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The Scented Salamander Blog A Culture & Beauty Blog: from Olfaction to Imagination in Perfumes, Movies, Beauty Products, Food, Literature, & Fashion, Mostly. "Perfumes' & movies' common point: you smell and watch them better in the dark" Latest Fragrance Reviews Dior Escale à Parati Prada Infusion d'Iris EDP Absolue Ferragamo Signorina Thierry Mugler Miroir des Majestés Jo Malone Plum Blossom Madonna Truth or Dare Roberto Cavalli Eau de Parfum
Carolina Herrera 212 Sexy 8 Best Perfumes to Herald Spring Stella McCartney L.I.L.Y. Guerlain Parfum Initial L'Eau: Going Back to the Purer Language of Perfumery Guerlain Parfum Initial L'Eau: Un Langage Plus Pur pour la Parfumerie Fragrance Essays Perfumes & Candies are Kissing Cousins: Anis de Flavigny & Guerlain Anisia Bella Jicky, The Ultimate Aphrodisiac for Both Sexes? Jicky, L'aphrodisiaque ultime pour les deux sexes? Best Rose Fragrances for Valentine's Day: The 2012 Edition How I Think about Perfume when I Review Them: a Practical-Theoretical Outlook on the Perfume Shopping Culture Bint el Sudan, The Other, African Chanel No.5 - Interview with Nick Evans of IFF Smelling Tommy Girl Now: When the 1990s Smell Like The 1940s White Accords in Perfumery: So Long The 70s Liberace Wore Perfume, So What? Homosexuality as Given Away by an Indiscreet Fragrance Trail in the 50s
Reviews of New Perfumes Diptyque Eau Rose Isabel Derroisné Eclat Eternel Sisley Eau d'Ikar Mary Greenwell Plum Parfum d'Empire Azemour Les Orangers L'Artisan Parfumeur Batucada Les Parfums de Rosine Glam Rose Clinique Aromatics Elixir Perfumer's Reserve Prada No.11 Cuir Styrax 6 New Celebrity Fragrances to Try Out this Fall The Body Shop White Musk Libertine Cartier L'Heure Convoitée (English Version) Cartier L'Heure Convoitée (French Version) Karl Lagerfeld Karleidoscope Maître Parfumeur et Gantier Cuir Fétiche Estée Lauder Wood Mystique Thierry Mugler Angel with Bitter Cocoa Powder Diane Von Furstenberg Diane Bottega Veneta EDP From the Archives Bath & Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar: An Euro-American Curio Reviews of Past Fragrance Launches First Impressions on the Thierry Mugler Coffret Based on the Novel by Süskind.
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 In the Christian tradition, saints are said to exude ineffable perfumes. The Virgin Mary is most often associated with the scent of roses as a sign indicative of her mysterious and enveloping presence...
Continue reading "LVDG Group La Virgen de Guadalupe (2012) {New Perfume} {Celebrity Perfume}" »
 ID Parfums, formerly known as Isabel Desrroiné, have launched a new 100% natural perfume called Jardin de Madagascar (Garden of Madagascar) in their Jardin d'Aquarelles collection. The composition is signed by perfumer Vincent Ricord who already created Jardin de Sicile for the perfume and beauty brand...
Continue reading "ID Parfums Jardin de Madagascar (2012): Nature-Sourced Vanilla {New Perfume} {Green Product}" »
 Stage siren Dita Von Teese will launch her new eponymous perfume at Liberty London on May 1st 2012 after having debuted the fragrance in Germany last fall.
This was one of the most interesting perfume launches in the celebrity category and prestige category for women more generally in 2011...
Continue reading "Dita Von Teese Meet-Up at Liberty London May 1st, 2012 {Scented Paths & Fragrant Addresses} {Celebrity Perfume}" »
 French Jewelry and perfume brand Réminiscence launched their latest addition to the Rem collection with Crazy Rem, a fragrance inspired by the Miami sea front created by perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin of Firmenich. The neon flacon pops with colors and quirky design savvy while the perfume reveals a particularly layered blend of vanilla and solar notes labeled as a "gourmand solar floral"...
Continue reading "Crazy Rem (2012): Smells Like Miami Beaches {New Perfume}" »
 Kiehls want to express the fact that they are not just about creams, serums, perfume oils and musk. The apothecary-inspired beauty brand is well-known for its reference musk oil from the 1920s (current comments deplore the changes in the formula - expect another musk uprising), less so for its discreet collection of Essence Oils, which apparently has been discontinued as the new Aromatic Blends launches from July 2012. The library comprises Orange Flower & Lychee; Vanilla & Cedarwood; Nashi Blossom & Pink Grapefruit; Fig Leaf & Sage....
Continue reading "Kiehls Launch New Aromatic Blends Collection of 4 (2012) {New Perfumes}" »
 Rochas will launch a new women's perfume from May 2012 called Les Cascades : Eclats d'Agrumes (Waterfalls: Citrus Sparkles) inspired by a streaming Parisian fountain in the summer as well as a trip to Sicily to the foot of mount Etna made by in-house perfumer Jean-Michel Duriez. The fresh fragrance is fronted by socialite, model and actress Olivia Palermo...
Continue reading "Rochas Les Cascades (2012): Inspired by a Parisian Fountain & Sicily {New Perfume}" »
 Genre: Dark, Exotic Iris
Prada Infusion d'Iris EDP Absolue is the latest sequel to Infusion d'Iris launched in 2007. In 2010, there was also an eau de toilette twist. The Absolue is officially meant to be a more intense, Oriental interpretation of the original. This version is however a creative flanker, both similar to and aiming to be different from the original. It is not just about more of the same: more luxury, more texture, more warmth. An intruder arrived on the premises. From the cap, the perfume smells aldehydic and powdery recalling the elegant touch of Chanel No.5. Sprayed on, a plush and velvety carpet of irises unscroll letting out rooty, musky and resinous nuances. If on the surface, Infusion d'Iris Absolue appears to be an-open-and-shut case of a fragrance smelling like a more intense exploration of iris deepened by benzoin, tonka bean, vanilla, orange blossom aiming to court the noses of devoted lovers of iris, its sillage reveals otherwise....
Continue reading "Prada Infusion d'Iris Eau de Parfum Absolue (2012): La Surprise du Nez {Perfume Review & Musings}" »
 Genre: Fresh & Crisp Powdery Floral
Young women's perfumes are always interesting to look at and smell because they participate in constructing social identities through the fashion and beauty worlds, addressing themselves to a group which is particularly open to playing with their self-representations. While the cap of the fragrance lets out that there is gardenia in the perfume, once the scent is sprayed on, it smells more of crisp peony. The opening has been worked in such a manner as to come across as bright and sparkling with citruses, tart berries and crunchy greens. They feel rather requisite in character, meant to catch your attention with an automatic commercial smile full of mindless optimism and good spirits, of course. Soon, a candied ethyl maltol note surfaces: Signorina by Ferragamo is yet another debtor to Angel by Thierry Mugler but it is not as compelling and complex in its sense of lineage as its worthwhile heir Pink Sugar by Aquolina. Having said that, Signorina straddles the divide between green tanginess and sweet creaminess very well, but the effect is discreet. The Italian Panacotta accord adds its creaminess and softness for a more personal twist brought to the archetypal gourmand accord impressed upon us by Angel since 1992...
Continue reading "Salvatore Ferragamo Signorina (2012): Reenactment of the Vestal Virgin {Perfume Review & Musings} {Perfume Images & Ads}" »
 Genre: Oriental Floral Oud
Miroir des Majestés by Thierry Mugler is the new addition to the Miroir, Miroir collection inaugurated in 2007 which is inspired by the mythology of the mirror, including such widely known folkloric narratives as the fairy-tale of Snow-White as recounted by the Brothers Grimm. That legend is being conspicuously revived at the movies currently with Mirror, Mirror by Tarsem Singh and the upcoming Snow White and the Huntsman by Rupert Sanders. While you may have trouble watching the trailer of the first till the end - I couldn't - so steeped in mind-numbing conventions and maimed by overpaid bad acting it is, the second one looks like a movie worth watching. As to Thierry Mugler, it's not altogether clear what the fashion designer thinks about the relevance of this reactivation of the mirror mythology today, except to link it up in a rather facile manner to the obvious rise of the narcissistic culture. Parallel to this orientation is the popularity of the fantasy genre which has been thriving with huge film and literature franchises such as Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, a little less so with The Chronicles of Narnia. In the end, there remains a much more ahistorical, legitimate thirst in the everyman for dreams and the pushing-back of the frontiers of reality. Something to be found beyond the mirror...
Continue reading "Thierry Mugler Miroir des Majestés (2012): Kinetic Oud {Perfume Review & Musings}" »
 Penelope Cruz by Paolo Pellegrin, 2008
In the beginnings of the blog, questions about how to best think about perfume and extract ideas and correct sensations from them was a preoccupation.These two past essays look at the virtue or vice of comparing perfumes between themselves...
Continue reading ""On Comparing Perfumes I & II": Repost from the Archives of May 2006 {Scented Thoughts}" »
One of the defining aspects of pastry-making in Paris is how much it is influenced by fashion and trends. Pastry maestro Pierre Hermé is catching on to the festive mood of the upcoming first round of the French presidential election to take place this Sunday on April 22, 2012. What is in the air, is that the traditional Sunday family luncheon is getting turned into an Election Day Luncheon. To fête the occasion, 8 babas au rhum have been created to represent by analogy the 10 presidential candidates in an ephemeral collection called Fetish Baba....
Continue reading "Pierre Hermé Proposes 8 Pastries to Symbolize the French Presidential Election on April 22, 2012 {Fragrant Recipes & Taste Notes}" »
 Parfums John Galliano have launched a new flanker to Parlez-Moi d'Amour (2010) {check review} called Parlez-Moi d'Amour Eau Fraîche. As usual, the breathless ad copy is worth quoting for the sheer pleasure of seeing how far people will go to sell perfume. The White-Knight figure, the woman-child trope and the dual-Eve myth are all here at the ready to help you check your laundry list of stereotypes and apparently call the names of readers of romance novels. The scent is about,
"The spirit of new romanticism, an invitation to succumb to an unexpected amorous liaison, powerful, eternal, full of possibilities. For the young woman who is a mix of duality: the wish to be fascinating and rock 'n roll, romantic and playful, ultra feminine with a dash of the woman-child at the same time"...
Continue reading "John Galliano Parlez-Moi d'Amour Eau Fraîche in 10 Shorts (2012) {New Perfume} {Perfume Images & Ads} " »
 Hip hop pop singer Nicki Minaj announced today that her signature perfume is on the way, to be launched in the fall of 2012. The artist signed up with company Give Back Brands LLC under which aegis Justin Bieber developed his fragrance Someday, the number 1 celebrity fragrance on the sales charts last year...
Continue reading "Nicki Minaj Perfume is Inspired by her Inner Barbz (2012) {New Perfume} {Celebrity Fragrance} " »
 Actress Denise Richards has finally nailed the formula of her signature perfume to debut summer of 2012. She has been working on it for over a year, tweeting early on on March 22, 2011 that she had received lab samples - four of them - to choose from. While the launch was announced for the fall of 2011, it's been re-scheduled for this summer. Here is a first peek at the packaging which looks very California in style: great big deep blue, great hair and golden sunny feeling...
Continue reading "Denise Richards Parfum to Launch this Summer (2012) {New Perfume} {Celebrity Fragrance}" »
 If you like art with a message and naïve stylings, here is a vase created by London-based paper artist Rob Ryan of Ryantown. He specializes in hand-cut colorful papers which in turn have inspired a vase for the Liberty collection bearing the message "Pease smell us".
Stick your favorite flowers in the ceramic vase and invite everyone to be inspired to stop and smell the flowers. Or just dream in front of the blue vase, wondering how these invisible flowers might smell like. Price: £39,95 (diswasher-safe) Dimensions: H: 26cm, W: 14cm ; Width at middle: 16cm ; Width at base: 10cm. Available at Liberty
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