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Portia

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Hey there APJ,

Sarah McCartney has been trying to get samples to me FOREVER! It has been a complete labour of love and finally it has happened thanks to a perfume mule who brought the set all the way from the UK and then sent it to me here. I won’t name you but a million thanks indeed.

The box arrived and I couldn’t stop myself from jumping in and finding something to spritz. One of the names that has often stood out, among a series of names that could positively beguile you, as fun and fabulous. From cockney rhyming slang Up The Apples and Pears means up the stairs to bed.

Up The Apples and Pears by 4160 Tuesdays 2016

Up The Apples and Pears by Sarah McCartney

Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Hops, apple, pear, gin
Heart: Whiskey, woody notes
Base: Bread

From 4160 Tuesdays: Up the Apples & Pears – an unusual fragrance that evokes the scent of a London pub in 1933; apple pie, pear syllabub, gin, beer, roll-ups, wooden floor and bread rolls.

Now I can’t say the note list looks particularly promising. Terrifying in fact, and the blurb from the website is equally freaky. An old drinking pub from 1933? Sounds ghastly, right? Well, I’m going to give it a go anyways….

Sweet fruits and tart gin, like apple lollies done sour. It’s an attention grabbing opening, fun and reckless. Can’t help but smile at the utter whimsy Up The Apples and Pears begins with. It’s lovely.

This fun opening takes a few minutes to segue into the whiskey section and its booziness rem,ends me faintly of Jessica Simpson’s Fancy Nights but the treacle thick patchouli is missing, or greatly diminished.

Now HERE is where I get the idea of a pub. Having lived and worked in the UK in 1994-5 I was lucky enough to work in some of the smaller country gay bars. We’d catch the train out, work, stay the night and come back to London next morning. These smaller pubs would have a lived in a loved smell about them that was partly old beer and carpets, but also had fruity cleaning products and a woodsy smell. Though not captured exactly and definitely glamorised into a fragrance form Sarah has definitely hit the memory mark.

Flickr

Without the story and knowledge of the meaning I think anyone could wear Up The Apples and Pears and smell good doing so. It is a lovely smelling fragrance.

One thing I really love here is the fearlessness, the bold adventure undertaken and the immediate, raw and fun look at how perfume can be created from a story. That is the grand prize that small batch independent perfumery can bring to the table. Clearly not created to sell billions of bottles and make Sarah McCartney the next by Kilian or Annick Goutal in department stores the world over. This is for lovers of the fun and whimsy of perfumistahood.

Further reading: I Scent You A Day
4160 Tuesdays has £120/100ml and Samples
ParfuMaria has a great selection of 4160 Tuesdays and ships worldwide

This is so exciting for me, which 4160 Tuesdays should I try next?
Portia xx