Fans of Glasshouse Fragrances’ best-selling candle, A Tahaa Affair, will be elated to know it’s now available as an Eau de Parfum. The luxury fine fragrance brand launched the stunning full-sized versions of three of their sought-after Eau de Parfums (Midnight in Milan, Forever Florence, Kyoto In Bloom) and added a fourth – A Tahaa Affair Devotion which is based on the aforementioned candle.
Known for its sweet gourmand notes, A Tahaa Affair has been a favourite among customers since its launch, gaining a cult following. It’s for this reason Glasshouse Fragrances founder Nicole Eckels knew it had to be part of their Eau de Parfum collection, however getting the scent exactly right was of the utmost importance. “With such an incredibly loyal fan base, I really needed to honour this fragrance and I feel we have,” she says.
Enter perfumer Dominique Bouley who worked with Eckels for over a year to create the perfect wearable scent. The result? A beautiful and complex gourmand fragrance, rich with its signature butterscotch and caramel notes which the candle is known for. Of course, emulating a scent from a candle and transferring it to a luxurious Eau de Parfum was no easy feat, as Bouley found out saying it was one of the hardest briefs of her career. “A candle fragrance and a fine fragrance are typically built quite differently, with the EDP needing more nuances as the skin allows the evaporation in succession of the various notes,” she says. “I find it more difficult to go from candle to EDP than the other way around. In this case, it was particularly challenging because of the overdose of the sweet gourmand notes overtaking the fragrance from top to bottom.”
But Bouley persisted, steadily working on rebalancing the fragrance ever so carefully as to not lose the charm of the original scent. She wanted to make it more airy at the top, and give it more heart while ending on very skin-wearable base notes. To do this she had to add some notes that weren’t present in the original candle and for inspiration she looked towards the ocean. “I added some sea salt crystals to the butterscotch accord, along with some sea spray notes on top to freshen up the fragrances. To continue with this marine theme, I added some driftwood to the heart. This counterbalances the overall sweetness.”
She also used some fresh and tangy tropical fruits like pineapple and passionfruit, a mixed bouquet of flowers to enhance the heart (think star jasmine, Polynesian hibiscus and crushed violet petals), and introduced a dark rum accord to lend a mysterious maturity. Bouley describes the offering as a trip to the Polynesian Islands in a bottle, blending the warm sea with some tropical fruits, local flowers and sun-bleached driftwood over a foundation of Tahitian vanilla mixed with butterscotch, caramel and sprinkled with sea salt crystals.
To further delight the senses, all four fine fragrances are housed within an exquisite bottle designed by the legendary perfume bottle designer Pierre Dinand. The light-refracting faceted vessels come in 50ml and 100ml and not only ooze luxury and elegance but look like a piece of art. Growing up in New York visiting fragrance counters of SAKS Fifth Avenue and Barneys with her mother, Eckles knew just how important the vessel that houses the fragrance is, which is why she went to the best in the business.
“When I had the opportunity to meet with Pierre Dinand at his atelier in Paris I knew my vision to create a truly special bottle for our Eau De Parfums would become a reality,” she says. “The brief I gave Pierre was a timeless, elegant and gender-neutral flacon that would work across at least four unique fragrances. The final bottle is both classic and contemporary, beautifully reflective in natural light; it will take pride of place on everyone’s vanity table.”
With so much thought and expertise going into every drop and the overall design of these fragrances, one thing is certain: A Tahaa Affair Devotion, along with the other Eau de Parfums are set to be olfactory classics.
A Tahaa Affair Devotion, Midnight in Milan,Forever Florence, and Kyoto In Bloom are available in 14ml, 50ml, and 100ml vessels at nz.glasshousefragrances.com. Shop them below.
