 Helena Rubinstein WantedSmell Expensive for Less with these 6 PerfumesNatori by Josie NatoriNorth-American Originals: Perfumers on Fall & Winter 3North-American Originals: Perfumers on Fall & Winter 2North-American Originals: Perfumers on Fall & WinterMy 2009 Halloween Shopping ListMarilyn Miglin Fo-Ti-TiengThe Body Shop Love Etc.Fall Fragrances: Cornucopia of Dark FruitsL'Occitane Labdanum de Séville, Mimosa de l'EstérelRobert Piguet FuturKate Moss VintageFrapin L'HumanistePatriotic Bestseller Perfumes: DiscussFaguenat, Faganat...Fug?Sniffing Rich Orientals in ParisL'Artisan Parfumeur Havana Vanille Dolce & Gabbana Rose The OneGuerlain Idylle - Part 1Guerlain Idylle - Part 2Kat Von D Saint & SinnerCalvin Klein CK Free for MenMariah Carey ForeverWienerBlut KlubwasserPrada L'Eau AmbréeSerge Lutens Fille en AiguillesBritney Spears Circus FantasyYves Saint Laurent ParisienneIdole d'ArmaniGuerlain Aqua Allegoria Tiaré-Blossom, Cherry BlossomHermès Eau d'Orange Verte, Eau de Pamplemousse Rose, Eau de Gentiane BlancheParfums de Nicolaï Weekend à DeauvilleSerge Lutens Fourreau NoirEssential FaithPenhaligon's Anthology: Eau de Verveine, Extract of Limes, Gardenia, Night Scented StockMac Naked Honey & AfricanimalChopard CascadeLancôme Hypnôse SensesJuliette Has a Gun Midnight OudNarciso Rodriguez EssenceQueen Latifah QueenBenefit Laugh With Me LeeLee, There's Something About Sofia, My Place Or Yours GinaThe Body Shop White Musk White Hot SummerRochas Eau SensuelleL'Artisan Parfumeur Côte d'AmourChloe Eau de ParfumGuerlain Les Fleurs du Guildo: An Early 19th Century Precursor of Marine ScentsLush VanillaryByredo Bal d'AfriqueZadig & Voltaire Tome 1 La Pureté - Part 1Zadig & Voltaire Tome 1 La Pureté - Part 2Guerlain MuguetGuerlain Muguet (en français)Spring Notes: Lily of the Valley & DiorChanel Cristalle Eau VerteChristian Dior Escale à PondichéryFrédéric Malle Géranium pour MonsieurGobin-Daudé Sous Le BuisRoger et Gallet Bois d'OrangeMontale Patchouli LeavesStetson All AmericanStephen Jones by Comme des GarçonsGivenchy Harvest 2008: Ange ou Démon Jasmin Sambac, Amarige Ylang Ylang, Very Irresistible Rose Damascena, Organza Fleur d'OrangerYves Saint Laurent La Nuit de l'HommeYves Saint Laurent l'HommeThe Sex Factor in Men's FragrancesNina Ricci Love by NinaHermès Kelly Calèche EDPAnnick Goutal Un Matin d'OrageGuerlain La Petite Robe NoireSerge Lutens Nuit de CellophaneParfums MDCI Péché CardinalHermès Vanille Galante - Part 1Hermès Vanille Galante - Part 2
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 Cellophane was invented in 1908 by Swiss chemist Jacques Brandenberger. The new term was coined as a contraction of "cellulose" and "diaphanous", transparency being one of its chief characteristics. If transparency is not a new effect in perfumery, the reference to the material cellophane is. Cellophane is used to keep food, but also flowers, fresh, and sometimes, women (certain rituals of beauty include the use of cellophane and olive oil, for example). It is both a functional and a beautifying material when wrapped around a bouquet of flowers, or candies, making them seem more fragile and precious, as if kept under crystal panes or ultra-shiny brittle silk. Its plasticky quality gives it a hard edge and a modernist sense of romanticism once you associate it with flower gifts. Even eroticism if you go farther into the night. There is also a sexual connotation attached to cellophane as it is an erotic inspiration for some to wrap a naked body in this thin, see-through film (the clingging kind often, but not only), which can nevertheless become more opaque as layers are added onto layers. Bondage fetishists make it one of their choice toys, together with latex or leather. But cellophane is special. Perhaps it is the most transgressive of those materials, associating in one stroke memories of cellophaned bread on the kitchen table, decent, flirtatious bouquets of flowers, and a metaphor on nudity. Precisely. Smelling the new Nuit de Cellophane by Serge Lutens one reaches a first conclusion that this work seems to be in its most characteristic aspect a work on the sensuality of floral notes, mostly jasmine, osmanthus, with a certain undercurrent of vanilla-and-magnolia softness, and narcisuss drenched in honey (as in Ozbek by Rifat Ozbek). Followers of Serge Lutens will recognize his palette of colors, his strokes, his self-referential quotes as he opens the boundaries existing between his different perfumes. But to what effect this time?...  Cellophane Show Girls, Rara Avis
Continue reading "Serge Lutens Nuit de Cellophane (2009) {Perfume Review & Musings}" »
 The Hermessence Collection in 2009 Vanille Galante: The Olfactory Report and Review As pointed out earlier in the first part of our review of Vanille Galante by Hermès, although perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena voiced his personal issues having to tackle vanillin in the past, this did not prevent him from creating a vanilla perfume in 2009. Further back in his career, in 1993, and to reveal how ineluctable the scent of vanilla is for a modern perfumer, Ellena wrote an article on vanilla entitled "Un parfum fatal de vanille" (A Fatal Perfume of Vanilla) in the book Vanilles et Orchidées (Vanillas and Orchids) edited by Marie-Christine Grasse and the Musée International de la Parfumerie which is based on an exhibition organized by the museum. In that article, the perfumer drew a contrasting historical comparison between vanillin and natural vanilla pointing to the marginalization if not downright possible disappearance of vanilla absolute from contemporary perfumery due to its astronomical cost compared to vanillin, an aromachemical synthetized by Wilhelm Haarmann and sold from 1880, as recounted by Ellena. Yet at the end of the 19th century, vanillin used to be much more expensive than natural vanilla extracted using alcohol ("vanille naturelle alcoolée"). The author gives the price of 2000 Francs per kilogram for Vanillin as opposed to 30 Francs for the alcohol extract of natural vanilla. The article of the 1993 edition concludes with the following sentence, finally explaining the title of the article,...
Continue reading "Hermes Hermessence Vanille Galante (2009) {Perfume Review & Musings} - Part 2" »
 Lyric for Man by Amouage The Skinny:
Perfumer: Daniel Visentin
Artistic Director: Christopher Chong
Gender label: masculine, but easily adopted by women
Notes: top: bergamot, lime; heart: rose, angelica, orange blossom, green galbanum, spicy ginger, nutmeg, saffron; base: pine, sandalwood, vanilla, musk, frankincense
Characteristics: a fresh and warm, dark and transparent green spicy rose oriental fragrance with a sustained aqueous facet and discreet powdery one.
Personality: subtle, elegant, offbeat
Wearability: very easy for a woman, easy for a man
Price point: $$$; worth it. Exceptional lastingness and diffusion
Bottle: an almost black-red glass (darker than on the picture) and a lighter black plastic cap than on the women's flacon but without feeling flimsy. Here the Swarovski crystal appears on the face of the cap and a crown motif appears on a metal appliqué on top of the cap.
Perfumes discussed: Penhaligon's Hammam Bouquet, Czech and Speake No. 88, Un Jardin Après La Mousson, Fabergé Brut, Yves Saint Laurent Paris, Lyric for Woman, Yohji Homme.
Lyric Rose, The Men's Version, and Gender
Amouage, as is their habit, launched at the same time a duo of fragrances for women and men which in this case turns out to be a dual homage paid to the rose. They being a perfume house shaped by the culture of the Middle East (and that of Oman in particular), it was interesting for me to anticipate how the creative team would work on a masculine version of a rose perfume that would be made, in principle, to stand a few degrees of virility apart from the feminine version while, one could surmise, taking into account the cultural heritage of the rose traditionally considered to be a popular scent in Arabic men's perfumes. By opposition, modern Western perfumery broadly defined tends to interpret the lushness and floralcy of the rose scent, whenever it is showcased prominently, to be women's appanage; it was not so in the 19th century (see for example the literally sulfurous Penhaligon's Hammam Bouquet) and even today Czech & Speake No. 88, a men's perfume showcasing a dark even sombre incensey rose belying these proclivities. It may be due perhaps both thanks to the colonial history of Great Britain and the country's traditional inclination for floral fragrances including soliflores that this cultural perception of the intensity of the rose otto was never completely forgotten. For it is a given that the rose in such cases will be masculinized.
The Western history of beauty reinforces the feminine attributes of the rose as this most desired and cultivated of flowers has been made to become in the end a stereotypical symbol of feminine beauty since the antiquity when the rose was sacred to Aphrodite. In the Islamic tradition however, the rose's aroma has been exoterically endowed with religious meaning, and if there is any gender association, it might be considered to be just as masculine as feminine through its connection with the figure of the Prophet Mohammad. It is thus said that the emanations of the rose are derived from the very sweat of the Prophet who invites "whoever" wishes to smell his person to drink it in. According to this tradition he expresses his own transfigurative mystical experience by referring to the intoxicating olfactory power of the rose, pointing at the same time possibly to a favorite perfumery accord: rose and musk,
"When I was taken up into heaven, some of my sweat fell upon the earth, and from it sprang the rose; and whoever would smell my scent, let him smell the rose."
The mystical use of the rose trope to express the exquisiteness and ineffability of the divine, further popularized by images of Sufi poetical transcendance. It carries therefore a priori an universalistic message despite the fact that Arabian feminine beauty, as in the West, is also unavoidably and classically compared to that of the rose. Of the rightly-named Rose-in-Bloom in the 1001 Nights, it is thus said that
"her name was Rose-in-Bloom; and the reason of her being so named was her excessive delicacy of beauty and her elegance."...
 October rose by Catmadogma: this picture is cool and warm like the perfume with a similar effect of watery transparency
Continue reading "Amouage Lyric for Man (2008): Unusual Rose {Perfume Review & Musings} {New Fragrance} {Rose Notebook} {Men's Cologne}" »
 Lyric for Woman by Amouage
The Skinny:
Perfumer: Daniel Maurel
Artistic Director: Christopher Chong
Gender label: feminine
Notes: top: bergamot, spicy cardamom, cinnamon, ginger; heart: rose, angelica, jasmine, ylang ylang, geranium, orris; base: oakmoss, musk, wood, patchouli, vetiver, sandalwood, vanilla, tonka bean, frankincense
Characteristics: a deep dark fruity and resinous rose encased in a classic oriental structure offering a nod to Shalimar and the guerlinade
Personality: opulent, rich, luxurious, classic, politely transgressive
Wearability: easy in the evening; you will get more noticed during the day
Price point: $$$; could have had more originality for that price, not just richness; sorry to haggle
Bottle: very nice; the cap is in a heavy good-quality plastic topped with a Swarovski crystal. The flacon is made of hefty dark, almost black-red (darker than on pictures). The
Perfumes discussed: Joy, Shalimar, Habit Rouge, Parure, Musc Nomade
This review is a composite picture of several impressions of the scent.
Lyric Woman by Omani niche perfume house Amouage is rich enough to support a variety of interpretations and can surprise you overtime with its different accents, although I think it is safe to try to encapsulate it as a dark wine-y rose oriental.
Although the rose is conspicuous at first, it tends to lose its centrality in the perception of the perfume as it develops further, for it is a very dressed-up rose in full regalia, bedecked with gold and carbuncles, including no doubt Burmese Pigeon Blood rubies. The rose here is less of a diva on its own than part of a general operatic atmosphere of ostentation with a decorative, ornate style although it blooms at times, especially peeking through a second layer of application.
As I said earlier (Perfumes that Sing Vs. Perfumes You Want To Eat), I am also more struck by the deep colors and tonalities of Lyric than by lyrical qualities, such as flight. The one criticism I have that stays with me with some persistence is regarding the use of a slightly juvenile, "easy" and regressive vanilla accord in the midst of rather convincing opulence and nocturnal ambiance...
Continue reading "Amouage Lyric for Woman (2008): Ornate Operatic Rose {Perfume Review} {Rose Notebook} {New Fragrance}" »
•• Interview with Serge Lutens Around El Attarine And Serge Noire ••
1) TSS: El Attarine is a reference to Arabian culture, to a well-defined place, the coranic school of Fès. It was written regarding Serge Noire that it is a perfume "without a sense of place". Are these two perfumes complementary ones for you?
- Serge Lutens: "El Attarine" is a perfume which synthetizes all the history or rather that spirit which presided over the birth of my perfumery, which has its roots in Morocco.
"Serge Noire" is not a perfume without a sense of place. It is quite the opposite in fact! It is situated on my own itinerary. I imagined and created Dior makeup and its image from 1968 to 1980. This period made me experience the last moments of what I would term "Parisian Haute Couture" (La Haute Couture parisienne): luxury (genuine, this time), rigor, mastery and respect for the feminine body image. That muffled atmosphere of the show rooms, of the fashion presentations - much more ritualistic than fashion shows - has made the perfume come to fruition in myself. An ethereal atmosphere, an elegance that is silent on a background of black serge suit materials, pale complexions, and tight straight hairdos......
Continue reading "Interview with Serge Lutens Around El Attarine And Serge Noire {Passion for Perfume - Portrait}" »
Photo © Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido Serge Lutens s'exprime autour de la création de ses deux derniers parfums, El Attarine et Serge Noire. Nous apprenons qu' El Attarine est un condensé de son expérience d'artiste et d'esthète du cinquième sens, un hommage rendu à la parfumerie lutensienne d'inspiration arabe. Quant à Serge Noire, il est son parfum le plus personnel, son préféré aussi, mais aussi de manière plus inattendue, un hommage rendu à l'esprit de Dior filtré par le souvenir et l'imaginaire de Serge Lutens.... Interview de Serge Lutens •• Autour d’El Attarine et de Serge Noire
1) TSS - El Attarine est une référence à la culture arabe, à un lieu même bien particulier, l’école coranique de Fès. Il est dit de Serge Noire qu’il s’agit d’un parfum “sans lieu”. Sont-ce là deux parfums complémentaires pour vous?
Serge Lutens: “El attarine” est un parfum qui reprend toute l’histoire ou plutôt l’esprit de la naissance de ma parfumerie, prenant racine au Maroc.
“Serge Noire” n’est pas un parfum sans lieu. Bien au contraire ! Il se situe sur mon parcours. J’ai imaginé et crée le maquillage Dior et son image de 1968 à 1980. Cette période m’a fait connaître les derniers instants de ce que je nommerais “la Haute Couture parisienne” : luxe (réel, cette fois), rigueur, maîtrise et respect de l’aimage du corps féminin. Cette atmosphère feutrée des salons de présentation, des défilés – beaucoup plus rituels que shows – a fait naître ce parfum en moi. Une atmosphère éthérée, une élégance silencieuse sur fond de tissus tailleurs en serge noire, teints pâles et cheveux plats......
Continue reading "•• Interview de Serge Lutens •• Autour de El Attarine et de Serge Noire {Passion for Perfume - Portrait}" »
Sycomore is the latest composition by perfumers Jacques Polge and Christopher Sheldrake appearing in the collection Les Exclusifs by Chanel, which purports to offer more elaborate works of perfumery utilizing finer ingredients and proposing more delicate art-pieces for the connoisseur.
The fragrance is also a new take on an old idea for the house of Chanel, which remains tradition-bound in order to preserve the spirit of Mademoiselle Chanel since an initial Sycomore perfume was launched in 1930 that aimed to be seemingly this contradictory object: an uncluttered woody perfume for women supporting an overall baroque interpretation. In Michael Edwards, Perfume Legends, Jacques Polge is reported to have characterized both Bois des Iles (1924) and Sycomore (1930) as baroque pieces. The old perfume Sycomore then very interestingly already provided inspiration to him for the creation of Coco as one of two perfect fragrance embodiments of what he saw to be the lost style of Coco Chanel, now seen predominantly through the prism of her clothes. That lost side of Chanel was her less-well known predilection for the complicated chinoiseries and opulence of gold-leaf work as revealed by her Rue Cambon apartment to the in-house perfumer who explained that he wanted to absorb her influence by mediating in-situ about her taste. Admittedly though, Chanel's taste for baroque opulence and excess is more clearly apparent in her accessories, jewelry in particular.
It is therefore also the second attempt at least on the part of Polge to recapture some of the soul of the original Sycomore, but it seems going in a new interpretive direction, more towards the idea of showcasing pure woods, although a baroque hint is present as well.
More recently, Jacques Polge is reported to have wanted to concentrate solely on vetiver (Vetiveria Zizanoïde) and its natural facets this time. Despite the reported express intention not to see the vetiver be overtaken by other facets (see previous post), it seems that the incense-y facet in Sycomore is almost as equally important as the vetiver one, an already smoky varietal here.
Sycomore is a beautiful, even stunning wood and incense composition that manages to awaken the combined evocative powers of vetiver and whirling incense, their decidedly exotic association in this case, while offering itself at the same time as an oh!-so-French study in ideals of understated refinement and elegance. A little baroque flourish is discreetly inserted in the signature of the perfume as an homage paid to the spirit of the Grande Mademoiselle, she who instinctively knew how to embrace the contrasted purity of monastic lines and the golds of aristocratic ostentation and excesses to feel complete. You are tempted also to recognize the influence of perfumer Christopher Sheldrake in this discreet exotic touch.
The perfume conveys its, if you will, French style or Chanel world-view through its intuition for pure lines - like a French window, a French garden - in its sense of refined, controlled, balanced and clear, Cartesian elegance. At the same time there is to be found a sense of Baudelairean voyage to the perfume, but without that hint of opiate-laden, heavy voluptuousness found in the weight of velvet curtains or sensual women's manes as populate that universe. Something airy and pure traverses Sycomore, suggesting the original spiritual, meditative qualities of burning incense and smoke (smoky woods) while alluding to a quiet, reserved and polite sense of mysticism......
Continue reading "Chanel Sycomore (2008) {Perfume Review} {New Fragrance}" »
Here are some suggestions for wearing spring fragrances, in several installments. Today, I turn to the "effortlessly chic" category. By that I mean that as lighter, fresher perfumes these perfumes tend to dress down a bit but not overly so. They retain an air of elegance and sophistication about them mixed with a dose of studied nonchalance and casualness.
Why should some perfumes be considered to be particularly appropriate for spring time? Their vernal quality is suggested by their rich, yet still frail floral notes, their freshness, and their luminosity bespeaking of the spring equinox and daylight-saving time.
Green notes that are just a bit crunchy also contribute to this feeling of smelling half-open buds. These scents to me offer transparent, airy, cool nuances rather than ripe, decaying ones. When brainstorming about the topic, I had to realize that the house of Guerlain had been particularly committed to offering interpretations of springtime perfumes. Nina Ricci too, although only one of their scents is mentioned.
1- Diorissimo No list about perfume classics embodying the yearning for spring would be complete without Diorissimo by Dior. Composed by master-perfumer Edmond Roudnitska in 1956 it remains a central reference as the lily-of-the-valley fragrance as it has come to embody the very spirit of spring for generations of wearers. The scent of Diorissimo is like drinking muguet-scented champagne on the pristine empty streets of a clean and empty Paris in the wee hours of the morning listening to the distant sound of party laughters. You feel like you own the city of lights and spring, both. It too should have been called Joy......
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Photo © Communication Serge Lutens Serge Lutens possesses this uncanny ability of turning a priori the most superficial, surface objects and sensations into an oniric walk taken down the maze of a garden as if in a daydream. With Five O’ Clock Au Gingembre composed in collaboration with perfumer Christopher Sheldrake, a tea party in an English manor opens the way to the muffled, velvety footsteps of a discovery walk down the dozens of labyrinthine corridors of a mansion built with hundreds of forgotten rooms. At the same time the contained intensity of the perfume, which unfurls as if following the line of a fall suggests a drop in a well filled with dark light. The perfume is thus complex in the sense of creating both a horizontal line of imagery, by minutely shifting the sensations, and a vertical one by creating an impression of dynamic deepening. Five O'Clock is one of the most difficult perfumes I have had to write about due to the level of detail found in it and its structuring which is poorly rendered by a chronological account. I am tempted to say that it is more constructed like a faceted gem, but it is not quite that either. It is more like a combination of both structures, the linear one and the prismatic one. Or another way to put it would be to say that it is the most elusive of the Lutens despite its deceptive homey title...
Photo © Communication Serge Lutens
Continue reading "Serge Lutens Five O'Clock Au Gingembre (2008): The Black Luminous Intensity of Ginger {Perfume Review} {New Fragrance}" »
Photography by Serge Lutens, reproduced with the permission of Peter Gabor - © Reproduction is forbidden, used for pedagogical purposes. As people will see in the second part of our interview with Serge Lutens (see Part 1), he is a mind that always thinks beyond the predictable limits set by a question. Here he expresses himself regarding Baudelaire's legacy, his line of makeup, the mythical Nombre Noir fragrance, niche perfumery, and his contribution to contemporary perfumery. Marie-Helene Wagner: 16 – Do you think that speaking of perfumery, we are the heirs to Baudelaire?
Serge Lutens:
- Perfume, in and of itself, is not just an aroma. It is potentially a carrier for the imagination. Perfume is thick; it is poison and pure desire. It is Eros in prison! I think that we are first and foremost the heirs to frustration, but also to revolt, with means that the ones who have not subjected themselves still have aspirations…. "Coiffe façon Tatlin Tower" by Serge Lutens, an interpretation of the unfinished Tatlin Tower built by architect Vladimir Tatlin.
Continue reading "Q & A With Serge Lutens - Part 2 {Perfume Q & A}" »
The perfumes issued by Jovoy the newly re-established house founded by Blanche Arvoy in 1923 and now revived by François Henin, Henri de Pierrefeu, and Marie-Laure de Rodellec (see also post on the "patrimony movement" in French perfumery) pose the interesting question, to us, of the significance of the name and concept behind a perfume in their influence over the composition of the fragrance and the communication of its personality to the wearer. If a perfume is art, then it is about the attempt to establish a bridge of communication between two imaginations, two universes, those of the creator(s) and the wearer(s). Perfumes named with non-particular names, but rather with names denoting the whole group or family of perfumes might well be in danger of blunting precise images, precise sensations. It is very difficult to assess how much a name influences our perception of a perfume without doing psychological tests about olfactory creation and perception and expectations. Perfumes might very well be inevitably linked to stories and names as the other halves of themselves, which includes the shape of the bottle, another story told with different materials........ 
Continue reading "Chypre, Oriental, Poudré by Jovoy & Chypre by Coty: On Perfume Names {Perfume Shorts (Reviews)} {Scented Thoughts} {New Perfumes}" »
ESS Bouquet by The Crown Perfumery Co., as one of the oldest English fragrances to exist, is one of those perfumes steeped in history and antique exotic tastes that require further investigation and elucidation to fully appreciate. First we have to address the meaning of its name, which sounds a bit puzzling to the modern ear: “Ess Bouquet” we learn from Septimus Piesse writing in 1857 is but the contraction of the word “essence of bouquet”. The original recipe for the scent, by an anonymous London perfumer, is recorded as early as 1711 and by the time Piesse writes his The Art of Perfumery in the mid-19th century this original date has been forgotten and the much imitated perfume formula is attributed to, not its rightful creators whoever these may be, but rather to its famous developers, Bayley and Co., established 1739. Septimus Piesse thus mistakenly attributes the paternity of Ess Bouquet to its most celebrated makers at the time,
“The reputation of this perfume has given rise to numerous imitations of the original article, more particularly on the continent. In many of the shops in Germany and in France will be seen bottles labelled in close imitation of those sent out by Bayley and Co., Cockspur Street, London, who are, in truth, the original makers.”.......
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 Covet promised to reveal more freely the “vixen" side of Sarah Jessica Parker and since we know that Lovely (2005) had a toned-down musk that smacked of marketing compromise for the actress who usually loves her musk straight-up and dirty, we were expectant and holding our breath metaphorically speaking, awaiting something like a modern-day Bal à Versailles, a gift from the fragrance developers to SJP after her resounding success with Lovely in 2006. Instead what we get is yet another perfume in shackles and Covet is not even as pretty smelling as Lovely, which does not make it necessarily more interesting smelling.......
Continue reading "Covet by Sarah Jessica Parker {Perfume Short (Review)} {New Perfume} {Celebrity Fragrance}" »
Notes: Top: Green of hyacinth, bergamot, muguet; heart: rose, ylang, hawthorn, heliotrope, almond-y notes; base: cedar, sandalwood, patchouli, vetiver, tonka bean. Jacomo For Her by Jacomo is one of those fragrances that we like to call "closet-musk fragrances"(see Floris Malmaison), whose definite musky nature and erotic power lie further hidden within the folds of the perfume. They are not advertised officially as musk fragrances, but they possess the simplicity of purpose of their less subtle sisters who bear the title of a day or evening program of erotic approach on their packages. "Musk" is written in bold lettering on the box to help guide the shopping hand; it would flash and twinkle if it could. "Buy me, I will make you more desirable..." are the words whispered by practically every perfumes on earth, but musk fragrances, even more so than others, are born to seduce......
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Like the laying out of the 12 first steps of an Inca pyramid made of black onyx, we now have been offered the 12 building blocks of the Tom Ford fragrance house. The 12 scents of the new line are called Amber Absolute, Noir de Noir, Velvet Gardenia, Black Violet, Tobacco Vanille, Oud Wood, Purple Patchouli, Bois Rouge, Moss Breches, Tuscan Leather, Neroli Portofino and Japan Noir. The scents are described as perfumes constructed around a main note folded into secondary notes. In this manner and despite the richness of their textures the perfumes are not particularly complex. They offer dense, heavily textured sensations most of the time, but not necessarily deep and multi-layered in the longer term. The notes themselves have a certain depth - they are fleshy, often opulent -but the structures of the perfumes are rather straightforward. Often one gets an opening stage as discrete as the blasting of a police siren on an empty Sunday morning street followed by some relinquishing, a renewed, often invasive presence, and then a clean-shaved impression of a drydown.
A line of continuity with Black Orchid is apparent as the concept of a sub-genre of dark tropical juices with slightly nefarious accents endures, meanders into new territories and draws a geographical map of Tom Ford's desires and obsessions. "It's rare that I like a very light floral," he says. "I'm rarely drawn to roses, for example. I'm more a tuberose, gardenia, jasmine, sort of deeper, sort of heady ... heady ... heady...."..........
Continue reading "Tom Ford Private Blend: An Overview {Perfume Review & Musings} {New Perfumes}" »
As previously reported, the upcoming perfume launch by Calvin Klein has adopted the rapid text messaging style of the new digital generation to define its image and is called CK in2u. According to the press release, "ck one is about connecting with the group, ck be is about connecting with yourself, and ck IN2U is all about connecting with another person." Even before the perfumes have been made available to the public (but you will read a review of them first here), the advertising campaign around the duo of fragrances for her and for him is generating quite a stir in the media and in particular in the blogosphere where acerbic remarks seem to resound like shouts emanating from angry young people, precisely the ones targeted by the advertisers, i.e., the millenials or people born between 1982 and 1995......
Continue reading "CK IN2U for Her & CK IN2U for Him by Calvin Klein {Perfume Review & Musings} {New Perfumes}" »
La Fuite des Heures, also marketed under the English name Fleeting Moment, was created in 1949 by the great perfumer Germaine Cellier who also gave us Coeur-Joie by Nina Ricci, Bandit by Piguet, Elysées 64-83, Jolie Madame,Vent Vert, and Monsieur Balmain by Balmain, amongst others. Her style can be characterized as bold, forceful (Bandit, Vent Vert) yet also capable of creating infinitesimally subtle nuances (Coeur-Joie). Today, one can find traces of her more forceful, almost primitive style at times in Mona di Orio's work, while her originality can be found again in Olivia Giacobetti's creations. La Fuite des Heures contains both her primitivist and softer romantic sense of nuances. Like the picture La Danse (The Dance) by Fauvist André Derain who was a friend of Germaine Cellier and for whom she posed, it is an ensemble of bold and graceful lines and as it turns out, seems to be colored with the same color tones: the brown of the amber, the grey of ambergris, the dark brown of leather, the chartreuse green of the anise, the darker green of thyme, the yellow of the hay, the mauve of the violet or orris, the golden hues (for me) of jasmine......
Continue reading "La Fuite Des Heures by Cristobal Balenciaga {Perfume Review & Musings}" »
 L'Antimatière is one of the three scents from a triptyque of perfumes created by nose Isabelle Doyen for a new perfume brand called Les Nez: Parfums d'Auteurs (The Noses: Authors' Perfumes), which was established in the fall of 2006. Isabelle Doyen is also the in-house perfumer for the house of Annick Goutal where she created perfumes noted for their beauty and originality sometimes but not for their avant-garde or l'art-pour-l'art characteristics. Les Nez reveals her more modernistic, daring, and experimental side. Stefan Zweig and Jorge Luis Borges, I have been told by the founder of Les Nez, were the literary supports of their brainstorming sessions for the perfumery project.
The person behind the concept of the new label is René Schifferlé, a businessman and fragrance collector from Switzerland with a demanding sense of the creative possibilities offered by today's perfumery, who decided one day that the vaccuum he perceived to exist needed to be filled with certain perfumes of the future that were, he felt, simply "lacking" from the market.....
Continue reading "L'Antimatière by Les Nez {Perfume Review & Musings}" »
 Rousse (russet, ginger, red-headed) is the silken and frothy-sounding name in French given to the upcoming spring 2007 perfume launch by designer Serge Lutens. It will be available from February in the export line. Like the rest of the collection, it is the result of an on-going collaboration between Serge Lutens and nose Christopher Sheldrake. It is said to be inspired by the finale of French pop singer Mylène Farmer's show "Avant que l'ombre" and the russet-colored couture dress she wore on that occasion made for her by Franck Sorbier.
Rousse contains notes of mandarine, cinnamon, carnation, cedar, sandalwood, violet, vanilline, amber, balsamic notes and more since it develops a Tiger Balm accord (like the recent Heeley Spirit of the Tiger)....
Continue reading "Rousse by Serge Lutens {Perfume Review & Musings} {New Perfume}" »
M.A. Sillage de La Reine is a project of historical reconstruction of one of the most fragile cultural artifacts to exist, perfume. The project takes place in the context of the recent restoration and opening of Marie Antoinette's domain at Château de Versailles in July 2006 and the new interest - and shall we say adulation for her in France - that has come to replace the collective feelings of distrust by the French that led her to the guillotine in 1793. As Mona Ozouf has pointed out it seems that what is taking place today is the opening of a beatification process for the former French queen and Austrian princess. The recent publication of a critical edition of Marie Antoinette's correspondence by Evelyne Lever has led a critic from Lire to conclude that despite the new evidence that is now presented "One will never know who Marie Antoinette really was and this is all to the advantage of her legend."Indeed M.A. Sillage de la Reine follows that logic by seeming to shed light on Marie Antoinette's tastes and personality only to reinforce the myth. The re-creator of the perfume, Francis Kurkdjian, explained himself that the queen could not have been expected to wear just one scent nor wear exactly the same one over time as fragrances were unstable due to the naturalness of the ingredients....
Continue reading "M.A. Sillage de la Reine by Château de Versailles {Perfume Review & Musings}" »
This is part I of my review of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. I will devote a second part to the perfumista's point of view when watching the movie. In this first part, I offer a more general analysis of the movie. The movie Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is both a hyper-realistic and flamboyant adaptation of the novel by Patrick Süskind initially published in 1985, a story that for a long time was famously deemed impossible to adapt by the likes of Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorcese. After years of tribulations, German producer Bernd Eichinger ( In the Name of The Rose) succeeded in securing the rights from reclusive author Süskind, apparently convincing him that his own vision would be up to the challenge. It is reported that the German writer would have ideally liked to see Stanley Kubrick do the adaptation. Director Tom Tykwer ( Run Lola Run, a must-see) who was brought in later then had to overcome two main obstacles. First a classic one, the challenge of adapting a suspenseful thriller that had been translated in this case in 45 languages and read by millions worldwide. The second one, more daunting, more original, more creative, and more historic, that of adapting an "olfactory novel" on-screen....
Continue reading "Movie Review of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) by Tom Tykwer, Part I {Perfume/Film Review & Musings}" »
 From Lithuania comes a new eponymous fragrance by designer Juozas Statkevicius, an eau de parfum a priori exotic, mysterious, and as it turns out deeply contemplative and sensual. This perfume so moved me that it made me experience for the first time as provoked by a perfume and in spite of myself a knot of emotion in my throat. I do not understand the effect of the fragrance completely but I will attempt to describe it. But first some context. Juozas Statkevicius is known as a provocative and innovative designer from Vilnius, Lithuania. He made his fashion debut in Paris in 2002 with a collection of unconventional designs which brought him overnight recognition. There was his shawl with a pillow sewn in it. A model wore arm bracelets representing human bones in black and silver. All on the catwalk wore makeup that included some drops of fake blood dripping on their faces....
Continue reading "Juozas Statkevicius/Josef Statkus Eau de Parfum {Perfume Review & Musings}" »
Black Orchid, as its name promised to deliver, is a dark voluptuous perfume with all the attributes necessary to become the scent of choice of a film noir femme fatale. The perfume seems to play, from the onset, with the evocation of disquieting shadows projected on the wall of a passion crime scene and makes us enter a universe replete with seething sensuality, foreboding and mystery. It is a beautiful rare, both dark and unexpectedly green, heavy and fresh perfume with gourmand and even slightly offensive overtones. Remarkably so, the scent toys with some near-repulsive olfactory facets such as the smells of cheese and borderline decaying matter found in certain tropical flowers due to the combined presence of compounds like dimethyl disulfide (DMDS, 1) and dimethyl trisulfide (DMTS, 2). The perfume artfully manages to stay precisely on the edge of repulsion, suggesting it more as the next possible order of things rather than making it concretely be felt....
Continue reading "Black Orchid by Tom Ford {Perfume Review & Musings}" »
 Eau d'Italie Le Sirenuse Positano is a line of perfumes originally inspired by Hotel Le Sirenuse in the locale of Positano on the Italian Amalfian Coast. To the initial Eau d'Italie have succeeded three other perfumes, all inspired by Italy and its history: Paestum Rose, Sienne L'Hiver (Sienna in Winter), and Bois D'Ombrie (Umbria Woods). I find that perfume and nostalgia being intimately linked, it is only fitting that a sense of place be translated into perfumes. The symbolic gesture of taking a handful of dirt and inhaling its scent deeply to be reminded of one's roots and provenance is something that all people who have been transplanted in their lives can relate to. It may be those few grams of earth, that some even take with them upon leaving, as it may be any types of physical evidences of our lives past. I also said earlier that nationalism as a deeply aesthetic emotion could be potentially shared and reactivated through the sharing of common, iconic smells. Le Sirenuse seems thus to be piecing together an image of Italy, ideal and worth remembering. It is a romanticized version of the Italian peninsula in the fall and winter...
Continue reading "Paestum Rose, Sienne L'Hiver, Bois D'Ombrie by Eau D'Italie Le Sirenuse Positano" »
 Balahé by Léonard was created by nose Daniel Molière during the attention-craving, power-hungry 1980s showcasing, fashionwise, the big threes: Big hair, Big shoulderpads, and Big sillage. Dynasty was shown everywhere in the world and more importantly watched everywhere. Today, or at least until recently, SUVs were the new Big seeing the transformation of women dressed in armor-like dresses and helmet hairdoes into creatures more casually dressed but well protected by the shield-like accessory that the SUV came to be.
The flacon of Balahé retains some of the elemental forces at play in our lives in its design. The black glass bottle designed by Serge Mansau is like a shape half-bottle, half-rock calling us back to yet a further point in the past, probing our unconscious memories of cave dwellings and fights for survival. It is speaking, hissing to our reptilian brain. Has the story changed much? Apparently not. The global success of Angel by Thierry Mugler is a constant reminder that an important part of perfume-wearing has still to do with the art of war and impress/fear tactics. Many women wearing Angel claim that they feel protected by it. Psychologists speculate that strong perfumes might help cover up insecurities and create a strong persona where vulnerabilities lie. You are saying in other words "don't mess with me" more or less politely, with your perfume, thus expressing, thanks to the symbolism of aromas, your inner agressivity that is successfully projected outwards without having to put it in so many words. Perfume critics often use the term "projection" to speak of a perfume and to define its aromatic impact on the immediate environment...
Continue reading "Balahé by Léonard {Scented Thoughts & Perfume Review & Musings}" »
 The Night Porter (1973/74) was a very controversial movie at the time of its introduction and remains to this day. It is the story of the destructive and sado-masochistic relationship uniting a concentration camp survivor and her former Nazi torturer. The movie was based in part on interviews done by Liliana Cavani with concentration camp survivors.
As the characters, played superbly by Charlotte Rampling and Dirk Bogarde, Lucia and Max, meet again in post-war Vienna 13 years later in 1957, the intensity of their relationship, to say the least, fully resurfaces, this time to demonstrate the impossibility of its continued existence and its doom. Lucia was 15 when she became Max's victim and lover and she seems to be irremediably marked by the experience.What had been limited to a game, paradoxically, when millions of people were being killed, notwithstanding the fact that it had been a dangerous and sickening one during the Nazi period, becomes suddenly something much more threatening. Max, who is trying to preserve himself from the new historical context by living like a "church mouse" in a hotel patronized by covert former Nazis, will not be able to fulfill his modest plan upon reconnecting with Lucia.The re-established rules of normal society now fail to be able to preserve their deviant behaviors and will even call for their condemnation by former Nazis who fear Lucia could stand as a witness against their crimes. It is easy for someone external, like a spectator, to decide that Max is a deeply deranged individual whose pathology found expression and nourishment in the Nazi period and, were it real life, would have to be avoided at all costs. The problem of course is that looking at Max through the eyes of Lucia makes the situation much more ambiguous as it becomes quite evident that the former Nazi officer is able to have her experience an almost animalic joy and happiness that is best expressed by her strange, deep, and happy laughter punctuating her descent into oblivion. Undeniably, Lucia is happy, much more than she ever was with her conventionally handsome American husband who represents by contrast urbanity, culture, civilization and who happens to be a renowned music conductor. She may be, we suspect, at the center of Max's life in a way that she never was at the center of her husband's life...
Continue reading "Scented Thoughts: Perfume Symbolism in Liliana Cavani's The Night Porter" »
 Certain perfumes call to imagination the supernatural. These slightly unsettling scents retain an original magical quality about them and subconsciously impart to us the idea that they are the direct descendants of a witche's brew, are secret elixirs whose recipes have been closely guarded for centuries in the muted darkness of a dungeon, or equally, are love potions transmitted through a line of strong females who decided in the course of time to lay at rest their warrior suits to engage instead in the war of seduction. That type of scent, of course, is first handed down from mothers to daughters during a mysterious sylvestrian puberty ritual and marks their symbolic passages into womanhood.
Gucci Eau de Parfum has the irresistible aura of deep seduction. Its color, to me, contributes to its charm. The jus is dark brown, the color of root-beer with shades of greenish black. I personally love dark brown almost black-colored perfumes like Youth-Dew oil or Royal Secret as they seem to have macerated with the most profound secret spices you could imagine. My anticipation when I see those hues is that the perfume will reveal a complex, multi-layered hidden beauty that was captured in rare concentrated form and that the power of the plants was fully harnessed. The perfume was created in 2002 by nose Daniela Roche based on an idea by designer Tom Ford. Head notes are orris, heliotrope, orange blossom, and vanilla absolute. Heart notes are cistus, cumin, and thym. Base notes are patchouli, vanilla, and deep musk. At the time of its release, Ford declared "I wanted to create a classic fragrance that is very, very Gucci, something that is incredibly feminine and chic". The house of Gucci was confident enough to assert that Gucci Eau de Parfum "has the power to last far beyond the moment, and become a signature scent that is worn for a lifetime". To me it indeed reveals enough substance and character to be contending for a signature scent spot in any woman's life...
Continue reading "Perfume Review & Musings: Gucci Eau de Parfum by Gucci" »
 The Piguet brand just released its re-edition of one of the classic scents from the catalogue of the former Parisian couture house of Robert Piguet following Bandit and Fracas. The original Baghari, named after the evocative name of an Indian town, was initially introduced in 1950, a year before the closure of the Piguet fashion house due to the designer's frail health. Piguet died two years later. (The reformulated Baghari on the left in the parfum concentration). I had acquired a small flacon of the vintage fragrance created by perfumer Francis Fabron in parfum concentration and was eager to compare it with the newer version in eau de parfum which was "rebalanced" by nose Aurélien Guichard of Givaudan. Judging from an advertisement I saw, the shape of my bottle is the same as one that was still commercialized around 1967. Aurélien Guichard is also the author of Love in Paris by Nina Ricci, Les Belles-Cherry Fantasy by Nina Ricci, and Chinatown by Bond no 9. In 2005, the young Grasse-born perfumer was recognized by the Fashion Group International and named one of its Rising Stars. The new Baghari is a lovely powdery and flowery concoction with discrete aldehydes giving it vibrancy. After the initial burst of fresh, aromatic notes it develops depth revealing a more sensual indolic heart where the jasmine rounds off the fragrance. A mix of slightly candied notes unfolds on a deeper sensual background composed of amber, vanilla, and musk. More austere woodsy notes such as vetiver, violet, and iris balance out the sweetness of the perfume. The drydown leaves a trail of powdery softness...
Continue reading "Perfume Review & Musings: Baghari by Robert Piguet (The New & Vintage Versions)" »
The latest fragrance by Sisley, Soir de Lune (Moonlit Evening) was reportedly 7 to 8 years in the making. Philippe d'Ornano, son of the founder of Sisley Cosmetics stressed, "You can do a fragrance for a season, or a lifetime," (...) "We are choosing to build a fragrance that will last a lifetime."
The perfume comes 16 years after Eau du Soir (1990) and 32 years after Eau de Campagne (1974) the two previous perfumes introduced by the Sisley cosmetics brand established in 1973 by Count Hubert d'Ornano.
Soir de Lune is officially described as a floral chypre but it is just as much a fruity and animalic chypre to the nose. This new composition seems to embody the very Platonic ideas of elegance and refinement bringing those qualities to a new level and in particular making the scent appear significantly more sophisticated than the previous chypre found in the portfolio of the brand, Eau du Soir at the risk admittedly of cannibalizing the first.
The commitment to quality on the part of the d'Ornanos can be felt immediately upon inhaling the scent. You are struck here with a sense of accomplishment and refinement that makes you think that Sisley did not waste their time indeed as the fragrance has benefited from the extra attention and accumulation of experience. Soir de Lune is a great example of how perfumes can progress from one creation to another while paying attention to the same idea. Sisley have thus taken the same concept, the idea of a luxurious chypre, but it has now gained further polish and elegance, further depth in other words, characteristics that would be hard to just improvise or simply will, it seems. One can well imagine the number of trials and errors, the number of suppression of unnecessary details and effects. And the result is outstanding...
Continue reading "Sisley Soir de Lune (2006) {Perfume Review & Musings} " »
 I will first review the advertisement for Insolence and then the perfume. My illustrations are in reverse order though; hope you're not confused already.
So I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to review the new Insolence by Guerlain as it would help me clarify my own impressions of it. A little trip to Sephora last weekend allowed me to get hold of a generous sample of Insolence as I felt that the couple of spritzes that were drying off my hand wouldn't be enough to get to the bottom of it. After all it's a perfume by Maurice Roucel, the author of Musc Ravageur, 24 Faubourg, Iris Silver Mist, and Be Delicious, to name a few; there might be hidden complexity there. It is a also a newly heralded Guerlain generation of perfumes as the very bourgeois and posh perfume house is attempting to break its classic image and reach out to a younger set of women. With this battle plan in mind, Guerlain has decided to appeal by putting out a rebellious, insolent perfume and hiring Hilary Swank/Million Dollar Babe as its icon. Swank is perfect to embody insolence, the value, but the strange images used in the advertisement campaign seem to want to deflect the potential threat posed by the representation of an insolent young woman: the actress looks stultified, frozen, immobile; in brief, her insolence is safely put away in a place that looks like it might be a locked Swiss bank safe with the key completely lost in the netherland of aborted rebellious dreams...
Continue reading "Perfume Review & Musings: Insolence by Guerlain" »
 Red Chypre is an unusual olfactory construction, a chypre reinterpreted to the point of nearly losing its identity as a chypre and being recognized only with hesitation, seemingly serving essentially as a symbolic crossroads for Serge Lutens' memories and impressions. The perfume here is biography and quest speaking of soul-searching and soul-finding tracing a path leading us from the present to the past or, perhaps it would be more correct to state, from the author's days as an adult to the chapter of his childhood. It also reflects his life journey from West to East. How significant are these elements in his creation of perfumes is made explicit by Lutens, "A perfume can only emanate from a memory, from something you have known earlier on, or from a cultural path."
Serge Lutens offers us clues that reinforce the mystery and secrecy of Chypre Rouge. It is a perfume that will offer its wearer the charm of strangeness; it exudes it. 
The scent refers to a red oakmoss that is half-dreamed, half-remembered and that we are not sure is really present as a significant chypre ingredient...
Continue reading "Perfume Review & Musings: Chypre Rouge by Serge Lutens & Sample Giveaway" »
 Lonestar Memories is the latest creation by Andy Tauer. People who are familiar with his first two perfumes, both introduced in 2005, Le Maroc pour Elle and L'Air du Désert Marocain, will find that it departs from the previous two in that it is not a perfume with Oriental references but rather an ode sung to the naturalness and freedom expressed by the myth of the American West. I will add that it is also, to me, a perfume that contributes to defining without any ambiguity or restrictions a classic ideal of rugged masculinity as conveyed by a fragrance; it is rather efficient. In case we had forgotten, Tauer reminds us that certain perfumes just might smell more erotic on a man's skin than on a woman's if we are to recognize that to be able to provoke "trouble" (in French) could be a perfume's ultimate mission...
Continue reading "Perfume Review & Musings: Lonestar Memories by Andy Tauer" »
Andy Tauer is an independent perfumer from Switzerland. He has already made his mark on the world of niche perfumery within a very short period of time by launching three fragrances to connoisseurs' acclaim, Le Maroc pour Elle, L'Air du Désert Marocain, and most recently, Lonestar Memories. Tauer came relatively late to perfumery, yet he did not start his journey on this new path completely unprepared as he is a doctor in chemistry. He is also one of the perfume bloggers that I like and esteem and am glad to have as a neighbor in cyberspace. His always sincere and sometimes very funny posts on his blog, Perfumery, are recommended readings.
Please tune in again tomorrow or the day after tomorrow as I will review his latest release, Lonestar Memories. I am hereby inaugurating a new series on TSS which bears the title Passion for Perfume - Portraits and which will be devoted to offering portraits of people who are passionate about the fifth sense and all things perfumey and aromatic.
TSS - I am struck by how the sense of place as well as your travels are made to be an integral part of your work... Morocco, Texas, not Switzerland. Is this distancing from the familiar necessary for you to create perfumes? [Note: In a way, I am reminded of the quest for light and colors by painters like Van Gogh or Gauguin -- northerners travelling to the south or to exotic lands for inspiration.]
Andy Tauer - Not really, part of my inspiration is based very much on my immediate surroundings and is nourished by jogging trips in the woods nearby for instance. Of course, the exotic ambiance of the uncommon helps trigger associations and sometimes is finally closer in memories than the settings of everyday...
Continue reading "Passion for Perfume: A Portrait of Perfumer Andy Tauer" »
 The latest release by Bond no 9 is called Fire Island and was created by Michel Almairac of Robertet. It is the 26th fragrance issued by the New York-based perfume house. Almairac also composed their penultimate fragrance released last spring, The Scent of Peace. Almairac is the author of the wonderful Burberry London for Women, Lumière by Rochas, Voleur de Roses by L'Artisan Parfumeur, Cabaret by Grès, and Minotaure by Paloma Picasso, amongst others. Like almost all of the fragrances issued by Bond no 9 the name of the new scent refers to a New York neighborhood or exceptionally, as in this case, to a place intimately connected to the history and pulse of the city. Fire Island, located on the southern shore of Long Island, is a favorite getaway for New York weekenders who regularly escape to its shores and frequent its beaches with much devotion and affection, despite the fact that they have to forsake their cars to go there.
Fire Island conveys a simple message in the sense that it is a beach scent, but it also contains a hidden level of olfactory meaning which makes it a pleasurable beach scent with an important twist to it. The complexity of the scent comes not so much from its notes as from its hidden and very effective ability to play with our memories while purporting to bottle future memories of happy vacations as well. Introduced just a fortnight ago in the middle of summertime, Fire Island, according to Bond, aims at "...bottling the scent of bronzing" and beyond that at capturing the scent of happiness and of the relaxed mood commonly experienced during leisurely vacations spent sensually on the beach with our bodies half-naked basking in the sun. Fire Island is a beach scent-cum-comfort scent and illustrates a popular trend in perfumery nowadays.
What is to me the most striking element in this fragrance is the manner in which it stands out as an olfactory monument dedicated to the memories, not only of upcoming, full-blown summer of 2006, but going deeper back in time, to that of the European seaside vacation experience of, roughly, the last quarter of the 20th century. During that time, virtually millions of people from Europe and outside of Europe spent their holidays on the French Riviera seeking a much sought-after fashionable dark tan. The perfume thus may be called Fire Island to pay homage to New Yorkers and to express Bond's love for the Big Apple while reinforcing its myth but what it conjures up to my nose, as I freely bet it will for others with a similar experience, is Saint Tropez...
Continue reading "Perfume Review & Musings: Fire Island by Bond no 9" »
 Since with time our ideas tend to become simpler, the notion has struck us after writing our previous post on Patriotic Perfumes that a convenient way to address the question of the relationship between patriotism and perfume is to turn towards the testing of the whimsical project for now of creating a national fragrance. Countries have national anthems and flags with recognizable national colors but so far, to our knowledge at least, there has not been any governmental attempt at promoting an emblematic national scent or perfume. This may appear paradoxical because as we know, olfaction bypasses the conscious mind and is thus capable of recreating the past or transporting us to a place other than where our physical body is. This means that within the context of a nationalist project, the motherland or fatherland and the history of a country could theoretically be always present, contained in the few droplets of a national perfume and conjured up with each application. With such a powerful tool to influence people's consciousnesses one would think that it would have been deeply exploited. But, curiously enough, not really (Added: until Dec 2007 that is when the Korean presidential candidate Lee Myung-Bak is reported to use perfume as a means to influence voting)........
Continue reading "Scented Thoughts: My National Parfum" »
 Patriotism on holidays which celebrate national independence is expressed through many semiotic activities and foci of symbolic activities worldwide. In America, manifestations of patriotism vary from region to region of the American motherland (or is it a fatherland we should be speaking of?) -- in Boston for example, people feel Bostonian by going to listen to the Boston Pops -- but we can rest assured of two things: there will be national barbeque-partying and fireworks illuminating the many corners of the sky all over the 50 United States tomorrow. From an olfactory standpoint, we can muse on and say that the 4th of July smells in the base notes of gourmand smoky burgers, burning hot coal, gunpowder, tangy, sweet and sticky tomato ketchup, rich boozy beer and maybe sweet cotton candy and apple pie with spicy cinnamon and let's not forget, musky sweat. In the heart notes there are green grass, tangy-green citronnella, soft wheat, aqueous cucumber, sweet corn, iceberg lettuce notes, and a dash of car interior and car polish. In the top notes you might find fresh mint, tart pink lemonade, coca-cola, frosted ice cubes, and light, cool, and fresh baby powder notes. This olfactory rêverie may smell hellish a priori to some but since each year the same note combinations reappear and people still throng the 4th of July events, you might have a formula of success here.
Napoleon once haughtily remarked, "Impossible n'est pas français" (something like, "the word 'impossible' is not to be found in the French language.") This seems to be the motto of many a perfumer today and since many of them are French you might get a phenomenon of double-whammy hubris due to the fact that they are French and due to the fact that they are perfumers.  In any case, since no one has yet dared to combine these multifarious aromas of the Fourth in a single bottle, let's turn to alternative, ready-made solutions to express patriotism and love of the motherland through perfumes. How shall we convey that patriotic message? It is often said that olfaction is the neglected sense and hence, in our case, a clearly neglected source of rich patriotic symbols. As of today, it is not consciously tapped into by the vast majority of the population to express patriotism alongside with wearing star spangled sartorial signs. So if you contemplate wearing something more celebratory of Americaness than just deodorant, please read on and see what my practical suggestions are.
Continue reading "Scented Thoughts: Patriotic (American) Perfumes to Wear on the 4th of July, Some Modest Suggestions" »
Lux is part of a triptyque of scents by perfumer Mona di Orio. Reportedly, it took Edmond Roudnitska's disciple a decade or so to reach the artistic goals she had set for herself. The two other perfumes in the collection are called Carnation and Nuit Noire. Each fragrance is dedicated to a personality that has marked the life of Mona di Orio. Nuit Noire is an oriental dedicated to Serge Lutens; Carnation is a sensual fragrance dedicated to writer Colette, an author famous for her evocative olfactory, and more generally, sensualist descriptions of the natural world; Lux finally is dedicated to Mona di Orio's own master in the art of perfumery, the author of Femme, Diorella, Eau Sauvage, who is none other than Edmond Roudnitska........
Continue reading "Lux by Mona di Orio {Perfume Review & Musings}" »
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: yay for tammy !!! enjoy
- Barbara Orbison Pretty Woman (2009) {New Perfume}
- Two Versions of the Ricci Ricci by Nina Ricci Commercial + The Behind-the-Scenes {Perfume Images & Adverts}
- Design Thierry Bogaert Voile de Beton (2009) {New Perfume}
- Scented German Calendars {Fragrant Shopping}
- Lubin Parfumeur Has a New Website {Fragrance News}
- Nature et Decouvertes Nectar de Sajara, Bulle de Yuzu, Seve de Wenge (2009) {New Perfumes}
- Scented Quote of the Day, from Celine Lheritier: Why Functional Perfumery is Cool
- New AminoGenesis Instant Wrinkle Filler & nuNAAT Hair Mask {Contests & Giveaways}
- LL Bean Personalized Ice-Cream Bowls for Red Heads, Blonds, Dark & Light Complexions Etc. {Beauty & Society}
- Frederic Fekkai Femme Fekkai Sensuelle Eau de Parfum (2009) {New Perfume} {Beauty & Olfaction}
- The Comeback of J. Grossmith Son & Co Perfumes {Fragrance News}
- MAC Cosmetics Suntints SPF 20 Liquid Lip Balm in Lilt of Lily (2009) {Beauty Review} Reviewing Lip Balms {Beauty Notes}
- Winter Skin On My Mind: Caudalie Moisturizing Cream-Mask Face & Eyes {Beauty Review} {Beauty & Olfaction}
- 25% Off at Kenzo USA {Shopping Tip}
- Auric Blends Naturals Layla, Pele, Siren, Tara (2009) {New Perfumes} {Green Products}
- The Winner of the Filles des Iles Perfume Draw is...
- Happy Halloween to The Scented Salamander Readers
- My 2009 Halloween Shopping List: Ambiguity {Beauty Notes} {Perfume List}
- Parfumerie Generale Papyrus de Ciane (2010) {New Perfume}
- Vera Wang Glam Princess: Fronted by Zoe Kravitz (2009) {New Perfume} {Celebrity Fragrance}
- Balenciaga Paris Eau de Parfum (2010): Fronted by Charlotte Gainsbourg {New Perfume} {Celebrity Fragrance} {Sniffing Suggestions}
- Rochas Have a New Website, with Notes on Madame Rochas & Femme Concentrations {Fragrance News}
- Win a Set of 3 Filles des Iles Perfume Oils {Contests & Giveaways}
- Marilyn Miglin Fo-Ti-Tieng: A Different Kind of Green {Perfume Review}
- Hypnotize-Lancome-with-your-Fashion-Sense Contest: Win a Bottle of Hypnose Senses Signed by Daria Werbowy + a Gift Card
- Scented Quote of the Day, from a 13th Century French Poem:
- Preview of the New Creed Boutique in Manhattan {Perfume Movies & Adverts}
- Etat Libre d'Orange will Release Tilda Swinton & Josephine Baker Perfumes {Fragrance News}
- The Body Shop Love Etc. (2009): Milky Fruity-Floral with a Mint or Fir Twist {Perfume Review}
- Improve Health & Winter Skin with Houseplants Selected by NASA (Beauty & Health Tip of the Day}
- Fruit Ripening Rack or Winter Tree by Godefroy de Virieu {Shopping Tip}
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