Perfume head and party girl Katie Puckrik introduces a fragrant selection with everything you need to triumph this festive season: radiance, insouciance and endurance.
Guerlain L’Art et La Matière Patchouli Paris
A pretty puffball of patchouli and vanilla that bisou bisou’s you into a soft tsunami of iris and musk. An incredible show and tell sequence first deploys the aristocratic patchouli, a charm school version that’s all posh, no goth. Then comes billowy French vanilla, a custard-rich contender that flirts with your skin. As the iris-dusted musk murmurs in the background, the patchouli makes its second entrance, this time a little rained-on, with smudged Juliette Gréco black kohl eyeliner. Where you are is where the party is. (£295 for 100ml, guerlain.com)
Penhaligon’s The Inimitable William Penhaligon
A guitar god I know calls this juice “Sex Ram”, owing to the ovine-headed bottle, and the effect this vetiver/sandalwood/amber has on others. Upon smelling it, his drummer “did a sort of impromptu Watusi on the spot and screamed,” he reported. Commanding enough to summon your own entourage of groupies, although realistically, it’s okay if it’s just your friends who think you smell nice. Which they will. (£245 for 75ml, penhaligons.com)
Byredo 1996
A tough but tender almost-gourmand that smells like lickable leather, with powdery iris played against syrupy amber for a luxe smoke effect. A distant nuance of pain aux raisin teases the subconscious with suggestions of indulgence that flicker between edible and f**kable. At once dry and wet, bitter and sweet, green and purple, 1996 is a bass-heavy hug. (£150 for 50ml, byredo.com)
Perfumer H Tobacco
This gentle fog of tobacco, patchouli leaves, tree moss and amber swirls around you in a haze that hits hard without trying hard. It’s comfy from the first spritz, skipping the spike-in-the-frontal-lobe opening salvo of less sophisticated scents. Elegant and casually sexy, it’s a scent that couples fight over for wearing rights. (£160 for 50ml, perfumerh.com)
Fugazzi Angel Dust
Sheer/snuggly, clean/sensual, Angel Dust floats you on an velvet cloud of fruity musk. How can something so not “there” be so “there”? Angel Dust is the “jumbo shrimp” of perfume: an ambient fragrance with a nuclear half-life. Glowing and shimmery, it’s a narcotic dream of a skin scent. (£140 for 100ml, sephora.co.uk)
