sun elixirs

As our relationships increasingly unfold through our phones, the line between connection and control can become harder to recognise. From location sharing and monitoring online activity to expectations around constant access, behaviours that may initially appear to be expressions of care can become forms of control. As part of YSL Beauty’s Abuse Is Not Love initiative, they aim to encourage greater awareness, give people the language to identify concerning behaviours and open up a more honest dialogue around what healthy modern relationships can look like.

To explore how technology is reshaping modern relationships and the warning signs of abuse that can be easy to overlook, Dr. Nina Jane Patel, Lead Research Consultant for YSL Beauty and Movement Psychotherapist, and YSL Beauty Black Opium ambassador and actress Alisha Boe sit down with Schön! to better understand how controlling behaviour manifests and how to learn the difference between care and control — because abuse is not love.

videography + creative direction. Alix Taccardo
editing. Jules Redlich
interview. Alix Taccardo + Kelsey Barnes
special thanks. YSL Beauty + Soluna Comms

Claudia Mauriño.

Loewe Perfumes is giving perfume the full art-object treatment again, but this time there are five new bottles to add to the cabinet. Following the launch of its Crafted Collection last autumn, the Spanish house is expanding its most luxurious fragrance line with ‘Field Diary’, ‘Sweet Woodland’, ‘Rosetopia’, ‘Smoky Rain’ and ‘Verdant Grove’, five scents that take familiar ingredients somewhere considerably more intriguing.

The launch showcases a material dialogue lensed by photographer Claudia Mauriño inside the legendary Silicon House, an avant-garde plastic and plexiglass structure designed by architects SelgasCano. Each heavy, handblown glass flacon acts as a sculptural object within the light-flooded rooms, capped with naturally textured granite blocks that ensure no two bottles look identical.

The original Crafted Collection was built around the idea of perfumery as an artisanal practice, with each fragrance presented in sculptural bottles inspired by hand-blown glass and finished with granite caps. The new additions continue that approach, treating scent as something that belongs as much on a dressing table as it does on the skin.

Claudia Mauriño.

Claudia Mauriño.

The lineup introduces ‘Field Diary’, a bright, citrusy blend of green mandarin, blood orange, and lychee supported by orange blossom and creamy sandalwood, running parallel to the warmer ‘Sweet Woodland’, which spikes mandarin and rose with rich cognac and dark patchouli. Florals receive a completely contemporary rewrite in ‘Rosetopia’, a scent that wraps Damascena rose and pink pepper in a crisp grapefruit and peony envelope. For darker preferences, ‘Smoky Rain’ coordinates intense incense, white musk, and bergamot, while ‘Verdant Grove’ serves as a creamy gourmand choice, folding pistachio, powdery iris, and warm cedar-wood into a rich caramel base.

Loewe has also extended the collection beyond fragrance with a pistachio candle, alongside ‘Tomato Leaves’ body scrub and hand cream, creating a wider sensory world around some of the house’s favourite botanical references.

Claudia Mauriño.

Claudia Mauriño.

The house’s original Crafted fragrances were developed around unusually focused ingredients such as iris, vanilla and oud, with perfumer Nuria Cruelles using unexpected contrasts to pull familiar materials into new territory.

The new Crafted Collection fragrances are available now online. Find out more here.

photography. courtesy of Claudia Mauriño for Loewe Perfumes
words. Gennaro Costanzo

Alisha Boe for YSL Beauty.

Brick Lane had a YSL takeover last night and the guest list made the vintage trove shine more than ever. YSL Beauty brought its ‘Block Party’ to Rough Trade East, filling the East London record shop with Skepta, Romeo Beckham, Cruz Beckham, Lila Moss and a long list of the city’s fashion and music crowd. 

The evening was tied to Black Opium Pink Glaze, the newest addition to YSL Beauty’s best-known night-time fragrance franchise. Alisha Boe, the brand’s Global Ambassador and new face of Black Opium, got the party moving before Lola Young took over for an exclusive live performance. “The Black Opium girl to me is fun, unapologetically herself, and daring,” she told Schön! in an exclusive interview. 

The choice of Rough Trade East was a smart one: sitting on Brick Lane, the venue carries the sort of music-first history that suits YSL Beauty’s long relationship with artists and nightlife far better than another anonymous luxury event space could. The ‘Block Party’ series began in Madrid before travelling through a string of cities, with each edition taking cues from its local creative scene. London got the full East End treatment, with records, fashion, fragrance and live music occupying the same room.

Alisha Boe for YSL Beauty at the London Block Party.

The YSL Beauty Block Party in London and Lola Young.

Pink Glaze supplied the evening’s beauty hook. Launched as a new interpretation of Black Opium, the fragrance keeps the original coffee-floral signature but adds a juicy strawberry accord, sensual jasmine and an amber-wood base. The bottle has also been given a darker pink lacquer with a black centre and the familiar YSL Cassandre, making the new scent look almost as ready for a night out as the people wearing it. 

The scent marks another chapter for Black Opium, which launched in 2014 as the first feminine fragrance to put black coffee at the heart of its composition and has since become one of YSL Beauty’s major fragrance names. Pink Glaze takes that recognisable coffee accord somewhere fruitier, with the strawberry developed from a naturally extracted ingredient and jasmine sourced from the YSL Ourika Community Gardens. 

Romeo Beckham and Lola Young by Jeff Spicer.

Skepta and Lila Moss by Jeff Spicer.

Discover the new Black Opium Pink Glaze here.

photography. courtesy of Jeff Spicer, YSL Beauty
words. Gennaro Costanzo