Heaven scent with a real nose for business

Imogen Russon-Taylor is the woman behind Scotland’s first fragrance house, Kingdom.

Having previously worked in the whisky industry, Imogen knew that she had a well-trained sense of smell, but with her new venture, she has been inspired by Scotland’s rich heritage and people.

However, she admits she feared that: ‘the scents that I came up with lacked depth.’

When Imogen teamed up with perfume maker Euan McCall they were able to blend, bottle and mature three scents that tell the story of Scotland.

‘Making perfume is like creating a work of art,’ says Imogen. ‘I sometimes have difficulty putting the brush down, but you need to know when to stop.’

Kingdom Scotland’s fragrances are all unisex and are tied deeply to their Scottish heritage.

Even the packaging gives a nod to the house’s capital home, using a typeface designed by Miller & Richard, a type foundry that closed its doors in the city in 1952.

Metamorphic, by Kingdom Scotland

Metamorphic is inspired by Scotland’s complex geology, the smouldering smokiness representative of the heat and pressure of rock formation.

And some might say inspired by Imogen’s former career in the whisky industry. Portal is a gateway to Scotland’s ancient forests. This herbaceous and woody scent is created with bergamot on a base of vetiver and pine.

Albaura invokes the freshness of ice and snow with Arctic poppy at its heart. This fragrance was inspired by Isobel Wylie Hutchison who was an Arctic explorer and botanist, born in West Lothian in 1889. She travelled widely and Kingdom Scotland’s first wrote for National Geographic, amongst other publications. Her love of cold places has helped Imogen to create a fresh, bold and pure fragrance in her honour.

Kingdom Scotland’s first collection of fragrances is released as limited edition, numbered bottles which have all been created, matured and bottled right here in Edinburgh for a true scent of home.

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