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Fragrant Readings Archive
Page 7 of 11 • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
The New Straits Times has an interview with Camille Goutal, the co-creator of Annick Goutal perfumes with Isabelle Doyen. “We never test perfume on people, we don’t do a market test. We don’t try to go against the trend, we only create things that we like,” Camille says. [...].....
Continue reading "Interview with Camille Goutal Around Les Orientalistes {Fragrant Reading}" »
Two interviews with two major defining personalities of 20th and 21st century perfumery. Both are French yet their styles and sensibilities differ, some would say diametrally so. On this blog, we might have encouraged people to see a structural contrast between their visions. Serge Lutens and Jean Claude Ellena answer questions on their art to Vogue, in French. We translate one meaningful quote from each Q & A as our Scented Quote(s) of the Day. Interview with Serge Lutens "Comment peut-on savoir si un parfum va durer dans le temps ?
C’est le public qui choisit. Ce qui lui résiste accède à la reconnaissance. Le parfum peut, s’il a des adeptes – je devrais dire des « timbrés » - accéder à quelque chose de plus ou moins légendaire." ~ "How can one know that a perfume will be enduringly popular? - It is the public that chooses. What continues to have its favor comes to be recognized. Perfume can, if it has fans - I should say "addicts" - become more or less of a legend.".....
Continue reading "Interview with Serge Lutens & Jean Claude Ellena by Vogue {Fragrant Reading} {Scented Quotes of the Day}" »
Wallpaper loved the new Un Jardin Après La Mousson by Hermès and took the opportunity of the recent launch to ask in-house perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena some questions about his creative process.....
Continue reading "A Q & A with Jean-Claude Ellena {Fragrant Reading}" »
1921 advert by Sem for Chanel No. 5 - Doesn't it say in a nutshell how ideal this perfume is? It floats in the sky and the élégante is looking up to it. "Mademoiselle Chanel et le parfum no. 5" © ADAGP
There is an interesting dossier on Joyce.fr offering a retrospective of the history of Chanel No. 5. The images are well-worth discovering. As zakuski, we have selected three that we thought were particularly captivating. The top one is the first advert for Chanel no. 5 drawn by Sem in 1921 (see also the Sem candles issued by Maxim's of Paris). The ad with actress Carole Bouquet dated 1997 and photographed by Dominique Issemann is the sexiest we have seen with her....
Carole Bouquet photographed by Dominique Issemann, 1997 © Chanel
Continue reading "Chanel No 5: Retrospective {Fragrant Reading} {Scented Images & Perfume Adverts}" »
We know that many perfumistas will appreciate and savor the fact that an upcoming debut novel by Claudia Guadalupe Martinez bears as title the commonly bandied about disparaging expressions "old lady perfume" and "old lady smell" put together in one neat stroke of the pen. By the way, The Smell of Old Lady Perfume aims a young adult audience. The disturbing smell it refers to is the narrator's grandmother's, a "smell" "worse than Sundays" that will help test her mettle (we know, it can be hard).......
Continue reading "The Smell of Old Lady Perfume (2008) {Fragrant Reading}" »
There is a book that promises to be absolutely fascinating to read for people who pay attention to olfaction and about which I was reminded of by a thoughtful comment from reader Anita about form and function regarding perfume as comparable to architecture in the discussion about Veuillet-Gallot's guide to perfume below.
That book is entitled Invisible Architecture: Experiencing Places Through The Sense of Smell, authored by Anna Barbara and Anthony Perliss and published by Skira. It is on my must-read list, but I thought I might just as well mention it now while I was thinking about it.....
Continue reading "Invisible Architecture: Experiencing Places Through The Sense of Smell {Fragrant Reading}" »
In an interview in French with Cartier in-house perfumer Mathilde Laurent, the "nose" reveals how the process of customization of a perfume goes. The tab is pretty steep at 60 000 €. The perfumer talks about her transfer from Guerlain to Cartier, which she already evoked in previous interviews. She explains how a keen sense of smell is not a gift but the result of training and linked with qualities of intelligence and creativity. Someone can have a very sensitive sense of smell, yet lack creativity for example. And one does not just smell with the nose but with the brain. In brief, it is a refutation of the Grenouille myth whereby a superhuman sense of smell explains the success and inevitability of a perfumer's vocation however warped in that case.....
Continue reading "Mathilde Laurent: Perfume is a Weapon of Seduction {Fragrant Reading} {Scented Quote of the Day}" »
Mimosa is one of the most delicate of floral scents, hard to capture in a fragrance. It is simply intoxicating to inhale its scent in the South of France during the winter mimosa festivals in places like Bormes Les Mimosas.
There is an interesting article about its natural history and local adaptation on the French Riviera, as well as a list of perfumes in which the note appears as a main one or a more secondary one,....
Continue reading "Comprehensive Article on Mimosa {Fragrant Reading}" »
Le guide du parfum pour elle et lui by Rebecca Veuillet-Gallot is a popular, conveniently sized perfume guide first published in 1995 and last reprinted in 2005. One can only assume that most people in France who are seriously interested in perfume (as in the jus ), its descriptions and history own a copy of it or have read it at the library, especially so since its only alternative in French is the review guide by Luca Turin (1992;1994), which is out of print. We wanted to do a review of it because we almost bypassed it in favor of more copious tomes not expecting to find a tremendous amount of information in the rather slim copy. Once we started reading it, we had to realize that underneath its understated character, it is a wonderfully rich little book that one will go back to, finding new details each time depending on the questions you ask yourself.......
Dust jacket
Continue reading "Le Guide du Parfum by Rebecca Veuillet-Gallot: Book Review {Scented Thoughts} {Fragrant Reading}" »
 There is a nice interview with Jean Paul Gaultier in L'Express on the occasion of the launch of his Monsieur line of beauty products, including his first ever - reportedly this is how they present it - Eau de Cologne called Eau du Matin. "Monsieur" was chosen as a name for the line because the French designer believes in the return of Dandysm. Gaultier thinks that ideas about masculine beauty and personal care started to evolve back in the 1970s thanks to the hippies and later rock stars like David Bowie and Boy George.....
Continue reading "Jean Paul Gaultier Interviewed by L'Express on Beauty & Perfume {Fragrant Reading} {Scented Images & Adverts} {What Celebs Like to Wear}" »
The internet medium and the blog medium in particular seem to be a must for perfume writers these days. We learned that fragrance author Annick Le Guérer writes an online column on the blog Le-Luxe.fr entitled "Dans le Brûle-Parfums d'Annick Le Guérer". She also regularly proposes her "Coups de Coeur" regarding perfumes, i.e., the fragrances that she loves......
Continue reading "Annick Le Guérer's Online Column {Fragrant Reading}" »
BYZANCE Magazine by Guest Contributor PaulineShould 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.....
Continue reading "Byzance Magazine: Art of Living Between East and West {Cultural Notes} {Fragrant Reading}" »
Eva Pasco is a romance novel author based in Newport, Rhode Island. Her debut novel entitled Underlying Notes is as centered on fragrance as any perfume junkie might hope (although the main character does not consider herself an addict). The book opens on a scene describing the menopause symptoms of Carla who is in her fifties, the first perfume quoted is Spark by Liz Clairborne, and fragrances are immediately presented as psychological aids, " If I lacked girlfriends, I made up for it by acquiring glass goddesses filled with nectar,"......
Continue reading "Underlying Notes by Eva Pasco: A Romance Novel About Perfume + 2 Excerpts {Fragrant Readings}" »
 There is an interesting interview with Francis Kurkdjian in Libération today. Some of the highlights or news we learn are that he has the ambition of creating his own brand in the future, like Karl Lagerfeld or Phillipe Starck.....
Continue reading "Interview with Francis Kurkdjian in Libération {Fragrant Reading}" »
Illusion of Complexity, Carol Alleman, 2001 There is a Q & A with Frederic Malle in the San Francisco Chronicle. Malle describes his work as an editor of perfumes. He is largely responsible for a movement that puts the perfumer center stage and gives him or her the status of author. A perfume for him without doubt can be a piece of art, on a par with a painting by Matisse. Short formulas, like short pieces of writing, are more difficult to achieve because only the essential is expressed. This set of beliefs represents modern ideas that are still debated. Some perfumers do not seem to care about authorship in the sense of it being individualistic and like to stress collaborative efforts; the model of film director or screenplay writer might better apply. Some perfumers will probably still see themselves as sophisticated urban artisans rather than Picassos. There was also a time once when perfumers took pride in creating complex formulas. Joséphine Catapano with Norell comes to mind about which she said "We all knew the formula was long, like a treaty" (note the "we"), as well as Ellena with the 160 ingredients in First (but he has since then evolved to embrace the position that it is a less interesting approach to take). More recently, a German perfume made by Frank Rittler, Steffen Schraut, still boasts "about 120 natural essences"..........
Continue reading "Frederic Malle on Perfume Publishing {Fragrant Reading}" »
Fragrant Readings Archive
Page 7 of 11 • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
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Fin O'Suilleabhain on
Les Exclusifs: Bel Respiro, No 18, & 28 La Pausa by Chanel {Perfume Review & Musings} {New Perfumes}
: Hi ... can I ask about the Stravinsky / Chanel image. Is ...
Thalestris Dupont on
Fragonard Caresse (1929/2008) {Perfume Review}
: Lovely perfume! Reminds me of the spring 2011 when I was wearing ...
Karen Lindsey on
Long Lost Crabtree & Evelyn Fragrance: Help Please {Ask The Readers}
: I just found this site and I so need to find someone ...
Regina on
Happy New Year 2012!
: Valentine's Day will soon be here. Any recommendations?
C Sasich on
Easy Tricks To Create Golden Globes Hairstyles! {Beauty Notes - Hair}
: My fave was Michelle Williams - modern , effortless not overdone . ...
kelvin neo on
Victoria's Secret Life is Pink Wish Pink, Live Pink, Hope Pink (2010) *New Fragrances*
: Hi good day, Can i know where can purchase or order Pink ...
Alan on
A Funny Post About Scented Candles {Fragrant Reading}
: Hell-scent candle, lol.
Gina on
Two Organic Oud Scents: Sama Oudh Jasmin & Undergreen Black Classic (2011) {New Perfumes}
: I want to try Sama Oudh Jasmin but checked the websites. I ...
Tammy on
Top 12 Best New Department Store Fragrances of 2011 for the Holidays {Perfume List}
: Wish this came with a little print out sheet for my next ...
Toñi on
Dance with Givenchy (2010) {New Perfume}
: Where can I get Dance with Givenchy? It's impossible to find it ...
Toñi on
Dance with Givenchy (2010) {New Perfume}
: Where can I get Dance with Givenchy? It's impossible to find it ...
evageli karounzou on
Choppy Waters for Stella Cadente Miss Me {Fragrance News}
: at 2007 i was in paris an i bought this perfume.Since then ...
Mandy Aftel on
Aftelier Perfumes Secret Garden (2011): Featuring Real Civet & Castoreum {New Fragrance}
: Thank you so much Marie-Helene for your lovely review! You are great ...
Kay on
Mona di Orio Chamarré (2009): Perfume Review in Memoriam
: This is very interesting. First thing that came to my mind when ...
Maddy on
Bint el Sudan, The Other, African Chanel No.5: Interview with Nick Evans of International Flavors & Fragrances, Inc. {Perfume Q & A - The Scents of Africa}
: Interesting post. I've lived in Ghana but I don't remember encountering anyone ...
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