New at neimanmarcus: Maison Francis Kurkdjian collection.
New at nordstrom: Dior Escale a Pondichery.
New at senteursdailleurs (Brussels): Acqua di Parma Magnolia Nobile.
You shoulda been there
A little perfume porn: at the Pitti Immagine Fragranze trade show in Florence last month. Many thanks to Joy for the link!
KyotEau: Bottled Memories ~ perfume books
In my late teens I often dreamed about moving to Japan. I longed to experience different colors, shapes, and tastes, and felt a strange, visceral attraction to Japanese style and culture. I pictured myself living in an old regal city like Kyoto, surrounded by temples and shrines, losing myself in a sea of red maples and blossoms. I ended up working in a Japanese company for nearly a decade, which was altogether a good thing, but my urge to relocate eventually faded away. That is until I recently got hold of Della Chuang’s latest book, which rekindled my old fascination with Japanese life and tradition.
KyotEau: Bottled Memories documents the creative process behind KyotEau (or Eau de Kyoto), a tribute to the author’s favorite city. A former art director at Ralph Lauren Fragrances and Tom Ford Beauty, Taiwanese-born Della Chuang tells us about the idea behind the project, its conception, and the hurdles she had to take before it was brought to completion. She reflects on Japanese art, design, culture, and philosophy, and uses her own photography, sketchwork, and correspondence with friends and colleagues to bring these subjects to life. In a cut out insert in the back of the book you’ll find a sample vial of KyotEau, created by none other than perfumer Christophe Laudamiel. In the book they discuss the transformation from the original brief to the actual composition of the fragrance, which features jasmine, incense, patchouli, jatamansi, cypriol, and some very elegant soft floral and woody accords…
NST giveaway (US only) ~ ElizabethW Magnolia & Lili Bermuda Petals
What is it: one winner will receive brand new, unopened boxes of ElizabethW Magnolia (60 ml) and Lili Bermuda Petals (50 ml).
Who can win: Any registered reader who has already left at least one comment on the site before today (see rule #1 below), who lives in the US (see rule #2 below) and who has not won an NST giveaway in the past 6 months.
Update: we have a winner, congrats to rlsk! Be sure to send me your mailing details…
Coach for Men ~ fragrance review
Shortly after graduating from college with a degree in English literature, I decided I should, like so many other graduates I knew, “go into sales.” I got a job at a public relations company and was assigned “non-profit/government accounts” (not exactly the money-making and glamorous clients I had envisaged). My first appointment was at a busy, city police precinct. I arrived for my meeting with the police department’s media relations specialist at the same time an infamous rapist had been brought in for booking. News reporters swarmed the building and my contact paid scant attention to what I had to say or what my company had to offer. I felt rather puny in that environment, especially as I looked at the P.R. guy’s tanned, bulging biceps…his upper arms were almost the size of my thighs. He left the room “for a second” and never came back. After waiting way too long for him to return, I snuck out of the building.
Almost all my appointments were in some way or other embarrassing and unproductive, and my sales career ended within a month. I was left with two expensive souvenirs from those uncomfortable and futile weeks: a “business” suit (long ago donated to charity) and a Coach attaché. The attaché still resides, wrapped in a soft cotton t-shirt, on the top shelf of my bedroom closet; it’s taken out for moisturizing once a year.
At the time I bought my attaché, Coach’s goods were considered high quality but a bit stodgy. These days, Coach is hipper…