Paris Hilton probably needs no introduction. Even I know who she is, and I live under a rock and have to google many of the celebrities who release fragrances. What she is famous for, exactly, escapes me, but she is rich and famous and has released two fragrances; in 2006 she will roll out a new line of color cosmetics, and I believe there are watches & handbags in the works as well…
Watkins is a company best known to me for their baking products, so imagine my surprise when I ran across their gourmand bath and body line while browsing the drugstore aisles one day. I figured that it was well worth testing however, since who better to create such products than the makers of my favorite vanilla extract, and sure enough, the line did not disappoint.
I adored the Vanilla Dry Oil Spray ($11.99 for 4 oz), a great moisturizer with a rich, deep bourbon-y vanilla scent…
Dragonfly Blue is one of my favorite small e-tailers: the quality of their products, packaging, and in particular their customer service is simply incredible, especially in light of the super-affordable prices. Although I love some of their scents, I never wore them often in the oil form; I found it annoying to apply and the base had a funny reaction with my skin chemistry. Even their Vanilla Almond, a perfect pure, airy and sweet meld of vanilla and almond that I maintain is one of the best almond scents out there, I rarely wore, because although it smelled great in the bottle, it invariably ended up smelling rather cardboard-y on my skin.
Then I discovered the company’s shea butters…
Parfums Caron launched Narcisse Noir in 1911. It was created by Caron founder and perfumer Ernest Daltroff, and features notes of orange blossom, bergamot, petitgrain, lemon, rose, jasmine, jonquil, Persian black narcissus, musk, vetiver, civet, and sandalwood.
Narcisse Noir was not Ernest Daltroff’s first fragrance, but it is the earliest of his creations that is still in production today. According to perfumer Guy Robert, it was Daltroff’s first big fragrance breakthrough:
An immediate success in France, it was a sensation in the States. Its phenomenal success allowed Caron to compete on equal terms with Francois Coty, who had already conquered North America with L’Origan (1905)…
Those that know me are aware that when it comes to fragrance, I am a complete almond fanatic. It is by far my favorite note, and in the past few years I have tried almost every almond scent on the market in my quest to find the perfect one. But I’ve remained largely unsuccessful, mainly because in my mind, I already know what my perfect almond scent is, and it doesn’t come in perfume form yet. It is the smell of LUSH’s Snowcake, a wonderful soap with an incredibly lovely smell of cream and sugared almonds…