Imagination: “What you’d expect Neverland to smell like…”

Went along to the launch of Imagination, the new fragrance by Disney, at the new Oxford Street Disney Store last week. Being a self-confessed Disney fan myself (I’m talking old Disney though – Mickey Mouse, Princess Aurora and all that), it was a magical evening for me. Not only have they launched a fragrance range but they have a whole new store with a whollllle neeewww wuurrrlddd within it.

The new concept store made me want to be a child again. At risk of sounding like an Old Mother Hubbard – kids do not know they’re born these days! Visitors have a host of activities to keep them occupied (as if the floor to ceiling high shelves of Woody and Buzz weren’t enough) including interactive magic mirrors and trees.

The Magic (interactive) Tree…

The Magic Mirror – Waving one of the princess wands in front of it will conjure up one of four well-known Disney princesses

And the fragrance range Imagination is just as charming as the new store. Consisting of 4 products; a home candle, room spray, hand and body lotion and hand wash, it is meant to evoke the scent of an enchanted forest – natural, leafy and fresh. Before I knew this, I genuinely remarked that it reminded me of woodland, so a clever little thing it is! I am told that the top notes are; leaves, wild mint and crystallised white sap, the middle notes; apple skin, watermelon, pine and green ivy and the base notes; vetiver, bark, cedar and moss.

I might also add that their other debut fragrance, Wonder, is AMAZING. Anyone that likes babies or marshmallows will love this!  This one is meant to evoke that scrummy new born baby smell that we all love and actually, it really does. They are very good at making things smell accurate, I’ll say that.

Wonder – yumsies

Next, they plan to bring out 4 new ‘tween’ fragrances entitled; Magic, Pixie Dust, Imagination Winter and A Princess Wish. Oh to be 11 again! I would’ve killed to have just owned something called ‘Pixie Dust’.

Hermes: Un Jardin Sur Le Toit

Clockwise from top left Un Jardin En Mediteranee, Un Jardin Sur Le Nil, Un Jardin Apres La Mousson and Un Jardin Sur Le Toit

I’m a sucker for marketing and there’s nothing I love more than a cosmetic product with a theme. Hermes garden fragrance range has really captured my heart! I would say nose as well, though I haven’t actually sampled any of the range yet, but – hello? – fragrances that reference the Tunisian shoreline and the River Nile, I’m sold!

But let’s focus on the 4th and latest edition to its garden-inspired fragrance range, ‘Un Jardin Sur Le Toit’. Translating as ‘Garden on the Roof’, it refers to the roof garden at Hermes’ Parisian headquarters.

After having travelled to all these other exotic locations, Jean-Claude Ellena, chief perfumer in-house at Hermes, wanted to take inspiration from his home, Paris. To the Hermes roof garden he went, and so captivated by the aroma of herbs and fruits and the scent of the fresh green grass and compost was he, that Un Jardin Sur Le Toit was born.

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any more quaint, I’ve noticed that the perfume’s box features an illustration of Parisian rooftops, conceived by none other than Philip Dumas, Emile Hermes’s grandson. I can’t wait to sample this and let’s face it, probably buy it..