EXTRAIT

Delina 2017 by Quentin Bisch

(Bergamot, Lychee, Rhubarb, Damascena Rose, Nutmeg, Cashmeran, Musks, Vetiver)

Let's start with a classic. Delina is the queen of lychee perfumes. A beautiful, modern pink rose and true lychee scent that's sweet, creamy and tart. This is a powerhouse of a perfume, both in terms of performance, longevity, sillage and reputation. I first discovered Delina in Covent Garden early on in my perfume journey and I was hooked.

 

This is the first fragrance that stopped me in my tracks; I now know Delina to be one of the most famous and beloved perfumes out there, but at the time I had never heard of it. Lychee has always been very close to my heart as a scent and a flavouring, but I never imagined it could be captured so vividly in a perfume. It sealed itself in my mind as the perfume high that I would continue to chase as I explored the hobby (there's always one, isn't there); that one perfume you wish you could forget just to be able to re-discover it over and over again like your favourite film.

 

Even though I knew nothing about perfume at the time, and I was totally unaware of the hold that this fragrance had on the community, it remains one of my most treasured scents to this day. I still have that first bottle (although it's long empty bar a few sacred drops to revisit for that specific formulation) that my now husband bought me in the shop right then and there. It was and is very special to me.

 

I'd like to take a moment to talk about the shop itself as it was like nothing I've ever seen. Amongst the cobbled walkways of Apple Market (sadly now they have moved just over to James Street) was this pristine marbled shrine to a house called Parfum de Marly. The manager was attentive but not pushy - a wonderful woman who I still remember 6 years on, and the entire space felt like another world. It was cold when you walked in, no doubt to protect the scents themselves, and you were given room to take it all in at your own pace.

 

My partner got chatting with the manager about the men's scents while I tried to blend in - I'm naturally very shy and at the time was painfully so. Thank goodness he did. Whilst introducing him to the classics like Layton, Herod and Galloway, the lady discreetly sprayed an embossed card with something from a pink bottle, handed it over to me and simply said 'try this' with a kind smile. I left with a full bottle of Delina, samples, complementary body wash (which I managed to make last a year)  and one of the most hypnotic fragrance experiences of my life.

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