Van Cleef & Arpels Muguet Blanc ~ perfume review

Posted by Robin on 5 November 2009 152 Comments

Lily of the Valley

After immediately falling head over heels in love with Bois d’Iris, to the tune of $185, I took my time about the other five fragrances in the Collection Extraordinaire from Van Cleef & Arpels. As it turns out, they’re all nicely done, and I can see why Gardénia Pétale in particular has found admirers. But none of them made me catch my breath other than the Muguet Blanc, and my reaction to that one was not entirely positive.

Here’s what Neiman Marcus has to say about Muguet Blanc:

Muguet Blanc showcases the purity, innocence and much-anticipated beauty of one of springtime’s first flowers. A green, joyous and incredibly delicate arrangement, graceful lily-of-the-valley is enhanced with exotic white peony, radiant neroli and uplifting white cedar.

For the most part, that’s right on the money; the part I’m going to quibble about is mostly the “joyous”. To explain why, I need to back up. A little warning before I proceed: those of you who are sick to death of hearing me wax nostalgic about the lost glory days of perfumery, move on, there’s nothing else to read here today…

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Perfumista tip: on reformulations, or why your favorite perfume doesn’t smell like it used to

Posted by Robin on 29 September 2009 161 Comments

miss-dior

One of the many hazards of writing about perfumes is that they’re not static objects. If you pick up a new bottle of Jean Couture Coriandre, what you’ll smell won’t be at all what I smelled when I first bought it in the late 1970s. It might not even be the same as what I smelled when I reviewed Coriandre a couple years ago, and found it to be an entirely different animal than the scent I remembered. The Coriandre you smell tomorrow, or next month, or next year, might have changed yet again.

This has obvious implications for anyone blogging about perfume or reading perfume blogs. When you read a perfume review, unless it’s about a perfume that launched recently, you can’t be sure that what you’ll smell in the stores is the exact same fragrance.

This article is meant as a very basic primer on reformulation, and most of what I’ll cover is well-known to seasoned perfumistas.

Perfumes get reformulated all the time, and they always have. Why? Well, there are any number of reasons. Sometimes companies substitute cheaper ingredients as a cost-saving measure…

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Career interests of composite toxicologists

Posted by Robin on 21 July 2009 9 Comments

The perfume industry certainly needs a safety organisation to protect its interests – but maybe not this one, which is guilty of over-regulating the industry, and confuses the career interests of its composite toxicologists over and above its function to be a balanced safety policy-making unit for the trade.

— Tony Burfield of Cropwatch, writing about the IFRA standards for melissa oil in Robertet Reveals its Evidence on Melissa Oil to Cropwatch at The Aromaconnection Blog. You can also read more at The melissa oil scandal & IFRA at 1000 Fragrances.

A recently banned fragrance material

Posted by Robin on 14 July 2009 36 Comments

Of the 50 products randomly tested from around the world as part of the IFRA Compliance Program’s third cycle (May 2008 to April 2009) one finished product has been identified as containing a recently banned fragrance material. [...]
“This is the first time we have identified a banned fragrance material in the three years of running the Compliance Program,” explained Jean-Pierre Houri, IFRA Director General. “Since the material has only recently been banned it is possible that the finished product is part of batch that is simply running its course through the retail pipeline...”

— From Fragrance industry spots non-compliant product at IFRA. Most unfortunately, they don't name the product or we could all run out and buy a bottle.

R.I.P.

Posted by Robin on 4 April 2009 165 Comments

Perfumery, a hundred-year-old art, has taken a long time dying, but on January 1, 2010 it will be officially dead. On that date, amendment 43 by IFRA, the international fragrance association, will take effect, and all perfumes on the market, old, young, fine fragrance or shampoo, must follow its guidelines or be in breach of the law in the EU. Among the many disasters that will befall fine fragrance, let me pick an emblematic one: oakmoss. This material is essential to perfumery and especially to the chypre category, including Mitsouko and hundreds of others. From 2010 it will be replaced by things which do not smell like oakmoss.

— Luca Turin, from Duftnote -- No Benefits at NZZ Folio, found via The Non-Blonde.

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a blog about perfume

Van Cleef & Arpels Muguet Blanc ~ perfume review

Perfumista tip: on reformulations, or why your favorite perfume doesn’t smell like it used to

Career interests of composite toxicologists

A recently banned fragrance material

R.I.P.