Ann Gerard Rose Cut ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 12 May 2014 45 Comments

Ann Gérard Rose Cut, bottle top view

All you rose-weary perfume lovers might be ready to click over to a different site when you see I’m reviewing Ann Gérard Rose Cut, but hang on a moment. I’ve had my issues with rose fragrances, too. Sure, I keep a bottle of Parfum d’Empire Eau Suave around to remind me of Henry James’s famous saying that “summer afternoon” are the two most beautiful words in the English language. And I have some Guerlain Nahéma for when I’m feeling giddy and ridiculous and nothing will do but rose and peach fireworks. But for the most part, rose fragrances can smell predictable. Dull. Not Rose Cut.

Our friend, the hardest-working man in fragrance, Bertrand Duchaufour,¹ developed Rose Cut…

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Coty L’Aimant ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 5 May 2014 43 Comments

Coty L'Aimant, vintage advert

“Look what I found for you,” my coworker said and handed me a Coty L’Aimant perfume ad shrink-wrapped on cardboard. It was all in gold and red, featuring a woman in a 1950s coiffure gazing into a tiny stage peppered with various L’Aimant products, from perfume to compacts to body powder. Each product was adorned with a horseshoe magnet encompassing a heart. “To be a magnet — wear a magnet — always!” the copy said.

Well, I could use some magnetizing. Who couldn’t? I remembered the bottle of vintage L’Aimant Eau de Toilette stashed in my perfume cupboard. It was time to put it to the test.

François Coty and Vincent Roubert created L’Aimant over five years, and the fragrance launched in 1927 — for context, the same year that saw the birth of Lanvin Arpège, Caron Bellodgia, and Jean Patou Chaldée. In his book Perfume, Nigel Groom lists L’Aimant’s notes as bergamot, neroli, peach, strawberry, jasmine, rose, ylang ylang, vanilla, vetiver and sandalwood. The fragrance fell out of production, then relaunched in 1995, when Groom claims it became the most popular perfume in Great Britain…

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Emilio Pucci Zadig ~ (vintage) fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 28 April 2014 14 Comments

Pucci Zadig scarf

The name of Emilio Pucci’s fragrance Zadig is very close to “zaftig,” and it fits. Zadig is blowsy and lush and sexy, but in a way that isn’t stylish anymore. Kind of like Anita Ekberg. And then there’s Voltaire’s story, “Zadig ou la Destinée,” in which a hermit tells the hero that he must submit to fate. So, by name alone, Zadig evokes passion, fate, history, and good old-fashioned pulchritude. That’s a lot to live up to. In my opinion, Zadig succeeds.

Zadig was released in 1973. I can’t find much that’s “official” about Zadig, but scouring the internet has turned up a list of notes including aldehydes, bergamot, orange, peach, coriander, clove, rose, honey, jasmine, orris, ylang ylang, vetiver, benzoin, patchouli, cinnamon, vanilla, tolu, Tibetan musk and amber. Zadig also spawned a few flankers, Miss Zadig (1977) and Miss Zadig Eau Fraiche, neither of which I’ve sampled…

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What To Do With All Those Perfume Samples

Posted by Angela on 21 April 2014 77 Comments

perfume sample sets

As is true for many perfume lovers, I have too many fragrance samples. They line my purse, spill out of bowls on my dresser, and sometimes accidentally end up as cat toys. As I’m looking for paper clips, I find them rolling in my desk drawer at work. Oh, I know it’s a good problem to have, but surely there must be something better to do with the samples I don’t intend to keep for reference.

Over the years, I’ve come up with a few uses for perfume samples. I hope you’ll add your own to the list.

In the dryer: You can make your own dryer sheets by moistening a handkerchief and dumping the contents of a perfume sample on it. Toss it in the dryer with your wet laundry. It really works…

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Grandma Florine’s Perfume

Posted by Angela on 14 April 2014 73 Comments

Chanel No. 5 Eau de Cologne

Allison sat on the couch and opened a plastic bag full of odds and ends. As she sorted its contents, she told me, “My dad said he found some of my grandma’s perfume. It should be in here somewhere.”

Allison’s Grandma Florine had been born Myrtle Florine Heffington in Bee Cave, Texas, in 1922. She hated the name Myrtle and dropped it as soon as she could. She picked up her husband’s last name, Norman, when she married at 17.

I’d heard stories about Grandma Florine. Allison and I once both worked for the same vintage clothing store, and many of the stories had to do with Florine’s wardrobe: size five gold lamé Spring-O-Lator mules with mink trim; a black and white polka dot jumpsuit from the 1960s; a full-skirted maroon velvet dress with bows on the sleeve; filmy peignoirs. Photos show Florine more sedately dressed, but nicely turned out…

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Now Smell This

a blog about perfume

Ann Gerard Rose Cut ~ fragrance review

Coty L’Aimant ~ fragrance review

Emilio Pucci Zadig ~ (vintage) fragrance review

What To Do With All Those Perfume Samples

Grandma Florine’s Perfume