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Browsing by author: Jessica

I Profumi di Firenze Plenilunio ~ perfume review

Posted by Jessica on 21 May 2015 27 Comments

Bavarian cream with strawberries

I’ve been experiencing spring fever lately, so it seemed like a good time to pull a sample of some fun-and-fruity fragrance from my sample basket. I ended up with Plenilunio, a recent release from Italian niche line i Profumi di Firenze. Plenilunio’s concept of “a voluptuous bouquet of summer strawberries” with “an enchanting kiss of silver moon beams on the skin” seems appropriate for the season.

In addition to strawberry, Plenilunio features notes of mandarin, white musk, amber and soft woods. What you read is what you get, which is fine, actually; lately we’ve seen way too many poetic lists of fantasy notes (“‘angel mousse’ and ‘gardenia spasms,'” as Angela sort-of jokes) dressing up the thinnest and most prosaic of fragrances…

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Vilhelm Parfumerie Opus Kore, Room Service, & Morning Chess ~ fragrance review

Posted by Jessica on 14 May 2015 18 Comments

Vilhelm Parfumerie Opus Kore & Morning Chess

Vilhelm Parfumerie is a new fragrance line developed by founder (and former-model-turned-designer) Jan Ahlgren in collaboration with perfumer Jérôme Epinette. I know, I know — another week, another niche perfume collection. It’s the new normal, and all I can do is try to keep up. I’ve tried three of Vilhelm’s eight fragrances, aiming for the ones that sounded most suitable for spring and summer, and here are some short reviews…

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Le Couvent des Minimes Silky Shower Cream & Refreshing Body Moisturizer ~ scented body product reviews

Posted by Jessica on 30 April 2015 14 Comments

Le Couvent des Minimes Silky Shower Cream & Refreshing Body Moisturizer

I own far fewer bath and body products than you might expect, especially in relation to my surplus of perfumes and lipsticks. Just two weeks ago, in fact, I realized that I was down to one partially used bottle of shower gel (not counting my secret stash of LUSH Rose Jam, of course) and half a bottle of unscented body lotion. Spring is always a good time to try new body products, so I recently introduced two items from Le Couvent des Minimes into my morning regimen.

Le Couvent des Minimes is named for a historic convent in the French town of Mane, and its formulas and fragrances are supposedly inspired by the convent’s gardens of curative herbs and flowers…

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Atkinsons 1799 Love in Idleness ~ fragrance review

Posted by Jessica on 23 April 2015 20 Comments

Atkinsons 1799 Love in Idleness, bottle detail

The British perfume house Atkinsons 1799 recently launched Love in Idleness, one of three new fragrances recreated from the company’s archives for its Legendary Collection. Love in Idleness is “a neo-Victorian love philter for those who believe in the magic of fragrance,” developed by perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin. Its composition includes notes of raspberry and violet leaves; violet, orris and heliotrope; and tree moss and patchouli.

This fragrance’s name was one of the factors that lured me into trying it. So poetic, right? It’s another name for the wildflower viola tricolor. And it turns out to be a literary reference, too — in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, love-in-idleness serves as a love potion. As Oberon, king of the fairies, says in Act II, “The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid/Will make or man or woman madly dote/Upon the next live creature that it sees.” Love at first sight…

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Bond no. 9 Park Avenue South ~ fragrance review

Posted by Jessica on 16 April 2015 23 Comments

Bond no. 9 Park Avenue South

Niche line Bond no. 9 recently launched Park Avenue South, the brand’s latest fragrance inspired by a New York City neighborhood. Park Avenue South is “an eau de parfum celebrating the city’s newest, most scintillating and most happening street…[and] the neighborhood’s fresh, flirtatious, insouciant spirit” with notes of green apple, peach, jasmine, musk and dry amber.

The promotional materials for Park Avenue South describe this particular bit of Manhattan as “New York’s latest happening turf, full of condos with pools, of-the-moment restaurants, chic hotels, and frenzied real estate panache.” That sounds like a part of town I’d avoid at all costs. I suppose Bond is latching onto this strip’s identity as an alternative to the old-money style of upper Park Avenue, which Bond commemorated back in 2003 with notes of delicate white florals…

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