Launched in 2015 by designer Bella Freud, Bella Freud EDP was made for her by her friend perfumer Azzi Glasser. Great granddaughter of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and daughter of renowned British painter Lucian Freud and Bernardine Coverley, a writer, gardener and free spirit. Bella was born in London in 1961 and had a very boho/hippie upbringing – living in Morocco, England, and Mexico. In the 80’s, she landed a job at Vivienne Westwood’s shop in Chelsea, where she got bitten by the fashion bug, so she moved to Rome to study fashion and tailoring before starting her own design company in London in 1990. In 2014, Freud teamed up with perfumer Azzi Glasser and launched Bella Freud Perfumes. Bella Freud EDP was launched in 2015. It opens with a warm, sensuous, sweet note of amber and nose-tingling bergamot. As the amber settles, it gets powdery. It’s just gorgeous – something I love the smell of without knowing how much I love it until I smelled it here. Pink pepper stills the amber, allowing the rosy aspect of the berry to introduce a floral heart of jasmine, ylang-ylang, geranium and osmanthus. Palmarosa, a species of grass native to India and Indochina, has a rosy aspect and a sweetness that it adds to the heart. The flowers are perfectly matched and together create a beautiful, heady, natural-smelling bouquet. As the fragrance develops, the base of rich, earthy patchouli mixed with vetiver and aromatic Tonka bean drifts up through the flowers. There’s amber here, too, and sandalwood and musk, but it’s the inclusion of smoky frankincense that closes the deal for me. Bella Freud EDP is a deliciously amber-centric scent that dries down to a uniquely warm, woody, resinous, sensuous skin scent. Notes: Amber, bergamot, pink pepper, jasmine, ylang-ylang, geranium, osmanthus, palmarosa, patchouli, Tonka bean, vetiver, sandalwood, amber, musk and frankincense.
