The Powdery family occupies a unique space in perfumery — fragrances that smell of skin-close warmth, nostalgia, vintage dressing tables, talcum powder, iris root and clean skin. They are among the softest, most intimate and most nostalgic of all fragrance experiences. Powdery fragrances often evoke memory more powerfully than any other family — the smell of a grandmother’s bedroom, a 1950s dressing room, the inside of a jewellery box.

Key powdery ingredients include iris (orris root — the most important powdery ingredient, produced from the rhizome of the iris plant at extraordinary expense), heliotrope (almond-cherry-vanilla-powder), violet (soft, slightly metallic powder), musks (the cleanest, most intimate), and various aldehyde combinations that create that classic vintage powder quality.

For beginners: powdery fragrances are the most immediately comfortable and nostalgic of all families. They require no adjustment period — they simply feel like being held. They are also, of all fragrance families, the most commonly described as smelling like ‘old lady perfume’ — which reflects only a failure of imagination about what that means.