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June 2006 Archive
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 "Vanity of vanities and all is vanity" wrote the Ecclesiastes.....how very true; regardless, I am posting here a link to a lovely fashion blog, Are You A Beauty? owned by Ivy which features The Scented Salamander in her "Beautiful Blog Hunt Wednesday" column. I just learned about it yesterday and am thrilled to report that I got good press from her. The Scented Salamander is Perfume Nuts I will post a review of the book by Elisabeth de Feydeau, A Scented Palace, either today or tomorrow as I see that much interest was generated by it. This will be a review of the French edition, Jean-Louis Fargeon, Parfumeur de Marie-Antoinette that I had the opportunity to read several months ago.
 I received this list, "Out with the Old Spice!", from Luckyscent and thought it might help you start thinking about the best-suited fragrances for the dads you know and love around you. Father's Day is on June 18. BTW, it is of interest to know that Old Spice was initially released in 1937 as a women's fragrance under the name Early American Old Spice for Women, but was quickly converted to a men's fragrance after just one year and re-issued in 1938 as Old Spice for Men. Initially, the Early American Old Spice for Women purported to develop a feminine colonial theme. The fathers' types list: •For the Outdoorsy Dad, opt for Divine's L'Homme de Coeur. With this masculine mix of juniper, cypress, and wild vanilla, he'll be transported to his favorite camping spot with one sniff.
•The Mogul Dad has no time to waste on weak aromas. He'll choose the rich and complex Bursch by Acqua di Bella. It's a deep blend of woody incense and myrrh with aromatic traces of pepper and coriander.
•Your Rock and Roll Dad will jam to the captivating aromas of Dorissima's Narziß, a favorite of Trent Reznor. It's a fresh mix of warm herbs, sweet green, fig leaves, and royal sage.
•The Metrosexual Dad appreciates the finer things in life. Kisu, a brand new scent from Tann Rokka, is a sleek embodiment of Asian traditions, with smooth and exotic hints of cedar, rosewood, and ylang ylang. Jude Law's already wearing it, and your discriminating dad will love it too.
•A Gourmet Dad will devour what you've cooked up when you give him Idole by Lubin, an exotic brew of rum, saffron, sugar cane, and bitter orange peel. His taste buds will tingle with this thoughtful gift.
Photo credit: Mildred Grossman (1916-1988)
Untitled (Father and child at the Pilgrim Prayer March, Washington, D.C., 1957)
Silver gelatin print
 This is a review of the recently re-issued Sous le Vent, originally created by parfumeur Jacques Guerlain and introduced in 1933, the very same year that Vol de Nuit was released. Sous le Vent (2006) is part of the collection "Il était une fois" (Once upon a time) which is enriched each year by the addition of a new historical jus from amongst the 700 or so perfumes belonging to the Guerlain catalogue. The first perfume to be released in that collection was Vega in 1997. This museological or archaeological approach to the perfumed past is now widely experimented as a new, effective marketing tool by perfume houses in France. Sous le Vent is described as an aromatic chypre, sometimes also as a green chypre, but since I was directly told by the Guerlain staff that it is an aromatic chypre, I will reproduce their classification. It is a very dry jus and precisely due to that quality it is also very elegant. You cannot go wrong with this one; it will be the harbinger of your manisfest good taste in all the different social circles in which you will come to evolve. It is the equivalent for me of a perfectly tailored feminine grey suit, both a professional-looking one and a sexy one...
Continue reading "Perfume Review & Musings: Sous le Vent by Guerlain (1933/2006)" »
An article by Tanya Caldwell in The Los Angeles Times of 2 June 2006 about the "corpse flower" or amorphophallus titanium (giant, shapeless phallus) notoriously known for its foul smell -- did I just write that? Ah, Spring, When the 'Corpse Flower' Releases its Perfume
  This is a review of the French edition of A Scented Palace by Elisabeth de Feydeau. In French it bears the title, Jean-Louis Fargeon, parfumeur de Marie-Antoinette (éditions Perrin & Le Château de Versailles, 2004, 230 pages). It was published in the collection "Les Métiers de Versailles" which showcases such little-known yet critical personalities as the gardener of Louis XV and the wet-nurse of Louis XV. The English edition will be available in the United States on June 22. It can be pre-ordered now on Amazon.
The book retraces the biographical intinerary of Jean-Louis Fargeon, the scion of a dynasty of perfumers, from the time of his birth until his final escape from the guillotine. Elisabeth de Feydeau follows his career and professional relationship with Marie-Antoinette and leaves him on the day of his release from a revolutionary prison on 27 July 1794 (9 Thermidor an II), the day that marked the end of the reign of Terror with the arrest of Robespierre. He dies twelve years later, in 1806, still a successful perfumer and a fragrance supplier, amongst others, of Joséphine de Bauharnais, the wife of Napoleon...
Continue reading "Fragrant Reading: Book Review of A Scented Palace by Elisabeth de Feydeau: The Intertwined Destinies of Marie-Antoinette & Her Perfumer, Jean-Louis Fargeon" »
Rose Angel by Thierry Mugler
 I went to Sephora the other day and although I only bought Armani Code for Her on the spot, I also came back home generously spritzed with Rose Angel. At this point I thought that the perfume smelled good, but nothing transcendant really. Until after an hour or two later; then, all of a sudden, I experienced an ineffable scent whose exquisite beauty left me speechless...Rose Angel! The test of time in this case unveiled its full glory. It is supposed to be the last perfume in the series Garden of Stars. I regret this because I would have loved to try a Tuberose Angel, a potentially explosive cocktail -- chocolate, tuberose, and patchouli? Oh yes! Come to think of it, I would also like to try an Ylang Ylang Angel and an Heliotrope Angel, if you please. Ess Bouquet by Crown Perfumery  This lemming is all taken care of and a bottle is on its way from England. I was completely sold when I read that it originated in 1711 and gained huge popularity throughout the Georgian period -- a perfume that Jane Austen could have worn! It ended up being Queen Victoria's favorite perfume. Say no more...in it went into my shopping basket. Norell Eau de Cologne  I received the pure parfum version and will write a review of it, as promised. Suffice it to say for now that it is much less green than the edt version. This leads me to think that the cologne might be even greener. The cologne was, after all, the original version for Norell. I love the greeness of Norell and would want more of it.
Here is another list of masculine fragrances for Father's Day from France. Some of these fragrances are available in the US, such as YSL Kouros Eau d'Eté, Hermès Terre, Herrera Aqua, and Givenchy very Irresistible for Men. And just for fun, I have translated some of the psychological characterizations attached to the fragrances. Expert in manliness, Maddox, writes in the Alphabet of Manliness that the hetrosexual man (yes, not heterosexual) is, or should be at least, deeply weary of any scented concoctions that are meant to be applied onto a manly body, "Acceptable fragrances for men are: sweat, grease, rum, or some combination thereof." You decide. I think it's a call for a new manly celebrity fragrance called Maddox which would include these daring notes. It now strikes me how the word "manly" nowadays cannot be used without some nuance of irony, while the word "womanly" can still be utterred without provoking the same type of grin. The term "feminine" is widely used, in particular, when describing fragrances. My Google searches retrieve 1, 770, 000 occurrences for the expression "masculine fragrance" and 274 000 for the expression "manly fragrance." Regarding the expression "feminine fragrance" I find the highest number of occurrences with the number 2, 730, 000 and for "womanly fragrance" the lowest, 90, 100. I still think that "womanly" flies better than "manly".
I will have to think more about these discrepancies...
Continue reading "Perfume List: European Father's Day Fragrance List " »
Quadrille is a perfume from the 1950's. More precisely, it was introduced in 1955. The date appears little relevant in this case because I think that its creator was more interested in expressing atemporal qualities such as natural elegance, refinement and I would even say more unexpectedly, courage. A recent fragrance like Agent Provocateur connotes much more of the 1950s period to me. What I particularly appreciate about this perfume is that despite it being marketed towards women it successfully avoids the pitfall of encoding or stereotyping womanhood into a perfume. The fragrance is very well balanced including both traditional feminine and masculine aromatic codes. Thus, it is a mix of dryness and sweetness, of spiciness, frutiness and floralcy, of austerity and sensuality. I could perfectly see a man wearing this perfum; he would only need to apply it more lightly...
Continue reading "Perfume Review & Musings: Quadrille by Balenciaga" »
I am inaugurating a new budget fragrance category for the "Perfumista on a Shoestring". How can one enrich one's fragrance wardrobe without breaking the bank? There are two solutions for that; you can scour the internet for great bargains and/or you can try to find fragrances that seem to belong to the same group of perfume-siblings for a fraction of the cost....
Continue reading "Perfumista on a Shoestring: If you Like L'Artisan La Chasse aux Papillons & Rochas Poupée, you might Enjoy TBS The Spirit of Moonflower" »
•A light version of the Prada edp called Prada Tender or Tendre is going to be released in June in Asia. Prada Tender was initially created for the Asian market as Prada is popular amongst the feminine clientele there, with the reservation that they find it to be too strong. It will roll out to international markets by the end of 2006....(Updated).....
Continue reading "New Perfumes: Prada Tender by Prada, My Experience with Prada, Cindy Crawford Summer Day" »
June 2006 Archive
Page 1 of 8 • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
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