We’re very proud to have professional support all around the world, and we’d like to celebrate some of these heart-warming connections. Amanda Carr is a perfume writer and trend forecaster based in the UK, and we were excited to see her again at the Fortnum & Mason launch in November 2023. Amanda wrote a beautiful review of Osmanthe Liu Yuan (read it here), and so we wanted to learn a little more about her fragrant journey.

How did you discover Le Jardin Retrouvé?

My first brush with Le Jardin Retrouvé was at Esxence, in Milan, (I think 2019) where its gorgeously fresh and decorative stand shone out from the sea of black, gold and chrome on offer elsewhere. The charming illustrations and product innovation – the porcelain room diffusers, refillable bottles at a time when hardly anyone else was doing them, the decorated keep-me-forever blotters, not to mention the delicious and modern fragrance profiles, all felt really exciting to me.

What do you love about the brand?

I’m a gardener, and so I guess I was hooked by the connection to real flowers and plants and the concern for nature. I love the ingredient references that Clara and Michel use, Osmanthe Liu Yuan, for example, is inspired by the ‘Lingering’ Garden in Suzhou, China, somewhere I’d never heard of but now I’m connected to it because I wear the scent regularly, I feel like I’m travelling via botanicals. The scents are also so easy-breezy, they are like the best of friends, you can take them anywhere and they fit in beautifully.

What does the future have in store?

On May 18th 2024 I’ll be holding the second Barnes Fragrance Fair (@barnesfragrancefair ). Last year we launched a wonderful, immersive environment where visitors discovered the joyful world of independent perfumery. We featured workshops and talks about how fragrance is made and its wellbeing benefits as well as offering the chance to meet the perfumers and brand founders and discover their beautiful scents. Fragrance is so much more than a ‘beauty hall product’ and hopefully the Fair demonstrates how exciting the possibilities are of finding a fragrance you love.

Discover more about Amanda Carr, and read the We Wear Perfume interview with Clara and Michel, by clicking here.