Modern Classic: The Scent Library

Ineke Ruhland has two key passions: perfume, and literature.  The Canadian born, classically-trained perfumer has managed to unite these two loves into one unique product: The Scent Library.

This collection of perfumes is wonderfully packaged in a hollowed out, hardcover ‘book’, and comes complete with explanations of each fragrance. And these perfumes do need some explaining–they are far from the quotidian offerings of mainstream perfume houses, and even further from the chemically based ‘celebrity scents’ that seems to be bombarding the market.

Indeed, Ruhland has decided to make her perfumes as natural as possible, and personally develops each one using only the highest quality ingredients. There are no  preservatives, stabilisers, parabens or worse, dangerous phthalates, which are usually common in most factory made, commercial scents. Ruhland also ensures her customers that she follows IFRA standards, as well as strict European cosmetics guidelines.

Although Ineke Perfumes are created in a studio in San Francisco, their story is quite global. After working in the Netherlands, England and France, specifically in Grasse, the perfume capital of the world, at Versaille, where the legacy of luxury left by the Sun King lives on, Ineke realised that she was destined to be a “nose”.

She refined her sense of smell to be able to identify subtle differences in scent: Turkish roses from Moroccan; tuberose from jasmine, cedar from pine. She also fell in love with certain fragrances, such as Honeydew Melon, Larkspur, and Seville Orange which she included in her own poetically named creations, including Angel’s Trumpet Scarlet Larkspur and Sweet William.

The detailed explanation for each scent is ‘typed’ onto a romantically illustrated index card, which is in itself something of a little gift to the owner of the Scent Library.

Evoking the days when letters were written by hand; when books made of paper, and when a woman’s perfume was her signature, The Scent Library sampler is a strong reminder that true classics never age.

For more information or to buy, please click here.  

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