Natural: Blooming Marvellous
By Jo Phillips
The idea of using a flower for the core of a perfume is not new; it’s as old as perfume itself. However, people revisit it over and over exactly for this reason: like the floral pattern it’s a classic which always finds way to please us. At the same time, if you want to make a mark and create something new from the old, you have to bring some individual artistic flare to the fragrance.
Andrew Goetz has done just that. You may not be familiar with him by name, but think of the wonderful body care brand Malin and Goetz and you’re in the right ballpark.
Well, now the duo have started the perfume line Atelier Bloem.
The Atelier Bloem perfume range was setup to recreate the beautiful collage of scents and aromas of the Bloemenmarkt (or flower market) in central Amsterdam. Goetz discovered the market while living in Amsterdam in the 1980s, and has always come back to its scents for inspiration. each perfume is distilled and uniquely crafted to evoke a flower or sentiment of the age, and to bring the famous Dutch love of flora across the Atlantic. In the UK the scents are available exclusively at Liberty London. 
Black Tulip
The tulip is probably the most familiar flower in the Netherlands. During the Dutch Golden Age artists and the new middle class developed such an infatuation for the flower that an economic bubble named tulipomania was born. Famously, the flowers were often valued higher than houses. This complex fragrance has been inspired by the passion surrounding the flower.
The history of the Iris is steeped in mythology and mysticism. Functioning as a muse for artists, drawings of the flowers have been found in Ancient Egyptian palaces. Vincent van Gogh followed this tradition, with his paintings of the flowers among the most evocative in the entirety of his work. Andrew Goetz’s love of them comes from the headiness of the scent and a will to bottle what has inspired so much artistic innovation.
1614 is named after the year that the Hudson Valley was ‘discovered’ by the Dutch. Goetz’s house sits amidst a clover field of Knowles which emit a sweet fragrance every morning of Summer. This smell, dating back hundreds of years is the artistic aim of 1614.
This fragrance harks back to the history of New York (previously New Amsterdam). The official flower of New York has always been the Rose – so this is the foundation of the scent, along with the multicultural nature of the city, hence the mosaic of fragrances within it.
William is a sly wink to the Dutch Prince William of Orange, who came to take the British crown. It’s a complex and rich scent, fused throughout with Orange.
Henry Hudson sailed the ship Halve Maen (Half Moon) for the Dutch East India Company, in search of a new route to China. He never found this route, but he did find his way to the Hudson Valley – his namesake find. As Spring ends and Summer arrives, the area is filled with a rich aroma and at night, the glow of the half moon. This scent arouses imagined memories of this voyage and nostalgia for the period.
