I'm a day late with the news — sorry! — but the ten winners of the Bond no. 9 New York Oud sample contest are Tama, MichelleAntonia, Garamascara, Turbovivi, Hyde65, Lee, Krizani, CM, JolieFleurs and Saltskin. Congrats to all!
Mexx Magnetic ~ new fragrances
Mexx has launched Mexx Magnetic, new fragrances for men and women that capture the intense moment when “you come close to each other”…
DS & Durga Poppy Rouge, The Orchid Drinkers, and Five Step Waltz ~ perfume review
D.S. & Durga, the Brooklyn-based, independent-perfumer duo, has revamped its fragrance line for 2011. Some of the original scents have been tweaked a bit, and nine new scents were added; the entire line continues to “take inspiration from antiquated herbal wisdom, native ritual medicine, Americana, outdated lore, geography, history, and gastronomy.” I’ve just tried the three new “feminines,” each of which has its own distinct mood.
Poppy Rouge takes its name from a lyric in Mississippi John Hurt’s “Richland Woman Blues,” and it’s a blend of orange flower, jonquil, and Parma violet. It’s not as impulsive and racy as its source might suggest, but it would make a lovely spring fragrance. It’s a fresh bouquet of orange blossom, the nicest one I’ve smelled since Atelier Cologne’s Grand Neroli. As it evolves, an almost lily-like note (the jonquil?) emerges, but the violet is very, very subtle. Like many of scents from D.S. & Durga, Poppy Rouge smells as though it contains a high percentage of natural ingredients.
The Orchid Drinkers refers to the nineteenth-century taste for a drink called salep, brewed from ground orchid tubers…
Online fragrance shopping
Deal at minnewyork: take 15% with coupon code SPR1115, good through 2/28.
New at nordstrom: Chantecaille fragrances.
Fresh on Marylebone High Street ~ shopping for perfume in London
Getting hold of skincare and scents by Fresh is pretty hard in the UK. The line used to be carried by some John Lewis stores, but even that channel dried up a couple of years ago. At present, anyone in the UK eager to sniff a perfumer’s take on cannabis will have to visit the Fresh store in Marylebone High Street.
The store is in a good location — this is an expensive area, but tending towards boho-chic rather than, say, Royal Family. It’s also the nearest shopping and dining possibility for those visiting Harley Street clinics, and sadly but inevitably, a fair proportion of shoppers consists of people passing time between appointments. With this in mind, the Fresh concept — white decor, slightly clinical, herbal undertones — is probably more than usually attractive.
The shop offers skincare, bath and body products, scents, and a small cosmetics line.
The most striking sight, for perfume lovers, is a group of glass ‘urns’ where scent is dispensed from taps…