The most perfectly tailored fragrance

Posted by Robin on 8 March 2007 2 Comments

IN 1994, Calvin Klein designed a fragrance that embodied, in its flat little screw-top bottle, the disaffected, sexually ambivalent grunge youth of the moment. CK One, with its unconventional black and white advertisements filled with moping, androgynous models, was arguably the most perfectly tailored fragrance ever pitched to one market, breaking industry rules and records, selling 20 bottles per minute at its peak.

— Hey, I bought one! The New York Times asks whether the new Calvin Klein CK IN2U (oops! we're probably supposed to call it ck in2u) can possibly do as well as CK One did in its day. Thanks to Minger71 for the link!

Vivienne Westwood Boudoir Sin Garden, Burberry Summer ~ new fragrances

Posted by Robin on 8 March 2007 13 Comments

vivienne Westwood Boudoir Sin Garden perfume Vivienne Westwood will launch a new limited edition variation on her Boudoir (1998) fragrance this April. Boudoir Sin Garden, developed by perfumer Marie Salamagne, was inspired by English country house gardens, and includes notes of freesia, pink pepper, aldehydes, violet, heliotrope, Florentine sword lily, amber, sandalwood, oakmoss and musk…

Read the rest of this article »

Annick Goutal Folavril ~ fragrance review

Posted by Robin on 7 March 2007 22 Comments

Annick Goutal Folavril perfume

It has been snowing since late last night, and we now have several inches of accumulation. It is that time of year when it seems like winter is taking just a bit too long in departing, and I am ready for a little denial; hence, today’s subject: Folavril by Annick Goutal. It was her first fragrance release (launched in 1981), and the name, April Fool, is the perfect way to announce the coming of spring. I’m just doing it a little bit early. The notes include mango, jasmine, boronia flower and tomato leaf.

Annick Goutal’s Folavril opens on a burst of sweet mango and what smells to me rather like apricot or peach jam. It would probably smell like yet another insipid fruity floral (although if I remember correctly, it is classified as an aldehydic floral) were it not for the tomato leaves, which undercut the sweetness with their bitter, peppery-spicy green edge. The combination smells playful, in keeping with the name, and it has a nice bite to it — Folavril perfectly manages to evoke the warmth of the tropics without calling to mind suntan oil or a frozen cocktail….

Read the rest of this article »

IFRA vs. Cropwatch, part 3

Posted by Robin on 7 March 2007 2 Comments

Two more items in the ongoing saga about new restrictions on natural components in perfumes (see Groups organizing boycott of IFRA's 40th Amendment and Groups organizing boycott of IFRA's 40th Amendment, part 2):

In “IFRA Promotes Synthetic Ingredients in Fragrance“, an article which first appeared on 3/2 in Cosmetics Design-Europe:

IFRA has suggested that the many benefits of using synthetic ingredients within fragrance production outweighs the use of natural ingredients – coinciding with the controversial revision of its code of practice last year.

But if you want to see that quote on the Cosmetics Design site, you'll have to search Google's cache before it disappears; it has now been reworded to say…

Read the rest of this article »