Scent Shopping In Knutsford At Pulse Of Perfumery & The Discovery Of Lubin

This week I had the joy of spending some time with fume retailer Peter Murray at Pulse Of Perfumery, an independent scent shop in Knutsford. For my International readers I must explain that Britain is sadly lacking in independent scent shops, having just a small handful outside of London and (I think) only three very much spread out over the North of England.

Knutsford is a great example of ‘ye olde England’, a teeny historic town in the heart of Cheshire, dripping with wealth, yummie mummies and day trippers. An ideal spot to launch a shop that sells luxury items. This seams to be a commonality as the other two are in Lytham St Annes and York, both towns of a similar nature.

Pulse Of Perfumery has been a great success, launched during Britain’s financial recession, it could have easily been boarded up six months into it’s life. A quirky shop in a small town is a dangerous investment these days. There are several reasons why I think it thrived.

Firstly, range. The lines are a mix of the classic (such as Chanel, Acqua di Parma, Hermes), the contemporary designers (Tom Ford, Jimmy Choo, Narciso Rodrigues and the like) and Niche (Bois 1920, Serge Lutens, Lubin, Grossmith and Atkinsons). Breadth has allowed for a wide spectrum of tastes and aspirations to be catered for.

I arrived purposefully early to get some time with Peter before the lunchtime rush. With just a few early morning customers, I had the opportunity to eavesdrop on some sales. The first was what could only be described as a ‘hit and run’. As we were chatting over some smelling strips, a lady hurried in, muttering the words Chanel No. 5. Nothing else, no hello and certainly no stolen glances at the marvellous wares on display. Peter wrapped, bagged and swiped at record speed and the woman was gone. The entire purchase took about 60 seconds. I’ve never seen a bigger contrast in shopping style to my own, I can only imagine she was parked on double yellow lines.

It’s a shame she hurried because she missed out on reason number two that the shop thrives – Peter. The man is a true scent lover who believes in the value of lingering with testers and handing out samples. Shopper number two had called in previously to buy a fragrance (I think it was for her daughter or niece). Instead of hammering a sale, he’d sent her away with samples to be tested, allowing the purchase to be of choice rather than a quick buck for his till. This lady returned to buy the chosen one, a contemporary designer brand, and then came to join me in my ‘Lubin swoon area’ where the three of us had a thoroughly lovely time sniffing from the decadently opulent bottles. I could tell in that instance that she’d be back to buy something spectacular for herself.

Personality and passion is crucial in scent retail, I’m sure we’ve all endured the bored type Sales Assistant bereft of any real passion.  Peter reminded me of the wonderful ladies at Manchester’s House of Fraser, who instead of employing teenagers, chose to staff their perfumery with Assistants old enough to have experienced a few decades of great perfumery. My favourite Assistant is an uber glamourous blonde with scarlet lips who personally wears Estee Lauder’s classic leather chypre – Azuree. I can tell her in a meagre few words what atmosphere or concept I’m hoping to write about and she’ll find exactly the right scent for me to sample. She knows and she cares.

Peter also ‘knows’. Whilst playing with the bottles he gave me a whiff of a very popular niche perfume that I won’t name, then followed it with a vastly superior scent that shared some similarities allowing me to compare. I was wowed at the complexity of the second, the recent release by Van Cleef and Arpels – Collection Extraordinaire Precious Oud. Now you know I don’t really ‘do’ oud but this one used it’s precious wood with subtlety, allowing it to dress a composition of incense and white floral notes. Somehow I was smelling an olfactory utopia that was rich with oud and tuberose that didn’t made me gag, in fact it made me sigh wistfully.

Swoon..

Double swoon..

The grandest discovery of my morning lay in the introduction to the scents of the historic French brand, Lubin. I’m going to cover a couple of these in a future article so I won’t babble on about them here, but with limited shelf space in the tiny shop, I can see exactly why he selected this brand for his niche chosen few.

Peter's prized vintage possession, brought down from the mysterious 'upstairs'.

Amongst the online community, we tend to be bargain hunters who rarely pay ‘shop price’ for our scents. Rather cheekily, we tend to browse the shops to gain our sniff and then wait for a discount online or a slightly used Ebay bargain. We are different from the average shopper in that our collections are often incongruent to our personal wealth. Average folk with millionaire scent cupboards. However, I think there is still worth in spending some time (and moolah) in an independent real world shop. If only for the fact that the small stock selection has been ‘curated’ by somebody who actually cares about what he’s selling. And if it costs you full price at least you’ll walk away with a pretty bag stuffed full of samples!

Readers, where in the world are your favourite scent shops? Do you have a fabulous dusty rummager full of discontinued gems, or a palace of contemporary creation? Do share your stories in the comments section or over at:

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Contact details for POP: 25 Princess Street • Knutsford • Cheshire • WA16 6BW • 01565 755650

Shopping at Dior La Collection Privée - Eau Noire and brilliant sales boys

Saturday found me fanatically seeking out the new reform of the celebrated but elusive Yohji Homme. I didn’t find it. Selfridges has not yet stocked it yet in Manchester. What I did hit upon however was two marvellously enthusiastic sales assistants and a shrine to perfume junkies courtesy of Dior’s La Collection Privée counter at Selfridges Exchange Square.

I hear stories of snooty SAs frequently though I haven’t really encountered the ‘snooty SA’ phenomenon here in Manchester. Maybe it’s our Northern souls? But ours are friendly, chatty, charming and even tolerant of my frumpy appearance when I’ve rejected stylish clothing in favour of a distinctly outdoorsy hiker’s jacket on days of shockingly Mancunian rain. That said, I’ve not dared approach Chanel wearing Regatta!

What does vary however, is the level of knowledge and/or fanaticism held by the SAs. Some have been employed because they are presentable and personable. Fine, but the ones I like the best are the true perfume lovers, the ones who will spend plentiful time yakking on with me about the wonder of smell, the ones who will impart a little bit of additional knowledge to those of us who could probably already name at least 3 key notes in everything we are given to smell. In short, fellow perfume junkies.

And so it began. Arriving at the niche brands counter, I encountered David who quickly delivered the sad news of the missing Yohji. The disappointment was spirited away with the offer of a spray of Piguet’s new delightfully chewy ‘Alameda’ and a tour around a few of the Maison Francis Kurkdjian fumes. 

This is where the fun started. If you’ve smelt his ‘Absolue Pour le Soir’, you may be aware of the ‘unusual’ effect of the initial top notes. I couldn’t possibly repeat my partner Andy’s cutting (and accurate) analysis but if you’ve ever: a) been to Glastonbury, b) camped away from showers/rivers for more than 3 days or c) walked through an alleyway in the city after the pubs close, you’ll know what I’m talking about. The peculiar thing is that I smelt it on the arm of another SA who had applied it a few hours ago and it had transformed into an utterly beautiful honeyed and smoky affair. Now there is nothing I love more than the discovery of a bonkers perfume so this excited me enormously and initiated a quirk fuelled conversation, whereupon I was introduced to his colleague on Dior Privée, Jake.

“Have you smelt our collection before?” he enquired.

I mumbled my response “yes, a few of them, not, erm, properly..” (long gap as my wide eyes lingered on a small bottle labeled ‘Mousse’) Yes, ‘mousse’, alongside ‘labdanum’ and ‘ambergris’! Behind the main counter of full size bottles of Privée fume lies a smaller counter of bottles to play with, a veritable shrine to scent. In addition to bottles of each fragrance in the line, there are bottles of the afore-spotted essences, which to me is the most thrilling thing I can gift to my nose’s experience.

Jake at his table of temptation

‘Mousse’ translates as moss. For me – the heart of my beloved Mitsouko and the base of so many of those thunderingly lovely Carons from the mid twentieth century. With IFRA now restricting the use of Oakmoss in contemporary fragrances, we seem to have become obsessed with this long adored earthy note.

And so it was that Jake encouraged me to have a good play with the essences, this is how they smelt:

Mousse: slightly bitter yet soft, earthy (wet soil?), green without any astringency – a little like a gentle vetiver note, slight underlying sweetness, edge of smokiness, definite ‘bark’ feeling. I’m now smelling the card 5 days later and it’s dried to one of the most extraordinarily wonderful things I’ve ever smelt.

Ambergris: Sweet, oceanic, subtle, musky, dusty, tobacco like and very similar in smell to Balmain’s ‘Ambergris’ perfume – it’s a fairly literal translation. Again, beautiful.

Labdanum: Surprisingly different to what I’d imagined. As a key ingredient to ‘amber’ bases I’d imagined it to be a dark, syrupy and resinous scent but what I smelt instead was a sharp edged wood – similar to cedar or oud in their pure state. Despite being a wood devotee, this was my least favourite as a single note.

I think that by this point (where I must have displayed toddler style excitement, manic eyes and unusually fast speech), Jake had clearly understood that I was a note geek and a fume junkie. Which is where we relaxed on comfortable chairs into a long leisurely sample of all the fragrances.

My tour of the collection was a collective play time, with Jake, David, Andy and I fast firing observations, memories and opinions at each other in the manner of people who genuinely care about fragrance. At times I tuned out as the joy of holding blotter to nose overtook and rendered me momentarily lost in fragrant space. Chat merged from the Dior friendly i.e. Talk of perfumers, innovation and design history, though to the less comfortable, courtesy of Andy who raised the sore point of Christian Dior’s dubious role in encouraging women back into traditional glamorous wife roles after their foray into doing something useful during WW2!

So what of the fragrances? I was impressed. I don’t know why I haven’t given this line much consideration in the past. Perhaps it’s the fact that I prefer to smell something that will give me change from £100 if I actually buy it. Though with the large size of the bottles (starting at 125 ml), they are in fact a fairly reasonable price per ml for niche perfumery. The promotional booklet that I was given (a luxuriously illustrated delight in itself) states:

“A collection of rare, authentic, refined fragrances for both men and women, composed with noble and rigorously selected ingredients. These are true olfactory creations, with a flower at the heart of each, a signature of Dior fragrances.”

The range is eclectic, featuring both current trends (interpretations of patchouli, amber and oud) and more excitingly, some curious creatures. Here are my favourites:

Eau Noire: It had me at first whiff. Regular Odiferess readers will have already ascertained that the words ‘liqourice’ and ‘lavender’ render me babbling with joy. This fragrance uses them to great effect ands adds to the combination a curious ‘curry’ note which I assume could be a whiff of Immortelle flower. It reminds me a little of Parfum D Empire’s ‘Fougere Bengale’, although it’s more subtle and less International supermarket flavoured. Eau Noire represents a daring side to the collection, as everyone will happily plump for an oud or an amber these days but it will take a sense of adventure to wear this curiously charming concoction. Interestingly, it’s perfumer is Francis Kurkdjian, of the aforementioned Glastonbury-esque scent. Personally, I adore it and I hope it’s eccentricity doesn’t make it one for discontinuation.

New Look 1947: My initial reaction was ‘boring pleasant floral’. I shouldn’t like this. It has all the ingredients of an Odiferess yawn. However, I was gifted a little sample and after applying it to skin I can honestly say it’s a stunner. Creamy, woody and floral in the ‘non screechy’ vein, it purrs sensuality. I feel that overtly feminine florals do tend to create an olfactory image of the type of woman that might wear it. This reminds me of Diana Dors – a buxom blonde bombshell with a sense of humour and a waist small enough to squeeze into one of Monsieur Dior’s curvaceous gowns.

Mitzah: An enormous lush spice bomb reminiscent of Lauder’s Cinnabar or Luten’s Arabie. Immensely heady and loud in all the right ways.

I was less enamoured by:

Patchouli Imperial: An almost aquatic take on Patchouli with a lot of coriander. Very bright and peppery and largely missing the sandalwood detailed in the booklet. I see it as a fresh masculine fragrance that would be pleasant in hot weather but it’s not particularly exciting.

I will certainly re-visit Dior Privée to explore the fragrances that I can’t remember, armed with (good tip alert) some teeny plastic bags to retain the smell of the blotters. I think Eau Noire deserves a full review in it’s own right so keep your eyes out in upcoming articles. Jake and David - if you read this article, thank you for a wonderful afternoon, it was junkie heaven.

In traditional Mancunian shopping style, our day ended with a beer garden pint at Sinclair’s Oyster Bar (handily located outside Selfridges and Harvey Nichs) where we sniffed at Andy’s bargain sale purchase of Gaultier’s Kokorico (£18!) and discussed the cherubic skin of Sales Assistants. How do those boys look so radiant?