Eliza's Love Letter of a Perfume

On a gorgeous afternoon a few weeks ago, I met up with Jan Ahlgren, the creator of the luxury perfume brand Vilhelm Parfumerie, to learn about his young business. He brought with him his wife and collaborator, Polly, who is currently finishing up law school and is, not so incidentally, the inspiration for the brand's flagship fragrance, Dear Polly. It is, in essence and intention, a love letter.

Ahlgren works with the perfumer Jerome Epinette, one of the masterminds behind Byredo's scents. Epinette hadn't met Polly prior to creating the fragrance, so it's entirely based off Ahlgren's description of her. The scent is sweet and warm and completely lovely, a mix of black amber, apple, Bergamot and Ceylon. (Polly is a tea drinker.) I find it immensely comforting — it smells a lot like a black tea lotion my mother used to wear — and the friends and coworkers I've spritzed with a sample bottle universally love it. 

Clearly, Ahlgren's memo to Epinette was a glowing one. This beats having a song written about you, any day.