Perfumes that would be perfect gifts this Christmas
Holly and ivy tones are a good look for Jo Malone products, many of which have been festively packaged for this season.
Place the green and cream-striped Roasted Chestnut Deluxe Candle, €155, in your hall to welcome guests with a warm, robust and quintessentially Christmassy scent.
A smaller version comes in a Scented Travel Candle Collection, €78, flanked by Blackberry and Bay and Pine and Eucalyptus.
Jo Malone’s signature cologne is always a welcome present. A bottle of one is good but a box of five is probably better, especially as their notes complement one other so well.
Why not treat someone special to the Cologne Intense Collection, €112, a quintet of the brand’s most intoxicating scents.
Tuberose Angelica is especially nice. The more purse-friendly Cologne Collection, €86, is comprised of five 9ml JM classics, including Pomegranate Noir and Lime Basil & Mandarin.
Bath salts don’t seem luxurious until you try the English Pear & Freesia scented crystals, €35 for three sachets.
They smell heavenly and each package is illustrated to effect the front of the famous Jo Malone townhouse, which happens to look straight out of A Christmas Carol.
The Jo Malone Christmas Cracker, €38, and Christmas Ornament, €28, are available again this year.
The cracker, is a cute stocking filler, and the ornament (a suspendable, wreath-printed box), contains Nectarine Blossom and Honey Body Cream and a mini English Pear and Freesia Cologne.
A trousseau filled with fragrance is a truly romantic gift.
The Jo Malone London Trousseau, €790, is an extravagant collection that includes a large decanter of Red Roses Bath Oil, two deluxe candles, a jar of Peony and Blush Suede Body Cream and two 100ml fragrances of your choosing.
This ruby-like flacon holds one of the year’s sweetest fragrance releases.
Van Cleef & Arpels say they tapped the talents of designer Antoine Maisondieu, whose previous hits include Gucci Eau de Parfum II and Lanvin’s Marry Me!, to create a “love potion”. The business benefits of this idea are twofold, surely, as doesn’t a woman in love want diamonds?
Féerie Rubis’ sweet heart is comprised of peony, magnolia, freesia and iris. The floral composition with juicy red top-notes of raspberry, red currant, pink pepper and lychee. Musk, tonka bean, cedar and sandalwood make a warm base.
A silver fairy clutches the cap, recalling some of the jewellers’ most famous pieces. Van Cleef & Arpels’ fairies are guardians of love, according to brand lore.
Acqua di Bergamotto is Ermenegildo Zegna newest fragrance and the freshest by far. Think touring Calabria, where over 80% of the world’s bergamot oranges are grown, and taking in Reggio’s groves and herbaceous gardens before heading for the coast.
Zegna was founded in Trivero and is still very rooted in Northern Italy, but the family has Reggio bergamots harvested exclusively for its fragrances.
Acqua Di Bergamotto’s eponymous citrus notes harmonise with neroli, lime, rosemary and vetiver.
According to the brand, a spritz is meant to effect an invigorating breeze blowing in off the Ionian Sea. It is quite discreet and easy to wear, so even a giftee prone to over-application can’t go wrong.
Chanel No 5 is affectionately termed “Le Monstre” by industry types because of its tremendous selling power. A bottle is reportedly sold somewhere every 55 seconds, so it is a safe bet that someone on your Christmas shopping list loves the the stuff.
Both the original scent and Chanel No 5 Eau Première are available in travel-size versions for the season. The bottles hold just 35ml but the addictive fragrances remain the same. The fifth sample Ernest Beaux, Coco Chanel’s “nose”, proffered has heart notes of May rose and jasmine.
To an aldehydic top note, he’d added ylang ylang from the Comoro Islands and neroli, as well a sandalwood-Bourbon vanilla base. She named it for her favourite number because numbers are timeless.
The perfume happens to be five years and five months off its centenary.
In 2008, Jacques Polge, the Chanel nose since 1978, reinterpreted his predecessor’s composition to create a luminous version of the signature. No 5 Eau Première is a lighter, crisper version of No 5, meant for more generous use. No 5 Eau de Parfum 35ml Spray and No 5 Eau Première 35ml Spray both retail at €68.
Irish-made and internationally beloved, Max Benjamin’s candles are quite difficult to wrap up and hand over.
The Wicklow-based brand has three new festive fragrances in their line this season ‘Christmas’, ‘Frankincense’ and ‘Frosted Fig’ are available as three wick candles in mulberry tins. ‘Christmas’ is a classic Christmas fragrance with warm winter notes of amber, orange spice and musks.
Frankincense features incense and oud, creating an eastern Christmas ambience. Frosted Fig blends woody cedar with sultanas frosted with Christmas figs and apricots.
“These large three wick candles in red tins make the perfect table centre piece for the Christmas season.
“r leave on your hall table to infuse the house with festive fragrances thoughout December” suggests MB co-founder Mark Van den Bergh. Each candle retails at €35.
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