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The Scented Salamander Blog A Culture & Beauty Blog: from Olfaction to Imagination in Perfumes, Movies, Beauty Products, Food, Literature, & Fashion, Mostly. "Perfumes' & movies' common point: you smell and watch them better in the dark" Latest Fragrance Reviews Dior Escale à Parati Prada Infusion d'Iris EDP Absolue Ferragamo Signorina Thierry Mugler Miroir des Majestés Jo Malone Plum Blossom Madonna Truth or Dare Roberto Cavalli Eau de Parfum
Carolina Herrera 212 Sexy 8 Best Perfumes to Herald Spring Stella McCartney L.I.L.Y. Guerlain Parfum Initial L'Eau: Going Back to the Purer Language of Perfumery Guerlain Parfum Initial L'Eau: Un Langage Plus Pur pour la Parfumerie Fragrance Essays Perfumes & Candies are Kissing Cousins: Anis de Flavigny & Guerlain Anisia Bella Jicky, The Ultimate Aphrodisiac for Both Sexes? Jicky, L'aphrodisiaque ultime pour les deux sexes? Best Rose Fragrances for Valentine's Day: The 2012 Edition How I Think about Perfume when I Review Them: a Practical-Theoretical Outlook on the Perfume Shopping Culture Bint el Sudan, The Other, African Chanel No.5 - Interview with Nick Evans of IFF Smelling Tommy Girl Now: When the 1990s Smell Like The 1940s White Accords in Perfumery: So Long The 70s Liberace Wore Perfume, So What? Homosexuality as Given Away by an Indiscreet Fragrance Trail in the 50s
Reviews of New Perfumes Diptyque Eau Rose Isabel Derroisné Eclat Eternel Sisley Eau d'Ikar Mary Greenwell Plum Parfum d'Empire Azemour Les Orangers L'Artisan Parfumeur Batucada Les Parfums de Rosine Glam Rose Clinique Aromatics Elixir Perfumer's Reserve Prada No.11 Cuir Styrax 6 New Celebrity Fragrances to Try Out this Fall The Body Shop White Musk Libertine Cartier L'Heure Convoitée (English Version) Cartier L'Heure Convoitée (French Version) Karl Lagerfeld Karleidoscope Maître Parfumeur et Gantier Cuir Fétiche Estée Lauder Wood Mystique Thierry Mugler Angel with Bitter Cocoa Powder Diane Von Furstenberg Diane Bottega Veneta EDP From the Archives Bath & Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar: An Euro-American Curio Reviews of Past Fragrance Launches First Impressions on the Thierry Mugler Coffret Based on the Novel by Süskind.
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NOTEBOOKS Archive
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 The latest creation by the house of Balmain is called La Môme (The Kid) and pays homage to an encounter in the 1950s between the great propular French singer Edith Piaf and couturier Pierre Balmain. It was released in February 2007 to coïncide with the debut of Olivier Dahan's biopic La Môme about the life of the singer. The perfume was created by Guillaume Flavigny who is also the composer for Purple Lips by Dali and Lulu by Lulu Castagnette, together with Antoine Lie, amongst others. The young perfumer won a prize in 2002 with the Société Française des Parfumeurs for a fragrance called In The Mood For Love. La Môme has top notes of May Rose, freesia, and pink pepper. Heart notes are Damas Rose absolute, violet, raspberry, and myrrh. Base notes are orris, musk, amber, and opoponax.....
Continue reading "Balmain La Môme (2007) {Perfume Review}" »
Indult is a new high-end French perfume label that made its debut in January of 2007 and is currently exclusively sold at Sephora France. The name of the brand comes from Christian Latin "Indultum" meaning "concession, favor". Their name embodies their marketing approach which is typically one that is characterized by a new-luxury philosophy. As we already noted on TSS, "...Indeed to buy one of the Indult perfumes amounts to being a king or a prince granted a privilege from the Pope or feels like paying the King of Spain's tax on precious metals and products originating from America as the historical references go. Only 999 copies of each will be marketed...." Buying an Indult perfume in fact equates to buying a membership into a select club of perfume aficionados as only those who have purchased one of the fewer than 3000 flacons will be able to re-purchase in the future.
The three perfumes were composed by nose Francis Kurkdjian. Each one of the scents is said to be dedicated to the interpretation of an important note in perfumery: rose for Manakara, Patchouli for Isvaraya, and vanilla for Tihota. The perfumes convey a sense of luxurious exoticism coupled with urban elegance and even edginess, the latter trait not being too overtly expressed. The complexity is more structural than narrative, that is, the perfumes do not offer very complex developments but the satisfactory olfactory experience one derives from them rests upon an inner, understated complexity. The fragrances are high quality and elaborate. There seems to be a common thread running through them pointing to an interest for a sugar theme. Rather than feel infantile, it evokes the passionate quest for the raw material and the connoisseur's appreciation for its many nuances. It explodes nowhere better than in Tihota....
Continue reading "Manakara, Isvaraya, & Tihota by Indult {Perfume Review & Musings} {New Perfumes}" »
 In the emails I receive from readers I am often asked questions about rose fragrances. These requests make me realize that despite the fact that many people might think rose fragrances are a bit passé, not original enough harking back to the days of yore when women wore flowery hats and scented their kerchiefs with violet and rose scents, that in spite of that stereotype there are many amateurs of rose perfumes.
I also realize that the slight prejudice that exists against rose fragrances amongst people who seek rarer scents may stem from the fact that many rose fragrances smell a bit dull and conventional to the nose or appear to never smell as enthralling as the natural flower. A recurring request is that the desirable rose scents smell both natural and have an interesting touch to them. Oftentimes I find that rose scents strip down roses of their character, their earthiness, their verdant freshness, their aqueous quality, their woodiness, in other words, of their complexity. Too often we are reminded of the flattened unidimensional scent of a rose soap. In this manner a rose scent can easily be perceived to be boring due to its enduring popularity and typification......
Continue reading "A Rose by Inis {Perfume Review & Musings}" »
Recently a reader from Greece contacted me to ask for some assistance in finding information about Borsari, a venerable perfume house based in Parma, Italy and in particular about one of its perfumes, Rosa Thea. This person was looking for a full bottle of it, a much more difficult task it seems than finding a miniature version of it. Seeing such enthusiasm for a perfume is always contagious and it made me want to seek out the fragrance and see by myself what all the fuss was about.....
Continue reading "Rosa Thea by Borsari 1870 {Perfume Short - Express Perfume Review}" »
 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" »
 West Side is the latest perfume launch by Bond no 9, an upscale niche perfume house dedicated to interpreting in fragrances the different neighborhoods of New York City. This time it is the West Side, home to Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Birdland and the Copacabana, that is honored in relation to its musical heritage. West Side is the house's 27th fragrance. The fragrance was composed by nose Michel Almairac who previously created for the same house The Scent of Peace and Fire Island. Some of his other works include the wonderful Burberry Burberry for Women, L'Artisan Voleur de Roses, Grès Cabaret, and my personal favorite hands down Gucci Pour Homme, a truly exceptional jus. West Side features top notes of rose, ylang-ylang, and peony; heart notes of sandalwood and amber; the drydown is redolent of vanilla and musk.
As West Side is meant to embody the musical beat of New York City it is described by Bond no 9 as "...an ultra-melodious eau de parfum that finds the scent equivalent for the sounds of music in its full-bodied, mellow composition, its undulating rhythms, its harmonies, its pitch—and yes, its notes. Whether they’re high or low, dark or light, sweet or sharp—notes are what music and fragrance are both about". Perfume and music are made to be even more consciously associated than is usual in perfumery with the evocation of an explicit musical imagery to guide the interpretation of the fragrance. The bold treble keys drawn on the flacons with vivid colors illustrate this artistic theme. All listening are invited to offer their own interpretations as "Fragrance, like music, is open to interpretation. Everyone who sniffs it will hear—and smell—a different melody of their own". So what is the sound of West Side on this day and as heard by this listener?...
Continue reading "West Side by Bond no 9 {Perfume Review & Musings}" »
 Perles de Lalique (Pearls of Lalique) is the most recent women's perfume edition by the house of Lalique. It was released in May in Europe and will be introduced in the USA in September. This modern take on a chypre was composed by nose Nathalie Lorson of Firmenich. Ideas behind the perfume were both a desire to tip one's hat to the Roaring Twenties as well as herald a revival of the chypres in modern perfumery. The flacon for the perfume is designed after the famous boîte à cactus created by founder and glass artist René Lalique (1860-1945.) The rectangular flacons for the edp are also inspired by it but in a more indirect fashion only keeping the opalescent white coloring dotted with onyx but still referring themselves to an art deco style...
Continue reading "Lalique Perles de Lalique (2006) {Perfume Review}" »
 Maréchale 90 is the modern 1994 reformulation of the original Eau à la Maréchale created in 1669 for la Maréchale d'Aumont wife of Antoine d'Aumont. Her name is also attached to a powdery concoction for hair and wigs called "Poudre à la Maréchale" which she created herself. It is reported that the air in the salons was heavily perfumed with this powder covering many an aristocrat's head. References to this preparation can be found in 19th century French literature where it designates a face powder as well. According to the Société Française des Parfumeurs, this perfumed powder originally comprised orris, coriander, clove, calamus root, and sedge...
Continue reading "Crown Perfumery Maréchale 90 {Perfume Review}" »
What I like about Rose d'Été (summer rose) and what makes it a distinctive rose fragrance to me is the slight scent of decay that emanates from it. It is not at all a fresh rose but on the contrary it is a rose redolent with all the scents of ripe summer fruits that surround this flower in the imaginary garden evoked by its creator. The way I sense it, it is that antepenultimate time of summer not quite yet that time just before the end of summer.
As the fragrance liberates itself from the glass phial there is a very brief moment dominated by fresh notes.Then you are invited to dip your nose into the soft satiny heart of a rose, that part of the flower which retains its scent at the heaviest. According to the description of the notes it is a yellow rose and it smells realistically so...
Continue reading "Perfume Review & Musings: Rose d'Été by Les Parfums de Rosine" »
NOTEBOOKS Archive
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