Posted by Robin
on
9 August 2011
The sundae, called a “Bieber Bocker Glory,” is inspired by the top notes of Someday, and mixes in wild berry and vanilla ice cream, fresh pear, lavender sprinkles and even edible glitter. The treat will be on offer to customers at Harrods’ new Ice Cream Parlour cafe on the store’s second floor, and will cost 19.95 pounds, or about $32 at current exchange.
— The Justin Bieber-inspired sundae can be purchased at Harrods and the proceeds go to charity. Via Vogue, Polyvore Launch FNO Style Setter... Bieber's Someday Sundae... at Women's Wear Daily.
Posted by Kevin
on
5 August 2011
I’m loyal. My favorite summer fragrances haven’t changed (much) in years, but unlike most people on Earth my “favorites” are over 25 in number. I’ve reviewed and praised those perfumes already, so for this summer’s “top 10,” I’m expanding and tweaking the process to include non-perfume, but perfumed, products: things like shower gel, candy bars, candles and incense.
On summer days, it’s pleasurable to sweeten the air inside the house with a scented candle. A closed house coupled with air conditioning can make air stale indoors. Un-air conditioned air also benefits from some “aroma therapy.” I usually opt for lots of fresh floral bouquets inside during summer, but a candle comes in handy as roses, lilies and tuberose peter out in the garden. My candle of choice this summer is not floral or citrus-y, it’s the LAFCO New York Majestic Oak candle (in LAFCO’s House & Home/Dream Home Collection of 15 candles; $55). Majestic Oak (“Tree House”) has a smoky, raw-wood aroma, not cloying or oppressive at all (it contains oak, geranium, fir, vetiver, and light amber). While Majestic Oak burns, the air in the house smells and feels clean, and I’m invigorated.
I’m a fan of scenting the air outdoors too. I shun citronella-scented “garden” incense (soooo utilitarian!) and opt for something more exotic, like Nado Poi Zokhang “Bamboo” incense from Bhutan…
Read the rest of this article »
Posted by Robin
on
15 July 2011
Much of the money that I don’t spend on perfume goes to other household staples, like tea and chocolate. I have “collections” of both that rival my perfume collection in terms of profligacy, but I don’t feel guilty because I do manage to use them all up before they go bad. I wish I could say the same of the perfume.
Today, reviews of two oolong1 teas from from indie natural perfume house Aftelier, and very brief descriptions of two floral chocolates from the British brand Rococo.
Aftelier Rose Ginger Oolong Tea
This is a lovely flavored Tie Quan Yin oolong. It’s lightly oxidized but with a warm finish, accented with rose (quite noticeable, mostly in the aftertaste) and ginger (subtle but adds a nice kick). If you’re not used to floral scented teas (or foods), it might, at first, seem like drinking perfume, but you’ll get used to it quickly, and if you’ve ever had jasmine tea it will not seem so unusual.
Rose Ginger is reminiscent of one of my favorite Mariage Frères teas, Lune Rouge, but made with a much higher quality tea, and it quickly became one of my favorite scented oolongs of all time.2 It smells fabulous, with just the slightest hint of smoke…
Read the rest of this article »
Posted by Robin
on
8 July 2011
I had had limoncello many times but never different versions side by side. It was easy to notice differences between them. Obviously. What surprised me was an hedonic reaction: I thought two of them (with more complex flavors) were wonderful and one (store-bought) was awful. Both reactions (wonderful and awful) were stronger than usual. In a small way, I’d become a connoisseur. After that, I was happy to buy expensive limoncello (e.g., $26). I no longer bought cheap limoncello ($18).
— Blogger Seth Roberts explains how he became a limoncello connoisseur; read more in The Willat Effect: Side-by-Side Comparisons Create Connoisseurs.
Posted by Alyssa
on
28 June 2011
By the time the lovely Wine Scamp and I met for dinner at a local wine bar, I’d been pondering the overlap between perfume and wine for some time. When I talk to the uninitiated about my perfume world, wine nearly always comes up. It’s that other slightly mystifying luxury having to do with France and bottles whose crazy aficionados are always going on about “notes.” Wine reviews are also one of the few places one can read an analysis of smells in the mainstream press. And unlike food writers, who discuss the smells of ingredients (rosemary, star anise) or techniques (caramelized onions) wine writers refer to things that can’t possibly be in the glass: leather, hay, violets, smoke. Smells that sound more like something you’d find in a perfume (and I’d like that one, thank you).
“You should be a natural,” the Scamp had said, when I told her I wanted to learn more about wine. An attentive nose, it turns out, is essential to enjoying wine, not only because its complex bouquet is part of its beauty but because its flavor is so entwined with its scent. We smell wine when we sniff it in the glass, and then we smell it again when we swallow it and the volatile fragrant molecules rush up from the alcohol warmed on our palate into our retro-nasal passages. A wine that has a long lovely “finish” — a flavor that goes on and on in the mouth after you’ve swallowed — seems to offer a gastronomical version of a perfume’s dry down.1
Reading about this I wondered, not for the first time, why perfume and wine people don’t hang out more often…
Read the rest of this article »
