Sue

On a recent stats spreadsheet check (oh the joy of perfume nerdery!) I noted that I have 20 fragrances in my collection that have a note (perceived or stated) of the gorgeous heliotrope. I once had a heliotrope plant in my garden and the smell was one of the most glorious things I have ever smelt in my life. Sweetly powdery yes, but green and earthy too. In perfume this cute little purple flower is usually mimicked by the synthetic molecule heliotropin or piperinol, which combines vanilla, almond and cinnamon. It was first synthesized in the late 19th century, so it's one of the earliest synthetics and appears in a great number of famous scents, such as L'Heure Bleue, Tresor, Eternity and l'Air du Temps. Today I'm wearing three of my favourite ones: What we do in Paris is Secret by A Lab on Fire is a beauty from 2012, by master perfumer Dominique Ropion. The heliotrope in this brings the dolls head, powdery almond to a scent that is already quite sweet from vanilla, tonka and pink rose, but is brightened with a touch of lychee and bergamot and grounded by sandalwood. I cherish this bottle as the box was signed by M. Ropion when I met him at Harrods a couple of years ago. Lilas from @fragonardparfumeurofficiel I bought from M&S last year. The heliotrope in this is part of a purple bouquet, including lilac and violet, alongside hawthorn and linden. I love the clove and musk in this too. A very expensive smelling scent for a reasonable price from Aurelien Guichard, the man behind Matiere Premiere's beautiful fragrances. Heliotrope from @perfumerhlondon is the perfect pure heliotrope scent for me, it provides a supporting cast of musk, orange blossom and vanilla, but the slightly green heliotrope itself shines through. Other heliotrope scents that deserve a mention are: Courreges 2060 Cedar Pulp Buly Heliotrope du Perou Bastille Un Deux Trois Soleil Tom Ford Metallique Marc Antoine Barrois Tilia Frederic Malle L'eau d'hiver Chanel Boy Jean Patou Ma Liberate Fresh Sugar Celine St Germain des Pres Marissa Zappas The Sun Card Do you have a favourite heliotrope scent? Artwork by Peter Blake

Throwing back to 2000 and revisiting two designer fragrances released that year for my @sprayedinbritain project. 💙Ghost by @ghostfragrances is the innocent and ethereal fruity musky one with ambrette, apricot, rose and jasmine. It's a great representation of the fashion brand at it's height, and its signature vintage inspired flowy dresses. A very pretty, quite comforting and cocooning scent from Michel Almairsc, in its curvy blue female inspired bottle, it holds up pretty well in 2026. 🩷Agent Provocateur from @agentprovocateur looks like a pink and innocent egg, but the scent inside was once shockingly carnal. A hot spicy saffron rose, with smokey vetiver and growly dirty musk, it certainly got you noticed. A great representation of the risque lingerie brand itself, which was all about subverting the male fantasy to empower women. Do check out their memorable ad featuring Kylie on a mechanical bull if you haven't seen it already. On smelling this one today, a lot of the dirtiness is gone in reformulation, it's an indolic spicy floral with pencil shaving woodiness and the drydown musk on me is rather starched and clean. Probably more wearable in this reincarnation though. Read more about the history of these two very different scents on @sprayedinbritain soon. Tried two new fragrances while out and about: In Beauty Base where I also smelt the first two, I spritzed Fenty from @fentybeauty . On me I could swear this was a juicy syrupy pineapple with light patchouli and I rather enjoyed it. Looking into getting a small bottle as it's so different from anything else I own. Santal body spray from @marksandspencer is a clever one - embracing the body spray trend but it's a refreshing change to have a slightly spiced sandalwood rather then a sickly vanilla or fruity fragrance. Though these options are also available in store if you insist. 😁 #highstreetperfume #britishperfume

It must be close to ten years since I discovered @4160tuesdays and fell down @sarahmccartneythinks scented rabbit hole. I can't recall the name of the first crowdfunded perfume I bought, but it was one of two subtle sandalwood scents I think with a vaguely scientific name? I don't even recall how I heard about the brand in the first place, but I was delighted to find I could pop into their studio (then in Acton) to try the scents, buy testers and partials at knockdown prices and even have a go on the swing suspended from the ceiling. The Dark Heart of Old Havana was one that I bought that day, the most amazing boozy juice which my hubby immediately adopted as his. I also got myself Mrs Gloss Made Me Do It, a citrussy candyfloss perfume (the first time I'd smelt a cotton candy note) and Rome 1963, a smokey bubble gum tuberose. Both these have long been used up. This led to one half day perfume making workshop. Which immediately led to another workshop with my friend Tamsin, where I made a birch tar dirty amber fragrance for hubby - No. 2X - see the sexy black bottle (also used up now so can't have been bad!) Since then I've added to my collection via crowdfunding (eg Truth Beauty Freedom Love, & Sparkles), customisation (eg Temptation with Lemongrass & Coconut) and a number of Scentusiasm phials from the excellent 4160T FB group. I've also been to the Hammersmith studio open days to top up hubby's Evil Max and buy a bottle of British Summer which isn't in the online shop. As I live in the same London borough as Sarah I've met her by chance at the tube station a couple of times, and we even went for a coffee a few years back when she signed my copy of her excellent Perfume Companion book. Today I'm wearing two recent creations, Flawed Fern, a beautiful green with soft fennel note and Sunday Cafe Culture which gives me green coffee beans and caraway seeds. I truly don't know how Sarah manages to be so prolific, creating so many imaginative and quirkily named fragrances. But long may she continue. Her latest exciting crowdfunder is now live so go check it out. Background to pic 1 is from The Perfume Bible by @jofairley and @lornamckay1

A sizzling hot day needs a beautiful shimmering scent like Amande Persane, a zesty, breezy mandarin meets powdery almond and the softest tonka. The perfect summer gourmand from classic house @rogergallet , it dates back to 2010 and conjures up a glass of chilled bucks fizz alongside a dish of sugared Turkish delight. Superb. Last photo shows my 2 most worn fragrances of 2026 so far: Semence Douce by @lentropiste - a silvery sexy almond which I've worn 7 times. A bulletproof, effortlessly cool perfume. Mineral Milk from @dedcool - another silvery one, this time a shining lavender and cool milk fragrance which I've worn 6 times. Calming while giving that totally untouchable vibe. I feel fabulous and super me in both of these. Runners up with 5 wears so far are: Simmer Dim from @scenttrunk Cecile from @tothefairestlondon L'Amandiere by @heeleyofficial Melodie from @honore.payan Air of Aquarius by @sanajardin

Every year about this time I bust out the Dior Star and am always surprised about how impressed I am with it. Green to the max, a fresh verdant opening salvo, before sprightly young honeysuckle demands the spotlight. It's the perfect spring day fragrance. The fresh floral lasts and lasts and when it finally fades it's into an almondy musk. A perfume of two gorgeous halves, it was first released 21 years ago and is from the nose of Beatrice Piquet. Is there any perfume in your collection that always surprises you? Pics are of the honeysuckle on the fence and bower in my garden. Can't wait for it to blossom. #diorperfume #frenchperfume

The sun is out out ☀️☀️ And @barnesfragrancefair is fast approaching, which means a trip to the area for a meet up with the loveliest people for scented chat and cocktails. There's nothing quite like Barnes pond in the sun. Idyllic just about covers it. Happy times need happy fragrances. And for me that invariably means a zesty zingy citrus. L'eau d'Hadrien from @goutalparis is finally getting its first outing of the year. This is my second bottle of this grapefruit, lemon and aldehydes gem that I always spritz with the utmost abandon. It was the first scent I bought in their Paris store aeons ago when the bottle was a little prettier. This one I got in the Harrods sale a couple of years ago. It's a masterful citrus and soft woods scent, first released in 1980, and on the happy scale it's a definite 11 out of 10 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁 The Orange Tree from @4160tuesdays is one I snapped up recently in an online group and have been wearing for the last few days. It's all the oranges, the leaves, the bark, the roots, the flowers, an entire orange orchard stuffed into a tiny bottle. Miraculous and beautiful. Cool orange peel, with a green vibe, happy rating 10 out of 10 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁 Lastly Honey Moon from @phlur who have been hit and miss for me as a brand. I only have one previous love from them, Rose Whip which is a stupendous dusty suedey pink rose. But after the disappointment of their last release Afterglow (pencil shavings! 😱) Honey Moon has surprised me. It's mandarins in the sun to start, a little lavender and saffron next which offsets the sweetness of the tonka, vanilla, sandalwood triumvirate at the base. There apparently is honey in this which did slightly put me off as I'm not keen on it as a general rule in perfume. But I can't smell any in this. Result! Thanks to @lowkeyhighflyer fir sending me this one in a goody bag. Happy rating 9/10 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁 @onthescentmedia magazine is my pretty backdrop. If you haven't got yours yet you really should! ✨

I'm back! Finished work for now and time to chill and get my mind back on all things perfumed. I'm also thinking of an old friend who's having surgery today and hoping for the most positive of outcomes. And isn't it brilliant to see the peonies out early. Meanwhile, these are the fragrances I've been wearing and loving this past week or so: 🩶Semence Douce by @lentropiste - almond is one of my favourite notes, and this elevates it to cool, silvery perfection 💚Verveine d'Ete from @lejardinretrouve brings my best loved citrus, verbena, in a classic zesty number from 1978 💧Wild Horses by @subversivescents is a cool white floral with salty tears (and also a fab Rolling Stones song) 🧡Fount of Wisdom by @4160tuesdays is another one by the brilliant Sarah McCartney where I can't pin down the notes but I love it anyway. Green and fuzzy, slightly metallic, then honeyed petals. I believe geranium and linden might be in this and I'm intrigued by it. 🌿Angelica from @perfumerhlondon is the best take on angelica I've smelt so far. Green, herbal heaven. ✨Air of Aquarius by @sanajardin is the one I've found myself reaching for the most, something about the rosemary and citrus combo that is reviving, refreshing and also invigorating but never in a pushy way. Adore it. In other news: finished Vianne by Joanne Harris and having smelt the accompanying perfume by Sarah McCartney (Vianne's Confession), I enjoyed it all the more. However I wore Pop by another McCartney instead cos that's the way I roll. Hoping to get to the Schiaparelli exhibition at the V&A soon, but in the meantime I'm enjoying the brilliant article about it by @fragrantmaven in the spanking new magazine by @onthescentmedia . Well done to the whole team for a quality product, entertaining and beautiful to look at. Also pictured my cherished bottle of S by Schiap. Sadly empty.

Fragrances to make working go with a swing. All of these are uplifting, refreshing or comforting and helped me get through a high pressure week. Mineral Milk from @dedcool - best new scent of the year so far?? Could be. Fresh lavender and creamy milk dream Star Seren from @walesperfumery - dazzling yuzu brightness Sunday Cafe Culture by @4160tuesdays - green coffee beans, rubbery aromatic caraway anise? Originality off the scale. Snowdrops & Icicles also from @4160tuesdays - cool green floral with soft petals of white musk Frosted Moon by @cloonkeen - out of this world angelica and ambrette Angelica from @perfumerhlondon - amazing green and grounding angelica Heliotrope from @perfumerhlondon - the best soft floral almondy fragrance out there. Delicious. I also tried Soap from Perfumer H but it wasn't a love. A tad dry and papery for me. #britishperfume #indieperfume

I've always had a sneaking respect for the works of Thierry Mugler, I mean who couldn't? However I couldn't wear his legendary pioneering gourmand Angel because it was an absolute beast, and even the watered down Innocent version was a bit too much for me to stomach. And each of the millions of Angel flankers hasn't really appealed. Same with Angel Muse. A*men I think I preferred, especially the coffee and Havane flankers. Very sexy. Aura I appreciate for its green oldballness. Ditto Womanity for its salty strangeness. And from the Exceptions line I really like the plum tobacco Naughty Fruity and the carrot seed vanilla Orient Express. But I never really took to Alien apart from loving the aesthetic of the bottle. We're now onto the umpteenth flanker, called Alien Pulp from nose Dominique Ropion. A hot fruity explosion, like raspberries splattered across warm skin, musky and almost Dewberry like. And despite still containing amber and jasmine, it bears absolutely no resemblance to the OG. It's pleasant enough but as raspberry isn't my favourite ingredient in perfume I'm going to have to pass. Now the one scent I've always adored from Mugler is the original Mugler Cologne, which was first released in 2001, from nose Alberto Morillas. A shocking departure from Angel, refreshing rather than cloying, with a minimalist feel rather than a patchouli bomb. This fragrance was immediately so me, compared to the fashionable bombast of Angel, which at one point in the late 90's seemed absolutely omnipresent. Mugler Cologne has seen a rush of flankers in recent years, but nothing beats the original's simple trio of citruses: petitgrain, neroli and bergamot, with orange flower and musk. There is a wonderful vibrant greenness to this fragrance, almost like a modern tribute to the harsher greens of vintage scents like Vent Vert or Aliage, but this one shimmers like grass in sunlight. Once upon a time I had a large bottle of this, now I'm making do with this cute mini. It's a brilliant fragrance. #frenchperfumes #miniatureperfume Bonus shot of spring flowers in South Ealing Cemetery 🪻

💮Here's a flower that's relatively new to me: Champaca. It's a type of magnolia, also known as Champak or 'the joy perfume tree ' ✨😊. It's native to South East Asia and celebrated for its beautiful fragrance. I first came across it in perfume when I tried Champaca by @ormondejayne last year at the flagship store. I ended up buying another scent, Frangipani but Champaca was a very close second. Linda Pilkington's OJ scent complements the Asian origin of the flower by adding bamboo, rice and green tea notes, and pink pepper and freesia make this fantastically fresh. Some myrrh in the drydown adds to the deliciousness. At the @onthescentpodcast live event I got a sample of another Champaca, Chakra Champaka by @ataratmalondon whose perfumes are Indian inspired. Love at first sniff. This one is utterly gorgeous, with ylang, citrus, vanilla and pistachio in the mix alongside the orange blossom and magnolia petals. Superb stuff from nose Caroline Dumur, who incidentally also created @byfar_official Daydream of A Hopscotch which I added to my travel size collection last month. And now @escentric_molecules have just come out with their own offering, Molecule 01 +Champaca. I have to admit to being unmoved so far by this brand, possibly I'm somewhat anosmic to their Iso E Super brew. But in this one, the floral notes come through clearly, making this a bright, clean and very pretty wear. It's by the EM nose Geza Schoen, who also created Champaca and Frangipani for Ormonde Jayne. Are there any other Champaca scents I should try? #britishperfume #indieperfume #champaca

Recent purchase from a brand I've been curious about @nestnewyork , founded by Laura Slatkin. Golden Nectar caught my attention due to the alleged 'crayon' note, yes I'm a sucker for a little bit of weirdness! So this isn't your run of the mill vanilla orchid fragrance. It does have a warm cosy vanillary feel, but more like a soft cashmere shrug rather than a slice of buttery Madeira cake. It must be the suede note that is giving the slight growl in the background, and I certainly get a dusty suede rather than a crayon. It's rather lovely though and I'm very much enjoying wearing it. Apparently the exotic inspo behind this one is Cleopatra, scenting the sails of her ships, so her perfume could be spread far and wide by the wind. Love it ✨ The seller included a teeny roll on bottle of Vanilla Bourbon, which is like a more concentrated version of the Nectar minus the suede. Nice but I prefer the edge that the suede gives. Another scent that entered my collection this month was gifted by the generous @wewearperfume - Heroine by @boadiceathevictorious in this utterly cute bottle. Top marks for that! Heroine is a very pretty powdery floral with a heavenly trio of violet, heliotrope and mimosa to the fore. Tonka and subtle vanilla bring sweetness to the drydown without being cloying. My first experience of this British brand but definitely not my last. 🔢So anyone for some perfume stats? ➡️Incoming this month were: 7 bought (Aqua Mahana, Daydream of Hopscotch, Golden Nectar, Molecule + Champaca, You See Me Too, Semence Douce, Pop Culture. 4 gifted (Honey Moon by @phlur from @lowkeyhighflyer , Heroine, Vanilla Bourbon, Snowdrop, also from @wewearperfume ) 1 won in giveaway Flash by @pictorparfum ⬅️ Outgoing were: 13 bottles to the local charity shop - 3 full size, the rest travel size or decants 1 used up - Gorse 12 in but 14 out! Not bad going for a month that included Perfume Week. Oh but I do have another irresistible travel size fragrance on the way ...💜 #perfumestats #britishperfume #indieperfume

Three beautiful lavender scents I'm loving wearing at the moment. 💜Lavender Rice is from the brilliant @4160tuesdays and an instant love when I smelt it last year. Actually it was an instant want as soon as I heard the name. It's blackcurrant and lavender providing the purple haze while that comforting ricey bran note comes through in the drydown. Utterly marvellous. 💜 Purple Memoire from @florislondon is a wonderfully modern take on lavender from the heritage brand. A bright citrus burst before the lavender, entwined with more purple florals, iris and violet, then the softest of landings, musk, amber, tonka and cocoa. Fabulous. 💜 Mineral Milk from @dedcool is a silvery mineralic lavender, it calls to mind the sparkling vibe of the excellent Lunar Dust by @mabelle_orama but without the woodiness. This one is soft and milky, like a glass of cold milk with the merest smidge of vanilla sugar. I'm a big fan of this one, and thanks to Helen @lowkeyhighflyer for sending me the sample. My favourite so far from this brand. #lavender #indieperfume #britishperfume