This will be the last in the 2009 series of holiday gift posts. If you’re still shopping and missed any of the earlier entries, here they are: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 (budget gifts), part 5, part 6 (for men), part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10.
Before anyone hyperventilates (and I nearly did when I saw the one in the center), these are NOT perfume bottles. They’re limited edition porcelain figurines from Lanvin, to celebrate the brand’s 120 anniversary. At left, Miss Lanvin 16 doll: “The ‘perfume girl’ is the 16th out of the 800 limited editions. The lady in the blue dress has crystal detail sunglasses, shoes, coloured jewels and a gold handbag.” £325. In the center, Miss Lanvin 14 doll: “The sitting Lanvin ladies are number 329 out of 800 limited editions and sit upon a large perfume bottle dressed in pillar box red dresses”. £325. At right, Miss Lanvin 19 doll: “The sitting Lanvin ‘perfume lady’ is 403 out of 800 limited editions and is adorned with pearls and crystals, a green dress. She is sat upon blue Lanvin boxes holding a green perfume bottle.” £325; also available in a paperweight for £275. All of the dolls are 9 inches high. From the same collection:
A printed tote bag (one of three designs) with pink ribbon handles and a hot pink silk lining. £435.
All of the Lanvin items are available at Browns in the UK, where you might as well take a peek at the whole collection.
From Miller Harris, a trio of Flower Waters in Lavande (“Captures the reviving, aromatic and herbaceous character of French lavender”, £17), Fleurs d’Oranger (“Discover the rich and honeyed notes of soothing orange blossom. Ideal to calm and relax the skin, to scent and refresh towels and sheets, £15) or Rose Centifolia (“This iconic rose from the South of France is one of the finest and most sought after raw materials in perfumery. Renowned for its beauty and quality, it expresses subtle accents of lemon and lychee and is exceptional as a toner for the skin.”, £21). 250 ml each, at Miller Harris.
From Ralph Lauren, the Love, Ralph Lauren fragrance in the Heart of Gold edition. 50 ml for $100 at Neiman Marcus.
From Space NK, a candle in the Smoldering Embers fragrance: “Smoldering birch, cedar and sandalwood burn over a base of black amber and oakmoss.” $60 at Space NK.
From Estee Lauder, a solid perfume in Sensuous, in the “Brilliant Bloom Compact”. £230 at Harrods in the UK.
And from Guerlain, the line’s new Idylle fragrance in the Edition Cristal with Swarovski crystal. 50 ml Eau de Parfum, limited edition, 300€. (via marieclaire.fr)
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OMG-Can I say I LOVE the Lanvin bottle in the middle? I could never display these, given my kitties play hockey with all things breakable (they have no interest in things that aren’t, like paper balls, and furry mice, feather toys…..).
They really ought to make that into a bottle! As near as I can tell, all they did for the fragrance line was a special outer box:
http://www.nstperfume.com/2009/09/08/bunch-o%E2%80%99-limited-edition-collector-bottles-2009-part-10/
Now’s the time for me to break out my budget for Q4 and look at the total, remind myself. I cannot spend, I cannot spend…..
I am a sucker for cute bottles.
So there are 800 different dolls?
800 examples of each doll, numbered.
@#$%! Why isn’t that Lanvin doll in the middle a special edition Arpege bottle?! Ugh! Hyperventilate is right, Robin. But now I’m just angry.
I want my kitschy porcelain doll Arpege!
HA…I do too! Although in all truth I wouldn’t pay that much for it even if it was filled with extrait and came with a steak dinner.
I wouldn’t have paid that much either. But I love to dream, and could have added to my List Of Things I Hope To Stumble Upon at a garage sale/Goodwill/estates sale/antique store. (At the top of that list currently is a bottle of vintage Diorling. And… now that I’ve verbalized that, it won’t happen.)
Angie always finds these things for $10 at Goodwill. I don’t.
Sadly, I had good luck in the past, when I didn’t know any better. The Diorling is a true-life, can’t-believe-I-passed-that-by experience. Found it at a second-hand store and thought, “I’ve never heard of this.” Now I’m kicking myself for not getting it. I think it was $5.
Ack, Diorling for $5! That’s heartbreaking.
Argh! Ms. Kitty, my stand-alone comment below was a response to yours.
Too -Pant -Pant- Late – Pant Pant Pant!!!
LOL — sorry!
Good. According to Kubler-Ross, you’ve moved on from the first stage of grief (denial) to the second (anger). Curse you, Lanvin!
HA…excellent!
LOL–the third stage is bargaining, isn’t it? Ha!
Yep. I imagine that would be something like promising yourself to forgo your 3rd and 4th-quarter perfume allowances so that you can buy one of those figurines.
And then I realize I can’t, go to the depression phase, forget what I was depressed about because I’m distracted by too much perfume and all sorts of things I want, and go into the acceptance phase by default.
So I guess I’m going to be ok after all.
whew! that was a close one!
Am I the only one who finds it odd that the printed bag costs more than any of the dolls?
No, wholeheartedly agree, esp. since that ribbon handle looks like it will hold up well for about a week or two.
i mean, it’s a tote bag!
Ok, guess I’m a serious downer, but the only thing of the above items that appealed to me at all —is the candle….and I don’t usually burn candles. Figurines? dust collectors, the Bag? sorry, I need totes that can take some abuse and then get tossed in the washing machine (sorry, but life is messy sometimes) the heart bottle? well, cute but still nah. The Brilliant Bloom Compact? tacky…really TACKY…..what’s left? oh yeah, the Idyll —so the big, amazing difference is a Swarovski flatback crystal?? gimmee a break….and a dollar and I’ll stick a sparkly flatback on your bottle for ya! egad…. and now I’ll go growl somewhere else for a while!
geee, looks like I’m saving money by the bucketful today….
Daisy: you need the money for scent splittng habit! Or to send to Amouge
you got that right! amouage does not like to hear about me spending money elsewhere! they’ve mentioned something about direct deposit…..
Amouage: she is a harsh mistress.
My thoughts exactly about the Swarovski, Daisy. Where’s the glue gun?
The antique shop around the corner from me recently put some of those Lanvin ladies in the window. I assumed they were something older? Maybe they actually got their hands on some of these. I’ll have to go have a closer look!
Oh, do let me know if you find out—would love to know if this is something Lanvin has done in the past.
I’ll try to remember to stop in there and find out!
Robin, I checked on this in the antique shop today. The ones he’s selling there are not old, it turns out — they are these current ladies. He is selling them for $210 each. I guess I assumed since it’s an antique shop they must be older, but no!
Oh, thanks so much! And hey, you mean $210 US, right? Because Browns is charging the equivalent of $520 US, so that’s quite a difference.
Are they cute in person?
Yes, he’s charging $210 US! I can’t imagine why he’s got such a low price on them (except that all these little shops in my neighborhood are struggling now). The ones he has are earlier in the series though — no. 2 and no. 4 I think. Yes, they are terribly cute in person! I don’t need one, but I certainly wouldn’t say no if someone wanted to give me one!
Maybe it’s Browns that’s overcharging! That’s just a huge price difference.
Yes, I find it very odd that the bag costs more than the porcelain figures.
I have to admit, Robin, at first I didn’t know if you meant hyperventilate in a good way or bad (because they desecrated the Arpège bottle or something). I guess they’re cute, but I’m pretty sure this one is definitely a “girl thing.”
I can’t believe glueing a rhinestone on Idylle drives the price up so much. If you REALLY want to get your Idylle bling on, go all the way:
http://hautetoday.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/guerlain-by-ora-ito-because-shes-worth-it/
Of course, if you want the frag, I think you have to break it??
Oh, not just a girl thing, also a kitsch thing. And you either love it or you don’t!
Saw that other Idylle bottle, hated it to much to post it. And ack: 3000 euros!
Of course you know that’s *thirty* thousand, dear!
HA — on the contrary, I thought it was 3000 and that was plenty ridiculous enough for me!
HOW much for that carrier bag? Are they insane?
Somebody’ll buy it!
Love Lanvin! Just fantastic! If they sold the image on that bag in a print, I probably would buy it. Very cute. I wish perfume advertisements would lean more in that direction; like the hand-drawn, over-romantic renderings of the 20′s and 30′s.
…modern perfume adverts, I meant…
Yes, and if they made a cheap canvas bag w/ that print, I’d buy it too!
Oh, me too…and that was why I noticed the price! LOL! I thought hmm, the one in the middle is adorable, but too rich for my blood… oh hey, there’s a bag! It only costs…more? What?! And not even hand-painted…
Those bottles look very “Moschino-ish”.
The Lanvin statues, you mean? Or ?
Well, I am not particularly interested in that RL and have not smelled it, but was pleasantly surprised that it is only $100, and not a couple grand like that fancy bottle it came in.
I, too, would love that Arpege figure to be a bottle, or at least have a bottle that fit into it! I wouldn’t BUY it, but love the concept.
It’s much cheaper than the original one w/ the amethyst.
jeeeesus, I want the lanvin bag!!! and the lanvin dolls are just cute as a button
Yep.
First time reader- this was a FABULOUS fragrance gift guide. Looking forward to reading more!!
Hi & welcome, glad you liked it!
lol, wut
300 Euros for Idylle with a single crystal added?
i can get that that single crystal at Swarovski for , like 10-20 bucks, glue it on and get the same out of it! LOL
Hey, but you also get the nice box.
Oh that figurine to the right is for me! Sorry Robin- I must pull out a paper bag and breathe deeply into it!
That one is adorable.
Been away for a few days [missed you all] and look what I come back to! Since I am a nut for not only perfume but some of the bottles as well, those Lanvin cuties made me go “squeee”! Not gonna happen though – not at those prices. *sigh*
Not going to happen for me either, but welcome back!