Le Labo in Edinburgh — The Weekend Enthusiast

Some exciting news for fellow parfume lovers: the popular New York perfumery Le Labo has recently opened their first boutique outside London, in the heart of Edinburgh's Georgian New Town.

You may not have spotted it yet, and wonder where it's located? Next time you're in George Street, remember to look down: the beautiful wabi-sabi style Le Labo Edinburgh store is in a cute New Town basement under number 46a George Street. Back in July, along with fellow grammer friends, I was kindly invited by Le Labo to have a sneak peek of the boutique and smell all their gorgeous parfumes.

I must admit that although I previously heard about the brand, I did not know much about it and very much wondered what all the 'hype' was about. Needless to say, by the end of the night I completely fell for Le Labo.

Thanks to the lovely Sylvia and the Le Labo Edinburgh team I learned about the brand values and what really makes Le Labo different.

The brand is known about its cruelty-free ethos, with no animal testing involved.
The focus is on craftmanship - all Le Labo parfumes are blended in store, which makes the whole experience personal and memorable. They even personalise the parfume labels with your name, the name of the store and the person who blended your parfume.
They have 16 core unisex scents and the most popular ones include Santal 33 and Thé Noir 29.
They also have city exclusives, although not yet for Edinburgh. This means that you can get special Le Labo parfumes when visiting their stores abroad.
They offer 20% discount on refills to encourage recycling.
Besides the parfume collection, Le Labo also has a range of home scents, men's grooming products, body washes and lotions.

It's always a difficult task to choose 'the one', the parfume which really represents you. At the end of the evening, we all ended up with different scents.

The lovely Shawna of @exploringedinburgh chose Thé Noir 29, a beautiful scent which would have been my second choice. The composition contains bergamot, fig and bay leaves and the depth of cedar wood, vetiver and musk.
Martin of @snapsbymartin went for the classic Santal 33. The perfect example that Le Labo scents are truly unisex and can be worn by both ladies and gentlemen.
I hesitated between Thé Noir 29 and Rose 31 for ages. And in the end I tried Labdanum 18 and went for it without any further hesitation. It is certaily 'the one' for me and makes me feel so good whenever I wear it - smoky and powdery at the same time, such a beautiful scent.

After a few weeks of wearing my Le Labo Labdanum 18, I am still impressed by this beautiful and amazingly long-lasting scent. I can still smell it by the end of a long day, which is a true indication of craftmanship. While the price tag may seem expensive at first glance, the quality parfume in the bottle and the personalised experience make this investment worthwhile.

Le Labo City Exclusives

I mentioned earlier Le Labo city exclusives, scents you can only get if you visit a particular Le Labo store abroad. How about smelling the scent of Paris, Moscow or Tokyo?

The good news is that during the month of September you can get them all online or at your local store, without the need of passports, visas and plane tickets. While I love travelling, I could not be more excited to smell the special city scents at my local Edinburgh Le Labo boutique. Which city scent would you love to smell?

All photos by The Edinburgh Enthusiast (C).

Acknowledgement: While I was kindly gifted a Labdanum 18 parfume by Le Labo, the views and opinions expressed on this blog are honest and purely my own. Special thanks to the lovely Sylvia and the Le Labo Edinburgh team for hosting us.