Shiseido will launch Zen Secret Bloom in October. The new limited edition fragrance for women is a flanker to Zen, and celebrates the brand’s 140th anniversary…
Balmain Ivoire de Balmain ~ new fragrance
Balmain will relaunch Ivoire de Balmain, the brand’s well-known fragrance first introduced in 1979. The modern interpretation will debut in August, and will be the brand’s first launch under new licensing arrangements with InterParfums…
Salvador Dali Crazy Kiss, It Is Dream ~ new fragrances
Parfums Salvador Dali launches two new fragrances for women this spring: Crazy Kiss and It Is Dream…
Chloe L’Eau de Chloe ~ fragrance review
Can I pick the winners? No, I most emphatically cannot. The success of Chloé’s 2008 comeback fragrance, Chloé Eau de Parfum, took me totally by surprise — I had found the juice average at best. Granted, we all know that sometimes, the right generic but likable juice, in excellent packaging with engaging advertising, can sell very well indeed, but I did not find Chloé all that likable, in fact, I found it so unlikable and dull that I did not bother to review it.
After it did so well, I tried it several more times to see if I’d missed something. Nope. On this one, I stand firmly with Chandler Burr:
Not only is Chloé an uninteresting, clichéd floral — why are houses still launching saccharine, vaguely unidentifiable composite flowers? — it smells like a perfume masquerading as a fabric softener. What’s worse is that there are some good fabric softener scents out there; this smells cheap and slightly chemical.1
Perfumistas, by and large, seemed to agree — it has its fans, of course, but Chloé was never the darling of the perfume blogs. I confess I skipped the newer concentrations (they later did an Eau de Toilette and an Eau de Parfum Intense), and I further confess that the newest iteration, L’Eau de Chloé, got my attention mostly because of the pretty pale green color scheme…
Chopard Casmir ~ fragrance review
A few weeks ago a coworker asked, “You like chocolate martinis? I’ve got a great recipe for one.” To me a martini should be nothing but glacier-cold gin and a wink of vermouth, but I wanted to be friendly so I smiled and nodded. He started in on the recipe. “You take Godiva liqueur, Kahlua, Vanilla Stoli, and a little Baileys….” He ended by suggesting a garnish of a Hershey’s kiss. It was all I could do to keep my lunch down.
A few days later I searched the kitchen for something sweet. It was raining out, and cold, and I wanted a taste of something almost too rich to eat. Just then, my friend’s chocolate martini — a tiny one, for sure — would have been perfect.
That’s how I feel about Chopard Casmir. A daily diet of Casmir would burn out your nasal hair and leave you (and your bus mates) on the verge of nausea. But when the taste for something over-the-top rich and sweet hits, it’s hard to beat…