With its cool back-story (founder Ben Gorham started life as a Swedish basketball star before transitioning into perfume) and pared-down yet reassuringly hefty packaging, Byredo is a very Wallpaper* brand. Its latest eau de parfum is called ‘Heliotropia’, and it’s an intriguing floral perfume with a burnt-sugar edge.
‘Heliotropia’ is launching exclusively in Liberty London on 20 June, and may be the first perfume to be directly inspired by the building in which it’s sold. According to Ben Gorham, ‘The opening of the fragrance evokes a clear image of the traditional Liberty floral patterns, and the mid notes are quirky and meant to represent the personal and curated approach that Liberty have. The base notes – of agar wood and white birch – are an interpretation of the massive wood structure that the building still carries.’
Apart from the agar wood and white birch, ‘Heliotropia’ includes gardenia, Somalian incense, jasmine sambac and heliotrope. As for its intriguing name, Gorham explains that ‘the heliotrope accord is one of the main ingredients, and was very important in the project, while “tropia” is a reference to utopia, in the sense of a very pure and elevated idea.’