Posted by Kevin
on
11 January 2012
The perfume line Arquiste is the brainchild of Mexican architect/designer Carlos Huber (a k a Nate Berkus’s boyfriend); the name “Arquiste” represents the ideas (ideals?) of “architecture,” “history” and “art” and the perfumes in the collection reference historical moments, from the meeting of Louis XIV of France and María Teresa of Spain in 1660 (the fragrances Fleur de Louis and Infanta en Flor) to Alexander Pushkin’s death-by-dueling in 1837 (Aleksandr).
I decided to tackle the two ‘Mexican’ fragrances in the line first, because Mexico and I go way back (and have always had a happy relationship)…
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Posted by Kevin
on
26 October 2011
My favorite Bang Bang can be heard here. (Perhaps you’d like to listen as you read this review?) Marc Jacobs Bang Bang was released in August, and compared to the splashy debut of Bang, didn’t even merit a drum-roll, let alone a double-bang. I’ve seen no Bang Bang advertisements in magazines and the fragrance seems to be available only on the Marc Jacobs website in the U.S. — not in any major department stores.
Recently, a Nordstrom perfume sales person told me original Bang was a flop with consumers. (Clerk: “It didn’t smell good. We’re not stocking Bang anymore…and there’s a new Bang?”) All this surprised me — a Nordstrom perfume counter employee dissing a fragrance? Bang, such an original, pert, fun fragrance, a dud?
Bang Bang was developed by perfumer Yann Vasnier and lists notes of lemon, fennel, cardamom, sage, patchouli, sandalwood and cashmere musks.* Ignoring the advice I give others, I bought Bang Bang…unsniffed…
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Posted by Robin
on
25 October 2011
So when I reviewed Tom Ford Violet Blonde last month, I said that I may be nearly alone among perfumistas in preferring Tom Ford’s Signature Collection to the Private Blends. I like Oud Wood, but I like Yves Saint Laurent M7 better, and I’ve never been more than lukewarm about the rest of them. If anything, my interest in the collection has decreased over the years, and it pretty much hit rock bottom with the release of the White Musk collection.
The Signature Collection fragrances strike me as generally better thought out and better executed — Tom Ford tends, in general, towards loud, but the polished elegance of the Signature Collection stands in stark contrast to the blunt force of some of the Private Blend scents, especially the early ones (I still remember wondering, when I first smelled the Private Blends, if some of them weren’t maybe unfinished mods for Black Orchid). The three Signature fragrances fit together nicely; they don’t smell the same but they have a similar style, and as such they lend a sense of cohesiveness to the Tom Ford Beauty line that is notably missing from most mainstream designer perfume houses.
The Private Blends, on the other hand, seem like a mishmash…
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Posted by Robin
on
26 July 2011
Marc Jacobs’ new Oh, Lola! flanker launched fairly recently, and has already ended its brief exclusive-to-Bloomingdales period and is available nearly everywhere. The original Lola fragrance (2009), if you remember, was meant to be Daisy’s (2007) older sister. Oh, Lola! is supposed to be “lively and playful”, and sweeter than Lola, so I’m assuming it’s the middle sister, perhaps? It’s fronted by Dakota Fanning (see above), who is around 17, if that helps you place Oh, Lola! on the target market time line.
Oh, Lola! is exactly as advertised. They’ve toned down the floral notes in the heart and amped up the fruit notes in the opening; the base is a slightly paler version of Lola’s woody-musky trail…
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Posted by Robin
on
23 May 2011
Marc Jacobs will launch Oh, Lola!, a new flanker to 2009′s Lola fragrance for women, in July. Oh, Lola! is described as lively and playful…
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