Love the Smell of Laundry? Then This Is the Fragrance for You

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…

1. Who should use it? Lovers of clean laundry 
2. How long until I love it? You’ll love or hate it straight away
3. 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
4. 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.