It's no secret that Marylebone Village is one of the hippest corners of London with its charming lanes and independent shops. Now with the arrival of Le Labo, the city's latest boutique perfumer, it will have the sweetest smelling streets, too.
Who wants to smell like everyone else? And Le Labo founders Eddie Roschi and Fabrice Penot have tapped into this desire to be different, with their half-bar, half-lab perfumery.
London is the fourth stand-alone shop, with others in LA, New York and Tokyo. Having previously worked at Armani perfumes, Roschi reveals that this was the perfect grounding for his business. 'It gave me an understanding of the power of perfume and how a huge corporate giant works. But we wanted to do the indie version of making scents, rather than a mass-market approach.'
The result is a pared-down, industrial-chic shop in which customers choose their fragrance, from a choice of ten core scents, and then watch it being mixed and created before their eyes. It is packaged and even labelled with their own name and city of origin.
The surroundings may be minimal but it's in the perfumes where you'll find the wow factor. Ambrette 9, for instance, is the scent of babies. Sounds strange but that's the attraction of niche perfumes. It's based on the ambrette grain, the only musky scent made by nature itself and almost impossible to find. 'We work with the very best noses on the planet and our perfumes are years in the making,' says Roschi. 'Our aim is to create a sensory shock.' Scents start from £36 for travel size. lelabofragrances.com
