The New Unofficial Scent of New York City

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As a co-founder of the international fragrance design trade show Elements, Frederick Bouchardy has sniffed countless New York-inspired scents over the years — “but I never found one that smelled like New York to me,” the Manhattan native says. Next month, Bouchardy, who is also the brains behind the Brooklyn-based fragrance studio Joya, offers his olfactory take on his hometown with the launch of a new perfume oil, Foxglove. “I grew up on the Upper West Side across the street from Central Park,” he says, “so the Park was my initial muse, and then it became an exploration of the entire botanical history of all the parks and wetlands here.”

Bouchardy and his team spent two years delving into the city’s pre-colonial landscape and poring over numerous archival materials, including the seminal book “Central Park: A History and a Guide” by Henry Hope Reed, the Park’s first curator. Together with the perfumer Rayda Vega, he distilled this extensive research into an intoxicating unisex blend of saltmeadow cordgrass, hyacinth leaves, jasmine and white cedar. “I wanted a little white floral with a really fresh green part that smells like you’re ripping the plants and flowers open,” he explains, “and also a sort of creamy, honey undertone that is perhaps becoming our signature.”

You won’t, however, find a trace of foxglove in the perfume — after all, it’s an odorless plant — but according to Bouchardy, the biennial’s attributes rendered it a fitting name for his most personal creation yet. “While researching foxglove, I read somewhere that it covered New York City in the 19th century, and because it has no smell, it can become the ‘mascot’ of the scent of New York City,” he says. “It’s also a bit poisonous, and of course the city has an element of danger.”

Joya Foxglove perfume oil, $112, will be available October 13th at net-a-porter.com.

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