This week: Fragrance has its eye on sport. Puma is planning its next perfume chapter, Nette has made a scent with tennis creator Morgan Riddle, and Sol de Janeiro is taking its body-care rituals into women’s football. There are several ways into this particular club: through the kit, the players, or the pleasure of being there.
Elsewhere, hair gets its own perfume wardrobe, with Cécred’s Temple Oud taking its place beyond wash day. Essential Parfums is preparing a Soho shop that puts perfumers on the wall, while two makers whose work may already sit on your shelf have been named Master Perfumers. And Diptyque’s pumpkin candle returns, while 4160Tuesdays puts broom absolute into its first Halloween perfume. The weather may be undecided, but bewitching season is officially here.
In this edition of diffusion: the scents and stories worth knowing now, a few more reasons to leave the house and enjoy this weirdly warm October weather, and what fragrance wants from the world around the game.
what’s in the air
The fragrance stories worth knowing this week →
Puma takes the long way into fragrance. Puma has signed its fragrance rights to Interparfums on an exclusive worldwide licence running to the end of 2037, with a signature lifestyle scent due next year. Nothing is buyable yet, which is rather the point: sportswear is where fragrance is looking, and a deal this long is a bet that the gym bag stays where taste is made. More in our counter culture feature below. (Interparfums)
Geranium has the floor. Andy Tauer’s GERANIUM Absolue gives a familiar supporting material the leading role. His description brings together its leafy, floral, herbal and powdery sides, with tonka and vanilla underneath. Les Senteurs lists the 50ml bottle at £160. (Les Senteurs)
Grand Soir, sold as an evening. Maison Francis Kurkdjian pairs Grand Soir eau de parfum, from £135 for 35ml, with matching cleansing gel and body lotion, and the companion Pour le Soir candle. Its sister line, Petit Matin, covers the morning, so the house has both ends of your day covered. Complimentary engraving on both collections runs until 4 October. (Maison Francis Kurkdjian)
Kilian’s brings mixology to your fragrance wardrobe. Kilian Paris’ three-fragrance ‘The Cocktails’ collection draws on familiar cocktails and links each scent to a different mood or occasion. Sparkling Royal takes its cue from a Kir Royale, with Piña Paraíso and Midnight Espresso completing Kilian’s drinks order. The collection is available in the UK in 10ml formats, from £28. (Kilian Paris)
Shanghai, via Covent Garden. Bloom has added NuWilds, the independent Shanghai house founded in 2019. Its selection includes Osmanthus & Oolong, Perilla Peach & Ginger and Veiled Ambergris, each listed from £80. (Bloom)
Grasse makes space for the present. A new gallery at the Musée International de la Parfumerie brings together contemporary Asian fragrance houses, in a collaboration with Cosmoprof, Esxence and Centdegrés China. It sits alongside the museum’s exhibition on Asian scent traditions. (Premium Beauty News)
The perfumers are going on the wall. Essential Parfums open at 37 Beak Street, Soho, this month. A feature of the space includes a green ceramic wall presenting the perfumers and their creations, ingredients beneath glass domes, and a sofa for consultations. (Retail Gazette)
Inside Molton Brown’s Scent Pavilion. The brand’s reworked Bluewater store takes the shape of a home, with a bathroom, dressing room and living room devoted to bath and body, personal fragrance and home scent. A way to shop by imagining where each scent will live. (TheIndustry.beauty)
Nothing niche about this Christmas list. The Perfume Shop’s ten predicted Christmas favourites are all designer fragrances, with Dior Sauvage, Chanel Coco Mademoiselle and Prada Paradoxe among them. For all the interest in discovery and smaller houses, its bet for Christmas is on names people already know — and recognise when the wrapping comes off. (Retail Times)
December, already on sale. Fragrance and beauty calendars stretch from the high street to the department store. Seven to compare, cheapest first; check the contents since some mix perfume with make-up, skincare and home scent.
The Perfume Shop — £99: 24 gifts in a keepsake box. (The Perfume Shop)
The White Company — £195: Advent Calendar 2026. (The White Company)
Giorgio Armani — £270: Armani Advent Calendar, at Selfridges. (Selfridges)
Yves Saint Laurent — £280: Advent Calendar 2026, listed as exclusive to Selfridges. (Selfridges)
Jo Malone London — £375: Christmas Kist, with 25 scented surprises. (Jo Malone London)
Penhaligon’s — £430: a travel-trunk-inspired calendar, available from the house and Selfridges. (Penhaligon’s · Selfridges)
Byredo — £650: the house’s advent calendar, for the person who already wears Byredo and is impossible to buy for any other way. (Byredo)
scent about town
Where fragrance is happening in London →
Meet the Makers, Swap the Decants
Aromatic Escapes brings together Tribute Perfume, Soul Notes and Shloksha for an evening with their founders. Guests can also bring samples and decants to swap.
Friday 2 October · Fitzrovia Community Centre · £22.38 · Eventbrite
Four Hours, and a Formula to Keep
Sarah McCartney’s perfume-making afternoon at 4160Tuesdays takes you from smelling professional materials to blending a fragrance of your own. You leave with a perfume you made and a formula you can reorder.
Saturday 3 October, 1-5pm · Hammersmith · £200 · Workshop details
Free Walk-in, Covent Garden
To celebrate the release of the new L’Heure Bleue, Guerlain takes to the Covent Garden Piazza with fragrance discovery, a photo booth and postcards. There is also Blue Hour matcha for early arrivals. A small detour if you are passing through before the pop-up closes on Sunday.
Until Sunday 4 October, 11am–5pm · Covent Garden Piazza
Zendaya, on a Much Bigger Screen
Prada Beauty’s hand-painted Paradoxe Sweet Chemistry mural puts a scene from its Barry Jenkins-directed campaign onto a Shoreditch wall. Prada calls it “Europe’s largest hand-painted mural”. Open to the public until Sunday.
Until 4 October · 112 Tabernacle Street, Shoreditch · Public mural · Details
The History of the World in 10 Smells
Katie Puckrik brings ten smells and their stories to Circle & Star in Hampstead, passing them around the room in an evening spanning pop culture, psychology, history, science and sex. Bloom Perfumery supplies the perfumes. The show returns after a sold-out first run, with questions and conversation following the hour-long presentation.
Thursday 8 October (sold out), Tuesday 1 December, 7.30–8.30pm · Circle & Star Theatre, Hampstead · £22 · Book tickets
Give a Scent your Full Attention
Olfactive O joins Alina R.J of House of Umai for a guided sensory meditation at Mortimer House. Scents and raw materials provide a focus for the practice, giving wandering thoughts somewhere to return to.
Friday 9 October, 6.30–8pm · Mortimer House, Fitzrovia · £44.04 · Eventbrite
Meet the Materials Behind the Perfume
Perfumer Nata Dyshliuk visits Sainte Cellier for a hands-on exploration of the raw materials behind Devil’s Delight and the newly reformulated Gilded Labdanum, plus a preview of Songe de Magnolia.
Saturday 10 October, 2–4pm or 4–6pm · Sainte Cellier, Ladbroke Grove · Free; booking required · Choose a session
Behind the Scenes at Diptyque
Maison Diptyque’s perfume workshop explores fragrance history and the inspiration behind the house’s creations. A chance to spend a little longer with the stories behind the bottles at its Bond Street home.
Saturday 10 October, 11am–12.30pm · Maison Diptyque, 107 New Bond Street · £63 · Eventbrite
Four Artists Answer a Perfume
Penahligon’s has given its King’s Road boutique over to four QEST-trained makers — Anne Petters, Sofia Karakatsanis, Natascha Maksimovic and Angela Fung — working in origami, furniture marbling and glass in response to the themes behind The Manoeuvres of the Baroness. Free to walk in, until 1 November.
Until 1 November · Penhaligon’s King’s Road · Free · Location
The Counter Becomes a Classroom
London counters are selling tickets to a seated version of what they usually do standing up. Seven masterclasses between 11 October and 5 November, most with the fee redeemable against a purchase on the day. Spaces are filling up fast!
Molton Brown Fragrance World — Sunday 11 October, 12–1pm · John Lewis Oxford Street · £10, redeemable against purchases. Book
Molton Brown: Scent Your Season — Thursday 15 October, 5.30–6.30pm · Regent Street · Includes £10 off a £50 spend. Book
Neal’s Yard Remedies natural perfumery — Sunday 18 October, 12.30–1.30pm · Spitalfields · £40, redeemable against purchases. Book
An Evening with Tom Ford — Thursday 22 October, 6–7pm · Fenwick Kingston · £35, with £20 redeemable against purchases. Book
Jo Malone London fragrance layering — Saturday 31 October, 12–1pm · John Lewis Oxford Street · £10, redeemable against purchases. Book
Maison Margiela Replica with Cristian Angelino — Thursday 5 November, 12.30–1.30pm · John Lewis Kingston · £15. Book
Molton Brown: The Autumn Edit — Thursday 5 November, 5.30–7pm · Kingston · Includes £10 off a £50 spend. Book
in rotation
What we’re reaching for now →
The Hexiest Scent on the Planet. Ever. (IMHO).
4160Tuesdays’ first Halloween scent adds broom absolute to the house bestseller — made from the precious yellow flowers of the same shrub used for broomsticks, alongside fresh cut grass aroma of leaf alcohol with a scent of harvested apples and pears. No pumpkins in sight. From £40 for 15ml. (4160Tuesdays)
Bewitching Season is Officially Here
Diptyque’s Citrouille (Pumpkin) candle returns for a limited autumn run. The house describes pumpkin, spices and vanilla: a small seasonal ritual for anyone ready to declare October indoors, whatever the temperature outside. (Diptyque)
counter culture
The ideas changing how we think about fragrance →
Perfume is Selling You a Sporting Life
A sports brand can put its name on a perfume. A perfume brand can put its name on a team. Then there is the space around the match: the clothes, the company, the afternoon you wish would last a little longer. Fragrance is finding uses for all three.
Puma’s new agreement with Interparfums runs to 2037, with a first fragrance under the deal planned for 2027. This is a return: Puma has had perfumes before. What it offers a fragrance partner is a name that already travels between sport, fashion and everyday clothes. The bottle can join a world people recognise before anyone has smelled it.
Nette approaches from another direction. Its Mr. Cloud collaboration with Morgan Riddle, made with perfumer Antoine Maisondieu, takes tennis’s surrounding leisure as its subject. The brand’s description places cut grass beside tuberose, a cold-milk accord and skin musks. Riddle brings the perspective of someone whose work has made watching tennis a cultural activity in its own right.
Fueguia 1833 offers another version of the sporting life. Its Land of Champions, launched in 2022, takes inspiration from Argentina’s improvised football pitches. The house describes damp earth, grass on players’ knees and the hope of victory. Here, the game itself supplies the story: the place you played, the person you hoped to become. (Fueguia 1833)
Put it beside Nette’s tennis-club leisure and the appeal becomes clearer. A sporting perfume can suggest an afternoon you aspire to or a life you remember. Either gives you something to carry beyond the court or pitch.
Sol de Janeiro has a more direct route into the game. Its Washington Spirit partnership, announced in June, covers the 2026–28 seasons and includes players’ body-care rituals, away-game warm-up tops and experiences for fans. Sport supplies both the people using the products and an audience watching them.
These are different arrangements, and a handful of deals cannot tell us how large a market they will become. What they do show is how much there is to borrow from sport beyond an athlete’s name: belonging, anticipation, routine, a whole day organised around something you care about.
The interesting bottle may turn out to be the one that captures what you love about the game, even if you never play it.
who made this
The people and processes behind the perfume →
Two names to follow across the shelf
Your perfume collection may have a connection that the labels do not make obvious.
Marie Salamagne’s work includes Maison Margiela’s By the Fireplace, YSL’s Black Opium and Dries Van Noten’s Soie Malaquais. Frank Voelkl’s includes Le Labo’s Santal 33, Glossier’s You family and Phlur’s Father Figure. Between them, they offer plenty of reasons to look beyond the house name when choosing what to smell next.
dsm-firmenich named both Master Perfumers in July, with a September celebration held in Paris. The distinction is the company’s own, recognising careers in creation and mentorship; it also gives the rest of us a useful excuse to pay attention to the credits.
Following a perfumer will not guarantee that you love everything they make. Different briefs and collaborations matter. But it offers another way to browse: put two fragrances you already like beside one another, look up the people who worked on them, and see where the names take you.
Sometimes the next perfume to try is hiding in the credits.
notes to self
Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines, hidden under the mass of many years and experiences.
