Jouany Perfumes St. Barthelemy and Marrakech ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 14 November 2011 20 Comments

Jouany Perfumes St. Barthélemy and Marrakech

There are perfumes simply branded with celebrity names, and then there are perfumes celebrities have a firm role in creating. I don’t know if you’d call photographer Christophe Jouany a celebrity exactly, but his fragrances, Jouany Perfumes St Barthélemy and Marrakech, come straight from his own, personal mixes of essential oils.

“I created my own formulas,” he replied when I asked via his public relations company which perfumers he had worked with for St. Barthélemy and Marrakech. Enough people complimented Jouany on his oil blends over the past decade that he decided to produce two of them for the public. He said noses Jean Pierre Subrenat and Udo Ludwig tested the fragrances to “make sure they were well balanced” and see if they needed anything extra. Now, Udo Ludwig is in charge of producing the compounds for the fragrances through the firm Creative Fragrances.

St. Barthélemy has notes of white grapefruit, vanilla, coco Jasmin, cedarwood, patchouli, sandalwood, vetiver, and white musk. Jouany said its compound is comprised of 68% essential oils, with the rest being mostly synthetic musk. To me, St. Barthélemy smells like a cushion of white musk, with dry cocoa, a splash of green, and a hint of wood. A little grapefruit does rumble in the beginning…

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Celebrity Fragrances I’d Like to See

Posted by Angela on 7 November 2011 202 Comments

Joan Crawford Lucille Ball

This year alone has seen perfume launches from Antonio Banderas, Fergie, Patrick Dempsey, Reese Witherspoon (three of them), Avril Lavigne, Celine Dion, David Beckham, Dita Von Teese, Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, Keith Urban, Kylie Minogue, Kim Kardashian, Mariah Carey (again, three of them), Michael Jordan, Sean Jean, Shakira, Taylor Swift, Snooki, and a bunch I’ve probably overlooked. Katy Perry’s latest is about to launch, and next year we can look forward to new fragrances from Madonna and Lady Gaga.

For crying out loud, make it stop! Enough already with boring celebrities and their boring celebrity fragrances. For all I care, besides the tantalizing Dita Von Teese, the whole mess of focus-grouped stink-waters can be loaded into a rocket and sent to Mars. Fame isn’t taste, and fashion isn’t style.

That said, I’m not completely opposed to celebrity fragrances. I like Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds and Black Pearls. Deneuve was a gorgeous chypre, and it’s a shame Cher Uninhibited was discontinued. Furthermore, here are three celebrity fragrances I’d pay good money for…

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Top 10 Fall Fragrances 2011

Posted by Angela on 31 October 2011 146 Comments

pumpkin pumpkin pumpkin

I always tell people my favorite season is summer. In truth, it’s autumn. I whisper this fact, because while autumn is heartrendingly beautiful with its crisp mornings and warm afternoons and a garden still full of dahlias and greens, autumn is also the harbinger of winter. Each delightful, knife-sharp afternoon is a reminder of the rainy days ahead. Each walk through a shuffle of parchment-red leaves portends months of dark, slushy cold. When I can forget all that and focus on the here and now, I love fall.

For courage, I queued up Ian Bostridge’s sad but glorious Schubert lieder and chose ten autumn situations and matching fragrances to write about for today’s post:

Making the seasonal transition: All of the sudden, a morning feels colder than the rest. Instead of grabbing a cardigan, you ponder a light jacket. You’re almost ready to fire up the furnace for the first time this year, but not quite yet. A warmer fragrance seems fitting, but you’re not quite tempted to give yourself over to heavy gourmands and orientals. Ormonde Jayne Tolu works nicely now. Its green heart lightens its rich, oriental base. Annick Goutal Eau de Charlotte is a good transitional fragrance, too. It is fresh, but offers the after-school treat of bread, jam, and chocolate…

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Bottega Veneta Eau de Parfum ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 24 October 2011 142 Comments

I’m used to thinking of iris as the shapeshifter of perfume, but leather fragrances can be equally squirrelly. From the sharp, dominatrix nappa of Robert Piguet Bandit and the oily, sweet saddle leather of Caron Tabac Blond, to the fresh, air-salt suede of DelRae Mythique and the floral glove leather of Lancôme Cuir de Lancôme, leather isn’t always easy to pin down. Now with Bottega Veneta Eau de Parfum, another leather joins the mix. This one is full but refined, friendly but elegant. I’m hooked.

Perfumer Michel Almairac created Bottega Veneta Eau de Parfum. Its notes include patchouli, oak moss, bergamot, jasmine, and pink pepper. Bottega Veneta classifies it as a “leathery floral chypre.” Bottega Veneta’s online advertising includes a film with quiet solo piano transitioning to strings, supplemented with the sounds of seagulls and a far-off storm. The model featured in the sepia-tinted campaign is atypically beautiful with a strong nose and brow. She’s swaddled in something fancy and silk, and she seems to be alone, focused on the horizon. It’s an unusually introspective ad…

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Perfume and the Internet

Posted by Angela on 17 October 2011 154 Comments

computer

Technologically, I’m on the arrière garde. I don’t have a cell phone, my car is nearly 26 years old, and if I want to watch TV I have to fool around with a digital converter box. Facebook holds no appeal for me. Food just doesn’t taste as good from a microwave, so I don’t have one. Or a hair dryer or dishwasher. Besides my laptop — a workhorse MacBook Pro — and weekly posts on Now Smell This, I might as well set myself up as an exhibit at the Smithsonian entitled, “Life in 1994.”

For the most part, I wouldn’t have it any other way. But don’t even think about taking away my internet.

With Steve Jobs’ death and the arrival of my iPad, I’ve been pondering how the internet has changed the world for perfume enthusiasts. Ten years isn’t that long, really. But ten years ago I was an unanchored perfume lover at sea, buffeted by the conflicting information offered by sales associates and the slim, misleading perfume descriptions in magazines. If a sales associate waved his hand over the perfume counter and said, “Everything here is made of natural ingredients,” I believed him. Perfumers? Who were they? Didn’t Coco Chanel and Estée Lauder create their own perfumes?

Fragrance-wise, the internet opened up a whole new world…

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