Brooks Brothers has launched Black Fleece fragrances for men and women, two new scents for Thom Browne’s Black Fleece upscale capsule clothing collection.
Browne describes Black Fleece by Brooks Brothers Eau de Toilette for Men as “…a timeless original scent evocative of that man sitting in a library or parlor smoking and drinking whiskey”…
Queen is the debut perfume from the multi-talented Queen Latifah, who joins the rest of the celebrity stable at Parlux (Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson and Andy Roddick, with Rihanna and Kayne West soon to follow). Latifah reportedly smelled about 50 different fragrances, many of them “a little too mature or a little too sweet”, before settling on the final product.1
The resulting fragrance is a woody gourmand oriental. The opening is a bit loud (I like it better dabbed than sprayed, and better on skin than on paper), and features ever-trendy booze notes (in this case, golden tequila and cognac, other notes are bergamot, mandarin, baie rose, jasmine noir, coriander, patchouli, sandalwood, vanilla, tonka bean, incense and musk) over a sweet, amber-y patchouli, quite clean, with fruity undertones and the usual dollop of pink pepper. The longer it’s on skin, the more the emphasis turns to the gourmand part of the proceedings…
Queen Latifah will launch her debut fragrance, Queen, in August. The new scent, described as “warm and sexy”, was developed under arrangements with Parlux.
Queen was developed by perfumer Steve DeMercado…
As long as I'm buying a perfume anyway, I'd just as soon have it in a pretty bottle — I mean, why not? And if I'm dithering over whether or not to buy something, a pretty bottle might just push me over the edge. Still, I'm not what you'd call a bottle hound. I've never bought anything just for the bottle before, and ultra-luxe packaging doesn't generally interest me beyond the fun of oohing and aahing over the picture. I'd certainly never pay extra for it if the scent was available in a cheaper version, and fragrances that are only available in ultra-luxe trappings set off my worst cynical leanings. I'm not entirely immune to “must have it” perfume packaging, though: turns out all you have to do is suspend 5 molded plastic doll's heads inside a cardboard gift box with a clear plastic top, and I'm a goner.
Yep, I'm here to admit that I smelled all five of Gwen Stefani's new Harajuku Lovers fragrances, found them generally wanting, took a good look at the coffret of solid perfumes and had one paid for, wrapped in tissue and ready to go in a matter of minutes…
Jennifer Lopez will launch J Lo Love at First Glow in January.
The fragrance was created by nose Steve deMercado and features bergamot, neroli, Georgia peach, pink jasmine, wild rose, osmanthus, freesia, sheer musk, blond woods and vanilla absolute. Update: see a review of J Lo Love At First Glow.
The American Girl doll collection will launch their first fragrance, Truly Me…
