I found a suitcase filled with pants and socks! As you do. There seems to be a neverending conveyor belt of boxes and cases that were stowed away in the storage container when we were having the house rebuilt; I thought I’d unpacked them all, but obviously not. Anyway, most of the socks and pants looked  old and bobbly (loads had holes chewed in them, thanks to Dexter the Dog’s penchant for knicker-stealing) and went straight into the fabric recycling bag, but that’s not what struck me as I unzipped the suitcase.

No, what struck me was the most amazing smell. A smell I recognised but couldn’t quite put my finger on. And when I say “smell”, I mean the entire contents of the case were scented with this gorgeous fragrance. It was like taking the lid off the world’s biggest reed diffuser! A quick shuffle through the knickers and out I came with the culprit: a prettily wrapped Roger & Gallet Fleur de Figuier soap. How can one little (actually quite big-ish) soap cause such a beautiful stink? I’ve reviewed Fleur de Figuier before – it was created by perfume supremo Francis Kurkdjian (the man behind many of your best-loved scents) – but I don’t really use soap, so must have randomly shoved this into the suitcase.

Some other deliciously figgy scents…

And – oh – how glad I am that I did. The silk-paper-wrapped soap is now housed in my lingerie drawer  and a year in storage has not even remotely dulled its scent. It is warm and seductive, figgy and fruity and it’s colourful and heady and absolutely uplifting. You can find the individually wrapped travel soaps on Escentual.com here – £5.50.