Posted by Angela
on
30 March 2009
It’s easy for me to bemoan the destruction of such legendary perfumes as Worth Je Reviens and Carven Ma Griffe, and to be suspicious of the reformulations of other perfume darlings, like Guerlain Mitsouko. Everywhere I turn, I hear something else alarming: that the Caron reformulations are a travesty and my beloved Tabac Blond will never be the same, or that Jean Patou 1000 may be discontinued. (I can’t speak to either of these, by the way.)
Then along comes a fragrance like Parfums MDCI Enlèvement au Sérail to remind me to chill out. High quality, complex fragrances are still being created. Some of them, like Enlèvement au Sérail, have a vintage feel that I love, while others are decidedly more modern, like Jean Claude Ellena’s perfumes from Hermès. We are lucky to experience them…
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Posted by Angela
on
12 January 2009
After giving it a lot of thought, I've figured out who best personifies Boucheron's B de Boucheron: Bree from the television show Desperate Housewives. Like Bree, Boucheron B is restrained, feminine, bourgeois, and conventional — yet with an eye on current trends. B is middle-aged, but has the smooth, porcelain skin of a girl. Oh, and they share the same initial.
B de Boucheron honors the 150th anniversary of the Boucheron jewelry house and the 20th anniversary of its first fragrance, Boucheron for Women. According to an interview with Ursula Wandel, the perfumer who created B, B contains 20 natural products*. It's also more expensive than the rest of Boucheron's fragrances. B was released in 2008.
Osmoz describes B as having top notes of orange blossom and rose; a heart of osmanthus and spices; and a base of cedar, sandalwood, and patchouli…
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Posted by Robin
on
9 December 2008
When I heard that Ralph Lauren was going to launch a new perfume in a jewel-studded bottle for some $2000+, I thought: why not — every other brand is jumping on the luxe bandwagon despite these tough economic times, why not Ralph Lauren? A week or so after I first heard about it, I spied a tester of something I didn't recognize hiding behind the tissue box on a Neiman Marcus perfume counter (always peek around the back, you never know what you'll find) and asked what it was. The sales associate told me it was to be the new Ralph Lauren, that it wouldn't launch until later in the year, and that it would be very expensive. She let me spray some on a card. I sniffed, giggled at the audacity of charging so very much for such a thing, and then promptly forgot all about it — easy enough, since Love, Ralph Lauren is not a particularly memorable fragrance.
Later, I realized that it wasn't really so expensive, or at least, it needn't be…
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Posted by Robin
on
20 May 2008
Christian Dior launched Addict in 2002. They were hoping the name — and the tag line, “Admit it” — would get attention, and they got their wish; although it had been preceded by a lipstick and nail color range under the same name, it was the perfume that got people riled up. “The advertising industry has long been drawn to the low-life look, but the French fashion house Christian Dior has taken it to new depths”, noted NPR's Weekend Edition*. After months of pressure from anti-drug abuse advocacy groups, Dior dropped the tag line and replaced the early ad images that had appeared to glamorize illegal drug use.
Whatever punch the name Addict had in 2002 has been largely diluted by the subsequent flankers — Dior Addict 2 Summer Litchi, anyone? But the Addict juice, a floriental developed by perfumer Thierry Wasser, still packs a wallop…
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Posted by Robin
on
19 November 2007
It's been a long year for celebrity fragrances, and 2008 looks to be even worse. Or better, depending on your stance. My stance: ok, celebrity fragrances are often amusing. Sometimes, they're wearable. Sometimes, they're wearable and distinctive. But there are far too many of them (especially in the UK, where they're doing a much more thorough job of scraping the bottom of the barrel than we are in the US), and a large percentage work in a very narrow fruity floral genre designed to appeal to the very young. After awhile, they all start to smell the same.
Christina Aguilera joins the fray this year. Her eponymous floriental fragrance, geared towards 15-25 year olds, aims to capture old-style Hollywood glamour, and launched recently under the tag line “sometimes, it's all you need to wear”. In some cases, my expectations for a celebrity fragrance are low enough that I'm pleasantly surprised; Christina Aguilera pretty much smells like I imagined it would…
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