Van Cleef & Arpels will launch a new Eau de Toilette version of Féerie in May (shown at right; via cosmoty.de)
Actress Uma Thurman will front a new perfume for women from Givenchy later this year. (via Women’s Wear Daily)
The new Chanel No. 5 ad campaign, starring French actress Audrey Tautou…
Chanel will launch Cristalle Eau Verte, a flanker to 1974’s Cristalle fragrance, this April (although it will not reach the US until July).
The new fragrance, by perfumer Jacques Polge, will retain the “original honeysuckle accord” and add magnolia. I will update with more detailed information when I can find it…
As previously reported, in 2008, a new Chanel department opened on the beauty floor of Saks Fifth Avenue’s flagship store. This boutique-within-a-store covers 850 square feet of space, and it features separate counters for cosmetics, skincare, and fragrance. The fragrance area offers every available Chanel scent in every available formulation, including the limited-distribution Les Exclusifs de Chanel line and special larger sizes of the classic No. 5 (900 ml!).
Chanel’s presentation of its fragrances at Saks is innovative and interactive…
Flankers make me cranky*. When a flanker is bad, it debases the coinage of the original. I recently spoke with a perfume sales assistant who refused to believe I smelled so lovely because I was wearing Boucheron Jaïpur Saphir. This is because I was not wearing Boucheron Jaïpur Saphir. I was wearing plain ol’ Jaïpur and said so — only to be told: “There is no Just Jaïpur.” With the dizzying rate of flankerizing and discontinuation as well as misinformation from friendly and seemingly authoritative sources, what hope has the average person of keeping this stuff straight?
Almost as irritating to me as a flanker that fails to live up to its predecessor is the sequel that succeeds on completely different terms. Dior Poison’s second flanker, Hypnotic Poison, for example, is a creamy, girlish dream of a fragrance, reminiscent of such wholesome smells as suntan lotion and root beer floats. I’m sure it would have sold at least equally well under another name. Why force a family resemblance where there is none? The only reason I can think of that is consistent with my experience of the perfume industry and buying public is that flankers must be cheaper to make. Presumably Dior saves on the bottle design and less thinking was required all around from the marketing team…
While reviewing Chanel Égoïste, I became obsessed with smelling its progenitor: Bois Noir. After reading my Égoïste review, two Now Smell This readers offered to send me samples of Bois Noir from their rare and precious bottles of the fragrance, and I accepted (both men had bought their bottles of Bois Noir at Chanel in Paris). I also purchased a small sample of Bois Noir from a trusted online vendor in case any of the samples had dramatically changed over the 22 years since they were bottled.
Bois Noir had a discreet launch in 1987…