Fragrances, flowers and flying: Every reason to visit Heathrow this week

Get ready for the latest selfie opportunity to take London by storm. Yesterday, Heathrow airport revealed a giant art installation dedicated to fragrance and it's all made of flowers. Heathrow have worked with world renowned florist Larry Walsh to create a giant floral map of the world. Over 2,000 flowers, and other curiosities such as raw amber stones and sandalwood, make up the 11 x 18 structure, which finds its home at Terminal 5 at Heathrow from now until the 24th of September. Pretty epic for a celebration of the new season of fragrances, right? 

For those of you that don't know, or haven't already shopped, Heathrow sells 2.6 million bottles of perfume every year. That's about five bottles every minute. Yowsers! Starting to see why there's such a celebration in place? This is the place to go for people looking to purchase scents galore. And of course Heathrow are sitting on a wealth of knowledge when it comes to knowing what their customers like to purchase. They've released a new global fragrance report that showcases which countries tend to lean in certain directions when it comes to scents, and all is revealed in the massive floral map of the world. Each country on the map depicts the scents that feature most in the most beloved fragrances of different nations. Of course this all centers around the four key fragrance notes for Autumn Winter: woody, fresh, oriental and floral.

Now a few random factoids here, that I picked up from the fragrance report that I thought you might find interesting:

• The most popular scents around the glove are jasmine, lavender, rose, vanilla and sandalwood.
• Germans are the most likely to buy a fragrance based on scent, while people from India are more concerned with the brand name when choosing a fragrance with more than 22 percent of those asked admitting that they would choose a fragrance based on the name of bottle. 
• Proud to report that Brits are least likely to be influenced by celebrities (no Britney Spears in a bottle for us, thank you very much) as only 2% admitted they would buy a fragrance based on celeb endorsements. On a sidetone, 22 percent of Brits admitted that certain fragrances evoke memories of a past lover and one in five British men stated they wear fragrance to feel more desirable. Meanwhile, 34% of women in Britain say they wear fragrances to boost their confidence and feel more happy. Amen, sisters. 
• More perfume is sold in Heathrow Airport than any other location in the UK. Say what?!

Now, not to blow your mind of anything here, but there are 3,405 fragrances available to purchase at Heathrow right now. This is the fragrance floor that dreams are made of. Heathrow are regularly getting exclusives, they have all the latest launches and they've got people "in the know" and on the floor ready to assist you. Although, after reading through the facts stated above, I think you'll agree that we are a nation that is very opinionated and educated on our scents! Show us the offering and point us to the tills!

Speaking of tills, for the rest of September, World Duty Free will also offer a limited edition gift wrap inspired by the fragrance installation, available for all passengers purchasing a fragrance this month. You have to love last minute gifts on the fly, or just before you fly as the case may be here. 

Head over to Heathrow this week. This is a short installation period, but don't worry... the fragrances will remain! Happy pre-flight shopping! 

Written in collaboration with Heathrow Airport.