The Journal

Journal

Notes from the House on fragrance, country life and the English way of doing things.

An eighteenth-century painting of four young people out of doors: a huntsman smells a melon, a girl in a straw hat holds a basket of melons, and a boy smells a sprig of blossom beside a woman in gold silk, a spotted dog at their feet

November 2026

Why can’t I smell my own perfume? Why you stop noticing your fragrance

Within minutes of putting it on, many people can barely smell their own fragrance, while the people around them often still can. Why that happens, and what to do about it.

An 18th-century conversation piece: Mr and Mrs Atherton in a panelled room, she seated, he standing, a brown-and-white dog at their feet

November 2026

Old money perfume: what does old money smell like?

Old money perfume is less a smell than a manner: restraint, lived-in materials, and a fragrance worn close enough that only the right people notice.

Nineteenth-century volumes of John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments, gilt-tooled spines in a row on an oak shelf in the library of St Paul’s Cathedral, beside a carved bay numbered 9

November 2026

Why old books smell as they do, and a perfume that smells like old books

The smell of an old book is paper slowly changing, and scientists at UCL have spent years working out what is in it. What they found, and where The Library comes in.

A great bonfire of timber blazing against a black November sky at Lewes on Bonfire Night

October 2026

Bonfire Night, woodsmoke and the smoky perfume of November

Bonfires have been lit on the fifth of November since 1605. What woodsmoke is made of, why it stays with us and how a smoky perfume can keep it without smelling of ash.

October 2026

The Seasonal Box: a perfume subscription box UK-wide, with a full bottle each season

Four times a year, a letter for the season, a full 50 ml eau de parfum chosen for you and a little something besides. What it costs, how to leave, and whether it is worth it.

A tailor’s cutting shears and a cream tape measure on a worn wooden bench, with green-bound cloth swatch books behind

October 2026

How to choose a signature scent

A signature scent is chosen the way a good coat is: slowly, in the right light and with the life it will be worn in firmly in mind.

A pale grey-green tuft of oakmoss lichen, Evernia prunastri, hanging from a branch against a soft green background

October 2026

Why was oakmoss banned in perfume? It was restricted, not banned

Oakmoss was never quite banned. Two of its natural components were, and the rest is limited. What the rules say, why they came in and how perfumers adapted.

Henley Regatta before 1914: men in boaters and women in white dresses and wide hats in punts beside a decorated houseboat

October 2026

The English social season, from Cheltenham to Goodwood

The English social season once followed Parliament. Now it follows the turf, the river and the motor circuit, from Cheltenham in March to Goodwood in September.

Mount Fuji, its upper slopes white with snow, rising above dark pine woods and a rough track, in a sepia albumen photograph from the 1860s

October 2026

James Hunt, 1976: Fuji, fifty years on

Fifty years ago, the 1976 World Championship was settled in the rain at the foot of Mount Fuji. What happened that season, and on that afternoon, told plainly.

Tiers of small amber glass bottles of perfumery materials rising behind an old brass balance, at the Musée International de la Parfumerie in Grasse

October 2026

Perfume notes explained: top, heart and base

Top, heart and base describe a fragrance in time: what you smell first, what stays, and what is left at the end of the day. Here is what the words mean, and what they do not.