Individual scents
Quirky traditions are quite a British thing. This is, after all, the country where there is an annual race to chase a cheese wheel down a hill. In a celebration of that British eccentricity, perfumer Penhaligon’s is launching a new collection. Titled Penhaligon’s Portraits, Penhaligon’s has gone beyond creating just a personality for the four scents, actually crafting a character and a backstory for each of them.
Encased in ornate bottles with gilded animal heads as stoppers, and housed in boxes of beautifully ornate illustrations with a touch of Victorian properness by Icelandic artist Kristjana Williams, each perfume is part of the tale of a British aristocratic family.
First there is The Tragedy of Lord George, the head of the family. What tragedy has befallen this archetypal English patriarch we do not know, but we do know that he smells a bit like a gentleman’s club – masculine, elegant, with a hint of adventure in rum. While Lord George is ‘faithful to King and country’, there is Much Ado About The Duke, his son-in-law. Where George is a proper noble, the Duke is a bit of a dandy, who loves wine, women, song and theatre, mixing woody scents with spicy rose, together with hints of gin and leather – equal parts masculinity and femininity. Appropriate then, that the Duke gets a stopper shaped like a hound, while Lord George’s animal persona is a stag.
Lady Blanche is Lord George’s wife, with her scent described as The Revenge of Lady Blanche. What is the motive for her revenge, that could lead this once-temptress to plot to poison her husband? Nobody knows. But we know her scent – a beguiling, hypnotic floral scent that intoxicates like a narcotic. While Lady Blanche is scheming – ‘it was a murder, but hardly a crime’ – her daughter, The Coveted Duchess Rose is hardly a shirking flower herself. On the surface, she represents the classic English rose – but there is an underlying slyness, a musky wood that hints at something darker underneath the veneer. So Duchess Rose gets an appropriate totem of a fox, while Lady Blanche is paired with a leopard.
Witty and wonderful, the first chapter in Penhaligon’s Portraits series is a classic example of how the British mix tradition with a healthy dose of tongue-in-cheek humour. Each one of these characters is priced at £178 (RM975) per bottle. And there’s more to come. Chapter 2 is set to be released in January, continuing the story, and mystery, of Lord George and his odd family.
