On Isle of Blanc: Q&A with Kate and Anna

On Isle of Blanc: Q&A with Kate & Anna

Cloudless skies, shimmering seas and salty skin at Bondi Beach. Reminiscent of 1960's surf culture, sea spray and endless summer. Enter, Isle of Blanc.

The latest scent to grace our range of genderless fragrances, Isle of Blanc is citrus immersed in solar and salt complemented by coconut, patchouli and notes of wood. A light, summery scent with an edge of marine. Absolute bliss.

For its makers, Anna and Kate and Vahy’s world-leading perfumer, it’s been a passion project. A trip down memory lane. And a lot of hard work over twelve-plus months to create this invigorating, fresh and uniquely complex scent.

This week we sat down with Kate and Anna to get the low-down on how the new Isle of Blanc came to be and what makes it so refreshingly different to its original formulation (spoiler: almost everything).  

The new Isle of Blanc has been a long time in the making. Tell us the journey you’ve been on to develop this newly invigorated scent and the story behind its creation.

Kate: When we first launched with our Australian perfumer Isle of Blanc was one of our original six scents. A year or so ago we brought on an internationally renowned perfumer, who not only developed our newer releases but also took time to review and improve our existing range. Isle of Blanc was the last original scent to be released as its reformulation took more than 12 months to get perfect. We originally tried to work with the old formulation and adapt it but weren’t getting the world class results to match the rest of our range. So we decided to go off script and instead start from scratch and build a brand new scent. Our phenomenal perfumer was instructed to throw all preconceived ideas of what Isle of Blanc was out the window, and create a new and innovative marine citrus scent that would transport the wearer to Bondi Beach and be an ode to the nostalgic 1960s surf culture. This was the transformative moment for Isle of Blanc, with this new notion in mind our perfumer developed Isle of Blanc and within seconds to trying the new scent out we knew it was the perfect scent. Isle of Blanc but not as it has ever been known before!

Isle of Blanc has an incredibly complex and delicately balanced scent profile - with some exciting and innovative ingredients! Tell us about the scent notes, and what Isle of Blanc might evoke for the wearer.

Anna: Isle of Blanc is simply one of the most exquisite aquatic citrus scents available. It starts with top notes of sparkling pomelo, fresh mint, lemon zest and crisp ginger before delving into heart notes of solar orange flower,  marine, blue algae (fucus), white flowers, juniper berry and cypress complemented by base notes of coconut, salt, golden amber, patchouli, cedarwood and vetiver.   

To create a stunning marine scent that was better than the world-leading synthetic scents in this variety with 100% natural ingredients was incredibly difficult so we had to use best-in-class innovative ingredients like blue algae and our amazing steam distilled naturals. The end result has honestly blown our minds, one spray and your senses are transported to Bondi Beach, the salty, milky smell of sun soaked skin, ocean mist and beautiful coconut and sun bleached woods. This scent is summer in a bottle!

What do you personally love most about the new Isle of Blanc scent and what are you most excited about for Vahy customers to discover, learn, or explore?   

Anna: The thing we love most about this scent is that unless someone told you, there is simply no way you’d ever suspect it is natural. It’s better than any marine synthetic we’ve smelt yet it has all the benefits of being 100% natural and made with ingredients that comply with ISO 9235 (the international standard that relates to natural fragrance notes). 

Kate: Outside of this, I am a huge fan of light, airy, summery scents and the raw beauty of Australia’s coastline. This fragrance is the pure essence of coastal summertime in Australia.  

Our new Isle of Blanc scent is available now for both home and body. Discover Isle of Blanc here.