Another short film in support of the Lady Gaga Fame fragrance. If you missed the first, it's here.
Antonio Banderas Blue Seduction for Women ~ fragrance review
At the Antonio Banderas perfume website, you can take a quiz to help you select one of the many Antonio Banderas fragrances. Accompanied by a photo of Banderas casting a smoldering gaze, the quiz asks, “Tell me about yourself and I will tell you which fragrance will best suit your personality.” I can hear Banderas’s accent now. And he wants me to tell him about myself! I know I’m blushing.
The first question asks simply whether I’m a man or a woman. Easy. The next — and final — question asks me to choose from one of seven adjectives to describe myself. (Men get nineteen options.) I’m a little disappointed he doesn’t want to know more about me — I could tell him about my childhood, share my love of macaroni and cheese, show him my scars — but I’m game anyway. What should it be? Am I “casual,” “magnetic,” “spontaneous”? With another glance at Antonio’s black-fringed eyes, I choose “sensuous.” The website spits out its suggestion: Blue Seduction for Women.
Ah, Antonio. I guess we were never meant to be…
Celine Dion Sensational ~ fragrance review
So far this week we’ve reviewed one teenaged celebrity’s fragrance and one from a country western star. Now we move to Las Vegas and multi-octave ballads with Celine Dion Sensational.
I can’t name one of Celine Dion’s songs except for the one that went with the movie Titanic. The only reason I remember that song is because two of my cousins chose it to play as they walked up the aisle at their double wedding. They were both hugely pregnant. When they met their grooms at the altar and swung their white satin-draped bellies to face each other, the connection between mammoth sea vessels and their nuptials became apparent, and the Celine Dion song was stuck in my brain for good.
I am, however, more familiar with Sensational’s perfumer, Maurice Roucel. Roucel is responsible for such terrific fragrances as Frédéric Malle Dans Tes Bras and Musc Ravageur, Hermès 24 Faubourg, Serge Lutens Iris Silver Mist, Rochas Tocade, and more you’d certainly recognize…
Faith Hill by Faith Hill Parfums ~ fragrance review
After yesterday’s Hannah Montana fiasco, Faith Hill by Faith Hill Parfums is balm to the nostrils. I really like McGraw by Tim McGraw, her husband’s first fragrance, and I was hopeful Faith would pull through with something equally well constructed and pleasing to wear. She did. Faith Hill Eau de Toilette has an easygoing elegance that’s hard to beat at twice the price.
Perfumer Caroline Sabas (author of Natori Eau de Parfum and Britney Spears Midnight Fantasy, among others) developed Faith Hill, and it launched in 2009. Its notes include pink peony, pear, neroli, Southern magnolia, gardenia, jasmine, cashmere skin musk, vetiver and iris. The fragrance’s overall effect is smooth, clean, and silky, with a grown up — but not overly ladylike — air. I can’t pick out Faith Hill’s pear, and its gardenia and jasmine aren’t the buzzy divas they could be, but gently complement the magnolia’s barely tart whipped cream scent. A kitten’s paw of clean-soft musk that reminds me of Donna Karan Cashmere Mist cushions the fragrance.
Faith Hill doesn’t break new ground scent-wise, but it doesn’t pander to trends, either…
Disney Hannah Montana ~ fragrance review
Wouldn’t it be great if this review started with “Disney Hannah Montana is a hidden gem! Its artful blend of fruit and flowers rivals the sinuous interplay of hyacinth and cassis in Guerlain Chamade. At six bucks a bottle, stock up now!” Yeah, it would be great all right. And a pack of lies. Except the part about the price.
The writers for the Hannah Montana television show were on to something. Back in 2007, “Smells Like Teen Sell Out” featured Hannah’s dilemma in publicizing her new — at that point fictional — fragrance line. In the show, her perfume smelled like raspberries and made her sick. She decided to go on television and tout the perfume anyway, but in the end she couldn’t lie to her fans.
Raspberries might have nauseated Hannah Montana, but by 2009 when her eponymous fragrance was released, the sticky combination of dewberry, peach, orange, passion fruit and grenadine (and jasmine, honeysuckle, blonde woods, vetiver and tonka bean) were all right with her. Frankly, Hawaiian Punch shows more restraint in the fruit department…