Alexandra de Montfort Creative Director of Rouge Bunny Rouge

Rouge Bunny Rouge Creative director Alexandra de Montfort has a clear vision for all her fragrances; from conceptual imagery right through to which perfumer she feels will best consolidate those scent fantasies into a real fragrance. For Tenera, her newest scent for the "Fragrance Confections" collection,  she wanted to re-imagine vanilla as "a vision of strength and softness". Together with Nathalie Lorson (Firmenich) she has married a mellow blend of amber, benzoin and vanilla with a distinctly herbal accord of black pepper, thyme flower and elemi, an unconventional and inspiring combination that is both comforting and uplifting. It brings to mind a modern day goddess stepping lightly through fragrant meadows…

Kelley Ash by Ezra Spurrier 

Tenera opens like a palm full of crushed thyme leaves, fragrantly green. There is citrusy elemi to lift this savoury beginning and piquant peppercorns which instantly clear my head. It is a surprising start to a vanilla scent and only the first stage of this shape-shifting creation. Beneath bare feet the herbs release their oils and around a forest starts to grow, rosewood, patchouli and smoky Guaiac wood entwining dry tendrils to form a canopy overhead. It is a rustling, organic shift of light and shade, the promise of warmth beginning to form at the edges like a sunrise between tall trees.

Kelley Ash Freepeople Road to Coachella

Tenera sweetens very slowly, the aromatic thyme losing some of its initial strength and settling into the undergrowth at the edge of the meadow. As vanilla starts to become prevalent the scent changes character, warming as skin does when touched by the first rays of morning sun. It is less about a shaded forest now, creamy, mellow notes of heliotrope mingling with the vanilla and woods to create a wonderfully comforting halo.

Model Kelley Ash

The herbal qualities are still detectable but in a more subdued drift, I am reminded of wandering in the early hours through dry grasses, the air already humid. It is this change in Tenera that makes it such a fascinating perfume to wear. It grows in strength and tenacity until the vanilla is rum soaked and the heliotrope is almost gourmand, those little aromatic wafts enhancing the scent's comforting aura.

Kelley Ash for Spell

The interplay between herby forest floor, dry wood and fluffy vanilla creates powerful imagery, so far removed from the swathes of other vanilla-centric fragrances currently residing in my perfume wardrobe. The sticky black pod can be worn so many ways and I would class vanilla as one of my favourite notes in fragrance. In Tenera I have discovered yet another way in which vanilla is endlessly comforting. To combine it so beautifully with savoury, herbal notes brings out an innate association with home and the heartland, of all the things that bring me happiness. This is a scent for quiet contemplation and walking outside, or to cosy up inside with on a chilly evening. Sleeping in it is blissful, I could wander out into that dreaming meadow and straight on until morning.

Notes: Black Pepper, Elemi, Thyme Flower, Rose Wood, Rum, Guaiac Wood, Patchouli, Heliotrope, Vanilla Pod, Benzoin, Amber, Leather

Disclosure- I gratefully received my sample from Rouge Bunny Rouge. Opinions my own.

Fashion Model Kelley Ash is known for her boho beauty and has her own blog. She is represented by Q Models. There is no connection nor endorsements between Rouge Bunny Rouge and Ms. Ash

Susie Baird– contributor and editor of Epiphany.

Thanks to Alexandra de Montfort of Rouge Bunny Rouge we have 50 ml of Tenera for any reader worldwide. To be eligible please leave a comment with why you want to try Tenera and where you live. Draw closes January 26, 2015.

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