I am always on the lookout for bargain candles with interesting scents. This week I have been burning soy candles from Two Leaf & Co, an etailer that also carries scented body lotions, creams, and soaps. Here are the three candles that I tried:
Orange Blossom: This is a lovely soliflore orange blossom. It is only lightly sweet, but is considerably less dry and bitter than my old standby orange blossom candle, Soyology Venus. Very cheerful and a nice bathroom scent…
Thierry Mugler launched Cologne, his third fragrance, in 2001. Mugler reportedly wanted to recreate the smell of skin after using a certain soap that he had brought back from a trip to Morocco; Cologne was developed by nose Alberto Morillas and features notes of bergamot, neroli, petitgrain, orange blossom, white musk, and a secret, trademarked note called “S”.
Cologne starts with sharp green notes and citrus, and quickly settles into a soapy-clean scent. A bit of green remains, and it is very fresh and crisp, with light undertones of orange blossom and wood. Once the sharpness of the top notes fades, it is basically linear, and the lasting power is very good although it stays relatively close to the skin…
Lily Prune is a low cost line produced by Paris-based perfume house Ulric de Varens and marketed towards the below-20 set (as you might have guessed from the packaging). Lily Prune Sublime Vanilla was created by nose Jean Claude Ellena, and released in 2001; the notes are orange, cherry, plum, vanilla, amber, and sandalwood.
Sublime Vanilla starts out sweet, fruity and perfume-y…
Mme. Alix Grès launched her design house, Grès, in Paris in 1942, and maintained control of her perfume line until the early 1980s. Parfums Grès has had a complicated ownership history since then. In 2002, it was sold by the Escada Group to Silvio Denz, and as far as I can figure out, his company still owns it.
Cabochard, probably the house’s best known perfume, was created by nose Bernard Chant, and launched in 1959…
It is finally warming up here today, so I am breaking out the summer fragrances. Ô de Lancôme was created by perfumer Robert Gonnon and introduced in 1969, and reformulated in 1994. It is a classic Eau Fraîche, with notes of mandarin, lemon, bergamot, jasmine, rosemary, basil, honeysuckle, sandalwood, vetiver, and oakmoss.
Ô de Lancôme is classified as a fresh citrus chypre. The top notes are very sharp citrus, with a diffusive quality that makes me suspect that there is a touch of aldehydes. It calms to a crisp, leafy-green citrus with herbal notes and quite a bit of oakmoss. It gets a bit darker and woodier as it dries down…