This Clean Reserve perfume has as clean a conscience as it does an angelic laundry-like scent
From the niche new beauty brands doing something different, to the industry’s evergreen icons, Sophie Bew opens up AnOther’s dream vanity in this series…
- Who should use it? Lovers of clean laundry
- How long until I love it? You’ll love or hate it straight away
- How planet-/people-friendly is it? It’s as squeaky clean as the name implies – ingredients are sustainably sourced, while the bottle and packaging is 100 per cent recyclable (even the corn-based cellophane is compostable) and the manufacturer is solar-powered
- How do I use it? Just spritz for instant freshness
I must admit that I’m lucky enough to have a pretty healthy collection of exquisite perfumes, spanning confections honed by some of the greatest noses of both history and today – it’s one of the perks of the job. But mostly I just want to smell like laundry. The IRL smell of my freshly laundered clothes is of course nice but since I use a fairly eco-friendly non-toxic non-bio detergent, its delicate lavender scent doesn’t linger all that long – nor does it have the plastic-y punch that wafts through the warm grates of Manhattan’s laundrettes. Now that’s the fragrance I really want to be hit with on a daily basis – so much so I sneak (American) Bounce sheets into my duvet and pillow cases and clean my bathroom with a (decidedly more toxic) ‘linen fresh’ disinfectant. I would bathe in the headache-inducing stuff if it wasn’t guaranteed to leave me with first-degree chemical burns.
For hopefully obvious reasons, I cannot thus wear a perfume with quite the same impact – and I’m yet to find one that isn’t a little scary. And although I’m more than happy for my home to smell like a cheap coin wash, I do favour a more natural iteration for my skin. Cue: Clean Reserve Warm Cotton. Here, translucent floral notes combine smoothly with uplifting green vetiver on an alcohol base derived from corn and infused with aloe for a refined and pure juice (the benzoin is even harvested in eco-friendly way, by farmers that tap for resin without harming the precious tree). The result is crisp and clean, naturally – and captures a subtle shade of the fake laundry smell I so dearly love. Although it’s an eau de parfum, it’s very light and doesn’t last all day on the skin, but it decorates the neckline of a crisp white roll-neck in a truly delectable way for the entire day – to the extent that you may find me with it rolled up over my face as I while away the hours at my less-than-pristine desk.
