The 1980s! First up, Billy Dee Williams for Jovan Musk Evening Edition. Below the jump, an ad for Coty Wild Musk.
Coty L’Aimant ~ fragrance review
“Look what I found for you,” my coworker said and handed me a Coty L’Aimant perfume ad shrink-wrapped on cardboard. It was all in gold and red, featuring a woman in a 1950s coiffure gazing into a tiny stage peppered with various L’Aimant products, from perfume to compacts to body powder. Each product was adorned with a horseshoe magnet encompassing a heart. “To be a magnet — wear a magnet — always!” the copy said.
Well, I could use some magnetizing. Who couldn’t? I remembered the bottle of vintage L’Aimant Eau de Toilette stashed in my perfume cupboard. It was time to put it to the test.
François Coty and Vincent Roubert created L’Aimant over five years, and the fragrance launched in 1927 — for context, the same year that saw the birth of Lanvin Arpège, Caron Bellodgia, and Jean Patou Chaldée. In his book Perfume, Nigel Groom lists L’Aimant’s notes as bergamot, neroli, peach, strawberry, jasmine, rose, ylang ylang, vanilla, vetiver and sandalwood. The fragrance fell out of production, then relaunched in 1995, when Groom claims it became the most popular perfume in Great Britain…
A little harder to say goodbye
A couple vintage (1980s) ads for Coty L’Aimant.
Frog legs and a dash of mace
With the first scent to hit shelves in Spring 2012, fans can only imagine what the singer is cooking up. A spritz of sirloin steak, anyone? Or perhaps frog legs and a dash of mace. But like everything the pop star does, NewsFeed is sure eau de Gaga will simply have no limits.
— In case you missed the news, yes, Lady Gaga will be doing a fragrance with Coty. Time's Newsfeed weighed in with Inevitably, Lady Gaga to Create Perfume Line. Yes, it was inevitable, but anybody who knows the celebrity fragrance market already knows that there will be limits, and then some. I'd bank on strawberry sorbet and pink pepper over frog legs and mace.
An Open Letter to Michelle Obama
Dear Michelle,
It’s all right if I call you Michelle, right? I feel like I know you well enough. After all, I’m not the only person I know who has fallen asleep and dreamt of hanging out with you and Obama. In one of my friend’s dreams, you were barbecuing and wearing a Duke University jersey. In my dream we were at St. Sulpice in Paris and a priest was explaining how we were really cousins. (Don’t worry, it was only a dream. I’m just glad there weren’t giant ducks or submarines or something like that.) But I’m not writing to talk to you about dreams. I want to discuss something more important: perfume.
I understand that you recently bought a bottle of Boadicea the Victorious Noble Eau de Parfum. I’ve been lucky enough to smell Noble, and it’s a wonderful rose scent with a sophisticated patchouli and amber dry down. I wouldn’t mind having a bottle of it myself. But since you’re First Lady, I see broader horizons for you than the perfume output of a British hairdresser. You undoubtedly have big things on your mind, what with being a razor-sharp attorney, mom, and target of public attention. So, to save you time and to bring you maximum olfactory pleasure, I’ve chosen a few perfumes for you to put in the cabinet next to Noble…