Scents to buy that she’ll remember and love
Mums and mother figures get just one Sunday a year, but a beautiful perfume gift reminds her how you feel for a month of Sundays.
A fashion designer and mother I admire wears the same scent as her mum and sisters, which is one way to keep the women in your family close.
If the lady you love likes more variety, there are a few interesting scents I recommend gifting.
Playing ‘anywhere but here’ with your senses can be a lot of fun, as well as a gift to those around you. Gallivant is an independent London perfumer specialising in olfactory escapism. Each fragrance is inspired by a borough or city. The brand is a ‘slow perfumer’ that produces in small, sustainably packaged batches and favours natural materials unless a synthetic is kinder to the planet.
The supply chain is brief — spanning Grasse, Cornwall, Kent, and London — and tight-knit. The products are vegan and cruelty-free. , was Gallivant’s bestseller here in the Republic last year, according to founder Nick Steward.
This perfume is unisex and a celebration of the Med’s coolest coastal city, with notes including clementine, bergamot, jasmine sambac absolute, and sandalwood. The brand ships from Belgium in 1-4 days, avoiding post-Brexit restrictions.
Leonard Lauder’s 2020 memoir , is a tribute to his late mum Estée, who once rejected a lucrative acquisition offer from Revlon because she wanted to keep said company (now Estée Lauder Companies) for him.
All the former CEO’s proceeds from his book’s sale go to charity. It’s a lovely gift itself and an Estée Lauder perfume is often a winner with mums. , is the newest in a long line of bestsellers that includes the original Beautiful, the go-to bridal scent of the 1980s.
Despite the name, Beautiful Magnolia Intense is not so boldly floral as Beautiful. This is a powdery chypre with a woody base, an iris and magnolia oil heart and mandarin and cardamom top notes.
Speaking of bestsellers, Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle now comes in a non-greasy body oil.
Flattering to the skin and a compliment to the perfume,
is clear with a silky sheen and made to be sprayed on any time.
Dolce and Gabbana Light Blue for Her was one of the biggest perfumes of the 2000s, right up there with Coco Mademoiselle and Dior’s J’Adore. Inspired by the Sicilian woman (age undefined), it is a summery fruit-floral that’s won several awards.
, is new this month and a more complex take on the original. It opens with Light Blue’s signature top notes, an unusual combination of tart Granny Smith apple and tangy Calabrian lemon, extracted using a traditional technique that allows the lemon to be expressed in its entirety.
There’s a sunny new heart of orange blossom and white flowers. This gives way to Virginia cedar and cashmere woods, and then to a warm skin-like accord and a bed of white musk.
Based in Northern Ireland, Stories Parfums is inspired by travel and emotional connection. Founder Toyna Kidd-Beggs likes to think she picks up the pen when she formulates, and the wearer continues the story.
She confronted painful memories while working on , at a prestigious Grasse perfume house. The scent is a woody citrus that evokes sorrow transformed into beauty.
Opening notes of bergamot, grapefruit and orange blossom give way to the reassuring warmth of cedarwood, a touch of jasmine, heliotrope, and fig-tea accord. The glass bottle is made to be refilled and repurposed.
, the brand’s latest, is something special, especially if your mum loved green scents such as Estée Lauder Private Collection and Chanel No.19 back in the day.
Synthetic Jungle creator Anne Flipo was heavily inspired by hit 1970s perfumes. She used some natural ingredients for vintage lushness — lily of the valley, basil, and grass — and synthetic black currant and styralyl acetate to keep it modern and fresh.