“Truth is,” Le Labo says of its new fragrance, “Baie 19 should have been called Water 19. Not that it smells like nothing (though nothing smells like it), but it has this crisp, wet, drenched effect that water gives to the earth after the rain…”
The perfume brand famous for cult scent Santal 33, loved by fuckbois (and literally everyone else) the world over, has dropped a new scent inspired by petrichor aka that magical feeling during heavy rain after a long dry spell. Containing notes of juniper berry and patchouli, with Baie 19 Le Labo hopes to arouse the same feelings of joy that comes from a good rainfall.
But who might this person be that delights in rain and the smell of rich, wet earth?
Allow us to put forward this suggestion for Baie 19’s target customer. None other than the Twitter’s Bougie London Literary Woman herself. Self-described as “a 20-something seabird adrift on the tides of London,” @BougieLitWoman is the embodiment of our more pretentious instincts and our wistful romantic tendencies, which, we definitely have.
“Have retreated to the coast for the year’s fallow week to commune with my Joan Baez records. “May I have this dance?” I ask the sea, but coyly she does not reply,” she tweets. We have no doubt that BLLW would love nothing more than to smell like fresh rainfall.
Le Labo Baie 19 is available now, retailing at £184 for 100ml and £127 for 50ml.