Jo's Scent Notes: FLOWER BY KENZO
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When you aren’t someone with a signature scent – and I have been a right fragrance tart since my teens – it’s easy to forget old favourites. You buy a new bottle, and something you’ve worn and loved gets shuffled to the back of the shelf, a bit like a penny arcade game in reverse. (Though hopefully, nothing actually falls off the back.)
Not long ago, I spent a fascinating evening listening to Master Perfumer Alberto Morillas talk about his life and work, at an event for The Fragrance Foundation. (Note: ‘Master Perfumer’ is an official designation used by the fragrance house Firmenich, where Alberto has worked since 1970 – although other perfumers – and even the occasional non-perfumer – claim it for themselves.)
For perfume writers, though, Alberto is something of a rock god (albeit with a more Savile Row vibe). He’s been a star on the scent scene for decades, notching up more hits than The Beatles, including many you’ll know: cKOne (the first proper unisex fragrance), Marc Jacobs Daisy, Estée Lauder Pleasures, Gucci Bloom (Alberto has created a whole wardrobe of fragrances for Gucci). There are hundreds of them, in all – and Alberto has his own fabulous niche fragrance line, Mizensir.
Anyway, as we sat listening to colleague Alice du Parcq deftly tease out Alberto’s tales, we were invited to smell some of those creations. And in that way that scent has, I was time-travelled straight back to a brief phase when I wore FLOWER BY KENZO, before 837 other fragrances made a bid for my attention and I clean forgot it.
I was reminded that it is simply gorgeous. GORGEOUS! If a cloud came in perfume form, this would be it: all snuggly, comforting, dreamy softness. It’s almost fuzzy at the edges – powdery, floral, almost icing sugar sweet (in a good way). The original FLOWER BY KENZO was designed as an ‘imaginary poppy’, since poppies don’t have a scent. Instead, Alberto dreamed one up using roses, jasmine, Parma violets, a little vanilla and a shedload of nuzzleable white musks, creating something that to me somehow, to me, conjures up one of those beautiful, angelic ceiling paintings, all celestial virgins and chubby-cheeked cherubs.
Unlike many scents, meanwhile, this floaty masterpiece is equally at home in the office as on an evening out. And a spritz is all you need for hours of pleasure; one of the standouts for me – and I don’t know how Alberto pulled this trick off – is that I can still smell it on myself hours later, when I become nose-blind to so many fragrances on my skin.
Honestly, rediscovering this was like bumping into an old friend – and remembering how much you love them. It is my hope that FLOWER BY KENZO and I don’t lose touch again, as the dressing table fills up with upcoming autumn launches.
From £50 for 30ml – buy here
PS If you’re looking for a scent for a chap, meanwhile, do check out KENZO Homme Indigo. It’s not one of Alberto’s, but I’d happily dive in for a sniff of this on a man’s neck – a woody masterpiece, with sandalwood, patchouli, fig wood and vetiver, a little spark of pink pepper and a breeze of marine notes. It’s one of those fragrances that make me wish my husband wore something that came out of a branded bottle (i.e., this), rather than the albeit amazing concoction he creates himself out of essential oils, the recipe for which he refuses to share. But that’s another story for another day. For now, find KENZO Homme Indigo here, priced £66 for 60ml eau de toilette.)
