Posted by Angela
on
25 March 2013
I know, I know. Now Smell This already posted a thorough review of Cartier Baiser Volé. But that was for the Eau de Parfum. Baiser Volé is one of the few perfumes that really explores the fragrance’s idea through its other formulations. While a review of the Eau de Parfum gives you an idea of Baiser Volé’s theme — lilies in the style of Carole Lombard’s boudoir, complete with silver hairbrush and face powder — the Eau de Toilette and Extrait de Parfum aren’t simply different concentrations. Instead, they take the Eau de Parfum’s “main tune” and orchestrate it differently.
Cartier house perfume Mathilde Laurent created Baiser Volé in each of its forms. Cartier is vague about the fragrance’s notes, spouting pap about how the fragrance embraces each aspect of the lily: stem, petals, and root. Besides lily, I get hints of neroli, powder, jasmine, and musk.
Baiser Volé Eau de Parfum is the most sober form of the fragrance. It shows Baiser Volé’s powdery glamour of deconstructed lilies in a way that makes me long for my own dressing room, satin coverlet, and stack of 1930s movies. It’s beautiful, for sure. But it’s also humorless…
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Posted by Jessica
on
4 January 2013
I can never answer the question, “What is your favorite perfume?” However, if someone asked me to name my favorite contemporary fragrance house, I’d probably name Frédéric Malle’s Editions de Parfums. After all, this company is responsible for two of my favorite perfumes, Lipstick Rose and Iris Poudre, as well as several others that I wear on a regular basis, including L’Eau d’Hiver, En Passant — and Lys Méditerranée.
Lys Méditerranée is a “tribute” to the lily, designed to evoke “a scorching summer evening as the Mediterranean sea spray mingles with the spicy scent of ginger lilies.” It was developed by perfumer Edouard Fléchier and was released in 2000; its notes include ginger lily, lily of the valley, angelica root, orange flower, water lily, salicylates, ambrette seeds, musk and vanilla. The Frédéric Malle website describes Lys Méditerranée as “radiant,” and reviewers have often used the same adjective, for good reason…
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Posted by Robin
on
23 June 2012
I have something of a love-hate relationship with the Aqua Allegoria range from Guerlain. To recap for those who aren’t familiar with them, the Aqua Allegoria series was introduced in 1999 as a youth-oriented, reasonably-priced line aimed at bringing younger consumers into the Guerlain fold. In the early years, the fragrances were done in a naturalistic style, usually highlighting one or two notes, but more recent outings have strayed from those conventions. They’re generally launched as limited editions, then if they do well, they get added to the regular line. For some years, they’ve done two new Aqua Allegoria fragrances a year, but since 2010, they’ve only put one of the two into widespread distribution.1
There’s no point in looking for the next Shalimar among the Aqua Allegorias, but some of them have been highly enjoyable fragrances, and a few of them of them are staples in my summer fragrance wardrobe.2 The last few years, though — since Thierry Wasser took over as Guerlain’s house perfumer — they’ve been concentrating on a “young, fresh and dewy” style, not altogether unlike that of Guerlain Idylle. Sometimes that works, sometimes the output strikes me as forgettable and/or insipid.
This year’s widely distributed Aqua Allegoria is Lys Soleia…
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Posted by Robin
on
15 May 2012
Today, brief reviews of two white florals: Michael Kors Suede and Keiko Mecheri Soussanne.
Michael Kors Suede
It often puzzles me why perfume brands choose the names they do. At the very least, they seem to assume that consumers are paying very close attention — an assumption that seems entirely unwarranted given the number of new fragrance releases every year. So, if you assumed, reasonably enough, that the new Suede by Michael Kors was a soft leather fragrance, sorry, you were quite off base. If you knew enough to recognize the bottle design (see below), and figured based on the bottle that it was a flanker to the brand’s signature fragrance from 2000, Michael by Michael Kors, you were closer to the mark, and if you guessed further that it was a softer, lighter, more summery version, with no relationship to “suede” other than being soft, ding ding ding: you win the prize…
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Posted by Robin
on
12 July 2011
Baiser Volé (‘Stolen Kiss’) debuts this month from Cartier. The pleasant but faceless Cartier de Lune (I tried but failed to review it, and have entirely forgotten what it smells like) launched only very recently so I was surprised to see another feminine entry so soon, but here we are. This one was also done by perfumer Mathilde Laurent, who noted that “when asked about their favorite flower, many men said it was the lily” (really? can that possibly be?) but that she “didn’t want it to be the 1,001st floral floriental” (fine with me) and she “didn’t want to add a new floral composition” (ditto); instead, she “[imagined] what the whole flower — including its leaves, petals and pistil — could smell like”.1 Translation: lily haters need not (necessarily) worry, lily lovers need not (necessarily) drool.
Cartier is calling Baiser Volé a fresh powdery floral, and that’s just what it is: a little veil of scent, in keeping with the recent spate of “minimalist veil” fragrances. So forget about lily bombs like Donna Karan Gold or Serge Lutens Un Lys, think instead of Guerlain Shalimar Parfum Initial, the Prada Infusions (and L’Eau Ambrée), Balenciaga Paris, Love, Chloé and Hermès Eau Claire des Merveilles, etc etc, and you’ll get the idea…
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