Jo's Scent Notes: Sana Jardin Incense Water

My holiday scent wardrobe is quite different to my at-home scent wardrobe, never mind my work wardrobe. Actually, I never wear ‘work’ scents on the weekend, because… well, I’m a different person. Not so structured and rigid and disciplined.

And I rarely wear ‘holiday’ perfumes at any other time: they’re reserved for the most relaxed and unusually laid-back me, someone who has time in the morning to think about what (costume) jewellery might match my sarong, which beach to walk to today (with that extra spring in my step), which book in the stack I’ve paid Easyjet for an extra suitcase to transport to my destination that I happen to be in the mood for. And who has the luxury of being able to pay proper, full-beam attention to my darling husband, who otherwise has to be juggled with running a couple of businesses, writing reams of copy and bouncing around the country delivering presentations to audiences from Barclays Bank to the National Association of Sliding Door Manufacturers (I’m not even joking).

And so it was that Sana Jardin Incense Water was always a ‘holiday’ scent, for me, after founder Amy Christiansen (more of her in a mo) gave me a little, perfect-for-travel 10ml rollerball of the fragrance a couple of years ago, and Incense Water and I began quite the holiday romance.

This is a perfume that for me, has by association become all about air and sunshine and bare, tanned legs. It’s a world apart from most other incense perfumes on my radar, which tend to be heady and dark, all shadows and mystery. (And which happen to be very fashionable in scent circles, right now.) There’s a lightness that belies Incense Water’s tenacity on the skin, a carefree quality that I’ve come to associate in that Pavlovian way with being somewhere the sun is sparkling off the sea, my phone is in Airplane mode and my Out Of Office message strictly on. Since this happens about two and a half weeks a year, that’s 49 and a half weeks when I wasn’t going to be wearing Incense Water.

So, then… news came that Sana Jardin had had a rebrand, and would I like to try one of the new, white capped bottles? Now, as a massive fan of several of Sana Jardin’s other fragrances, which have been created for Amy by perfume maestro Carlos Benaïm (honestly the most charming perfumer I’ve ever had the pleasure of interviewing), I might have opted for phwoar-in-a-bottle Tiger By Her Side, or Celestial Patchouli (a perfect, not-too-heady interpretation of that divisive ingredient), or the exquisite Berber Blonde, which is orange blossom a-go-go. But no. I chose a replenishment of Incense Water.

And, wearing it at home over the summer (with a beach at the end of the road, we never stray far) has brought an unusual lightness to the days here. The rose in the fragrance – to be honest I don’t think I was aware there WAS rose in Incense Water – is much more present, much more English country garden-ish, in a British summer. I’ve reached for it time and again, pulling on a Mexican dress or something wafty and linen, which (for once) the British climate has made possible, from mid-July onwards. I’ve reached for it, morning after morning, and been cheered by every (generous) spritz.

But let me give you the back-story to Sana Jardin, because that’s pretty special, too. Environmental and social impact weren’t words that were really even whispered in fragrance circles when Amy Christiansen (above) launched Sana Jardin in 2017, but for a perfume brand founder, her credentials are unusual: a former social worker who’d been volunteer development advisor for the Bill Clinton Foundation and the Robin Hood Foundation. Meanwhile, Amy inherited a fascination for perfumes from her grandmother, who took her travelling around the world, always wafting a cloud of YSL Opium in her wake.

When she launched Sana Jardin, then, Amy wanted it to be a vehicle for the development of women, including the flower harvesters who provide some of the cornerstone ingredients for the collection, including orange blossom. They are now empowered to market orange flower water, candles made from flower wax, and compost made from the waste flowers discarded during the distillation of orange blossom, helping to boost their family incomes. As the website says, ‘By purchasing a Sana Jardin fragrance, you are directly contributing to the livelihoods of these women and supporting sustainable agriculture.’

Sana Jardin just got a rebrand to go with the new packaging. It’s been repositioned to tap into the trend for wellness, in fragrance, and harnessing ‘the vibrational energy of flowers to promote emotional and spiritual wellbeing.’ Personally, I think most of us know instinctively that fragrance has the power to make us feel better about ourselves, and the world – and Incense Water certainly does that, for me.

Incense Water will likely always be a summer scent, in my fragrance wardrobe – for its sheerness, airiness and lightness of spirit. But definitely, I’ve enjoyed discovering that we can have more than just a two-and-a-half-week holiday romance each year. And as with all Sana Jardin fragrances, you can try Incense Water as one of those 10ml rollerballs. Perfect for travel – and, I’m predicting, for switching on your own inner OOO.

Sana Jardin Incense Water/£95 for 50ml – buy here

Rollerball/£32 for 10ml – buy here