 My 2009 Halloween Shopping ListMarilyn Miglin Fo-Ti-TiengThe Body Shop Love Etc.Fall Fragrances: Cornucopia of Dark FruitsL'Occitane Labdanum de Séville, Mimosa de l'EstérelRobert Piguet FuturKate Moss VintageFrapin L'HumanistePatriotic Bestseller Perfumes: DiscussFaguenat, Faganat...Fug?Sniffing Rich Orientals in ParisL'Artisan Parfumeur Havana Vanille Dolce & Gabbana Rose The OneGuerlain Idylle - Part 1Guerlain Idylle - Part 2Kat Von D Saint & SinnerCalvin Klein CK Free for MenMariah Carey ForeverWienerBlut KlubwasserPrada L'Eau AmbréeSerge Lutens Fille en AiguillesBritney Spears Circus FantasyYves Saint Laurent ParisienneIdole d'ArmaniGuerlain Aqua Allegoria Tiaré-Blossom, Cherry BlossomHermès Eau d'Orange Verte, Eau de Pamplemousse Rose, Eau de Gentiane BlancheParfums de Nicolaï Weekend à DeauvilleSerge Lutens Fourreau NoirEssential FaithPenhaligon's Anthology: Eau de Verveine, Extract of Limes, Gardenia, Night Scented StockMac Naked Honey & AfricanimalChopard CascadeLancôme Hypnôse SensesJuliette Has a Gun Midnight OudNarciso Rodriguez EssenceQueen Latifah QueenBenefit Laugh With Me LeeLee, There's Something About Sofia, My Place Or Yours GinaThe Body Shop White Musk White Hot SummerRochas Eau SensuelleL'Artisan Parfumeur Côte d'AmourChloe Eau de ParfumGuerlain Les Fleurs du Guildo: An Early 19th Century Precursor of Marine ScentsLush VanillaryByredo Bal d'AfriqueZadig & Voltaire Tome 1 La Pureté - Part 1Zadig & Voltaire Tome 1 La Pureté - Part 2Guerlain MuguetGuerlain Muguet (en français)Spring Notes: Lily of the Valley & DiorChanel Cristalle Eau VerteChristian Dior Escale à PondichéryFrédéric Malle Géranium pour MonsieurGobin-Daudé Sous Le BuisRoger et Gallet Bois d'OrangeMontale Patchouli LeavesStetson All AmericanStephen Jones by Comme des GarçonsGivenchy Harvest 2008: Ange ou Démon Jasmin Sambac, Amarige Ylang Ylang, Very Irresistible Rose Damascena, Organza Fleur d'OrangerYves Saint Laurent La Nuit de l'HommeYves Saint Laurent l'HommeThe Sex Factor in Men's FragrancesNina Ricci Love by NinaHermès Kelly Calèche EDPAnnick Goutal Un Matin d'OrageGuerlain La Petite Robe NoireSerge Lutens Nuit de CellophaneParfums MDCI Péché CardinalHermès Vanille Galante - Part 1Hermès Vanille Galante - Part 2
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 I have been eager to try the perfume named Fo-Ti-Tieng by Marilyn Miglin for the longest of times (in the very fast internet age) but was able to procure it only recently. Life. The buzz it has created in HSN customers' reviews made it possible to bring it back from the island of the dead. Originally launched in 2006 as one of the Pheromone Seven Sacred Oils recreated by Miglin's team based on "papyrus research" for Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at the Field Museum, it elicited so many positive reactions that no business person with common sense and especially one with a humanitarian bent like Marilyn Miglin could let pass this opportunity. The customers would have got really mad. Fo-Ti-Tieng or Fo-Ti-Tien is the Chinese name for what is more commonly known to health aisles habitués as Gotu-Kola and scientifically recorded by pharmacists as Centella Asiatica. There are not many American perfumes with a Chinese name. In fact, right now I can only think of Xia-Xiang by Revlon (1987). Even Lucky Number 6 by Liz Clairborne has everything Chinese about it but the name. Calling a scent Fo-Ti-Tieng (Elixir of Long Life), one which is then touted as an ancient aphrodisiac makes the concoction, if I could only see it behind the opaque glass, seem even deeper and more mysterious...
Continue reading "Marilyn Miglin Fo-Ti-Tieng: A Different Kind of Green {Perfume Review}" »
 What the US website of The Body Shop says, "If you love being
enveloped in a captivating fragrance which inspires you, you will love this fragrance
with its sensuous union of iconic feminine jasmine, with indulgent notes of vanilla,
sandalwood and musk cream. Especially created by The Body Shop with one of the world's
finest "noses", Dominique Ropion, even the name chosen signifies love in all its forms. You
don't have to change the world wearing this fragrance, but you will love that this is the
first Eau de Parfum to feature an alcohol perfume base created from an ingredient which is
fairly-traded and organic."
The initial impression offered by Love Etc. by The Body Shop, their latest perfume launch, is that it is powdery and fruity-succulent (pear, fruity jasmine) with more than a hint of mint. Mint is not listed in the notes, but lily of the valley is, which presents in its natural state an icy-cold facet. Perhaps mint was used to convey this impression as the scent of lilies of the valley has to be recreated by perfumery means rather than extracted from nature. Then the underlying vanilla bed expands its presence. And always, there is this Alpine freshness appearing like an evergreen tree atop a slope covered with white powdery snow. This cold, minty streak provides lightness and airiness to the mix and makes the perfume feel more cloud-like, like an upper layer that would have mushroomed above the warm vanilla oriental base and would be attached to it by a slim thread rather than squarely resting on it. It also helps disguise a bit some more pedestrian musky amber in the bottom of the composition....
Continue reading "The Body Shop Love Etc. (2009): Milky Fruity-Floral with a Mint or Fir Twist {Perfume Review}" »
 Vertumnus by Arcimboldo, 1591
Here is a List of Fall Perfumes I compiled last year in the beginning of November 2008 and which did not make it to the blog, somehow. I then felt an urge to wax poetically fragrant about squashes, orange-colored leaves, figs, prunes, and all that procession of good things that make up the autumn season and its festivities. After that I went into hibernation or rather the list decided to hibernate. I completed it today and added two perfumes that were not out last year. I also took out several to leave us with a list of 13 cornucopia perfumes for fall 2009. They are of course the Best and the Top and the Must-Try and everybody's potential Favorites of the season (this is just to attract your attention, take it with a grain of salt). No but really, they are the Best! So I said this on November 2, 2008 as the weather was inspiring me, With the first genuine autumnal chill in the air, the one that does not just feel just plain cold, sharp and intrusive at the end of the summer but suddenly is full of the promises of fall delights thanks to the associative powers of sensation: crisp air, crystalline, transparent atmosphere contrasted with indoors warmth, flaming colors hovering above the earth -- have you noticed how in the fall, at one point, you look more up and less at the brown and putty hues on the ground? -- I have started to crave one family of smells in particular, that of wine-y fruits, liquorish-y perfumes, cognac-y compositions...
Continue reading "Perfume Cravings In The Fall: Cornucopia of Dark Fruits {Fragrance List} {Perfume Reviews}" »
 Labdanum de Séville and Mimosa de l'Estérel are the two latest additions to L'Occitane Mediterranean collection previously named Notre Flore but which has now been re-christened Voyage en Méditerranée (Travel in the Mediterranean). There are new flacons as well; if you liked the antique compass-themed cap from the original bottles, buy them now because the plan is to phase them out when new batches will go into production (but the juices themselves will remain unchanged). Voyage en Méditerranée now comprises seven perfumes.The original quatuor included Myrte (see my review), Néroli, Cèdre, Iris (2007). Jasmin d'Egypte was added in 2008 as Le Jasmin, then won a prize; it has since then been renamed Jasmin d'Egypte to cohere with the ensemble of the collection now preferring to make use of names offering combined references to both a typical raw material and a locale of the Mare Nostrum region. At press time, I did not have the names of the perfumers. If I receive them, I will add this information. L'Occitane visibly tries to offer decently made perfumes and value. When you look closer, you might realize that 55 € for 75 ml is maybe not as light a price compared to designer perfumes, but they very adroitly succeed in making you think that the brand is about simplicity. Their perfumes are like the next step-ups from what you would normally find in a bathroom, say an eau de cologne or an eau fraîche, yet are still reminiscent somehow of the no-froufrou vibe of these surroundings (at least in most homes).... 
Continue reading "L'Occitane Labdanum de Seville, Mimosa de l'Esterel (2009) {Perfume Reviews}" »
 Kate Moss Vintage is the most recent launch by the Kate Moss franchise after Kate (2007), Velvet Hour (2008) and Kate Moss Summer Time (2009), just introduced in September. It is billed as a "fruity-floral oriental" and...shock!...was created by perfumer Olivier Polge of IFF who, as it turns out, was hired to play the role of the invisible man because just about anyone with good plagiaristic skills could have performed the job. The problem with calling attention to perfumers is that they do have their personalities and preferences but they often have to self-efface in order to be good listeners, to celebrities for example. In this case however I find that a threshold was crossed into the realm of odious copying. Honestly, if a perfumer cannot resist at his or her own level in the process of fragrance-making, they might just as well be replaced by robots and electronic noses. Note are: pink peppercorn, white freesia, mandarin, heliotrope, jasmine, almond blossom, tonka bean, vanilla and musk.  The main inspiration for the scent is Kate Moss's self-confessed love for anything vintage, except she quipped, for old men. If I were to find a time period and a style that encapsulates this brand of vintage olfactory form, I would have to say that it makes me think of a Gibson-Girl plate most, not even a photography, due to the sketch-like aspect of the perfume. Vintage by Kate Moss opens on both a very powdery and fruity accord (mandarin) which seeks to be slightly innovative, with a woodsy and almond-y undertone. The composition readily smells familiar besides the Johnson and Johnson baby powder accord which dominates, but I can't quite put my finger on it at first. I had to go on a little meditation retreat to reflect upon this puzzling sensation. The result: To me it evokes the olfactory ambiances of the following powdery scents: Teint de Neige by Lorenzo Villoresi...I Profumi di Firenze Talco Delicato...Hypnotic Poison by Dior...L'Instant Magic by Guerlain...Eurêka! It actually smells very, very close to Guerlain Lights of Champs Elysées (2006) with its plummy cherry-wood accord underlining a comforting powdery heliotropin. It is a simplified version of it using the main ideas from it. A travel exclusive, the perfume is not widely known and hence apparently safe for shameless plundering... 
Continue reading "Kate Moss Vintage (2009): Smells Familiar & Not Just Because It Makes Me Think of a Gibson-Girl Plate {Perfume Review} {Celebrity Fragrance}" »
 One of the pleasures of taking a stroll in Paris or simply going from point A to point B is picking up on sillages of perfume on the streets. When a repetition pattern appears, it becomes a bit intriguing.  Paris ca. 1925, from art.com
In early September when the weather was still summery and sunny, I started smelling Hypnotic Poison a few times. What I found anomalous was the fact that it felt as if several women had decided to anticipate the colder days and pulled out their fur perfumes, the same one for some reason, seemingly showing the same concerted impatience to get done and over with summer. I couldn't help but think several things: that Parisian women indeed like their oriental perfumes and are all too ready to stop pretending summery scents can be satisfying; it was interesting that these women were young (with one exception) and finally that maybe they could have held on a bit longer to envelop themselves with the rich, sensual volutes of this boudoir oriental. I felt pleasure at smelling the heliotrope and rich tonka but at the same time felt there was a discrepancy with the pace of the season. I somehow liked the idea that in the near future when the gray of autumn would cover the sky and mesh with the zinc roofs and coldness would be inescapable, that it would make the scent be even more irresistible. But now? Wasn't it a bit early?... 
Continue reading "Dior Hypnotic Poison Rubis & Thierry Mugler Angel Liqueur: Sniffing Rich Orientals in Paris Lead Me to New Flankers {Scented Thoughts} {Perfume Reviews} {Perfume Streetwear}" »
   If I wanted to smell like the overheated dressing room of a 1950s Hollywood actress getting ready to go on the set or the stage, this is what I would wear. The new Dolce & Gabbana Rose The One captures more than the scent of a big, luscious and aquatic rose-peony-lychee bouquet with all its sails out, it also evokes fleetingly the rapid, inner sensations of a backstage beauty atmosphere.
In this setting, one can sense that the actress is slightly bothered by the artificial electric heat, the excitement of having to show herself to the world and one can smell her nervous musky perspiration, the body powder melting a bit on clean skin, the whiffs of makeup, nail polish, and of course, there must be a huge bouquet somewhere in the room with fluorescent roses and Madonna lilies smelling a bit of Marmite. Perhaps there is an electric kettle in the room to explain the slightly muggy, tropical quality.
I am reminded of distant smells from the past from classical dancing studios where chalk, sweat, dust and the scent of youth mingle. Perhaps if you added a fresh rose bouquet to a painting of ballerinas by Degas, it would smell a bit like this...
Continue reading "Dolce & Gabbana Rose The One (2009): The Scent of Backstage Beauty: Florist Rose {Perfume Review} {Rose Notebook}" »
  Saint and Sinner are the two new perfumes by "indie" brand Kat Von D for Sephora (the name is short for founder's name Katherine von Drachenberg -- the von Drachenbergs have a family castle in Germany that would look outstanding in a Gothic vampire story). The tattoo artist of TV-reality-show-Miami-and-L.A.-Ink fame also came up with a makeup collection that was on the shelves a little earlier than the scents. I had watched several shows of one of the city-based Ink series once but could not remember the Kat von D so it was an innocent approach to the beauty counter on my part. I then became very interested in the brand, because, frankly, her lipsticks are of superior quality, let's not mince our (kind) words here. Her Stiletto, a beautiful, perfect red-orange, was like a beacon of luminous red when I first set my eyes upon it and later just felt like foie-gras for the lips (it's a compliment). Sensing the demanding standards and beauty smarts of the belle, this made me hopeful for her, then, upcoming fragrances. They could only be interesting, was my belief, unless she had been completely hijacked by cynical fragrance developers (insert a cartoon strip here as the whole brand atmosphere has a gentle counter-culture and rebellious side to it) and did not know a thing about perfume. The queen of tattoos did mention her vast beauty closet where everything is organized by product and color, but no perfume collection. She also said that she knew a thing or two about lipstick because she virtually possesses them all, the Chanels, Diors etc. When time came to spring into action, she turned easily into a lipstick critic... 
Continue reading "Kat Von D Saint & Sinner (2009): Nice Girl in Tattoos {Perfume Reviews} {New Fragrances} {Celebrity Scents}" »
 The new CK Free for Men by Calvin Klein turns out to be a perfectly pleasant, innocuous cologne without any particular personality nor soul to it. It is co-signed by perfumers Ellen Molner and Rodrigo-Flores-Roux of Givaudan who delivered a product rather than a perfume. The eau de toilette seems to be made up of ideas borrowed from Dior Homme (a lesser dose of soft sueded iris here), John Varvatos created by one of the perfumers, Rodrigo Flores-Roux, and the 2007 Man by Calvin Klein. The scent follows the trend of fruity ambers for men that was fresh when CK Man came out. To paraphrase Brüno, this is sooo the first half of 2009 when all these flocked to the counters with a herding instinct. In brief, CK Free may be sending you a message of freedom but it is not applying the message to itself, wanting desperately to not offend the largest number of people possible. In fact, this time the brand explained that they wanted to conquer the US market as the CK fragrances are more popular abroad than at home. This results in an ultra prudent jus trying to blend in maximally in terms of its scent even if the literature surrounding it was made to convey the idea that it is oh-so-daring ...
Continue reading "Calvin Klein CK Free for Men (2009): If This Is The Smell of Freedom, I'll Eat My Hat {Perfume Review} {Men's Cologne}" »
 Notes: mandarin and lemon essences from Italy, May rose absolute, gardenia jasminoide, amber, patchouli leaves from Indonesia, vanilla, opoponax from Somalia. As its name seems to indicate, L'Eau Ambrée by Prada (Ambery Water) could a priori be thought to be a watercolor rendition of an amber perfume as in a water tinged with an infusion of sea-floating ambergris. The first thought that came to my mind as I lifted the bottle of the latest fragrance by Prada and as I realized that I was starting to slightly purse my lips was that, {sigh}, I should probably expect a copy or at best a twist on L'Eau des Merveilles by Hermès, or its even more ambery sister, L'Elixir des Merveilles. The market is nowadays so unafraid of launching me-too scents that this is one of the parameters you have to keep in mind when discovering a new fragrance. But in fact, the perfume composed by perfumer Daniela Andrier of Firmenich, is more like a coming-together of the Prada amber perfume line and the Prada Infusion collection on which she has worked consistently, with a showcasing of her know-how for creating modern, elegant adaptations of Eau de Cologne as in Infusion d'Iris, Infusion d'Iris for Men and Infusion de Fleurs d'Oranger... 
Continue reading "Prada L'Eau Ambree (2009): Refined Amber {Perfume Review}" »
 Notes: s ugar-coated raspberry, apricot blossom, blue peony, waterlily, red
sweetheart orchid, sweet vanilla wood, creamy musks, violet candy. Circus Fantasy is the latest fragrance by Britney Spears. It is a variation on the standard creamy, lactic fruity-floral that has been Britney Spears's signature scent running throughout her line of perfumes since Curious in 2004. You wouldn't fault her for lacking olfactory integrity. Instead of coming across as boring and repetitious, her latest scent twist, you have to acknowledge, is just better than many other offerings crowding the perfume counters today. The circus imagery meant to accompany the promotion of her current touring show may appear childish to some but the scent itself is a step-up in sophistication through a work on lightness, allusion and classic proportions. What the scent admittedly lacks in sheer originality, it gains in harmony, balance and subtlety. The over-enthusiastic spill of cream by a Fiesta breakfast bowl filled with canned fruits elevates itself finally to the level of an ethereal cloud of milk hovering over an abstraction of delicious fresh fruits and exotic flowers that smell fruity. This is how perseverance pays off: the more you polish an accord by believing in it, the more capable you are of mastering it and making it do what you want it to be. In other words, we are offered here a refined version of all the elements that have made Britney Spears's perfume success. The perfumer instead of falling asleep at the wheel perfected the basic idea. Absolutely do not fix what is working. A pop singer ought to know that better than anyone else. After the ear worm, we are presented with the nose worm...
Continue reading "Britney Spears Circus Fantasy (2009) {Perfume Review} {Celebrity Fragrance}" »
 The bottle is very pretty, like a feminine flask with an antique flair, one that could have almost belonged to Marie-Antoinette. It has a nice heft; the facets of the faceted glass bottle is more harmonious to my eye in the bigger size although the petite size is still very pretty and pleasant to hold in the palm of the hand.
Parisienne is the latest feminine launch by Yves Saint Laurent. We have covered the topic before by following the ad campaign with Kate Moss. I did not have any preconceived notions about the composition nor any particular expectations. What I discovered is a very particular poetical atmosphere evoked by the perfume. There is at the center of the composition an interesting work on color so as to create a fictional rose that is bluish and mauve in turns. It is a very romantic composition, more wistful than YSL Paris, very soft and feminine. The fragrance was created by Sophia Grojsman and Sophie Labbé of IFF. Grojsman is the author of Paris, a perfume that refreshed the genre of the rose soliflore for a new generation of women and the next ones to come. She is considered unofficially the queen of rose perfumes for such landmark perfumes as Paris, Trésor, Yvresse, CK Eternity, White Linen. Sophie Labbé has also tackled some rose accords of note in Cacharel Amor pour Homme or Pure White Linen. About Parisienne the perfumers said that, "It is a great floral with a woodsy structure, luminous even in its aspect of mystery (...) It is the perfume of ultra femininity, warmed by the imprint of the man who brushed against her."
"un grand floral à la structure boisée, lumineux même dans sa part de mystère (...). C'est le parfum de l'ultra-féminité, réchauffée par l'empreinte de l'homme qui l'a effleurée." ...
Continue reading "Yves Saint Laurent Parisienne (2009): Blue-Mauve Rose {Perfume Review}" »
 Hermès launched this spring and summer a set of three eaux de cologne. As the summer is heating up to the drum of the dog days, I thought that it was high time to review these descendants of Kölnisch Wasser. Eau d' Orange Verte (1979) Notes: orange, lemon, mandarin, buchu, blackcurrant bud, mint, oakmoss, patchouli. This by now iconic eau de cologne was created by perfumer Françoise Caron in 1979. It was reportedlly originally inspired by the vision of a wet undergrowth covered by morning dew. When it came out there had already been the justifiably famed Eau de Roche/Eau de Rochas authored by Nicolas Mamounas in 1970. Caron brought a decorative, furnishing spirit to this feeling of a fresh, crisp, light oakmossy eau de cologne with her orange grove motif and her insistence on the sensation of bitterness. Fresh could be slightly startling, even spectacular if one paid attention to the chiseling out of the citrus accord, and not just refreshing. The cologne opens on a bitter orange and mint leaves accord with an undercurrent of softer, fruitier citrus notes and a foresty dryness. The buchu echoes the tartness and fruitiness of the blackcurrant bud note which itself adds to the muskiness of the composition. The scent while keeping its bitter edge becomes softer and more pungent at the same time as the musky facet of blackcurrant releases its sweaty note. The scent is dual, oscillating between a clean, fresh-river like facet and a more dirty animalic one, like a shirt marked with light sweat left on the same river bank as its proprietor took a dip in the water...
Continue reading "Hermes Eau d'Orange Verte (1979), Eau de Pamplemousse Rose, Eau de Gentiane Blanche (2009) {Perfume Reviews}" »
 La partie de tennis à Deauville by Raoul Dufy
Since I was going to spend the weekend on the Normandy coast, I decided
to take the recently launched Weekend à Deauville by Parfums de Nicolaï created by Patricia de
Nicolaï with me to see how it would fare in the ambiance the perfume
was reportedly inspired from. Taking a literalist olfactory approach
while on a travel is the privilege of the perfume lover who might hope
to see some spark set off by the meeting of a composed fragrance with
the natural aromas of a locale, but more interestingly still perhaps
hope to capture a side of a unique geographic location that one would
not have been sensitive to without a distillation of its essence. As
it turns out, Weekend à Deauville is a chypre perfume and therefore it
tends to smell by association to me more like a page from the social calendar than
"... a lovers' getaway weekend in the famous small town on the Normandy coast."
This is so because I usually do not find chypre fragrances to be
particularly intimate by design. I do not know if you could devise a chypre that
is minimally diffusive and behave like a second skin, but chypres
normally sport a handsome sillage and in this projective quality I see
an implicit awareness of the social circle. But this may be a bias --
it is almost certainly a bias -- coming from someone who has been
accustomed to atmospheres created by skin scents as signaling intimacy,
closeness, skin contact...
Continue reading "Parfums de Nicolai Weekend a Deauville (2009): Fresh Chypre {Perfume Review}" »
 Naked Honey Notes: freesia, honey, orange blossom, green cumin, woods.
Africanimal Notes: freesia, honey, warm floral accord, pink peppercorn, bergamot, woods. MAC just recently in June introduced a limited-edition of two honey-based fragrances called Naked Honey, the lighter one of the two and Africanimal, the deeper one. The brand does not describe them with a conventional concentration name such as eau de parfum or eau de toilette but prefers to use the terminology: "Fragrance Blend" and "Variation Parfumée". From the ad copy, "Following the example of their fabled Queen, Cleopatra, Egyptians bathed in honey and milk. Queen Anne of England used it to silken her hair; from the Ancient Greeks to the Roman Empire, honey has never lost its regal, ever-amber lustre. We love the luxury of its sensual essence...but we also know that it's a highly efficient and wholesome humectant and healer. Introducing our limited edition Naked Honey collection - three aspects of golden warmth and sun-made sweetness for the body, layered with two decidedly different honeycomb-derived fragrances - celebrating the secret lives of Queen Bees."
I casually smelled some of the MAC fragrances before but never really went any further than that. When I took my initial inhale of Naked Honey however, it was like experiencing a sudden burst of summer florals scenting the shade of a tree. What I did not expect was that honey here would be so intimately associated with linden blossoms, one of the sweetest smells, metaphorically speaking, and most capable of evoking instant summer to my nose. The warm tonalities of honey mingling with the fresher yet just as honeyed accents of linden made me immediately pay attention.... 
Continue reading "Mac Naked Honey & Africanimal (2009): The Blonde & The Brunette {Perfume Reviews}" »
 The bottle for Hypnôse Senses is beautiful in its crystalline simplicity. The name of the perfume is only readable on the top of the cap. The shape is borrowed from Magie by Lancôme (1950). This time, the shape is further elongated and looks a bit more like the bottle for l'Air du Temps by Nina Ricci.
Perfumers: Christine Nagel, Nathalie Feisthauer, Ursula Wandel
Perfume Notes: top: pink peppercorn, mandarin essence; heart: osmanthus absolute, rose leaves, honey; base: Indonesian patchouli, cistus (vegetal amber), benzoin, tonka. Hypnôse Senses is the latest flanker to the original Hypnôse by Lancôme created by perfumers Annick Ménardo and Thierry Wasser and launched in 2005. This time three women perfumers Christine Nagel, Nathalie Feisthauer and Ursual Wandel worked together to produce a fragrance that is subtly original and the olfactory equivalent to my nose of traces of lipstick and cosmetics left on a linen napkin: almost vanishing yet very sensual and present. The advertising campaign resting in part on a dedicated website puts the accent on Daria Werbowy's skin ( she modeled for the original Hypnôse), an imagery that takes on a fuller meaning upon smelling the perfume. Women will perhaps complain that the ad is particularly objectifying as Werbowy's body gets cut out in seven "sensual spots" drawing a map of desire that is only too predictable and essentially meant to satiate the male gaze even if mediated by a female one, which is curious considering that women are the prime targets of the ad (see Vivez l'expérience Senses). One can only complain that this ad is terribly and even caricaturally classic in its implicit subservience to masculine desire, unless you would be gay or post-lib. However, like lipstick and a good perfume, one can simply enjoy putting those on as gestures of self-cultivation and not care about someone looking up your thighs or down your cleavage for reassurance that this is a worthy scent. Lancôme, via Pauline Zanoni the director of fragrance creation, insisted on the chypre lineage of Hypnôse Senses advancing the idea that through this affiliation the perfume was asserting once more the core tradition of the house which has been carried out by great chypres like Magie Noire (1978) (cf. Cosmoty.de). As far as chypre-perfume labeling goes, Hypnôse Senses is very soft and as close as can be to a full-fledged skin scent while using some of the neo-classic chypre ingredients: citrus, cistus, patchouli...
Continue reading "Lancome Hypnose Senses (2009): Second Skin {Perfume Review} {New Fragrance}" »
 A King Kong poster from 1933, via All Posters
Vanillary by Lush was originally inspired by " the extraordinary desserts at Heston Blumental's amazing
restaurant, The Fat Duck at Bray", a multi award-winning temple of cutting-edge molecular cuisine. The perfume is composed of vanilla absolute, jasmine absolute and tonka absolute and was created by in-house perfumer Simon Constantine. Its first incarnation was a bath product called Vanilla Fountain Ballistic. It is now available as a spray perfume as well as a solid one. This is a review of the liquid Vanillary.  The fragrance can be seen as a salty, dark, floral vanilla scent. The blend opens on a salt-brushed, indolic and brown-toned accord of vanilla with a sweet wood-polish nuance found in lily. Soon an undercurrent of lush, rich, drunk-like, resinous and fruity jasmine with a dash of green surfaces. There are hints of almondy heliotropine. What I appreciate most perhaps about the meeting of flower and vanilla in this scent is how the junction is made through a fresh green sappy bridge, as if made of oozing vine...
Continue reading "Lush Vanillary (2009): King Kong Passion {Perfume Review} {New Fragrance}" »
 Patchouli anklet by Tonya Maria: "This piece was designed around my research and experience with people's
love/hate extreme reactions to patchouli. 90% lovely smooth surfaces,
with euphoric swirls vs 10% bumpy undesirable cone shape protruding out
from beneath with curling twisted tendrils creeping up like scent to a
nose." [...] and amber and orange colored droplets symbolized the colors of the oils
the plant produces when leaves are distilled to make the fragrance." Pierre Montale perfumes for me are remarkable for their ability to convey an impression of richness, that is, for the best of them. If you are dreaming of wearing a precious potion that unfolds on the skin like a rich brocade threaded with hints of precious metals, then it is a good bet to direct your steps, or fingers as it is in the digital age, to a Montale sales point. Montale fragrances to me are not into being in the vanguard of perfumery creation, but they do know on the other hand about quality and betray an uncanny ability to pick up intuitively on the untiring human quest for luxury... 
Continue reading "Montale Patchouli Leaves: Black Sun {Perfume Review}" »
 Some further news to follow up on a previous announcement about the 3 upcoming MDCI fragrances in 2009: in fact I learned that a 4th fragrance will be launched this year as I had to realize after getting four of these upcoming releases. Only the name of the perfume Péché Cardinal (Cardinal Sin) is definitive. All three others have received for now temporary, evocative names but which are not made official yet and may change. 1st teaser and advance perfume review: Péché Cardinal is a beautiful fruity leather perfume with an indolic punch worthy of a boxer. It has a very bold signature that will ravish lovers of vintage perfumes who bemoan the near-extinction of fragrances with an attitude, the ones that know how to smack a man in the face to make them behave. Imagine a sleek dame in a 40s film noir graced with a hot temperament and a lot of sass. She wears leather pants or underwear under her immaculately tailored tweed suit and she wears them well...
Continue reading "Parfums MDCI Peche Cardinal (2009) Part 2: A Beautiful Homage to Female Fire-Raiser Germaine Cellier & More News About a 4th Perfume {Perfume Review} {New Fragrance}" »
 Jo Malone is one of those perfume houses which are inspired by the concept of a fragrance-library in which new perfumes are added each time like carefully chosen tomes in a stately home library, hinting at the same time at the pleasure of the amateur botanist or entomologist meticulously collecting new specimens from the natural world (see Jo Malone Red Roses). Pomegranate Noir, a fruit and a color this time rather than two main ingredients (it was considered a departure from the rest of the collection when it debuted), was launched in 2005 and was created under the artistic directorship of Jo Malone, the original British founder of the brand now owned by Estée Lauder companies. It came around a time when the designer admitted she was obsessed with color, confessing a new liking for garish orange daisies and a recently purchased red bodice. The story of the perfume is that Malone was initially inspired by the sight of a red silk dress (see also for broader comparison Serge Lutens Rousse, a perfume similarly inspired by a red (velvet) dress). The color that this scent evokes in fine is deep burgundy red or deep garnet red as streaks of black traverse the composition. It is one of the more abstract perfumes by the brand. It reportedly took Malone two years to come up with a satisfying result, as she "... looked at thousands of submissions before solving the puzzle by adding
spice notes to create the core pomegranate aroma...". She also explained at the time of its launch " I hate fruity fruity." Officially, the scent includes notes of: raspberry, watermelon, rhubarb, plum, pink pepper, pomegranate,
patchouli, frankincense and spicy woods. Pomegranate Noir this fall and winter comes in a Tasting Kit as one of the interesting offerings of the holiday season and includes three other scents that rest on three main notes pulled out from the composition: Casablanca Lily, Raspberry and Guaiacwood (see our review in Part 2)...  Detail of the Madonna of the Pomegranate by Sandro Boticelli ca. 1487
Continue reading "Jo Malone Pomegranate Noir (2005) & Tasting Kit (2008) - Part 1 {Perfume Review}" »
 Christina Aguilera is as it turns out a veteran perfume developer only press releases and articles usually are careful not to mention this somewhat attention-diverting fact. It might also not be the best of publicities to point out that a few other fragrances by her came before, that not too many people can actually remember. Her current official perfume website only mentions her two latest, Christina Aguilera and Inspire. Nevertheless, other names appear such as Xpose Passion, Xpose Desire, Christina Aguilera (by LR World). Inspire, according to the press release, and as can be expected for a celebrity fragrance is inspired by the looks and personality of Christina Aguilera, but also the pop art movement (Aguilera mentions Warhol) and Tokyo at night (because it is a favorite time and place of the singer's). It incorporates a central note of tuberose, one of her favorite aromas, and the packaging is red because it is her signature color... 
Continue reading "Christina Aguilera Inspire (2008) {Perfume Review} {New Fragrance} {Celebrity Perfume}" »
 Caresse, the latest creation by Fragonard, is a recreation of a 1929 Fragonard fragrance, a project conducted under the artistic direction of Agnès Costa of the house of Fragonard. It follows the re-edition of another perfume from the vault, Billet Doux. This half-curator's, half-creator's work was entrusted to renowned perfumer Jean Guichard, the author of Lou Lou by Cacharel, Obsession by Calvin Klein, Deci Delà by Nina Ricci, Fifi by Fifi Chachnil and many more. He is also the director of the Givaudan school of perfumery and earned the first Coty Prize in 2000. It is of interest to note that Jean Guichard is the father of perfumer Aurélien Guichard who has also lately specialized in adapting classics from the Robert Piguet catalog into modern recreations. In the past father and son have collaborated on Les Belles series by Nina Ricci and the 2007 L'Air du Temps flanker. To some extent, the father's work on Caresse can be usefully compared to that of the son's on Visa, in the way the cured-fruit accord of Mitsouko by Guerlain has been made to serve as a bridge between the past and the present. Some perfumery accords are no doubt transmitted from father to son as I am tempted also to relate Aurélien Guichard's work on another modern adaptation, Baghari, to the vanilla and aldehydic treatment of the father for Lou Lou...  The Debutante by Alexander Oscar Levy from Michael A. Latragna Fine Paintings
Continue reading "Fragonard Caresse (1929/2008) {Perfume Review}" »
 Bond Girl 007 is the latest feminine celebrity fragrance by Avon. Fronted by British actress Gemma Aterton, it was released at the same time that the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace debuted, a film in which she plays the role of agent Strawberry Fields. The scent was created by a team of three perfumers: Olivier Cresp (see interview), Frank Volkl and Harry Fremont. While the fragrance is advertised as being a woody-floral-musk, the perfume could be seen rather as a sort of hybrid, chypre-cum-oriental composition. Fragrance families can be played with and often are as it is even considered a safe way to play to try to please the most potential customers possible with the same perfume by mixing typical attributes. In this case however, there was a creative anthropomorphizing idea behind this insistence on duality. Re-watching the interview with Olivier Cresp one realizes that he mentions that there is an attraction-and-danger duality to the composition which corresponds to the personality of Strawberry Fields, but this comes across empirically, and even if you did not know that, as a tension between a luminous chypré effect and a more opaque and vaporous oriental vanillic sensation. The technical tour de force of this perfume is that this tension never subsides... 
Continue reading "Avon Bond Girl 007 (2008) {Perfume Review} {New Fragrance} {Celebrity Fragrance}" »
 This is a fragrance
Comme des Garçons just caused some shopping commotion and tremors in Tokyo, a city as much known for its episodic natural earthquakes as for its enduring sense of fashion, but this time it was by launching their new high-low collection at the newly opening H&M on November 8, 2008. And today, November 13, 2008 was the worldwide launch of the CDG capsule collection. Fans in Tokyo had reportedly been queuing for 3 days, under protective umbrellas, to make it to the cloth rack before everyone else got there. Extatic faces lit up as the elite troop of shoppers finally reached the promised racks and started springing into action. Comme des Garçons, like Karl Lagerfeld did in 2004 with his fragrance Liquid Karl, has taken this opportunity to introduce a limited-edition fragrance, called not, mind you Liquid Rei Kawabuko, but in a more self-effacing manner, H&M. Kawabuko said regarding this mass-appeal project that, "I have always been interested in the balance between creation
and business," "It is a dilemma,
although for me creation has always been the first priority. It is a
fascinating challenge to work with H&M since it is a chance to take
the dilemma to its extreme, and try to solve it." (Vogue UK)...
Continue reading "Comme des Garçons H&M (2008): Niche To Educate The Masses {Perfume Review} {New Fragrance}" »
 Innocent Rock by Thierry Mugler is the latest version of Angel Innocent. It was released in February-March of 2008 as a limited-edition in collaboration with Le Club des Créateurs de Beauté. It is currently, several months later still, their top-selling fragrance. The ad copy is meant to whip young women into action: " Indecently sexy, the innocent rock woman is mysterious, both provocative and sensual, she injects glamor into rock and seduces in the heart of innocence." Interestingly, and as becomes apparent once you decrypt the scent, the grape note that is showcased in this perfume, which caught my interest initially, appears to be a by-product of the innovative research that Thierry Mugler conducted for the luxurious La Part des Anges, only, at one level, to make the concept of aged liqueur be more accessible to the wider and younger public. Official notes are: grape, lychee, red rose, pepper...
Continue reading "Thierry Mugler Innocent Rock (2008) {Perfume Review} {New Fragrance}" »
 Estée Lauder Amber Ylang Ylang Eau de ParfumThe Skinny:
Perfumers: Honorine Blanc and Annie Buzantian
Artistic director: Aerin Lauder
Gender label: feminine; men could make it their own if they care to remember Macassar oil
Notes: Italian Bergamot, geranium oil, cinnamon SFE, Golden Amber, Ylang Ylang absolute, Bulgarian Rose absolute, Honey, Incense, Vanilla and Sandalwood.
Characteristics: modern soft ambery oriental with slightly old-fashioned styled florals
Personality: soft, sensual, warm, courteous, graceful
Wearability: a cinch
Price point: $$ (Eau de Parfum) and $$$ (extrait)
Bottle: "The parfum
bottle cap is adorned with semi precious stones of tiger eye, smokey quartz
and red agate. The eau de parfum bottle cap was inspired by an exquisite
hammered gold necklace and matching bracelet Aerin received as a gift from her
grandmother Estee."
Perfumes discussed: Estee Lauder Intuition, Yves Rocher Voile d'Ambre (just for pointers), Bourbon French Parfums Heliotrope
Estée Lauder Amber Ylang Ylang is the second installment in the Private Collection series inaugurated with Tuberose Gardenia last year. The Private Collection is the equivalent of the concept of the private reserve for luxury alcohols. It aims to bring an enhanced experience of refinement to customers by paying more attention to the raw materials used, letting them speak for themselves if you will. It is apparent to me now that the collection bears the personal mark of Aerin Lauder: Amber Ylang Ylang just like Tuberose Gardenia bespeaks of a certain brand of soft femininity and social grace. Exotic flowers that could be let loose as unruly, heady and erotic (tuberose; ylang ylang) come here to adorn perfect decoration-magazine pages (or silver-screen imagery) letting go of their reputation for unpredictability in exchange for a touch of gentility. Instead of using the word "polite" I want to use the term "courteous". Aerin Lauder explained the inspiration for the perfume, "To me, a perfect evening is a private one, spent at home with family
and friends. So the fragrance captures the essence of an
enjoyable evening in a warm, inviting room filled with the luxurious
textures of wood, velvet and cashmere. "Private Collection Amber Ylang
Ylang represents the relaxed intimacy and quiet comforts that we love
to come home to at the end of the day."
And again, "For me, there is nothing more inviting and warm than rich browns and gold - brown velvet
couches, gold accents in lamps, tables, vases and frames,"...
Continue reading "Estee Lauder Amber Ylang Ylang (2008): Cosy Cashmere Throw {Perfume Review} {New Fragrance} {Advert}" »
 Les Plus Belles Lavandes de Caron (The Most Beautiful Lavenders by Caron) was announced in 2008 as an unisex Eau-de-Cologne iteration of the house of Caron's famous masculine scent Pour Un Homme (For a Man). As if to make the genealogical link explicit, it takes as a name the tag line that used to be inscribed on the labels of the bottles of Pour Un Homme (see the 1934 advertisement below). Pour Un Homme is reputed for its characteristic aromatic freshness combining with a delicate sustained sweetness. It is a scent that manages to balance out these two facets without one overshadowing the other. Thanks to the subtle dosage of vanilla and amber, the lavender in Pour Un Homme seems to have been hand-picked as is from a dry windy hill as a representative of the sweetest varietal of the flower without ever feeling artful... 
Continue reading "Les Plus Belles Lavandes de Caron (2008) {Perfume Review}" »
 Mainbocher Corset, Horst P. Horst, 1939
Following my last article on the unadvertised, nay, covert trendiness of white musks in Paris, in complete contradiction of course with broadcast Gallic preferences for foul odors, here is a list of top white-musk trails to try out. By white-musk perfumes I refer and pay attention here to perfumes that are the animalistic equivalents of soliflores - I once used the term solabestia to point to those compositions that single-mindedly decide to achieve the smell (or reek, some would admittedly prefer to say) of civet or musk or castoreum or ambergris. Now, I am also starting to like the sound and the look of solibête. And by this therefore I do not mean the numerous fragrances - too numerous to count - that end with a white-musk sweep of the tail in the base notes. The more I think about it, the more I want to know who came up with that purely abstract antinomic idea of musk as and how come we do not have white civet and white castoreum bottled yet. In spite of the fundamental weirdness of the concept playing on symbolic inversion like black soap and black gloss or even black face-cream (cf. the new Le Soin Noir by Givenchy), not just people, but crowds love it. The particular selection I propose is based on a mix of historic, qualitative and trendy criteria: 1) they are included because they are are those fragrances that have been on the perfume scene long enough to suggest that, maybe, these specific cleaned-up musks are popular and are here to stay; 2) they are defining or paradigm-shifting, have enough personality to be considered the best in their categories and you simply must try them out to make up your mind about what suits you or does not; 3) finally, we bring in two newcomers because one always needs to keep updated and unearth new scents. TOP 7 WHITE MUSK PERFUMES TO TRY OUT: WHAT WHITE MUSKS PARISIANS MIGHT BE WEARING TODAY by Marie-Helene WagnerTHE BODY SHOP WHITE MUSK (1981)
The classic of classics as far as simple, unadulterated white musk fragrances go. It is probably the one that is the most easily accessible and affordable in Paris. In the US, it is one of the brands in this category that is the most imprinted upon people's retinas. If you are thinking: but hang on, what about Jovan White Musk sold at Walmart for a few miserly bucks? This one appeared a good 10 years later, in 1991 ( in case you don't know how to count). Jovan is more simplistic than TBS White Musk, nice, but somehow flatter and more one-dimensional. I did mention the fact that I would look at "simple" white musk scents, but there is a form of simplicity that relies on hidden ornamentation, as TBS White Musk shows... 
Continue reading "White Musks Part II: Top White Musk Trails To Try Out {Perfume Short (Reviews)} {Perfume List}" »
 In typical fashion for our general approach and perception of a perfume, images come first and then the first inhale. How much this precedence of the visual over the olfactory guides our thoughts about a fragrance is hard to decipher, yet we can recognize this shaping, almost hierarchical quality of vision over our nose where fine fragrances are concerned (except when a reviewer is offered the opportunity to sniff unnamed and unadorned lab samples, but then again, we see something before we smell it). Left to fend off in a less civilized environment or simply put in such conditions as to be able to smell natural aromas freely and unaware, the relationship of precedence inverses and we will experience oftentimes the sudden intrusiveness of a smell before finding its origin and identifying it with the help of our sight as we request for further clarification. We talked at length already about the images surrounding Secret Obsession by Calvin Klein and the brand made sure the images around the new perfume would be arresting around the idea of nakedness and feminine desire...
Continue reading "Calvin Klein Secret Obsession: Prelude to Love, Mmm...to a Review {Perfume Short} {Scented Thoughts}" »
 Jessica Simpson Fancy is the singer's second foray into the world of fragrances following her dessert line of edible scents, which was based on a personal idea of hers. I do not remember exactly how I formed the subsequent notion, but I remember reading about that line in an interview given by Jessica Simpson and coming away with the impression that she must have been a gifted child and that these scents were an expression of her own idiosyncratic outlook on the world. This is to say that for the young singer and actress the confluence of perfume and food is there as one of the pathways built into her brain and as a personal interest of hers from early on. With Fancy, she did not waver from her initial interest, far from it. Despite the fact that the new fragrance is described officially as a floral oriental, it is at the same time very much a gourmand and a fruity-floral scent, done in a girly way. My preamble about Jessica's personal investment in the idea of what a fragrance can be is not to say that Fancy is an original perfume. In fact it is quite the contrary. It is very much in tune with a vein of perfumes that was especially exploited in the field of US celebs scents and which are built around a main self-indulgent sweet variation of fruit-salad-drizzled-over-with-cream, a very popular accord. The little difference we witness in this case is a slightly more grownup furry ambery facet reminiscent, however distantly, of classics such as Zibeline and Tabu. This vintage, retro touch, with a sprinkle of less-distant-in-time louder 1980s fashion-sense at times, has made a comeback recently in Guess by Marciano and others, and matches the style of the bottle...
Continue reading "Jessica Simpson Fancy (2008): Sweet Medley {Perfume Review} {New Fragrance} {Celebrity Scent}" »
 My apologies, I have been so busy off line that I neglected to follow up on the news of my new monthly column which is now featured on Glam.com! Dear Readers, From now on, each month I will be choosing for Glam.com three stand-out scents that I think are the best of the crop, usually for one element or two that they achieve to an exceptional degree...
Continue reading "Three Stunners for Midsummer: Top 3 Perfume Picks for July {Perfume Shorts} - New Monthly Perfume Feature on Glam.com {Fragrance News}" »
 Fleur de Liane (Vine Flower) is a new upcoming scent by L'Artisan Parfumeur to be released this fall in September-October 2008. It was inspired by sensations gathered by perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour in the midst of a tropical jungle located in the island of Bahia Honda in Panama during the rainy season where he reportedly also produced visual materials to nourish and accompany his vision for the scent, such as photographs and watercolors. The perfume is part of L'Artisan Parfumeur's collection of exotic, travel-inspired compositions called "Odeur volée par un parfumeur en voyage" (A Stolen Aroma by a Perfumer on His Travels). The series already comprises Bois Farine by Jean-Claude Ellena, which inaugurated this particular library of perfumes in 2003, followed by Timbuktu and Dzongkha, also by Bertrand Duchaufour who has recently been hired as L'Artisan Parfumeur's in-house perfumer. Duchaufour is noticeably looking more and more the part, his look having evolved from professional to edgy perfumer-artist. It is a reminder that perfumers are part of the branding strategies of perfume houses, like Jacques Polge for Chanel, a current that should accentuate itself as more and more perfumers are coming to the forefront of public attention... 
Continue reading "L'Artisan Parfumeur Fleur de Liane (2008): Variation on the Eternal Feminine {New Fragrance} {Perfume Review}" »
 The new Perry Ellis for Men by Perry Ellis represents an avowed effort on the part of the brand to go upscale under the aegis of its new owner since 2007, the Falic Fashion Group LLC. This evolution is immediately noticeable in the design of the bottle which is more soigné; it aims to convey a sense of luxury through the heaviness of the glass flacon especially (it is very heavy) - the cap is made of composite wood and the strap is a nice modernist touch and apparel reference but the metallic details could have been of better quality it seems; then the advertising is aspirational in two senses: both in the sense of presenting an image of luxurious lifestyle somewhere on the Italian coast, but also in making more democratically reference to a carefree summer holiday atmosphere; finally, the character of the jus itself comes across as life-affirming, frank, relaxed, sensual, devoid of complexes - the designers who mothered the scent do not hesitate to underline "... a bright freshness with commercial appeal." Perry Ellis for Men makes you think of a smiling, charming beau gosse who could not care less about what is in and what is out because every clothes fall great on his frame. The fragrance has an easy, smooth charm while being masterfully blended; it obviously did not torture itself about being avant-garde, edgy, or even trendy. It takes a well-tested classic persona of citrus + spices + woods + amber forming a fresh and warm contrast, but manages to impose its personality thanks to the quality of the treatment by perfumer Mathilde Bijaoui who reveals her finesse and a very good sense of balance.... Image from the photo shoot for the advertising for Perry Ellis for Men - model is Nir Lavi
Continue reading "Perry Ellis for Men (2008) {Perfume Review} {Men's Cologne}" »
Un Zéphir de Rose (Rose Zephyr) is one of the two latest creations by Les Parfums de Rosine (see Eau Fraîche Rose d'Eté). It was launched in the spring of 2008. The Rose Is Queenly Throughout
Like Diabolo Rose last year, which was composed around rose and mint, it promised to be a perfume based on a cool green pairing but with anise this time. As it turns out, Un Zéphir de Rose is more to the point a celebration of the natural beauty of an exceptional quality of Bulgarian rose essence. In this sense it is more accurate to view it through the lens of an exquisite and minimally adulterated rose soliflore. The perfume was created by perfumer François Robert in 2008 and rose is present at all three stages of the perfume development. Perceptibly so and more than any of the other Parfums de Rosine we have experienced thus far, it can also be assimilated to a vintage harvest edition resting on the unique quality of a rose cultivated one particular year. The idea of adding an aniseed nuance to Un Zéphir de Rose was inspired by a rose bloom from Marie-Hélène Rogeon's garden near Paris which presented this natural facet....
Continue reading "•• Les Parfums de Rosine Un Zéphir de Rose (2008) •• Natural Beauty {Perfume Review} {New Perfume}" »
Paul Smith Extreme for Women was launched in 2002 as part of a masculine and feminine duo and as a follow-up to British fashion designer Paul Smith's debut scents in 2000, Paul Smith Women and Men. They were meant to prolong the two first by making these even more accessible to a wider audience. The style that was sought was "classic-with-a-twist", to reflect Paul Smith's fashion approach. The bottles were thus designed by architect Sophie Hicks to reflect that image; the glass cap unexpectedly unscrews as for a splash bottle; one side of the flacon wears multicolored stripes, wavy for the women's, vertical for the men's but the shapes are very basic. Extreme for Women was composed by Antoine Maisondieu of Givaudan and is a priori described as a floral woody musky perfume. The Woodsy Twist Wood notes in feminine fragrances are still perceived as innovative in 2008 (see Estée Lauder Sensuous) as they are relatively less employed, in a prominent fashion that is. Féminité du Bois (Femininity of Wood) (1992) by Shiseido created by Serge Lutens, Christopher Sheldrake and Pierre Bourdon made a statement out of this foray into woody feminine notes for a creation that was sold as mainstream yet felt very different from it. Usually, when woody notes are used in the feminine context, they are for their warmth, sensuality and roundness. What Maisondieu did was to offer a double-distancing twist on this idea since he created a green sappy tonality for the woods in Extreme for Women. It might be a distant echo of the genre of feminine mossy perfumes. The term "woody" is by the way subject to interpretation and is used not just for literal wood notes like cedar wood or sandal wood but also for patchouli or even violet or iris in certain cases. In Extreme, there is a violetnote, there are also "blackcurrant branches" in the heart, together with more classic cedar and sandalwood in the base......
Continue reading "•• Paul Smith Extreme for Women (2002) •• Fresh As Green Tomato, Dusky As L'Heure Bleue {Perfume Review}" »
 Voluspa has put out a collection of four fragrances that can be used both as room sprays and body sprays in a collection titled Mika Room and Body Spray (not listed on their site). It features Apricot Nectar, Tart Rhubarb, Thyme Flower, and Tunisian Blood Orange, which are also available as scented candles.
The line is carried by Anthropologie which commissioned the bottle design so that it be in tune with their universe straddling the worlds of grunge/shabby chic/Paris appartment/retro charm and more. The glass spray flacons are covered with a mono-colored baroque floral pattern and the cap is made of white ceramic; they actually look better in person than on the pictures they provide......
Continue reading "Voluspa Apricot Nectar in the Mika Room & Body Spray Collection (2008) {Perfume Review} {Perfumista on a Shoestring}" »
Cannabis Rose by Fresh is the latest fragrance by the originally Boston-based brand, which started out by selling triple-milled soaps from France. It is the second perfume by Fresh featuring a cannabis or Marijuana note; Cannabis Rose is seen as the feminine counterpart to Cannabis Santal. It was created by perfumer Jérôme Epinette (see also Isabel Derroisné Ilaya, Jovoy Poudré and Fougère ) in collaboration with Fresh founder Lev Glazman. Perfumes have not infrequently played with the lure of the forbidden adding taboo notes to their compositions like Champagne in Caron Bain de Champagne during the Prohibition period, Absinthe more recently as a remnant of 19th century Bohemian culture, and finally Cannabis in the Fresh perfumes. Their mention may waken us a bit from a blasé slumber as a multitude of new perfumes try to capture the public's attention - these notes or accords are unusual and at the same time familiar and titillating - or it may, less sensationally so, attract our attention to the possibility of an harmonious pairing of notes, rose and cannabis, which might produce an interesting perfume. Well nothing of anything described above really happens; Cannabis Rose is obviously not playing the card of the devil nor is it trying to be "interesting" and controversial. It is however a very pretty fragrance, even exquisite at times, like a cleaned-up rose chypre perfume whose earthy moss and rose would have been purified, made more transparent and aquatic by being macerated in a glass of Vodka, with just a "tear" as the French say, of (fantasy) white vanilla Kahlua.
Cannabis Rose: The Perfume The principal notes you notice at first are rose, patchouli, cannabis, vanilla, "oakmoss". Sephora classifies it as a mossy woody scent. It feels like a chypre with a re-worked or new-style earthy, forest-y base to suggest the chypre lineage as oakmoss has seen legal constraints put on its immoderate use. The chypre connection becomes even more palpable in the drydown as a succulent note of sweet ambery labdanum amplifies, which together with the patchouli and the rose conjures up Clinique Aromatics Elixir. What was at first a vague familiar sensation becomes thus readable in the end. It is a purer, whiter, vodka-like Aromatics Elixir.....
Continue reading "Fresh Cannabis Rose Gift Set (2008): Clean Rosey Dirt {Perfume Review} {Beauty Notes}" »
Zara is a Spanish fashion brand, famous for having made high fashion styles accessible to the demos. It was founded by Amancio Ortega Gaona, a notoriously reclusive personality, a fact that did not prevent him from becoming the richest man in Spain. Zara, in particular, is known for its exceptional turnover rate as new designs are brought into the stores in a matter of days and sold out or replaced equally swiftly, as need arises. The Zara boutiques usually receive new clothes twice a week. According to the Independent (May 23, 2001), "Zara has never conducted an advertising campaign. Word of mouth, and the rapidly changing clothes on offer, seem magnetic enough for customers to come flocking through the doors. The company owes its success to swiftly identifying stylish catwalk trends and bringing them to the high street at a fraction of the cost, within days."
Zara partnered with Puig in the past to introduce several fragrances starting with Zara Woman, Zara Man and four limited edition scents called Zara Textures in 1999. The fragrance line was originally set up by Carlos Benaïm and Alberto Morillas. The perfumes were created by Rosendo Mateu. In 2003 I Homme was launched. The brand this year released 6 new fragrances in the beginning of 2008, three for women and three for men: Rosa Bulgara, Flor de Azahar, Lirio de Agua, Sandalo, Vetiver, and Ambar, which are all part of a new line of perfumes called Agua Perfumada. The Perfumed Water line is also made by Puig. The spirit of the range is described as being "classical, minimalist, and elegant", according to Look 4 Fashion. Perhaps in keeping with the company's motto of proposing affordable versions of high-end patterns and materials, it is not surprising to notice that the packaging for the new perfumes resemble in shape and size the line of Les Exclusifs by Chanel......
Continue reading "Zara Rosa Bulgara with Notes on Flor de Azahar, Lirio de Agua (2008) {Perfume Review} {New Fragrances} {Rose Notebook}" »
As announced earlier, makeup guru Bobbi Brown has launched a new perfume called Almost Bare because she does not like obtrusive fragrances and prefers barely-there scents that remind her of smells rather than complicated luxurious fragrances. She explained why. I am sure she is not the only one. Almost Bare is a well-made, well-balanced clean white floral perfume that is pretty and subdued. It is no wall-flower though. Although a tad more perfume-y than you might expect at first, it keeps its promise of bringing up smell associations found in the real world...... This summer's bronzed pink look
Continue reading "Bobbi Brown Almost Bare (2008): Almost Real {Perfume Review}" »
Kenzo Vintage is a limited edition unisex fragrance launching this summer to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Kenzo Parfums as well as the arrival of designer Kenzo Takada on the Parisian scene in the Seventies. The perfume thus pays homage to the spirit of the "live-and-let-live" era with its psychedelic floral patterns as if seen under the influence of psychotropic mushrooms and reminds us of the message of peace that the decade wanted to deliver in the midst of the Vietnam war. The purple flacon sports the forked peace symbol drawn by Gerald Holtom in 1958 and made into a household name and symbol. Episodically, like in this summer of 2008, one witnesses the resurgence of a short hippie revival in fashion and the peace symbol is usually called upon to grace newly minted tee-shirts and accessories. This time, perfumes seem to follow a hippie trend as well with the celebration of the 40th anniversary of Mai 68 (see also Lubin).
A Revisit of Kenzo by Menardo The fragrance was created by perfumer Annick Menardo who has delivered a masterful, reserved composition relying on an original play on effect and texture rather than singled-out pretty notes. The composition conveys a sense of understated originality. The subtle character of the scent reminds us of the reported preference for lighter, more evanescent perfumes in the Asian market, which it seems to take into account as a Japanese brand. It fits in well also with the unisex branding of the scent...... Early Hippie Group, San Francisco by Irving Penn, 1967 - Hamiltons Gallery Note the interesting filiation with the dandy archetype on the right (the man in a cape)
Continue reading "Kenzo Vintage (2008) {Perfume Review}" »
Yves Rocher is going to introduce Neonatura Breath - Souffle in the US market this spring of 2008 after they launched it last year in France. Described as evoking "...the radiantly heated sensuality of a warm breeze caressing the sand" and as showcasing a "sunny jasmine" we expected it to be a light summery jasmine with maybe an iodine edge to call to mind the backwash of the sea. Created by perfumer Delphine Lebeau from Givaudan, it appears in fact to be an economically priced mass-market version of a popular category of perfumes, the luscious tropical white floral blended with coconut, a warm-sand accord, and some citrus to add sparkle and fizz. Therefore we think it fits well in our Perfumista on a Shoestring column (much neglected) because it can effectively replace scents such as Ensoleille-Moi by André Gas, or Deseo by Jennifer Lopez or Origins Shedonism Exotic Floral Essence..... 
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The Synergy That Is Opium
Since 1977, Opium by Yves Saint Laurent has managed to achieve iconic status both from the viewpoint of the perfume it is and the image it projects. For people who might feel skeptical about the importance accorded the outer shell of a fragrance, Opium is an eloquent example of that higher level of self-realization for a fragrance so well given meaning and definition by its container that no doubt remains as to the adequation of the bottle to the jus and the desirability and marking personality of the scent; this is a quality that both mainstream marketing professionals and perfumers aim at and which they refer to as "synergy". Some perfumers even explain that ideas finally gelled when they saw the flacon for the scent they were developing......
Continue reading "Yves Saint Laurent Opium Poésie de Chine (2008): Salty Iris & Caramelized Eel {Perfume Review}" »
 Lolita Lempicka like every self-respecting successful fragrance brand puts out limited editions as the occasion arises. This is our first experience with one of their flanker editions to the original Lolita Lempicka (1997), which was a re-take on Angel by Thierry Mugler (1992). Fleur Défendue was created by perfumer Annick Menardo who also composed the original Lolita Lempicka. The scent already outsold according to Sephora US, not to be brought back. It sounded rather dramatic and perhaps even tragic so soon after its launch when first announced as the composition sounded promising. Either we are not quite ready for this composition or they were not quite ready to launch. At any rate, it flew off the shelves. If you are pining for it, the only recourse apparently is to turn to Europe where it is still available. (Update: one of the 2 sizes is back in store).
Fleur Défendue (Forbidden Flower) opens on conventional soapy top notes and segues into something with a bit more definition (white ambergris and some generic crunchy green accents). It reminds us there and then vaguely of a dozen other scents, Tommy Hilfiger Dreaming among them, which recently epitomized for us a kind of generic Jane-Doe scent.....
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Guerlain Jasmin ca. 1928 Lalique glass from Ragoarts With the summer approaching, my nose has become, for some reason, curious of three notes in perfumery: jasmine for its solar opulence and at the other end of the light spectrum, anise and lavender for their pristine pale greenish and bluish coolness. There was a Jasmin by Guerlain introduced in 1928, four years after Jasmin de Siam (1924) which is also at times referred to as simply "Jasmin", so further clarification is needed to sort these two out. There was also a Jasmiralda in 1917 by the same house. All these jasmine perfumes came out when the house was led by head perfumer Jacques Guerlain (1874-1963). It was an era which resembled in some ways ours in that perfume launches were not hyper selective but rather fluid, following the fashions of the day, meant to bring a spark of seasonal excitement to the élégantes who were used to expecting the latest new scent, the perfume that was dernier cri. Has this practice ever drastically changed? One may wonder about this representation. Perhaps right after WWII and before the advent of mass travel and consumption, there was a perfumery that was de facto more rarefied and elitist for a relatively short period of time at the end of years of privation imposed by the war and immediate post-war restrictions. What has evolved surely is the growing shedding of casualness when presenting a brand new creation, but perhaps not so much the fashionable appeal of perfumes.
A testament to the practice of widely-accepted seasonal perfumery creations is the fact that many of the perfume bottles containing the new Guerlain fragrances were re-used as undifferentiated containers except for the names on the labels and colors of ribbons which facilitated a rapid turnover of new launches without the big fanfares we have become accustomed with, with apexes of spectacularly theatrical launches as those of Yves Saint Laurent Opium and Dior Poison in the 1980s. Having said that, one cannot but marvel at the variety of perfume flacons that Guerlain offered even if some were "recycled". Having experienced the undifferentiated Guerlain amphora flacons, it never felt like a lack of imagination on the part of the house but rather like a consolidation of its myth. Jasmin by Guerlain was offered in a packaging of its own despite the fact that the composition is rather modest and feels more like a seasonal scent than a full-fledged composition. But then again it corresponded to a taste for soliflores.....
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Guess by Marciano, as reported earlier, represents the brand's effort to offer a more sophisticated and upscale Guess perfume on the occasion of its 27th anniversary. Smelling the perfume having forgotten all promises, it is unexpected to discover the unfolding of a composition that should be going more firmly in the direction of one of those "pink" or "fruit-salad" fragrances for young women with their fruity-floral and milky tonalities, and see it in fact renew the genre by smelling deeply ambery. Instead of the light white musks and usual pinkish touches like rose, peony, and litchi, we discover a rolling-out of a more substantial and satisfying ingredient, ambergris, treated almost in an old-fashioned way, that is in an animalistic way. Distant references like Weil Zibeline and Jean Desprez Bal à Versailles pop up, only as if they had fallen into a vat of fruits and dulce de leche, in a good way.
The fragrance was created by perfumer Barbara Zoebelein of Drom Fragrances and developed by Parlux Fragrances, Inc. It could be seen as a milky woody oriental with a powdery overtone. Something of the spirit of Le Feu d'Issey can be detected here in the intensity of a lactic and spicy (cardamom) impression that feels grown-up rather than babyish. The vintage allusion found in the scent is reinforced by the fishnet motif on the flacon which precisely aims to reflect the spirit of a bygone era. Jasmine is showcased both on the bottle and in the scent.......
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Fruits and Fig in Particular in Fragrances Miller Harris Figue Amère (Bitter Fig) was launched in March of 2002 in the Nouvelle Edition Collection and joined the Ligne de Parfums in October of 2004. It is part of a modern soli-fruit group of fig-based fragrances that have proved popular and enduring to this day and were developed after Olivia Giacobetti came up with the original idea, paving the way with her L'Artisan Premier Figuier (1994) and Diptyque Phylosikos (1996). More generally speaking, perfumes that have showcased a slightly incongruous and conspicuous - at first - note of luscious ripe fruit like Guerlain Mitsouko (peach and prune) and Rochas Femme (prune and peach) or even the less mainstream Caron Acaciosa (pineapple) and Patou Colony (pineapple) could be seen to have helped shape wearers sensitivities to the welcome additions of notes subliminally suggesting a mythological golden age and the appeal of cornucopia thereby making fruits feel elegant, decorative as seen in paintings and Roman mosaics hinting at the abundance of the fruits of the earth rather than be perceived to be nibble-worthy. With time the showcasing of fruits in fragrances has become sometimes very realistic and the pineapple with peach in Yves Saint Laurent Yvresse has already become more 3-D......
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The two latest creations by Jo Malone, Lotus Blossom & Water Lily and Dark Amber & Ginger Lily, are both inspired by the diurnal and nocturnal rhythms of life as well as by the spiritual tradition of the East in their evocations of calm, unruffled waters and veils of mystical incense. The compositions are more complex than are usual for Jo Malone; here the simplicity that is usual to the line seems to have been translated into an aesthetic sense of purity and serenity resting on subtle and unusual aromas. Asian olfactory quotes are present helping the mind travel to distant exotic lands albeit without using the deeply sensual vehicle of the oriental perfume with Middle Eastern connotations. If Serge Lutens Arabie is a boisterous market in Istanbul replete with baskets of candied dry fruits bursting at the seams with honey and sap and half-stoned with ambient spices, Lotus Blossom & Water Lily is a transparent evocation of a dewy flower market in Bangkok at dawn as it fragrantly emerges from the obscurity of the night. Even in Dark Amber & Ginger Lily the heavier, more classically weighted-down oriental notes are made more spiritual thanks to airy notes of incense and the watery, cool-cucumber character of ginger lily. Suffice it to say that both perfumes succeed at making your mind more of a mental plane, similar to a clean slate on which letters or characters have not been chalked down yet. Although we were initially more taken with Lotus Blossom & Water Lily, the Dark Amber and Ginger Lily in the end is quite subjugating too if you let it produce its effect (a second layer of the same scent, applied later in the development seems optimal.) Both scents offer wonderful woody, incensey, and floral tonalities. We could not but propose to read a little poem by Dogen before wading in mind through the moonlit water, as both perfumes seem to offer a dreamy lunar quality,
"Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water.
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.
Although its light is wide and great,
The moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide.
The whole moon and the entire sky
Are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass."
Dogen.....
Continue reading "Jo Malone Lotus Blossom & Water Lily and Dark Amber & Ginger Lily - Kohdo Wood (2008) {Perfume Reviews}" »
The latest perfume by Eau d'Italie, Magnolia Romana, is a light, airy, elegant, polished magnolia composition in which both crisp green facets and ivory-like creamy accents unfold. A clean and sensual musk accord supported by transparent ozonic notes mimicking the scent of outdoorsy warm skin signals summertime and nude tanned arms kissed by sea spray and hot sand, not far from the shade of a Magnolia tree.....
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The latest Dolce & Gabbana The One for Men is said by Gabbana to be an all-man's perfume, "I wanted to create a real man's fragrance" and the designer according to WWD emphasized the word "uomo" in the conversation. The ad fronted by Matthew McConaughey in the role of a (fully-dressed for once) Latin-inspired masculine icon was photographed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino. A micro site was set up to promote the new cologne.
The One for Men is a warm, sweet and fruity tobacco perfume in the oriental genre. The brand describes it as "a spicy, oriental perfume developed on the harmony of tobacco with refined boisé notes". The flacon is meant to directly reflect the fashion sense of the brand as "the proportions of the bottle recall a tailor suit made by the fashion house" (see also Narciso Rodriguez for Him). Noteworthy points are the fact that the scent emphasizes the fruity tonality - less common a phenomenon for masculine fragrances than for feminine ones currently (see Calvin Klein Man) - and that you can find a well-developed quote in the heart from a famous discontinued Italian oriental classic.......
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The idea of combining the sober, cool, and darkish notes of laurel and licorice in a fresh summer eau sounded attractive and promised some interesting dissonance. The concretization of this vision however is sorrily missing in inspiration. It seems as though Figue-Iris, reviewed yesterday, got the better budget and greater amount of attention, while Laurier-Réglisse did not really have the time to bloom properly. If, as said previously, Figue-Iris is able to make a Mediterranean summer scenery come alive, one constantly pays attention to the inner workings of Laurier-Réglisse feeling like a plumber of sorts peeking into the guts of the fragrance because a problem is felt. It is perhaps inevitable that when a twin or grouped launch occurs, one scent will be less developed than the other(s), but let us hope for the best.
Laurier-Réglisse Laurier-Réglisse was composed by perfumer Marie Salamagne in collaboration with artistic director Sylvaine Delacourte. She already composed Mandarine-Basilic in the Aqua Allegoria line last year while Jean-Paul Guerlain was in charge of the creation of Angélique-Lilas. We have only cursorily smelled these, so we cannot draw a comparison. Salamagne also more recently created Kenzo Tokyo, Vivienne Westwood Let It Rock and Boudoir Sin Garden, Miss Sixty Elixir, Grès My Life......
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As each year, Guerlain releases a set of two Aqua Allegoria perfumes to usher in the summer. This collection of scents established in 1999 wishes to explore in a less formal setting materials and main accords - of two notes usually - while elaborating upon the idea of freshness by tapping each time into different tonalities, shades and meanings of the notion of freshness. Jean-Paul Guerlain who composed Figue-Iris this year has said that he is personally very much interested in this sensation as conveyed by perfumery. Laurier-Réglisse and Figue-Iris are the two new odes to pristine, more transparent impressions or their indirect suggestions in 2008. We will review Laurier-Réglisse separately. Figue-Iris While it is still spring now, smelling the new Figue-Iris made the days of summer suddenly magically appear out of thin air like images projected by an invisible movie projector with no silver screen in sight. If one can sometimes judge perfumes as art-for-art, at other times it is also relevant to evaluate them as wonderful successful magician's tricks, examples of the art of the illusionist or alternatively, little scintillating nuggets of fool's gold that make you believe in and crave for the reality suggested by the illusion. Figue-Iris creates an exquisite sense of longing for summer......
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Ed Hardy and Christian Audigier released a duo of signature perfumes this spring meant to convey the spirit of the vintage tattoo brand, which is young, with a mix of fusion sensibilities,
"...fusing the best elements of tattoo, hot rod, and cholo culture along with a tinge of his native French heritage. The brand is rock and roll with soul, California through and through." (see previous post)....
Ed Hardy for Men and Women came out in a seeming fanfare of arresting images and commercial promotions. Apparently, it is very efficacious because the perfumes are sold out in many places due to, among other things, a GWP in the form of a desirable white tattoo tote that is now already a collector's item on auction sites.
Scent-wise, of the two the masculine Ed Hardy feels more original, most noticeably in that part contained between the top and base notes, while the feminine version safely replays youth-perfume codes centering on the category of the milky fruity-floral, with a little added twist: the apple-soufflé accord.....
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Isabela Capeto is a Brazilian fashion designer who last year launched her debut signature fragrance, Isabela Capeto. The flacon in the shape of a toy-art logo-like red plastic doll oozes cuteness and hipness. It won a 2007 Worldstar prize for packaging. The perfume itself by Carmita Magalhaes from Mane is much less interesting than anticipated for a project that promised to be a creative one. The composition is reminiscent of a school of predecessors in the woody-spicy category of perfumes. In fact it elicits the general hard-to-grasp idea that the scent feels both familiar and niche, two terms that should never be uttered in the same breath nor in the same sentence in principle for those who live and breathe for niche-perfume discoveries. It creates a much more twisted and subtle effect than when a niche brand copies a mass-marketed perfume, say as in the case of Santa Maria Novella Angels of Florence copying Elizabeth Arden Fifth Avenue, which itself copied...we forget. In the latter case, it only reveals some commercial anxieties. In the first case, it has more of a perverse effect as it copies some of the hallmarks of the - according to common sense - more creative side of perfumery. Here is a good example of how "niche" can come to mean a phenomenon of stereotypical olfactory branding by integrating some signature effects such as "pared-down", "spice-overdose", "photo-realism", "back-from-an-olfactory-trek-from-which-I-brought-back-new-unknown-aromas, except here it is a local flower (Brazilian marshland lily)......
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 If the title of the perfume, White Jasmine and Mint by Jo Malone, seems to suggest an unusually fresh and airy rendition of jasmine thanks to the addition of mint, in reality the perfume surprises you with its slightly more complex dual character, which reveals a warm and rich creamy facet.
The perfume opens on a tapestry-like floral bouquet rather than offer any discernable singled-out note; it is delicately hemmed with mint (the “Jo Malone mint accord of wild mint and peppermint leaf”). The first moments offer variegated nuances: soapy, subtly animalistic, savory, creamy, green, woodsy, and perfume-y. In fact and in reference to the latter, the scent combines a fresh natural simple-girl spirit with a dash of sophistication. The scent sharpens a bit too much to my nose for a little while seeming to screech a bit, but next a mellower cardamom milky creamy sensation follows letting out lightly mentholated notes while further blending with a crushed green-foliage impression. A little savory-sweet nuance is unexpected and adds a discreet edible nuance to the blend......
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Unforgivable Black and Unforgivable Woman Black by Sean John are the two latest additions to the Sean John perfume portfolio. His debut scent was Unforgivable for Men in 2006 which was a commercial success earning the brand $150 million globally. Last year Sean Diddy Combs also designed a women's version of Unforgivable, which he noted had nothing to do with the original men's version except for a subtle "synergy note" of bergamot as he wanted the feminine scent to stand on its own. He told Women's Wear Daily,
"I didn't want to take the easy way out as far as just making a feminine version of the men's. Women and men are totally different. I like a woman to smell like a woman, and a man to smell like a man."
After everyone has had time to take in this statement and digest it, we can point out that this time the Black duo takes the synergy route that was rejected the first time around. The two perfumes are very much two birds of the same feather but this time they seem to belong to one of those species of birds where the male's plumage is more colorful than the female's one due to male active sexual competition over female mates......
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Here are some suggestions for wearing spring fragrances, in several installments. Today, I turn to the "effortlessly chic" category. By that I mean that as lighter, fresher perfumes these perfumes tend to dress down a bit but not overly so. They retain an air of elegance and sophistication about them mixed with a dose of studied nonchalance and casualness.
Why should some perfumes be considered to be particularly appropriate for spring time? Their vernal quality is suggested by their rich, yet still frail floral notes, their freshness, and their luminosity bespeaking of the spring equinox and daylight-saving time.
Green notes that are just a bit crunchy also contribute to this feeling of smelling half-open buds. These scents to me offer transparent, airy, cool nuances rather than ripe, decaying ones. When brainstorming about the topic, I had to realize that the house of Guerlain had been particularly committed to offering interpretations of springtime perfumes. Nina Ricci too, although only one of their scents is mentioned.
1- Diorissimo No list about perfume classics embodying the yearning for spring would be complete without Diorissimo by Dior. Composed by master-perfumer Edmond Roudnitska in 1956 it remains a central reference as the lily-of-the-valley fragrance as it has come to embody the very spirit of spring for generations of wearers. The scent of Diorissimo is like drinking muguet-scented champagne on the pristine empty streets of a clean and empty Paris in the wee hours of the morning listening to the distant sound of party laughters. You feel like you own the city of lights and spring, both. It too should have been called Joy......
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Maria Casares in Robert Bresson Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne - Vol de Nuit evasion hints at the retro glamor of Parisian ladies wearing oakmoss-laden perfumes
Vol de Nuit Evasion starts with a fairly pungent animalic powdery aldehydic and fruity overture that smells promising. As it develops it becomes slightly sharper and reminiscent also of 31 Rue Cambon by Chanel with its sweetish spicy amber-y body softened by iris, as well as of Chanel no. 18 with its strong emphasis on the fruity tipsy note of Ambrette Seed. The scent further mimics the acrid smell of sweat as it evolves with a woody undertone of oakmoss and slightly marine extravagance of ambergris. At this point one thinks that Vol de Nuit Evasion is an exercise in recapturing the borderline offensive sexual charm of the Parisienne of olden days.....
Vol de Nuit Evasion might have felt a bit thin for an elegant Parisian at the turn of the 20th century used to wearing richer Guerlains, but it might just work out for today's Guerlain woman.
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First, the news. Estee Lauder, which is one of the best companies at doing both business and keeping in mind the public good, have decided to continue producing a replacement for the beloved - no strike that - the wildly popular Tom Ford Azurée Soleil. As the Tom Ford contract with Estee Lauder expired recently, this was the best move to undertake for legions of fans of the summery oil and skinscent. The new version is called Bronze Goddess after a pre-existing makeup line of the brand. How does it compare to the previous two summer Tom Ford editions? Very well....
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With its new perfume Dreaming, Tommy Hilfiger is hoping to reach a slightly more mature cohort of women aged 18-35 than with the Tommy fragrances and colognes, which were aimed more at teenagers. The brand also wishes to offer a more sophisticated image by harking back to old Hollywood and enlisting super model Mona Johansson glamed up as Marilyn Monroe. The new project is at its most creative in its marketing approach to enticing consumers. A special interactive website for the US and Italy has been set up, Dreaming About You, which demonstrates once more the interest in and development of online interactive marketing but going a step further fully explores the dreaming thematic by enlisting a dream specialist, Craig Webb, and opening a dream board called "Dream Confessions" where one can pen down and have one’s dreams interpreted. According to the press release, three dreams a week will be picked and interpreted by the expert. However "For visitors whose dreams are too personal to share with the world, they will be able to use the automated dream interpreter. A special feature in this section, which will also be available on March 17th, allows visitors to receive automated dream interpretations via keywords they submit regarding their dreams, as well as forward their dream interpretation to a friend." The pure parfum version of a Tommy Hilfiger fragrance is also a first for the brand and only that concentration comes with a book that enables you to decipher your dreams.
Hilfiger went as far as commissioning a study on dreams amongst the US population to Harris Interactive. The results offered are short of complex and reflect a surprisingly simplistic consumerist and materialist bent only mitigated by an altruistic orientation. According to this survey,....
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As previously announced, Ralph Lauren added a new scent to their franchise towards the very end of 2007 with Ralph Wild. The image of the scent is young, hippyish, and revivalist 1970s. The perfume itself is uncomplicated but not too schematic. It is like a teen, laid-back, and Americanized (linear, fresh, unfussy) version of Miss Dior Chérie.
The perfume is a thick, nectar-like fruity-floral, which balances out well the sweet and tart facets of strawberry avoiding the common pitfall of bland candied notes. Its nectar-like texture evokes the feeling of a potion and the potential transfigurative powers of such scents; it is always interesting to observe how a "thick" jammy scent will evolve on the skin as it cannot remain as concentrated as in the bottle.
If you like fresh strawberry jam and always fantasized about being able to replicate its smell on skin, this is as good as it gets. It smells like a jar of Bonne Maman strawberry jam. It is both yummy and sexy.....
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 A Garden By The Beach & The American Dream
In the often decried world of celebrity fragrances, Jennifer Lopez has managed to be both a 21st century trend-setter and standard-bearer of good quality mass-marketed perfumes that aim to please without being condescending to the masses. Balance, prettiness, even beauty, and quality ingredients can be expected from her brand. Deseo continues to keep these values active.
Deseo in terms of semiotics or image is a significant departure from the rest of the Jennifer Lopez franchise as its packaging is unique to the brand, seems to break loose with the amphora-inspired flacons, and the name, for the first time, pays homage to JLo's Hispanic heritage. The bottle was designed by JLo herself together with the Coty Prestige team. Deseo means "desire, wish, dream" or "I desire". From the name to the shape of the flacon, Deseo positions itself as an aspirational perfume. While it is more usual to see aspirational fragrances for the individual, Deseo is clearly an aspirational perfume designed for a whole community, the Hispanic one, with possible identification for the rest of the potential customers through representations of social mobility, general experience of immigration, or the luster associated with celebrity glamour....
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Cabaret by Grès was launched in 2002 but did not have the impact it deserved and rather quickly joined the ranks of discounted perfumes. Why did this happen? Instead of being a fragrance much cared about, it is one that one can call "underrated". Without having studied this case, one can assume that a relatively modest budget launch, the fact that it was a chypre creation when chypres were not yet on the rebound, and its mature, distinguished, elegant, somewhat austere, and refined personality all have contributed to some extent to its lack of broad popular appeal.
The advert did read "Cherchez la femme" (look for the woman) and apparently it landed in a market crowded with girls.
The perfume was composed by Michel Almairac. It is a beautifully balanced classic chypre and in it the rose note is never opulent but rather transparent, sparkling, and dry, fusing together with the near-austere spirit of chypre instead of affirming her floralcy. The rose here tinges the perfume and is very delicate making you think of a dry sparkling rosé wine without any literal boozy connotations....
3 iconic cabaret women characters. In the perfume "Cabaret" the cabaret fantasy remains internalized. We have to note that when we think of Lisa Minnelli's character wearing this perfume, the patchouli facet becomes more aggressive and comes to the fore. When we think of the Blue Angel, the perfume becomes rosier. And when we see Satine wearing it, it becomes more powdery. (Images: IMDB)
Continue reading "Grès Cabaret (2002) : An Elegant Rosé Chypre {Perfume Review} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day - Day 27}" »
The 1996 ad for Aimez-Moi "Love Me - this is just the name of my perfume" from Couleur de Parfum Aimez-Moi by Caron, created by perfumer Dominique Ropion, was first introduced in 1996 and relaunched later in a different packaging (the peppercorn one). It is reported to be a modern adaptation of N'Aimez Que Moi also by the same house, a rose (and sandalwood) perfume that was created in 1917 to coincide with the beginning of World War I and the then felt need to release a memento perfume, one that would be offered as a sign of sworn faithfulness between lovers on the eve of a fateful separation for many. In fact, linking emotions released by perfume with the alleviation of war suffering was an idea that was pursued by Guerlain as well with L’Heure Bleue at around the same time. It was at one point dispatched to soldiers on the front to scent their handkerchiefs and remind them of home and civilization in the midst of barbarity. Who ever said that perfume was superficial and for laughs? It epitomizes civilization, the good and the beautiful even and especially when hope is nearly lost. If the 1918 perfume said in English “Love Only Me”, 78 years later, the message is less dramatic, just intimating a quieter but no less self-assured, “Love Me”......
Continue reading "Caron Aimez-Moi (1996): Buried Roses: Rose & Violet {Perfume Review} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 26} " »
Estee Lauder have released a new bottle packaging for their classic fragrance Youth-Dew released in 1953. They re-edited the bathroom tile blue flacon of the 1950s according to the Estee Lauder website. Advertisings from that era show that actually, the small-waisted bottle was also commercialized in the late 1950s some time after the initial introduction of Youth-Dew as a bath oil and beauty product......
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Jo Malone Red Roses is like a fastidious gardener’s dream of a red rose scent. It is the second red-rose composition included in this series after Comme de Garçons Red Series: Rose. Of the two it is the less apparently stylized and the more natural-smelling one. If Comme des Garçons Red Rose appeared to be a hyper-realistic rose in the sense of conveying the impression of being intellectually constructed and painted with progressive, economical little touches, Jo Malone Red Roses just feels as if you had crushed crimson rose petals on your skin in an attempt to release and retain their scent.
The scent evokes the sensation of smelling ripe red roses in a dewy garden in the early hours of the morning. The flowers are fragrant, subtly spicy, crisp and heady as when one is struck by the natural richness of a cut flower scent rather than the headiness of a perfume. The accent here has been put on freshness thanks to the balancing out of the floral, fruity, and metallic nuances of red roses by green sappy ones. The perfume is included in the family of light green florals by the brand and like their other perfumes offers a clean signature......
Continue reading "Jo Malone Red Roses (1996) {Perfume Review} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day - Day 23}" »
A 1954 ad for "La Rose de Rochas"
This review ought perhaps to go under the heading of "antiquing" as we have only sparse information available at this point on this relatively little known fragrance by Marcel Rochas called Eau de Jeunesse La Rose (Youth Water, The Rose, in that order). It was a find and we decided to include it in our Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge Series.
What we know is that La Rose was created by perfumer-composer Edmond Roudnitska and launched in 1949, the same year Caron released Or et Noir and Rose. The perfumer himself recounts in a 1993 interview published on the site Art et Parfum owned by his son Michel Roudnitska, who is also a perfumer, that it was then the pretext to - we can imagine at least - a lavish launch party that took place at the rose garden of L'Hay-Les-Roses, near Paris. This rose garden was bought in 1894 by Jules Gravereaux and landscaped in 1899 by Edouard André. They claim that it was the first rose garden ever to see the light of day in the Western world, but this is somewhat of an exaggerated claim as Joséphine de Beauharnais is known to have helped found a roseraie or rose garden at the Jardin des Plants in 1805 and was herself the founder of an important rose conservatory at Malmaison. Rose gardens have existed since times ancient. L'Hay-Les-Roses is more prudently characterized sometimes as the first modern rose garden. A view of the rose or greenery theater In 1905, a Théâtre de la Rose or Theater of the Rose was added to the garden that allowed for performances to take place, which contributed to the popularity of this elegant site during the Belle Epoque. The Rose Theater no longer stands as it was demolished in 1970. Edmond Roudnitska recounts that the launch party was accompanied by a music by Henri Sauguet. The bottle is the trademark voluptuous feminine form reported to replicate Mae West's curves. The cap of our bottle appears to be an early plastic, maybe bakelite, with the words Marcel Rochas Paris forming a circle on a pink painted background. The cap is black. The outer packaging was at some point made of a minimalist pink cardboard and at another featured the Rochas lace on a pink background....
Rose garden of L'Hay-Les-Roses today
Continue reading "Rochas La Rose Eau de Jeunesse (1949) {Perfume Review} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 22}" »
Tocca offers a line of more sophisticated scented detergents mirroring their collection of perfumes that is called Laundry Delicate. They are meant to be used for your lingerie, hosiery, cashmeres,... anything delicate really. Florence in particular rests on an accord of rose and orris root.
According to the press fact sheet, it is about, "The sophisticated essence of the old European Garden rose known as Centifolias combined with iris root anchoring the scent." ......
Continue reading "Tocca Laundry Delicate Florence, Orris Rose Fine Fabric Wash {Perfume Review} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 21}" »
L'Or (Gold) by Torrente was released in 2001. It was created by perfumer Jean Jacques for Torrente, a French fashion house that was established in 1969 by Rose Met-Torrente, one of the few women that managed to be at the helm of a couture house. She is also known as Rose or Rosette Lapidus-Met (she is the sister of fashion designer Ted Lapidus). She retired in 2003 after selling her fashion house, and wrote a book of memoirs entitled Le Droit Fil (2005). When L'Or came out in the US in 2002, it was described as being a "nontraditional floral" and a "unique scent" that was expected to "do very well in the U.S. market" (WWD, June 7, 2002). Six years later, one could legitimately wonder at the possibility of retrieving a hidden gem from the discounters. The bottle is conventionally gorgeous; it was created by Herve Van Der Straeten and was clearly seen as a selling point by the brand. The perfume boasts a coffee and rose accord, an intriguing combination that made it worth seeking out for the rose-challenge series. The rose note is either described as being " rose absolute", "rose essence", or "rosebuds"......
Continue reading "Torrente L'Or (2001): Coffee & Roses? {Perfume Review} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day - Day 19}" »
If there is a rose perfume that embodies the spirit of Valentine's Day in a typical Hallmark-card way that screams "It's Love Day!", that would be 100 % Love by S-Perfume.The style of this rose perfume evokes the glaring obviousness of pop art after the fact; it is like a representation of love made accessible to all - almost cartoonish - and made iconic at the same time by selecting characteristic images of mass culture: the rose, the chocolate, and the good feelings....
Continue reading "S-Perfume 100 % Love (2003, 05, & 07), 100 % Love (More) {Perfume Review} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 18}" »
Rose Kashmirie is the latest Les Parfums de Rosine and as its name indicates, it is inspired by an Oriental theme and the spices of India in particular. The composition is based on a discreetly spicy saffron and rose accord enhanced by green nuances and voluptuously folded into rich ambergris and vanilla. It is a warm oriental rose with fresh notes peeking through discreetly, evocative of both a rose garden in the spring, and wintry snow. The style can be characterized as that of a classical perfume with an updated feel.
The rose is the specialty of Les Parfums de Rosine; it is a flower fascinating to perfumers as it can reveal a number of facets for an aroma that is naturally composed of over 300 fragrant molecules; not all of them have been reproduced but more and more are. Here the rose was made precious, coquettish, like the rouged cheeks of a belle marquise on her face made up with blanc de céruse. But also natural like the vision of a rose orchard. The freshness of the rose is enveloped by a cashmere-like impression as soft as a white shawl...... Saffron flower in the fall with its three filaments of spice
Continue reading "Les Parfums de Rosine Rose Kashmirie - A Wintry Rose {Perfume Review} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 17}" »
Amor Pour Homme by Cacharel was composed by perfumer Sophie Labbé together with Pierre Wargnye in 2006. Thanks to 22 Perfumers in Creation by Clara Molloy, we learn that just like for her other fragrances, the perfumer used a code name to inspire her efforts and in this case it was "Men's rose", in English, that she repeated to herself from time to time to keep her eyes on the prize. Labbé also further explains that when the idea came to her (date unspecified), it was difficult to impose this concept of a floral for men, which literally obsessed her, but that after Dior Pour Homme, which was released in 2005, this concept of a paradoxical fragrance for men based on a flower - a note commonly perceived as being feminine in Western perfumery culture - became much more established. We have to understand that this remark applies essentially to the mainstream market. Thus in 2005, there was an iris for men, in 2006 a rose for men, and in 2007, an orange blossom for men with Fleur du Mâle by Jean-Paul Gaultier.......
Continue reading "Cacharel Amor Pour Homme (2006) "Men's Rose" {Perfume Review} {Men's Cologne} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 13}" »
Dr. Hunter's Rosewater & Glycerine Hand Creme by Caswell-Massey - one of the oldest American brands founded by Dr. William Hunter in 1752 in Newport, Rhode Island - smells like the roses cultivated by our grand-mothers in their gardens, in the best sense possible of this representation. The scent of the cream is delicate, fresh, very realistic and refined enough to evoke the fruitiness of Nahema by Guerlain; in short, it is an impressively scented hand cream. So much so that more than a good hand cream it can double up as a fragrance cream as the perfume feels intense enough to fulfill this purpose. We noticed that it is best to apply this cream like one would a mask rather than a cream that would need to be rubbed in. The rose perfume just smells much better when left alone as much can be......
Continue reading "Caswell-Massey Dr. Hunter's Rosewater & Glycerine Hand Creme {Perfume Review} {Beauty Notes} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 12}" »
Sa Majesté La Rose (Her Majesty The Rose) by Serge Lutens is a soliflore composition centering on Moroccan rose absolute. The perfume showcases to a certain extent the brutality and rawness of rose absolute, making it only relatively tamer and more civilized, but without attempting to hide or tone down its rough-diamond aspect. It is an ode to the triumphant nature of the raw material and to an all-engulfing central presence. Apart from rose amateurs, people who like metallic perfumes and a certain measure of natural aggressiveness in their scents may turn their attention to this prima donna of a rose perfume. Once she enters the room, it is as if she expected all glances to converge towards her....
Continue reading "Serge Lutens Sa Majesté La Rose (2000): If Ivan The Terrible Were A Rose {Perfume Review} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 11}" »
Rose Ispahan by Yves Rocher offers a filiation with Yves Rocher Ispahan in as much as it seems to belong to the same soft-oriental family. Little information is forthcoming however as the scent is discontinued. The Rose of Ispahan or Isfahan is a varietal of rose also called Pompon des Princes.
Rose Ispahan, it turns out, is indeed a pompon-y perfume, evocative of the very texture of the rose after which it was named. Imagine a downy comforter metaphorically filled with rose petals instead of goose down, vanilla beans, and amber, maybe some yellow peaches.....
Continue reading "Yves Rocher Rose Ispahan {Perfume Review In A Nutshell} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 10}" »
 After the hit that was Ombre Rose launched in 1981, milliner Jean-Charles Brosseau continued to issue feminine perfumes that were linked to the original Ombre Rose by an olfactory floral theme and the metaphor of the shade in the series entitled Fleurs D'Ombre (Flowers of the Shade or Shadow). The poetic title is an indirect reference to the Proustian title A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs and the central role that perfume plays to conjure up a lost world, a magical operation described in the most minute details by Marcel Proust. The phrase goes well with the romantic slightly nostalgic style of the perfumes, the vintage flacon reproduced from an antique mold and it is a reference also to the impression of cool shade that is incorporated in the fragrances in the series......
Continue reading "Jean-Charles Brosseau Fleurs D'Ombre: Rose (2006) {Perfume Review} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 9}" »
Emporio Armani Diamonds is yet another example of one of the most popular feminine perfume note accords that were last year: the rose-amber-patchouli accord. You might have come across it in the major launches of Dior Midnight Poison, Gucci by Gucci, and Yves Saint Laurent Elle, which capitalized on it. Of the scents found in the series alluded to above, Diamonds is the least sophisticated one as it aims a younger age group or at least, seems to. It is a rose perfume updated to meet contemporary mainstream taste; it took a detour to the candy factory and was made to adhere to a pink-coded girlish ethos despite the fact that the juice is colored white. If you smell it, you will see that in fact it is a pink juice. One can read in the copy from Sephora, This surprising and decadent fragrance is based on the traditional symbol of femininity, the rose, but is twisted with luscious, edible notes to create a truly desirable combination. We will not linger here on the celebrity context for the scent. You can find more details about Beyoncé Knowles fronting the ad campaign in our previous post......
Continue reading "Emporio Armani Diamonds (2007): A Girly Party Rose {Perfume Review} {Celebrity Fragrance} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 8}" »
Voleur de Roses (lit. Rose Thief or "Stolen Rose" per L'Artisan's translation) was created by perfumer Michel Almairac in 1993 for L'Artisan Parfumeur. In the recently published 22 parfumeurs en création by Clara Molloy, the book opens on his interview, one of the most interesting, humane ones in it, and the one leaving one of the more lasting impressions despite the fact that you read it before all the others, as they are organized alphabetically. What makes him stand apart from the rest of the perfumers is that he reveals somewhat of an unexpected rebel's personality, not easily satisfied with his corporate lot. He acknowledges the fact that he stands firmly on the side of the raw materials themselves rather than the concepts presiding over them. This position is commonly seen to be that of the Grassois school of perfumery, which is perhaps usually less publicly articulate about its preferences than the more intellectualist one working with ideas or stories as points of departure. Hence, a sense of difference that is more marked in the current media context. Last but not least, he is the only one who confesses publicly and candidly to having been "hurt by a perfume", Minotaure by Paloma Picasso, which was not successful commercially, for reasons that are hard to decipher. His creations are wonderful and we can particularly call attention to Gucci Pour Homme, Burberry London/Classic, Rush, and Saks For Her. He himself says that of his own perfumes two that he can say he "adores" are Burberry London/Classic and Rush. He likes Casmir a lot and he likes Zino by Davidoff.......
Continue reading "L'Artisan Parfumeur Voleur de Roses (1993): An Earthy Masculine Rose {Perfume Review} {Men's Cologne} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 7}" »
Aroma M is a small New York-based perfume house which was founded in 1995 by two artists, Maria McElroy and husband and partner Shinya Yokota. The aesthetics of the house reflect their common love of the Orient and the visual arts. Their mission as they declare it themselves is to "interpret and update the Geisha sensibility and the subtleties of Japanese incense for contemporary fragrance connoisseurs." After Japan they announce that Turkey and the Ottoman period will be their next creative influences. Amongst Aroma M's characterizing features is a great attention to the outer shell of the perfume, especially as it pertains to the all-important ritual and art of gift-giving in Japanese culture. Refined Yuzen papers and Shibori textiles, vintage ones, are used to accompany and intensify the pleasure of perfume-wearing seen as an aesthetic gesture demanding a visual preparation and heightened sense of anticipation.....
Continue reading "Aroma M Geisha Nobara-Cha (1997): A Spicy, Contemplative Rose {Perfume Review} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 6}" »
Rose Divine was launched by Isabel Derroisné in the summer of 2006. Its perfumer is Céline Ellena, the daughter of Jean-Claude Ellena. She is known for fragrances created under the label of The Different Company, a niche perfume house where she succeeded her father after he was recruited to be the in-house perfumer of Hermès. She has already proposed Sel de Vétiver, Jasmin de Nuit, and a trio of scents inspired by gardens. Rose Divine represents thus an incursion outside of her familial territory and an opportunity for her to work on a perfume that will reach a different public, a slightly more commercial one. Being herself from the Grasse region, she would have been familiarized from an early age with the scent of the Rosa Centifolia whose absolute is used in this perfume in generous proportions, 1 %.
Rose Divine will have to dispute the honor with Thierry Mugler Rose Angel of being considered the first gourmand rose perfume ever created as Pierre Aulas, the olfactive artistic of Thierry Mugler, claims that Rose Angel, composed by Olivier Cresp, is the first gourmand rose scent ever to have seen the light of day. Both creations came out in 2006. Interestingly, each of these scents illustrate a similar category with one of the two roses used in perfumery, Rosa Centifolia for Rose Divine and Bulgarian rose for Rose Angel.....
Continue reading "Isabel Derroisné Rose Divine (2006): A Gourmand Rose Au Naturel {Perfume Review} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 3}" »
Hammam Bouquet by Penhaligon's is a beautiful intense rose perfume for men, which offers a primitivist charm mainly due to the sheer energy unleashed by the otto of rose used in the scent, while being undeniably elegant at the same time. As the rose blooms and then lightens, freshening with the lavender and some other aromatic herbs, the composition starts feeling like an unusual rose fougère. The perfume retains a somewhat ancient exotic-in-time cachet; it was, in 1872, the first fragrance created by the founder of Penhaligon's (Est. 1870), William Henry Penhaligon, a barber to the chic London establishment who debuted his career by working in the fashionable Turkish Baths in Jermyn Street after which the scent is named. Another story that circulates is that it was created for or inspired by a Turkish sultan. The scent is said to have been inspired by the characteristic smells of "sweat and sulphur of the Hammam". It remained W.H. Penhaligon's favorite. Hammam Bouquet was more recently re-released in 2003 as the masculine counterpart to a then newly launched feminine perfume, Malabah...... The Turkish baths on Jermyn Street in St James, 1862, at the time when W.H. Penhaligon was working there, Illustrated London News.
Continue reading "Penhaligon's Hammam Bouquet (1872): The Gentleman With A Rose {Perfume Review} {Historical Fragrance} {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 2}" »
Spiritueuse Double Vanille, a limited edition by Guerlain, is a dark, liquorishe-y vanilla that has been rendered more animalistic thanks to a significant dose of cedar wood. Anyone who has walked on a street in a Northern America city where chips of cedar wood are abundantly used to fertilize the soil of gardens can remember how cedar wood smells after the rain; it smells like the sudden presence of a wild beast who would have escaped from the city zoo and is hiding behind the bushes, except it is just the exacerbated aroma of damp cedar wood. Spiritueuse Double Vanille thus oscillates between gentle sweetness and a more feral quality, sometimes understated, sometimes more overtly erotic. At this point of the perception, a quote by Jean-Paul Guerlain regarding the properties of vanilla starts making more concrete sense: "If a colour or fragrance were to be associated with each day, like the planets were in ancient times, sandalwood would be the Sun, saffron would be Jupiter, and without doubt vanilla would be Venus." Working with this intuition of a deeper erotic quality ascribed to vanilla -- more commonly seen as a comforting gourmand ingredient -- the perfumer has pushed some notes to the point where they feel leather-like or skin-like, as the woodsy notes of cedar start morphing into nuances of raw leather, sweat and even indoles......
Continue reading "Guerlain Spiritueuse Double Vanille (2007): Divine Vanilla {Perfume Review}" »
 Rose is part of the Red Series by Comme des Garçons and was composed by perfumers Yann Vasnier and Françoise Caron. For those who are interested in the subtleties of authorship in perfumery, one can read about Françoise Caron declaring in the recently published book comprising 22 perfumers' interviews edited by Clara Molloy, 22 parfumeurs en création, (also available in English) that Yann Vasnier could have created Rose without her and that she just "guaranteed for it", a little bit like it used to be in a Renaissance painter's workshop. Being part of the Red Series in a creative-to-experimental line like Comme Des Garçons means that, Rose is not just about the scent of a rose but a systematic study on how to translate the red tonalities of a natural aroma so that our olfactory representation of a rose -- that indeed reveals itself to be red -- is different from a pink, yellow, or blue rose (one can dream). In this sense, Rose does not hold any surprise or drama; its name does not disguise any more complex bouquet of sensations. Even more remarkable a trait is that the perfume succeeds in creating the representation of a soliflore that is a literal soliflore, suggesting to the perfume wearer the vision of a unique stem of rose abstractly pinned to the air. If it smells red, it is because the illusion of the rose scent never feels disconnected from the color we naturally associate with it. The rose smells of red thanks to it offering lower tonalities, a certain ripeness, fruitiness, and the right degree of sweetness with an undercurrent of ruby red wine coloring the sensation...... 
Continue reading "Comme Des Garçons Red Series: Rose (2001): A Hyper-Realistic Rose {Perfume Review} - {Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 1}" »
In 2006 Guerlain added Mayotte to its collection of re-editions called Les Parisiennes. It was made immediately clear that it was a re-bottling of the failed Mahora issued in 2000 -- an Eau de Toilette version had also been issued in 2001 -- in an attempt to propose anew this tropical, not-so-Parisian scent. (The original name was not kept due to legal reasons and the fact that it had not been officially registered.) In fact, Mayotte is arguably the most American-smelling of the perfumes created by the venerable French house thanks to its all-out tropical white-flower personality put together with its linear character.
Some questions arose on this blog as to whether it was exactly the same fragrance or a different composition claiming a link to Mahora. For US-based customers who can easily access numerous online discounters, it is an especially pertinent question to ask as the prices for Mayotte and Mahora differ vastly. The first one is 140 €, the second one can be had for cheap.......
Continue reading "Guerlain Mayotte (2006) & Mahora EDT (2001) {Perfume Review in a Nutshell}" »
 Following Velvet Tuberose, Bath & Body Works have just released a new perfume in their Signature Collection called Chocolate Amber, which is presented as "A sophisticated and more complex version of Chocolate Amber™ than the more casual Body Splash."........
Continue reading "Chocolate Amber by Bath & Body Works (2007) {New Fragrance} {Perfume Review in a Nutshell}" »
Truly bad-smelling perfumes are a rarity. Atrocious-smelling ones even rarer. One finds many mediocre perfumes, simplistic ones, decent ones, and as Jean-Paul Guerlain remarked once, there are so many good perfumes in the world!
The two new releases by Molinard this year - admittedly in a low-priced line but it is no justification for even bothering to bottle such caricatures - Chypre d'Orient and Pêche de Vigne are positively and without ambiguity, the worst perfumes we have smelled so far this year. Molinard repackaged their perfumes into new art deco bottles, dressing them up in other words, but it seems that their efforts have concentrated on external appearance rather than on the scents themselves. The bottles are just OK and the juices are frankly absurd......
Continue reading "Chypre d'Orient, Pêche de Vigne by Molinard (2007) {Perfume Short (Reviews)}" »
Tocca released a new limited edition scented candle for the Holiday Season called Holiday Cortina Mimosa Candela. Unlike the name of the scent itself seems to suggest but better illustrated by the Champagne glasses decorating the glass container, the perfume has been studied to feel festive as it includes a Champagne top note.......
Continue reading "Tocca Holiday Mimosa Candle {Perfume Short (Review)} {Holiday Shopping Idea - $50 or Less] {New Fragrance}" »
Tsi-La Organics have put out a collection of 4 fragrances comprising Kesu, Ilang Ilang, Kizes and Fleur Sauvage in a set including 4 ml flacons. After having tested several of their offerings we can say that the scents are consistently very rich, narcotic, and on top of that very relaxing!.....
Continue reading "Tsi-La Organics Collection {Perfume Reviews in a Nutshell} {Holiday Shopping Ideas - $75 or Less} {Green Products}" »
John Varvatos by John Varvatos was launched in 2003-2004 and created by perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux (Clinique Happy, Donna Karan Black Cashmere, Hilary Duff With Love, Bagdley Mishka Fleurs de Nuit....). This was the debut fragrance by the men's fashion brand and was followed in 2006 by John Varvatos Vintage by the same nose. John Varvatos is described as a woody oriental and reportedly includes notes that, at the time, had never been used in a man's scent such as Tamarind tree leaves, medjool dates, eaglewood "including Auramber, a secret potion exclusive to Quest". The scent is remarkable for the restrained intensity it offers, its palpable masculine character, and the showcasing of dark, resinous, and peaty notes reminiscent of Islay whiskeys. Its character remains classic, even traditionalist, with a hint of seductive wildness and an erotic appeal.........
Continue reading "John Varvatos by John Varvatos (2004): Scent of a Man {Perfume Short (Review)} {Men's Cologne}" »
Esteban advert in Elle Déco Dec 2007
While doing research on a different perfume, we happened on an advert for Tonka by Esteban in their collection focusing on les Matières (Raw Materials), which is a rather rare occurrence in the world of niche perfume brands. Last year Serge Lutens released a stylish poster for Rousse but it is still unusual to lay eyes on a niche fragrance advert. The reason for this extra publicity effort is that, as we learned, Tonka won the "Oscar" for best unisex perfume of 2007 as determined by Cosmétique Magazine, a leading trade magazine in France. Coincidentally, just before that we had bought the scent at long last based on our memory of it. It was fairly easy to conjure up its exceptionally smooth texture, round body, and luminous comforting personality. With the lights starting to twinkle on early Christmas trees and bedecked main streets, these fireflies reminded us of the gentle glow of the perfume and created a craving for the intoxicating scent of tonka bean which is, to put it simply, like a more vegetal, almost watery vanilla for some of its facets, yet also smoky, leathery, and savory with hints of coconut and hay. We remembered that the Esteban rendition was probably one of the least perfume-y ones and offered a nice one-note aspect......
Tonka eau de parfum
Continue reading "Tonka by Esteban {Perfume Short (Review)}" »
Each year Dawn Spencer Hurwitz releases a special limited edition fragrance for the Holidays with a more definite festive and Christmas-y flavor. This year the theme of inspiration is derived from exotic dark fruits and spices incorporated into an unusual, both spicy and gentle brew called Tamarind Paprika in her upscale collection titled Parfums des Beaux-Arts. Spencer Hurwitz is an independent artisan perfumer based in Boulder, Colorado whose creations are noteworthy for their consistently high quality and variety of sources of inspiration ranging from "études" on a perfume material to the olfactory renditions of colors and even historical reconstitutions. Her most recent endeavor, about which we would like to talk more at a later date titled "The Perfumed Court", after the nickname given to the court of Louis XV, is a recreation of 18th century perfumes based on the biography of perfumer Jean-Paul Fargeon and his royal patron queen Marie-Antoinette written by Elisabeth de Feydeau, A Scented Palace and which we reviewed last year.........
Continue reading "Tamarind Paprika Limited Holiday Edition 2007 by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz {Perfume Short (Review)} {New Fragrance} + Promo Code {Shopping Tip}" »
Balmain by Balmain was launched in 1998 fifteen years after Ebène and twenty years after Ivoire. It is one of the lesser known Balmain fragrances. Rather than to present itself as being an innovative composition, it is a perfume that recaptures the classic style of French perfumery and its values of elegance and restraint promoted and exemplified in great part by French haute couture designers such as Pierre Balmain and reflected in both their sartorial and perfume creations. Everything about Balmain perfume is stylized, even its discreet carnal innuendos.......
Continue reading "Balmain by Balmain (1998) {Perfume Short (Review)}" »
The Body Shop introduced this fall a novel masculine version of its bestseller White Musk initially launched more than a quarter of a century ago in 1981. It is called White Musk for Men. The composition is signed by perfumer Evelyne Boulanger who also did L'Artisan Patchouli Patch, Zagorsk, Jaisalmer in the Comme des Garçons Incense Series as well as Carnation in the Red Series, amongst others. The fragrance was designed to smell more virile thanks to the addition of pronounced dry woody notes conjuring up the evocation of fast and hard driving in a scorched desert atmosphere.....
Continue reading "White Musk for Men by The Body Shop {Perfume Short (Review)} {New Fragrance} {Men's Cologne}" »
The perfumes issued by Jovoy the newly re-established house founded by Blanche Arvoy in 1923 and now revived by François Henin, Henri de Pierrefeu, and Marie-Laure de Rodellec (see also post on the "patrimony movement" in French perfumery) pose the interesting question, to us, of the significance of the name and concept behind a perfume in their influence over the composition of the fragrance and the communication of its personality to the wearer. If a perfume is art, then it is about the attempt to establish a bridge of communication between two imaginations, two universes, those of the creator(s) and the wearer(s). Perfumes named with non-particular names, but rather with names denoting the whole group or family of perfumes might well be in danger of blunting precise images, precise sensations. It is very difficult to assess how much a name influences our perception of a perfume without doing psychological tests about olfactory creation and perception and expectations. Perfumes might very well be inevitably linked to stories and names as the other halves of themselves, which includes the shape of the bottle, another story told with different materials........ 
Continue reading "Chypre, Oriental, Poudré by Jovoy & Chypre by Coty: On Perfume Names {Perfume Shorts (Reviews)} {Scented Thoughts} {New Perfumes}" »
In Black by Spanish fashion designer Jesus Del Pozo was created in 2005 by perfumer Christine Nagel. Swiss-born Nagel is the recent recipient of a prestigious creative perfumery award. The jus, somewhat betraying a mercantile inclination with its pleasing-to-everyone-and-all fragrance family facets, is described as an oriental fruity-floral and woody fragrance. In Black smells very black. It starts with a burst of black cherry juice mingled with fruity citrus-y notes (grapefruit), green nuances, and spicy undertones. After a while the blend smells like root beer........
Continue reading "In Black by Jesus Del Pozo {Perfume Short (Review)}" »
 Ads from 1998-2000 and 1994
Azzaro pour Homme by Loris Azzaro today is still after its launch in 1978 one of the best-selling men's fragrances in the world and last year in 2006 was still the third best-selling cologne for Father's Day in France. If one of its creators', perfumer Wirtz's ambition was to bring it a step further than Paco Rabanne pour Homme which pioneered the category of the aromatic fougère redolent of Mediterranean herbs and aromas typically found in the scrubland, he seems to have succeeded in his endeavor...... The most recent advert for Azzaro pour Homme as found on the Azzaro website
Continue reading "Azzaro Pour Homme by Azzaro (1978) {Perfume Short (Review)} {Men's Cologne}" »
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