SCENT STORY
THE APARTMENT
Our perfumers Isaac Sinclair and Dr Fanny Grau develop our scents in a Parisian apartment named L'Appartement Étoile, overlooking the famed Arc de Triomphe — one of the most well-known stone monuments in Paris. An office-come-laboratory, it’s an elegant backdrop for luxury perfume development.
THE INSPIRATION —
Our founder Frances travels over twice a year to finalise each scent in person, working closely with Isaac and Fanny. In a moment of playful exploration, the apartment itself became the focal point of a new creation as Frances and Isaac mused on a narrative of who might live in the apartment and from there, what they would smell like — leading to the concept of a scent that embodies Parisian chic.
Capturing an elusive nostalgia or character embodiment is a key goal of scent development, or a starting point in the creative process. By wearing The Apartment, you can become the imagined person this scent embodies — a type of escapism.
THE CONFIRMATION —
“I sprayed the new perfume on myself for the first time and ventured out into the streets of Paris before meeting our team for dinner. En route I wandered into a beautiful little interior design store in the Marais and the very chic French lady behind the counter asked me what perfume I was wearing and where she could buy it… It was such a magical moment! The most charming confirmation I could have received that we’d got the scent just right.”
- Frances Shoemack, Abel founder
THE RESULT —
SCENT —
A dark, sophisticated gourmand, The Apartment blends the richness of rum and cacao with the velvety opulence of tuberose and tart cherry.
MOOD —
Haussmannian architecture. Light filtering through half-drawn velvet curtains. A cherry stained napkin.
THE TECHNOLOGY —
In The Apartment we use innovative upcycled cherry and cacao notes which are by-products of the food industry. The scent molecules are extracted from the waste water used in the food production process. Not only are these innovative ingredients extremely sustainable alternatives, but they are also beautiful, complex ingredients that weren't previously available in perfume. The cherry note is tart, juicy and complex — very different to the (synthetic) candy cherry note often used in the fragrance industry.
Creating natural perfume often requires creative solutions for achieving certain notes — not every petrochemical derived ingredient has a plant derived counterpart. Developments in biotechnology give us a broader palette to pick from, and solutions to long-standing challenges such as longevity, stability and consistency. Biotech ingredients are produced by fermenting plant sugars into fragrance molecules.
THE SUSTAINABILITY —
True luxury is inherently sustainable. Something built from quality materials is more likely to stand the test of time, for example the parquet flooring and hardwood furniture in The Apartment’s namesake.
As well as the use of upcycled ingredients in the scent formulation, the packaging is made from offcut materials — another way of reducing waste.
