ABEL The Apartment, Courtesy of Abel

“Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.” Coco Chanel

Chic, that quintessential word that defines a city, a style, a way of inhabiting your own skin. It’s, a glance, a gait, an understated elegance that captivates and sums up Paris, that city that somehow gets under your skin and embraces you with her charms. So, let’s start with a question. What is conjured when you speak the word ‘Paris’, what imagery transports you, what transformation occurs when you think of a Parisian (man or woman)?

Frances Shoemack and Isaac Sinclair

My recent voyage to New Zealand offered me the opportunity to receive the newest release from ABEL, based in Wellington, ABEL The Apartment ahead of the rest of the world.  As a longtime customer and admirer of Abel and a friend of Frances, it is always my pleasure to write about her latest releases. ABEL The Apartment is a limited edition, created from the vision of my fellow New Zealander’s ex – winemaker turned perfume house, Frances Shoemack and Master Perfumer Isaac Sinclair, it is an exquisite and surprising addition to the Abel collection of 100% natural perfumes.

Amersfoot, Unsplash

Inspired by the Parisian apartment, near L’Arc du Triomphe and its elegant Parisian interiors, where Frances and Isaac come together to hold their meetings, they have encapsulated a simple elegance and that almost untouchable, for those of us who live outside of Paris, essence of its style. Sartorial elegance exudes from the very fabric of Parisian architecture, the lines, the decoration, the history that is suffused within the walls of every building in central Paris merged seamlessly with a more modern, edgy style.

The Apartment Interior, courtesy of Abel

ABEL The Apartment embodies all, its opulence is mirrored in gilded reflections throughout its sojourn on skin, the moment you wear it, utter sophistication overcomes you. The essence of that effortless Parisian style glides over you like an haute couture garment that fits you in every curve, custom fit, graceful hands smoothing down the exquisite fabric, as you inhale perhaps you feel that tad bit taller and imbued with a grace, perhaps you catch a glance of yourself in the grand gilded mirror over the central fireplace and draw breath, for Paris casts a spell that traverses time. In this space, in this high ceiling environment where the luminosity of Paris penetrates through sheer fabric undulating in the city breeze, you feel suspended in luxury, a simplistic merging of the historic and the modern.

Metin Ozer, Unsplash

Aromas of gastronomic delights swathed in a tart, slightly tipsy black cherry, immersed in a dangerous Cacao, yet when encased in a sensual partnership of creamy Tuberose and intoxicating Jasmine, it is so skillfully composed as to render the whole something beyond gourmand, beyond a darky sensual tryst, this is an epitome of Parisian style. Unmistakable yet understated, no need to shout, the right whispers suffice. It wears me so completely and stays in trails and wisps for days, somehow Paris remains on my skin, once visited, never forgotten.

 The Apartment, courtesy of Abel

ABEL The Apartment is stylishly atmospheric and lingers like the garments you never wish to remove for they gift a confidence and glamour long into the night, where the view from the apartment balcony is illuminated with the city’s night attire. Drawing close the velvet curtains and lighting candelabra casts another dimension into the four corners. The dress sweeps the polished parquet in arrivals caress and the opulent depths of the perfume emerge cast in Myrrh and Tolu Balsam, refined and composed, welcoming guests into the perfumed lobby as if entering a cloistered enclave, a whispered place where those who know, know. Kisses on the cheek, the subtle touch and the eyes that exchange nodded glances as you are welcomed in. A cocoon of luxury, a chrysalis of all potential.

The Apartment is a preferred place where we would all wish to inhabit, even for a short while, for here is the refinement of a new luxury, a polishing of Hausmannian architecture and modern lines on the interior, it exudes an eternal sense of class and style without compromising its modernity.  It was chosen as one of my 10 Best of 2024 perfumes here.

Note from the brand – The Apartment is a Limited-Edition scent made from sustainable, upcycled ingredients, and housed in off-cut packaging — a modern reimagining of luxury fragrance. True to the ethos of Abel Oder and Frances Shoemack, Founder. An upcycled ingredient in fragrance is made of a waste or by-product — the cherry and cacao notes in The Apartment are upcycled, the scent molecules extracted from food production waste-water using patented “Symtech” technology, a process developed by our major fragrance supplier.

TOP: Tart cherry, Rum; HEART: Tuberose, cacao, Jasmine; BASE: Myrrh, Tolu Balsam

Danu Seith-Fyr, Contributor

My thanks as always for trust and friendship from Frances and ABEL, a bottle of The Apartment received with my gratitude, so good I purchased another.

ABEL The Apartment courtesy of the brand

Thanks to the generosity of ABEL and Frances Shoemack we have a 30ml bottle of The Apartment for one registered reader in the US, EU, UK, NZ and Australia .YOU MUST REGISTER OR YOU NOT BE ELIGIBLE. Please leave a comment about what strikes you about Danu’s review and where you live. Draw closes 1/10/2024

Editor’s Note: Abel is a 100 PERCENT NATURAL house. Black Anise was Michelyn’s and Ermano’s Best Natural Perfume of 2023, a Best of Scent 2023 for Ermano and Michelyn along with and Danu.  As reported by Ermano Picco in 2017, Isaac Sinclair was a pupil of Maurice Roucel

Please read Cafleurebon reviews of ABEL, Cobalt Amber, Red Santal and Green Cedar by the late, great and much missed Senior Editor, Emeritus Robert Hermann, Nurture and Cyan Nori Deputy Editor and Natural Perfumery Editor, Ida Meister. ABEL Overview, Enjoy Danu’s reviews of Pink Iris, Laundry Day Black Anise.

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