French niche line L’Artisan Parfumeur will launch Caligna, a new woody aromatic fragrance. Caligna will be fronted by dancer Gudrun Ghesquière…
Holiday fragrance gifts 2012, part 2
Our series of holiday gift posts continues; today we’ve got travel sizes, coffrets and rollerballs; up next: home fragrance. If you missed part 1 (scented body products), you can find it here.
From L’Artisan Parfumeur, holiday coffrets for ladies (Mure et Musc, Premier Figuier and La Chasse aux Papillons Eaux de Toilette) and gentlemen (Timbuktu, Fou d’Absinthe and Mechant Loup Eaux de Toilette). Each is $98 for three 15 ml bottles at Luckyscent…
La Collection de Grasse
Two videos from niche line L’Artisan Parfumeur, on their upcoming Collection de Grasse, due for launch in October. The first video shows the production of the two candles, L’Automne and L’Hiver. Below the jump, the fabrication of scented leather gloves, perfumed with Mûre et Musc Extrême.
L’Artisan Parfumeur Seville a l’Aube ~ fragrance review, sort of, and a quick poll
Séville à l’Aube is the latest from French niche line L’Artisan Parfumeur. Over the years, I’ve reviewed a fair number of their fragrances — yes, I’m a fan. This, however, is not a proper review. I’ve never met blogger Denyse Beaulieu of Grain de Musc, who worked with perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour to develop Séville à l’Aube (and who wrote a book about the process: The Perfume Lover). But I’ve corresponded with her, and I utterly fail the test for any sort of objective review: would I be completely honest if I thought it was dreck? No, I really wouldn’t. I’m quite sure I would just keep my mouth shut and review something else. As it happens, I love Séville à l’Aube, enough so that I want to say something about it. So, consider this a review with a major disclaimer.
The scent’s inspiration and development was detailed in Denyse’s book, and has been repeated elsewhere, so I’ll just quote her own quick summary from Grain de Musc:
[Séville à l’aube] was inspired by one of the most beautiful nights in my life, in Seville during the Holy Week under an orange tree in full blossom, wrapped in incense smoke and the arms of a Spanish boy…
Top 10 Summer Fragrances 2012
I am a summer person. My favorite thing about spring is that it’s almost summer, and my favorite thing about fall is that sometimes, the summer days linger on longer than expected. I have nothing good at all to say about winter. But we take turns writing the seasonal Top 10 posts for Now Smell This, and somehow it has worked out that I’ve only done the summer list twice, in 2005 and 2007. Either one of those lists1 would take me happily through a summer even now, all these years later, and truth be told, summer is when I wear the least perfume anyway.2 Many days, a light layer of scented lotion is enough fragrance for me, and there are many more days when (horrors!) I wear no fragrance at all.
For this year’s list, I’ve avoided repeats by emphasizing post-2007 fragrances. Most, but not all, of my choices are unisex, and I’ve included niche and mainstream and indie, cheap and not so cheap…