière Première’s new body line, but there are three other fragrances available: Parisian Musc, Crystal Saffron, and French Flower, based around tuberose.
Jo was Aurélien’s guest a couple of years ago at the tuberose harvest on his flower farm near Grasse and is chuffed to bits that the article she wrote about that trip for The Scented Letter, ‘When Your Back Garden is a Tuberose Field’, is up for a Jasmine Award for fragrance-writing, next week. (Remember you can sign up to receive free digital copies of the quarterly magazine, here.)
A fifth fragrance, meanwhile – Vanilla Powder – has a bodycare duo launching soon.
Luxurious – well, yes. But undeniably, utterly lovely treats, for your next ‘Because I’m worth it’ moment.
Matière Première Radical Rose Hand & Body Wash/£49.50 for 300ml – buy here
Matière Première Radical Rose Hand & Body Lotion/£49.50 for 300ml – buy here
