Parfums Salvador Dali will launch Dali Eau de Toilette, a new fragrance for women, in September. The scent is a variation on the line’s debut fragrance from the early 1980s, Dali Le Parfum (aka Salvador Dali)…
Versace will launch Yellow Diamond, a new floral fragrance for women in the same series as Versace Crystal Noir (2004) and Versace Bright Crystal (2005). Yellow Diamond is reportedly transparent and sensual, and will be fronted by model Abbey Lee Kershaw…
Hot Couture has hovered at the edge of my fragrance consciousness for years, but I never actually tried it until this week, when I was feeling particularly jaded at Sephora and I wanted to smell something, anything that wasn’t a summer limited edition. And now that I think about it, I’m intrigued by this fragrance: Hot Couture has been holding its place in the Givenchy section of perfume counters since it was released in 2000, yet it’s such a “neither/nor” fragrance for the venerable brand. It’s neither Audrey Hepburn nor Liv Tyler, neither the classic L’Interdit nor the blandly trendy Very Irresistible and all its flankers. Nor is it one of Givenchy’s coming-on-strong fragrances of the 1990s, like Amarige or Organza. What is it?
In Givenchy’s official (and generally meaningless) description, “Hot Couture is a creation that aims to complement the woman’s body, combining sensuality and glamour with refinement and elegance. Very fashionable, the Hot Couture woman is both refined and original, slightly provocative and so uniquely charismatic.” Hot Couture is “a voluptuous fragrance with spicy and woody notes (raspberry nectar, magnolia, amber-vetiver),” and it was developed by perfumers Alberto Morillas and Jacques Cavallier. Its title is a silly pun on “haute couture,” and the bottle’s logo looks like a dressmaker’s label with pinked edges. (The older bottle design bore an image resembling a vintage fashion sketch.)
Hot Couture starts off with a flashy burst of raspberry and vanilla…
Valentino will launch Valentina, a new ‘sensual and sexy’ perfume for women, in September. It will be the brand’s first fragrance under new licensing arrangements with Puig. Valentina will be fronted by model Freja Beha Erichsen…
Eau d’Italie released Au Lac just over a year ago, describing it as a feminine floral with top notes of water lily, bitter orange leaves, and panarea fig leaves; middle notes of osmanthus, rose bud, and sambac jasmine petals; and base notes of cedar wood, papyrus, and mineral amber. I was preoccupied with some non-perfume matters last spring, so I somehow didn’t get around to trying Au Lac until recently, although both its notes and its “back story” appealed to me. According to Eau d’Italie, this fragrance conveys the impression of “a gorgeous Italian garden at the height of summer, the air filled with the scent of flowers and the fresh waters of a lake” and was “inspired by the love affair between Italian Princess Vittoria Colonna and Futurist artist Umberto Boccioni.”
There isn’t anything particularly Futurist about Au Lac — what would a Futurist fragrance smell like? I’m imagining a mix of scorched rubber, hot metal, marble dust, and red wine — but the idea of a rendezvous in a sunny garden is definitely there. Au Lac opens with a lemon-tinged note of water lily petals. There’s also something lightly salty and bright in the initial phases of this fragrance, perhaps some unlisted neroli. The creamy lily petal note never really disappears, but it’s joined by a slightly warmer second phase of closely-knit floral notes. I caught a hint of osmanthus, which always reminds me of peach skin, but the jasmine is very subtle and not at all indolic. Au Lac’s garden-in-bloom development gains some structure from a greenish wood note (the papyrus?) and a light cedary base. Overall, Au Lac strikes a nice balance between clean and lush notes. I wouldn’t have minded just a touch more dirt in this cultivated landscape, but as it is, it’s a very appealing scent…
"Reinventing the Rose: Is perception affecting your ability to stop and smell the roses?" article at Cosmetics Mag http://t.co/y6gT43iH Sunday SOTE? I'm wearing Parfums de Nicolai Eau Exotique (mango!) Chocolate: Vosges Pink Salt Caramel (not my favorite) TV: Sherlock Denise Hamilton looks at some recent perfume books (including Alyssa's & Denyse's) in the LA Times http://t.co/FbuPTNrq "Does the perfume industry have it wrong? New tests suggest most seductive scent is our natural one" at Mail Online http://t.co/iUfAzRE7