MY STORY
Liz Astor, 1968
I was born in Norwich, the younger daughter of a family that made confectionery; Quality Street among the brands you would know. I have been a model, a teacher, a mother, an author and a fundraiser. At seventy-six I became a perfumer.
Nineteen seventy-two
Twelve days in the Indian Ocean
After school I modelled, then trained as a teacher. In 1972 I set off overland to India and the Far East on what was then called the Hippie Trail, eight months of it.
It ended on a small cargo boat that became lost in the Indian Ocean for twelve days, with no food and no water aboard. We were found. I have never forgotten the light on that water, and years later it became a fragrance.
Olivia
What I learnt from my daughter
My daughter Olivia was four when she was diagnosed with autism, dyspraxia and a learning disability. I set about learning everything I could: speech and language, physiotherapy, how a child comes to walk, to talk, to be understood. Years of it, and every tiny advancement was worth celebrating.
When she was seven I decided to raise money and awareness for the National Autistic Society. I climbed Kilimanjaro, then led expeditions to Outer Mongolia, Machu Picchu and Cuba. I abseiled down Canary Wharf and ran the London Marathon in 2005. More than half a million pounds so far, and I am not finished.
In 2006 I wrote Loving Olivia: Bringing Up My Autistic Daughter. It was not a comfortable book to write. A novel followed in 2012, Since You Went Away.
Twenty twenty-six
A new chapter, at seventy-six
I have loved beauty, travel and the way a scent can return you to a moment, all my life. So I made three fragrances with a master perfumer in Grasse, using the finest natural ingredients: where I began, where I wandered, and what I became.
People tell me it is an unusual age to start something. I would say it is exactly the right one.
The perfumer Liz chose
She wanted one nose for the house
The house is Liz's, and so is the brief. She wanted one perfumer to hold all three fragrances together, went looking for her, and found Hélène Prévot in Grasse.
Hélène knew at ten that she would be a perfumer. Her mother worked at Parfums Givenchy and brought home the samples that became Ysatis. She studied chemistry, trained at ISIPCA in Versailles, the school Jean-Paul Guerlain founded, and worked in England before returning to Grasse, where perfume is made.
She has run her own perfumery since 2014, for international houses, private clients and cultural institutions. Since 2024 she has been Professor of Formulation at the École Supérieure du Parfum in Grasse, and she has her own collection, L’Horloge de Flore, built on Linnaeus’s flower clock.
Hethersett, Nadira No.9 and Adrift were made to Liz's brief, with Hélène, from the finest natural ingredients.
Proud to support the National Autistic Society and other autism charities.
As the mother of an autistic daughter, I have learnt to celebrate every accomplishment, however small, and to think outside the box when challenges arise. I have been a Vice President of the National Autistic Society for over thirty years, and I also support other autism and learning disability charities. Their work for autistic people and their families is extraordinary, and supporting them means a great deal to me.
