Coucou

In youth my father would treat me to a frosted glass dish with a big scoop of the creamiest vanilla ice cream topped with fragrant pink lychees, a fruit that seemed to be — to a boy with a wild imagination — almost alien. In those years my friends and I would pick wild berries on the nearby hillside until our eager fingers and lips were stained ink-black. They were warm days filled with wonderous smells and tastes and it seemed they would never end. But end they did, and boyhood pleasures of edible treats and the heady scent of sweet gardenia and jasmine bushes growing near a popular family picnic spot soon became distant memories.

It is from the dreamworld those memories now inhabit that the idea of Coucou emerged. I had watched a Belgian coming-of-age film during which one of the characters, a matronly piano accordionist, bellowed a joyful “Coucou!” (French slang for hello) in greeting to her friends. The film stirred up many memories of my own juvenile years and so, as was perhaps to be expected, childhood dominated my sleep. Blossoms of whitest gardenia, mounds of ice cream, perfumed fruit and the odour of freshly cut lawns swirled around me. I awoke with an intense urge to put my empyrean dream into scent. And so I did… it is Coucou and now I share it with you.

“In a harbour grene aslepe whereas I lay,
The byrdes sang swete in the middes of the day,
I dreamed fast of mirth and play:
In youth is pleasure, in youth is pleasure.”—Robert Wever (An Enterlude called Lusty Juventus, 1557)

—Jamie Frater, Perfumer & Creative Director

Production

Ref 926000 batch 2459606. Coucou has been matured for four weeks and macerated for three months. All of our perfumes are aged in a naturally temperate environment and hand-turned daily to obtain smooth and refined fragrances of distinction.

Application

Coucou comes in a natural spray for easy application. One spray each to the nape of the neck and wrists should be sufficient for all day wearing.

Ingredients

Alcohol, Parfum (Fragrance), Aqua (Water), Geraniol, Benzyl Salicylate, Linalool, Benzyl Benzoate, Farnesol, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Coumarin, Hydroxycitronellal, Benzyl Cinnamate, Isoeugenol, Cinnamyl Alcohol, Citral, Cinnamal, Eugenol, Benzyl Alcohol, BHT.

Ingredients may change from time to time. To ensure that this perfume is suitable for your use please read the outer packaging of your purchase.

Made in Wellington, New Zealand.