Gucci by Gucci Sport pour Homme is a follow-up to Gucci by Gucci pour Homme (2008). I miss somewhat the retro glamor of the Tom Ford period and the less-than-tepid personality of his art-directed Gucci pour Homme (2003), but Gucci by Gucci, we are told, has been a resounding success. The Sport version was reportedly inspired by the power of the ocean without being literally a sports scent. What Gucci artistic director Frida Giannini wanted to evoke most of all was the feeling of getting away from it all "I don't necessarily link it literally with sports,"...
"It's more a sporty state of mind. Meaning, off-duty time and the
attitude that comes from being relaxed and carefree." She added that one of her goals was to dress down the original fragrance which is more formal and said "I wanted to expand the story of the scent into a man's free time and the more casual moments in his life."
The fragrance advertising, which was shot in Cannes by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, continues to be fronted by actor James Franco who is seen emerging from what may be a pool by the ocean or the ocean itself wearing casual clothes clinging to his body. The word "sport" apparently is meant in a general sense to refer to the dynamism of the natural elements, of the muscular masculine body and to a sense of freedom...
Capucine is one of three new fragrances in the new Eau de Fleurs collection by Chloé, which reportedly is about paying a higher-end homage to the floral heritage of Chloé. Their first fragrance in 1975, Chloé, is discontinued but many people still remember it as one of the most opulent tuberose fragrances that came to be. Next came Narcisse in 1992, another floral fragrance. Today, the new Chloé riffs on rose.
Eau de Fleurs further expands this tradition while bringing an eau-de-Cologne twist to it. Hannah MacGibbon who art-directed the trio of perfumes Capucine, Néroli and Lavande said, "Flowers have been at the heart of the Chloé brand
since its creation. I wanted to offer a floral cologne collection with
the highest quality materials for a return to authenticity and all that
is exceptional."
I should have started by reviewing Néroli, which is the composition most indebted to the eau de Cologne tradition in the group, but Capucine caught my attention.
Capucine, which was composed by perfumer Louise Turner of Givaudan, is really a meditation on the scent of nasturtium and can be considered to be a nuanced soliflore rather than a linear one, which is what most people might have in mind when they think about single-note fragrances. The added quirk for Capucine is that nasturtium seems to have been very rarely illustrated by perfumery. Nasturtium has recently appeared as a note in Bulgari Omnia Green Jade and Victoria's Secret Very Sexy, as far as I can tell, but it is not a well-known note in perfumery although essences of nasturtiums were distilled. A partial explanation for the relative unpopularity of nasturtiums in fragrances might be that it offers nuances which not all can be considered easy-on-the-nose due to its sulfuric contents. After all, as Pliny relates, they were used in the antiquity to smoke out snakes. A phenomenon which was reportedly observed for the first time by the daughter of Linneaus is the capacity of certain nasturtiums to give off little flames like electrical sparks in the still air of hot summer evenings in July. More largely adopted as an edible plant, the scent of the nasturtium flower was nonetheless duly noted hence its popular etymology reported by Pliny to mean to "twist the nose."
Notes: galbanum, bergamot, lemon, neroli, juniper berries / sage, lily of the valley, absolute of jasmine, absolute and essence of rose / Ambroxan, woody notes, musk...
One question that people keep asking themselves when they think about buying a celebrity fragrance is how authentic is the affiliation of the celeb to the scent? Did the persons really put anything of themselves in it besides their names? Beyoncé preempted any doubts by saying,
"Everything, from the bottle design to the name and the ideas for the
commercials -- that's me. When I commit to something, I do it 100
percent, and I've never had [creative control over a fragrance] until
this project. I learned a lot of great things from the past -- but I
always asked myself, 'If I could have my own scent, what would it be?'
I wasn't worried about deadlines. It could have taken me three, four,
however many years -- this was my first fragrance, and I wanted to make
sure that it was something I would love forever." [WWD]
After discovering several celebrity fragrances that attempted to answer this nosy-parker question in a similar way and with their own means, I can say that I am pretty sure Heat reflects Beyoncé's preferences....
Eau de Cologne by Guerlain is part of the perfumed library, on trend with the "niche" concept which appeared in 2007, Les Exclusifs. I wrote at the time that this perfume could be considered to have been one destined to be an interpretation of freshness together with Bel Respiro in the collection conceived of as a wardrobe. More than three years later while smelling this eau de cologne more up close I have to say that I am more struck by the duality found in this composition and by its manifest desire to kick some social conventions to the curb instead of seeing it as just a reenactment of the grand genre of the 18th century eau de Cologne however put in more minimalist linguo.
Behind this composition, we are told at Chanel is an original formulation from 1929 approved by the Grande Mademoiselle herself, she who precisely bore a surname which was once a title used during the Grand Siècle of Louis XIV but which covered a more complex biographical history as several recent cinematographical adaptations of her life have revealed to a wider audience recently. Likewise, this eau de Cologne which one expects to be of the Grand Siècle is less classical than it appears to be.
Elegance here is matched for me with the more unpredictable itinerary of the adventuress or the irregularone as she was nicknamed by biographer Edmonde Charles-Roux who had, truth be told, a tendency to want to try to pigeon-hole her and explain her thanks to social determinism while failing to do so in the end. Indeed, she tells us, how do you explain this quasi Marian mystery, the fact that a descendant of poor peasants from the Auvergne region, itinerant ones at that - near hillbillies, in short - could not go on to have her feet deep in the same ancestral muck? To read the book - which I was not able to finish for the moment being - is to read the story of Chanel, the peasant and the genius, seen through the lenses of someone who holds the prejudiced view that this kind of things could only be a sociological miracle and likes to remind the reader incessantly that Coco smells of something else than the No.5, of smells situated somewhere on the olfactory spectrum ranging from cattle dung to courtesan...
{Notes to Anglophone readers: I will also publish an English version of this post}
L'Eau de Cologne de Chanel fait partie de cette librairie parfumée tendance "niche" apparue en 2007, Les Exclusifs. Je disais à ce moment-là que ce parfum-ci pouvait être regroupé avec Bel Respiro comme représentant la partie de la collection destinée à incarner la fraîcheur. Trois ans et des poussières plus tard en sentant L'Eau de Cologne de près, je dois dire que je suis plus frappée par la dualité de cette composition et son désir de ruer un peu dans les brancarts des conventions sociales que par son adhérence au grand style de l'eau de Cologne du 18ème siècle, même en plus minimaliste. A l'origine de cette composition explique-t-on chez Chanel, se trouve une formule de 1929 pensée par la Grande Mademoiselle, titre Grand Siècle justement, recouvrant une réalité biographique plus complexe ainsi que plusieurs adaptations cinématographiques l'ont révélé récemment au grand public. De même cette cologne que l'on s'attend à être Grand Siècle est moins classique qu'elle n'en a l'air.
L'élégance ici se marie pour moi au parcours plus imprévisible de l'aventurière ou de l'irrégulière ainsi qu'elle fut surnommée par Edmonde Charles-Roux qui a tout de même eu un peu trop tendance à vouloir l'épingler et l'expliquer par le déterminisme social et y a failli en fin de compte. En effet, nous dit-elle, comment expliquer ce mystère quasi marial, le fait qu'une descendante de pauvres paysans auvergnats, itinérants qui plus est, des bouseux quoi, ait put ne pas rester les pieds dans la même gadoue ancestrale? Lire le livre - que je n'ai pu terminer pour l'instant - c'est lire l'histoire de Chanel, la paysanne et le génie, vue au travers de la lorgnette de quelqu'un qui croit dur comme fer que ce genre de choses tient du miracle sociologique et aime à rappeller sans arrêt que Coco sent quelque chose d'autre que le No.5, quelque chose se situant sur le spectre olfactif allant du crottin à la cocotte....
Overview of Niche Perfumery Diptyque & Personal Reminiscences
Vetyverio is the latest opus by Diptyque one of the earliest so-called "niche" perfume houses to have been established in the 1960s in Paris with this original phenomenological meaning of offering confidential and unusual perfumes which are not known by the wider public but whose existence becomes impossible to ignore among connoisseurs. It so happens, maybe not coincidentally due to this historical precedence, that the Diptyque boutique tucked away on a quiet stretch of the Boulevard Saint-Germain not far off Place Maubert came to represent my first-time entry-point to this universe of half-hidden scents whose existence you learn of by word of mouth. L'Autre (1973) was my first Diptyque love and purchase, smelt initially on a friend of the family.
Diptyque was founded in 1961 but first sold textiles and wallpaper, then home decoration before
turning to scented candles in 1963 and launching their debut fragrance in
1968, L'Eau. Many Diptyques of the early days are signed by perfumer Serge Kalouguine who also worked later for the Laura Tonatto perfume house and is attached to Fragonard in Grasse....
In 2007, SaksFifth Avenue and Bond No.9 collaborated for the first time to produce a duo of fragrances for her and him. While the men's version was business-like, classic and clubby, the women's version dared to be more eccentric, luscious and intense taking the gardenia flower as its emblem; I am more and more convinced that there exists a long love story between fine perfumery and gardenia and conceptions of femininity in American culture. It seems that when in doubt, you cannot go wrong with a dose of archetypal sultriness from the south.
This spring, the collaboration was renewed to launch a second feminine fragrance called Saks-en-Rose billed as "a departure from your grandmother's rose." They were not kidding. Initially when I started smelling the new perfume I had to wonder if this was not simply a closeted flanker as it seemed that the gardenia note of the debut fragrance was quite present. Was the idea here to create a rose twist on the original gardenia scent? It proved out to be rather a scent signaling the presence of the lactonic tuberose note in the heart of the fragrance...
Milk and rose petals bath at DVN Spa by Dennis Wong
Kate Spade edp is that American classic, a gardenia scent. The advertising copy insists it's a honeysuckle scent but it's really a gardenia perfume first at its core with the honeysuckle and lily of the valley contributing their lightness. The inside of the box is red and patterned with gardenias, just to let you know. The composition seems light at first but soon goes into deeper territory in this olfactory landscape where gardenias make you think of things like the tower of evil in Lords of the Ring, the one that seems to be located just above Hades. To wit, the gardenia perfume by Kate Spade does not avoid the more nefarious nuances of gardenias, their sulfurous charms which flirt with stink. It does not go as far as being unwearable and unsettling, say musty as a patch of mushrooms in a blue-cheese maker's cellar, but it does send a signal of fatal attraction, that hint of decay to floral intensity, which is like the song of Eros and Thanatos...
The new Guerlain opus, Cologne du Parfumeur (The Perfumer's Eau de Cologne) opens on
an opaline-like "white cologne" effect -- what Guerlain call an
"eau blanche"* effect for
Eau de Cologne du Coq (1894) -- one which has always been typical for me of the
19th century Eau de Cologne Impériale by Guerlain (1853) as well, while
offering a more modern subtle musk signature very reminiscent of the 20th
century typical impression of Thierry Mugler Cologne created by Alberto
Morillas, a modern classic; its musky facet was recognized by Narciso Rodriguez
and it led to the creation in 2009 of Essence.
A subtle fruity note of green orange coupled with a bitter nuance reminds you
of yet another modern classic eau de Cologne, Eau d'Orange Verte by Hermès
created by perfumer Françoise Caron. Thierry Wasser who created Cologne du
Parfumeur said,
"My Cologne du Parfumeur is an
intimist perfume. Refreshing and stimulating, it accompanies me when I wake up.
Depending on my whim, I add a few drops of my perfume to it to give it more
power or I wear it alone like a real perfume." He adds, "Originally, I created this Cologne for my
private usage. I composed it at the same time as I was working on Idylle;
it was my divertimento. I wanted a Cologne in the tradition of the great
classics but with a modern twist."...
Outspoken is the new upcoming fragrance by Fergie done in collaboration with Avon. It will launch first online on May 17th, 2010 then via other channels on June 3.
The main olfactive idea I had retained of Outspoken is that it is based on a tuberose and leather accord, a potentially powerful pairing which holds the promise of a particularly true-to-reputation, deleterious tuberose perfume. This is a direction one is always interested in gauging where the scent of tuberose is concerned. Its mythical reputation as a high-octane nocturnal floral too dangerous to be smelled by damsels lest impure thoughts cross their minds is here to stay. But the reputation also always needs to be tested and the myth examined, perpetuated or found lacking somewhat. Tuberose is a polemical flower in and of itself - others would call it polarizing- and it's always tempting to test the limits of a myth, especially when it says it will be wearing a leather corset or jacket on an already ample bosom...
Lily of the valley or muguet flower is one of the most characteristic notes of spring to a French nose. It is a smell that has come to ring in what some will see as the advent of May-Pole festivities, which are not celebrated anymore at least in urban quarters in Paris from what I can tell. I would love however to revive the tradition albeit in a less ostentatious fashion by encouraging everyone to place a table-top DIY May tree decorated with flowers and flower garlands at home (I am inspired by the awesome fragrant bouquets made at Chenonceau.) The muguet as a celebratory gift was instituted by French Valois king Charles IX on May the 1st 1561 when he was offered a sprig of muguet for good luck and henceforth decided to offer one to each lady at the court in the ensuing years.
It seems that Parisians have been particularly eager to aller au muguet (go to the muguet) as one of the popular names for lily of the valley is muguet des parisiens (Parisians' lily of the valley.) The flower very interestingly to me can be seen to historically epitomize a recognizable set of Parisian values: fashion, elegance, joie de vivre, love, seduction and sensuality. Indeed, long before couturier Christian Dior adopted muguet as a symbol and mascot of his art and trade, it had already been perceived as a symbol of elegance and seduction as the different historical strata of the word reveal...
A reportage on muguet on the 1st of May by Robert Doisneau -- another picture from the series here.
L'Eau MiXte, with a big "X" in the middle to remind people it's coded as an unisex concoction, a first for the house of Nicolaï in terms of marketing labeling, opens on a nice - and then I can further confirm as it gains in personality - lovely brazen grapefruit accord. The scent has a real bite to it but is only very slightly sulphurous; this is no Pamplelune by Guerlain. I had written back then about a passage in the development of this grapefruit composition of note that "It is at this stage that the sulphurous note that is natural to
grapefruit and blackcurrant makes its presence felt. The perfumer has
chosen to emphasize this aspect of the fruits rather than suppress it," With L'Eau Mixte, these two notes are found together in the composition again - mixed with other similar notes like bergamot, mint, musk and vanilla - but the choice has been made in this case to use the citrus and the bud to contrast briskness and softness rather than ring their common impolite and hell-inherited facet.
The new scent by Nicolaï is a tonic and invigorating grapefruit composition and it was conceived as a perfumer's study on the grapefruit note initially before getting some inspiration from a trip to Sicily and Taormina in particular (see the perfume launch report by Yasmine. Also in French) But think that this is more of an 18th century encyclopaedist illustration of the fruit rather than a Voltairian tale, or at least that the first one preceded the second one...
The new Prada Infusion de Tubéreuse reminded me of two different
types of cognitive experiences. One is the experience of having watched a movie
then watching it again and discovering new details and angles to the story that
you had never suspected were there the first time you sat in the dark and took
in the film. The second one is the pleasure you derive from understanding a
point that is made in expository writing. It reminded me more precisely of a
more vivid memory - god knows why- of studying in one of the library
sanctuaries of the world then overhearing myself or someone else, I cannot
remember, suddenly yelp a little cry of joy in the near-silence of the room
where only pages are rustling, pencils and pens are scratching the pages,
trouser legs and skirts are rubbing and chairs are creaking. There exists a
library white-noise that is very appealing and comforting to those who have
spent many years in that ambience. But I digress. What I meant to say is that I
know what that sound means and what experience it denotes: it is the little cry
of exultation, of joy, even pleasure, that one lets out when one has understood
a new idea.
So it was with Infusion de
Tubéreuse. At first, my mind tended to interpret it according to the familiar
and it seemed to stay safely within those bounds: orangey tuberose,
Fracas...why would I buy this instead of Fracas? No way! Then on a second try,
all its greenery, its systematic attachment to the green theme unfolded. I had
perceived that green note at first but more as only located in the top notes.
Now I could see how it was weaved into the whole fragrance, and how!...
Perfume Review: Penhaligon's Orange Blossom (2010) - Fountain of the Cooling and Peppy Spirits
The latest perfume creation by Penhaligon's, Orange Blossom, to be introduced on March 29th will be - spoiler alert - a wonderful addition to anyone's summer wardrobe. It will even be a weapon of sorts and of choice against the miasmas, bad air and surges of heat in the sun-beaten days ahead. If this sounds like a Victorian perfume ad written by an apothecary, this is exactly what I am hinting at.
Not a Quack's Perfume
Orange Blossom in its 2010 incarnation smells and acts like a perfume rescued from the Victorian era while being inspired by the spirit of the 20th century efficient portable (olfactory) ventilator (for the skin), a perfume feat made possible thanks to 21st perfumery technology which has secured the lasting quality of citrus notes, an olfactory phenomenon unknown until fairly recently. Less than about farniente as hinted about by the press material stating it was inspired by a dinner taken by the Mediterranean sea in the summer, it is a perfume about energy and the restorative powers of perfume.
This Eau de Toilette which defies fleetingness is like a magnified, single-minded and inspired stylized vision of Victorian characters on the verge of fainting out of their corsets and in desperate need for a remedy against murderous weather conditions, from electrically charged stormy conditions to migraine-inducing sun glare. The remedy concocted by Dr. Bertrand Duchaufour, borrowing for a moment the persona of a merchant of snake oil, both works and charms. Just keep Orange Blossom in your pharmacy cabinet - even better, in your refrigerator - or spray your linens with it too, it will make you feel deliciously peppy....
Zara perfumes ought not to be overlooked while you shop for
clothing and accessories because they are pretty good as far as I have been
able to experience them myself. Winter was too much of a xerox-copy of Douce
Amère and only offered the charm of a tighter-feeling wallet, but scents such
as Silver Musk, Dream, Essential, Black, and White (all recently tested) have a little something extra that pull
you in as far as no-fuss fragrances are concerned. They are priced cheaply but
do not smell cheap, unless you compare them side by side with an Editions de
Parfum (I have not tried to do that, so it's a theory). They embody well the
spirit of the fragrance conceived of as a fashion accessory, in the most
relaxed sense. They are made for people who do not like to lead complicated
lives (this is also a theory, obviously. These people might actually need to
scent themselves into oblivion more than others.)....
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One question that people keep asking themselves when they think about buying a celebrity fragrance is how authentic is the affiliation of the celeb to the scent? Did the persons really put anything of themselves in it besides their names? Beyoncé preempted any doubts by saying,
L'Eau de Cologne de Chanel fait partie de cette librairie parfumée tendance "niche" apparue en 2007, 
Vetyverio is the latest opus by Diptyque one of the earliest so-called "niche" perfume houses to have been established in the 1960s in Paris with this original phenomenological meaning of offering confidential and unusual perfumes which are not known by the wider public but whose existence becomes impossible to ignore among connoisseurs. It so happens, maybe not coincidentally due to this historical precedence, that the Diptyque boutique tucked away on a quiet stretch of the Boulevard Saint-Germain not far off Place Maubert came to represent my first-time entry-point to this universe of half-hidden scents whose existence you learn of by word of mouth. L'Autre (1973) was my first Diptyque love and purchase, smelt initially on a friend of the family.
In 2007, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bond No.9 collaborated for the first time to produce a duo of fragrances for her and him. While the 
Milk and rose petals bath at DVN Spa by 
Kate Spade edp is that American classic, a gardenia scent. The advertising copy insists it's a honeysuckle scent but it's really a gardenia perfume first at its core with the honeysuckle and lily of the valley contributing their lightness. The inside of the box is red and patterned with gardenias, just to let you know. The composition seems light at first but soon goes into deeper territory in this olfactory landscape where gardenias make you think of things like the tower of evil in Lords of the Ring, the one that seems to be located just above Hades. To wit, the gardenia perfume by Kate Spade does not avoid the more nefarious nuances of gardenias, their sulfurous charms which flirt with stink. It does not go as far as being unwearable and unsettling, say musty as a patch of mushrooms in a blue-cheese maker's cellar, but it does send a signal of fatal attraction, that hint of decay to floral intensity, which is like the song of Eros and Thanatos...
The 
A reportage on muguet on the 1st of May by Robert Doisneau -- another picture from the series 
