Posted by Angela
on
30 January 2012
When looking for a perfume, many people say they want something “sexy” or something “fresh.” Perfume houses are hip to that, and tend to market their wares with smoldering starlets or oceans and dew-tipped garden flowers. (That is, unless they can play both sides and put the starlet on the beach.)
The popular sexy fragrance is easy to define. Start with a friendly fruit note, add amber, vanilla, and maybe patchouli, toss in a shot of jasmine and the obligatory rare jungle orchid, and presto: sexy perfume. A clean fragrance can take a few different approaches. It can be citrusy (many colognes), ocean-like (Issey Miyake Eau d’Issey), fizzing with steamy aldehydes (Narciso Rodriguez Essence), or soapy (take your pick of the Clean line). It can finish with cool wood or vetiver, or — more likely these days, it seems — a wave of laundry musk.
Giorgio Armani has raked in good money selling fresh fragrances. Acqua di Giò, both the feminine and masculine versions, have been best sellers since the mid-1990s. Acqua di Gioia is the brand’s latest try for the “fresh” vote, and it plays up both the ocean and laundry musk angles of clean…
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Posted by Robin
on
4 January 2012
Thierry Mugler will launch Angel Aqua Chic and Alien Aqua Chic in March…
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Posted by Robin
on
14 November 2011
Lancôme has launched Trésor L’Absolu Desir, a new ‘sensual and intense’ flanker to the 1990 version of Trésor…
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Posted by Robin
on
19 April 2011
Costume National has launched Pop Collection, a new fragrance for women:
Sparkling notes of Pink Grapefruit and bittersweet Raspberry Pulp mingle with Blackcurrant Absolute to make a joyful and energizing start…
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Posted by Robin
on
15 December 2010
Frédéric Malle’s new Portrait of a Lady, developed by perfumer Dominique Ropion, marks the line’s 10th anniversary. Happy anniversary, Frédéric Malle Editions de Parfums, and here’s wishing you many, many more. Oh, and can you please do jasmine next?
Portrait of a Lady is not jasmine; as many of you undoubtedly already know. It is rose, an oriental sort of rose with woody notes and spices, quite different from their earthy masterpiece Une Rose and even farther away from the powder-puff classic, Lipstick Rose. Portrait either was or wasn’t inspired by the Henry James novel of the same name — I’ve seen both claims — but was certainly inspired by, or grew out of, ideas from Géranium Pour Monsieur, Ropion’s last outing for Frédéric Malle.
The notes — raspberry, cassis, rose, cinnamon, clove, benzoin, sandalwood, patchouli, frankincense, ambroxan and white musk — sounded comfortably familiar. Fruitchouli we’ve seen plenty of lately, and patchouli + rose (to say nothing of incense + rose) combinations aren’t exactly thin on the ground. But of course this is Frédéric Malle. Portrait of a Lady doesn’t smell like your average teen-bait fruitchouli, and it’s considerably more elegant than your average patchouli rose…
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