Eccentric, gothic, playful, sexual.
A woodland elf with a crazed costumiers dress sense.
Helena Bonham Carter is the only living actress one can imagine brining in her own clothes to star as Miss Havisham, the Red Queen or an ape.
But what perfume would be the perfect compliment to her apparel?
One that matches her character we feel…
Eccentric, gothic, playful, sexual…. that’s l’Artisan Parfumeur’s Voleur de Roses in four words.
A menacing black mantilla of patchouli to make an entrance, pulled back over the head when the audience is underway to reveal full rose lips that, when kissed, carry something of plums, the bitterness of their skins still intact.
In time, a note of heavy theatrical maquillage becomes apparent, for this is, after all a performance of a Queen.
Perhaps the closest thing Britain has to a ‘movie star’ as opposed to the more august ‘actress’, Helena is quite every bit as grand as that double barreled name might suggest.
Her paternal great grandfather was H.H. Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Prime Minister from 1908 to 1916, and that side of the family is littered with the great and the good from Florence Nightingale to the present day. Meanwhile on her mother’s side, her grandfather Eduardo Propper de Callejón saved thousands of Jews from the holocaust and was recognised as Righteous Among the Nations.
With that sort of pedigree, whilst Helena may not be a real queen she’s certainly screen aristocracy in every sense of the word.
Slice of antique wedding cake anyone?
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy.
The Perfumed Dandy. 
I adore the gorgeous Helena Bonham-Carter. If I had to choose a style icon among living celebrities it would be HBC. I can totally see Voleur de Roses for her. Good one, Mr. Dandy!
Dearest Lily
I do so agree. For many years Helena was mocked to the point of abuse by our dreadful popular press for her unique and original dress.
Then, just recently. she has come to be recognised for what she is… a style original, icon even. Gracing the cover of Vogue under that title just recently.
What’s more, her London home is just around the corner, so one sees here now and again, every bit as, diminutively, extraordinary in the flesh!
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
Oh don’t mind if I do have a slice of that wormy cake where the mice have made a home. I will need a very large pot of tea from the Mad Hatter’s party to wash it all down. Lovely review and such a different take than mine whick is replete with French gigolos! But non the less a perfect take on one of my favorite L’artisan Perfumes. I doff my hat and bow to your regal pen.
Dearest Lanier
Just read your review… and then had to take an alka seltzer, cold shower and short lie down in a darkened room.
Oh yes, there’s definitely something erotic going on in the Gothic here… you just brought it all so magically to the surface.
Splendid and spiffingly seedy.
Bravo!
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
I am so glad you liked it. Madame Pageau sends her regards!
Dearest Lanier
And Dandy winks saucily in her general direction!
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
Helena is perfection, and so is the damp earth, patchy, plummy rose of Voleur.
Dearest Dandy, as always, you get it so right.
Many thanks and much love,
Cheryl
Dearest Cheryl
Yes. Plummy. Helena is so very plummy in the very many senses of the word and earthy too.
She as also rather stolen this Dandy’s heart!
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
Yes Sir Dandy, you are spot on with the choice of Voleur de Roses, and I’d also say Helena could work Portrait of a Lady! Voleur de Roses makes me think of crumbling medieval castle rose gardens which would make a perfect backdrop for HBC (Oh no, her initials turn into a bank acronym, that’s not right!)
I loved her performance in The King’s Speech and I’ve always liked the fact that she’s a style icon despite her ‘diminutiveness’ as you put it! Her look is as far removed from the usual starved, botoxed and make-up plastered examples as it’s possible to be! Great hair too
Dearest Rose
So pleased you like this perfume despite the patchouli! It is handled here as it should be, not merely as an omnipresent hint of something thrown in without thought.
‘Crumbling castles’, yes, and moss (not oakmoss) for some reason this scent has an almost tactile quality of damp undergrowth for me.
I too loved Helena’s Queen Mum. In fact I thought it the best performance in a film too packed with rather too many ‘tricks up my sleeve’ and slightly egotistical displays of the actors’ art.
Portrait of a Lady… that would work well. She practically is a ‘Lady’ capital ‘L’ anyway!
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
Dear Mr Dandy
I love the review, I love Queen Helena and I would love to smell this delightfully named fragrance. Her style is wonderful simply because she ignores media pressure and my word, how Vivienne Westwood does suit her to a tee when she wears it!
She is a true English eccentric and a national treasure.
Your friend
IScent
Dearest Iscent
I have a sneaking feeling you might swoon over this Gothic romance of a perfume.
Helena gives me rather the same feeling.
She mentions in interviews that she has two principal style influences Dame Viv (as you quite correctly point out) and Marie Antoinette…. marvellous!
I was recently reading that she bought back her great grand dad’s Mill House at Sutton Courtenay… so now she can re-enact all those Merchant Ivories at her own country pile.
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
Dear Mr Dandy
I am immediately going to google Mill House. She deserves to be there.
Your friend
IScent
Dearest Iscent
Do, but prepare yourself from some serious property envy!
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy