Jo's Scent Notes: Cologne & Cotton Cinna
One of the best feelings in the world surely has to be slipping between clean, crisp sheets. That’s why, once upon a time on Kensington Church Street, I first discovered Cologne & Cotton – purveyors of gorgeous (and not stupidly-priced) bedlinen, long before The White Company was a twinkle in Chrissie Rucker’s eye.
Fast-forward. C&C’s bedlinen is still sublime (I especially love the hand-embroidered ranges), but there are so, so many reasons to visit a Cologne & Cotton store, because they are purveyors of many, many scented treasures – including fab French ranges like Fragonard, Goutal Paris, Lalique and Durance, plus the incredible, aromatic bright green bath treat, Wiberg’s Pine Bath Essence (now with a sprauncy Art Deco redesign). And – be still, my beating heart – they have Lanvin Arpège!
I recently went back to Cologne & Cotton for the first time in ages (having a fairly replete linen cupboard, these days) – this time, to the Marylebone shop – to discover their beautifully packaged and relaunched fragrance collection, while being introduced to the dynamic duo of sisters who founded Cologne & Cotton in 1989 and are still firmly at the helm, Vicky Shepherd and Jenny Deeming.
But back to the scents. I was wowed. Honestly, WOWED. (Doesn’t happen that often.) Kindly promised that I could take one home with me, I was truly hard pressed to choose between them, ultimately picking Cinna.
There’s something really extraordinary about Cinna. Starting out fresh, it then has an absolute Mitsouko phase. On my skin, I can hardly tell it from that Guerlain masterpiece. Doesn’t linger quite as long (this is an eau de toilette), but if you’re a Mitsouko fan, I think you’ll fall head over heels for this, with its slightly fruity, smoochy, incense-y quality. Listed notes are mandarin, sandalwood and lavender – but on me, this simply smells divinely vintage and rather sensual. I’m spritzing generously. And it’s possible to do that, because of the relatively affordable price-point – £85 for 150 ml, a really generous size, and bigger than you’d get from most brands.
I was torn, though, before finally settling on Cinna. There are six scents in all and I dithered over the appropriately Cologne-y Arbela, which zooshes out of the bottle on a zesty tide of sweet orange, lemon and petitgrain, as well as Niobe: a little bit incense-y, a little bit fresh and overall really quite mysterious. These are what I’d call ‘proper perfumes’, each with a very definite character and proper depth.
Available online (go to the PERFUMERY section and look for COLOGNE & COTTON) – and how gorgeous do they look? (See below.) But so worth sniffing your way through them in person (hopefully they’ll do a discovery set, at some point). Just don’t blame me if you also walk out with a swag-bag of new bedding.
On which note – Cologne & Cotton linen sprays, next…?
£85 for 150ml eau de toilette – buy here
