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By Kilian Sweet Redemption (The End) ~ fragrance review

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BaudelaireBy Kilian Sweet RedemptionJim Morrison

Perfumes cling closely to your flesh
As incense to a censer; bright
And dusky nymph, you are all Night,
Secret and passionate and fresh!

— Charles Baudelaire (trans. Jacques LeClercq)

This is the end / beautiful friend

— Jim Morrison

I’m sorry, but I couldn’t stop myself from using those images and quotations. What else can one do, when faced with promotional copy stating that a fragrance is “inspired on one hand by Baudelaire’s homage to sweet and deep fragrances, yet on the other hand by the dark and mysterious poetry of Jim Morrison as he seemingly forebode his own demise”? The fragrance in question is Sweet Redemption (The End), the tenth and final release in By Kilian’s L’Oeuvre Noire series. It was developed by perfumer Calice Becker and the notes for this sweet powdery woods fragrance include orange blossom, vanilla, myrrh, opopanax, benzoin and incense.

Overwrought prose aside, what do we have here? Sweet Redemption opens with a top note of orange blossom cocooned in spun sugar. It’s feminine and quite pretty, and I thought for a moment that this would turn out to be one of the simpler By Kilian compositions…

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Velvet & Sweet Pea Orange Blossom and Kashmir Rose Whipped Face & Body Frostings ~ scented body products

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Velvet & Sweet Pea Whipped Face & Body Frostings

Velvet & Sweet Pea’s Purrfumery is the creation of Laurie Stern, a perfumer who blends her artisanal fragrances from carefully selected botanical ingredients. I first heard about this small company from Trish at Scent Hive, who recently shared some trial-sized amounts of Velvet & Sweet Pea’s Face & Body Frostings with me. Fancy body creams are everywhere these days, and it takes a little something extra to impress me, so I’m glad Trish put these products right into my hands. They definitely need to be felt and smelled to be appreciated fully.

Velvet & Sweet Pea’s Face & Body Frostings in Orange Blossom and Kashmir Rose are both concocted from a base of organic jojoba oil (infused with Tahitian vanilla beans), organic shea butter, virgin coconut oil, and organic oils of marula, avocado, red raspberry seed, rose hip seed, sesame, safflower, and vitamin E. Orange Blossom Whipped Face & Body Frosting is fragranced with neroli essential oil and blood orange oil. Its scent opens with a clean, bright neroli note, one of the nicest I’ve smelled in a body product in ages, and it turns more citrusy as the product warms on skin…

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Hermes 24, Faubourg ~ fragrance review

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Hermes Constance handbag

Have you ever thought about matching iconic Hermès handbags with the equally iconic Hermès perfumes? I’d pair Calèche with the classic Kelly bag and Kelly Calèche with one of the new, smaller Kellys in a bright color, say apple green or watermelon pink. Birkin bags are more casual and slouchy, more modern, than the Kelly bags, and I can see the Hermessences suiting a Birkin. Pamplemousse Rose, for instance, would be nice with a pale green or dove grey Birkin bag (although Equipage is a natural for a battered, nude calf Birkin.) To me, 24, Faubourg’s match is the Constance. 24, Faubourg’s prim, go-anywhere elegance seems made for a woman with a mink brown, gold-buckled Constance slung over her shoulder.

Hermès released 24, Faubourg in 1995. It’s named after the address of Hermès’s flagship store and is one of a handful of perfumes named after fashion-centric addresses, including Balenciaga Le Dix and Chanel 31 Rue Cambon. Maurice Roucel created 24, Faubourg. Nigel Groom lists its notes as orange blossom, jasmine, tiara flower, ylang ylang, iris, patchouli, vanilla, ambergris, and sandalwood.1

To me, this list of notes is barely a sketch of the full body of 24, Faubourg…

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Ineke Field Notes from Paris ~ fragrance review

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Ineke Field Notes from Paris perfume

San Francisco-based Ineke has just released Field Notes from Paris, their sixth fragrance. Field Notes from Paris is a perfect bookend to my year’s perfume reviews; like February’s John Varvatos Artisan (the first 2009 perfume release I enjoyed), Field Notes from Paris is an immediately likeable — and interesting — orange blossom-centered fragrance.

I’ve struggled to describe Field Notes from Paris’s effect, so I’ll use a “piano” to help me. Since orange blossom is ‘active’ throughout Field Notes from Paris’s development, think of it as the piano’s sustain pedal. Now imagine the other 10 listed fragrance notes (bergamot, coriander seed, tobacco flower, tobacco leaf, patchouli, cedar, tonka bean, leather, beeswax, vanilla) as piano keys: middle C up to A. Hold down the sustain pedal (orange blossom) and begin playing an uncomplicated tune using the ten piano keys (perhaps a melody by John Cage?) The musical notes, blending together, producing moments of beauty, moments of dissonance, are like Field Notes from Paris’s fragrance notes…

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