Your September Shopping Sniff-List

The new season 'itch' and the perfume launches I'm going a bit doolally for

As you’ve probably guessed from my current Instagram hiatus, I’m still on my last few days of holiday in France. We’re in the depths (or should that be heights!) of the French Alps, where my dad’s side of the family is from. Our home is an old, smallish, stone house in a village close to Lake Annecy, on one edge of a big garden that’s split between two sets of aunts and uncles, plus my cousin and her family, who all live in this same plot of land. Before coming here we had the most peaceful and relaxing week in Provence, staying in a stunning Airbnb villa in a tiny village called Boulbon (message me if you want the details!). To have three weeks off is so flipping lucky - particularly for JdP who has to negotiate NHS annual leave - and it’s the pause button we all really needed.

I sort of think August is the pause button that anyone who scrolls social media needs too. I’ve barely looked at Insta since mid-July because I, too, need a break from being sold to, from seeing everyone else’s holidays, from perusing random content, from keeping up with my own industry. Likewise, no one needs to watch me waffling on about perfume every single day (“in that posh voice of yours” as one anonymous follower DM’d me a couple of months ago - LOL! What an unnecessarily weird thing to tell someone you don’t know. If they were trying to insult me, which I’m presuming this person was intent on doing, it didn’t work. I speak in a posh way, so what? Now fuck off back to your slimy little hole and enjoy being blocked from my joyous, free, posh content. Teehee!). Anyway, as I was saying, a pause from my face is as much a break for you as it is for me!

Of course if you’ve ever known or have been a writer, tappy-tap words are our therapy and I absolutely love coming on here to trickle out my thoughts.

My current thought is: I’m getting itchy and excited for September. This happens, like clockwork, in this last week of August, where I sit on the beach under a tree looking at my favourite clothing websites for trench coats, loafers and light knits, while simultaneously applying SPF50. I’m one click away from ordering this big quilted bedspread and I’m fully ready to switch from rosé to red wine, from potato salad to roasties, and from fluoro nail polish to deepest aubergine.

I feel the same about perfume: I am actually quite done now with citrus scents and solar sunscreen splashes, thank you. Give me all the sexychurch incense and feral woods, molasses-thick resins and hessian-bag patchoulis, please. What’s torturous is that I have smelt a lot of what’s coming soon; I even have a few secret under-embargo vials of upcoming launches that I’ve brought with me on hols, and they are seriously incredible. They’re not quite right for right now, but oh my, they soon will be.

If you’re feeling the same itch for new-season scents, you are in for a September smorgasbord. There are SO many to enjoy and explore, and trust me when I say there are some absolute stonking room-rockers.

The minute I’m back home with time to film I promise I will create as much content as possible about all of them. It’ll be around mid-September, because once I’m back from France I’m booked out to deliver training to hundreds of beauty consultants that work for a major luxury brand, during a week-long conference; a bit of a pinch-me moment. I LOVE training staff, it’s become one of my favourite parts of my peculiar job - so forgive me if my usual Insta content is delayed until then.

In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek at what’s around the corner. I’m sure I’m breaking a bunch of NDAs here - sozzy to any brands watching - but make a note of these as the ones to sniff out on your new-season shopping spree.

Creed’s two new Amber fragrances: Delphinus and Centaurus. These are phenomenal and I particularly love Delphinus, which radiates and projects like mad. It’s golden, a bit vanilla-laced and sultry-rich (whilst Centaurus is more molten silver). If you’ve yet to find your favourite Creed scent, I reckon one of these could be it. They’re as far away from Aventus etc as possible too. I might be doing an event around these so watch this space for ticket info!

Diptyque’s ‘haute couture’ fine fragrances. There are 5, made by esteemed perfumers, and they’re a level-up from the main line of Dippers scents. As other high-end ultra-luxe perfume collections (such as Chanel Les Exclusifs and Maison Dior), these aren’t commercial crowd-pleasers. These are blank-canvas works of art conjured up by the perfumer’s imaginarium, and - like a beautiful painting or sculpture - they’re meant to connect with you emotionally and muster something special deep inside. Some of them you might find a bit weird (the seaweedy one is not my cuppa), some utterly wonderful (the woody one had me literally ‘phwoaring’ out loud). This is the collection to go and smell in person in a Diptyque boutique with plenty of time to mull over and enjoy. There’s a discovery set coming too - hooray!

Matiere Premiere’s Extrait collection. I love everything about this house and I think it’s a really clever move to rework already-existing perfumes instead of churning out newness. In this case, they’ve picked a selection of their fragrances (including Radical Rose and Falcon Leather) and ramped them up to 11, with a guest ingredient in each one to highlight a new edge to the original Eau de Parfum. They’re stronger, more complex and longer lasting than the EdP (which is of course still stunning and going nowhere), and they’re presented in a dark grey bottle. The one I’m dribbling over is Encens Suave Extrait, which is church on crack and I’ve already ploughed through my 6ml mini.

Perfumer H Saddle. Lyn Harris has the most elegant approach to snapshotting ingredients and concepts in perfume format, and I just know this one will be stunning. I’ve not smelt this yet (it is sitting in my post pile at home!) but I’m imagining soapy polished leather, warm horse skin and sweet stable straw.

Donna Karan Cashmere Collection. Woah! Easy tiger! I know what you’re thinking (because I thought it too): “OMG CASHMERE MIST IS BACK!” Sadly not pals. Instead this is a small collection of four luxury scents “inspired by the origins of the Donna Karan story […] a reimagining of the modern New York woman.” Hmm. I had a very early sneak peek/sniff earlier this year and they’re lovely. The collection includes Cashmere & Palo Santo, Cashmere & Tiare Flower (my favourite I think), Cashmere & Wild Fig and Cashmere & Tunisian Neroli. I just don’t know how these will perform in such a crowded market if I’m honest. I hope Cashmere Mist superfans will give them a go and fall in love, but I feel that they should have just paid off the legal rights (or whatever reason CM was discontinued) and brought back Cashmere Mist - the OG powdery, fluffy, musky scent - at a decent price but with a snazzier and more sustainable bottle.

Penhaligon’s The Dandy. This is already out and loads of perfume bloggers and content creators have covered it (including Robin James, aka @manforhimself, in this post); I can’t wait to get my nose on this. (Btw anyone else feel like the Potions & Remedies collection came out about 5 minutes ago? It was exactly a year ago!). 

Les Eaux Primordiales Ambre Supermassive. I mean, YES! Crickey we see SO many obscure and cryptic perfume names nowadays, isn’t it nice to see one so blindingly direct? Annoyingly I was away when the brand’s founder was in town doing events, so I missed out on getting to know him and getting insights into his creative process. I’ll have to catch up on all of it asap and do my homework. 

Parfums de Marly Palatine. Did someone say cryptic? I was a bit “clutch crisis management PR pearls” when I misread this name with an ‘s’ in the middle. Then utterly confused when I read it correctly. What on earth is Palatine? Apparently it relates to a Holy Roman emperor, which is quite fitting given PdM’s regal and supreme inspo mood board. It’s not a brand I feel passionately connected too (it’s a bit Love-Island-winner) but I know they do things really well and I really respect their business trajectory, so I’m excited to smell this one and give it an objective once-over. I hope it’s gritty and handsome, with a bit of filthy leather gladiator sandal, clay dust and a whiff of Paul Mescal’s tan. 

Jo Malone London Hinoki & Cedarwood Cologne Intense. Again, another big-chunky-smoky-woody sounding scent, housed within JML’s fine fragrance line inspired by faraway lands. Riding on the renewed success of Cypress & Grapevine, thanks to their campaign with British actor Tom Hardy, this is a brilliant move from JML now that they’ve convinced a new audience they’re not just about transparent citruses and bridal florals. 

L’Artisan Parfumeur home scents revamp. If you’ve always lusted after LAP’s iconic - but constantly out-of-stock - amber balls (mine, nestled in my tshirt drawer, is over 10 years old and still smells divine), they’re coming back and you should add one to your Christmas list as they are genuinely spectacular. As are their gorgeous scented candles: they’re some of the best projecting and burning candles I’ve ever used and the fragrances are the simple crowd-pleasers we all want: L’Ambre (my favourite), Les Baies (sharp berries), La Figue, L’Encens and La Rose. The waxes remain the same but the vessels are getting a subtle posh makeover.

PLUS… The new Ouds on their way from Edeniste and Maison Crivelli are addictive and moreish; there's a fun new Sol de Janeiro if you like gourmand-exotica body mists, Phlur Soft Spot sounds LOLs but will it last beyond 20 minutes?.. and I’ve just heard there’s something coming from Hermes, which is always heavenly.

Now, can we please have some affordable fragrance newness that won’t cost an arm and a leg? I’ll wait…

Thank you so much for subscribing to my Perfume Playground. I’ve made this post free for all, which is a once-in-a-while thing, however if you feel inclined to upgrade to a paid membership you’ll have access to everything I’ve done on here, past, present and future! I’m so grateful to have a community of perfume lovers and a space to write with freedom. I’m thinking of expanding my pieces to more foodie posts that are connected to scent in some way, as I truly believe fragrance lovers are flavour hedonists too! Let me know below if that sounds up your street.

See you soon,

Alice x