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Browsing by tag: calice becker

Christian Dior J’Adore ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 15 February 2016 52 Comments

Charlize for Dior J'Adore

Business hotels aren’t designed to inspire passion. They’re efficient and bland. They mean to please without offending. Their restaurants are equally uninspiring, with menus full of chicken caesar salads and farmed salmon filets. The hospitality punches in at the time clock inside the basement service entrance. But, boy, do they turn rooms.

You know where I’m going with this. To me, today’s Christian Dior J’Adore gives the same feeling as a middle-tier business hotel. It does a perfume’s job of smelling pretty and clean, but comes off as oddly soulless. Yet, it sells like gangbusters…

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Tom Ford Velvet Orchid ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 16 June 2014 87 Comments

Tom Ford Velvet Orchid banner

The old saying has it that “everything old is new again.” Tom Ford Velvet Orchid, a salute to the grand oriental perfumes of the 1980s, seems to have taken that saying to heart. Lovers of Yves Saint Laurent Opium, Estée Lauder Cinnabar, Boucheron de Boucheron, and other room-permeating, spicy-woody-ambery fragrances will want to give it a try. Fans of Velvet Orchid’s older sibling, Black Orchid, will probably see no reason to switch.

Velvet Orchid’s notes include bergamot, mandarin, honey, vanilla, orange blossom, rose, jasmine, narcissus, magnolia, Cattleya leopoldii orchid, heliotrope, rum, suede, labdanum, sandalwood, and myrrh — not that any of these notes stand out distinctly. Even without the gorgeous deco bottle and “orchid” in its name, a single whiff ties Velvet Orchid to Black Orchid.

Although Velvet Orchid has the guts to take the ring with any of the big orientals, it’s billed as a floriental fragrance…

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By Kilian Addictive State of Mind ~ new fragrances

Posted by Robin on 13 June 2014 6 Comments

By Kilian Addictive State of Mind

Niche line By Kilian will launch Addictive State of Mind, a new series of fragrances for men. The first three scents, Intoxicated, Light My Fire and Smoke for the Soul, will debut in October…

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By Kilian Sacred Wood ~ fragrance review

Posted by Robin on 20 March 2014 61 Comments

Shiva as the Destroyer of the Three Cities of the Demons

Sacred Wood, along with Imperial Tea, finishes off the Asian Tales fragrance collection from niche line By Kilian (we’re still expecting at least one more scent for In The Garden of Good and Evil, and the next series is reportedly to be called Addictive State of Mind). Sacred Wood was inspired by the Indian tale of Savitri and Satyavan from the Mahabharata, and promises “the olfactory impression of an authentic Sandalwood from Mysore”.1 As most perfumistas know, real Mysore sandalwood is no longer used in perfumery due to its scarcity.

Like Imperial Tea, Sacred Wood was developed by perfumer Calice Becker. Sacred Wood opens on citrus-y, spicy wood; it’s not a dead ringer for my long-time love, Diptyque Tam Dao, but it reminded me of Tam Dao right away…

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By Kilian Imperial Tea ~ perfume review

Posted by Robin on 18 March 2014 22 Comments

jasmine-yin-hao

Imperial Tea is the latest addition to the Asian Tales collection from niche line By Kilian. It is being launched along with Sacred Wood, and the duo made me sit up and take notice: I’m not always a huge fan of the By Kilian line, and the earlier scents in the Asian Tales series — Bamboo Harmony, Water Calligraphy and Flower of Immortality — pretty much left me cold, but jasmine tea and Mysore sandalwood? Theoretically, at least, I’m in.

I’ll talk about Sacred Wood later (possibly on Thursday); today’s focus is the Imperial Tea, inspired by the Asian tale of “The Big Red Toga Tea” (you can read versions here and here), and promising “the olfactory impression of authentic Jasmin tea”.1 Jasmine tea is one of my favorite smells in the world. I drink a cup of Yin Hao jasmine nearly every morning, and while there are fancier (and more expensive) versions of jasmine tea, few of them can beat a really top quality Yin Hao. The smell from a freshly opened pouch or tin is exquisite, and the taste is about as close to a drinkable perfume as you are likely to get.

The Imperial Tea fragrance was developed by perfumer Calice Becker, and it’s darned close to perfection…

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