Monthly Archives from March 2006

December 4, 2010

Zippo The Original (2010) {New Fragrance} {Men's Cologne}

 

zippo-fragrance-the-original.jpegThe American brand of lighters Zippo created in 1932 in Bradford, PA have launched their debut fragrance for Men called Zippo The Original. The brand put emphasis on the iconicity of the lighter's design and reveal that they have even taken pains to reproduce "the famous Zippo click" so as to recreate the sensory experience of flipping open a genuine Zippo...

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December 3, 2010

The Body Shop Midnight Bakula (2010) {New Fragrance}

 

Midnight_Bakula_EDT.jpgmimusops-elengi-bakula.jpgThe Body Shop is offering a new white-floral composition baptized Midnight Bakula (Mimusops Elengi) inspired by an ancient plant used in Ayurveda medecine. Its flowers have the property of retaining their fragrance for a long time, even after they have dried.

"The Bakula story - The Indian Bakula tree blooms abundantly at dusk across the Indian subcontinent,...

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Avon Diamond (2010): Fronted by Salma Hayek {New Fragrance} {Celebrity Perfume}

 

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French Avon have released a new fragrance called Diamond, not to be confused with Rare Diamonds also new this year in the American market. While the latter is billed as a floral-oriental scent, the first one is presented as a green-floral composition...

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December 2, 2010

Marilyn Miglin Zanzi (ca. 2010): Feel Like You're in an Uninhabited Jungle {New Perfume}

 

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marula-fruit-A.jpgMarilyn Miglin has launched a new fragrance called Zanzi. It is inspired by a trip the beauty entrepreneur took to Zanzibar and in particular by a scent which permeated the air wherever she would go without being able to identify it at first. Finally, she was told it was the natural perfume of the Marula fruit of which an oil is extracted and often included in cosmetics recipes and foods...

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The Body Shop Dreams Unlimited (2010): The Authorial, Inspirational & Ecological Edges {New Fragrance}

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The Body Shop have launched a new feminine perfume called Dreams Unlimited. In what looks like a first for the brand, the USA website is also advertising the names of the two perfumers who composed the fragrance: IFF's Loc Dong and Anne Flipo...

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The Body Shop Sparkling Apple / Pomme Pétillante (2010) {New Fragrance}

 

Sparkling Apple Eau De Toilette.jpgThe Body Shop have released a new Eau de Toilette called Sparkling Apple / Pomme Pétillante which is described as a green scent, one of the rarer fragrance families available on the market according to Fragrances of the World 2011 although it has re-emerged in recent times...

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December 1, 2010

Coleen Rooney Coleen Butterflies (2010) {New Fragrance} {Celebrity Perfume}

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British WAG celebrity Coleen Rooney wife of soccer player Wayne Rooney who previously launched fragrances under her first name Coleen followed by a simple X when she was known as Miss Coleen McLoughlin will launch her fourth scent to date in April 2011. After Coleen X in 2007 her debut perfume first announced as Coleen,...

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November 29, 2010

Claude Montana Montana 80 (2010): Revival of the 80s {New Fragrance}

 

montana-80-flacon.jpgFashion label Claude Montana have launched Montana 80, a fragrance meant to recapture the olfactory signature and atmosphere of the 1980s.

Perfumer Antoine Lie to that effect worked on a contemporary interpretation of the mythical perfumes of that decade by recreating "a very 80s structure of white flowers, tuberoses, orange flower to propose a fluid and modern rewriting of it."...

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Ted Lapidus White Soul (2010) {New Fragrance}

 

White-Soul-Ted-Lapidus.jpgTed Lapidus launched a new fragrance for women called White Soul which is meant to be "the feminine alter ego of Black Soul," their anniversary men's cologne launched in 2009.

The flacon is meant to suggest the feminine figure including the tactile sensation of her skin and the color of her porcelain complexion. The crystallized Swarovski stone is the representation of her beauty mark.

"As carnal as it is luminous, as powerful as it is graceful, this fragrance invents a new language of love..."

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November 26, 2010

Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle Portrait of a Lady (2010): The Darkest Rose {Perfume Review}

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Portrait of a Lady is the latest opus to come out of the house of Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle and is signed by perfumer Dominique Ropion. If Malle likens his work to that of a self-described editor of perfumes rather than books, he also readily translates his activity into more traditional lingo by calling himself an "evaluator." Despite the literary reference and the homage paid to the prestigious French publishing house of Gallimard in particular which inspires part of the aesthetics of presentation of the perfume house, Frédéric Malle rejects the notion that a perfume might start with a story, a narrative. As underlined in the interview he gave the blog, raw materials are the real sources of inspiration for his vision of perfumery.

The collaboration between the two men - their 8th, including the creation of 3 home fragrances - here stems from their combined love and "avid" wearing of Géranium pour Monsieur which they also co-created in 2009. They both had the intuition of taking an accord found in the fresh, mint-laden masculine fragrance resting on benzoin, musk, sandalwood, patchouli and incense, with the prurpose in their minds of turning it into "a modern oriental fragrance."

"Our mutual trust has become such that we sometimes dare start a fragrance without any precise plan or goal, hoping that our explorations will take us somewhere interesting.

Portrait of a Lady is the result of one of these olfactory adventures."

Malle has specified that the name of the fragrance comes from a general impression of aristocratic elegance exuded by Isabel Archer in The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James but does not aim to put the novel into a fragrance structure. The form of the perfume was complete when the name came to him and therefore probing the depths of the analogy could be done but with the caveat that most of it would be a reference to the unconscious and mainly interpretative on the part of the reviewer.

I will offer images and impressions that the perfume evoked in me prior to doing the interview with some added comments post-interview.

Perfume notes: benzoin, musk, sandalwood, patchouli, incense, white musk cocktail, Turkish rose essence, rose absolute,cinnamon, clove, red berries accord, blackcurrant, .

Portrait of a Lady takes the genre of the deep, dark oriental rose and gives it further asperities, further dirtiness despite using some white musk to make it more feminine, exploring the limits of both pungency and sweetness and offering one of the darkest rose compositions available on the market. I like to think of it as having been devised with invisible, arachnean-like thorns, scratching the delicate face of a Victorian lady, whose pallor is half-masked by her hat veil. There is something smoky and blurry about the perfume which conveys this sense of mystery and sartorial smoke-screen playing, but also an undercurrent of masculinity which is not surprising and befits the independent persona of Isabel Archer...

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November 24, 2010

Yves Saint Laurent Parisienne à L'Extrême (2010): The Parisian Woman According to Grojsman {New Fragrance} {Perfume Review}

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"The portrait of an incredibly free woman.

She wasn't born in Paris but Paris has adopted her.

In the heart of the night, in the fever of a caress, she knows how to love and live, live and love with intensity..."

"Le portrait d'une femme incroyablement libre.
Elle n'est pas née à Paris mais Paris l'a adoptée.
Au cœur de la nuit, dans la ferveur d'une caresse, elle sait aimer et vivre, vivre et aimer à l'extrême…
"

Perfume notes: vinyle accord, incense, blackberry, violet, Damascean rose, powder note, patchouli, suede, musk.

Parisienne à L'Extrême opens on the very recognizable rose-violet accord of Paris by Yves Saint Laurent (1983) but as if it had been made more limpid, more watery (lychee), and purplish, with a hint of nail polish (the vinyle accord.)

Perfumers Sophia Grojsman and Sophie Labbé of IFF sign this composition which pays in part homage to Grojsman's work on YSL Paris...

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Anna Dello Russo The Scent (2010) {New Fragrance} {Celebrity Perfume}

 

anna-dello-russo-fragrance.jpgJapanese Vogue editor-at-large Anna Dello Russo is getting ready to launch her debut fragrance called Anna Dello Russo. She already released the commercial for it on where else but You Tube. Bottled in a golden slipper reminiscent of the myth of Cinderella as well as of vintage Coty novelty perfume flacons of yore, it is simply meant to be a "gadget", a "mass-market toy." The editor added to underline the playfulness of the project, "I wanted to create something pop."

 

The Cinderella reference is meant to convey a message of rags-to-riches moral tale or rather as it turns out anonymity-to-fame one in the era of the internet. As Dello Russo points out to WWD,

 

For 20 years no one noticed me — I worked like Cinderella at the bottom of the pile. Finally I’ve been invited to the ball,” she said referring to her fairy-tale blogosphere fame at the age of 47, and a flurry of commercial offers"....

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November 23, 2010

Josie Gibson Josie (2010) Breaks Records of Popularity {New Perfume} {Celebrity Fragrance}

 

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Is it because Josie by Josie Gibson benefits cancer research, with each perfume sold sending £1 to the charity Look Good Feel Better or is there something more mysterious at work which explains why the celebrity scent issued by Big Brother 11 winner Gibson has sold out in 20 minutes at the Perfume Shop? I have no idea because until this morning I never even knew Josie Gibson existed. But she is hyper popular apparently with reality TV fans and as blogger Samuel Dean points out, "The £19.50 perfume has broken all Perfume Shop records and has sold out quicker that several other A-list fragrances."...

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November 22, 2010

Robert Piguet Calypso (2010): For Vintage Fashion Lovers {New Perfume}

 

calypso-robert-piguet-visual.jpgCalypso is one of the Robert Piguet perfumes that were launched after the passing away of the couturier in 1953, the link with the past being kept alive in this case by the perfumer who created it at the time in 1959, Francis Fabron who also signed Robert Piguet Baghari in 1950.

Today, Robert Piguet Parfums is relaunching the floral chypre which was recreated by perfumer Aurélien Guichard.

"The captivating myth of Calypso exudes romance, seduction and power. The fragrance Calypso de Robert Piguet captures the mystery and allure of the eponymous nymph with dazzling sophistication."...

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Lorenzo Villoresi Iperborea (2010): Not An Oriental Garden {New Perfume}

 

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Several years in the making and now just out is Iperborea by master-perfumer Lorenzo Villoresi who is also a winner of the prestigious Coty Prize.

Contrary to some niche perfume houses which are able to convey a sense of selective taste while suggesting near-industrial output, the house of Lorenzo Villoresi seems to be intent on opting for the luxury of artisanal pace.

As announced before, the new fragrance wishes to reference the myth of the Hyperboreans,

"There, beyond the north wind, where the ocean breeze carries the fresh aroma of sea-spray, in the everlasting spring, the fresh north wind carries the radiant perfume of blossoming petals, hidden in the snow along the rugged mountain walls, beneath the morning dew, searching for the first ray of sunlight"...

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