Tick, tick, tick….
If you need more ideas, check out part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6 and part 7.
From Jo Malone, the Pomegranate Noir Fragrance Chronicle: “Transform Pomegranate Noir with the accords of Raspberry, Casablanca Lily and Guaiacwood to create your own compelling blend of this iconic fragrance for both men and women.” Includes a 30 ml bottle of Pomegranate Noir plus 9 ml bottles of Raspberry Cologne, Casablanca Lily Cologne and Guaiacwood Cologne. $95…
Prada will launch a Eau de Toilette version of Infusion d’Iris in August. The new fragrance for women focuses on the iris flower — or “a memory of iris”, since most iris flowers are not scented — instead of the more traditionally used iris root…
Model Lara Stone for Prada Infusion d'Iris.
My vetiver cup runneth over. You’d laugh if I told you how many vetiver fragrances I own. It’s rare for me to come across a vetiver perfume I hate, but after disliking Prada’s take on another perfume note I love, orange blossom (Infusion de Fleur d’Oranger), I wondered if its interpretation of vetiver would also be a disappointment.
Infusion de Vétiver is a limited edition Eau de Toilette developed by perfumer Daniela Andrier. Apart from vetiver, the listed fragrance notes include tarragon, pepper and purple ginger. The first time I smelled Infusion de Vétiver was on paper, and it smelled like watery, slightly peppery vetiver: plain. When I wore the fragrance, I detected other notes but the composition remained aqueous and simple.
On my skin, Infusion de Vétiver starts with the scents of powerful, acidic “citrus” (just a second or two) followed by fresh tarragon….
I like Prada. Not because of the fashion — regular readers here know I don’t know a thing about fashion — but because of the perfumes, which for the most part (I’m ignoring Prada Tendré) have eschewed the aim-for-the-lowest-common-denominator approach of your average mainstream designer perfume brand. The Prada perfumes aren’t wacky or outré, and they’re not necessarily the sort of thing that will please your jaded, niche-snob perfumista, but they’re well-crafted, and they strike me as perfumes made by people who care about the product as much as they care about making money. I’m as jaded as anybody, but I’m entirely willing to believe perfumer Daniela Andrier when she says Prada gives her more money to work with than other brands.1
It is precisely because I like Prada so much that last year’s Infusion de Fleur d’Oranger was such a disappointment. It was the first in a new series of limited editions, the Ephemeral Infusions.2 According to Andrier, the “idea of Infusion is almost as an imprint of the chosen material in water, a kind of watercolor fragrance reworked with colorful pastel crayon”3 — doesn’t that sound delightful? And it worked out perfectly, for me anyway, in the original that preceded the series, Prada Infusion d’Iris, and also in Prada’s recent L’Eau Ambrée, which was not part of the series but which took a very similar approach…