On The Scent

Can you imagine a whole day dedicated to wandering the streets of Paris and smelling their scented wares? Utter olfactory heaven, right?! Well, recently Suzy had a morning and afternoon to do just this, and in this week’s episode, she and Nicola retrace her steps and recall the gorgeous and inspiring Parisian boutiques she managed to visit, reviewing each of the fragrances sniffed and recounting t...

Fancy a scented tour through unexpected florals (via toasted seeds and cool green leaves), autumnal sunsets in California, walled gardens where a warrior goddess might stroll, impeccably tailored heritage, and a gloriously gilded pop fantasy? Step right this way, because this week Suzy & Nicola are discussing perfumes for taking a calm breath, for making an entrance, for leaning into your own...

What does a fragrance feel like? This week, Suzy Nightingale and Nicola Bonn are following their noses into the wonderfully tactile world of perfumery, where a scent can suggest velvet brushing the skin, the smooth swish of nylon, or the crumbly warmth of freshly sliced cake. There’s oudh as soft as autumnal sun-warmed suede, a mineral hush reminiscent of earth after rain, and an aromatic breeze t...

Suzy & Nicola are back for part two of their Pitti Fragranze roundup, continuing their deep-dive into the perfume launches, houses and ideas that made this year’s Florence fair feel so full of possibility. Having attended Pitti Fragranze for thirteen years, Suzy felt this was one of the most exciting editions yet. Alongside the return of classical perfume structures reinterpreted for contempor...

If you’ve ever wondered what goes on in a fragrance trade fair, get ready for all the news as Suzy reviews this year’s Pitti Fragranze in Florence. There are some some thrilling new launches and brands to get excited by, and she reveals some of the trends we can expect to see filtering their way through to the wider fragrance world over the coming months. In fact, firstly a storm stopped play as w...

Are you feeling the need for snuggly scents yet? Suzy and Nicola are leaning into the cosiness in this week’s episode and have been gathering together some of new launches and favourite fragrances they’ve been wearing as autumn approaches. The discussion ranges from ultra-sophisticated gourmands encompassing chocolate and lattes, to a bohemian rose, a truly fantastic new woody scent, and an Americ...

This week Suzy & Nicola are pondering the resurgence of iris - one of the most traditional (and costly) notes in perfumery made modern by exploring it in surprising ways. From one of the all-time classic iris perfumes launching a new version after 114 years, to another historic house who’s just launched a dashingly debonair iris scent; and a brilliantly affordable iris from a high street shop...

In this episode we’re partnering with Estée Lauder for the first in a new series: Fragrant Focus. This is where we take our time exploring a single scent - smelling it together and sharing our thoughts. And we have an exciting GIVEAWAY for you to enter! Listen and read on to find out how to enter, hear our reviews of Glimmer, and the beautiful inspiration behind its launch. We have a plethora of e...

We’re hanging on to summer with the fragrance launches discussed, and in what we’re wearing this week, but there is a noticeable change in the weather here in the U.K. There have even been sightings of socks, jackets, cardigans and knee-high boots on the streets! A week ago, such items were unthinkable, but now we’re almost looking forward to the seasons changing again. ALMOST, but not quite yet....

We cannot tell you how much we LOVE receiving your questions and requests for ‘perfume prescriptions’ (something we’ve always specialised in at On the Scent Podcast – it brings us such joy being able to match people to perfumes they’d perhaps never tried or even heard of). And we get a LOT of DMs @onthescentpodcast on Instagram, and messages on our On the Scent private Facebook group, so here we a...

Okay, we all know vanilla has been trending for ages now, but WHY does it prove so popular? We think half the reason is the sheer diversity of vanillas available, and the incredibly high-quality materials perfumers are able to use these days. Plus the fact that vanilla continues to be one of the most universally adored scents. Love them or loathe them, we feel sure there’s truly something for ever...

Season 8, Episode 7 Alice du Parcq & The Philosophy of Perfume (her NEW BOOK!) This week we welcome back dear perfume pal and friend of the pod (star of two previous episodes), the multi-award-winning fragrance writer, presenter, content creator and now AUTHOR, Alice du Parcq! Alice has always been ‘on a mission to decode perfume in a fun, relatable and objective way.’ Now, added to her perfum...

This week is a truly madcap sniffathon HOPEFULLY encompassing [*takes a deep breath*] wild seascapes, fragrant ghosts and a notorious rake; a spicy summer scent to set your senses tingling; a fruity treat based on a perfumer’s favourite breakfast; a splendiferous peacock strutting its scented stuff; a stunning sueded rose; perfumes pulled straight from the vegetable patch; Harrods exclusives to sw...

[AD: This episode is proud to be in partnership with BeauFort London - a house Suzy has championed from the start, spoken about passionately over the years, and continues to be excited by.] From a single, hand-poured moustache wax to one of the world’s most daringly distinctive fragrance houses, BeauFort London’s story is as elemental as the scents themselves. Founded in 2013 by musician Leo Crabt...

Embracing the heat, and leaning into the ‘Sunscreen Scent ’ perfume profile this week, we’re following on from the BONUS episode originally available to Patreon subscribers (which should soon be available here too - keep checking & scroll back in your podcast app to find it), in which we explored our favourite scented sunscreens. Flipping that fragrant theme on its head, this time we’re all ab...

Talk about varied - we go from a ‘posh banana’ Brazilian carnival in a bottle Nicola experienced at a vibrantly fun perfume pop-up in Liberty, to an extraordinary, burning, bloodied rose Suzy’s entranced by (don’t worry - it’s not as scary as it sounds!) We’re also featuring two incredibly inspirational women on this week’s show - one who’s created her own fragrance brand to reflect a life lived i...

Looking for some truly outstanding and very affordable fragrances? Have we got an episode for you! This week, as challenged by you, we went on a scent safari sniffing our way around the new fragrances in one of the U.K’s most beloved high street shops. The results? Well, we were rather awe-struck with how wonderful they were, to be honest. Suzy is totally in love with a new perfume shop she popped...

If this is your first bonus subscriber-only episode: welcome! We’ve so much more for you in store, with an extra episode every single week (even when we’re on a break from the main podcast). Claggy, sweaty, humid weather: it’s the absolute worst for trying to get to sleep in, right? Well in this week’s extra episode, we’re discussing scents that, once sprayed, seem to instantly lower the temperatu...

We’re back with a whole new season of On the Scent Podcast! While we had a break on the main pod, we’ve still been recording our Patreon exclusive episodes every week, which you can catch up with on patreon.com https://www.patreon.com/u84518038 Meanwhile, we’ve been busy attending some incredible new launches, many of which you’ll hear about in this episode, and Nicola and her husband, Chris, got...

In this episode we’re catching up with the joyous beauty and fragrance journalist and broadcaster, Alice du Parcq, for part TWO of her mega-list of fabulous fragrances. (If you haven’t already, do go and listen to Part 1 (episode 11) where Alice hilariously explains how one of her favourites is forever entwined with frogs legs… Meanwhile, here we delve into those she’s adored for decades and more...

In this episode we’re thrilled to welcome self-confessed fragrance obsessive, Alice du Parcq. From the age of 17, Alice worked in the beauty departments of Tatler, the Telegraph, The Times and Glamour magazine and was Beauty Director at Conde Nast Brides and Easy Living for over 10 years. Since going freelance she’s written for British Vogue, Red, Stella, Stylist, Sunday Times Style (the list goes...

We’re utterly thrilled our guest for this episode is @salihughes - a hugely influential journalist with her regular Guardian column, a broadcaster, author of the books Pretty Honest & Pretty Iconic, and who can often be found ferreting around in celebrities’ bathrooms for her fascinating YouTube series ‘In the Bathroom With…’ As if that wasn’t enough, she’s also Co-founder of @thebeautybanks -...

Wowie! So many excellent fragrances to get your noses around in this episode, it was difficult to know where to begin. But with so many to explore we started with a recap of the recent barnstorming success of Barnes Fragrance Fair... We talked through Suzy’s choices for her sold-out talk with Alice du Parcq (and if you couldn’t go or were there but missed any of the talks: never fear! They were al...

How we’re loving - and living for - those moments when the sun properly shines this spring. It almost (whisper it) feels like summer’s knocking on the door. However, if grey skies meteorological or metaphorical are plaguing you currently, we’ve bottles of sunshine and hope to bring a smile to your face… In this episode we discuss: Lush Fresh As ‘Revitalising fir needle absolute and tagetes oils mi...

On The Scent Podcast Season 7, Episode 36: Classic Scents Remixed & Reinvented Chanel N°5 Eau de Toilette Housed in a redesigned, minimalist (label-free) bottle inspired by the original 1924 silhouette, the classic scent profile is absolutely there (bubbly aldehydes, light florals) but with a modern, more casually dressed feeling. Lighter, more intimate, but with a grounding depth beyond the b...