A readable scent – The Perfume Library, New Delhi

India has always been an exotic country to me, the profound history with the mix of ancient myth, religion and tribal influence, yet, having a vibrant side thanks to the latest development in their central business district, adding plenty of modernity and fashionable vibe to make India an intriguing destination to explore. Given it is the first time that I visited the capital of India for work, New Delhi, the traffic and shoving crowd could be quite overwhelming for the first-timer, but that doesn’t diminish my curiosity and motivation to discover the beauty and mysterious artisan gems there. Walking in one of the famous shopping neighborhood, the Khan Market, passing by the beautiful stores that sells thousands of beautiful local creations, from the delicate and colorful pashmina scarves, to the unique and spiritual handcrafted figurines and home decorations, somehow it’s very hard to make up my mind to decide what should I get as they are all very unique and beautiful, just when I was struggling in between an elegant petrol blue India floral mug or a scented candle as souvenir, suddenly I was seduced by a mysterious scent that drifted from a corner inside the store I was in, and eventually, it took me to a dark fixture with a series of transparent bell jars, which contains different scented fabrics inside each one of them, the unique and intriguing place card stood right next to each of the jar, tells a different story and fragrance note of each of this secret scent, that’s the moment that I learn about this beautiful luxury perfumer - The Perfume Library.

Founded by Perfumer, Ms. Jahnvi Dameron Nandan, who studied fragrance composition in France, won a Grant of perfumer’s atelier in Paris in 2010 to practice expert composition in perfumery. While making her perfume house based in New Delhi and Paris now, her philosophy is to align composition with the visual arts in an endeavor to share the transformative nature of fragrance, each beautiful creation is very poetic, conceptual, with a little mystery and fairy tale that seduces fragrance connoisseurs to explore more, dig into the core of each fragrance, and eventually, finding the ideal perfume that suits for their own character, like reading an intriguing story book and put yourself into the character’s shoes to experience his journey. The perfume collection from The Perfume Library are entirely unisex, which gives everyone a freedom to decide what suits them the most based on the unique character, scent, and your intuitive feeling towards each particular fragrance, while there are a couple of them that I truly fond of, the one that impresses me the most, it would be the refreshing and airy fragrance named ‘This Space In Between You and Me’.

With the poetic and mysterious aura of this fragrance, ‘This Space In Between You and Me’ is an unique fragrance that genuinely expresses sensuality and playfulness like an artist within one bottle. A harmonious co-creation between Jahnvi herself and the late artist Ms. Hema Upadhyay, this beautiful perfume literally takes its wearer to a domain of serenity and the world of the unknown. extract from the idea of the artist’s work of a ‘letter-garden’, the essence of this perfume is a reminiscent to the artwork itself, like a traveler’s notebook or a personal diary that fill with stories in one’s life journey. With its top note in grass, offers the vitality and freshness to this soft and airy perfume, think about the bright green and newly sprouted life, then comes to the second layer of freshness, the unique herbs of Khus and Tulsi starts to unfold, then, a subtle masculinity of Indian sandalwood gives a touch of warmth. For the perfumer, the allusion places ‘This Space In Between You and Me’ firmly within the tradition of Indian perfumery, in which fragrant gardens form a central motif.

If one said the story of a fragrance is too conceptual to grasp, now you just come to know one that can give you the story from the perfume itself, which possibly be as interesting as reading a beautiful novel that intrigues you.

Image courtesy of The Perfume Library, photographed by Sachin Soni.

http://theperfumelibrary.com/