Perfumes cling closely to your flesh As incense to a censer; bright And dusky nymph, you are all Night, Secret and passionate and fresh!
— Charles Baudelaire (trans. Jacques LeClercq)
This is the end / beautiful friend
— Jim Morrison
I’m sorry, but I couldn’t stop myself from using those images and quotations. What else can one do, when faced with promotional copy stating that a fragrance is “inspired on one hand by Baudelaire’s homage to sweet and deep fragrances, yet on the other hand by the dark and mysterious poetry of Jim Morrison as he seemingly forebode his own demise”? The fragrance in question is Sweet Redemption (The End), the tenth and final release in By Kilian’s L’Oeuvre Noire series. It was developed by perfumer Calice Becker and the notes for this sweet powdery woods fragrance include orange blossom, vanilla, myrrh, opopanax, benzoin and incense.
Overwrought prose aside, what do we have here? Sweet Redemption opens with a top note of orange blossom cocooned in spun sugar. It’s feminine and quite pretty, and I thought for a moment that this would turn out to be one of the simpler By Kilian compositions…
Velvet & Sweet Pea’s Purrfumery is the creation of Laurie Stern, a perfumer who blends her artisanal fragrances from carefully selected botanical ingredients. I first heard about this small company from Trish at Scent Hive, who recently shared some trial-sized amounts of Velvet & Sweet Pea’s Face & Body Frostings with me. Fancy body creams are everywhere these days, and it takes a little something extra to impress me, so I’m glad Trish put these products right into my hands. They definitely need to be felt and smelled to be appreciated fully.
Velvet & Sweet Pea’s Face & Body Frostings in Orange Blossom and Kashmir Rose are both concocted from a base of organic jojoba oil (infused with Tahitian vanilla beans), organic shea butter, virgin coconut oil, and organic oils of marula, avocado, red raspberry seed, rose hip seed, sesame, safflower, and vitamin E. Orange Blossom Whipped Face & Body Frosting is fragranced with neroli essential oil and blood orange oil. Its scent opens with a clean, bright neroli note, one of the nicest I’ve smelled in a body product in ages, and it turns more citrusy as the product warms on skin…
Diptyque recently expanded its selection of personal fragrance and home fragrance with a new line of luxurious bath and body products. The five products in the “L’Art du Soin” range are designed around carefully chosen natural ingredients like organic olive oil and argan oil, among other naturally beneficial essences, while remaining free of parabens, silicones, sulfates, petrochemicals, and other synthetic additives. Unlike Diptyque’s previously existing body washes and lotions, which were scented to match specific Eaux de Toilettes in the collection, these new items have their own unique fragrance blends.
With L’Art du Soin, Diptyque is also adopting a theme of travel and discovery: all five products incorporate ingredients associated with historic Mediterranean destinations. Creamy Body Wash (Gelée Lactée), a softly foaming shower cream, evokes the ancient bathing traditions of Aleppo with a scent of lemon and olive leaves. Rich Butter (Crème Riche), in a tribute to Byzantium, is fragranced with a true Damask rose note enhanced by myrrh and balsam. Luxurious Hand Balm (Baume Généreux pour les Mains) is a mouth-watering souvenir of Cordoba, in Spain, succulently scented with ripe apricot and buttery tonka bean…
Le Couvent des Minimes will launch Orange Blossom / Fleur de Oranger this month.* The fragrance is a limited edition, and hopes to evoke a “spring walk in a field of Mediterranean orange trees”.
The notes feature tangerine, raspberry, orange, orange blossom, jasmine, petitgrain, vanilla, musk and precious wood…
