As we are immersing ourselves in the fascinating world of luxury (niche) perfumes at the moment, working on an incredible project which will be revealed in a couple of months, we have encountered several impressive new brands which have set challenging high standards in the still quickly evolving field. One of those standouts perfume houses is the New York City-based D.S. & Durga, creating perfumes, colognes and scented candles in small batches, strictly using premium-sourced raw materials. All of their elegant scents are created exclusively in-house, with inspiration to be found in outdated herbal wisdom, native ritual medicine, lore and legends, historical movements and Americana. The different D.S. & Durga scents tell different stories of prospectors, gentry, trailblazers, frontier women, drawing rooms, workbenches, cowboys - fragments of half remembered legends, movements, events, and foreign lands. [ Continue reading ]
In recent years the field of elegant artisan fragrance products keeps growing stagnantly - whether its with perfume, cosmetics or our favorite; scented candles. Sydney-based TÊTE À TÊTE incendere is the latest addition to our list of young fragrance brands to watch. It was conceived in the winter of 2013, when creator Vicki Kim - a Parsons graduate who has worked with companies such as Cartier and Bulgari - decided to capture a cinematic moment from the classic The Graduate into a scented candle. This month, with the just released imagery the brand seems ready for the next level. Since the initial launch, TÊTE À TÊTE incendere has grown to contain four signature fragrances, each taking inspiration from a cinematic moment. The films Great Expectations, Raise the Red Lantern and The Blue Lagoon proved to be other great inspirations. Working from this beautiful concept and executed in the way the first candles were done, we look forward to more cinematic moments by Vicki Kim and her TÊTE À TÊTE incendere. [ Continue reading ]
Astier de Villatte has been making handmade ceramics in Paris since 1996, following in the tradition of the great 18th century Parisian ceramic studios. The most famous Parisian manufacturer, Pont-aux-Choux, produced thousands of ceramic pieces in the 18th Century, right in the heart of the Latin Quarter, with other ceramic studios subsequently prospering in the Paris region in the 19th century. Successor to these famous manufacturers, Astier de Villatte is now the one and only major studio to keep the tradition of artisanal ceramic production in Paris alive. In 2008 a distinct addition was made to the output of Astier de Villatte in a collaboration with one of Takasago’s star perfumers, Françoise Caron, and her team of young perfumers. The result is a collection of an Eaux de Cologne, hand care products and our favorite: 33 scented vegetable-wax candles, each with a delicate scent that is never overpowering. Delectable both unlit and burning, the candles are encased in effervescent glass pots as well as signature Astier de Villatte white ceramic goblets. In our eyes, this makes Astier de Villatte one of the most interesting modern brands through their extraordinary skill to reinterpret techniques and aesthetics from past. [ Continue reading ]
Since the very moment we stumbled upon the first imagery by coincidence, we have been fascinated by Atelier des Martyrs. The New York City-based and French made brand was erupted to create beautiful products to fragrance the home, and is now searching for final funding via Kickstarter to start their journey and get the first series of products produced. Following an extensive but unsatisfying research in the landscape of scented candles, founder Matthieu discovered the deficiency in simple, well designed, gender neutral, and above all natural and cruelty free products. In order for Atelier des Martyrs to become all the things mentioned and more, an entire suit of olfactory products were developed by Matthieu and his team, prototyped to absolute perfection. All candles are handmade using mouth blown glass, cotton wicks and only pure natural Rapeseed wax for the candles, resulting in a line of ecologically friendly products of the highest quality. [ Continue reading ]
The brainchild of Australian creatives Hayley Bonham and Nadia Rosa, Maison D’Amore was born out of the ambitious desire to create a range of candles that would rival the world’s best. Partnering with one of the most respected French perfumers and created under art direction of Jo Cutri, Maison D'Amore is an Australian-designed Parisian-made luxury fragrance house, producing fine perfumed candles explicitly for him and her - which still sets them apart in a field which slowly sees its gender borders come down. The Maison D'Amore's packaging features a minimal elegance using black and white design, which was debuted to the world in 2012 with two candles. The first is 'Fleur & Rhubarb', a feminine scent comprised of jasmine, magnolia and grapefruit, along with keynotes of rose, rhubarb and peony and the subtle scent of mimosa musk. The second is 'Feuille de Tabac', a smoky, gentleman’s fragrance made of tobacco leaves and elemi wood, with base notes of cinnamon, honey and vanilla. [ Continue reading ]
Inspired by the incredible flora of the British countryside, the London-based Laboratory Perfumes have been creating clean, pure and modern fragrances, evocative of nature since 2012. While the overall created aesthetic of the brand reflects a love of simplicity, the fragrances are extremely complex and have an evolutionary life on the skin, with elegant glass bottles and candle beaker echo the origins of the traditional perfumier’s laboratory. The original aim behind Laboratory Perfumes was to create a range of perfumes which evoke a strong sense of place, with all three of the original fragrances sharing an association with the English coast and surrounding countryside. If there would be a particular place, it could be the heritage coast of East Anglia, Pembrokeshire or maybe (but this is likely a more personal sentiment) even Ireland's Mourne Mountains. We love the nice touch of the laboratory beaker and scientific calibrations, which recreate the nostalgia of the science laboratory and result in an unexpected contrast between the fragrances inspired by nature and the laboratory. In our eyes this created a fascinating contrast in the perception of the beautiful products, with this year introducing an all new scent promising a lot for the future. [ Continue reading ]
We have been obsessed with the finer scented candles from all over the globe for some years now, with more and more traditional fragrance specialists entering into the growing field, creating more and more elegant options to choose from. Since our little trip to Copenhagen, just before Christmas, we can add another gem to our favorites: Calming Park's Black Edition candles, which we found at the ever-inspirational Storm boutique. The capsule collection of three candles is a collaboration between the Grasse, Swiss-based perfume candle house which was founded by Olivier Rohrbach in 2007 and Danish creative studio Homework. It is no secret that we are still in our Black fase, although there is an obsession shift coming up very soon, nevertheless making the appeal of the elegantly designed collection very likely not coming as a surprise. The candles show a minimal elegant aesthetic, with the three fragrances of the collection given the three-letter names OUD, NOW and HYT. This beautiful collaboration between Homework and Calming Park is based on their shared passion for beautiful products and designs, which we in response can only applaud, hoping for more of these inspirational joint operations. [ Continue reading ]
We are very grateful for everyone who had a share within the very first Our Current Obsession as without them we couldn't have realized it. Having introduced the main collaborator GERTRUD & GEORGE, some of the artists involved (with more to come), and ,The World of Black' in our space has been extended long and wide onto the online Our Current Obsessions environment, now it is time to give a proper insight into the other partners with which we’ve created the core of the extraordinary black selection of products for sale in our space on the Schippersgracht in Amsterdam. As these stores offer only the finest in their particular specialty we’ve named them Holland’s Finest, to which we owe a sincere debt of gratitude and feel honored to have collaborated with. [ Continue reading ]
We love the latest by our favorite BYREDO. For the Holidays, the Swedish cosmetics house of Ben Gorham introduces: Lanes, a collector's edition candle collection available in three BYREDO fragrances: Bibliothèque, Cotton Poplin and Fleur Fantôme. All candles are created in hand-blown glass with a clean striped aesthetic and produced in the BYREDO signature deep black wax, even though each fragrance has a specific wax formulation. In line with the high standard one expects from BYREDO, the candles are hand made in France using the mentioned high quality glass and all candles have cotton wicks. The three different fragrances are limited to 500, making it the perfect special gift for the Holidays. [ Continue reading ]
A beautiful nickel candle with a marble stand with a fragrance that gives memories of an afternoon tea, designed by Tom Dixon. [ Continue reading ]
