Earlier this year, Amouage released its Library Collection, a trio of fragrances designed as a "poetic homage to the art of living." Opus III is a floral oriental developed by perfumer Karine Vinchon; according to Amouage, this fragrance "was inspired by the art and science of the creative process, from the darkest moments of frustration, to the brightness of enlightenment and discovery." It includes top notes of mimosa, broom, carnation, nutmeg, and thyme; a heart of violet, jasmine, ylang-ylang, and orange blossom; and base notes of ambrette, musk, papyrus, cedarwood, sandalwood, guaiac wood, benzoin, and vanilla.

Opus III opens with a distinctive note of broom flowers. If you've ever tried Santa Maria Novella Ginestra, a broom soliflore, you'll recognize this scent, something like cut hay and long grass warmed by the sun. If Opus III were visible as color, the dominant shades of its opening and its heart would be the bright, almost sharp yellow of broom blossoms and the buttery shade of mimosa flowers...

If you’ve been following perfume news over the past month or so, you’ve probably noticed that Gucci Guilty is one of this fall's major launches, complete with full-page ads and scent strips in fashion magazines, a movie-star “face,” a television commercial with a theme song, a somewhat hyperbolic press release, a tie-in to the MTV Video Music Awards, and the now-requisite Facebook page. It’s being promoted as a fragrance for a “21st Century beauty” who is “young, audacious, discerning...an iconoclast who lives life at full throttle...sexy and slightly dangerous.”

Guilty’s bottle is certainly eye-catching: it looks like an oversized, gilded (gilty?) Gucci purse clasp or belt buckle, with its unmistakable interlocking “G”s creating a window onto the juice inside. Gucci devotees will want to own Guilty for the container alone. The fragrance is classified as a floriental, with notes of mandarin, pink pepper, peach, lilac, geranium, amber, and patchouli.

Guilty seems to be more of a sheer, fruity oriental than a floral oriental...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

During spring and summer, the Northwest has some of the most beautiful and dramatic “blue hours” I’ve ever experienced — the lustrous sky turns every shade of blue, from chalk blue to blue-black. While wearing Guerlain's L’Heure Bleue fragrance for the first time, I went outside with my cat (who is blue himself) and experienced a blue hour; I sat under my second-story porch, behind a curtain of blossoming clematis vines that swayed in the cool breeze, their pink and blue, vanilla-scented flowers glowed like stars against the dark shiny leaves of the laurel hedge. The ornery blue jays had gone to nest and refused to participate in my blue reverie, but a robin “trio” sang soothing avian folk songs till dark.

The “blue hour” is the time between sunset and nightfall when everything seems tinged with blue. I’m a lover of the blue hour; in fact, I like the world best between twilight and dawn. I could easily keep vampires’ hours, since bright sunny days wear me out, wear me down and make everything seem too focused, exposed and raw.

I’ll spare you the oft-told tale of the creation of L’Heure Bleue (easily read on Guerlain's website) but I will say that people who have reviewed this perfume often find it “sad” and “melancholy.” I bet many of those people love the daytime, the sun, brightness and heat. To me, L’Heure Bleue is “quiet,” not sad, but I do find it “chilly” and a bit harsh, especially in its extreme dry-down phase...

Songes starts with a trio of tropical flowers: frangipani (also known as plumeria), jasmine, and a hint of gardenia. It is sweet and strong, but not quite heady, although bear in mind that I am trying it from a sample vial — sprayed, it might be quite another story. The jasmine, lightly tinged by green, takes over in the early stages, and it is simply gorgeous. It settles into a softer blend of white florals, sandalwood and resinous notes, all with a velvety, whisper-of-powder finish...

Amouage originally released Ubar in 1995. It was meant to celebrate Oman’s Silver Jubilee year, and was named for the lost Omani city of Ubar, long believed to be an important center of the historical frankincense trade and re-discovered in 1992 with the aid of satellite imaging. The original bottle (see below) was by Pierre Dinand, and while it was a striking design, there was something about it that I always thought a poor fit with the juice.

Ubar has been relaunched this year (2009¹). It has new packaging (see image above), a new concentration (the original was an Eau de Toilette; now it's an Eau de Parfum) and a new price (much higher). The notes (bergamot, lemon, lily of the valley, Damascena rose, Bulgarian rose, jasmine, sandalwood, synthetic civet and vanilla) are reportedly the same. Here's what I had to say about the original Ubar when I reviewed it in 2005...