Some fragrances are like Tardises. They can whisk you at warp speed through time and space, hurtling you back to people and places… in this case, my parents’ bathroom. Maybe it’s a little weird to want to wear a perfume that reminds you of your dad’s shaving soap – kept in a wooden container, in which he swirled a badger brush (sorry, badgers!) – but quite aside from the dad-ness of it, I’ve always adored Floris Rose Geranium. As did Marilyn Monroe.

Yes. Marilyn. Because alongside her official gig as the glamorous ‘face’ for Chanel No.5, Marilyn – according to the extraordinary historic ledgers detailing all their sales down the years, which remain ‘backstage’ in the museum at Floris London’s Jermyn Street store – she would bulk-buy their bath oil; there’s a receipt in their archives for six bottles, ordered to be dispatched from Floris’s boutique at 89 Jermyn Street, London to the Beverly Hills Hotel in California, where Marilyn was staying after filming ‘Some Like It Hot’.

Floris London is an amazing fragrance ‘institution’, now run by the ninth generation of the same family, all descended from Juan Famenias Floris, who set up his barber’s and fragrance shop in St. James’s in 1730. They’ve been supplying the most noble and well-heeled scent-lovers ever since, including many successive generation of the Royal Family, with the warrants accordingly to show for it.

I first stepped inside the shop when I was just 16, having smelled Floris Rose Geranium Bath Essence when having a bath at a boyfriend’s posh mum’s house. It completely captivated me. My touchstone smell from childhood is geranium, as I’ve written before – but this is more than just a straight geranium scent, with a powdery rosiness that’s not like anything else out there. It was my absolute treat to sink below the scented waters in that fancy bathroom (having previously been invited to try the bath oil, by my hostess).

When I took myself off to Floris, I discovered that they made a shaving soap scented with Rose Geranium (alas no longer available), and so I bought some for my dad’s Christmas present, replenishing his supply for years. And I have also consistently bought the bright green, fragrant bath oil, ever since.

The new Floris Rose Geranium Ledger Series Eau de Parfum captures the scent of that, but in a more transparent and wearable way. It’s rosy, but also green and verdant – not a ‘greenhouse’ scent, but like smelling a geranium plant that’s been popped in a china cache-pôt and put on a table surrounded by expensive coffee table books, in a beautiful house. It’s fresh, it’s pretty, it’s powdery and almost dainty – not one for red carpets and velvet banquettes, but I’d happily sip tea out of a china cup wearing this, or indeed wear it to meetings and offices where I want to wear something non-room-rocker-y. (Indeed, I do just that.) There’s a lingering soft woodiness on skin, which I can actually make out next day.

Floris London’s Ledger Series is fascinating (and delightful) to explore – honestly, take yourself to Jermyn Street, if you possibly can, as they’ve revived scents that were worn by a star-dusted clientele that spans Oscar Wilde to Laurence Olivier.

The fact that Rose Geranium could be worn by my father, my boyfriend’s mother, Marilyn Monroe and (gleefully) by me is testament to the ‘unisex’ nature of this smell. (In fragrance terms, we generally call that ‘shareable’, but somehow unisex is more accurate a way of describing its gender neutrality.)

So, weirdly, I can wear this and remember kissing my dad’s geranium-scented, smooth cheek. But also, it invites me to sashay down the street with a little extra swing in my hips, feeling just a little bit like Marilyn Monroe.

Not many fragrances I can say that about, for sure. But thanks for the sweet memories, Floris London.

Floris Rose Geranium Ledger Series/£220 for 100ml - buy here

Floris Rose Geranium Bath Essence/£65 for 50ml - buy here

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