Cartier has launched II L'Heure Convoitée, a new fragrance in the Les Heures de Parfum series. It is the 2nd hour but the 9th in the series; reportedly, there are still four more to come. Like the others, L'Heure Convoiteé was developed by perfumer Mathilde Laurent...

From By Kilian, the 'Joyaux de nuit' limited edition series for holiday 2011: three different handmade bottles with black stones and Swarovski crystals...

No, your eyes don't deceive you, and yes, it's true, it isn't really a collector bottle. But so far, we haven't seen the need to maintain a separate category for toy trucks, and hey, we have to post about it somewhere...

Baiser Volé ('Stolen Kiss') debuts this month from Cartier. The pleasant but faceless Cartier de Lune (I tried but failed to review it, and have entirely forgotten what it smells like) launched only very recently so I was surprised to see another feminine entry so soon, but here we are. This one was also done by perfumer Mathilde Laurent, who noted that "when asked about their favorite flower, many men said it was the lily" (really? can that possibly be?) but that she "didn’t want it to be the 1,001st floral floriental" (fine with me) and she "didn’t want to add a new floral composition" (ditto); instead, she "[imagined] what the whole flower — including its leaves, petals and pistil — could smell like".¹ Translation: lily haters need not (necessarily) worry, lily lovers need not (necessarily) drool.

Cartier is calling Baiser Volé a fresh powdery floral, and that's just what it is: a little veil of scent, in keeping with the recent spate of "minimalist veil" fragrances. So forget about lily bombs like Donna Karan Gold or Serge Lutens Un Lys, think instead of Guerlain Shalimar Parfum Initial, the Prada Infusions (and L’Eau Ambrée), Balenciaga Paris, Love, Chloé and Hermès Eau Claire des Merveilles, etc etc, and you'll get the idea...

Cartier has launched Baiser Volé (Stolen Kiss), a new fresh powdery floral perfume for women...

Cartier has launched three more fragrances in the Les Heures de Parfum series, bringing the total to eight. Reportedly, there are five more to come. All of the fragrances were developed by perfumer Mathilde Laurent...

Cartier has launched Cartier de Lune, a new fragrance for women:

The Story: For the first encounter, Cartier creates a moonlight perfume...

Perhaps, like me, you're finding the mall especially trying lately. Maybe it's that my family had a recession-friendly homemade Christmas in 2009 or maybe it's because I now have a breastfed infant to accompany me, but the shopping trips I've made during the last few weeks have turned me into a sweat-soaked, cuss-word-using, stroller-ramming fanatic. Our visit for the annual Christmas photo happened to fall on Pet Day and the woman in front of us spent half an hour and more than $100 on many, many photos of her dog with Santa. Afterwards, I felt like spray-painting anti-consumerist slogans on mailboxes....except I didn't have any paint and the craft store was at the other end of the mall. 'Tis the season for none of the elevators to work and a shopping cart to be abandoned in the last parking space and for the exact Zhu Zhu Pet you need to be sold out when you're not even sure what a Zhu Zhu Pet is. (Here.) On Monday evening, as my children looked on with alarm, I collapsed into an incredibly rare seat in the food court and vowed with a grimace: Enough. Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. I will go home to make a donation to MSF/Doctors Without Borders, warble along festively with Yoko Ono and spray on something beautiful that I already own.

In truth, I love this time of year and the smells I associate with it: pine, mandarin oranges, mulling spices, incense, smoke, peppermint, wet wool, candle wax, lemon and brandy sauces, latkes or donuts frying in oil...