Mother’s Day is coming up on Sunday, 12 May — here is our final set of gift ideas in case you’re still shopping. If you missed it, check out part 1 and part 2.
From Charlotte Olympia, hinged perfume-bottle-shaped clutch purses made from colored perspex. $1295 (gulp!) each at Neiman Marcus…
I can’t believe it’s been five years since my last Top Ten Spring Fragrances list, but yes, a look back confirms that fact. My tastes haven’t shifted much since then, yet I can somehow come up with plenty of new favorites. Of course, there are the fragrances that I consider part of my springtime “hall of fame”: Guerlain Apres l’Ondée and Chamade, Frederic Malle En Passant. These come into rotation every March or April, come rain or come shine (and lately, it’s been mostly rain). But, beyond these classics, I’m easily able to compile a list of other fragrances I’ve been wearing or will be wearing over the next month or two.
What to wear when the calendar says Spring, but the weather is still chilly and damp and dreary? I love to don Frederic Malle L’Eau d’Hiver during that indecisive kind of weather, perhaps because it walks a fine line between warm and cool, soft and crisp…
When acquaintances who want to know more about perfume ask me for recommendations, I often suggest a visit to a L’Artisan Parfumeur counter. L’Artisan was the first “niche” fragrance house I ever experienced, back in the 1990s, and it’s still one of my favorites. Lately I’ve been watching with interest as L’Artisan has been highlighting certain long-standing aspects of its brand identity, perhaps re-asserting its rightful place in an increasingly crowded market. Since late 2012, for example, the company has been “telling the story of French perfumery” with its “Grasse Collection” of candles, scented gloves, and — starting now, with Caligna — fragrances.
Caligna “draws inspiration from the spiritual home of fragrance” — the countryside around Grasse — and its name reportedly comes from the word meaning “to court” or “to flirt” in the Provençal dialect. L’Artisan describes Caligna as “a woody, aromatic fragrance” with notes of clary sage, fig, jasmine marmalade accord, lentisc (the shrub that produces mastic resin) and pine needles; it was developed by perfumer Dora Baghriche-Arnaud.
All of Caligna’s notes are inspired by the landscape and vegetation of Provence, and it’s a refreshing take on the region, free of any clichéd lavender-sachet associations…
Over the years I’ve built a stable of favorite cold-weather fragrances and have only added and dropped off a few each year. To spare you a recap of perfumes I mention all the time, I’m grouping ten perfumes I like into ten winter-activity categories. I hope you’ll chime in with your own favorites, and be sure to check out more winter favorites at Bois de Jasmin :: Grain de Musc :: Perfume Posse :: Perfume Smellin’ Things.
This category is kind of a joke since I don’t know how to ski, and, frankly, the whole deal sounds like a good excuse for a broken collar bone. But après ski? Sign me up. When I picture après ski, I think of an early 1960s lodge in Gstaad — like the one in the Pink Panther movie — with women in sweaters and bulbous mink hats and men in turtlenecks and dark glasses. Everyone drinks from brandy snifters and speaks several languages. It’s glamorously ridiculous. Serge Lutens Santal de Mysore is my après-ski perfume choice. It’s boozy, woody, and warm, and would be a terrific accompaniment to a shoulder-high fireplace and a copy of Valley of the Dolls…
French niche line L’Artisan Parfumeur will launch Caligna, a new woody aromatic fragrance. Caligna will be fronted by dancer Gudrun Ghesquière…