Scents and sensibility
Juliet Nicolson says new super-smells make the perfect gift Ionce knew an exotic and terrifying old lady who had been reared on the back of Indian elephants and who on opening her mouth to speak breathed out a heavenly cloud of something unforgettably alluring. How did she do it? Had she declined a stiff martini and instead swallowed an entire bottle of Patou’s Joy? I never discovered her secret but her legacy to me has been an insatiable fascination with smell.
Smells are big these days and burning candles have recently become such trendy house gifts that they have even acquired their own verb. I know people who ‘fragrance’ their houses with enough flickering table and wall illuminations to resemble the cathedral at Chartres en pleine messe.
Nowadays, with everyone on a low-carb diet, house gift ideas present a real challenge for the guest. A bottle of the finest olive oil or the full yard of pricey peppermints is considered an affront to healthy eating, while ubiquitous membership of AA categorically precludes the fine wine option. My father once confided to Dear Mary that his favourite present was a full gross sheet of first-class stamps. But unless your host is a pen and paper person, the candle alternative is often a wise choice.
Happily, home smell options have suddenly become delectably, headily classy, and the merest whiff of Diptyque’s Figue or Jo Malone’s Pomegranate Noir can lift the seductiveness of a room as effectively as the sight of a glorious bunch of flowers or the taste of a chilled magnum of vintage champagne.
The Krug/Bendicks of the candle world is undoubtedly the Rigaud, the oldest smelly candle on the market. Even the striped black and white box and the silver-topped glass jar, once so beloved by Jackie Onassis, drip elegance and style. The popularity of its classic Cypres is now threatened by Rigaud’s own delec table yellow Tournesol (sunflower) which evokes a Grace Kelly-type, south-of-France exhilaration, belching high summer and containing almost double the usual intensity of most perfumed candles.
A wonderful alternative, the Lampe Berger involves a nostalgic Bunsen burner-type contraption and a lovely chunky glass container that when filled with any one of a hundred choices, including a heavenly jasmine, gives a tantalisingly tantric slow-release scent that lasts for hours.
For those alarmed by a naked flame, Branche d’Olive from Provence has created a ravishingly pretty bottle containing a mouthwateringly strong orangey liquid into which you immerse little wooden sticks before removing them and allowing the citrus scent to diffuse throughout the room. For a quick effect, the delicate Cotton Flower room spray eradicates immediately the most unwelcome of accidental odours while the unusual and invigorating perfume of a Florentine pot pourri from Santa Maria Novello given to me by my sister-in-law two Christmases ago is made to a secret but unbeatable recipe and still fills my sitting room. Delicious fragrances are now available for every room in the house and for all occasions. You can wear clothes that have been washed in an aroma of your choice, clean your kitchen/loo/laptop/floor with sweetsmelling products and go to sleep in sheets that evoke the Chelsea Flower Show. Ambres Malles are pretty wooden paperweights in various sizes, filled with musky, amber resin blocks that respond beautifully to the warmth when placed on a bedroom radiator. My acknowledged reputation as a compulsive but discerning scrubber was confirmed by the satisfyingly effective Danish cleansers from Maison Belle who simply name each item after specific domestic areas, including Kitchen, Dishes, Toilet and Bath.
The Laundress range of natural detergents from America answers the problems posed by washing wool, cashmere and white clothes and their Fabric Fresh sprays instantly and effectively deal with nicotineimpregnated cushions, tired linen or faintly suspicious-looking hotel pillows.
Of course the chicest house-gift of all has to be honey made from your own hives, which not only smells of all the flowers of a full blown summer meadow but is edible and tastes like heaven, which is more than can be said for a candle, or, even a Joy-full bottle of scent.
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