Trendy boutique chain Scoop NYC has launched two new fragrances: Scoop NYC for women and Scoop Kids (shown):
Scoop for women balances a floral bouquet of pear blossom and tangerine zest with notes of white peony, jasmine, and pink freesia…
Home fragrance: Papier d’Armenie
In the late 1800s, Auguste Ponsot, a Frenchman, traveled through Armenia and noticed that many people fragranced and disinfected their homes and businesses by burning benzoin (a resin produced by trees of the genus Styrax). Personal and public hygiene were hot topics at the time in France, and Ponsot felt Europeans, too, could benefit from burning benzoin at home. Realizing most ‘modern’ European families would not go to the trouble of burning raw benzoin, he sought the help of a pharmacist, Henri Rivier, to come up with an easy way to burn the resin.
Rivier dissolved raw benzoin in 90% alcohol, added some “secret” aromatics to the mixture, and soaked paper in the sweetly scented liquid. The paper was put through a saline bath to make it burn slowly. This fragrant paper was then burned and its smoke scented and cleansed the air. The new product was called Papier d’Arménie and became popular immediately. It has been produced for over 120 years in the Paris suburb of Montrouge…
Perfume in the news
Chandler Burr has an article in today's New York Times detailing how perfumer Christophe Laudamiel came to create the fragrances in Thierry Mugler's Le Parfum coffret, recently released in conjunction with the movie version of Patrick Suskind's Perfume.
Bois de Jasmin has reviews of the Le Parfum fragrances, and they sound (unfortunately, given the price) fabulous.
Apothia L Eau de Parfum fragrance review
As the year draws to a close, I am desperately trying to clear out my massive backlog of untried or partially tried fragrance samples. Unless something is so horrible that it necessitates instant removal (i.e., a scrubber), my practice is to try everything at least twice, and if it warrants a review (that is, if I can think of something to say about it) I usually give it 3-5 tries. But there are many fragrances that just don’t capture my attention one way or another on the first try, and they tend to spend months in the purgatory of the “try again some day” basket. Such was the fate that befell L Eau de Parfum, the fragrance inspired by the Showtime series The L Word and launched by Apothia earlier this year.
L Eau de Parfum was created by perfumer Yann Vasnier and includes notes of angelica, juniper, cardamom, violet leaf, Florentine orris butter, vetiver, sandalwood, musk and crystal amber…
Perfume shopping online
New at first-in-fragrance (Germany): the Eau d'Italie line.
New at parfum1: Betsey Johnson.
New at theperfumeshoppe (Canada): limited quantities of Serge Lutens Vetiver Oriental, Un Lys, Chergui and Fumerie Turque.