Posted by Robin
on
27 August 2007
Ok, so anyone who reads Now Smell This regularly already knows I love iris. Prada’s new Infusion d’Iris is only the latest in a long list of iris fragrances that make me swoon, and I’m still mourning Chanel’s 28 La Pausa, which I adore but refuse to buy inasmuch as it is just too costly for such an ephemeral experience.
But I don’t love everything iris. Angela recently wrote a lovely appreciation of Le Labo’s Iris 39, and I was very glad she did because I had nothing nice to say about it. And while I get the idea behind Frederic Malle’s Iris Poudre, I have no desire to wear it. Same goes for Dior’s justifiably lauded Dior Homme.
Iris Ganache, which was added to Guerlain’s L’Art et la Matière range (see Cuir Beluga, Rose Barbare, Angelique Noire and Bois d’Armenie) earlier this year, sounded like it might not be my sort of iris…
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Posted by Robin
on
30 May 2007
I like candy, but in general, I’m a chocolate kind of person. I love dark chocolate, the darker the better, but I’m not a snob about it: I also love Hot Fudge Pop-Tarts, and several other treats that might more properly be called “chocolate food product” than “chocolate”. Fruit candy doesn’t interest me at all — to eat or to wear as perfume — so the recently released Demeter Jelly Belly Collection didn’t seem like likely to wow me, and by and large, it didn’t. The fragrances are based on Jelly Belly recipes, which call for popping a specific group of flavored jelly beans into your mouth to produce the desired taste effect.
Not surprisingly, my favorite from this set is Hot Fudge Sundae, the only one of the 6 that isn’t particularly fruity. Here is the jelly bean recipe…
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Posted by Robin
on
8 May 2007
This month, Demeter introduces the Jelly Belly Collection, a new set of fragrances inspired by Jelly Belly jelly beans:
Eating one Jelly Belly jelly bean at a time is yummy, but Jelly Belly aficionados know the pleasure of combining different flavors to create “recipe” combinations for new gourmet taste sensations. Devised with definite flavors and proportions in mind, Jelly Belly jelly bean recipes provided the inspiration for creating the Jelly Belly Collection by Demeter Fragrance Library.
There are six fragrances…
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Posted by Robin
on
20 April 2007
One more day of comfort fragrances, then we’re moving on; anyway, this is less a review than a brief news flash, and it is old news at that: Molinard Iles d’Or, as has been pointed out on several of the fragrance forums, is virtually identical to Molinard Tendre Friandise. Or at least, the version of Iles d’Or in the newish Molinard 1849 collection is; I haven’t tried any of the older versions. If I had to guess, I’d say that it probably isn’t the same stuff as the original Iles d’Or, which was released in the 1930s. This does not smell like a classic 1930s perfume. It smells like a modern candied fruity floral, and is one of very few such scents that I really like…
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Posted by Robin
on
4 April 2007
I’ve slowly been working my way through the many recommendations I got the last few times I posted about Demeter scents, and so far, the clear winner is Gingerale.
As with any Demeter review, this will be brief: it is not a complicated fragrance, and does not require any lengthy description. Still, some of the Demeters are better than others at evoking whatever it is they are supposed to evoke. This one is perfect. It smells like — drum roll, please — ginger ale, and the opening is almost astonishingly effective at calling up the carbonated part; it literally tickles the nose. Admittedly, the fizz part is not long lasting, but the dry down is far from dull. It is a soft but bright ginger…
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