Malle holds aloft a phial of the latest opus, Maurice Roucel's Dans Tes Bras, which has taken 18 months to develop, and launches this month. It smells like a little bunch of violets rubbed against skin: a gorgeous fluttering bouquet of violet, iris, jasmine and a touch of bergamot. "The whole idea was to depict intimacy – when you travel through it, you get the scent of skin," he explains, saying that it is comparable to Guerlain's 1906 classic, Après l'Ondée.
— Columnist Bethan Cole talks to Frédéric Malle in Heaven scent: The best independent perfumers at The Independent.