Strada Parfumerie Sloane Street Review (Christian Carbonnel) + Sunday in London Draw

October 18, 2020October 18, 2020

Strada Parfumerie Sloane Street image via Strada

London – my home for more than a decade – is the world’s largest city and probably its most heterogenous. In a single day, you can traverse streets that are filled with cultures from just about every corner of the globe. Steam rising from street around the Chinese eateries in Soho, Vietnamese, Thai and Italian joints just around the corner. Stroll along Newington High Street in the evening and hear Turkish music spilling into the street. In Southall, the aromas of curry and rice; in Brixton and around Tottenham, Bunny Wailer fills the air along with soursop. In its crooked, impossible lanes, unexpected squares and cul-de-sacs, London contains universes. So, to imagine London in a single scent requires a very personal take.

Christian Carbonnel perfumer

For Strada Parfumerie co-founder Mishal Al Marzouqi, it is the smell of oud on a cold, damp day. Created by perfumer Christian Carbonnel, Strada Parfumerie’s Sloane Street – named for one of London’s poshest shopping addresses – is an elegant, urban rose oud crossed with a horsey aroma that smacks of the countryside. When I first sprayed Sloane Street on, I was surprised that it wasn’t a genteel, upper-crust floral a la Clive Christian. After all, the road runs off Sloane Square, the epicenter of upper middle-class poshness. In English slang, a “Sloane” (short for Sloane Ranger”) is an upper-class person with a cut-glass accent, often a country house, names like Jemima and Jeremy, and a very particular wardrobe – think Kate Middleton or Princess Diana in her Lady Di days.

Alexa Chung via popsugar @chungalexa

Whether intentional or not, Strada Parfumerie’s Sloane Street nods to these Hooray Henrys and Henriettas with its incorporation of a distinct smell of high-end leather riding boots coupled with the earthy, sweaty tang of horse – just the sort of aromas you’d find in the grounds of that country manse. This note is so prominent that I at first thought there was labdanum in here. Rather, it is the complicated oud used in the fragrance, which smells of dabs of old wood, medicinal plasters, sooty leather and kicked-up soil. Right at the top is a pungent whiff of pink pepper – spicy and fruity – quickly followed by the oud, which barrels out of the atomizer like a galloping stallion.

via rebloggy apped

It is unusual for the opening of a perfume to have what is usually a middle or base note at the outset, but Sloane Street doesn’t keep the oud hanging about. The pepper and woodier aspects of the oud intensify for a while before the leathery facets of the resin come out to play. Waaaayyy into the middle, the rose starts to open. There’s a shimmery quality to it that is almost metallic but without the chemical bite. I get a hit of root beer from the oud now, and then, a little later, the sweetness of a more fully realized rose augmented with amber. Sloane Street contracts a bit in the dry-down, moving back into woodier, drier territory. The rose is merging with the pepper and woody oud, and the composition smells less like the stables and country turf and, in its genderless balance, more citified. It’s equal parts frisky and sophisticated. And on a nippy Sunday afternoon, Sloane Street is worth a wander.

Notes: Pink pepper, Turkish rose, leather, iridescent notes, oud, amber.

Disclaimer: Sample of Strada Parfumerie Sloane Street kindly given to me by Strada Parfumerie. My opinions are my own.

Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor

Strada Parfumerie Sloane Street Bottle courtesy of Strada

Thanks to the generosity of Strada Parfumerie, we have a bottle of Strada Parfumerie Sloane Street for one registered reader worldwide. You must register here or your comment will not count. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what appeals to you about Strada Parfumerie Sloane Street and where you live. Extra Credit:Which city’s shopping district do you think would make for a great perfume? Draw ends 10/21/2020.

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