Old Library Dreams theme
You can order all perfumes featured in this theme as a pack of samples.
In this theme
Customers asked, and we listened. From time to time, people describe the perfume they are looking for as “that old library smell”. So in this edit and pack, we explore this elusive notion of cozy emanations produced by old books.
Firstly there is chemistry. The aroma of ancient leather book covers is echoed by soft incense, in combination with heady florals such as tuberose or orange blossom. Moreover, some elements in cellulose (the wood pulp from which paper is made) slowly mellow with exposure to oxygen and UV light, breaking down into polysaccharides (saccharides stands for ‘sugar’). Hence the sweet and vanillic ambiance of old yellowed pages. An obvious combo to achieve the old library effect would be amber with woody resins and vanilla. There are also perfume materials that smell like the glue used to bind magazines and books.
All in all, it’s chemistry, imagination and memories that work together to produce the perfect fantasy of a library, a bookstore or even a freshly-printed magazine.
Coeur de Noir (‘heart of darkness’) is a reference to an antique ink bottle which once held the ink used to produce blueprints for merchant ships. The same ink was scrawled across captain’s logs impregnated with aromas of gunpowder and tobacco. The perfumer used the ginger note to mimic the smell of old paper, and a combination of materials to create the fantasy ink accord.
This perfume both conceptually (Tahiti is a dream holiday destination) and aroma-wise might bring to mind a glossy in-flight magazine that you absent-mindedly peruse for a few hours. But mostly your thoughts will be on the exotic holiday destination you are about to reach. Ylang-ylang (like a lot of heady white florals) occasionally manifests a paper glue and sharp chemicals nuance resembling the fresh, glossy pages. Vanilla, on the other hand, suggests the sweet woody pulp from which paper originates. Together these two materials create the illusion of the aroma of an in-flight magazine.
Inspired by the vibes of ancient scrolls in a remote mountain temple, the ink still pungent and smoky with its ash and plant extracts.
With a bit of imagination, you can smell leather-bound incunabula in this soft incense perfume, with an intoxicating smidge of tuberose hidden in the background.
Noiressense (the essence of black) is the perfume equivalent of a velvet-black-on-glossy-black pattern. It’s conjured from sharp pepper and bitter orange on top of the leathery/creamy orange blossom and orris duo. These notes are set against the ink accord, which is almost 15% of the formula.
An elixir of the scents that meet you as you enter a Waterstone's shop: the clean aroma of the carpets treated with chemicals, the elusive aroma of paper bleached with acid as well as a multitude of faint smells of inks and paints used to print the letters and covers of the books.