Jon Stewart Shows How to Apply Cologne to the Right Body Points
Comedian Jon Stewart covers the topic of the freed journalists from North Korea by focusing on Clinton. The skit includes a short segment on how to best apply cologne, P. Diddy's Unforgivable as it turns out, presented here as a secret weapon in the arsenal of diplomatic tricks that have worked or ought to work. The gag starts at 1:00 minute and ends at 1:15 minutes but the whole skit is very funny. It looks like Unforgivable just came down an advertising billboard and made it into pop culture.
PSA about Underage Drinking: Alcoholic Beverages Try To Look Like Perfume Bottles {Cultural Notes}
The Hamptons Gin looks like the latest perfume launch for teenagers and conveniently strikes out the bar in the "G". The Tequila 1921 bottle looks like an old-fashioned Florida-Water type of perfume flacon with the word "Tequila" covered by sand instead of a brown paper bag and barely legible (photo credits: Mission Liquor).
The ban on underage drinking in the US has turned it into a veritable rite of passage for college students, and seemingly at times into a national sport. Organized Spring breaks in Cancun allow for unfettered alcohol consumption.
Reportedly, and purposefully or not, spirits brands are designing the bottles of some of their alcohols very much in the likeness of a fragrance bottle thus "helping" even younger teenagers left behind on the home front to escape parental scrutiny...
Coco avant Chanel, The Trailer + Video with Gabrielle Chanel: Compare {Cultural Notes}
You can now watch the trailer for the movie by Anne Fontaine, Coco avant Chanel featuring Audrey Tautou. It is going to be released on April 22nd 2009 in France.
What is apparent from this film is that the popular flavor of Audrey Tautou that was showcased in Amélie has been accentuated. She embodies a young Chanel who has quite a bit of the garçonne and titi parisien about her, I suppose, to emphasize the trajectory of her social ascent (although she was not originally from Paris). It makes one think of the biopic Edith Piaf a bit, another rags-to-riches/fame tale narrated with the appropriate accent des faubourgs...
Faux Perfume Commercial Ad by Roman Polanski for Greed & Real Art Project by Francesco Vezzoli {Fragrance News} {Cultural Notes}
Italian video artist Francesco Vezzoli has decided to illustrate the theme of greed in the art world with the support of a faux perfume commercial for Greed shot by none other than movie director Roman Polanski and featuring actresses Natalie Portman and Michelle Williams. The idea came to Vezzoli as he noticed that the world of art is more and more about the construction of desire, that is, yes, more and more like a bottle of perfume on which you are made to want to drool and that you covet.
From the perspective of someone more into the world of perfume this realistic take can sound ironic at a time when a good contingent of people are desirous to bring to perfume the recognition that it is an art form first and foremost. What kind of art do you mean? one might ask. The latest news are that art has turned into a market full of commodities!
The faux perfume commercial will debut at the Gagosian Gallery in Rome on February 6th 2009...
Archaeologists Find Unguents in Magdala Dating Back to Christ's Time {Fragrance News} {Cultural Notes}
Marie-Madeleine by Quentin Metsys (1465/66-1530), Musée du Louvre
Mary of Magdala or Mary Magdalene or Marie Madeleine in French is very often represented in Christian iconography with an emblematic pot of unguents or a perfume flacon as she is the one who used perfume - one of the most expensive kinds it is said - to anoint Christ's feet and dry them with her red hair. She is also considered to be the patroness-saint of perfumers as well as hairdressers, prostitutes, and gardeners.
For a group of Franciscan archaeologists from the group Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, the discovery of perfume containers dating back to Christ's time in Magdala in today's Israel is therefore of great potential significance,...
One of the perfume/unguent phials found on the Magdala site
Chanel Paris-Moscou Silent Movie by Karl Lagerfeld: Flawed Coco - A Look at the Pre-Fall 2009 Collection {Cultural Notes} {Scented Images}
A kind reader sent us a link to the short movie by Karl Lagerfeld entitled Chanel Paris-Moscou depicting Coco before Chanel in 10 mn. I wrote an earlier post about it on our sister blog Beauty & The Salamander and Octavian Coifan from 1000 Fragrances also posted his thoughts here.
The movie is both fun and funny. Lagerfeld showcases Gabrielle Chanel's indomitable self-confidence, her mastery of the art of the mauvaise foi, her expert delivery of vacheries, her militating bitchiness (she disses Paul Poiret, her rival)...
Cossack-uniform inspiration for a Chanel dress that is both sober and opulent. It strikes me as being perhaps the most Chanel outfit in spirit of the collection without being slavish and a mere copy of the previous glories of the house, with that same potential for turning into a classic, pared-down look that is essentially timeless.
Begging To Spend More Money {Cultural Notes - Luxury}
An article in the New York Times tells us about the Peacock kitchen and touches on topics related to the sensual pleasures of smelling, tasting, and touching, citing Clive Christian en passant and a study showing that spending more - or rather in this case being told you are drinking a more expensive wine while drinking in reality a cheap one - is all that really matters (please apply to perfume),
"Tellingly, the high cost of certain products, as Mr. Pedraza of the Luxury Institute pointed out, might boost sales. Mr. Pedraza cited a recent study by researchers at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and the California Institute of Technology which mapped the brains of volunteers as they drank red wine. Though the wine offered was the same cheap plonk ($5 a bottle), the pleasure receptors of the brains of the study group lit up more when the subjects were told the price was $45. “Knowing you are able to pay for the best is a very special thing, and it gives you real endorphins,” he said."
The Traditional Art of Beauty and Perfumein Ancient Korea by Guest Contributor Pauline
In keeping with my enthusiasm for cosmetics that make use of bio or natural ingredients, I thought that it would be interesting to explore the traditional Korean art of beauty and cosmetic culture in ancient times, more particularly as it was experienced from the medieval period until the turn of the 20th century.
If this topic may appear a bit geeky at first blush, I can point out that nowadays mainstream contemporary beauty brands do not hesitate to use ancient medieval recipes, like for example Lush with its “Angels on Bare Skin” facial scrub and Caudalie with its “Eau de Beauté” based on the legendary rejuvenating medieval rosemary lotion called "Eau de la Reine de Hongrie".
I love Asian art, often travel in the region and I was delighted to discover this tradition, which as it turns out emphasized the use of gentle natural ingredients (flowers, fruit kernels, beans) rather than chemical concoctions like the infamous Blanc de Céruse composed of white lead which ailed and disfigured many a beauty junkie in modern Europe. This is not to say that chemicals are not beneficial or that natural ingredients are always the best alternatives!
An exhibition organized by the Coreana Cosmetics Museum entitled Parures, fards et onguents dans la Corée ancienne (Adornments, Make-up, and Oinments in Ancient Korea) was held last year in Paris on this virtually unknown topic in Europe and even the West at large.......
Dolce & Gabbana Win the Macho Prize for Most Sexist Advertising & Le Mouvement du Nid for Least Sexist Ad {Cultural Notes}
When talking about fragrance it is hard to eschew images from advertising campaigns, sometimes pleasant, sometimes less. An association in France called La Meute (The Pack) gives out prizes each year to the most sexist ads and the least sexist ones. Everyone is encouraged to participate and submit their own findings (unfortunately, as only found in a French publication - it would be great if they could broaden their scope). So apparently they missed the Tom Ford ads and in this case "sexism" would include men (this site does not show the most porno-chic ones in the series).
This year Dolce & Gabbana won the 2008 Macho prize for its continuing depiction of women under a sexist angle over the years. Two other recipients are the Polo Cup Volkswagen for the stereotypical representation of a beautiful air-head and Citroên for the image of a pregnant woman cut in half......
Byzance Magazine: Art of Living Between East and West {Cultural Notes} {Fragrant Reading}
BYZANCE Magazine by Guest Contributor Pauline
Should you want to find some inspiration for adding an Oriental twist to your home, Byzance is the one magazine to read. I had a coup de coeur (fell in love with) as we say in French for this richly illustrated magazine which focuses on the relationships between Orient and Occident in the areas of decoration, interior design and art de vivre or art of fine living. A signature feature of the magazine is that they consecrate an "Inspiration Notebook" to a different color each time.
This bi-monthly French-Lebanese magazine was first launched in 2003 by Désirée Sadek and Jean-Pierre Gueirard. It has now an Arabic edition since 2007. Sadek is the Editor in Chief of the ELLE Oriental which was launched in Arabic in 2006.....
Dolly Parton Sings "So You Ask Me Not To Wear Cologne" {Cultural Notes}
Dolly Parton just released her latest album entitled Backwoods Barbie. Thanks to a tip from Kit who studies Irish Folklore and while chatting over pop culture and perfume, we learned that Dolly wrote a song called Cologne in this album. She actually herself produced a signature fragrance in the past.
Perfume here is used as a motif to illustrate the vulnerability of illicit love, it is the giveaway clue, and the woman in love is the scent that cannot be taken home. We give you Mrs. Dolly Parton (more lyrics after the jump),
You ask me not to wear cologne She’ll know you’ve been with me alone And you can’t take our secret home So you ask me not to wear cologne
You can wipe the make up off The lipstick or a little gloss But fragrance lingers on and on So you ask me not to wear cologne
Mac Fafi Collection: Lips & A Bit of Cheek, The Reviews Part 1 {Beauty Notes & Reviews}
The new Fafi collection by Mac Cosmetics, which we made an announcement about earlier (see picture of collection), is loaded with popular culture references and as usual is chock-full of colors. The tints in fact are much more vivid than appear on the pictures and then again some of them, like the fluo pink color in the tube Totally It, look all reasonable once applied.
Cultural Notes: Origins of the Fafinettes
The universe of the collection is that of Fafi, a French artist and cartoonist who draws her initial inspiration from intersecting cultural traditions where characters present a mix of traits usually found separately as characteristic of babies, little kids or gamins in the French tradition, and sexually mature adults. She herself simply likes to stress that she draws her inspiration from her friends and girls she observes on the street. It was her dream to have her drawings on makeup packaging and they look great on the Mac line. One would have just wished that there were more of them on the lipstick cases for example instead of the same character being repeated over and over.
Soonie's Rose by Margaret Keane
One can identify in her universe a trend deriving from the prevalent Kawaisa (cuteness) culture in Japan with its references to the Anime and Manga aesthetics but also closer to home for Fafi, the Poulbot sub-culture in France. Finally coming full circle one discovers the influence of the Big-Eye Movement born in the USA, an expression made popular by Wayne Hemingway in his book Just Above The Mantelpiece: Mass-Market Masterpieces. In it he attributes the birth of this inspiration to Margaret (and Walter as a pseudo) Keane in North Beach San Francisco California at the end of the 1950s. However, it must be stressed that Poulbot already drew gamins with oversized eyes. Keane's "large-eyed waif" paintings were beloved by actress Joan Crawford who collected them and had one made of her for decorating her home. Big eyes are typical of this cultural sensitivity, so much so that in Japan young women try to imitate the enormous eyes of Animes by wearing lenses that dilate the pupils and make the eyes seem more like tea saucers, an ideal of beauty that can be more easily achieved with a white pencil liner (see Fafi: Fascinating: Snake-eyes Matte White Eye Khol cf. press release)....
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