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September 2006 Archive
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 Dear Readers, I am planning to write a piece on popular perceptions of patchouli and patchouli-based fragrances and would love to hear your personal thoughts on the scent. I am looking for testimonials from people who relate to that ingredient in one way or another. I will reproduce exerpts of your testimonials as part of the piece and have a separate appendix with the full texts. You can elect to disclose your names or not...
Continue reading "Dear Readers: Looking for Testimonials on The Scent of Patchouli + Free Sample for Your Efforts (Updated)" »
The new Aromatics Elixir Velvet Sheer came in today. I suspected as much after having visited the Clinique website and seeing that the new version of Aromatics Elixir was already available for sale. So I decided to pay a visit to my local Clinique counter. And yes, there it was, the new bottle, standing all prim and elegant in the midst of a perfume tray, surrounded by its predecessors: Happy, Happy in Bloom, Chemistry, and of course Aromatics Elixir which was created 35 years ago in 1971.  The new jus is in a flacon that is sleek, willowy, and sophisticated. As you may have heard already, the juice offers a different physical texture. It is described as a gel but prior to reading about it, it felt to me like an oil of medium thickness on my fingers. For this reason, the new Aromatics is only sold in a splash bottle. The Clinique website has taken pain to specify that the perfume does in fact contain alcohol and that information that was circulated to the contrary in the press is not accurate. The tall stopper is made of transparent glass. It is all very elegant-looking and a pleasure to handle...
Continue reading "Perfume Review & Musings: Aromatics Elixir Sheer Velvet by Clinique" »
"The main fact about latter-day perfumery is that the only crime is to vary it. Many fashionable women have chosen a distinctive flower, which they always wear but there is no unwritten law against the varying of the blossom". (1902) Picture is from art.com and represents Hats at the Exposition Universelle of 1900.
 You can request a free sample of Forbidden Fruit here (Update: offer non longer valid). It takes up to 4-6 weeks to receive the sample.
The new perfume based on the popular TV show, Desperate Housewives, is described as a sensual fruity floriental. Each of the five main characters in the series is symbolized by a specific note in the perfume. You can read my previous post about the perfume here. The fragrance is available for sale at Macy's:
Forbidden Fruit at Macy's via Amazon
 Duerr, the British manufacturer of jams and marmalades has created an Eau de Marmalade based on one of their recipes using Seville oranges to celebrate their 125th anniversary. The new cologne, if issued, will combine notes of Seville oranges, spicy cinnamon, and Irwell water from the river near Manchester. As Marketing director Richard Duerr explains, “One of our orange suppliers in Seville, Destilaciones Bordan, also makes perfume oils and so we thought it would be a good idea to have a go”. Orange oil is used quite extensively as a scent in Spanish perfumes so we decided to make our own but with bitter orange as the main scent with a drop of water from the Irwell.”...
Continue reading "Fragrance News + Some Notes: Eau de Marmalade by Duerr's" »
 Hermès is releasing a very limited prestige edition of Parfum des Merveilles contained in a blue crystal bottle with a transparent stopper designed by Serge Mansau and hand-blown by craftsmen from the Saint-Louis crystal manufacture. Only 450 numbered copies will be issued to be sold in Hermès boutiques and select department stores from September 2006 for 1100 Euros. The stopper is prolonged by a crystal arrow that will allow the perfume to be directly applied onto the skin. The flacon will be sold together with an "estagnon" or aluminium bottle of 30 ml and a mini funnel to fill the perfume bottle thus harking back to common earlier practices relative to perfume-wearing where ladies would keep little funnels for just precisely that purpose. Source: FashionMag.fr
 Serge Lutens has introduced his latest creation, Mandarine-Mandarin just on time to seduce us for fall and perfume our autumnal days with his dreams. The perfume is part of the Eaux Anciennes Collection and belongs to the exclusive line sold only at the Salons Shiseido at the Palais Royal in Paris. The Salons ship within Europe.
The scent opens on notes of Chinese Orange and nutmeg unfolding into a heart of candied mandarin, orange peel and Lapsong-Souchong (smoky tea) and develops on a base of rock rose, labdanum, Tonka bean, and ambergris. According to Osmoz, "The fragrance reveals an Oriental trail built around a ‘black mandarin’ note. Smoky tea, spice, candied fruit and amber tell the fragrant story of the emperor’s favorite. ‘She may not be the Mandarin’s spouse, [but] she reigns in supreme harmony over the Emperor’s very heart…" Or to make it even more interesting, "Sorbets and candied fruits, what complexity this dream without a letter-opener reveals!"
You can visit the recently revamped website of Serge Lutens at Salons Shiseido here. Mandarine-Mandarin retails for 100 Euros for a 75 ml flacon. Sources: Osmoz, Salons Shiseido
 The limited edition of the fragrance(s) Le Parfum by Thierry Mugler based on Patrick Suskind's bestseller novel Perfume about a man whose uncommon beginnings in life and unique sense of smell lead him to murder and perdition is about to be released. According to Osmoz, "Perfume, the novel by Patrick Süskind, was a huge international success, with over 15 million copies printed worldwide. Rarely has perfume had such a leading role. In 2006, this fabulous and fascinating story is coming to the cinema. No one had dared to attempt to bring into existence the extraordinary accords the author had described in such detail. Until now. In this boxed set of 15 fragrances, Thierry Mugler dares to present the novel’s 15 olfactory themes. ‘Disturbing, arousing, divine, sensual, icy… none of the fifteen compositions will leave you indifferent’...
Continue reading "New Perfumes: Le Parfum by Thierry Mugler Based on the Novel Perfume by Patrick Suskind" »
The Lobogal brand has released three new perfumes, Lobogal Pour Lui, Lobogal Pour Elle, and Lobogal Gold. The brand is relatively recent having been established in 2004 in Paris by the French company BGL-Beauté. The perfumes were created by noses Pierre Bourdon and Valérie Garnuch and the bottles were designed by Thierry Lecoule. Pierre Bourdon is the author among others of YSL Kouros (1981), Davidoff Cool Water (1988), Dior Dolce Vita (1995), Frédéric Malle Iris Poudre (2000), Escada Magnetism (2003), and Franchesco Smalto Fullchoke (2005). Pour Lui is said to be composed with an "...exotic bouquet of spices from the past, bringing to memory the flavor of the herbal liqueurs which the monks were producing for centuries behind the walls of their monasteries. The extract of whiskey and the way it is used in the olfactory composition adds a true revolutionary spirit, emphasizing both its classical and extravagant nature." Top notes are apple, bergamot, pineapple, white pepper, juniper berries, tangerine, ginger, nutmeg, red pepper. Heart notes are jasmine, lavender, muguet, and violet. Base notes are ebony, mahogany, vetiver, and musks...
Continue reading "New Perfumes: Lobogal Pour Lui, Lobogal Pour Elle, & Lobogal Gold by Lobogal (Updated)" »
 The latest fragrance by Miller Harris, L'Air de Rien, was just recently launched in London. The nose behind the perfume is Lyn Harris. The new fragrance is dedicated to British actress Jane Birkin who is also French by adoption. We love the comments Birkin makes around her perfume and so we're reproducing them here from Vogue UK:...
Continue reading "New Perfume: L'Air de Rien by Miller Harris" »
 Briefly, Demeter will issue five brand new fragrances this fall between September and October 2006: Demeter Baby Powder, Fierry Curry, Red Head in Bed (hmmm, how is that suppose to smell? I hope it's not an allusion to anything I shouldn't be mentioning here), Ginger Cookie, and Barrier Reef. Now that picture is suggesting to me a variation on Demeter Baby Powder... how about Demeter Vintage Baby Powder in 1955 with Rusted Tin & Old Paper in 2007? (this is an indirect homage paid to Christopher Brosius) Oh, the possibilities! It's endless, simply endless my friends.
A 1 oz. eau de toilette retails for $19.
 The Piguet brand just released its re-edition of one of the classic scents from the catalogue of the former Parisian couture house of Robert Piguet following Bandit and Fracas. The original Baghari, named after the evocative name of an Indian town, was initially introduced in 1950, a year before the closure of the Piguet fashion house due to the designer's frail health. Piguet died two years later. (The reformulated Baghari on the left in the parfum concentration). I had acquired a small flacon of the vintage fragrance created by perfumer Francis Fabron in parfum concentration and was eager to compare it with the newer version in eau de parfum which was "rebalanced" by nose Aurélien Guichard of Givaudan. Judging from an advertisement I saw, the shape of my bottle is the same as one that was still commercialized around 1967. Aurélien Guichard is also the author of Love in Paris by Nina Ricci, Les Belles-Cherry Fantasy by Nina Ricci, and Chinatown by Bond no 9. In 2005, the young Grasse-born perfumer was recognized by the Fashion Group International and named one of its Rising Stars. The new Baghari is a lovely powdery and flowery concoction with discrete aldehydes giving it vibrancy. After the initial burst of fresh, aromatic notes it develops depth revealing a more sensual indolic heart where the jasmine rounds off the fragrance. A mix of slightly candied notes unfolds on a deeper sensual background composed of amber, vanilla, and musk. More austere woodsy notes such as vetiver, violet, and iris balance out the sweetness of the perfume. The drydown leaves a trail of powdery softness...
Continue reading "Perfume Review & Musings: Baghari by Robert Piguet (The New & Vintage Versions)" »
The old perfumer Baldini (played by Dustin Hoffman) seen in his office in the scene where he tries to analyze and copy Amor & Psyche by Pélissier, a perfume he perceives to be a masterpiece before his encounter with Jean-Baptiste Grenouille...
Continue reading "Scented Images: Still Images from Perfume, the Movie (Das Parfum)" »
September 2006 Archive
Page 1 of 4 • 1 2 3 4
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