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Browsing by tag: cheap thrills

Sonoma Scent Studio Incense Pure ~ fragrance review

Posted by Robin on 29 April 2010 75 Comments

incense smoke

I love incense in almost all its (perfume) guises, from gothic to boho to meditative. Sonoma Scent Studio’s new Incense Pure, in my own entirely idiosyncratic fragrance family classification system, goes neatly into the “outdoor incense” category, a group that also includes Tauer Perfumes Incense extrême and Comme des Garçons Ouarzazate. Both of those fragrances have a contemplative quality, but they’re too airy and fresh to be churchy.

Incense Pure, despite being denser than either Incense extrême or Ouarzazate, likewise smells like the outdoors, and in this case, a specific time and place: it reminds me of early fall in northern New Mexico…

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Baby Phat Dare Me ~ perfume review

Posted by Robin on 22 April 2010 105 Comments

Kimora Lee Simmons Dare MeBaby Phat Dare Me perfume

I said the other day that I’d have a hard time calling one of Elizabeth Taylor’s fragrances hilariously vile, but Kimora Lee Simmons doesn’t rate the same kid glove treatment — she’s just one more celebrity of whose existence I’d be blissfully unaware if she hadn’t jumped into the fragrance business. I was, I must say, mightily impressed with her legs in that ad, but a quick image search in Google justifies The A.V. Club’s claim that Ms. Simmons may have used up what remained of the world’s photoshop resources to make those legs. They are darned nice legs, but they’re clearly not her legs.

Dare Me, which launched earlier this spring under her Baby Phat line, is Simmons’ fifth fragrance, and she’s joined a number of her colleagues in the celebrity fragrance world in going downmarket: Dare Me is in mass market stores instead of Macy’s and the like, and can be had for a song (relatively speaking, of course). The (presumably) diminished resources have not dimmed her style, though: Dare Me’s opening is almost (but not quite) as over-the-top fruity and sweet as its predecessor, Baby Phat Fabulosity…

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AXE Twist ~ fragrance review

Posted by Kevin on 21 April 2010 75 Comments

Axe Twist fragrance + Academic man

A friend recently complained that her co-ed gym smelled like cheap perfume and strongly scented deodorants, and she blamed it all on: men and AXE. I bristled. I’ve smelled my fair share of badly (and powerfully) scented women’s body products, and AXE is not simply a “man thing”…women like it too.

A recent radio report dealing with AXE’s environmental problems in California (AXE was forced to reduce the quantity of propellants in its sprays to comply with clean-air standards) also featured interviews with AXE-loving high school girls. Yeah, “the boys’ locker room reeks of AXE” but the girls “love it.” One girl said: “…you smell it (AXE) and you’re, like, drawn to it; it smells so good.”

I’ve certainly made fun of AXE, and men’s grooming habits, in the past. I chuckled as I read Twist’s “instructions”: spray on underarms, chest and neck (apparently some overzealous boys apply AXE in places no deodorant body spray should ever touch); but I realize there are more important things to get riled up over than deodorant body sprays. So, let me mention a few positive AXE qualities…

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Fragrance gifts for Mother’s Day 2010, part 2: cheap thrills edition

Posted by Robin on 18 April 2010 22 Comments

Casma bath soapCasma talc

From Caswell Massey, a fragrance brought back from the archives: Casma, “A bold fragrance that’s bound to turn heads. We’ve taken the scents of rose, jasmine and magnolia petals and touched them with vanilla and silken musk to create a unique fragrance that’s sophisticated and oh-so-feminine.” Shown here in bar soap (3 bars for $18) or talc (3.5 oz for $12)…

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Fragrance gifts for Mother’s Day 2010, part 1

Posted by Robin on 14 April 2010 20 Comments

Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 9th. Get cracking on that shopping!

 Dawn Spencer Hurwitz Les Rouges collection

From Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, the Les Rouges collection, with miniatures of Piment et Chocolat, Poivre, Fleurs d’Oranger and Oeillets Rouges. $50 at Beautyhabit…

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