Posh Spices

LONDON'S BEST-KEPT PERFUMER

The first royal to bestow a blessing—that is, a royal warrant—on a perfumer was France's Catherine I (nee de Medici), who got the monks at Santa Maria Novella to cook up a brew for her. Some 450 years later, the royal touch is percolating again as Prince Charles and his father, Prince Philip, have tapped the 135-year-old Penhaligon's, the hallowed English perfumer. While Pen's won't reveal who anoints with what lest the warrant be revoked, some tracking the scent of Prince Charles swear it's I Blenheim Bouquet, originally created for the Duke of Marlborough in 1902. Meanwhile, the late Princess Diana loved to wear Bluebell, a sweet but slightly wicked scent: Snow White meets the Queen. Today's fashion world has its own royals, and many of them are sticking to the proven classics. Kate Moss—Her Slender Highnessswears by Bluebell. And those sniffing Tom Ford—Prince of Sales—have caught the whiff of Blenheim Bouquet. It is the ultimate English scent, smelling faintly of citrus, faintly of flowers, and not so faintly of the perfect dry martini.

DAVID COLMAN