Floris Celest is a new launch from a very old perfume house, 1730 to be exact. Did you know that Florence Nightingale wore Floris White Rose, for instance? Or that Winston Churchill was a fan? Want to smell like Marilyn Monroe? Wear Floris Rose Geranium. If you wear Floris, you are in luminous company. Quite a heritage, you might say. A new launch, therefore, is always a talking point and yesterday I received a bottle of Celest from the Floris PR team. 

Celest travels back through time to the origin story of perfume itself. The name per fume means through smoke, and originates from when  resins and spices would be burnt to create a scented smoke that in turn scented people. Celest makes more than a nod to this with the inclusion of myrrh, aka opoponax.  But before you get to that beautiful smoky trail, you can enjoy a warm embrace of herbs, woods and honey.

At first spray, Celest is a clean, not quite medicinal smell that makes me think of emerging from a posh ferny bath. Artemesia (Davana) adds a herbal aromatic accord that teeters around faint aniseed. Don’t be put off if you’re an aniseed dodger, this is all about herbs rather than liquorice, and is more pine tree than gourmand. Calming chamomile merges seamlessly into a herbal accord with a touch of sweet honey, used with a light hand. Honey in this context, smells a little like yellow blossom: lightly, sweetly floral, but never sticky.

Cedar and ambergris (think sun dried, salty, pebbles) enrich the delicacy of honey, herbs and bergamot, and bring it closer to skin, deepening into richness. The myrrh/opoponax really deserves to headline here, as it teams with musk to create an addictively sniffable base accord that is both sensual, inviting and enigmatically smoky.

Floris Celest is a fragrance that exudes understated class. It never gets too sweet or flirty, but stays in the sophistication zone. This is a scent you wear when you want to be labelled as one of those women (or men) who are “effortlessly put together.” It is timelessly rooted in tradition and has no desire to bow to modern fly-by-night trends. This is a fragrance that never needs to raise its voice. I will not be parting with my bottle. Ever.

Where to buy it

You can buy Floris Celest from the Floris website or any of their stockists.  Prices start at £5 for a sample, £35 for 10ml and rising to £200 for a big 100ml bottle. The fragrance is eau de parfum strength.

Disclosure

I was kindly sent my bottle by the Floris PR team, for which many thanks. My opinion and my decision ot review it, are both my own.