Atkinsons 41 Burlington Arcade EDP

41 Burlington Arcade EDP Atkinsons

An address is not merely a location it is an identity. And there are few addresses in the world that carry the weight of history, craftsmanship, and quiet, enduring prestige that 41 Burlington Arcade does. The home of Atkinsons since 1832, one of London’s most celebrated covered shopping arcades, a space where the finest things have always been made, kept, and chosen with extraordinary care this is the address the fragrance bears, and it wears it with complete, unhurried authority. Composed in 2017 by the gifted Julie Pluchet, 41 Burlington Arcade is a Woody Aromatic Eau de Parfum for women and men: vivid and citrus-bright at the surface, warm and richly spiced at the heart, and smoky-woody at the close a fragrance as layered, as considered, and as enduringly distinguished as the address it carries.

The opening is bright, sparkling, and of an immediately clean, distinguished freshness: Grapefruit and Lemon open with vivid, sharp citrus luminosity; a broader accord of Citruses adds further bright, sun-drenched freshness; Floral Notes contribute a delicate, airy transparency; and White Pepper the dried, husk-removed form of the same Piper nigrum berry as black pepper, with a cleaner, slightly more floral, less pungent character than its black counterpart, and a distinctive cool, almost crystalline spiced quality runs through the citrus opening with a refined, sharp precision that gives 41 Burlington Arcade its most distinctive and original top-note character: not simply fresh, but freshness with edge, with clarity, with something unmistakably, beautifully Atkinsons about it.

The heart deepens into a richly spiced, warmly aromatic accord of great character and complexity: Licorice the dark, anise-sweet, slightly earthy root extract of the Glycyrrhiza glabra plant, with its distinctive sweet-herbal depth that adds an unexpected, beguiling darkness to the spiced heart forms the most original and memorable element of the composition’s centre, giving 41 Burlington Arcade its most distinctly characterful quality. Nutmeg adds its warm, slightly woody, gently narcotic spiced richness; Cardamom weaves through with its warm, eucalyptus-spiced green aromatic depth; and Pimento the allspice berry of the Pimenta dioica tree, simultaneously clove-cinnamon-nutmeg in its aromatic character completes a heart of four spices of real, warm, Eastern aromatic depth and authority.

The dry-down is smoky, woody, and of a quietly magnificent enduring depth: Vetiver the smoky, earthy, rooty complexity of the Chrysopogon zizanioides grass, one of the great defining materials of classic perfumery grounds the composition with its characteristic multi-faceted depth. Cedar adds clean, dry, structural woodiness; Amber glows with golden resinous warmth; Smoke direct, elemental, and quietly primal adds a dark, atmospheric depth that gives 41 Burlington Arcade its most evocative and memorable quality: the sense of a fireplace in a great old building, of wood and time and warmth accumulated over centuries. And Musk draws everything close to the skin with clean, intimate warmth a dry-down as layered, as enduring, and as quietly magnificent as the address itself.

• Fragrance Family: Woody Aromatic
• For: Women & Men (Unisex)
• Launched: 2017
• Perfumer: Julie Pluchet
• Top Notes: White Pepper, Grapefruit, Citruses, Lemon, Floral Notes
• Middle Notes: Licorice, Nutmeg, Cardamom, Pimento
• Base Notes: Vetiver, Cedar, Amber, Smoke, Musk
• Concentration: Eau de Parfum
• House: Atkinsons

41 Burlington Arcade is London’s most distinguished address, made wearable bright, spiced, and endlessly, magnificently itself.