The Buzz

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Helena Rubinstein Wanted

Smell Expensive for Less with these 6 Perfumes

Natori by Josie Natori

North-American Originals: Perfumers on Fall & Winter 3

North-American Originals: Perfumers on Fall & Winter 2

North-American Originals: Perfumers on Fall & Winter

My 2009 Halloween Shopping List

Marilyn Miglin Fo-Ti-Tieng

The Body Shop Love Etc.

Fall Fragrances: Cornucopia of Dark Fruits

L'Occitane Labdanum de Séville, Mimosa de l'Estérel

Robert Piguet Futur

Kate Moss Vintage

Frapin L'Humaniste

Patriotic Bestseller Perfumes: Discuss

Faguenat, Faganat...Fug?

Sniffing Rich Orientals in Paris

L'Artisan Parfumeur Havana Vanille

Dolce & Gabbana Rose The One

Guerlain Idylle - Part 1

Guerlain Idylle - Part 2

Kat Von D Saint & Sinner

Calvin Klein CK Free for Men

Mariah Carey Forever

WienerBlut Klubwasser

Prada L'Eau Ambrée

Serge Lutens Fille en Aiguilles

Britney Spears Circus Fantasy

Yves Saint Laurent Parisienne

Idole d'Armani

Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Tiaré-Blossom, Cherry Blossom

Hermès Eau d'Orange Verte, Eau de Pamplemousse Rose, Eau de Gentiane Blanche

Parfums de Nicolaï Weekend à Deauville

Serge Lutens Fourreau Noir

Essential Faith

Penhaligon's Anthology: Eau de Verveine, Extract of Limes, Gardenia, Night Scented Stock

Mac Naked Honey & Africanimal

Chopard Cascade

Lancôme Hypnôse Senses

Juliette Has a Gun Midnight Oud

Narciso Rodriguez Essence

Queen Latifah Queen

Benefit Laugh With Me LeeLee, There's Something About Sofia, My Place Or Yours Gina

The Body Shop White Musk White Hot Summer

Rochas Eau Sensuelle

L'Artisan Parfumeur Côte d'Amour

Chloe Eau de Parfum

Guerlain Les Fleurs du Guildo: An Early 19th Century Precursor of Marine Scents

Lush Vanillary

Byredo Bal d'Afrique

Zadig & Voltaire Tome 1 La Pureté - Part 1

Zadig & Voltaire Tome 1 La Pureté - Part 2

Guerlain Muguet

Guerlain Muguet (en français)

Spring Notes: Lily of the Valley & Dior

Chanel Cristalle Eau Verte

Christian Dior Escale à Pondichéry

Frédéric Malle Géranium pour Monsieur

Gobin-Daudé Sous Le Buis

Roger et Gallet Bois d'Orange

Montale Patchouli Leaves

Stetson All American

Stephen Jones by Comme des Garçons

Givenchy Harvest 2008: Ange ou Démon Jasmin Sambac, Amarige Ylang Ylang, Very Irresistible Rose Damascena, Organza Fleur d'Oranger

Yves Saint Laurent La Nuit de l'Homme

Yves Saint Laurent l'Homme

The Sex Factor in Men's Fragrances

Nina Ricci Love by Nina

Hermès Kelly Calèche EDP

Annick Goutal Un Matin d'Orage

Guerlain La Petite Robe Noire

Serge Lutens Nuit de Cellophane

Parfums MDCI Péché Cardinal

Hermès Vanille Galante - Part 1

Hermès Vanille Galante - Part 2


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May 2006 Archive

Page 5 of 7  •  1 2 3 4 5 6 7

May 16, 2006

Perfume Review & Musings: Coeur d'Eté by Miller Harris

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Coeur d'Eté (heart of summer) by Miller Harris starts off as if a garden full of gentle blossoms had suddenly and magically materialized before your eyes and quivering nostrils. You cannot quite make out the colors and the shapes of the flowers but you sense their abundance, their freshness, their loveliness. It evokes for me Claude Monet's Garden being rendered with touches of impressionistic and not so vivid, pastel coloring.

A description of the notes in this case does not help capture the personality of the perfume. Coeur d'Eté is seamless, a perfectly woven tapestry of notes that support each others and contribute to the final impression of the perfume.

For example, there are chocolate bean and licorice notes in the top notes but they are by no means felt individually. These notes just make the scented music of the perfume soar gently and mysteriously in the air. Sometimes a lilac note or a pear note will emerge fleetingly and fall back into the transparent, calm, and creamy folds of the fragrance. It is to my nose a rarefied and precious juice. The word that best describes its nature in my opinion is "delicate" pronounced softly please.

Coeur d'Eté starts like a beautiful fresh spray of flowers and then becomes slightly warmer and fruitier suggesting the passage from a garden to an orchard. There is also a tinge of the animalic that reminds us of our sexual nature in the midst of all this contemplation. Then, at some point, your skin starts to smell as if you had just stepped out of the ocean. Then, oh unexpected further surprise, you seem to be holding a baby in your arms and smelling its sweet-smelling head. The perfume reveals an extraordinary drydown which only improves with time. It is a superlative skin scent.

Lyn Harris composed this perfume while she was pregnant with her first child. Pregnancy is a time in their lives when women develop a heightened sense of smell. The perfume captures very well this experience, in reverse. This is the recreated ideal scent environment of a woman expecting a child, a barrier against the disturbing smells one notices particularly well at that time of life. I would recommend it as an ideal gift for moms-to-be and new moms. Beyond that, this perfume will make a beautiful perfume gift for anyone.

 
Top notes are chocolate bean, licorice, lemon, grapefruit, tangerine

Heart notes are banana, white pear, lilac, cassia, heliotrope

Base notes are sandalwood, benzoin, vanilla, fruity musk.

 

 A 100 ml bottle retails for $120. 


May 17, 2006

Scented Thoughts: On Comparing Perfumes

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While I was reviewing Coeur d'Eté and wearing it for the second time, I realized that this time I was comparing it to other sister scents. Smelling it then, I was less lost into it; I had switched on to an annoying analytical mode, or so I thought. As I felt somewhat disturbed by this, I decided to jot down some notes. Here they are:

I think that it (Coeur d'Eté) smells, however briefly so, a little bit like Champs-Elysées by Guerlain, a little bit like Carolina Herrera, and a little bit like Le Dix by Balenciaga, but all these being fused and made more subtle and complex. This, I think the second time that I try the scent. I cannot help but feel that it is rather reductionist on my part to try to break down the perfume into tiny bits and to find external references for it. In the end, it is not interesting.

It has a practical purpose which is to communicate better about a perfume with another person who has never smelled it, but might have come upon the other ones you mention. yet, I realize also that it is unfair to the perfumer. It is like trying, too soon, to decompose the colored pigments found on a picture instead of contemplating it. It is also unfair towards yourself as it distorts your perception of the perfume.

I am reminded of Edmond Roudnitska's advice. He once said that one should never attempt to compare a perfume to other scents because a perfume is by essence unique, meant to be appreciated on its own terms and that it was composed with that ontological orientation in mind. Doing otherwise would be like attempting to read two books at once or listening to two musics at once or deciphering a book instead of reading it. Confusion, cacophonia and analytical poverty will ensue.

I find that, perhaps, this strong idealistic streak we find in the perfume creative process, as envisionned by Roudnitska, is somehow irremediably linked to an idealization of womanhood and femininity. The perfume is unique like a woman is unique to a man who loves her; it is meaningless to situate that woman within a series of comparisons for that man. In other words, Roudnitska is begging us to view a perfume with the eyes of love in order to take in its full beauty and uniqueness. So, we should resist the temptation to say "Y is a little bit like X."

This idea is not lost on women; instinctively we look for the quality of uniqueness in a scent. That uniqueness will help underline our own uniqueness, make us true objects of love. An erotic dialogue is thus expressed through perfumes in our cultures.

Roudnitska's ideals are embodied in Le Parfum de Thérèse which he created originally for his wife Thérèse. It is now available to the wider public of those other women through the Malle Editions de Parfums. We can thus touch that dream both aesthetic and erotic  with the tip of our fingers and be reminded of a principle of unicity that was very important to him.

Of course, this principle does not need be applied to serially produced perfumes who enthusiastically copy each others. But when we encounter a perfumer-composer with integrity and personal vision, we should, I think, forget about the other fragrances that fleetingly juxtapose themselves on the perfume you are smelling. It is perhaps like saying that an ensemble of seven notes are similar to that other musical passage in that other musical partition. It does not make much sense and it gives too much importance to the external reference. It makes your view of the perfume superficial.

However, I must admit that if I feel bad doing this for a work by Roudnitska and a good one by Harris, I am much less embarrassed to do so for a perfume that is mass-produced and whose artistic aims are set lower. In this latter range of products, the defining mode of creation is extremely referential and fully aware of the externality of fashion trends in fragrances. One does not seek uniqueness in this case because it is simply too demanding and too risky. You seek variation rather or a twist on an idea. The irony is of course that people in fact crave uniqueness in perfumes. A perfume like Angel was mass-marketed, yet it was innovative and daring, and it has now taken over Chanel No5's place as the most popular perfume in France. And of course, Chanel No5 was daring too.

Coeur d'Eté, to me, cannot be approached in a comparative manner. It has an integrity of its own which is the result of the artistry that presided over it and this should be respected, I think. At any rate, something in this perfume made me feel guilty for looking sideways at others.

 
Photo is from Art et Parfum

 

Fragrance News: Marie-Antoinette's Perfume To Be Released in June & July 2006

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Following its success as well as repeated requests from the public, a recreation of Marie Antoinette's fragrance by perfumer Francis Kurkdjian from Quest International called M.A. Sillage de la Reine (Marie-Antoinette The Queen's Silage) will be more widely available in June and July 2006. It was first created in January 2005 and offered to a select group of people at a party at Versailles on the occasion of the publication of a book on the original 18th century author of the perfume. It was also sold to some patrons in 2005 but at a very high price, around $2500. This perfume was originally composed by one of the perfumers of Marie Antoinette (Houbigant was one of them) called Jean-Louis Fargeon. It was originally named Trianon.

Elisabeth de Feydeau, a French perfume historian, has written this book focusing on the details of the relationship developed between Marie-Antoinette and Jean-Louis Fargeon. Her book has recently been translated into English in Great-Britain under the title, A Scented Palace: The Secret History of Marie-Antoinette's Perfumer and is available here. It will also be available on Amazon, here in the US, starting June 22; you can place pre-orders now.

One day, Marie-Antoinette asked Fargeon to come meet her at Trianon and showing him around she requested from him a perfume that would capture the charm of her beloved retreat. Later, Fargeon was to see her just before she attempted to escape from France through Varenne. He tells us that on the day of his last visit to her and as a sort of premonitory sign of her impending demise, the queen seemed to smell more strongly and almost sickeningly so of the tuberose found in her perfume Trianon

Elisabeth de Feydeau says that the perfume unleashes unknown emotions in people, something qualitatively different from what you experience with contemporary perfumes.

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Le Sillage de la Reine has been recreated using 18th century techniques and 100% natural essences. Its notes include orris, rose, jasmine, tuberose, orange blossom, cedar wood, sandalwood, Tonkin musc and ambergris. 10 prestige copies of it, bottled in Baccarat crystal bottles will be available in June; the price has not been divulged. In July, 1000 limited editions copies will be released in crystal bottles made at the crystal manufacturies of Portieux (founded by Marie-Antoinette's grand-father) and will be available for between 300-400 Euros for a bottle of 25 ml. You can reserve a bottle of M.A. Sillage de la Reine here. Proceeds will go towards the remodeling of parts of the palace that were historically linked with Marie-Antoinette.

Visitors to Versailles can currently smell the queen's perfume in Marie-Antoinette's bathroom through June 2006.

 

Photos are from the Château de Versailles and Osmoz. 

May 18, 2006

New Perfumes: Innocent Summer Flash by Thierry Mugler, L'Eau by Kenzo Love L'Eau, Kingdom Summer Edition 2006

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 • Innocent Summer Flash is described as a slightly acidic-fruity sorbet, a candy cane accented with tonic and fresh notes. It is a limited edition.

Top notes: slightly acid note, red fruits

heart notes: fresh notes, a sorbet accord

Base notes: white musk, praline 

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l'Eau by Kenzo Love L'Eau is described as a fresh aquatic and floral scent that is both soft and sensual. It is issued as a limited summer edition.

Top notes: aquatic note, pink pepper

Heart notes: white lotus, frosted-up mint

Base notes: floral notes, musks 

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Kingdom Summer Edition 2006

This is the third limited edition of Kingdom by fashion designer Alexander McQueen and is described as a fresh oriental.

Top notes: bergamot, mandarin, neroli

Heart Notes: ginger, pink pepper, jasmine

Base notes: sandalwood, patchouli, myrrh, vanilla 

 

Source: Osmoz

Photos: Osmoz 

Perfume Review & Musings: Eleonora Duse by Laura Tonatto

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The color of this perfume is mauve, with brown overtones. It is dark, yet airy. It is like a clear, airy room, maybe decorated with some white marble in which antique polished wooden furniture is to be found, faintly glowing of a warm ambery light, small vases of violets placed atop of them. A soft breeze is blowing through the windows and diffusing the violet scent, mixing it with the polished woods.

Mauve and brown are the colors that for me color Jicky by Guerlain as well. Here I sensed the mauve color before it evoked the smell of violet. It also made me think of lavender, either because it is there or because the mauve color is influencing my perception of the perfume.

I smell lavender, violet, and woods. The scent starts off with a sweet violet note combined with a medicinal accord that seems to comprise camphor wood, perhaps teak wood too. This is soon tempered by the violet becoming more pronounced, softer, and rounder. Then, the perfume becomes more powdery. Finally, the drydown is very woodsy, soft, and warm with new nuances playing out in which I seem to recognize birch wood. There are rich wood accents in this perfume. The final impression I have from this perfume is that of a soft, suggestively powdery veil of violet lingering on the skin.

The violet used in E.Duse is viola odorata Victoria cultivated in Grasse since 1875. It is a very woody violet with a powdery base reminiscent of orris. It was used by Eleonora Duse in a water she would order from Harrods. The perfume was created with the expert advice of historian Alessandra Marini and an Egyptian amber note was added to contribute to the ancient feel of the perfume.

It smells ancient but not in an outmoded way but rather as if you were transported back in time to a quieter world, a world where noisy machines were more easily shut out. It makes me think of the Belle Epoque, of women in a Renoir picture whom I could easily see wearing this perfume. For some reason I also think of Lake Como in Italy, of a room in a hotel by its side, of Eleonora Duse vacationing there in the 1920s. She is preparing to go out for the evening; she dabs on some of this scent before leaving the room and it suits her very well. I find this perfume to be very seductive. The staying power is not impressive, but I suspect that people around you might perceive it better than you.

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Eleonora Duse or simply Duse (1858-1924) is considered to be the greatest Italian actress of the end of the 19th century. Her fame was only rivalled by that of Sarah Bernhardt whose roles she often played. She was also the first woman ever to grace the cover of Time Magazine on july 30 1923. She and Sarah Bernhardt were rivals for they represented two very different schools of acting. Her own style was very naturalistic and she privilieged being in-character. She is considered by many to be the first modern actor. Her writings also reveal a person with great humanity.

Her acting genius was so much admired by Constantin Stanislavsky that it inspired him to found the Moscow Art Theater in 1897 and to work on the codification of what would come to be known as method acting. He would present her as an ideal point of reference to his students. Through his method we can consider James Dean, Marlon Brando, Natalie Wood, and Robert de Niro for example, to be the heirs to her artistic legacy.

You can find a biography of Eleonora Duse by Helen Sheehy here

E.Duse is a limited edition. You can find it at Luscious Cargo for $100 for a 100 ml flacon. 

Photos from Luscious Cargo and Laura Tonatto's website. 

May 19, 2006

Fragrance News: Desperate Housewives will Bite into Forbidden Fruit by Coty; Inspiration by Lacoste

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"Forbidden Fruit, concocted by Firmenich, is a fruity floriental. Top notes are of crisp Rome apples, orange flowers and ripe, juicy peaches, with a heart of wisteria (naturally, given the fact that the characters live on Wisteria Lane), jasmine, ylang-ylang and passion lily. The drydown is of cedarwood, sandalwood, vanilla and tonka bean. Forbidden Fruit’s bottle of frosted glass with a scarlet cap is intended to be reminiscent of an apple, noted Siegel...


Continue reading "Fragrance News: Desperate Housewives will Bite into Forbidden Fruit by Coty; Inspiration by Lacoste" »

My Perfume Desires of the Week: Brosseau, Demeter, Malle

This week I have had too many perfume desires to include all of them here; it would be bothersome both to list and to read. So I have selected a few that I would like to try in the near future and that I did not mention yet on this blog. None of these are making me lose sleep over them, but they do excite my curiosity. You will perhaps notice that they share a common trait in that they all promise to smell somewhat a little singular.

 

Jean-Charles Brosseau Fleurs d'Ombre Violette-Menthe & Fruit de Bois for Women

violettementhe.jpg I am very much attracted to the combination of violet and mint in the first one; it promises to be an interesting violet. The name Fruit de bois attracts me because I love woods and it is yet another interesting contrast of  notes. 

(I have added a review of Violette-Menthe

 

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Demeter Lobster 

In the wake of Eau de Stilton I have tried to locate other difficult-to-wear scents in the foody category and have happened on this one. There is also a sushi cologne but I find the Eau de Lobster to be potentially more challenging to the nose and therefore more worthy of a test. Notes are the sea, sweetmeat, drawn butter... just writing this made me feel hungry. Of course, I am not actually desiring it as a perfume.

 

 
Frédéric Malle En Passant & Fleur de Cassie 

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En Passant because everybody is swooning over it and Fleur de Cassie because many people find it offensive. Editions de Parfums cautions patrons that FdC is for the "Connoisseur" which might be a delicate way to say that it smells borderline bad. So I guess it will help you assess your olfactory limits and know yourself better.

May 20, 2006

Perfume Review & Musings: Rose d'Été by Les Parfums de Rosine

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What I like about Rose d'Été (summer rose) and what makes it a distinctive rose fragrance to me is the slight scent of decay that emanates from it. It is not at all a fresh rose but on the contrary it is a rose redolent with all the scents of ripe summer fruits that surround this flower in the imaginary garden evoked by its creator. The way I sense it, it is that antepenultimate time of summer not quite yet that time just before the end of summer.

As the fragrance liberates itself from the glass phial there is a very brief moment dominated by fresh notes.Then you are invited to dip your nose into the soft satiny heart of a rose, that part of the flower which retains its scent at the heaviest. According to the description of the notes it is a yellow rose and it smells realistically so...


Continue reading "Perfume Review & Musings: Rose d'Été by Les Parfums de Rosine" »

May 22, 2006

The Fifth Sense in the News: A Perfume Contest, Perfumes as Wedding Favors, More on Marie-Antoinette, Flowers can Improve Mood, a Pizza Perfume in the Works

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• The Chicago Tribune is organizing a virtual perfume contest. You have until Thursday to submit up to 3 entries describing imaginary perfumes of your choices. The winner will get a bottle of the new Play-Doh scent.

No 189: Make scents 

• "For the first time American brides-to-be can design their own unique perfumes and use them as wedding favors. The favors are available for both men and women and are offered by fragrance for you in the UK. The new service is fully explained in a specially designed Website"

http://www.favorsformywedding.com/

Source: PR Newswire 22 May 2006

• A short piece in the Sunday Times of 21 May 2006 on perfume historian Elisabeth de Feydeau's book, recently translated into English,  A Scented Palace: The Secret History of Marie-Antoinette's Perfumer.

The Sybarite

• A preliminary research in psychology shows that flowers improve mood in both men and women

Flowers can improve mood 

Source: Orlando Sentinel 21 May 2006 

• A restaurant chain in Lithuania plans to bottle the scent of freshly-baked pizza. They stress they want to tap into the happy emotions associated with the smell.

Source: Sunday Mercury, 21 May 2006 

Scented Quote of the Day, from Rudyard Kipling:

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"Smells are surer than sounds or sights to make your heartstrings crack"

May 2006 Archive

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