French niche line Olfactive Studio will launch Flash Back next month. The new fragrance was inspired by a photograph by Laurent Segretier…
Penhaligon’s Peoneve ~ fragrance review
The English house of Penhaligon’s offers several floral fragrances for women, yet I’ve never really fallen for any of them. Bluebell is too astringent for my taste, Elisabethan Rose is pretty but fleeting, Violetta is weirdly herbaceous, and I’m just not a Lily of the Valley person. However, the press release for Peoneve caught my eye. This new launch is described as “an exquisite portrayal of an English garden in summer, bursting with lush green foliage and heady with the scent of blossoming flowers,” and was developed by perfumer Olivier Cresp, with notes of violet leaf, peony, Bulgarian rose, hedione, vetiver, musk and cashmere wood.
Although peony isn’t my absolute favorite floral note, I do like it, and I’ll usually give it a try when it appears in something like L’Occitane Paeonia (which is a bit dull) or Parfums de Nicolaï’s Rose Pivoine — or Estée Lauder’s new-classic Pleasures, of course. The main problem with interpretations of peony, for me, is that they tend to err on the side of watery-lemony freshness, when I’d prefer a little more pollen and petal in the mix. Peoneve seems to take the latter course…
Antonio Banderas Blue Seduction for Women ~ fragrance review
At the Antonio Banderas perfume website, you can take a quiz to help you select one of the many Antonio Banderas fragrances. Accompanied by a photo of Banderas casting a smoldering gaze, the quiz asks, “Tell me about yourself and I will tell you which fragrance will best suit your personality.” I can hear Banderas’s accent now. And he wants me to tell him about myself! I know I’m blushing.
The first question asks simply whether I’m a man or a woman. Easy. The next — and final — question asks me to choose from one of seven adjectives to describe myself. (Men get nineteen options.) I’m a little disappointed he doesn’t want to know more about me — I could tell him about my childhood, share my love of macaroni and cheese, show him my scars — but I’m game anyway. What should it be? Am I “casual,” “magnetic,” “spontaneous”? With another glance at Antonio’s black-fringed eyes, I choose “sensuous.” The website spits out its suggestion: Blue Seduction for Women.
Ah, Antonio. I guess we were never meant to be…
Valentino Valentina Assoluto ~ new perfume
Penhaligon’s Peoneve ~ new fragrance
Penhaligon’s will launch Peoneve, a new peony-based fragrance inspired by “a blooming English garden in the summer”, in July…