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 On Tuesday February 27th 2007 at the Ministry of Culture, Serge Lutens entered the ordre des Arts et des Lettres as a Commandeur in recognition of his life-long pursuit of beauty and art and contribution to the art of perfumery. Serge Lutens said that "Beauty does not care about morality. It stands as its own moral, its own truth. Many have attempted to pin it down with words, feelings, works or art; but always it escapes and transforms itself beyond our desires and when we think we are holding it, it is already gone"
Source: Fashion Mag.fr
31, Rue Cambon is one of the six latest perfume creations by Chanel and part of Les Exclusifs collection comprising ten scents in all, including the re-editions (merely a change of packaging it seems) of the four classic Chanel boutique scents, namely Bois des Îles, Cuir de Russie, Gardénia, and no 22. The Style of the Collection Les Exclusifs de Chanel
The six new additions, that is, Bel Respiro, 28 La Pausa, No 18, Coromandel, Eau de Cologne, and 31, Rue Cambon one can intuitively sub-divide into three groups within the more general minimalist aesthetic orientation of the line: Coromandel and 31, Rue Cambon are voluntarily, it seems, sketchier versions of classic complex perfumes whose charm rely in part on the attractive warmth of their jus. 28 La Pausa and No 18 are more temperate scents with modernistic accents and center on the particular showcasing of one main rare ingredient, iris and ambrette seed respectively. Finally, Bel Respiro and Eau de Cologne develop the theme of fresh perfumes.....
Continue reading "Les Exclusifs: 31, Rue Cambon by Chanel {Perfume Review & Musings} {New Perfume}" »
 Réminiscence is a Parisian fashion jewelry and accessory line of boutiques and among their offerings one can also find a collection of perfumes (see our review of Jammin). Patchouli is the star item of the brand. Réminiscence readily calls it, its "fetish fragrance". It is part of a smaller collection of three main-note perfumes, the two other scents being called Ambre (Amber) and Musc (Musk). It was created in 1970 by perfumer Francis Camail in the era of the hippie Orientalist vogue and some would say overwhelmingly popular campus scents such as musk and, precisely, patchouli. Yet, its popularity endures and for good reason. Juliette Binoche wore this perfume when she played the role of George Sand in the movie Les Enfants Du Siècle (Children of the Century), a depiction of the writer's tumultuous love relationship with poet Alfred de Musset as the actress wanted to enter better into the character of George Sand who is well known for having had a single-minded predilection for Patchouli (see our review of Maître Gantier et Parfumeur George Sand, a patchouli scent re-created by Nicolas de Barry based in part on historical data)....
Continue reading "Patchouli by Réminiscence {Perfume Review & Musings}" »
 The soulful evocative Juozas Statkevicius edp from Lithuania is now ready to ship. Luckyscent is offering free Fedex shipping. Use code Josef at checkout (continental US only). Complimentary Parfums MDCI samples will be included with purchase as long as supplies last. Also in store now: Cristiano Fissore Cashmere For Him and For Her (see our upcoming reviews of these elegant scents) and the new Private Collection by Parfumerie Générale (some of the best scents they have created so far). Want to wear a perfume worn by a celebrity? Dr. Phil's wife's favorite perfume is Perfect Veil by Creative Scentualization, also available at Luckyscent (we need to find our sample of it). Happy Shopping!
 A new niche brand from San Ramon California called Heaven's Alchemy Exquisite Perfumes is proposing a line of 15 perfumes available both in travel bottles and crystal flacons. Each scent is named after a city......
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Bryant Park is the 28th fragrance launched by Bond no 9 and will debut on March 1st 2007. The scent pays homage to yet another area of New York city after which it is named. The jus was created by perfumer Michel Almairac and includes top notes of lily of the valley, rhubarb, pink pepper; heart notes are rose and patchouli; base notes are raspberry and amber. Bryant Park is a slightly sharp aquatic floral rose-patchouli based scent that easily evokes spring and summer. It is a very fresh and refreshing scent with a thirst-quenching quality about it. Thinking of Bryant Park, one can readily imagine oneself being transported under the shadows of ample trees, feeling a cooling breeze caressing one's cheeks and even the delicate mist from the nearby Shaw Lowell Memorial Foutain vaporising into the air.....
Continue reading "Bryant Park by Bond no 9 {Perfume Review & Musings} {New Perfume} {Shopping Tip}" »
 Clarins is issuing a third fragrance/therapeutic eau de toilette called L'Eau Ensoleillante (Sunshine Fragrance). The eau includes essences of Sicilian mandarin, grapefruit, ylang, Tonka bean, and patchouli. It comes after L'Eau Dynamisante (a long-time favorite of mine) and L'Eau Ressourçante. Griffonia seeds are said to contain a precursor of serotonine and help regulate nervous tensions. Watermelon provides a tonic effect. Extracts of mimosa, linden, and chamomilla are soothing and hydrating. It will be available from March 2007 for 41 Euros for a 100 ml flacon. Source: Au Féminin
 Lolita Lempicka is launching a set of three fragrances called Les Caprices de Lolita (Lolita's Whims). The scents are meant to be worn either separately or layered. The coffret includes a 50 ml bottle of Lolita Lempicka edp together with three smaller 20 ml flacons of Caprice Violette (Violet), Réglisse (Licorice), and Amarena (almond-based). The coffret will be available from March 2007 and will retail for 125 Euros. As you can see, the perfume collection trend is growing. It is a way to impress upon consumers the idea that one ought to wear a wardrobe of fragrances rather than a signature perfume.
Source: Au Féminin
Check out Tony Burfield's very interesting column about the state of today's perfumery. "In fact, the art of perfumery could now be declared dead at this point, to be replaced by an expensive piece of computer software." Perfumers and the 40th IFRA Amendment on Basenotes.
The latest perfume creation by Bond no 9, Bryant Park, is now available for pre-orders. Orders will ship out on March 1st 2007....
Continue reading "Bryant Park by Bond no 9 Now Available For Pre-Orders {New Perfume} {Shopping Tip}" »
 The latest creation by the house of Balmain is called La Môme (The Kid) and pays homage to an encounter in the 1950s between the great propular French singer Edith Piaf and couturier Pierre Balmain. It was released in February 2007 to coïncide with the debut of Olivier Dahan's biopic La Môme about the life of the singer. The perfume was created by Guillaume Flavigny who is also the composer for Purple Lips by Dali and Lulu by Lulu Castagnette, together with Antoine Lie, amongst others. The young perfumer won a prize in 2002 with the Société Française des Parfumeurs for a fragrance called In The Mood For Love. La Môme has top notes of May Rose, freesia, and pink pepper. Heart notes are Damas Rose absolute, violet, raspberry, and myrrh. Base notes are orris, musk, amber, and opoponax.....
Continue reading "Balmain La Môme (2007) {Perfume Review}" »
 The Boston Globe has an article about perfumer Christophe Laudamiel, the nose behind the Thierry Mugler coffret inspired by Das Parfum the movie. He recently visited Harvard to offer a lecture in which he insisted on the need for more transparency for his profession as well as general education for the public regarding the art of perfumery......
Continue reading "An Article About Christophe Laudamiel {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
Sylvie Jessua is the founder and owner of Ambregris, a niche, even extreme-niche perfume brand as we like to think of certain labels. For the moment being, the line centers around a unique perfume called Ambre et Diamant Noir (Amber and Black Diamond) that is exclusively sold in one brick and mortar store in Paris at the Ritz Hotel although it is also technically possible to order it through the Ambregris website. She is also the head of a company called Habaco that specializes in the development of luxury and fashion brand franchises. Ambregris appears to be a parallel space dedicated in her life to personal creativity. We started by asking her a couple of questions and ended up asking a few more so we thought it would be best to regroup them here. We first started by asking Sylvie Jessua some questions about the naturalness of the ingredients used, her sources of inspiration for the perfume, and what she calls the process of "fabrication à l'ancienne" that is, the old-fashioned way of creating fragrances. Here are her answers:.....
Continue reading "An Interview With Sylvie Jessua Owner & Artistic Director Of Ambregris {Passion for Perfume -Portraits}" »
 There is an interesting article by Chandler Burr about Les Exclusifs de Chanel in today's New York Times. I just wanted to comment that Jacques Polge already drew his inspiration from Coco Chanel's appartment in the past to create Coco, which has a notably different feel from his latest creations. Also, according to WWD, the celebrity fragrance trend (which is referred to in the article in the NYT as the main competition) will still be quite profitable in the next 2 years but it is already slowing down. The Genie in Every Bottle Is Coco
 The historical Italian brand Acqua di Parma, founded in 1916, will launch its first limited edition in March 2007. It is called Colonia Edizione Murano (The Murano Edition Cologne) ....
Continue reading "Colonia Edizione Murano by Acqua di Parma {Fragrance News} {Luxury Perfume}" »
 Yves Saint Laurent will introduce another spring edition of its classic fragrance Paris. This time, the scent is called Jardins Romantiques (Romantic Gardens) and will include a fresh bouquet of rose, lilac, lily of the valley, and cut grass. Hmmmm, this sounds ravishing and uplifting. The gardens of Paris are one of the loveliest sights to behold in the spring and now we will be able to imagine we are smelling them. The perfume will retail for 54 Euros. Source: Osmoz
 When Elle recently devoted an article to listing ten particularly snob, i.e., confidential niche perfume brands, they omitted to include Ambre et Diamant Noir by Ambregris. We could muse that this is most assuredly due to the fact that the fragrance does not qualify as snob, but rather as - how shall we put it? - extremely snob. The perfume lover is always pleased to discover a very confidential perfume, which moreover turns out to be a superb one. Ambre et Diamant Noir (Amber and Black Diamond) is exclusively sold at the Ritz Hotel in Paris and only in a very few other locations internationally. It was created in 2000. We wished we had discovered the perfume sooner, that is last winter, because it would have ended our quest for a suitable amber scent. Yes, even Ambre Sultan we felt, was not refined enough for us.....
Continue reading "Ambre et Diamant Noir by Ambregris {Perfume Review & Musings}" »
 The once elusive Juozas Statkevicius Eau de Parfum hailing from Lithuania is now available at Beauty Habit. It retails $165 for a flacon of 50 ml. You can read our review of the beautiful evocative perfume here. Source: Beauty Habit
 Cacharel will release a new perfume this spring called Liberté (Freedom). The brand plans to target the group of women who are between the ages of 25 and 35. Their classic scent Anaïs Anaïs is now reportedly mostly worn by women in their forties. This is an interesting fact to note as the fragrance was initially marketed to young women or very fresh-looking "jeunes filles en fleurs" when it launched in 1978. Apparently attachment to the fragrance is key in explaining its continued appeal rather than the scent itself being perceived as a "young" one by the new generations.....
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In order to celebrate the phenomenal success of the perfume Angel and its 15th anniversary, Thierry Mugler is preparing to launch two new perfumes in April 2007, one for women called Eau de Star and one for men called Ice*Men.....
Continue reading "Eau de Star & Ice*Men by Thierry Mugler {New Perfumes}" »
 Check out this article on Elle.fr listing "10 perfume snobberies" in which to indulge. The list includes Les Exclusifs, Serge Lutens Rousse, Dr. Bach, Indult, Aesop, Solange Agazury, Etat Libre d'Orange, and Prada Essences. 10 snobismes parfums
 Lancôme launched its second fragrance in its Collection Voyage (travel collection) after Tropiques last year. The perfume is described as being a soft floral with light spicy and fruity accents. It is inspired by the gardens of Indian palaces. This year, the fragrance is accompanied by a makeup collection comprising a palette for the face and a series of 3 lip glosses. These limited editions are in principle reserved for travel retail but last year one could spot Tropiques at online discounters soon enough after the launch. Source: Osmoz
Christian Lacroix is launching a new fragrance in March 2007 called C'est La Fête! (Party Time!). It is described as a fruity-floral and was composed by Jean Jacques of Takasago. The packaging is a twist on the one for their previous fragrance C'est La Vie! (which did not do that well).
The eau de parfum will retail between 28 Euros for 30 ml and 70 Euros for 200 ml. Source: Cosmetic News
The Total Chanel Look in the 1960s In the weeks leading to the release of Les Exclusifs by Chanel (please read our previous post for a description of the line) what we had to go with were the names of the perfumes, the descriptions of the notes, and the interviews of the perfumers who composed the new fragrances, namely Jacques Polge in association probably with Christopher Sheldrake although this last point is left rather vague. One could identify two aesthetic orientations in the comments: the evocative-artistic one and the tradition-bound house-of-Chanel-inspired one. Names like Bel Respiro, 28, La Pausa, Coromandel were almost Baudelairean or Proustean in their appeal promising us an art of evocation, what perfumery is best at creating: immediate emotion, a sense of place. We would travel on the wings of La Pausa and alight in the villa haunted by Chanel's spirit while feeling the soft breeze caressing the palm trees and even hear the creaking noises of the furniture and smell the fresh velvets of the cushions or something like that. Coromandel would be, could only be terribly poetic and rare. Instead it seems that the tradition-bound Chanel-inspired current of thought has weighed in heavily in the creations of the perfumes......
Continue reading "Les Exclusifs by Chanel: An Overview {Perfume Review & Musings} {Scented Thoughts}" »
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