Aftelier Perfumes Parfum Prive ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 11 April 2011 39 Comments

Aftelier Perfumes Parfum Prive

What kind of fragrance does a perfumer make for herself? When someone has smelled through the full range of olfactory materials and has the skill to compose something personal, what is it? In the case of Mandy Aftel of Aftelier Perfumes, it’s a dense, sophisticated floral oriental built on real ambergris, a perfume she calls “the most extravagant in my collection.” Fittingly, she named it Parfum Privé.

A few years ago I saw Aftel speak in New York City. Her casual, down-to-earth appearance set her apart from many of the high-heeled, artfully coiffed perfume industry women I’d soon meet at the Fifi semi-finalists’ awards breakfast. She was friendly but not pandering, and smart but not pretentious. My impression was she had nothing to prove, but was happy to share her love of natural perfumery if you were interested enough to listen.

Aftel said her route to becoming a perfumer wasn’t straightforward…

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Parfums de Nicolai Mimosaique ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 4 April 2011 82 Comments

mimosa mimosa mimosa

Mimosa fragrances must be tricky to pull off. There aren’t a lot of them out there. Besides Parfums de Nicolaï Mimosaique which I’m reviewing today, Caron Farnesiana, Guerlain Champs Elysées, and L’Artisan Parfumeur Mimosa Pour Moi seem to hold the field. (The jury seems to be still out on Annick Goutal’s limited edition Le Mimosa that Kevin reviewed last week.)

Or maybe mimosa just isn’t a very popular note…

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Perfume Storage and the Thrill of Rediscovery

Posted by Angela on 28 March 2011 213 Comments

After swapping my vanity and dresser for one low dresser with a mirror, I had more space in my tiny bedroom but lost the perch for my perfume cabinet. I hadn’t been completely satisfied with the perfume cabinet, anyway. It was too deep, making it difficult to see — let alone reach — the bottles in the back. Plus, it was completely made of glass, so I kept a heavy cloth over it to keep out the light. Ugly and impractical. But what better options are out there?

So begins (again) the search for storage for my hundred-plus bottles of perfume. This time I want to do it right and find a cabinet I can use as long as I wear perfume. It’s time to set criteria.

First, I want a cabinet with shallow shelves. When shelves are too deep, it’s easy to forget about bottles stored toward the back. When you do remember them, you have to puzzle through a Rubik’s cube of rearranging to get to them without knocking over other bottles. Also, I want a solid cabinet. No windows and no need to construct goofy curtains to keep out the light.

Finally — and this is the toughest requirement — the cabinet needs to squeeze into a narrow space between a closet and a window…

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Bvlgari Mon Jasmin Noir ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 21 March 2011 108 Comments

Kirsten Dunst for Bvlgari Mon Jasmin Noir

Hey, Bvlgari Mon Jasmin Noir. Armani called. They want Idole d’Armani back. Wait — hold the phone! It’s Estée Lauder. They’re demanding their Sensuous Noir. Now all the lines are ringing, and it looks like it’s a bunch of celebuscents. They’re complaining you stole their jasmine-plum-sandalwood-patchouli secret formula!

O.K., maybe I’m not being fair. After all, I chucked my sample of Idole d’Armani in the garbage a long time ago, and it’s been months since I smelled Sensuous Noir, and that was on a hot day in a mall in Billings, Montana. And the celebuscents? I really try not to be a snob, but if Robin doesn’t give them the green light in a review, I mostly stay away.

I also admit to having a misguided fantasy about how perfumers work. In my dream world, a perfumer — let’s say Sophie Labbé, who had a hand in both Bvlgari Jasmin Noir and Mon Jasmin Noir — pushes open her casement window. She inhales the summer breeze of Grasse, France, and asks herself, “What work of art will I make today? Bvlgari, a luxury company, has asked me to create a light fragrance based on jasmine as a flanker to Jasmin Noir. I know, I’ll devise a fragrance that evokes the sensual languor of an evening in the Mediterranean, but is airy enough — like a long ago, romantic memory — to be enjoyed during the day…”

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Serge Lutens Cuir Mauresque ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 14 March 2011 65 Comments

Serge Lutens Cuir Mauresque

One of the hazards of a bulging perfume cabinet is how hard it can be to justify buying another bottle, especially when you know you already have a few bottles from the same fragrance family. That’s my dilemma with Serge Lutens Cuir Mauresque. Since Cuir Mauresque became available in the United States last year, my fingers have wavered over the “add to shopping cart” button many a time. I tell myself Cuir Mauresque is special — warm and cozy, intimate and spicy, different from my other leathers. Meanwhile, Caron Tabac Blond, Lancôme Cuir de Lancôme, Bvlgari Black, Robert Piguet Bandit, Christian Dior Diorling, and probably some others I’m forgetting languish as they wait their turn in the fragrance rotation. What’s a girl to do?

Serge Lutens launched Cuir Mauresque in 1996 as one of its non-export, bell jar “exclusives” (as opposed to the export line in the rectangular bottle). In 2010, Cuir Mauresque (“moorish leather”) joined the export line for a limited edition run. Perfumer Christopher Sheldrake developed Cuir Mauresque, and its notes include mandarin peel, orange blossom, burnt styrax, incense, cinnamon, nutmeg, amber, myrrh, cumin, musk, cedar, and civet.

Like many of the Serge Lutens fragrances, Cuir Mauresque kicks off with a surprising note that offers a freaky insight into the rest of the fragrance…

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Now Smell This

a blog about perfume

Aftelier Perfumes Parfum Prive ~ fragrance review

Parfums de Nicolai Mimosaique ~ fragrance review

Perfume Storage and the Thrill of Rediscovery

Bvlgari Mon Jasmin Noir ~ fragrance review

Serge Lutens Cuir Mauresque ~ fragrance review