You read it here first... Yesterday Beauty Bible was present at the - ta-dah! - unveiling of Liz Earle Botanical Essence Eau de Parfum No. 1, her debut fragrance. (And if this is anything to go by, we hope it's the first of many.) She was helped on this journey by our lovely friend Lorna McKay - former Fragrance Buyer for Harrods, who later set up the Liberty Beauty Department and has been resident beauty sleuth at QVC for over 15 years. The brief was simple - but very difficult: to come up with a fragrance that everyone would love. And we defy anyone not to! Upon first spritzing, the citrus freshness (bergamot, mandarin, lemon) is a little like Eau Sauvage, and then the floral notes start wafting around: rose absolute, lavender, geranium (which hint at Houbigant's legendary Quelques Fleurs) The longer it's on your skin, the more you sense the underlying warm woodiness of cedarwood, vetiver, tonka bean and patchouli. But despite those whispers of other fragrances we love, it's like nothing out there - a breath of fresh air, having been created not to a 'marketing brief' or to capitalise on Britney/Christina/Jennifer's celebrity, but quite simply to smell gorgeous. End of story. (And oh, we do love a press launch which involves a bit of D-I-Y fragrance creation - at the tables photographed here...!) It launches in October, and we can't wait to get our paws on a full-sized bottle, because our teensy sample vials aren't going to last much longer than the back end of next week!
