You’ve heard of scratch’n’sniff, but have you ever heard of read’n’sniff ? This is where you wear a scent inspired by the book you’re reading. It’s pretty rare, but if you’re lucky and the wind is blowing right and the moon is at a certain angle, then it can happen, as it does with Vianne’s Confession.
Sarah McCartney, founder of 4160 Tuesdays, worked with Joanne Harris, award winning author of highly readable novels, several of which feature Vianne Rocher. The result is a fragrance called Vianne’s Confession, to accompany the publication of Vianne, Chocolat’s long anticipated prequel.
I confess that when I first smelled my bottle back in May, I wasn’t instantly in love. In my defence, it was the Barnes Fragrance Fair and it was hard to smell anything accurately within the miasma of fragrance stalls, my oversprayed wrists and five billion selfies. Fast forward nine months, (yes, like a baby) and everything is in place and beautiful. This is largely because I have now finished reading Vianne and the scent slotted into it like a sliding puzzle once I was in Vianne’s well-travelled shoes in Marseille, learning how to make Bouillabaisse, and of course, chocolate.
There is a seminal scene in a church in Marseille, and this was the seed that grew the scent. We have geraniums from the typical Marseillaise window boxes, tomato leaf from the kitchen of La Bonne Mère via the old market, we have churchy incense, deep and smoky and slightly gothic, and of course, we have cacao beans. Simmer together over many adventures and friendships, and voilà! You have Vianne’s Confession.
The experience of reading the book while wearing the scent is really on another level of sensory immersion. Pop some chocolate in your mouth (not Cadbury’s or Nestle) and it’s a 4D experience. I was blissfully lost to the sights, sounds and many smells of Marseille, and a brief, unfortunate trip to the darker side of Toulouse, which thankfully doesn’t feature in the fragrance. It has made me start pricing up weekend flights to Marseille and researching recipes for Navettes and Cassoulet.
Harris’s expertise on food, chocolate and scent shines through every scene. She is a past judge for the UK Fragrance Foundation and herself, a winner of a coveted (by me!)Jasmine Award for perfume writing. It shows. Smells are a trademark of her storytelling, as they are for her new friend Sarah McCartney, who herself tells stories, albeit olfactory ones, that conjure and evoke no less than the words of a book. You can see why they got on.
This is a beautiful fragrance, transportive and vivid, and it lingers long after the last chapter of the book. Vianne is still in my head, as is Marseille, which is now top of my bucket list. Warning: Reading Vianne may leave you with a craving for violet creams. Is that even wrong?
Where to buy it
You can buy Vianne’s Confession from 4160 Tuesdays. You can buy Vianne by Joanne Harris from all good bookshops, preferably an indie one.
Disclosure
I bought both the perfume and the book myself and opinions are my own.
Further reading
Read (and follow)Joanne Harris’s blog, especially this bit.
Have a look at this, too, where Sarah talks about making it.
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