Father’s Day is Sunday, June 20th! If you missed them, here’s part 1 and part 2 of our 2010 gift guide.
The Eau Boy men’s scent sample from Sephora, with deluxe samples of Bvlgari Pour Homme Soir, Clean Men, Givenchy, Jack Black Lemon & Chamomile Intense Therapy Lip Balm, Ralph Lauren Polo Blue, Tom Ford Extreme, Diesel Fuel For Life and Armani Acqua di Gio…
Sometimes it’s best to start at the end: L’Artisan Parfumeur’s new Nuit de Tubéreuse is a stunning perfume. Perfumer Bertand Duchaufour is reportedly not exactly the house nose at L’Artisan, and for that matter, he developed quite a few fragrances for the house before he was officially hired in 2008, but the L’Artisan line feels different after the last three major releases under his direction — Havana Vanille, Al Oudh, and now Nuit de Tubéreuse — and to me at least, different in a good way, although L’Artisan has long been one of my favorite perfume houses. There has been much discussion recently about whether or not niche is still a meaningful term, and of course one could argue that in terms of size and distribution, L’Artisan Parfumeur is not a niche firm anyway. Whatever: Nuit de Tubéreuse is an unusual and impressive take on tuberose, and it cheers me no end to know that there are still companies out there launching perfumes like this. Niche or not niche, I don’t care — Nuit de Tubéreuse is the exactly the sort of perfume that keeps me blogging.
All of that said, I’m not at all sure that I like it, and I put off this review so that I might wear it enough to make up my mind. I still haven’t made up my mind. It’s going in the purgatory basket. But let’s get back to the beginning…
Spring! Finally. It isn’t summer, but it’s almost summer, and if, like me, you detest the cold, that’s very nearly the best thing about it. The absolute best thing, of course, is the flowers. My list is heavily weighted towards the “pretty floral” fragrance category, and it’s also heavily weighted towards niche, and expensive. Sorry, it just worked out that way. Hopefully, my fellow bloggers did a better job on the diversity front: see Bois de Jasmin, Grain de Musc, Perfume Posse and Perfume Smellin’ Things for more top 10 lists. Meantime, here’s mine:
CB I Hate Perfume Black March: the smell of spring, and the perfect thing to wear on a warm, rainy April day, although there’s something about it that can tend towards the melancholy. If you can’t afford it, you can make do with Demeter Dirt — someone called Black March the high def version of Dirt, and that’s apt…
When I was pregnant with my daughter, my husband and I attended prenatal classes. Discussing strategies for birthing pains, the instructor asked us to practice visualizing our so-called “happy place”, the location in each of our lives that felt the most comforting, peaceful and self-affirming. She suggested mentally escaping the delivery to a favorite beach, a summer cottage or a honeymoon hotel in Europe. My husband frowned at me sternly. “Are you visualizing being in bed?” My guilty look confirmed this. “Not helpful. You’re going to be in a bed,” he said, shaking his head, “and it won’t be restful.” I try to make a point of acknowledging the occasions when he is right, and boy, he was spot-on that time.
Luckily, no labor, viral illness or bout of the vivid nightmares to which I am prone has ever lastingly tainted the experience of my bed for me. It seems only natural to perfume that place of refuge, my land of dreams. Sometimes, close friends or relatives ask why I bother spritzing or dabbing scent on at night, just before I fall as insensible as a stone. It is hard to describe to someone who is not a fragrance fanatic the secret joy of waking in the wee hours, when the world is black and hushed, to snuffle at your wrist. Or the feeling of well-being that comes over you on a sun-washed weekend morning when you wake up under a gently-scented duvet…
L’Artisan Parfumeur will launch Nuit de Tubéreuse, a new fragrance built around tuberose absolute:
A perfume for a secret Parisian summer night
Parisian summer nights are too romantic to be resisted…