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As getaways go, they don’t come any better: the Royal Palm hotel in Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, with its white sand beaches, is a favorite hideaway of French film stars. To celebrate the heady scents of this tropical paradise, Stephanie de Saint-Aignan worked for two years with Jacques Silvant, the general manager, on the hotel’s signature fragrance.
Royal Palm starts off with a tangy, cooling draught of sweetened grapefruit – fear not, it’s all citrus and no sulfur – before gliding into a jasmine heart as transparent as lagoon waters, lightly powdered with iris. To conjure the aromas of open-air markets on the Island of Spices, as Mauritius has been known since the 18th century, Stephanie laced the scent with a subtly dosed cocktail of pink and black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon and clove. As Royal Palm evolves, it sheds its fresh notes to unveil a bed of precious woods and resins. A touch of vetiver Bourbon, imported to the island from India and which still grows wild in the hills. Cedarwood and a tendril of leather-tinged incense darken the dusky drydown.
So if you can’t take off for the Indian Ocean just yet, Royal Palm may be the next best thing. Bliss in a bottle.
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Grapefruit, jasmine, iris, cardamom, cinnamon, pink pepper, black pepper, clove, vetiver, cedar wood, leather and incense |
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