I’ve always had a weakness for Lolita Lempicka. I wore the original Lolita Lempicka fragrance, now known as Lolita Lempicka Le Premier Parfum, during a particularly optimistic period of my life (when I moved to a different city, started a new job, and met the man who is now my husband), so it will always hold happy memories for me. I purchased L de Lolita Lempicka “unsniffed,” just because I loved the bottle design, and I’ve enjoyed some of the flankers for both fragrances.
Si Lolita, the latest launch from Lolita Lempicka, continues the brand’s tradition of sweetly feminine scents in whimsical packaging. Its composition, developed by perfumers Christine Nagel and Benoist Lapouza, includes pink peppercorns, bergamot, mandarin orange, wallflower, sweet pea, heliotrope, elemi gum, patchouli, tonka bean, and amber. Its bottle resembles a gilt-edged four-leaf clover, accented with a floral-and-polka-dot “scarf” and a lettered “Si Lolita” medallion. The Si Lolita television commercial features a dewy young model posing in a fancifully trimmed studio-apartment overlooking the rooftops of Paris, and some promotional watercolors by Michel Charrier (the bottle’s designer) are also ethereally bohemian.
The fragrance itself is classified as a spicy floral…
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Posted by Angela
on
28 February 2011
Most mornings, rooting through my perfume cabinet, I push past the iridescent pink-washed, pyramidal bottle of Mauboussin Eau de Parfum with its wobbly bottom. Mauboussin is a big perfume. Like a hot fudge sundae, the first few bites — or minutes of wear, in this case — are delicious, but before long you might end up holding your stomach and sliding the rest into the garbage. Mauboussin can be almost too much of a good thing.
But this week an unusual cold snap settled in, and I wanted a big, oriental perfume, something that would go well with a broad-shouldered,1940s mouton coat. Mauboussin was just the ticket. Maybe I’ve developed a stronger appetite for sweets, but until spring arrives, the bottle will stay toward the front of my perfume cabinet.
Christine Nagel developed Mauboussin, the Parisian jeweler’s first perfume, in 2000…
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Posted by Robin
on
10 February 2011
The brand ethos over at Jo Malone strikes me as decidedly mainstream and (very) British; they’ve made a virtue out of simplicity by emphasizing the layering — or fragrance combining, as they prefer to phrase it — possibilities of their relatively linear, usually clean and often sheer scents. Here and there, they’ve ventured out into the exotic (did anyone try the Cologne Intense collection? I’ve seen nary a word), but with the new unisex Tea collection, they’re back on familiar ground both for them (what could be more British and straightforward than tea?) and for us (tea fragrances not being exactly thin on the ground).
Assam & Grapefruit is my early favorite of the five. I say early because it’s the only one I’ve put on skin more than once, but short of a miracle, nothing is going to topple it from the top of the heap; Sweet Milk would make an agreeable layering agent if you didn’t already have something like Demeter Condensed Milk, but the other three (Fresh Mint Leaf, Sweet Lemon, Earl Grey & Cucumber) failed to move me…
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Posted by Robin
on
3 February 2011
Next up from French niche line Etat Libre d’Orange: Archives 69, named for the brand’s street address in Paris. The tag line: The Illusion of Sex…
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Posted by Robin
on
3 February 2011
Jo Malone will launch Sakura Cherry Blossom, a new limited edition fragrance for women, in March. Sakura Cherry Blossom was developed by perfumer Christine Nagel…
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