On The Scent… of NEWS: whisper it softly, but Christmas is coming
We’ve got ‘Back To School’ vibes this week, as we return from an extraordinary UK summer – but it seems that it’s never too early start thinking about the festive season, reports our newshound Amanda Carr, the writer, trend-spotter and Barnes Fragrance Fair founder
Merry Christmas everyone! Early celebrations with Boots
Advent calendars are everywhere currently, but what’s peaked our interest is Boots has launched its first ever, fine fragrance advent calendar, The 12 Days Of Scent, above.
The calendar actually contains 15 lovely fragrances behind its dainty doors, and features a mix of both perfume and home scenting products, from Marc Jacobs, Kayali, Lancôme and NEOM. Boots has also noted the trend towards consumers wanting larger bottles rather than small samples, with a 35ml bottle of L’Interdit Eau de Parfum from Givenchy as a ‘hero’ product. The retail price is £90 but the contents are worth over £345 and the calendar launched this week – find it here.
Boots’ previous range of beauty advent calendars has featured the odd fragrance, but it’s terrific to see perfume getting its own standalone celebration. There’s something temptingly ‘self gifting’ about the advent calendar – we wonder how many are actually bought as presents for others? Although this 12-day calendar – or in this case, 15-days – is of the type designed to be gifted on Christmas Day, and opened during those tedious, becalmed ‘Twixmas’ days before Twelfth Night, when the tree comes down…
Fragrance homework with the UK IFRA Fragrance Forum
Continuing with the new school term theme, our friends at IFRA UK (International Fragrance Association) have collated the last five years of informative research and fascinating talks from the annual IFRA Conference Forums, onto an open access archive platform for all to use.
The last five years has seen some incredible investigative work in the area of scent; we always come away from each year’s forum with our minds blown, having listened to thought-provoking conversations, cutting-edge research and expert perspectives. Now everyone can access to all the recorded talks by visiting IFRA UK’s website, here. Consider this your scent homework for the week – last year’s investigation into the nose’s microbiome and its importance on our health and wellbeing was absolutely fascinating
The 2026 Forum theme is 'Scent, Technology and Our Senses', and takes place on Thursday 8 October in London; tickets are available for members and on-members, priced a very reasonable £36. To book yours, click here.
Let’s Play! Jo Malone London X Fortnite Collab
Jo Malone London has had a very busy summer, with two exciting collaborations. Keen to expand its customer base to include more Gen Z and Alphas (can we call them Z’Alphas?), Jo Malone London has collaborated with Epic Games’ globally popular Fortnite, to promote the launch of its new Sea Salt & Bergamot Cologne. The fragrance starts with a bracing bergamot citrus then moves into a crunchy, salty heart with a warm, driftwood base. Perfectly pitched as a first-buy for anyone new to the brand (and you can listen to our own Nicola Bonn and Suzy Nightingale talk about it in more depth, here).
Featuring cute Tiktok clips around seaside antics, styled with the familiar charming Jo Malone London vibe, Fortnite gamers can discover bottles of Sea Salt & Bergamot Cologne lurking in watery hide outs. It’s very stylishly executed, but also a clever way to put the brand in front of a generation.
And in case this sounds too futuristic for some, the brand has also just collaborated with pet care brand WildWash for its first ever dog grooming collection. Orange & Cedarwood Dog Shampoo was created to give pampered pooches an olfactory treat, using naturally derived orange and cedar wood essential oils to cleanse and soften shaggy dogs. That sounds like Christmas presents for our four-legged friends sorted, anyway.
Fragrance moves back to body care
Perfume-shaped soap from Marc-Antoine Barrois
A few years ago, almost every fragrance brand seemed to take a big red pen to its bodycare range. Creams, lotions, oils – all nixed. And now? It’s no surprise to us – or to anyone who’d been watching the success of fragrance sales – that many brands have started to stake a bigger claim in the body care category, with the emphasis on heightened scent profiles and layering rituals.
Fragrance behemoth Kayali (founder Mona Kattan is pictured above), has announced a big move into body care with its new Yum Lip & Body Collection, using two of the brand’s best selling fragrances, Yum Pistachio Gelato | 33 and Yum Boujee Marshmallow | 81. There’s a highly moisturising Silk Soufflé Body Cream in both scents along with Cashmere Lip Balm, which has a subtle pink tint in the Boujee Marshmallow version. The body cream was designed to amplify the concept of a scent layering ritual, emphasising longevity when used with the corresponding Kayali fragrance.
Estée Lauder’s new Glimmer Eau de Parfum launched a shower gel and body lotion to coincide with the unveiling of this major new fragrance, with the brand confident that body care will be a key factor in this delicious scent’s success.
And over at Marc-Antoine Barrois, there’s an artful collection of sculptural, highly scented soap bars, echoing the shape of the brand’s flacons. The collection features best selling scents, B683, Ganymede, Encelade, Tilia and Aldebaran and was created with long time collaborator Quentin Bisch.
Finally… did you know?
Our fragrance pal Alice du Parcq’s first book The Philosophy Of Perfume is out in October and your dedicated news editor is interviewing her at Barnes Bookfest on September 22nd 2026.
During her research she discovered that the recently departed actor Tim Curry, celebrated for his role as Dr Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, had the numbers '4711' tattooed on his upper right thigh, referencing the Original Eau de Cologne by Wilhelm Mulhens.
Book tickets (price £16.26, or £26.83 with the book) here
Alice du Parcq’s book is available for pre-order here, price £12.99
