Joop! has launched Homme Sport, a new flanker to 1989’s Joop! Homme. The tag line: real men score. Joop! Homme Sport follows 2014’s Joop! Homme Extreme (tag line: real men get more)…
Puredistance White ~ new perfume
Niche line Puredistance will launch Puredistance White, a new fragrance, in April…
Comme des Garcons + Pharrell Williams Girl ~ fragrance review
Regular readers can probably already guess that I was barely aware of Pharrell Williams’ existence before he announced his debut fragrance with Comme des Garçons, Girl — he’s not the first celebrity that entered my radar via perfume, and he won’t be the last. In the interest of research, I did listen to a couple of songs while writing this review (Happy got stuck in my head for several hours, thank you) but other than that, I still know little enough. He’s won some Grammys, and everyone but me knows who he is.
With any luck, Happy will not be an ongoing earworm, but Girl will almost certainly take my vote for celebrity fragrance of the year. Of course, it hasn’t all that much competition in that category, and perspective does matter. If you adore Pharrell Williams but have never tried anything from the Comme des Garçons brand or the perfumer (Antoine Lie), Girl might be a surprise, and if the reviews on Sephora are to be believed, it may or may not be a good surprise. If you’re a big fan of celebrity perfumes and want something a little more sophisticated than the usual fare on offer — and you don’t mind paying more — Girl could be just what you’ve been waiting for. If you’re a perfumista and a longtime Comme des Garçons fan, Girl might strike you, as it did me, as hardly the best they can do, but an awful lot better than it might have been…
Parfum d’Empire Corsica Furiosa ~ fragrance review, with an aside on Costume National Cyber Garden
Corsica Furiosa is the latest from French niche line Parfum d’Empire, and it centers around mastic, native to the island of Corsica, where perfumer Marc-Antoine Corticchiato spent part of his childhood (he was born in Morocco and spent part of his childhood there as well). It is perfectly named; the PR materials refer to a “a verdant blast” and that’s exactly what Corsica Furiosa is all about.
The “verdant blast” starts off with plenty of lime-y citrus. It’s resolutely, unapologetically green and smells strongly of the outdoors, untamed, in high summer: there are grassy notes and an overdose of tomato leaf, some almost-sneezy black pepper, flashes of peppermint and other green herbs, crushed pine needles and plant sap (the listed notes include mastic, eau de vie, wild mint, tomato leaf, pepper, honey, hay, cistus and oakmoss). And yes, pretty much all at once…
Comme des Garcons + Pharrell Williams Girl ~ new fragrance
Comme des Garçons will launch Girl, a new unisex fragrance developed in conjunction with singer Pharrell Williams. Girl was named for Williams’ latest album, shown above below…