Say you adore Guerlain Shalimar’s feel of silk velvet amber and stained glass, but its lemon is too sharp or its civet turns your stomach. Or maybe Shalimar is too recognizably Shalimar, and you don’t want to be so easy to peg. It could be you simply crave a throwback oriental fragrance with more sophistication than the average department store amber. If so, try a sniff of Papillon Bengale Rouge…
“Better lucky than smart,” Beverly said. I certainly felt lucky. I’d only met her in person the day before, yet here I was, glass of rosé in hand, seated on her terrace in the south of France, the lights of Valbonne in the valley below mirroring the stars.
Almost nine years ago, a friend and I stopped into an estate sale, and I came away with a four dollar bottle of Lucien Lelong Indiscret parfum (the story and a mini-review are here). A few years later, a stranger — Beverly — wrote to me saying that her mother had worn Indiscret, and would I send her a sample? Her mother had died when Beverly was only 18, more than fifty years earlier. I sent her the bottle…
If you’ve focused on the “poudre” part of Yves Saint Laurent Grain de Poudre, never fear: it isn’t a powdery scent. Instead, it’s a well mannered, spicy leather. Confusing the matter further, grain de poudre actually refers the stiff but smooth finish of fabrics used, for instance, in blazers and handbags.
Perfumer Quentin Bisch developed Grain de Poudre as part of Yves Saint Laurent’s Vestiaire des Parfums series…
Yesterday afternoon, I walked a stretch of Paris’s gritty 19th arrondissement with a friend who lives here. “Every neighborhood has its own personality,” he said. “Yet it’s all Paris.” That’s a good way to describe the fragrances in Chanel’s Les Exclusifs line, including the latest, Chanel 1957. Each of the fragrances has its own personality, but each is Chanel. The difference is that 1957’s personality is enough like an aura to complement your own personality, too.
Olivier Polge composed 1957, and its notes include white musk, bergamot, iris, neroli, cedar, powdery accents and honey. In short, 1957 is all about layers of cloud-like musk…
What distinguishes a Count from a waiter? What makes a princess? The nature of nobility is one of the questions raised in A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.1 Perfume lovers might torque the question to “How does a classic French perfume differ from a department store floral?” and “Is it worth it?”
Parfums MDCI Promesse de l’Aube would certainly be listed in Debrett’s Peerage, if the book extended to fragrance…