WELCOME TO OUR NEW ALFRESCOSHOP
Get out that fashion statement dress on to our red carpet, Paparazzi stand back.
Open the doors with a Welcome all you Beauties Without Bites, step right into our
New! ALFRESCOSHOP.
Welcome also to my life! The last 20 years has been filled with fragrance, essential oils, health, beauty, travel and bugs and romance. I won't write now about the romance; maybe one day you'll see it in a movie I’d like to make of my life. I will write about fragrances and discussions about how to gently repel bugs. Oh?! You'd rather read about the romance?
Well, I've had a kind of love affair with scents since my first boyfriend, a stylish and handsome Italian, (with roots in Persia!), would come to London from Milano with presents of Pucci's Vivara 1969. It was a very good year for romance. I always felt that perfume was 'an attractant', I’d waft about in a cloud of sexy, spicy, rich, deep, power perfume. As a teenager I favoured Youth Dew by Estée Lauder. The packaging and bottle looked very ladylike and prim, as I had been brought up to be, but the fragrance itself told a different story - kiss me, love me, thrill me! Treat me like a real woman. My time off school was spent researching the different effects of designer fragrances, especially in Paris where I studied for my French exams, or in ski resorts; Courchevel, Val d'Isere…not skiing, guess what? In and out of pharmacies – I spent hours sampling testers at the perfume counter. The research at that time didn't involve laboratories. It was more dinners parties, clubs, dates and dancing. I could have taken exams and passed with flying colours on the subject of, 'The effect of perfume to attract the latest beau who caught my attention'. My friends laughed at the conquests. They claimed it wasn't my charm or wit or personality. My female Don Quixote antics were down to my various perfumes – Guerlain’s sweet shop; Shalimar, Miss Dior, and even Diorissimo; that pure Lily of the Valley heady scent. As I grew older and pretence of greater sophistication, there was Cartier Le Must, Ralph Lauren Polo, Hermes signature perfume Caleche; for when I fancied hobnobbing with The Royal Set in Monte Carlo! Little did I think then that I would actually work there. In early 90s, shortly after I sold the fashion brand I’d built as an owner/designer with my partner, I was working as a volunteer at The Chelsea Physic Garden. With the blessing of The Curator, I had the privilege of putting on The Summer Exhibition "Thinking with your Nose". I collaborated with the museum at Grasse, who sent sack loads of dried plants for perfume making, patchouli, tonka beans, vanilla, rose petals, jasmine. Antique distillation equipment was set up, vintage prints of plants used in perfume - it was a successful, inter-active exhibition. I brought in experts in aromatherapy to give a series of lectures. Suddenly I was working alongside the top experts in the perfume business, many of whom visited that exhibition. During this period of time working in The Garden, I was spending long school summer holidays in Scotland with my husband and child as well as holidays abroad where I would be badly bitten by bugs. I looked worldwide for an attractive repellent and I was horrified at the stuff I had to use. There was only one thing for me to do. I was on a mission to develop a blend of perfume using only the finest essential oils that would repel bugs whilst at the same time attract some romance, fun and laughter into our lives. 2016 is my Alfresco Company 20th Anniversary. I've spent the last 20 years developing and selling worldwide our Flagship Moisturizer with its very own matching perfume Acqua d'Alfresco. I’m often asked by strangers what scent I’m wearing. I have my answer ready: "Alfresco, an insect repellent. The only beautiful perfume in the world that attracts and repels"