Pop in to Selfridges for a scent-sational pop-up. (Oh, and the poshest laundry liquid on the planet.)
London’s perfume hot-spot right now is the Ultra Lounge, at Selfridges, where four of fragrance’s hottest brands are offering immersive experiences, through to 24th August. And where you can find a product that looks set to banish the washday blues forever more
WORDS: JO FAIRLEY
Deep-dive into BDK Velvet Tonka Extrait, with sound and vision creating a sensory backdrop as you smell the fragrance
After a fabulous series of events at Harrods (including their stellar ‘Meet The Perfumer’ series, which we were thrilled to take part in), the London’s fragrance epicentre is shifting a mile or so – to Selfridges.
Over on Oxford Street, BDK Parfums – pictured above – is taking part in Ultra Lounge, a month-long immersive fragrance experience, alongside Maison Crivelli, Nishane and Ex Nihilo. This quartet of temporary (but exquisite) boutiques makes up the olfactory arm of ‘Dream On’, the Oxford Street store’s summer campaign, which (as they put it), ‘celebrates the world's most visionary brands to transform retail into a destination for creativity, culture and unforgettable moments.’
And what, pray, are we ridiculously excited about? Well, among the UK exclusives, scent-hounds can stock up on the hotly anticipated BDK Laundry Detergent, available in a trio of scents that look set to pimp washday forever. In hefty one-litre bottles, these made-in-France detergents are designed as fragrance compositions, rather than your average ‘clean linen’ fragrance vibe; they’re intended for machine or hand washing, including delicate fabrics and (praise be), BDK describes them as suitable for sensitive skin, with it.
There are three fragrances available in the BDK Parfums Eau de Lessive collection. The original certainly looks set to redefine the art of caring for clothes, with its blend of lavender, citrus, red thyme, cardamom, mint, nutmeg and pink pepper, over petitgrain, ginger, cassis, Ambroxan, vetiver, benzoin and white musk.
Édition Rose, meanwhile, is a fresh, sheer floral-fruity musk, combining pear, bergamot, pink pepper, petitgrain, rose, neroli, ambrette musk, violet and carrot seed, while sunny, soft, powdery Édition Rose swirls with Italian bergamot, cucumber, mimosa absolute, violet leaf, almond milk, Cashmeran, heliotrope and white musks. We have yet to smell these luxe laundry innovations, but this would seem to be the most overtly cocooning and skin-scent- adjacent of the trio.
The price? Around £35 per litre, we gather – but with these set to turn a dreaded Monday chore into a true sensory delight, keep your eyes peeled to watch us wrangling a granny trolley along Oxford Street, to stock up.
Selfridges/400 Oxford Street, London W1A 1AB
Set to banish washday blues, BDK Parfums’ trio of Eau de Lessive laundry innovations