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Monthly Archives from March 2006The BuzzThe Buzz
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
Prada Infusion d'Iris EDP Absolue Thierry Mugler Miroir des Majestés 8 Best Perfumes to Herald Spring 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 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 Reviews of New Perfumes Isabel Derroisné Eclat Eternel Parfum d'Empire Azemour Les Orangers Les Parfums de Rosine Glam Rose Clinique Aromatics Elixir Perfumer's Reserve 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) Maître Parfumeur et Gantier Cuir Fétiche Thierry Mugler Angel with Bitter Cocoa Powder 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. |
December 10, 2010Fragrance Gift Giving for the Holidays 2010 - Part 1: Perfume Gifts by Girl Type
We will not hesitate to have a little fun here and play a social game as the Holidays 2010 approach. Are you scratching your head in search of the perfect fragrance gift for your girl? Here are a few suggestions for the guys to orient you in the maze of perfumes that might be a hit or a miss with your miss.... December 7, 2010Perfumes that Bring Good Luck {Trend Alert} {Fragrance Shopping List}
Perfumes were invested with magical powers by the archaic mind. It is therefore not surprising to rediscover this running thread in the history of fragrances to be still well and alive in today's neon-lit stores and supermarkets. There are no shamans burning herbs dancing around you, but you can turn to a number of contemporary choices for wearing a scent that says "Good luck!" Shopping around lately, I happened at first on little textile dolls sold with a vial of perfume which you were supposed to empty on the colorful funny and fugly creature then hang it somewhere to let luck fill your home. I came back later to get one and they were sold out. Fortunately there are more options for tongue-in-cheek or seriously superstitious people. Incidentally, research has shown that persons who are misted with perfume garner more spontaneous good-will on the part of strangers. It may be that you smell good or that your attitude is enhanced by fragrance, or both. It's not just about dark or white magic (Yes, I just saw Harry Potter, The Deathly Hallows). It's about projecting a positive attitude. So if you have a friend or relative that thinks it's best to be on the safe side and smell a scent filled with thoughtfully created good vibes (hopefully), you can check these ones out.
Continue reading "Perfumes that Bring Good Luck {Trend Alert} {Fragrance Shopping List}" »
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October 8, 2010Diplomatic Fragrance Gifts for Women: Perfumes with a French or Parisian Touch, Please {Perfume List}
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October 1, 2010Starting To Think About Halloween 2010 {Fragrance Lists} {Visual & Scent Styling} Wu Qi, Untitled from the series "The Day Doesn't Know the Dark of the Night."Before we talk about Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I wanted to offer a rewind on Halloween fragrances to get an early head-start on the season's celebrations and get the creative juices flowing. Here is a rewind of past Halloween-related perfume posts: • Halloween - Perfumes from the Crypt • My 2009 Halloween Shopping List: Ambiguity • Halloween Blends • Perfume Cravings in the Fall: Cornucopia of Dark Fruits We'll have a 2010 update based on new launches and finds.
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September 7, 20108 Bestselling Women's Fragrances on Amazon {Perfume List} Picture licensed to The Scented SalamanderAmazon being such a significant marketplace, I thought it might interest readers to check out the list of 8 bestselling women's fragrances on their e-commerce website. I personally used to go once in a while to their bestselling book or movie lists in the different categories looking for inspiration or just out of curiosity, but this is the first time that I see or notice what looks like a top-eight-chart for perfume. It arrived in my mailbox this morning. So what are the feminine bestsellers?.... Continue reading "8 Bestselling Women's Fragrances on Amazon {Perfume List}" »
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August 9, 201030 of the Very Best Beach & Marine Fragrances - Part 2 {Fragrance Reviews} {Perfume List} Hope you are still able to partake of the pleasures of the beach and seaside before fall sets in. We are continuing our exploration of the marine landscape in perfumery and here is part 2 of the Best-Of list of Beach and Marine Fragrances with the next 7 perfumes on the list (Please see Part 1 here.)  - Hermès Eau des MerveillesThis is an elegant, sophisticated yet nature-referenced take on the solar marine genre co-signed by perfumers Ralf Schwieger and Nathalie Feisthauer. It is an ode to ambergris, the mythical substance full of wonders. The Eau de Toilette in its most marine phase smells of the scent of skin gently battered by the elements and softened by expensive suncare cosmetics. It is like a 21st century echo (2004) to the early 20th century Chaldée by Jean Patou (1927): it's all about chic in the sun.  - Hermès Eau Claire des MerveillesPlease see our review of it. The fragrance launches this fall. Who says you cannot wear a perfume in the beach genre all year round if it pleases you especially when it feels a bit northerly? Its scent is milky-white and pale yellow like an Eugène Boudin sand-and-sky continuum; there is the signature ambergris note of the Eau des Merveilles range; it smells of driftwood. This is a beach opus for the paler days of the year perhaps more evocative of long walks on opalescent sand by a gray misty sea in the autumn. It might interest perfume wearers who like the stitching to show a bit and enjoy the study genre where the hesitations of different aesthetic choices can be felt...
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July 28, 201030 of the Very Best Beach & Marine Fragrances - Part 1 {Scented Thoughts} {Perfume List} Countryside by the seaIt's beach time! (in your mind) We could look at beach and marine fragrances from a purely practical and functional perspective - it's summer and for some obscure migratory reason, you feel the need to replicate and accompany the change of olfactory atmosphere with sea, sand and marine-floral and marine-animalic notes. Of course, this goes only for people who do not live by the ocean all year round. Perfume is the mountain that comes to you but in some cases, it's the mountain you want to carry an olfactory evocation of while vacationing atop it. We could also consider these scents as forming a genre which best thrives in the summer. Do you load on suspenseful, arcane thrillers to peruse on the beach? Are you more inclined to read travel books while looking at the blue line of the horizon? If that kind of seasonal and cultural shift takes place in you, then you may also feel an urge to throw a bottle or two of vacation-time fragrance filled with relaxing, hedonistic notes that scream "Stop and smell the roses!" to help you unwind more quickly through the first days of the holidays. That's our premise. Of course, things can get more complex after that. Some marine fragrances can be actually pretty challenging to the nose as they play with our borderline perception of the pleasant and foul overlapping taste and scent categories. You may like to eat grilled fish drizzled with lemon juice but you may not necessarily want to replicate the smell of a swell fish eatery on your person precisely for it belonging almost exclusively to the food group in your mind. That is before marine fragrances make you realize you might be wrong about that assumption. In our 30 of the Very Best Beach and Marine Fragrances List, we look at a mix of old and new while keeping the ones that are memorable, compelling, study-note-worthy, holding their own ground etc. The palette of notes can be farther ranging than initially envisioned, what counts is the olfactory interpretation of a marine theme...
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February 19, 2010Valentine's Day 2010 & Beyond: Exploring Musk Oils - Part 2 {Scented Thoughts} {Perfume List} Nudo con el calze rosse by Giuseppe De NittisI hope that you had a lovely Valentine's Day and that you celebrated in high or low style. A rose, a glass of wine, sweet words will do, at every opportune occasion -- or when you're not running after time. As promised, albeit belatedly, I am now turning again to those straight-up musk oils that I started talking about last week or so. What I have learned in-between is that there are many more brands that I would need to reference to produce a comprehensive little guide to musk oils that this series of articles is going to be, hopefully. They are a little daunting, these oils, due to their proliferation. Why am I fascinated by musk oils? For one thing they are very much pop-culture and I adore pop culture. I think it is also because in their very mushrooming and ubiquitous existence they seem to express such universal hope that something unique is going to take place between a mysterious musk cocktail and your own skin-and-personality chemistry. I think the descriptive musk-cocktail is particularly appropriate in light of the fact that different musky synthetic molecules are routinely mixed and shaken to overcome the rather largely occurring problem of musk anosmia: the incapacity to smell a particular musk. Even perfumers are not immune to the issue and according to Richard L. Dorty "...an informal poll among perfumers, for example, has elicited the fact that most of them are completely anosmic to one or more musks..." Galaxolide, the laundry-detergent musk of choice, is a prime candidate in this regard. [Richard L. Dorty, 2003]. Next to anosmia, there is the lesser evil of parosmia which allows you to perceive a scent, but feebly... February 9, 2010Valentine's Day 2010: Exploring Musk Oils - Part 1 {Scented Thoughts} {Perfume List} 18th century Muscadins (from "muschardin", a pastille perfumed with musk) are pre-dandy types who were known for their predilection for perfume The systematic quest for artificial musk started some 130 years sooner than is usually thought of when most introductions to synthetic musks start with a mention of 19th century Musk Baur. We entered the modern age of man-made musk odorants which was going to be so prolific and fashionable at recurring periods of history as early as the mid-18th century, in 1758 to be specific according to Kopp, when German chemist Andreas Sigismund Margraff (1709-1782) managed to create a musk-smelling material by treating the oil distilled from natural resinous fossilized amber (huile de succin) with nitric acid. As reported by several works on chemistry, it had been known for a long time that the action of nitric acid on some hydrocarbons could produce a musky aroma but this moment is recorded as a landmark and Margraff himself baptized the new substance which offered a strong musky smell and was soluble in alcohol, "artificial musk"...  A 1973 ad for Macho Musk Oil in the midst of the musk-oil craze of the 1970s
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January 29, 2010The Best Perfumes of 2000-2009 in Poetry by Cinquieme Sens {Fragrance News} {Perfume List} Cinquième Sens (Fifth Sense) a Paris- and New-York-based perfume school open to all (not just professionals) who wish to take classes to train their sense of smell and knowledge of fragrance history and marketing (check out their website for a list of workshops) took their quills to pen down two poems in French about the best or most representative landmark perfumes in their views for each year since 2000 in fragrances both in the masculine colognes and feminine perfumes categories. I thought the lists were so neat, I asked if I could publish them on the blog and in return even got the suggestion that maybe I could translate them into English? Absolutely!
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January 4, 2010Best-Selling Celebrity Perfumes {Celebrity Fragrances} {Perfume List} Elizabeth Taylor at the launch of White Diamonds at the Plaza Hotel in New York city in September 1991The market research group Euromonitor International published a list of the 9 best-selling fragrances in the celebrity category for the US in 2008. The top spot was earned by veteran celebrity perfume White Diamonds by the house of Elizabeth Taylor which launched in 1991. It made our aspirational Smell-Expensive-for-Less list last year.... Continue reading "Best-Selling Celebrity Perfumes {Celebrity Fragrances} {Perfume List}" »
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December 2, 200916 Baby Approved Perfumes {Fragrance List} {Shopping Tips}
Continue reading "16 Baby Approved Perfumes {Fragrance List} {Shopping Tips}" »
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November 30, 2009North-American Originals: Perfumers on Fall & Winter -- Part 5 {Scented Thoughts} {Perfume List} {Shopping Tip} Our series on Fall- & Winter-inspired creations by North-American independent perfumers comes to a close today. See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. We hope that it will give you plenty of ideas to shop for individual presents for the Holidays. Looking at perfumes through the lens of the seasons may be one alternative solution to feel the more contremplative, slower pace of the fragrance world which is more often than not led by trends, fashion and the latest launches (guilty as charged.) Dawn Spencer Hurwitz of DSH Perfumes confesses to being sensitive to the passing of the seasons with fall being her favorite moment of the year. She adds that like each year she cannot imagine winter without her perfume Minuit. JoAnne Bassett reminds us of the hedonistic pleasures of fall and winter by titillating, among other things, our taste buds with cognac, Porcini mushrooms and festive baking references. Laurie Erickson of Sonoma Scent Studio says that the season's offerings and atmosphere provide her with a sort of natural artistic direction for her perfumes which first are inspired by a raw material....
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November 23, 2009North-American Originals: Perfumers on Fall & Winter -- Part 4 {Scented Thoughts} {Perfume List} {Shopping Tip} If you missed our previous posts, you can find them here: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3 Today, we feature Brent Leonesio of Smell Bent and D.S. & Durga. Both are newcomers to the scene of independent perfumery, with something of a hip flavor to them and more of an urban vibe too despite the abundant references to nature. Cross-cultural references are like the signs of the experience of the multi-ethnic background of the big city. Sartorial sources of inspiration and social fashion cues appear in this type of indie perfumery that does not hesitate to attempt to capture the smell of tissue paper around a new sweater (Smell Bent) or that of the scent worn by red panted yachters in Marblehead, which happens to be perfect to wear with sweaters and tweeds (D.S. & Durga). Brent Leonesio of Smell Bent "I think winter is absolutely the best time of year for fragrance. Living in L.A., we don't ever have much "weather" per say. I've spent the past few Christmases in t-shirts. I grew up in Ohio and shaking the idea of a white Christmas can be hard - it never really feels like the holidays if it doesn't get snowy. I can, however, excuse all this when it comes time for holiday smells. Cinnamon, pine, cookies, cranberries, peppermints, ornaments, the smell of frying Latkas, apple sauce, new clothes, scotch tape, basements full of hidden presents - these are the smells that take me back...
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November 17, 2009North-American Originals: Perfumers on Fall & Winter -- Part 3 {Scented Thoughts} {Perfume List} {Shopping Tip} End of a fall day in Paris If you missed the previous installments, here they are: Part 1, Part 2 Today, we continue to follow the thoughts and experiments of Anya McCoy of Anya's Garden, peruse the fall perfume catalog of Fabienne Christenson of Perfume Possets who announces an upcoming perfume Elegance and intrigues us with her Cambienne which changes with the seasons. We meet with Ayala Sender of Ayala Moriel Parfums, an independent perfumer from both Israel and Canada who also makes tea, chocolate and offers among other things a very Canadian-smelling perfume inspired by the maple syrup festivals. Anya McCoy of Anya's Garden [continued...] "...I needed to determine what do the cool temperatures do to
the intake of air in the nasal passages in the absence of humidity? How can a
perfume be constructed that would work well in that atmosphere when I live in
the tropics and cannot walk outside and test? Well, a huge bowl of ice cubes
held under my face while sniffing the progression of the drydowns on MoonDance
and StarFlower helped! ![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=415f9fd6-26a8-47ff-997f-36a7dd252be2)
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Esteban have issued a web-exclusive kit for men Kit Cadeau Porte-Bonheur pour Lui (29€) comprising 3 lucky charms in ceramic scented with Cèdre, Santal and Teck & Tonka. They anticipate you'll carry them to the office, hang them in the car, scent the gym (or gym bag) with their trails...
Someone was asking me yesterday what feminine fragrances one could offer that would be quasi sure to please across international borders. In the context the request was put to me, it was clear that there was an element that should be included: the scent of French elegance, a perfume which could be seen as a good ambassadress of French or Parisian chic. The fragrance, I felt, could not be too particular or quirky but on the contrary contain a certain universal quality, express in an iconic manner what France is about as when you see the Château de Versailles in a picture, only expressed on the olfactory plane. I only had a couple of minutes to answer and so here are the fragrances that immediately came to my mind...
Clayeux Eau de Senteur Moi Bébé Bleu & Rose (Aroma Water Me Blue, Pink Baby), from birth
Nivea Eau de Senteur