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Gap, one of the temples of ready-made wear for the young and the slightly less young (portraits of actors Liev Schreiber and Ken Watanabe in the store's men section added a touch of maturity to the brand's image as we noticed in passing), has launched two new lines of fragrances. The one we are reviewing today includes six eaux de toilette which are called Lavender Tea No. 362, Coconut Tuberose No. 821, Mandarin Jasmine No. 094, Velvet Bloom No. 695, Washed Cotton No. 784, and White Amber No. 541. The other one is conceived more as an after-the-bath line and proposes a range of body mists. Over the past, Gap has launched several lines of easy-to-wear fragrances, which were always laid-back, unpretentious, fun, and often better than expected. The popular yet discontinued Gap Grass for example has generated a discreet cult following and can now be found for upwards of a $100 on auction sites and Ava-Luxe offers a Gap Grass type of scent.......
Continue reading "Gap Lavender Tea No. 362, Coconut Tuberose No. 821, Mandarin Jasmine No. 094, Velvet Bloom No. 695, Washed Cotton No. 784, White Amber No. 541 {Perfume Short (Reviews)} {New Fragrances} {Scented Thoughts}" »
Since the Robert Piguet label was bought by Fashion Fragrances and Cosmetics Ltd., the company has re-introduced several perfumes from the former Parisian couture house's catalog, including two of their most famous creations, Bandit and Fracas, which have enjoyed classical status in 20th century perfume history. If you like leather perfumes and chypres, you would have to be able to speak first-hand of the rubber-boot and ashtray nuances of Bandit, even if you do not personally appreciate the perfume or it does not agree with you. If you are partial to the scent of tuberose, you would have to seek out Fracas, and if not love it, at least be able to quote your classics. Last year, a respectful, younger reformulation of Piguet Baghari was issued, which offered a retro charm while managing to smell contemporary at the same time. This time, Aurélien Guichard, the perfumer behind Bond No.9 Chinatown, Nina Ricci Love in Paris, Piguet Baghari and now Piguet Visa and Cravache in their 2007 updated versions, seems to have elected more fully to anchor the new perfume in the present. Visa (2007) smells quite modern and seems to have decided to eschew vintage references.......
Continue reading "Visa by Robert Piguet (2007) {Perfume Review} {New Fragrance/Advance Review}" »
If Ambre de Cabochard borrows its name partly from its great leather chypre predecessor Cabochard launched in 1959, olfactorily speaking it is probably its opposite in many respects. Where Cabochard evoked a sparkling dry white wine with still drier peppery accents, Ambre de Cabochard evokes an old-fashioned candy store redolent with realistic effluvia of candied fruits, sweets, and faint whiffs of molasses. Where the classic fragrance unambiguously evoked maturity, adulthood, and sophisticated womanhood, the new one plays out to our childish inclinations and mainstream quest for comfort......
The words "Feminist Despair" arranged in the shape of a lollipop by Anyaka
Continue reading "Ambre de Cabochard by Grès (2007) {Perfume Short (Review)} {New Fragrance}" »
Wild Honeysuckle by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz is a new perfume from her Essense Oils Collection. We had the opportunity to recently discover her creations and we can only report that all the perfumes we tried are very good quality, which is an invitation to explore her many varied compositions that show her love of the natural olfactory facets of the world and search for unusual accords. We have been offered a preview of Tamarind & Paprika, one of her upcoming holidays scents, and will report later on it.
For this week, we picked Wild Honeysuckle as the Sexy Scent of the Week as it evokes a date on a sultry summer evening very well, while conveying a sense of leisure and holidays thanks to its relaxed, optimistic feel.......
Continue reading "Wild Honeysuckle by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz {Perfume Short (Review)} {Sexy Scent of the Week}" »
 Jeanne Arthès is a text-book case of a business profiting from the legislative void regarding perfume authorship. With this example we see how a perfume company can thrive while investing as little as possible in the creative and research process and instead focusing all of their energies on copying, almost perfectly, original fragrances that have proven their worth in international markets. They do not attempt to be derivative; no, it goes further than that, they are masterful professional imitators that benefit comfortably from the fact that perfumes are not recognized as works of the mind and protected by intellectual property rights, except in The Netherlands.
Established in 1978, they have developed a web presence since the end of 2005. According to Cosmétique Mag, this Grasse-based family company employing 140 persons earned 26 millions Euros in 2004.......
Continue reading "Guipure & Silk, Sultane by Jeanne Arthès {Perfume Short (Reviews)}" »
Saks Fifth Avenue For Him by Bond No.9 (black bottle) is the masculine counterpart to Saks Fifth Avenue For Her. This new cologne takes the route of an elegant neo-classical men’s fragrance evoking the polished woods and muffled atmosphere of a club frequented by men in crisp business suits. The scent smells typically masculine, with a fresh and spicy woody fougere signature and with some discreet up-to-date facets....... Harvard Club of New York City
Continue reading "Saks Fifth Avenue For Him by Bond No.9 {Perfume Short (Review)} {New Fragrance/Advance Review} {Men's Cologne}" »
It all starts with an explosion of deleterious flowers and indoles both glamorous and surrealistic like the image of a Vogue model from the 1950s sitting on a skaï couch in a fashion atelier painting her nails, her head having been replaced by a gigantic bouquet of feathery gardenias, tuberoses, and jasmines. You are dazzled by the olfactory intensity and cannot distinguish her features any more. You are intoxicated by the tuberose and feel like you are drinking tuberose vodka on the rocks. A faint whiff of pure gasoline mounts from the street 13 floors below. On top of that the model is wearing mink around her neck and it is the middle of summer. You are wondering what she is doing exactly and if you have not landed in a time warp. Saks Fifth Avenue for Her by Bond No.9, which will come out this fall, is both perfectly tailored and exuberant, then enigmatic. It starts full throttle and keeps amazing you with its originality and beauty. The tropical blooms have a hypnotic, psychedelic quality to them before they take you by the hand and lead you into a soft-smelling green jungle that is full of obscure parts and punctuated with pools of oniric light........
Photo "Hat & 5 Roses" by William Klein, 1956.
Continue reading "Saks Fifth Avenue For Her by Bond No. 9 {Perfume Short (Review)} {New Fragrance/Advance Review}" »
Virgin Island Water is the latest perfume creation by the house of Creed, one of the oldest perfumeries in the world, established in 1760 in London then transplanted to Paris in 1854 under the patronage of Empress Eugénie of France, consort to Napoléon III. Creed have begun to prepare for their 250th anniversary and this fall there will be a traveling exhibition, which will include historical documents such as correspondence with crowned heads of states and perfume artifacts. They will also produce leather goods to reconnect with their roots as tailors. This distinguished and venerable house is, remarkably so, still family-owned. Olivier Creed has recently let more media attention focus on his son Erwin Creed who will represent the seventh generation of Creed perfumers. The latter was involved in the creation of Virgin Island Water about which he has said that he was responsible for 20% of the formulation. " A portion of the proceeds from sales will be donated to the Natural Resources Defense Council, a charity that protects the world's oceans".......
Continue reading "Virgin Island Water by Creed (2007) {Perfume Short (Review)}" »
Murmure (Murmur) by Van Cleef & Arpels was launched in the fall of 2002, which is slightly surprising given its suggestive summery and sunny overtones of dewy, juicy Jasmine Sambac, the best recreation of it that I have smelled so far with A La Nuit by Serge Lutens. It immediately transports me to the middle of a noisy Bangkok street on a hot asphalt-y day where sellers of tightly woven fragrant jasmine garlands shout their wares to car drivers shut up in air-conditioned cars. They will maybe roll down their windows to buy and place the exquisitely scented little buds punctuated with red or yellow flowers on their rear-view mirror......
Continue reading "Murmure by Van Cleef & Arpels (2002) {Perfume Short (Review)}" »
Without further ado, here is our Musk Hall of Fame list that offers short and longer reviews of eminent musk perfumes and our very favorite ones (at the end). • Auric Blends Love
A subtle clean yet warm musk oil perfume with woodsy undertones
• Auric Blends Egyptian Goddess
The most popular perfume in the line and a mild sexy floral Egyptian musk that blooms beautifully on the skin making you think of natural flowers.
• V’Tae Egyptian Garden
It smells like a musk perfume from the Egyptian antiquity would, steeped in herbs, mysterious unguents, and secret macerated formulas. It used to be worn by a high Egyptian priestess and evokes the honey, date, and almond effluvia that wafted from her well-oiled and well-massaged body. Longevity is so-so.
• Gap Musk
A clean discreet, and lightly sweet white musk oil.
• Coty Wild Musk Oil
The oil, we think, is better than the alcohol-based versions. A sweet woodsy musk oil reminiscent of high school dates for many people.
• Kiehl's Original Musk Oil
This is another classic musk oil that we also prefer in the oil-based formula. It was discovered abandoned in a turn-of-the-century to 1920s vat labelled "Love Oil" in the basement of Kiehl’s, established 1851. Everyone went crazy for it decades later. A musk oil with a marked floral lily of the valley facet, which is a natural phenomenon associated with musk in small quantities.......
Continue reading "Musk Hall of Fame: A List of the Best &/or Most Talked About Musk Perfumes {Perfume List} {Perfume Short (Reviews)}" »
3121 by Prince is a big va va voom of an exotic floral scent. If it were not for that sense of calculated excess and amplified decibels where the floral notes and sexual indoles are concerned, it would be a plain ol’ romantic classic white floral perfume fit for a dainty Southern belle made easily faint by the humid heat....
Continue reading "3121 by Prince {Perfume Short (Review)} {New Perfume}" »
Estée Lauder Pleasures Delight is the latest twist on the original Pleasures introduced in 1995. This new perfume will be a permanent addition to the collection of Pleasures fragrances, which apart from the original also comprises Pleasures Intense (2002) and Pleasures Exotic (2004).
This time, the inspiration is indulgently and charmingly gourmand with sweet notes of whipped strawberry meringue, sugared rose petals, caramel, and fluffy marshmallow delicately folded into the fragrance. The scent is comforting, sheer, and very pretty, evoking the carefree atmosphere of a holiday spent by the sea in an elegant resort like Martha’s Vineyard eating Italian strawberry and vanilla ice-cream accented with a dash of patchouli added by a slightly eccentric new-cuisine local chef and accompanied preferably by a long drink of refreshing cool peony-scented water that is almost tea-like in its delicacy.......
Continue reading "Estée Lauder Pleasures Delight {Perfume Short (Review)} {New Fragrance}" »
 Covet promised to reveal more freely the “vixen" side of Sarah Jessica Parker and since we know that Lovely (2005) had a toned-down musk that smacked of marketing compromise for the actress who usually loves her musk straight-up and dirty, we were expectant and holding our breath metaphorically speaking, awaiting something like a modern-day Bal à Versailles, a gift from the fragrance developers to SJP after her resounding success with Lovely in 2006. Instead what we get is yet another perfume in shackles and Covet is not even as pretty smelling as Lovely, which does not make it necessarily more interesting smelling.......
Continue reading "Covet by Sarah Jessica Parker {Perfume Short (Review)} {New Perfume} {Celebrity Fragrance}" »
Fil de Soie (Silk Thread) is one of three fragrances in the collection by L’Atelier Bohême, a small independent French perfume house located in Vernon, not far from Giverny and Versailles, known for being a subject of many Monet paintings. Crystelle Darchicourt is the nose behind the creations as well as the owner of the brand. Despite its delicate name, Fil de Soie resolutely claims to be a masculine fragrance evoking “…the spirit of a silken scarf and a stroll in the forest…” Like L’Atelier Bohême’s other creations, it is on the unusual side and does not lend itself very readily to immediate deciphering. The perfumes in fact seem to be blended to preserve a sense of quiet unassuming mystery. If in the end one can find some connections to other scents, one also has to acknowledge that the word “idiosyncratic” seems appropriate to describe them.....
Continue reading "Fil de Soie by L'Atelier Bohême {Perfume Short (Review)} {Men's Cologne}" »
The ways to a perfume are a bit intricate sometimes and we do not remember exactly how we ended up testing Le Labo Tubéreuse 40, but we do remember that suddenly we had to know more about the story behind the scent when we read that it had been created for Kirsten Dunst for her role as Marie-Antoinette in the Sofia Coppola’s movie. Without having what could be termed a “fetish” for Marie-Antoinette, we nevertheless love to follow some of her steps or rather the traces of them that she left here and there as a fashionista, a perfumista, a mother, a wife, and arguably as a martyr. So we asked some questions to the founders of Le Labo, the young, purist, and “revolutionary” perfumery that exists between Grasse and New York City. Fabrice Penot provided insights into the development of the perfume that you can read about in our Q & A conducted with him this week........
Continue reading "Tubéreuse 40 by Le Labo {Perfume Short (Review)} {Celebrity Fragrance}" »
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