Perfumer Neil Morris rates some of the recent celebrity fragrance releases in The Boston Herald. On Baby Phat Golden Goddess:
I like it the best out of all of them. It’s pleasant and fun for young women 18 to 35. I like it because it’s well-blended, it’s round and it has really clean edges. Nothing jumps out at you…
Aftelier has launched two new fragrances:
Tango is a liquid perfume, “inspired by the dance of love, sexy and smoky with roasted seashells and champaca; a heady floral with spice and honey notes.”
Orchid is a solid perfume described as “the fresh and spicy floral fragrance of orchids in bloom featuring the mysterious aroma of orange flower absolute…”
New at imaginationperfumery: Nina Ricci Nina.
New at nordstrom: Betsey Johnson, Donna Karan Gold.
CB I Hate Perfume has a newly redesigned website and online store, and has added several new fragrances:
Violet Empire is “blended from CB Violet Empress, Elemi, Violet Leaf Absolute, Rosewood, Mahogany, and Russian Leather. Violet EMPIRE is an unusual yet very elegant perfume. The violet scent perpetually peeps out from behind a shining green veil.”
Wild Pansy “is actually the smell of wild violets growing in the forest very crisp grassy & casual…”
The Japanese incense company Baieido was founded in 1657 by Jinkoya (meaning “aloeswood trader”) Sakubei in the city of Sakai, a trading port where incense was a hot commodity. Baieido’s Hinoki Incense is made with the essential oil of a venerable and treasured tree — the hinoki cypress. During feudal times in Japan, the hinoki cypress was one of the Five Sacred Trees of the Kiso forest; death sentences were handed down to those who felled a hinoki cypress without permission from the authorities.
Hinoki means “fire tree” in Japanese; in certain Shinto rites, pieces of dry hinoki wood are rubbed together to produce a flame. The wood of the hinoki was used to build imperial palaces, temples, Nō theatres, and Shinto shrines. Traditionally, the Ise Shrine was dismantled and rebuilt every 20 years using hinoki cypress lumber from Kiso. The wood itself is strong and durable — resistant to insects and rot. The lemon-scented hinoki wood is used to build not only things mighty but things mundane — bath houses and bath tubs…