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PHOTOGRAPHY: GARETH POWELL, ROOS QUAKERNAAT WRITERS: CHRISTOPHER STOCKS, LAURA HAWKINS

Perfume fans have always known that scent

can make you feel good, but can it help you

concentrate? That’s the thinking behind

The Writer from new brand St Giles. It uses

rosemary as a key ingredient, inspired by a

clinical trial in 2012 that observed the smell

of rosemary seemed to increase both speed

and accuracy of mental performance.

Fine fragrance, it seems, can do more than

just make us smell good. British perfumer

Sarah McCartney, of 4160Tuesdays, uses the

stimulating benefits of coffee, as well as citrus

fruits and herbal essences, in Yellow, a scent

from her new Our Modern Lives range. ‘I’m

also qualified to teach yoga, and I made the

scents to use in my classes,’ she says. ‘I call

them scents with benefits. They can change

your mood, in a good way.’

Hermès, meanwhile, has just released its

first oil-based perfumes, Musc Pallida and

Cardamusc. Created by in-house perfumer

Christine Nagel, they are luxurious and refined

and their superlight oil feels wonderfully

calming on the skin. Musc Pallida mixes

relaxing, transporting musks with a gentle

note of iris, while Cardamusc pairs them with

the invigorating scent of cardamom.

If you’re of a more spiritual bent, try Sana

Jardin, which bills itself as ‘the world’s first

socially-conscious luxury fragrance house’.

Its perfumes, created by Carlos Benaim,

include the meditative Sandalwood Temple,

whose key ingredient has apparently been

‘used for centuries to open the third eye.’

We can sense it working already.

MENTAL NOTES

Smell your way to a sharper, calmer or happier you

HAT TRICKS

Milliner Sofya Samareva credits ‘an

obsession with shapes’ as the impetus

behind her designs. Hats resembling

cactuses, houses and basketballs are all

part of her surrealist repertoire. ’They’re

about storytelling, pretending to be

somebody else,’ says Samareva. Her hats,

handcrafted from felt, without seams or

cuts, have been turning heads critically,

too. In 2016, Samareva was one of seven

Czech designers who took part in the

Last Fata Morgana exhibition, which won

the main prize at the International

Fashion Showcase during London Fashion

Week. She also took home the silver

medal in the Fashion Accessories

category at the 2017 Hyères International

Festival of Fashion and Photography.

Hat, €290, by Sofya Samareva,

sofyasamareva.com. Blazer, €610, by

Dondup, dondup.com. Left earring, price

on request, by Acne Studios, acnestudios.

com. Right earring, £165, by Annie Costello

Brown, anniecostellobrown.com

Our Modern Lives in

Yellow, £95 for 50ml,

by Sarah McCartney,

from Roullier White

Musc Pallida, £275

for 20ml, by Hermès,

from Harrods

The Writer, £130 for

100ml, by St Giles,

from Selfridges

Sandalwood

Temple, £180

for 100ml, by

Sana Jardin,

from Harrods

‘HAND’ CANISTER, €30,

BY TOAST LIVING, FROM

NOTABLE DESIGNS. ‘TIME’

HOURGLASS, £25, BY HAY,

FROM SKANDIUM. COPPER

STRAINER, £75, BY TORU

TSUJI, FOR KANAAMI-TSUJI,

FROM POSTCARD TEAS.

TEACUP, £18, FROM

NATIVE & CO. IMPORIUM

BALLPOINT PEN, £290,

BY MARIO BELLINI, FOR LAMY.

‘LOMBOK’ FABRIC IN FICELLE,

£71 PER M, BY LELIÈVRE

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