Yardley has launched Peony, a new fragrance for women inspired by the winning entry of a contest held in collaboration with Good Housekeeping magazine. Entrants were asked to design a new scent for the company; contestant Ann Bell suggested a fragrance "inspired by the peony gardens at Penshurst Place where she works as a garden guide". The result, Peony...
...combines sutble, fruity top notes of pimento berries, redcurrants and peony bud with heady rose and peony flower and sweet muguet. Lingering base notes of musk, Indian sandalwood and hot amber gives it an exotic sensual twist.
Yardley Peony is available in Eau de Toilette or Body Spray, sizes unknown. (first quote via thisiskent.co.uk, second quote and additional information via yardleyonline.co.uk)
I'm gobsmacked – I've known Ann Bell for years, and I've been running into her all over the place this year! She was a kindergarten teacher to both my kids, and lives nearby. Recently I encountered her when I was interviewing someone who'd been an extra in The Other Boleyn Girl at Knole House. Ann and her husband had also been extras – she works at Penshurst Place for the National Trust, and the employees were asked if they wanted to audition. And now she's mentioned here! Blimey, it's a small world.
That was such a neat idea to engage Good Housekeeping readers in creating this fragrance. Ann Bell should be proud of herself!!!
Hey, how cool is that? I'll look for her in The Other Boleyn Girl.
It is a nice idea! If I'd known, I would have entered my green jasmine incense, although doubt Yardley would be interested.
Ah, Yardley! Brings back memories of the '60s. Anybody else remember Oh! de London? I'd be interested now, as a perfumista, to smell that again. At the time we thought it was the coolest thing. Maybe it was just effective marketing. And I always loved their classic English Lavender. I think the soap is still made, although probably not the cologne. Nice to see they're back.
There's a site, longlostperfumes.com, that sells an “original recip”e version of Oh! de London. I don't know how it compares to the original, but they sell large test sizes.
Early this year I bought a bottle of Oh! de London on *bay– it still looks fab in its turquoise-striped label, and it smells much the same as I remembered (that is, insipid– I even thought so as a young teen). BUT the label says “Tuvache” rather than “Yardley”, so Yardley must have sold the product off at some point. I'm open to selling or trading this bottle, as my olfactory nostalgia really centers on the scent of Yardley Slicker lipsticks anyway– time travel in a tube. And I still buy English Lavender soap to scent my linen cupboards. Works better than sachets, imo.
Was O de London big in the US, or just the UK? I know someone mentioned it here recently, but don't think I had heard of it before that.
I think it was popular because it rode on the coattails of the British Invasion. We loved the Beatles, the Dave Clark Five, the Rolling Stones, etc. etc. so we aspired to be English “dolly birds”. I guess using Yardley cosmetics made us feel like those girls chasing John, Paul, George and Ringo in A Hard Day's Night.
She got to be a noblewoman, in a white cowl and black headdress, she said. I keep meaning to get the video and go through it frame by frame!
Ah, that makes sense!
Oh Wow! I went to long lost perfumes to find something I thought I might have imagined from my adolescence. But there it was, “Memoir Cheri”- my first perfume. This was bought for me by my older brother when I was 14, as a birthday gift. Our tiny town had a drug store where the *expensive* perfumes were kept behind the counter in locked glass. I wore it with my head held high and a sense of superior sophistication. My Daddy said I smelled like a street walker and made me wash it off, but I wore it in secret anyway. Thank you moon_grrl! I will order the mini and see what a fool, or not I was. :-)))
Joy,
Becca
What fun! Hope it will live up to your memories.
Don't forget those Yardley ads featuring beautiful dolly-bird Jean Shrimpton. Everyone wanted The London Look, so of course they needed the London scent to complete the image.
I'll have to go look those up, thanks!
Jean Shrimpton was (probably still is) lovely, and what we aspired to look like. Unless one preferred to look like Twiggy! 🙂
At the time Twiggy was my favorite of the two because she was closer to my own age (JS was an adult in her 20s!). I kept my eye makeup more like the Shrimp's though, because those Twiggy-style paint-on lower lashes required too steady a hand. I wouldn't mind looking like either one now– well, I do have Jean Shrimpton's coloring, at least.
If Wikipedia is correct, she currently runs a hotel in Cornwall. Couldn't find a recent picture though.