
Esprit has launched Jeans Style, new fragrances for men and women:
It’s time to revive the magnetic Esprit jeans craze that began in the carefree California of the late 1960s…

Esprit has launched Jeans Style, new fragrances for men and women:
It’s time to revive the magnetic Esprit jeans craze that began in the carefree California of the late 1960s…

Nina Ricci will launch Ricci Ricci Dancing Ribbon in March of next year. The new fragrance for women is a limited edition flanker to 2009′s Ricci Ricci:
She is modern, mischievous and audacious…
Nina Ricci will launch Ricci Ricci, a new perfume for women, in September.
Ricci Ricci is an urban heroine.
She is glamorous and audacious.
She has a secret power: her fragrance – symbolized by her ribbon…


Coffee and I go waaaaaay back. I grew up in a household where I had no set time for bed and no restrictions on what I read or watched on TV. I could also eat and drink what I liked (I was not allowed to drink, let’s say, whiskey or beer openly, but when I’d admit taking a nip here or there I was not punished). I would start my day with a cup of coffee — even in first grade (my grandmother thought coffee, cream and sugar were ‘health foods.’) My free-style childhood and almost constant high approval ratings by my parents and live-in grandmother have contributed to some character “flaws” to be sure (a famous L.A. psychic looked at my palm once and proclaimed: “I see…Buckingham Palace!”) and my early coffee consumption no doubt made me what I am today: a man immune to the effects of caffeine.
Still, I love the scents and flavors of coffee: fresh coffee beans, roasting coffee beans (an aroma you can easily experience in Seattle), brewing coffee, percolating coffee, espresso, coffee in chocolates, ice cream, cakes, cookies and custards. I never thought I would like the scent of coffee on my person. The idea of wearing a coffee perfume made me queasy, until I sampled Thierry Mugler’s A*Men Pure Coffee. Almost as much as I detest A*Men, I enjoy A*Men Pure Coffee…


Smelling the combined fragrance notes of A*Men (bergamot, lavender, mint, coriander, patchouli, Atlas cedar, roasted coffee, chocolate, caramel, “tar”/styrax, tonka, musk and aldehydes) is akin (I imagine) to drinking a purée composed of all the foods and beverages you plan on consuming in one day — both are unsavory experiences.
Introduced in Europe in September 1996, Thierry Mugler’s A*Men was created by perfumer Jacques Huclier and was a follow-up to Mugler’s best-selling 1992 women’s scent: Angel. The chocolate-caramel-infused Angel is credited with starting the trend towards foody notes in perfume (Women’s Wear Daily, 6/21/96) and when A*Men came to the U.S. in the spring of 1997, it was stocked not only in the men’s fragrance department at Saks Fifth Avenue, but in the women’s perfume section as well. (It was hoped that Angel-loving women would buy A*Men for the men in their lives — or for themselves.)
Since I knew I’d be reviewing the soon-to-be-released A*Men Pure Coffee fragrance, I thought I should try A*Men first…