All Fragrances

Vanilla Powder by Matière Première is a powdery vanilla fragrance for women and men - Madagascar vanilla absolute dried out with coconut powder and heliotrope and set against white palo santo wood, so it reads cool, airy and almost crystalline instead of sugary. It is a dry vanilla rather than a dessert, and a little goes a very long way. "Dark vanilla beans, pale wood and a cloud of powder."

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Radical Rose Extrait by Matière Première is an amber floral fragrance for women and men - the house's dark, spiced rose pushed to extrait strength, with May rose absolute from Aurélien Guichard's own organic fields in Grasse dosed as high as the formula allows. Saffron and pepper open it hot, immortelle adds a honeyed, hay-like glow the eau de parfum does not have, and patchouli and Spanish labdanum hold it for well over half a day. "A dark red rose, jammy and spiced, that fills a room from a single spray."

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Bold As Love by Thameen is a leather aromatic cologne elixir for women and men - Jimi Hendrix, who lived at 23 Brook Street, next door to Handel's 25, two centuries later. Pierre Negrin built it from a photograph of Hendrix in a purple costume and wanted smoky leather to carry the raw energy he had on stage. Mandarin, ginger, apple and pineapple open it strangely bright, lavender, juniper berry and geranium run through the middle, and smoky leather, patchouli and vetiver do the rest. It is the most divisive fragrance in the house's line, and deliberately so. "Fruit and lavender crashing into burnt leather - challenging, and not remotely safe."

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Chords by Thameen is a leather honey cologne elixir for women and men - from the Britologne collection, which takes the classic cologne structure and magnifies it to 25 percent oil. Nathalie Lorson wrote it for George Frideric Handel, the German composer who lived at 25 Brook Street and whom the house calls more British than British. Bergamot, neroli and orange flower open it as a cologne should, ylang-ylang, honey and blond tobacco turn it rich in the heart, and woodleather, Atlas cedarwood and cypriol give it a base no cologne is supposed to have. "Honeyed tobacco and leather in a cologne's clothing - and it fills a room for the first two hours."

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Cullinan Diamond by Thameen is a powdery rose extrait de parfum for women and men - named for the largest clear-cut diamond in the world, a 3,106-carat rough found in South Africa in 1905 and now set across the Crown Jewels. Black pepper opens it with a spark, vanilla absolute, orris and rose make the powdery heart, and cashmere musk, cedarwood and amber hold it close for most of a day. Reviewers reach for Oud Satin Mood as the comparison, with more pepper and more leather in it. "Spicy rose held in vanilla and orris - quiet, and it lasts almost eighteen hours."

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Royal Sapphire by Thameen is a citrus chypre extrait de parfum for women and men - the house's jewel in the crown, named for the St. Edward's Sapphire, the oldest stone in the Royal Collection and the one set at the top of the Imperial State Crown. Bergamot and mandarin open it bright, orange blossom and jasmine fill the heart, and grey amber, patchouli, moss and dry wood give it the chypre spine that makes a citrus last. Reviewers keep reaching for the same comparison - this is what a designer fresh-woody would smell like if someone spent properly on it. "Mandarin and orange blossom over moss and grey amber - clean, sharp and it does not quit."

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Diadem by Thameen is an amber incense extrait de parfum for women and men - from the Sovereign Collection, and named for the British State Diadem with its bejewelled floral bouquets. Purest Omani frankincense sits at the centre of it, opened by lavender and cardamom, deepened by saffron and rose, and closed on amber, patchouli and a vanilla that reviewers describe as simply refusing to leave. It is the spiritual and the ceremonial in one composition, which is precisely what a diadem is for. "Frankincense and lavender over a smooth powdery amber - and nine hours later it is still there."

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Peregrina by Thameen is an amber floral extrait de parfum for women and men - named for La Peregrina, the pearl that belonged to Mary I of England and four centuries later to Elizabeth Taylor. Damask rose, gardenia, jasmine and lily of the valley open it as a garden, caramel, vanilla, myrrh and ylang-ylang turn it edible in the middle, and white musk, amber and a powder accord carry it through a long dry-down. The house calls it a tropical garden on a warm night; wearers mostly call it the caramel rose. "Sweet rose on caramelly amber - linear, predictable and completely lovable."

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Rivière by Thameen is a leather rose extrait de parfum for women and men - named for the necklace of a single graduated line of diamonds, and for Queen Mary's, which held thirty-four old-cut stones. Julia Rodriguez Pastor opens it on Persian saffron, Indian black pepper and lemon blossom, runs Turkish rose, clary sage and carnation through the heart, and finishes on a clean grained leather with cypriol, oud and amber. The leather here has no oil and no weight to it, which is the whole trick. "Saffron and Turkish rose on clean leather - it smells expensive, because it is."

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Carved Oud by Thameen is a woody oud extrait de parfum for women and men - one of the five fragrances the London house launched with in 2013, and still the one most of its collectors start and finish with. Guatemalan cardamom, cypriol and cypress oil open it dry, oud, cedarwood, patchouli and iris fill the middle, and vetiver, sandalwood, labdanum, amber and musk hold it for the better part of a day. The name comes from temple carving and the Solah Shringar, the sixteen adornments of an Indian bride. "What Oud Wood should have been - smoother, deeper, and it lasts."

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Use Abuse by Jusbox is a floriental eau de parfum for women and men - a tribute to Queen, to Freddie Mercury and to the excess of the 1980s, composed by Antoine Lie in 2016. White tuberose, mandarin and incense open it with what one reviewer called a nuclear blast, jasmine sambac, white peony and sandalwood fill the heart, and opoponax and musk carry it down. The tuberose is deliberately overdosed and given a metallic edge meant to stand in for a voice. This is a full 78 ml bottle, the size the house uses as a nod to the 78 rpm record. "An overdose of tuberose, and a symbol of an excessive generation - the house's own words."

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14Hour Dream by Jusbox is a woody gourmand eau de parfum for women and men - the 14 Hour Technicolour Dream at Alexandra Palace, 29 April 1967, and Pink Floyd playing to an exhausted crowd as the sun came up. Antoine Lie built it deliberately without top notes: it opens straight into the heart, patchouli leaves, iris butter, black pepper absolute, saffron, vanilla flowers and ginger, then settles onto cedarwood, sandalwood and guaiac. The patchouli is the hippie-trail kind, and it does not apologise for it. "Patchouli and iris butter with no overture - straight into the middle of the dream."

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