This July, Missoni will launch Acqua, a new fragrance “about the beach, about water and about summers in Sardinia”:
Acqua has top notes of bright bergamot, juicy melon, fresh grapefruit and sensual narcisse; a heart of velvety violet, voluminous peony, blue freesia and crisp muguet, and a drydown of Tuscan iris, jasmine and glimmering “sole,” said to represent “the warmth of the sun hitting the open water.”
Missoni Acqua will be available in 30, 50 and 100 ml Eau de Toilette…
Deal at b-glowing: a special purchase on the newly added Sula line (by Susanne Lang) ~ spend $32 or more on Sula fragrance, get a 15 ml Sula Vanilla Blossom free using coupon code sula, good while supplies last.
Deal at bathandbodyworks: get free shipping on orders of $50 or more using coupon code FREESHIP50, also, markdowns on many home fragrances.
New at bloomingdales: Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue Pour Homme.
Deal at joannebassett: free shipping on samples, and all 8 ml jojoba-based Parfums 30% off with coupon code AD (enter in comments), good through mid-June or while supplies last.
New at luckyscent: Indult Isvaraya, Tihota & Manakara and the Bruno Acampora line (including sample pack of all 7 fragrances, $42).
Deal at macys: get free shipping on beauty orders of $50 or more with coupon code BEAUTYFS, good through 5/20.
New at nordstrom: Annick Goutal Eau d'Hadrien body products & handpainted limited edition perfume.
Deal at victoriassecret: the Beauty Clearance event, many fragrances on markdown, including Body by Victoria, Pink Beach, Dream Angels Heavenly & Halo, Fracas, Very Sexy and more.
Narciso Rodriguez will follow up on his signature fragrance for women, 2003's Narciso Rodriguez For Her, with Narciso Rodriguez For Him, expected to debut this July.
The new fragrance was developed by perfumer Francis Kurkdjian, who also worked on For Her. For Him takes its cues from “the great fougères of the Eighties”, and will feature musk, amber, violet leaf and patchouli notes.
Narciso Rodriguez For Him will be in a grey bottle similar to that of the women's fragrance…
Francois Coty, a master of marketing, knew how to get a girl's attention.
"Give a woman the best product you can compound, present it in a perfect container (beautifully simple, but of impeccable taste), charge a reasonable price for it and a great business will arise such as the world has never seen," wrote the Corsican-born perfumer in 1906.
— Message in a bottle, in The Age, looks at perfume packaging and how today's perfumes are "dressed for success".
A TRUFFLE by any other name may smell as sweet, but what if that name is 2,4-dithiapentane? All across the country, in restaurants great and small, the “truffle” flavor advertised on menus is increasingly being supplied by truffle oil. What those menus don’t say is that, unlike real truffles, the aroma of truffle oil is not born in the earth.
— It isn't about perfume, but Hocus-Pocus, and a Beaker of Truffles, from The New York Times, will resonate with perfume fans who wonder how much of what they smell is "real".
During early spring, while I was reading Michael Edwards’ Perfume Legends, I was struck by the number of ‘landmark’ perfumes of the early 20th century I had not smelled. I hadn’t bothered to seek out many of the old Guerlain, Caron or Patou perfumes because they were for women and I would not be wearing them — so why bother? My interest in these vintage perfumes was ignited by Perfume Legends; in the book, Sylvaine Delacourte, artistic director at Guerlain and one-time assistant to Jean-Paul Guerlain, was quoted as saying great perfumes, especially chypres, could be worn and enjoyed by women and men: “A great perfume appeals…to all human beings.”
Today, men are more open to floral and fruit notes in their colognes. Fragrance houses like Serge Lutens do not categorize scents as “masculine” or “feminine” but encourage people to wear the scents they appreciate. In Robin’s recent article Notes on perfume and context, she suggested perhaps the best way to try fragrances would be to put perfumes in plain glass bottles — that way, no information on the perfume name, perfumer, ingredients, design/perfume house, packaging or “inspiration” would influence our judgment of fragrances. To take away such “markers” would also take away gender clues.
I began my remedial perfume studies with Guerlain. I ordered samples of classic Guerlain scents (in Eau de Parfum and Eau de Toilette strengths); when I received the fragrances, I immediately covered their names with white tape and I began to wear the “unknown” perfumes one by one…