Les Senteurs is known for launching and discovering the most exquisite scents in the perfumery world. Using thirty-five years of expert knowledge, they have developed a wonderful candle collection comprising six fragrances.
Dedicated to the Art of Perfumery
Les Senteurs’ first candle collection is a range of fragrances inspired by the history of the Hawksley and Nicholson families, who came together like Michael and Betty Hawksley, the co-founders of Les Senteurs.
Exploring moments in the emotive journeys of their lives, Les Senteurs plotted an olfactive homage along the roots and branches of two combined family trees, each intrepid & adventurous, each with its own passions and stories leading the way to where we find ourselves now. A melding of both British and French cultures and overseas adventures find their influence on the hearts, souls and minds of this blended mélange of family.
Perfumers were asked to take the settings and experiences and create the unexpected, combining novel and classic accords to create innovative and beautiful fragrances, examining the intertwined themes and histories.
“Over the years, side by side with our customers, we have explored and extolled the virtues of groundbreaking brands, communicating our appreciation of their work and sharing love and dedication to the ‘art of perfumery’. Inspired by the contacts we have made and the creatives we have met throughout our 35 years of existence, we felt the next natural step for Les Senteurs was to embark on a journey of creation. We are translating our beliefs and principles into the accumulated, tangible manifestation of our knowledge within the realms of home fragrance.”
L’Ile aux Tresors
Inspiration: As a small child, Betty’s mother lived in Madagascar, a unique island of rich and abundant natural resources, flora with great scientifically beneficial potential.
There are stories that pirates founded their own anarchist colony in Madagascar, which they named Libertalia. The Libertalia supposedly created a new language and operated a socialist economy, believing every man was born free with a natural right to share the earth. The pirates divided all treasure and cattle equally amongst themselves, met regularly to decide important issues, and freed slaves who joined the community at Libertalia.
“The winds carry tales of a pirate utopia over the island of Madagascar; whispering of natural treasures hidden upon its shores: fragrant rosewood, blue star sapphires and creamy vanilla orchids.”
Oriental Woody: Vanilla, Amber, Sandalwood, Guaiac Wood, Pepper, Olibanum, Rosewood Accord, Sapphire Accord.
Perfumer: Alexandra Kosinski.
Fire Pit Fortune
Inspiration: Michael’s parent’s family home in Loos, Kent, like many in the area, had a small cherry orchard garden. Come harvest time; all would gather to help bring in the cherry crop.
Fire Pit Fortune hopes to evoke a shared feeling of satisfaction derived from the completion of a long day’s work. When the whole body relaxes, by the light of the bonfire, idly playing with the discarded cherry stones, having eaten your fill of the fruits. The mesmerising flames dance with your thoughts, and you allow yourself to dream about what future summers might bring, lost in imagination.
“The golden afternoon fades in the ancient orchard; the harvest is long completed. Beneath the boughs, plucked off their wares, only the discarded pips remain. Gathered like magic stones and counted by the light of the bonfire, they foretell what future might come….”
Woody Fruity: Cherry Pip, Cade, Hay, Immortelle, Cedar Wood, Fir Balsam, Cypress, Olibanum.
Perfumer: Alexandra Kosinski.
Forêt Foray
Inspiration: A spectacular winter holiday in Vermont which couldn’t have been more magical; a log cabin, mountains, deep crisp snow, all the family assembled, and an inglenook fireplace around which to warm oneself.
Originally planned to be the one and only candle launched, the scent inspired by this most blissful of scenes was Les Senteurs’ first foray into fragrance creation and was called “Forêt Foray”.
“A forest cabin offers refuge from the elements. Tranquil silence but for the sounds of the wild woods and the glowing hearth. Wrapped in comfort; focus fixed. Total shared contentment”.
Woody Green: Elemi Resin, Fir Balsam, Vetiver, Amber, Cedar Wood, Oak Moss, Cypriol, Cashmere Woods, Patchouli.
Perfumer: Pia Long.
Matin au Train Bleu
Inspiration: Betty Hawksley reminisces about when she and Michael travelled to the South of France aboard ‘Le Train Bleu’. It would be the first time he was introduced to Betty’s maternal grandparents and his first visit to Toulon. As the train made its way along the coastal track, Michael leaned his body out of the window, inhaled deeply several times and exclaimed, “Oh Betty, can you smell this? This scent, it’s just so… exhilarating!”
“On the night train heading south, full of anticipation; the dawn breaks and the sun-warmed scents of the Mediterranean flow through the open window.”
Aquatic Fougère: Fresh Ozonic Notes, Heliotrope, Fruit, Mimosa, Jasmine, Oakmoss, Fig, Cedarwood, Amber, Patchouli.
Perfumer: Jean Charles Mignon.
Night Tropics
Inspiration: The idea for this fragrance came from daughter Claire Hawksley’s memory of visiting the southern hemisphere for the first time. “I’d been seeking escapism and solace in the hope of mending a broken heart. In the garden’s night air, my mind was completely refocused as the scent from the night blooms drifted towards me and the sorrowful thoughts of what I had left behind evaporated away.”
“The full moon illuminates the soft white petals of tropical flora like stars in a darkening sky. Night blossoming scents intoxicate the warm air. The hammock sways gently; thoughts are set adrift.”
Floral Oriental: Indian Tuberose, Egyptian Jasminum Grandiflorum, Tagete, Datura, Amber, Musks.
Perfumer: Alexandra Kosinski.
Arbour
Inspiration: Inspired by an old black and white photograph of Maimie, a great friend of the Hawksley family and second mother to Michael. Lying on a makeshift bed set up in the garden, Maimie is surrounded by a beautiful halo of flowers hanging from the arbour trestle above her. She had taken to sleeping outside ever since suffering from TB.
“Awake at first light, sheltered beneath a delicate floral canopy. Fresh, dewy buds unfurl towards the sun, bursting with the optimism of continuing life.”
Floral: Lemon, Peach & Yellow Roses, Lilac, Green Notes, Tomato Leaves, Geranium, Muguet, Moss.
Perfumer: Pia Long.
The Les Senteurs Scent System
Les Senteurs have colour coded every fragrance and each perfumed article on the website according to one or more of 12 fragrance families, so at a glance, you can get an idea of what each of the perfumery’s scents smells like; not always the sum total of the listed ingredients, but a means to convey the overall impression and mood of the scent.
Once you have selected a fragrance of your own, you can use its individual colour code to match it up with similar coded fragrances to help you find other fragrances which may appeal to you.
The home fragrance packaging incorporates the Les Senteurs system to help customers navigate the collection. Reference to the Les Senteurs colours can be seen on the outer packaging and candle dust cover.
Aquatic
Aquatic fragrances are a modern sub-group that use a variety of natural and synthetic materials to suggest moisture and water in all their forms: the seven seas, rivers, pools, oceans, cascades, ice, rains, storms and sunny seaside coves. Aquatics are infinitely subtle, using all kinds of accords, many of them natural, to paint pictures in water. Citrus fruits, melon, woods, salt, petrichor, herbs, spices and plant musks can all inform their creation.
Fougère
In French, ‘fougère’ means ‘fern’; these fragrances classically contain herbaceous ingredients of the fougère type: mosses, hay and plenty of lavender. Aromatic and fresh but with a musky, deep warm base.
Oriental
Exotic, sweet perfumes that are rich in precious woods, tonka, vanilla, balsams and spices. They are frequently known above all for their heady penetrating base notes, often enhanced with animalic accords such as ambergris, civet, castoreum and musk.
Woody
Fragrances based on fragrant woods. Woody scents may be dry and grainy; earthy or leathery; spliced with tobacco and vanilla; or mossy and in full leaf, green and oozing sap and resin.
Fruity
Fruity fragrances are enriched with notes of soft sweet peach, apricot, plum and numerous others, producing a sense of sensuality, opulence and indulgence. Fruity accords such as pineapple and mango still suggest a certain exoticism.
Floral
Florals are scents that draw their inspiration and often their ingredients from flowers. Soliflores recreate individual flowers; multi-floral bouquets harmonise blossoms as though in a vase or garden bed. Florals are hugely versatile, each with a very different mood, from the sultry, sophisticated and voluptuous to the innocent and naïve.
Green
Fresh, sometimes sharp scents dominated by leafy, grassy, arboreal accords. Green fragrances are brisk, crisp, energising and elevating.
The Les Senteurs Candle Collection is available now and is priced at £48.00 for each 200g with a forty-hour burn time. For more information, please visit www.lessenteurs.com.
Le Senteurs is located at 71 Elizabeth Street, Belgravia, London SW1W 9PJ.
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