Caron will launch Yuzu Man in April, although it is not expected to reach the US until the fall. The new citrus scent is styled as “the fragrance for universal man in touch with nature”…
Le Troisieme Homme de Caron ~ fragrance review
I was looking through a picture book on birds when I wore Le Troisième Homme de Caron for the first time. A work of Albrecht Dürer’s — an illustration of a wing of Coracias garrulus — caught my attention. The disembodied wing, with its glossy blue, green, yellow and black feathers, possesses a sad beauty; it’s impossible to forget all that’s missing from that wing: a body, a beating heart, a song. Like the beautiful wing that’s “lost” its bird, Le Troisième Homme is a lovely aroma fragment that seems to have become separated from its perfume.
Listing the notes for Le Troisième Homme seems pointless*; it’s one well-blended fragrance. (I’ve been wearing Le Troisième Homme for weeks, hoping it would “fragment” on my skin or clothes and reveal an individual note or two; this has not happened. Le Troisième Homme is a linear fragrance.) Le Troisième Homme begins, and ends, with a sweet, floral-fruit aroma (almost like the scent of gardenia buds and lemon peel submerged in ice wine). The scent is liqueur-y, dense, and has a creamy floral character…
5 Perfumes for: Holiday Zen
Perhaps, like me, you’re finding the mall especially trying lately. Maybe it’s that my family had a recession-friendly homemade Christmas in 2009 or maybe it’s because I now have a breastfed infant to accompany me, but the shopping trips I’ve made during the last few weeks have turned me into a sweat-soaked, cuss-word-using, stroller-ramming fanatic. Our visit for the annual Christmas photo happened to fall on Pet Day and the woman in front of us spent half an hour and more than $100 on many, many photos of her dog with Santa. Afterwards, I felt like spray-painting anti-consumerist slogans on mailboxes….except I didn’t have any paint and the craft store was at the other end of the mall. ‘Tis the season for none of the elevators to work and a shopping cart to be abandoned in the last parking space and for the exact Zhu Zhu Pet you need to be sold out when you’re not even sure what a Zhu Zhu Pet is. (Here.) On Monday evening, as my children looked on with alarm, I collapsed into an incredibly rare seat in the food court and vowed with a grimace: Enough. Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. I will go home to make a donation to MSF/Doctors Without Borders, warble along festively with Yoko Ono and spray on something beautiful that I already own.
In truth, I love this time of year and the smells I associate with it: pine, mandarin oranges, mulling spices, incense, smoke, peppermint, wet wool, candle wax, lemon and brandy sauces, latkes or donuts frying in oil…
Caron Parfum Sacre and Parfum Sacre Intense ~ fragrance review
Due to the charms of the owner of the Perfume House, for a while it seemed every perfume lover in Portland had a bottle of Caron Parfum Sacré on her dresser. In the 1990s, if you were lucky enough to be at the store when the owner was there, he might pull you into a tiny side room and ask you to sit on one of the two ice cream parlor-style chairs against the wall. Then, he would present Parfum Sacré, “the greatest memory perfume” and “one of the top 10 fragrances in the world”.
When I heard the story more than a decade ago, I remember the owner, grey suited and speaking with a Europe-tinged accent, gesticulating fervently. Backed by a glass cabinet full of Annick Goutal bottles, he talked about Parfum Sacré’s launch in Portland. At the end of the story he said, “I told them, ‘Wait’,” here he touched his wristwatch, “In 37 minutes—” (or was it 67 or maybe an hour and 47?) “—they will be back. Thirty-seven minutes later so many of them came back to buy the fragrance the police had to close the streets!”
Did the Portland police really turn out to control traffic snarls caused by manic perfume buyers? Who cares? I love a good story told with passion…
Top 10 Summer Fragrances 2009
This year, it seemed as though summer would never really begin in my part of the world. After weeks of almost-daily rain, however, and an odd chilly spell that saw me wearing black tights well into June, we’ve finally enjoyed some well-deserved days of sunny blue skies and warmer temperatures. I’m finally adjusting my clothing, my fragrances, and even my mood to suit the climate. So, at last, here is a list of my personal fragrance choices for the season.
Diptyque L’Ombre dans L’Eau. I have a feeling I mentioned this fragrance in my top picks for Spring 2008. I wear it even more often during summer, and I’ve done so for the past five or six years. For me, L’Ombre dans L’Eau is the perfect balance of floral, berry, and grass notes, with a rosy heart that suits my tastes perfectly…