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Penhaligon's newest potion, Bold Blend, steps boldly into the spotlight – a vibrant, mischievous spritz carrying rather more than 150 years of British perfumery behind it, and not a little cheek.
Bold Blend is Penhaligon's new aromatic green eau de parfum, created by perfumer Paul Guerlain and launched in 2026 as the first addition to the British house's Potions & Remedies collection since 2023. It pairs a sharp peppermint-and-black-pepper opening with a green heart of clary sage and violet leaf, and a warm, woody base of palo santo, cypress and cypriol.
Distinctive, with a pronounced streak of eccentricity – a quality the house has always worn rather better than most – the result is a fragrance built entirely on contrast: bracing up top, resolute underneath, the olfactory equivalent of a brisk cold-water swim followed by a very good armchair. Paul Guerlain, the nose responsible, describes the aromatics as "an unwavering blast of strength," while the warm, nuanced woods "reveal the determination of the fragrance that endures."
There is a small piece of house history smuggled into the bottle. Palo santo – an ingredient long associated with introspection and vitality, and solemnly burnt by the earnest in candlelit rooms the world over – enters the Penhaligon's palette here for the very first time, opening, as the house would have it, a new chapter in the collection's olfactory storytelling.
The campaign, one is pleased to report, matches the juice. Penhaligon's frames Bold Blend as a confident stride forward, heritage reimagined "through a playful lens," under the gloriously cheeky rallying cry to shed the shy. This, it promises, is a fragrance that moves forward. It runs. It laughs. It climbs on things it shouldn't. It is modern luxury introduced, with a firm handshake, to British humour – and a gentle dare to step rather further outside one's comfort zone than is strictly sensible.
Bold Blend is available in 100ml and 50ml at Penhaligon's boutiques and penhaligons.com.
Created by perfumer Paul Guerlain, Bold Blend opens on top notes of peppermint and black pepper, reveals a heart of clary sage and violet leaf, and rests on a base of palo santo, cypress and cypriol. It is available at Penhaligon's boutiques and at penhaligons.com.
Bold Blend belongs to Potions & Remedies, the Penhaligon's collection it now joins. The range is drawn from the splendid conceit of founder William Penhaligon's "forgotten formulas" – a candlelit laboratory of herbs and elixirs promising to cure, or indeed to procure, altered states. Its earlier members answer to names such as Eau the Audacity and A Balm of Calm, bottled in apothecary-style flacons dressed in vintage-style labels and faux-prescriptions. It is heritage played, with a perfectly straight face, as a wink.
Which is, in the end, the whole trick of the house. To understand why a spritz of Bold Blend feels like considerably more than a passing novelty, it helps to know the 155-year story behind it: the Cornish barber, the bathhouse, the royal warrants and the bottle reduced to rubble in the Blitz. We tell it in full in our deep dive on Penhaligon's, the British cult perfume house.
What does Penhaligon's Bold Blend smell like? Bold Blend is an aromatic green eau de parfum. It opens with peppermint and black pepper, moves into a heart of clary sage and violet leaf, and settles on a woody base of palo santo, cypress and cypriol – fresh and bracing at first, warm and woody as it dries down.
Who created Bold Blend? Bold Blend was created by perfumer Paul Guerlain for Penhaligon's.
What collection does Bold Blend belong to? It is the first addition since 2023 to Penhaligon's Potions & Remedies collection, a range themed around founder William Penhaligon's "forgotten formulas" and presented in apothecary-style bottles.
When was Bold Blend launched and where can you buy it? Bold Blend launched on 1 March 2026 and is available in 50ml and 100ml at Penhaligon's boutiques and at penhaligons.com.
Is palo santo new for Penhaligon's? Yes. Bold Blend introduces palo santo to the Penhaligon's palette for the first time, where it anchors the fragrance alongside cypress and cypriol.
What does "shed the shy" mean? It is the campaign line for Bold Blend – Penhaligon's playful invitation to wear the fragrance as a dose of confidence and step outside your comfort zone.
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Get the insider news and lowdown on what we've been up to, where we've been, and who we've met along the way. Be the first to discover new places and get the scoop on our favourites.