Bid for Becky Sharp, bottled
Do you long for a completely unique perfume? This could be your chance. There's a wonderfully evocative feature in the latest edition of Intelligent Life (a magazine we enjoy hugely), imagining what different literary heroines - from Jo March in Little Women to Nicole Diver in F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night might smell like, with brilliant contributions from Julie Myerson, Joanna Harris and Fay Weldon, whose character is Becky Sharp William Thackeray's Vanity Fair.
But the article goes beyond imagining: Intelligent Life actually commissioned Linda Pilkington at Ormonde Jayne to create a fragrance for the fictional Becky Sharp, who Fay believes would smell 'of sin remembered...' The actual creation swirls with 'sunnny top notes of orange flower and bergamot, a floral heart of freesias, jasmine, osmanthus, rose oil and orris, built on a warm base of amber, cedarwood, patchouli and musk.' Sinful indeed...
The unique fragrance is called Iniquité, and it's up for auction in aid of the Shannon Trust, which improves literacy among prisoners. You've got till 5 p.m. tomorrow (18th December 2013) to make your bid; not only will the winner receive a 100 ml bottle of the scent, but the 28 next-highest bidders will have the chance to receive one of a limited edition 10 ml Iniquité purse sprays, in return for a minimum donation of £15 to the Shannon Trust.
We've bid and have our fingers crossed - but we really hope you outbid us, and get your hands (and your nostrils) on this gorgeous, 'intelligent' scent...