Trialling the Fragrance Lounge’s Discover Your Signature Scent Experience
I came, I saw, I spritzed
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Trialling the Fragrance Lounge’s Discover Your Signature Scent Experience
I came, I saw, I spritzed
With 2025 on the horizon, I’ve decided to make an early New Year’s resolution: to start the year on a sophisticated note, by finding my signature scent. To help me on my mission, I’m going to trial Liberty’s ‘Discover Your Signature Scent’ experience (£35 for 45 minutes) with the in-house Fragrance Concierge.
I make my way downstairs, weaving through the Tudor halls past throngs of Christmas shoppers on my way to the Fragrance Lounge on Lower Ground. Upon arrival, I’m dazzled by the selection; hundreds of glittering bottles from the world’s finest perfume brands, waiting to be spritzed. Here, I meet Michael, Fragrance Concierge and my guide through the olfactory maze. He’s the one who’s going to help me find my personality in scent form.
He guides me to one end of the lounge, where a luxurious, Liberty-print velvet curtain conceals the door to a wood-panelled suite. I take a seat on the plush sofa, and he fills a porcelain plate with cookies and chocolate truffles. He also offers me a coupe of champagne - I’m technically working, so I decline and opt for a coffee instead. I’m even invited to choose the music I’d like to listen to. Despite my love of dance music, I select something gentle, wary of the multisensory power of fragrance. Anything too bombastic and I might walk out with a perfume as punchy as my favourite song.
Cloistered away in the suite, it’s time for a confession: I want a fragrance that basically… doesn’t smell like a fragrance. Something clean, fresh and a little bit mysterious. “Ah, a skin scent,” Michael replies, jotting down some notes. I mention that one of my first fragrances was Le Labo’s Rose 31, so for me, rose has a familiar, nostalgic smell. He writes this down as well.
Michael then heads out to the lounge to forage my first batch of options, returning a few minutes later holding a gilded tray laden with glass bottles. Most of these are white floral scents, which are typically fresh, relaxing smells. He tells me these are often the winners in the Wedding Scent Service, thanks to their simplicity and straightforwardness - the perfect antidote to pre-wedding nerves, or last minute complications.
I sample Latte Mimosa by New Notes, Gucci Alchemist’s Garden Tears from the Moon and Room Service by Vilhelm. We discuss as I go, and he takes notes on which I respond to and why. Then he offers me a sniff of D.S. & Durga’s Rose Atlantique, designed to smell like “a rose soaked in saltwater”. The scent isn’t like anything I’ve experienced before - it doesn’t smell like a traditional rose, and has a strangely mouthwatering quality.
Michael's first batch of fragrances
New Notes
Latte Mimosa Extrait de Parfum 50ml
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
Gucci
Tears From the Moon Eau de Parfum 100ml
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
INFINIMENT COTY PARIS
Encore Une Fois Parfum 75ml
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
D.S. & Durga
Rose Atlantic Eau de Parfum 50ml
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
Vilhelm Parfumerie
Room Service Eau de Parfum 100ml
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
MATIERE PREMIERE
Parisian Musc Eau de Parfum 50ml
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
Out of the first batch, I’m most attracted to Infiniment Coty Paris’ Encore Une Fois, a velvety vanilla scent that has more of that mystery I’m after. Michael leaves to fetch his next batch of options. These are richer, musky scents, but most have some kind of floral note. I sample Matiere Premiere’s Vanilla Powder, and then a deliciously sweet scent called Dubai by Contes de Parfums. The bottle alone has me hooked - a heavy glass lozenge with a golden hue, with a decorative lid bearing traditional Middle Eastern latticework. Could this be the one?
I pick up the next bottle to smell; a midnight blue Ex Nihilo scent with a silver lid, called Fleur Narcotique - the extrait de parfum version (meaning it’s a little more intense than the regular eau de parfum). It’s just what I’m looking for: something fresh and floral, but with a heady, mysterious quality, thanks to the slightly woodier dry down.
The second batch of fragrances
MATIERE PREMIERE
VANILLA POWDER Eau de Parfum 100ml
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
Contes de Parfums
Dubai Eau de Parfum 100ml
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
EX NIHILO
Fleur Narcotique Extrait de Parfum 50ml
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
Chloé
Atelier des Fleurs Vanilla Planifolia Eau de Parfum 50ml
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
INFINIMENT COTY PARIS
Matin de Jade Parfum 75ml
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
Chloé
Atelier des Fleurs Cedrus Eau de Parfum 150ml
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
Free UK Standard delivery within 5 working days on all orders over £100
I’ve met my match, and we cheers (with my coffee) to celebrate. Michael also tells me that I receive complimentary engraving and gift wrapping on any purchase, leaving me little excuse not to get myself an early Christmas present. I’m so impressed with the experience overall - the blend of pampering and personal, and the knowledge I’ve acquired from 45 minutes of sampling different scents. Forget the socks, everyone on my list is getting a scent discovery session instead.
