Fleur Nocturne

This Nocturnal Flower should've been called China Blue – or rather, Bleu de Chine – after the fragrance launched in 1925 by the house of Isabey, lodged in a China blue bottle designed by the legendary Julien Viard. But when Isabey's owners decided to re-launch the scent, the name Bleu de Chine had been snapped up by another brand. So Fleur Nocturne it is, for a fragrance as tight-grained and creamy-smooth as the most luxurious silk crepe, flowing on the sinuous silhouette of a 1930s film star, its delicate apricot hues lighting up petal-flesh skin.

Like Isabey's previous scent Gardenia, Fleur Nocturne revives the opulence and full-blown glamour of classic French perfumery: an aromatic shimmer of mandarin melding into the fragrant juiciness of peach and apricot underlining the fruity facets of jasmine; the slightly soapy, lemony touch of magnolia balancing out the lazy Southern Belle lushness of gardenia. Solar notes add a powdery, tropical-flower tinge to the vanilla drydown, barely darkened by patchouli.

With its ample, long-lasting sillage, Fleur Nocturne will sail you through nights as tender and glorious as a Scott Fitzgerald heroine in the Riviera moonlight.