In case you’ve got a few extra dollars set aside:
An exclusive luxury fragrance for exceptional women—only 50 limited-edition inscribed Baccarat Pure Parfum bottles are created each year for Jean Patou Joy…
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…
5 perfumes for: a Lavender Contrarian
There is a story in our family about my first grade parent-teacher interview. The excellent, jolly woman who taught my class reported I was doing well, but confessed to my mother that she experienced considerable anxiety when introducing what she called “controversial topics”. Mom, a teacher herself, did not ask which first grade topics these could possibly be, and she did not encourage the woman to elaborate. She was already familiar with what my brothers later named “the squinty face”. She knew well my favorite phrase: “Now, wait a minute…” (No doubt this was preferable to a tic I developed later: “You mean to tell me…?!”) Most importantly, both my parents had learned to avoid being drawn into discussions on, say, the vagaries of English spelling, the habits and duties of Santa Claus, or the basic road safety rules a young lady of six might be expected to follow. For years, I described myself as a contrarian. Now Christopher Hitchens has tried to make it hip to be a young contrarian, and I’ve decided to start taking popular, rather non-committal stances on current issues. It’s hard to get rid of the squinting, though.
Old habits die hard, then, and in the interests of both truth and disagreeing with people, I have found myself defending Perfumes: The Guide on points of accuracy and style in various online forums. Still, this sentence from Luca Turin’s review of Caldey Island Lavender gives me pause: “Lavender is summer wind made smell, and the best lavender compositions are, in my opinion, the ones from which other elements are absent, and only endlessly blue daylight air remains.” Well, despite having never sampled the Caldey Island Lavender, I must disagree. (I have found that to properly enter into the spirit of arguing, you must be prepared to dispense right away with proper research.) Leaving aside the blue air — surely wind can’t be blue? And air is merely stationary wind? — I fail to see how Guerlain Jicky would fit into his best lavenders category. And any best lavenders category that excludes Jicky cuts no mustard with me. Let us discuss a list of other surpassingly wonderful complex lavenders, just to be difficult…
The Perfume Garden at the 2009 Chelsea Flower Show
The ‘Perfume Garden’ by Laurie Chetwood and Patrick Collins is inspired by a perfume created 400 years ago for Elizabeth I. It began with a visit to Grasse to recreate the queen’s perfume with the help of French perfume house Jean Patou, and each plant in the garden has a role to play in the creation of scent. The final design will include an area where visitors can try the contemporary version of Elizabeth I’s perfume for themselves.
— From The Chelsea Flower Show 2009 at Time Out London. You can also read more about the Perfume Garden at the Telegraph or at Perfumer Flavorist.
Top 10 Spring Fragrances 2009
When spring arrives, the black and white world of winter seems to turn technicolor in splotches. The ground is mostly barren, but a patch of lurid daffodils lights up a parking strip, and a tulip tree looks like it has burst into white flames against the grey sky. Even the singing birds sound ridiculously cheerful, like a Looney Tunes short come to life.
Of course, I love it. And mostly I like choosing perfumes for spring that make the same garish splash in the cool, damp air. But sometimes moodier fragrances that reflect the dirt’s slow awakening seem more appropriate. Here are my current favorites for spring, not in any particular order.
Amouage Ubar. Nothing says spring like lily of the valley — light, ethereal, and tinged with green. Unfortunately, when I wear Christian Dior Diorissimo, I feel like I’m wearing someone else’s clothing. It feels cold on me. Ubar, on the other hand, is loaded with lily of the valley and sunny jasmine, but has a warm grounding of sandalwood and civet. I’m hoarding the few drops I have left in my sample sprayer…