Surrey Homes | SH54 | April 2019 | Garden supplement inside

photorealistic Une Rose, or Musc Ravageur, created by the nose
Maurice Roucel, a scent so outrageously sexy that my otherwise
liberal husband won’t allow me out of the house wearing it.
These are all utterly luscious, truly buttery confections,
seriously skin-nourishing – and a little goes an astonishingly
long way; indeed, you can wear these body butters instead of,
rather than as well as, the accompanying fragrance – and at this
price, probably just as well. (There are also Body Milks, Body
Washes, Body & Hair Oil – pretty much any type of luxury
your heart desires, within the range, although not everything is
available in every scent.)
Chanel No.5 The Body Cream, £65 for 150g. While everyone
else was dropping their bodycare, Chanel have continued to
offer a wide range of treats from top to toe. Available in several
fragrances (check out the chanel.com website for the full rundown),
the body creams are voluptuously rich, in beautifully
hefty, Chanel-emblazoned jars. Lighter textures are also
available and I’ve a particular soft spot for Chanel soaps, which
is another great starting point for layering.
Jo Malone
London Orange
Blossom Body
Crème, £54
for 175ml
Hermès Eau de Citron Noir
Moisturising Balm, £45 for 200ml.
Best keep this citrusy treasure
under lock and key, because
Hermès’s minimally-packaged,
complexion-soothing treat (which
can be used on hands, face and
body) also does double duty as an
aftershave balm.
Jo Malone London Orange
Blossom Body Crème, £54 for
175ml. Jo Malone London fragrances
are designed to be layered – but not in the traditional way.
Instead the brand encourages applying combinations of
fragrances to create something that’s different again.
This particular hefty glass jar of sweet-scented, white floral
heavenliness has pride of place on my bedside and I slather
my limbs with its moisturising formula night after night – but
you could follow their Fragrance Combining suggestions and
layer it with, perhaps, the classic Lime Basil & Mandarin,
or, for something more exotic, Dark Amber & Ginger Lily.
Jo Malone London offers a superb line-up of layerables, from
hair fragrances to bath oils and even shampoo.
Goutal Paris Italian Hand Balm, £26 for 40ml. Now
that the late founder of the perfume house’s daughter
Camille is at the helm, this most quintessentially French
brand has had a name-change to Goutal Paris.
Although there isn’t a huge range of bodycare on offer
in the UK (do check out what’s on offer in the lovely
store at 14 rue Castiglione, just off the rue de Rivoli
next time you are in Paris), I do want to point you in
the direction of the gorgeous new hand creams.
The ‘Italian’ fragrance (there is also Garden and Oriental)
is wonderful smoothed onto wrists before spritzing Eau
d’Hadrien, one of the all-time stars in the pantheon of
Cologne classics.
Floral Street Neon
Rose Body Cream,
£22 for 200ml. Great
name, great fragrances:
inspired by Covent
Garden’s flower market (the original, not the sprawling
modern location in Battersea), Floral Street offer a portfolio
of appealingly affordable scents, some of which now can be
enjoyed as Body Wash (£18 for 200ml) and Body Cream.
There are four ‘neo-florals’ (as in, not your granny’s
floral scents…), in the bodycare collection and I
particularly like this gorgeous fusion of jasmine, apple
blossom, bergamot, angelica and peach nectar.
I promise you’ll almost hear your skin slurping up the blend
of shea butter, sweet almond and argan, as you smooth it in.
I recommend some playtime at the brand’s store on Covent
Garden’s King Street.
E. Coudray Iris Rose Perfumed Body Cream, £38 for 250ml
(escentual.com). This vintage French fragrance house
is pure boudoir chic. It’s almost a crime to apply this
cream unless you’re wearing a silk peignoir, while sipping
a glass of something sparkling. It’s super-nourishing
(hazelnut, sweet almond and jojoba oils feature in the
blend), and the scent is pure ‘Mummy’s handbag.’
There is also a Body Oil (£55 for 100ml) in this
fragrance and a gorgeously bottled Eau de Toilette
to spritz as your final, feminine scent gesture.
And if your favourite fragrance doesn’t have accompanying
body care? I’m an advocate for some experimentation. You
can mix-and-match perfumes and bodycare, though it helps
to stay within the same fragrance family – florals with florals,
Orientals with Orientals, etc. – to avoid scent clash.
Not confident enough to do that? Then reach for an
unscented body cream or butter as the ‘base’ on which to layer
a favourite fragrance. Try Clinique Deep Comfort Body Butter,
£26 for 200ml (like everything they make, it’s fragrance-free)
– or if you’re on a budget, I don’t really think you can beat
Aveeno Daily Moisturising Lotion, £7.69 for 300ml, a nongreasy
formula featuring
skin-soothing oatmeal. Then
lavishly scent yourself over it
with your perfume of the day.
And may you waft
gorgeously (and longlastingly),
from here on in.
Jo Fairley is co-founder of The
Perfume Society which offers
perfume Discovery Boxes and
online VIP membership, with
special events, competitions
and discounts from leading
perfume websites, plus
six downloadable issues a
year of award-winning
magazine, The Scented
Letter. perfumesociety.org
Floral Street Neon
Rose Body Cream,
£22 for 200ml
Chanel No.5
The Body
Cream, £65
for 150g
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