Comme des Garçons will follow this year's collaborative fragrance with Monocle with a new fragrance created in conjunction with British milliner Stephen Jones. According to Italian Vogue, Jones is “the maker of the most beautiful hats in the world”.
Stephen Jones has described the new fragrance as “futuristic but rococo” and “a violet that's been hit by a meteorite”. It was developed by perfumer Antoine Maisondieu (who also created the Monocle scent and Luxe Patchouli for Comme des Garçons)…
Surf apparel and lifestyle brand Quiksilver will launch its debut fragrance for men, called simply Quiksilver, this coming July (their subsidiary for women, Roxy, has already launched Roxy and Roxy Love for women).
Quiksilver for Men is described as a woody aromatic marine fragrance. It was developed by perfumers Antoine Lie and Antoine Maisondieu…
Yves Rocher has launched three new fragrances for spring:
Naturelle (shown at right) is a green fruity floral developed by perfumer Michel Girard:
The scent of a free spirit, a light carefree fragrance, fresh and sparkling with green, floral and fruity notes to wear the delicate, cheerful scent of spring.
The notes include citron, bergamot, tagete, green apple, jasmine, peach blossom, amber, musk and cedar…
One of the interesting discussions that came out of my recent post about perfume snobbery was the inevitability of brand influence. We most of us have our favorite perfume brands, and we get excited when they launch something new (and, of course, we are disappointed if the something new turns out to be dull and unexciting). It is nice to be surprised once in awhile, but then, life is just easier and simpler when Burberry's The Beat turns out to be appropriately Burberry-ish, and so on and so forth. It might be interesting if you picked up Ralph Wild and found a weird little milky wood pudding with incense and Costume National 21 turned out to be a strawberry soda, but it certainly wouldn't help you navigate the overcrowded fragrance market, would it?
So I expect certain things from certain brands, and if I'm disappointed, I grumble…
Recently, a Now Smell This reader from Canada asked me what I thought of the Burberry fragrances for men. I had to fess up: “I’ve never tried any of them!” Shocked by my ignorance, my friend from the north braved the post office (and its rigmarole for shipping liquids across international borders) and sent me generous samples of Burberry for Men, Burberry Touch for Men, Burberry Brit for Men and Burberry London for Men.
Burberry For Men is the oldest Burberry scent but has been reformulated several times since its release in 1981; the current version contains lavender, bergamot, thyme, mint, moss, cedar, amber and tonka bean. Burberry for Men opens loud and proud: it’s cool, sharp and herbal. Burberry for Men’s lavender is enlivened, and somewhat disguised, by strong bergamot, mint and thyme. Straight out of the bottle, Burberry for Men smells like a lip-puckering French mouthwash I used to buy at Caswell-Massey…