Fragrance’s latest obsession takes root surprisingly close to home: the back garden. While the great outdoors has inspired perfumers for centuries, this new wave of scents draws on familiar scenes and aromas, including dew-dropped English meadows and the spoils of your allotment’s vegetable patch and herb garden.
It may sound odd if you’re partial to saccharine gourmands, but when scents like rosemary, rhubarb, and tomato are translated into olfactory form, they’re transformed. There’s an earthy groundedness, but also a sweetness, and if the composition leans herby, it can be invigoratingly botanical. There’s a freshness that’s nuanced, textured and completely transformative—they’re familiar, but with a hint of the surreal.
