French niche line Lubin has launched a new Eau de Parfum version of Lubin Idole. Like the original Eau de Toilette, it was developed by perfumer Olivia Giacobetti…

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French niche line Diptyque has launched a new collection, Les Invités du Trente-Quatre, comprising three limited edition items in connection with their 50th anniversary…

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L'Artisan Parfumeur's 2006 summer fragrance, Mandarine Tout Simplement, developed by perfumer Olivia Giacobetti, has returned for a limited time under the name Mandarine.

Mandarine is $100 for 100 ml Eau de Toilette, and can be found now at L'Artisan's web store. (via newsletter from L'Artisan)

Candles marketed to men usually smell of musk (“the animal in you”), wood (the untamed wilderness), musky-woods (hunting deer in the untamed wilderness), leather (baseball mitt!), vetiver (cut grass), even hamburgers (White Castle), but all those supposedly manly candle aromas smell like so many roses and chocolate-covered marshmallows compared to perfumer Olivia Giacobetti’s Dans l’Atelier de Cézanne candle; it’s the most “masculine,” austere-severe candle scent I’ve ever smelled. Dans l’Atelier de Cézanne is downright UNcomfortable; as I sniff it, I feel an ancient bottle of flammable fluid in a rusty tin bottle is on the verge of igniting, a storm of dust bunnies might suffocate me, or dry-rot could cause the floor under my feet to collapse.

Need I say…I love it?

The Dans l’Atelier de Cézanne aroma was created for the artist Vincent Beaurin and his Le Spectre installation at Paul Cézanne’s studio in Aix-en-Provence last July and August. The PR materials say it all:

Nothing has changed in this ancient studio since Paul Cézanne passed away and his paintings were removed. Time has laid a veil of fine dust over it, as the Provençal heat has almost mineralized the wood of the furniture, of his easel and of the floorboards, long stained with colours, oil paints and turpentine.

Giacobetti has worked with Beaurin twice before* and was asked, this time, to concoct a perfume that captured the “essence” of Cézanne‘s workspace…

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The certified organic We Love New York collection from Honoré des Prés is one of the best surprises of 2010. Like many others, I had issues with the line’s debut scents, launched in 2008 and developed by perfumer Olivia Giacobetti.¹ My favorite of the first five was Sexy Angelic, a tribute to the calisson, specialty of Aix-en-Provence and possibly the world’s most divine confection. Sexy Angelic opens with a fresh, mouthwatering cloud of marzipan and crystallized melon… and then, swiftly, nothing. Within a minute or two, the top notes have completely dissipated, leaving behind a very faintly minty, showered-skin smell that lasts for approximately six more minutes. Even for all-natural eaux and in the context of Giacobetti’s ethereal Iunx waters, four of the original Honoré scents set new records for brevity. Unfortunately, the sole enduring scent, Chaman’s Party, seems to feature enough tulsi (aka holy basil) to remind me of those ayurvedic teas served at spas where you are instructed to always apply facial moisturizer with a counter clockwise motion. (Don’t let me discourage you from sampling it, though. It was a winner for Robin.) The experience seemed too mixed for 100 ml at $145, so with mild disappointment, I mentally filed the line away as one not likely to inspire a purchase.

But then, with the announcement of the We Love New York trio in March, I had to consider re-filing. From the note lists, which seemed to promise bolder, longer-lasting fragrances, to the painfully cute, coffee-themed packaging: everything about I Love Les Carottes, Love Coco and Vamp à NY caught the attention of wired perfumanity…

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Ed Hardy Born Wild

Ed Hardy’s fourth fragrance for women, Born Wild, is just what you’d expect — a sweet-ish, middle-of-the-road fruity floral in their signature tattoo-inspired packaging. The fruit du jour: peach. Born Wild is light (think spring/summer rather than winter/fall), clean and inoffensive, and the lasting power is reasonable enough…

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Do you love carrots? By which I mean, of course, do you love carrots in perfume? Because if you don’t, move on, nothing to see here today. I Love Les Carottes is one of the three fragrances in the We Love New York collection from French organic line Honoré des Prés, and they’re not kidding about the carrots. Perfumer Olivia Giacobetti reportedly spend some serious quality time with carrots while developing this one:

With this comforting wonder, Olivia has initiated, with love, by cooking, freezing, and cooking again the carrots from organic farmers in the streets of Harlem and by crossing the crudity of the carrot juice…

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French organic line Honoré des Prés will launch We Love New York, a collection of three new fragrances, in late April. Vamp à NY, I Love Les Carottes and Love Coco were all developed by perfumer Olivia Giacobetti…

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The original Hotel Costes fragrance, once called Costes but now presumably Costes No. 1 to distinguish it from their newer eponymous scent, was something of a cult favorite, although I don’t hear about it so often these days — is anyone out there still wearing it? At any rate, it was done by perfumer Olivia Giacobetti and was based on the hotel’s signature room fragrance.¹ Giacobetti also did their new fragrance, Costes No. 2, which was reportedly “inspired by the Hotel’s signature rose bouquets and the recently opened rose florist shop”² (the notes: benzoin, cinnamon, Turkish rose, geranium, orange blossom, and gaiac wood).

If you’re after a boatload of roses, though, be warned that you won’t find it here. Costes No. 2 is, first of all, a very quiet scent…

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Hotel Costes has launched a follow-up to their cult-favorite signature scent, Costes, which is now referred to as Costes No. 1. The new scent is Costes No. 2 (shown above right), and like the first, was developed by perfumer Olivia Giacobetti…

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