Dior’s new fragrance bottles the last hour of a summer evening in Grasse

Dior’s La Collection Privée has a new addition: Jasmin des Anges Esprit de Parfum, created by perfume creation director Francis Kurkdjian around the point in late summer when the sun turns red over Grasse and the jasmine flowers picked that same morning start releasing the heat they’ve absorbed all day. It’s a heavier, more intense reworking of the 2018 original, and the seventh fragrance in the Collection Privée line to get this treatment, following Gris Dior, Lucky, Rouge Trafalgar, Ambre Nuit, Oud Ispahan and Bois d’Argent.

The scent draws on two separate jasmine sources, Grandiflorum from Dior’s own growing partnerships in Grasse established over 20 years ago, and jasmine from FFL-certified partners in Egypt. Kurkdjian describes the effect as almost “compote-like”, with sweet strawberry and juicy peach notes rising up under the floral base. You could compare it to the kind of fruitiness that only shows up in the last, heat-soaked flowers of the season.

Christian Dior actually bought Château de la Colle Noire in the Grasse region in the 1950s as a retreat from Paris, and Dior’s flower partnerships there, also covering May rose, neroli and tuberose, now spanning nine estates across the south of France.

Jasmin des Anges Esprit de Parfum (80ml) launches exclusively at Harrods, Knightsbridge in August, before wider release at Dior boutiques and Dior.com.