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Les Espionnes Du Tsar - (Lit. The Female Spies Of The Tsar ) December 1st of 2007 saw the release at the Galeries Lafayette of a collection of 7 perfumes inspired by legendary feminine types rather than famous individuals, by a new French perfume brand called Roméa D'Améor (website currently under construction). The seven fragrances were created by perfumers Annie Vannier and Pierre Bourdon. They take their inspiration from history and aim to encourage a game of identification on the part of women by asking the question, which woman are you? As the tag line goes, "Travel through time, cross the world to discover the secret perfumes of the great women of history....
Continue reading "Roméa D'Améor Collection - 7 Perfumes For 7 Legendary Women Types (2007) {New Fragrances} {Historical Perfumes}" »
Major beauty companies have now decided to go green and spare the live(r)s of sharks. Squalene, a natural organic compound with much vaunted beauty properties found in shark liver, but also in Amaranth seed, rice brean, wheat germ, and olives (Wikipedia) was so extensively harvested from deep-sea sharks that it had started to threaten their survival.
You may have come across it in health supplements or Palmer's Scar Serum found at CVS. The anti-oxydant properties of Shark-derived Squalene are so popular with the Hollywood set that Kym Douglas and Cindy Pearlman reported in The Black Book of Hollywood Secrets that it had become a strange yet recognizable smell found in the vicinity of many a star (it smells like fish and algae -- frankly a quite sickening odor). Apparently, a number of actors wear shark liver oil like a permanent mask or primer....
Continue reading "Ban on Shark-Derived Squalene {Beauty News}" »
After Tropiques and Benghal, Lancôme will release in February of 2008 a third fragrance in its Collection Voyage series called Cyclades, which is exclusive to travel retail in principle but usually make it to the discounters' and department stores' counters. The new perfume is inspired by the Mediterranean and more specifically the ambiance of a Greek village located in the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea...
Continue reading "Lancôme Cyclades (2008) {New Fragrance}" »
 We are pleased to announce that The Scented Salamander was nominated for a Fabbies Award, a fashion prize for blogs and e-zines, in the Beauty Category. We want to say that it is heartwarming to see fragrance recognized as an essential part of daily beauty rituals. At a time when the internet has become the preferred venue for women consumers, it is only fitting that specialized prizes for online media are created. A new SOFRES study, just out, conducted at the general European level, reveals that the internet is the media, of all the medias, that receive the highest marks from women and that 87% of them think that the new media have made them more interested in what the brands have to offer (FashionMag.fr, 01/29/2008). A 2007 Nielsen survey quoted by Inc magazine next month reveals that "a surprising 66 percent of North American consumers trust blogs as a source of product information,"(Inc, Feb 2008). As an anticipation of these trends, last year, the Glam Media network, of which this blog is an affiliate became the #1 online women property.
Congrats to all the nominees and many, may thanks to all the readers, commenters, interviewees, colleagues, and guest writers that have contributed to the quality and popularity of The Scented Salamander, The Fragrance Blog & Daily Webzine.
You can vote for this blog until April 30th 2008 (you need to sign up) by clicking on the banner below or on the Vote-For-Me button in the upper left side of the site pages. The awards will be handed out at a ceremony scheduled to kick off New York Fashion Week in September of 2008. Again, Thank You So Much!
Eva Pasco is a romance novel author based in Newport, Rhode Island. Her debut novel entitled Underlying Notes is as centered on fragrance as any perfume junkie might hope (although the main character does not consider herself an addict). The book opens on a scene describing the menopause symptoms of Carla who is in her fifties, the first perfume quoted is Spark by Liz Clairborne, and fragrances are immediately presented as psychological aids, " If I lacked girlfriends, I made up for it by acquiring glass goddesses filled with nectar,"......
Continue reading "Underlying Notes by Eva Pasco: A Romance Novel About Perfume + 2 Excerpts {Fragrant Readings}" »
Singer Hilary Duff is releasing her second signature fragrance called Wrapped With Love, which comes after With Love (2006), one of the decent-smelling celebrity fragrances one can find in the market. Reading the ad copy makes one think that Wrapped With Love might be a dumbed down version of With Love given the heavy stress put on very commercial tooth-achingly sweet notes. Honestly, the description alone could send a diabetic person into a coma, "Reminiscent of Hilary's favorite things, the fragrance offers up an absolutely irresistible white mousse chocolate note, wrapped in a combination of milk and vanilla beans.....
Continue reading "Hilary Duff Wrapped With Love (2008) {New Perfume} {Celebrity Fragrance}" »
Amor Pour Homme by Cacharel was composed by perfumer Sophie Labbé together with Pierre Wargnye in 2006. Thanks to 22 Perfumers in Creation by Clara Molloy, we learn that just like for her other fragrances, the perfumer used a code name to inspire her efforts and in this case it was "Men's rose", in English, that she repeated to herself from time to time to keep her eyes on the prize. Labbé also further explains that when the idea came to her (date unspecified), it was difficult to impose this concept of a floral for men, which literally obsessed her, but that after Dior Pour Homme, which was released in 2005, this concept of a paradoxical fragrance for men based on a flower - a note commonly perceived as being feminine in Western perfumery culture - became much more established. We have to understand that this remark applies essentially to the mainstream market. Thus in 2005, there was an iris for men, in 2006 a rose for men, and in 2007, an orange blossom for men with Fleur du Mâle by Jean-Paul Gaultier.......
Continue reading "Cacharel Amor Pour Homme (2006) "Men's Rose" {Perfume Review} {Men's Cologne} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 13}" »
Dr. Hunter's Rosewater & Glycerine Hand Creme by Caswell-Massey - one of the oldest American brands founded by Dr. William Hunter in 1752 in Newport, Rhode Island - smells like the roses cultivated by our grand-mothers in their gardens, in the best sense possible of this representation. The scent of the cream is delicate, fresh, very realistic and refined enough to evoke the fruitiness of Nahema by Guerlain; in short, it is an impressively scented hand cream. So much so that more than a good hand cream it can double up as a fragrance cream as the perfume feels intense enough to fulfill this purpose. We noticed that it is best to apply this cream like one would a mask rather than a cream that would need to be rubbed in. The rose perfume just smells much better when left alone as much can be......
Continue reading "Caswell-Massey Dr. Hunter's Rosewater & Glycerine Hand Creme {Perfume Review} {Beauty Notes} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 12}" »
 Is perfume consumption tellingly seen today in America as the sign of an addictive personality, the mark of excess, and even the potential cause for murderous rage and death by poison? Writers Silvio Horta and Bill Wrubel for an episode of the series Ugly Betty have answered yes to all of the above and portrayed fragrance as the new path to perdition in Odor in the Court on ABC on Jan 17. It is perhaps a faint echo of Süskind's outré characterization of the power of perfume as well as a popularization of the views that fragrance in the working and social places has become the new public enemy for a number of persons suffering from intolerance and/or allergies to perfume and/or fragrance wearers. The story certainly points to anxieties concerning the use of chemicals in perfumes at a time when the green, organic trend is developing more and more....
Continue reading "Perfume & Mores in America Through The Lens of Ugly Betty {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
 Milan-based Italian fashion designer Alberta Ferretti will launch her signature fragrance in the spring of 2009. A long-term exclusive world-wide licensing agreement was signed between fashion group Aeffe, founded by Alberta Ferretti and her brother Massimo in 1981, and cosmetics company Elizabeth Arden to that effect. The Alberta Ferretti fragrance will be followed by cosmetics and skincare products.....
Continue reading "Alberta Ferretti To Launch Signature Perfume With Elizabeth Arden {Fragrance News}" »
Le Labo in Daikanyama
Le Labo, the independent creative perfumery with a Jacobin mindset set up by two French ex-marketing exec (see our Q & A) in New York city is continuing its global expansion by inaugurating both in-store spaces and stand-alone stores in key urban parts of world, i.e. fashion capitals. They recently inaugurated some counter space at Colette, Paris, a store at Liberty in London and have now a new store in Tokyo, Japan. The design is clean, industrial, minimalist, in tune with Le Labo concept, that of offering perfumes mixed straight from the lab with as little chichi as possible, except for the indulgence of seeing one's name printed on the bottle label.......
Continue reading "New Tokyo Address For Le Labo + New Exclusive {Scented Paths & Fragrant Addresses} {Fragrance News}" »
• Independent French Lille-based perfumer Hubert Maes is widening his distribution network beyond By Terry and is planning to release two new feminine perfumes during the first semester of 2008. • François Demachy has overseen the creation of a new version of Miss Dior Chérie called Eau de Printemps, which is reported to be even more floral. (50 ml, 54,59 €)....
Continue reading "Perfume News in Brief {New Fragrances in 2008}" »
Sa Majesté La Rose (Her Majesty The Rose) by Serge Lutens is a soliflore composition centering on Moroccan rose absolute. The perfume showcases to a certain extent the brutality and rawness of rose absolute, making it only relatively tamer and more civilized, but without attempting to hide or tone down its rough-diamond aspect. It is an ode to the triumphant nature of the raw material and to an all-engulfing central presence. Apart from rose amateurs, people who like metallic perfumes and a certain measure of natural aggressiveness in their scents may turn their attention to this prima donna of a rose perfume. Once she enters the room, it is as if she expected all glances to converge towards her....
Continue reading "Serge Lutens Sa Majesté La Rose (2000): If Ivan The Terrible Were A Rose {Perfume Review} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 11}" »
Rose Ispahan by Yves Rocher offers a filiation with Yves Rocher Ispahan in as much as it seems to belong to the same soft-oriental family. Little information is forthcoming however as the scent is discontinued. The Rose of Ispahan or Isfahan is a varietal of rose also called Pompon des Princes.
Rose Ispahan, it turns out, is indeed a pompon-y perfume, evocative of the very texture of the rose after which it was named. Imagine a downy comforter metaphorically filled with rose petals instead of goose down, vanilla beans, and amber, maybe some yellow peaches.....
Continue reading "Yves Rocher Rose Ispahan {Perfume Review In A Nutshell} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 10}" »
 The Body Shop have introduced two new scents called White Musk Blush and Japanese Cherry Blossom, both in eaux de toilette concentrations. White Musk Blush is part of a recent effort launched by The Body Shop to update and draw on the popularity of their original White Musk fragrance. The fall of 2007 saw the releases of a collection of ancillary products and spins on the original oil as well as a masculine version with White Musk for Men. This spring we are discovering a light, fruity-floral adaptation of the popular scent....
Continue reading "The Body Shop White Musk Blush, Japanese Cherry Blossom (2008) {New Fragrances}" »
The Pink Room UK have released a perfume that can be characterized as being a "literary" one as it was inspired by writer Colette and her heroine Gigi. It is called Pour Toi (For You) and according to the copy outlines the progression of Gigi from the innocent days of her childhood to her later days as she blooms into a fully-grown seductress. Notes are: Lemon, Blackcurrant, Grapefruit, Rose, Fleur de Melati, Lily of the Valley, Sandalwood, Vanilla, White musk. A 50 ml flacon retails for $120, a 10 ml purse atomizer for $45, and you can sample it for $4 at Luckyscent.
 After the hit that was Ombre Rose launched in 1981, milliner Jean-Charles Brosseau continued to issue feminine perfumes that were linked to the original Ombre Rose by an olfactory floral theme and the metaphor of the shade in the series entitled Fleurs D'Ombre (Flowers of the Shade or Shadow). The poetic title is an indirect reference to the Proustian title A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs and the central role that perfume plays to conjure up a lost world, a magical operation described in the most minute details by Marcel Proust. The phrase goes well with the romantic slightly nostalgic style of the perfumes, the vintage flacon reproduced from an antique mold and it is a reference also to the impression of cool shade that is incorporated in the fragrances in the series......
Continue reading "Jean-Charles Brosseau Fleurs D'Ombre: Rose (2006) {Perfume Review} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 9}" »
The Perfumes, Cosmetics, & Designs Congress, which will become an annual event from now on, have awarded prizes in the beauty and fragrance categories for best packaging. The prizes reward qualities of innovation and what is described as that special relationship that is the "formulation/packaging complementarity". The jury composed of journalists and packaging experts was not able to reach a consensus so mentions were given this year alongside the main prize in each category. For feminine perfumes, Palazzo by Fendi which reproduced the beautiful classical architecture of the Palazzo Fendi won the award and Elle by Yves Saint Laurent which seemed to mimic the classic structure of a YSL tuxedo and also looked like an angular YSL lipstick tube won a mention.....
Continue reading "Perfumes, Cosmetics, & Designs Awards for Best Beauty & Perfume Packaging {Fragrance News}" »
Samsung have released two new cellphones, the SGH-L310 and SGH-L320, which are said to have been specially conceived for women and which therefore, include a scent-matching system. It is often reported that women have a more sensitive sense of smell than men and for some reason this seems to be reflected in the perfume industry practice of hiring mostly women as perfume evaluators. There are traditionally more men perfumers than women though, which seems here to draw a traditional gender barrier in the professional realm. Think about the minority of women chefs that exist as opposed to cooking seen as a feminine specialized activity in the domestic realm......
Continue reading "Samsung Perfume Cellphones For Women {The 5th Sense in the News}" »
Emporio Armani Diamonds is yet another example of one of the most popular feminine perfume note accords that were last year: the rose-amber-patchouli accord. You might have come across it in the major launches of Dior Midnight Poison, Gucci by Gucci, and Yves Saint Laurent Elle, which capitalized on it. Of the scents found in the series alluded to above, Diamonds is the least sophisticated one as it aims a younger age group or at least, seems to. It is a rose perfume updated to meet contemporary mainstream taste; it took a detour to the candy factory and was made to adhere to a pink-coded girlish ethos despite the fact that the juice is colored white. If you smell it, you will see that in fact it is a pink juice. One can read in the copy from Sephora, This surprising and decadent fragrance is based on the traditional symbol of femininity, the rose, but is twisted with luscious, edible notes to create a truly desirable combination. We will not linger here on the celebrity context for the scent. You can find more details about Beyoncé Knowles fronting the ad campaign in our previous post......
Continue reading "Emporio Armani Diamonds (2007): A Girly Party Rose {Perfume Review} {Celebrity Fragrance} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 8}" »
WWD reports that L'Oréal is interested in acquiring exclusive world-wide and long-term licenses for several prestigious luxury beauty and fragrance brands to complement its portfolio. It is currently in negotiation with PPR, which belongs to the Pinault family. Included in the $2. 26 billion deal are Yves Saint Laurent Beauté Holding including Roger et Gallet, Boucheron, Stella McCartney, Oscar de la Renta, and Ermenegildo Zegna.
Amethyst by Lalique won the 2007 Etui D'Or
As previously announced, the voting for the Flacons D'or awards started taking place anew last fall in its seventh edition (after a year of interruption). This consumer award was created in 2000 by Hugues Charuit, President of the Grand Prix International du Flacon de Parfum (GPIFP). This year for the first time, outer packagings were also submitted to the evaluations of consumers for the awarding of the Etuis D'Or. The vote intervened on a pre-selected pool of perfume candidates. 30 000 people participated and the results are now in for the gold, silver, and crystal "medals" in the women, men, and children categories, Flacons
Flacons d'Or
Femme/Women
L de Lolita Lempicka
Homme/Men
Azzaro Now d'Azzaro
Enfant/Children
Kaloo Liliblue de Kaloo Parfums......
Continue reading "2007 Flacons D'Or & Etuis D'Or Awards: Consumers' Choices For Best Perfume Packaging {Fragrance News}" »
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