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…
French niche line Honoré des Prés debuted last year with five certified organic perfumes, all (Chaman’s Party, Bonté’s Bloom, Nu Green, Sexy Angelic) save one (Honoré’s Trip) from perfumer Olivia Giacobetti. As I’ve said here before, I don’t really care personally about the synthetic vs. natural debate — to the extent that it is a debate — but it’s been nice to see more and more choice for consumers on the naturals front over the past few years, and of course anything from Olivia Giacobetti is going to get my attention.
My early favorite of the five: Chaman’s Party, the woody-vetiver entry, of course. I have to note as an aside that the brand’s Ecocert status doesn’t stop them from issuing the same sort of breathless PR-speak as everybody else; Chaman’s Party is described as an “explosive perfume due to its top-secret ingredients with aphrodisiac properties”. I don’t know about all that, but it’s a wonderful vetiver, and like the recent Turtle Vetiver Exercise No. 1 from LesNez, I’d call it a must-try for vetiver enthusiasts…
There are two perfumes for men that I’ve been forced to defend for almost 20 years. Friends, and strangers, to my face, have called these two fragrances “dandyish” “old fashioned” “of another time” and (for me, the worst) “grandfatherly.” There’s nothing wrong with grandfathers; my maternal grandfather was a sweetie who spent his leisure time reading and collecting stamps; he ran a small, country general store, geared more towards small talk and checkers than merchandise, and he smelled of vanilla, pipe tobacco and beagles. What bothers me about the “grandfatherly” adjective when it comes to describing perfume is this: “grandfatherly” implies a scent is passé. What are the two perfumes I’m always ready to defend? Guerlain Mouchoir de Monsieur and today’s review subject, Penhaligon’s Hammam Bouquet. Both fragrances are wearable and interesting; it just takes a worldly, confident, quirky, youthful (in attitude above all else) and witty man to pull them off (and to tell the truth — 98 percent of the people I’ve heard disparage Mouchoir de Monsieur and Hammam Bouquet are not qualified to wear them).
Hammam Bouquet was created in London in 1872 by William Penhaligon and it contains lavender, bergamot, rose, cedar wood, iris, jasmine, amber, musk and sandalwood. I bought my first bottle of Hammam Bouquet 18 years ago this month for a trip to Paris…
There are few perfumes as defined by their stories as is L’Artisan Parfumeur Dzing!. People who have heard about Dzing! but not smelled it still usually know that it’s supposed to smell like a circus — well, either that, or like cardboard.
When Dzing! was launched in 1999, it was called Désir de Cirque. In what surely must be one of its most successful bits of perfume copywriting, L’Artisan described perfumer Olivia Giacobetti’s inspiration for the fragrance as the full range of the circus’s “sights, sounds, smells and tastes”. They topped off the description with a tiny drawing on Dzing!’s label of a lady wearing an ostrich feather in her hair and riding a tiger. With this idea planted in a person’s head, one whiff of Dzing! invokes images of leather harnesses, caramel apples, sweaty trapeze artists, elephants, and the greasy underbellies of aging trucks with hay spilling out their backs…
Honoré des Prés is a new French niche line debuting this month with five all-natural, certified organic perfumes: Chaman's Party, Bonté’s Bloom, Nu Green, Sexy Angelic and Honoré’s Trip. All five are being marketed as unisex; four of the five (and I don't know which!) were developed by perfumer Olivia Giacobetti.
Chaman's Party ~ “from a hut in the heart of the virgin Amazon forest”, with notes of vetiver and holy basil. 148€…
Another corpse flower has bloomed at Western Illinois U, & they're expecting 2 more... http://t.co/oRnROz6j (& they've got live video)