A sculpture by / une sculpture de Jean-Jacques Pradier Chloris caressée par Zéphyr (1849):
And an anecdote plus a poem both by poet Théodore de Banville about "The Woman with Roses", the inspiration behind the sculpture (apocryphal source suspected) and the poem. Et une anecdote (source apocryphe probable) et un poème tous deux signés par Théodore de Banville sur "La femme aux roses". Perfumer Lubin is mentioned (I am leaving the texts in the original): Le parfumeur Lubin est cité à deux reprises dans le corps du texte:
"C'était à la Comédie-Française, autrefois. Il y avait une belle dame qui aimait à la passion les roses effeuillées. A cette époque de l'année où le parfumeur Lubin fait avec des roses des préparations chimiques et a devant son officine des claies immenses sur lesquelles les tas de roses effeuillées s'élèvent à deux ou trois pieds de haut, la dame en faisait acheter chez Lubin et, en remplissait sa loge, en couvrait les meubles, les tables, les divans, en jonchait les jardinières, les vases de Chine et tout ce qui pouvait contenir des roses effeuillées!...
After announcing the new Fresh trio of fragrances inspired by Elizabeth Gilbert's bestselling book Eat, Pray, Love now adapted into a movie to debut August 13, 2010 and while watching the exclusive launch of My Life by Mary J Blige on the HSN site, I couldn't help but notice the all-out campaign which is taking place around the Eat, Pray, Love branding on the merchant site...
The perfume Infusion de Fleur d'Oranger by Prada, which was created by perfumer Daniela Andrier and launched in 2009 has been made part of an exhibit currently taking place at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. The exhibition is called Art Nouveau Revival and takes a closer look at the influence of the organic "style nouille" or noodle style on contemporary culture...
Keeping Up with the Kardashians has nothing to do with Kim Kardashian perfume, yet everything to do with it. Reality TV is one of the passions of 21st century society and it is going to help create the publicity necessary for the upcoming signature perfume of Kim Kardashian to get noticed.
"Keeping up with the Kardashians
returns for its fourth season with a very special season premiere, Sunday, Dec.
13 at 10/9c, only on E!
Watch as a tempest of siblings,
business and fame engulf Olympic decathlete Bruce Jenner and paparazzi fave Kim
Kardashian as their huge Hollywood families
collide!"
First, it's true that there are many scented strips in US magazines. And apparently, this has led to a backlash from customers. As the magazine market is struggling to adapt to the new, more pluralist media scene, they thought it was perhaps better not to irk further those who are intolerant of perfume strips. It was also an opportunity for them to demonstrate a higher level of service.
So, this morning when I went to cancel a few subscriptions that had been renewing themselves all by themselves, I happened on this service graciously offered by Hearst Communications: Request Unscented Issues.
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.
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...
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...
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...
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
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.
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.......
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......
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.....
And an anecdote plus a poem both by poet Théodore de Banville about "The Woman with Roses", the inspiration behind the sculpture (apocryphal source suspected) and the poem. Et une anecdote (source apocryphe probable) et un poème tous deux signés par Théodore de Banville sur "La femme aux roses". Perfumer Lubin is mentioned (I am leaving the texts in the original): Le parfumeur Lubin est cité à deux reprises dans le corps du texte:
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