The 2011 holiday collection from Diptyque: Epinette in green (“Echoing the aromatic freshness of its needles and the resinuous notes of its pine cones, the Spruce Tree candle promises a wintry runaway in the depths of the wood.”; in 3 sizes $32-$275) or Perdigone in red (“Concentrate of warm and fruity notes around a spiced plum that deliciously perfumes the house. Absolutely comforting in the depths of winter.”; in 2 sizes $32-68)…

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It’s the season for holiday candles. I, for one, am tired of the usual pine and pomander (fruit-and-spice) offerings, so I’ve decided to review a candle that qualifies as “festive” without being a cliché: Astier de Villatte Naples.

When Astier de Villatte decided to honor Napoli with a candle, they had many scent options: the sea (Bay of Naples), the volcano (imagine the incense/smoky notes of Vesuvius); or the pizza (tomato leaf, basil, olive, rosemary).* Instead, Astier de Villatte choose Italian pastry as inspiration; unexpected, but it works.

When I was in Napoli a few years back, I ate like a hog: cappuccino and strawberry tarts for breakfast, an entire pizza or big bowl of pasta for lunch (as for dinners — they were almost “endless,” but in a good way). At tea time each day, I got into the habit of “snacking” at the old Gran Caffè Gambrinus (where the likes of Oscar Wilde, Gabriele D’Annunzio, and, yes, the always-famished Luciano Pavarotti, have sipped and chewed over the last hundred years). There are less expensive, and friendlier, places to take tea, coffee or cocktails than Gambrinus but the pastries are delicious, the café is gorgeous, and if you sit outside, you’ll see the glories of Napoli walk by — animal and human…

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I’ve occasionally paused in a high-end department store — usually on the way to the fragrance department — to admire the creations of Fornasetti. It would be easy, I think, to become addicted to Fornasetti’s world of ceramics and other home décor items, all embellished with witty designs that draw on a vocabulary of classical architecture, celestial bodies, playing cards, keyholes, and (most famously) the face of opera singer Lina Cavalieri, featured in hundreds of “themes and variations.” It’s a whimsical, almost Surrealist, visual style that filters Victorian imagery through a 1960s sensibility.

Fornasetti licensed the Fornasetti Profumi line just a year ago, and this venture seems like a smart fit for the brand. This collection encompasses various home-fragrance devices: scented candles, incense sticks, room spray, and ingenious three-way ceramic diffusers that can be adjusted to hold incense, perfumed oil, or scented crystals. It also has an impressive pedigree. The actual fragrance, named Otto, was developed by perfumer Olivier Polge. The candles, housed in Italian-crafted ceramic containers, are a wax blend manufactured by Cire Trudon, and the incense (the main subject of this review) is made by Nippon Kodo…

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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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A limited edition candle, conceived by the late Tobias Wong and inspired by the New York Times:

The scent of the candle is newsy…

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My father loved clothes and dressing up, but he was also fond of walking around in his underwear or gardening clothes (“rags” my grandmother called them). He had a temper but was patient with animals, especially cats. His cats (at one point we had ten!) took turns sitting in his lap in the garden, and they all, man and cats, bird-watched together. The trait I appreciated most in my father was his curiosity. When I gave him gifts, he’d approach them with interest, as if they needed exploration, analysis. He wasted no opportunity to learn something. Once, for a present mind you, I gave him a boring book on the history of the U.S. Supreme Court; he read it from cover to cover. He loved antique folk sculptures of animals, so I bought him a homey little tome called “Carving Duck Decoys.” Father started carving ducks and several of them are staring at me as I write this. When it came to toiletries, my father used Ivory soap and old-fashioned drugstore shave cream until, thanks to yours truly, he became appreciative of, then addicted to, expensive shave lathers from England and all sorts of interesting soaps and potions. I can’t remember an “unsuccessful” gift to my father. I hope your father is as easy to buy for as mine was!

For fathers big and small, young and old, fancy and rustic; for regal and distinguished Fathers, fauxhemian pères, outdoorsy-sporty dads, and jazzy Daddy-Os, I present some gift ideas for Father’s Day…

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Alcatraz, on the other hand (“Indian blond tobacco, yerba maté with its notes of dried hay, smoked lignum vitae and cinnamon spiced with black pepper”) seems to have been conjured not from an actual three-hour tour but a dream.

— On Astier de Villate candles, from Follow Their Nose at the New York Times. Hat tip to Kevin!

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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It’s such a conundrum. I have more than enough perfume for life, yet the occasional bottle or split still finds its way into my crowded perfume cabinet. While I return to my favorites and exciting, newer bottles, perfectly good perfume sits and risks turning. What’s a girl to do? Find more ways to use perfume, that’s what. Here are a few uses for perfume you like enough to keep, but fear you won’t use before it spoils:

Scent your curtains. Diaghilev reportedly sprayed his curtains with Guerlain Mitsouko so when the wind ruffled their fabric, his rooms were filled with Mitsouko’s sepia peach and moss. Such a romantic idea. A few years ago I followed his lead and spritzed the cotton velvet curtains in my living room with Mitsouko EdP. I nearly threw up. For about a week I couldn’t spend time on the couch without occasional forays to the kitchen for air. Fragrant curtains are a terrific idea, but I recommend something with less presence than Mitsouko…

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Below the jump, more about the Roseros candles.

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