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...

Last night in a fit of optimism, I packed my winter sweaters and heavy wool skirts into plastic tubs and hauled them to the basement. Out came the cotton dresses and print blouses. Naturally, this morning was chilly, and I see rain splashing into the birdbath outside my window as I write. It's the cold edge of spring. I want a perfume that is an antidote to the amber, leather, tobacco, and vanilla I've been wearing for months. I want something that hints at warm days to come and smells like the air outside: crisp, floral, and green. This is when I reach for Annick Goutal Des Lys Eau de Toilette.

A lily's fragrance is potent. This has advantages and disadvantages. The pure, thick scent of just one stem of Stargazer lilies on the mantel will steamroll over the odor of dank carpets or an overfull litter box. Within a minute of coming into a room, guests will say, "It smells good in here." At the same time, lilies can overtake a space, giving it the feel of funeral parlor and fighting with the smell of dinner in the other room. After an hour, guests may well ask for aspirin...

It has been a very long time since I actually swooned over the first sniff of any perfume, but the latest from the Hermessence collection at Hermès, Vanille Galante, was a rare case of love-at-first-sniff. Happily for me, so far it appears to be a lasting relationship — just as well, since I bought it unsniffed.*

I will start by mentioning that Vanille Galante is likely to be a disappointment to vanilla freaks (there have already been a few disgruntled customers on the fragrance boards). The early scents in the Hermessence series (Ambre Narguile, Rose Ikebana, Vetiver Tonka, Poivre Samarcande, Osmanthe Yunnan) were mostly "about" the material they were named after. Paprika Brasil and Brin de Reglisse were less directly so, and Vanille Galante, while presumably a reflection of some sorts on vanilla...

Lily & Spice is the latest fragrance release from Penhaligon's; it includes notes of lily, saffron, patchouli and musk. It is meant to herald the "return to the essence of Penhaligon’s identity of traditional English perfumery". (via princesssquare)

Lily & Spice is a rather forthright take on lily, miles away from the embellished approach of Serge Lutens Un Lys or Donna Karan Gold...

Un Lys is rather at the other end of the spectrum from yesterday's Donna Karan Gold: you certainly wouldn't use the words crisp or sheer, and it smells nothing like a modern department store fragrance...

Last month I said that I thought Tom Ford's Black Orchid was perhaps the most impressive mainstream perfume release this year; Donna Karan's Gold may well get my vote for the prettiest. The top notes are crisp and summery, with lots of lily; as it calms, the lily is folded into the other floral notes...

Guerlain will launch the next fragrance in the L'Art et la Matiere line, Bois d'Armenie, in September...