Perfume coverage in the December issues of Allure, Details, GQ, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, Marie Claire; please comment on any fragrance-related coverage you’ve seen in other fashion and beauty magazines:
Cover: Keira Knightley
Scent strips: Dolce & Gabbana Pour Homme & Pour Femme, Michael Kors Signature & Rose Gold Edition, L’Homme Yves Saint Laurent, Burberry Body, Britney Spears Fantasy Twist…
What does nostalgia mean for perfume? The vintage perfume I love doesn’t smell like it did when it was made. Top notes aren’t as sharp, and sometimes a certain “pruniness” has crept in. Like yellowed letters and recordings full of snaps and hisses, an old perfume can be hard to appreciate simply as a fragrance. Instead, it is changed by time and weighted with the aura of another age. I still cherish vintage perfume for its unfashionable composition and beautiful materials, but it’s not the same as opening a box of, say, Christian Dior Diorama in 1951 and inhaling its lively splendor then. Smell as I might, I’ll never know exactly what those fragrances meant in their time.
Sonoma Scent Studio Nostalgie attempts to recapture the beauty of a vintage fragrance. But Nostalgie is brighter and fresher than the bottles vintage perfume I’ve smelled. It also speaks to modern perfume lovers by being a little softer and less “growly” than many old bombshell fragrances. Maybe this is what it would have been like to crack open a perfume bottle fifty years ago…
Today we’re helping Pamela, and after that, the Monday Mail goes on its holiday vacation — it will return in January. If you’d like to get on the waiting list, see here.
Pamela wants to find a new signature fragrance that’s more interesting than the generic fruity florals at Macy’s and Sephora. Her perfect scent will be unique, warm, feminine and a little mysterious, but still accessible enough for everyday wear and versatile enough to take her into the evening. She can spend up to $150, and is happy to shop online. Here is what we know about Pamela:
She’s a 20-something PhD student in English.
She lives in a small midwestern town, but travels quite a bit (and shops for perfume when she does).
Her personal style is a combination of classic, simple shapes and some more masculine cuts (button-down shirts, for instance but always in a feminine color), and she loves jewel tones.
She has brown hair with bangs, and brown eyes.
Pamela likes amber, sandalwood, musk, jasmine, tobacco, leather, spices, tuberose (more green, though), mimosa, violet and soap. Some of the scents she enjoys at the moment include Frederic Malle Dans Tes Bras, L’Artisan Parfumeur Mimosa pour Moi, Kiehl’s Original Musk and Chanel Coco Mademoiselle…
New at beautyhabit: Rouge Bunny Rouge line.
Deal at ineke: free shipping, no coupon code needed, offer good through 12/17.
New at luckyscent: Parfum d'Empire Musc Tonkin.
