By Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon
CJ Travel Editor
Something smells good on Bermuda – and it’s not just the flowers.
The Bermuda Perfumery has just released Mary Celestia, a limited-edition fragrance that replicates a scent discovered, corked and intact, on the wreck of the Mary Celestia, which floundered off Bermuda’s south shore 150 years ago.
In a nod to the year of the shipwreck, only 1,864 bottles of the fragrance have been produced by the perfumery, which was established in the 1920s and is headquartered in an 18th-century coral stone-and-cedar house in the historic town of St George’s.
Most famous for its Lili Bermuda collection of fragrances, the company is run by Isabelle Ramsay-Braxtone, who painstakingly replicated the citrus, rosewood and amber notes of the original Piesse & Lubin fragrance. “This perfume waited 150 years to be worn,” she said at the recent New York City launch. “And now, finally, it can be.”
Mary Celestia is packaged in a Bermuda cedar box, finished with a wax seal designed by the Royal Mint, and costs $225 for 3.4 ounces. Part proceeds from the sale of the fragrance will fund the preservation and promotion of Bermuda’s shipwreck heritage.