THE winner of a Cirencester department store’s ‘design a fragrance bottle’ competition has been announced.

Susan Brown was presented with her award – a place on a fragrance-making course worth £195 – at House of Fraser on February 8, after her design was selected by a panel of judges.

Standard readers were asked to enter fragrance bottle designs for the competition, which closed on December 20, to be in with a chance to win a voucher for the level one fragrance-making course at Cotswold Perfumery in Bourton-on-the-Water.

Susan, a yoga teacher who is also on an art class at Cirencester College, said she was delighted to win with her white lily-inspired design.

“I’ve previously designed business cards for my sister but this is the first time I’ve worked to a brief,” she said. “I’ve always liked art and I was very inspired when working on this. I do love white lilies. It came together very quickly and I enjoyed working on it very much.”

Entrants were simply told to create something which would capture a customer’s attention and which clearly demonstrated their inspiration. In Susan’s case it was her love of white lilies.

Allan Christian, support co-ordinator of the Fragrance Expert-run section of the store, who helped judge the competition, said: “Susan’s design was really nice. We all loved reading about her inspiration in the write-up. We could actually see that inspiration clearly in the design. It was fantastic how intricate it was.”

Carmelina Sammarco, Fragrance Expert instore manager, who led the competition, said: “With Susan’s design you could really almost smell the lilies by just looking at the bottle. That is what we wanted.

“We always welcome innovative ideas for our fragrances. Our products are their (the customers) products, so interaction is so important.

“This (the competition) was a way of reaching out to the customers as well as showcasing our own passion for what we do. People often fall in love with the bottle first when selecting a fragrance.”

“You need a fabulous colour and a fabulous design to go alongside a fabulous perfume,” she added.

Carmelina said there were no initial plans to use the winning entry beyond the competition but the experts at the Cotswold Perfumery are now very excited to see Susan’s design. “I don’t know exactly where it will go from here,” she added.