Posted by Angela
on
13 May 2013
In searching for something to review this week, I dropped by Nordstrom for a sample of Valentino Valentina Assoluto. I’d peeled open its scent strip in Vogue and read its notes, and it sounded alluring — warm, earthy, and sultry with a truffle note. But the real thing? Valentina Assoluto was the epitome of a bad mall fragrance, shrill and off-putting, exactly what I fear encountering in elevators. I left my sample in the garbage at work.
But it spurred me to think, what makes a sultry perfume? Has our definition of seductive scent changed so much over time? I reached for some Weil Zibeline and spritzed. Now that’s what I call a comfortable yet sexy fragrance: a diffuse top, complex warm and spicy heart, and sweet, animalic drydown. Valentino et al, take notes…
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Posted by Robin
on
26 February 2013
Le Labo has announced that due to the closing of the Dallas Barneys, they will be discontinuing the city exclusive fragrance for that store, Aldehyde 44. While stocks last, the scent will be available in all Le Labo stores, including their online shop (although it does not seem to be available there as yet).
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Posted by Robin
on
3 January 2013
Wearing it, I am my best self - it is the way I ought to smell. It feels so much a part of me that I can't believe it isn't organic, essential. I feel a faint sense of outrage that, after all this time, I can't generate it myself. It should have saturated my skin. It should have soaked, by now, into my bones.
— Novelist Francesca Segal writes about her discontinued signature fragrance (Versace V/S) in Vogue's December Vogue: On The Scent.
Posted by Angela
on
12 November 2012
So many perfumes smell like things we know: flowers, fruit, wood, food, spice and funk. A few fragrances — mostly created before the disco era, it seems — are more difficult to pin down. They smell only of themselves. They’re sophisticated, and they’re undoubtedly a challenge to fall in love with in the thirty seconds most perfume shoppers these days take before making the decision to purchase. Rochas Mystère is that kind of fragrance.
In response to a post a few weeks ago, a commenter lamented Mystère’s disappearance. I didn’t have a lot of confidence in my decant, a bonus in a swap years ago, shoddily labeled with scotch tape and a sharpie. As fate would have it, I stumbled over a bottle of Mystère Eau de Parfum at Goodwill just a few days later…
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Posted by Angela
on
17 September 2012
Some perfumes are a bare wisp that register more emotionally than physically. People around you sense something light about you but can’t quite connect it with perfume. Other fragrances are more insistent and complement your day like a pleasant soundtrack. Sure, people smell your perfume, but it’s a natural accompaniment to who you are.
And then there are the thugs like La Nuit de Paco Rabanne. La Nuit doesn’t waste time with seduction. It slips on brass knuckles and tells you and everyone else within noseshot how it’s going to be. And how it’s going to be is your trashiest 1980s nightmare come true. You just might love it…
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