If you’ve not yet heard of Perfumer H then where have you been? If you’re familiar with Miller Harris, the H in Perfumer H is the H of Lyn Harris, the UK’s first Robertet master perfumer who’s materials she uses in her creations. Perfumer H launched in 2015, primarily from their London store, but as of 2020, now has a full e-commerce offering.
As a disclaimer, I am fairly intimate with the Perfumer H brand since it’s launch as I built and maintain their online offering. It’s been wonderful working with Lyn and her partner Christophe for going on 6 years as it’s not often I get to work with brands I genuinely love the offering of. So I do receive discount on the products I buy, but I do buy them and everything in this article has been picked and paid for by yours truly.
Perfumer H does food?
Yes, cool right? Smell and taste are the two most intertwined senses, so food products created and curated by a perfumer is quite something. Lyn/Perfumer H has a range of teas, preserves and condiments that are to die for. In this haul I picked up the Morocco mint tea and the Garrigue salt.
Perfumer H Morocco Tea
The Morocco tea is absolutely stunning made in collaboration with Tim d’Offay of Postcard Teas. There’s whole mint leaves that beautifully rehydrate when added to boiling water.
Chris and I had a pot just yesterday watching something spooky on Halloween night whilst the weather absolutely battered the windows; it was wonderfully comforting and very, very drinkable. I’m not a hot drink lover at all with my only exception being peppermint tea, but that can usually be a bit pinchy and sharp, whereas this is soft and warming and providing it’s cooled off just enough, could be drunk by the gallon-load.
Garrigue Salt
Garrigue salt, made in collaboration with Epices Roellinger from Cancale France, is not a cooking salt; far from it. It’s the finest Brittany fleur de sel with “wild herbs of thyme, rosemary and savory gathered from the garrigue in southern France; bay leaf, oregano, basil & sage from Provence with green cardamom and rose”. As I say, this isn’t for cooking with, but seasoning. We’ve tried this already on steak and it’s unbelievable. You don’t need much so the jar at the size it is should last a good while. I also have it on good authority that it’s delicious sprinkled on fresh buttered bread.
Perfumer H Candles
I picked up three candles, one new and two refills as all Perfumer H candles can be refilled and not necessarily with the same fragrance you initially bought. The handblown vessels are absolutely stunning and each one is never the same as the other in subtly beautiful ways.
This time I picked up Woodland, an exclusive Collaboration between Lyn and Japan’s Art & Science; Sycamore, an exclusive collaboration with LA’s Galerie Half and then Lemon.
Wood Land Candle by Perfumer H
Wood Land (purposely two words) is a woody concoction of cedar and juniper wood fused with cypress and eucalyptus; galbanum and elemi with hints of frankincense. It really does create the feeling of a warm, summer’s woodland walk. But not a British woodland; many of Lyn’s fragrances throw me back to where I spent a good portion of my childhood (and adulthood) in Valencia, Spain.
There’s something so heady about the smell of a Spanish woodland with the scorching heat against the pine trees and sap that this candle somehow manages to capture. We’ve not been able to get out to Spain since January 2020 given everything, but in the meantime, this Wood Land candle takes me there.
Wood Land is a limited edition for Japanese store Arts & Science but is available directly on the Perfumer H website.
Sycamore Candle by Perfumer H
Sycamore was apparently inspired by the namesake trees that line LA’s Melrose Avenue. Notes of green leaf, pepper, juniper, eucalyptus + cedar wood. With hints of sunshine, this is another relatively heady fragrance that lights up a room of reasonable size. Actually that’s a point worth making; Perfumer H candles are big.
These are not candles to have right next to you on your desk in my opinion, these will warm and enshroud you in the biggest of kitchens or lounges. Chris and I live in a townhouse, so will have one candle on each floor during the days when we’re working from home, but we’re always prepared for the stairways to be a beautiful bougie battleground.
Lemon Candle by Perfumer H
Lemon candles are always hit and miss for me as I really love anything lemon scented. They’re normally always either too green, or really insipid and sweet. As you can probably gather, this is neither. With Italian lemon, orange, mandarin, bergamot and rosemary “washed with transparent jasmine resting on a base of cedar wood”, Lemon by Perfumer H is the full ticket.
The sweetness is there, but so is the satisfying citric sourness (okay, I’ll cut it on the alliteration). The greens also come into play to deliver a fully rounded lemon grove immersion, again something we get a lot around where we are in Spain, so can confirm the reference is very on point.
Snowdrop Fragrance by Perfumer H
I’m actually going to review this one separately as it deserves its own focus. Snowdrop is part of the Winter 2021 collection and is accurately described as a “cold frost on a green stem, a white flower head centred around the icy chill of irone pure (a speciality of Robertet and exists in iris absolute) enhanced with carrot grain and wet woods to seal this precious winter landscape”.
Its notes are Jasmin Absolute Egypt, Orange Flower Absolute, Green Stem, Iris Root China, Carrot Seed France, Wet Moss, Juniper Wood Spain and Elemi Iran. Again, a reason for choosing this is because of the Spanish memories it evokes. Lyn does incredible things with Orange Blossom that create unbelievably clear scent memories for me as our house is surrounded by orange groves that turn the air sweet when they blossom en masse.
Give Perfumer H a try and great for gifting
Perfumer H now ships worldwide for free when you spend over £200 (not hard to do at all) so is well worth a look as we get closer to Christmas. Whatever you buy, drop them a note during checkout for some samples of your choice and their standard wrapping is perfectly giftable.