Whether your idea of transformative beauty is a sybaritic massage, a stop-them-in-their-tracks perfume, or a lip color that changes with the light, there will be something to thrill you this spring. Plus, we’ve got flower-powered skincare, the ‘it’ eyeshadow shade, and nail treatments that are not to be missed.
From white-light leather to scents that conjure flowers lost to time, this season’s coolest new fragrances are all about celebrating the unexpected.
DIOR
La Collection Privée Cuir Saddle
Instagram: @diorbeauty
dior.com
Raise your hand if you’ve ever spilled perfume inside a leather handbag. The scent lingers for months, sometimes years, growing softer and warmer until it finally fades. Francis Kurkdjian, Christian Dior’s creation director (and a perfumer so famous that an exhibition dedicated to his work, Perfume, Sculpture of the Invisible, was recently staged at Paris’s Palais Tokyo), has summoned this effect in the new Cuir Saddle, a fragrance inspired by Dior’s famed bag. “I love how the Saddle Bag is carried close to the body,” he says. “It’s very ergonomic, so it almost becomes one with the person who wears it.”
Leather and perfume have historically been intertwined— many consider the birth of modern French perfumery to date to the 1100s, when fragrant essential oils were poured onto animal hides to mask the stench of pig urine used in tanneries. Notes that evoke the animalic warmth of leather, meanwhile, have long been used by perfumers to lend their compositions an air of masculinity. Kurkdjian did not, however, want to create a traditional leather scent, i.e. one that was overtly smoky, musky, or heavy.“I kept some elements of what you find in typical leather accords,” he says, “so there is some spiciness, some resins, and some white florals. But it’s like I have only used the shape and then filled it in with something very airy and light and pure.”
Like your favorite beat-up leather jacket, the fragrance has a soft, suede-like effect that lingers comfortably on its wearer. “You know when someone has put on too much perfume, and if you kiss or hug them, the scent transfers to you, too?” Kurkdjian says. “To me, that’s what Cuir Saddle is like—an imprint on the skin that stays with you.” Like the bag itself, this perfume is an investment piece with timeless appeal. The more you wear it, the more it will become your own.
LE LABO
Violette 30
Instagram: @lelabofragrances
lelabofragrances.com
If you consider violets old-fashioned, think again. The sweetly scented little flowers are staging a quiet comeback in fragrance with Violette 30, the newest addition to Le Labo’s Classic Collection, leading the way. Inspired by the bud’s multitude of meanings throughout history—it was the original Valentine’s Day posy, but it has also symbolized innocence, resilience, humility, remembrance, and intuition—Violette 30 captures the flower’s mysterious, shape-shifting scent. This is a far cry from the sweet, candied violet perfumes of days gone by, so do not fear smelling grandmotherly. With notes of white tea and cedar adding earthiness and woodiness to the composition, it’s a modern, unisex fragrance that captures the essence of the shade-loving flower blooming close to the ground in a green, mossy forest.
SPOTURNO
Barbicaja
Instagram: @maison.spoturno
spoturno.com
Fruity florals are a dime a dozen. Green florals? Not so much. Striking a balance between the sumptuous scent of white flowers and the freshness of snapped green stems is a tricky proposition, but when it succeeds, it is captivating. Enter Barbicaja, concocted by former Chanel perfumer Christopher Sheldrake for Spoturno, the luxury brand founded by the great-granddaughter of perfume pioneer Francois Coty. The scent, inspired by a Belle Époque estate once owned by the Spoturno family on Corsica’s Ajaccio coast, is flush with notes of orange flower, hyacinth, tuberose, vetiver, patchouli, and vanilla—it’s sunny and radiant, with an undercurrent of leafy verdancy. Spray it on any time you want to be transported to a garden overlooking the sea.
D.S. & DURGA
Debaser in Bloom
Instagram: @dsanddurga
dsanddurga.com
When creating Debaser in Bloom, a spin on D.S. & Durga’s best-selling fig-forward perfume Debaser, brand co-founder and perfumer David Seth Moltz was inspired by memories of listening to The Pixies’ Doolittle album on cassette when he was young. Audio tapes, according to his inquisitive nose, smelled strangely floral, especially when they were first unwrapped and removed from plastic, an effect he wanted to evoke with this ‘remix’ of the OG scent. The fig is still present, but here it is enveloped in lush gardenia and bedded down in creamy coconut, with sparks of fruity blackcurrant and herbaceous rosemary. It’s equally as unisex, and just as cool, as Debaser, just a bit sweeter, softer, and prettier. A future classic you’ll wear on repeat.
STORA SKUGGAN
Monkeyflower
Instagram: @storaskuggan
storaskuggan.com
Stora Skuggan is a Stockholm-based niche fragrance brand that has garnered a cult following for its exceptionally beautiful bottles and intriguing, idiosyncratic scents. Monkeyflower was a yellow bloom with a distinctive musk fragrance that was all the rage in Victorian England before the plant mysteriously lost its scent in the early 20th century. The perfume is delightfully singular, weaving the fresh dewy scent of wildflowers (coltsfoot and buttercup, specifically) together with notes of green fig, grassy chamomile, musk, hay, and (weirdly) sunscreen. Stora Skuggan’s speculative interpretation of what monkeyflower smelled like— imagine wafts of a meadow in summer at high noon—is a version we’re excited to wear.
RICHARD ROCHON
Salad Days
Instagram: @richardrochonfragrance
richardrochon.com
Richard Rochon entered the perfume world as a complete outsider. A non-traditionally trained perfumer, he worked in real estate before launching his debut fragrance collection last year. Every single one of his rule-breaking scents is a standout—they have been intentionally created to constantly change and evolve on skin, and to do so differently on everyone who sprays them on. Salad Days evokes a gorgeous gardenia smell that feels deep, lush, and alive. Touches of mimosa and jasmine give it a bright, springtime effect, while vetiver and cedar lend structure and texture. Consider it a scent that men can wear easily (indeed, with panache), even as it evokes the timeless glamour of a vintage Hollywood starlet lounging in a flower-filled greenhouse.
Taken from 10 Magazine USA Issue 6 – CHANGE, CREATIVITY, FREEDOM – out March 18th! Order your copy here.
BREEZE IN
Text APRIL LONG
