Indie botanical line Strange Invisible Perfumes has launched Essence of IX, a new limited edition fragrance created in collaboration with California winery Colgin Cellars and named for Colgin’s IX Estate vineyard:
In its latest pure perfume, Strange Invisible Perfumes taps this Colgin mystique through a blend of rare…
Strange Invisible Perfumes will launch Peloponnesian, the line’s first Eau de Parfum for men, this spring. The new scent is “inspired by the Aegean Sea and the mythical aromas of the Greek Peninsula…”
I tried hard to think of a theme that would tie these together, but there isn’t one — just brief reviews of three perfumes I’ve been meaning to write about: Ormonde Jayne Tiare, Stella McCartney Stella Nude and Strange Invisible Perfumes Fire and Cream.
Tiare is the latest from British niche line Ormonde Jayne. The tiare flower, as many of you know, is the Tahitian gardenia (Gardenia taitensis), and tiare-based perfumes are usually done in a heady, lush tropical manner — Monyette Paris, Montale Intense Tiare, André Gas Ensoleille Moi, et al. — often with coconut lending a beachy, sunscreen sort of feel. Ormonde Jayne takes a different approach: this Tiare is light and airy…
"Customized fragrance is wildly appealing to people because it presents an opportunity to collaborate creatively with a perfumer," Balahoutis said. But here, the custom experience costs $6,000, which is arguably more than most people will spend on perfume in their lifetime.
— Alexandra Balahoutis of Strange Invisible Perfumes on the line's bespoke service, quoted in L.A. custom perfumers: Memoire Liquide, Strange Invisible, Smell Bent at the LA Times, where you'll also find several related stories: Golden age of perfume in the air?, The right perfume for your age, When perfume becomes a nuisance (or a health issue), Men's cologne lines get manlier and Rating celebrity perfumes: In Bloom, Siren, Queen and Malibu.
Citrus scents can be such cheerful, uncomplicated fragrances, and they can brighten up a gloomy day with their connotations of sunshine, cleanliness, and good health. I particularly like to layer citrus-fragranced shower gels and lotions under my favorite summer perfumes, to boost their bright-and-crisp qualities.
However, the available range of lemon-, lime-, and orange-scented products is occasionally disappointing — especially at the higher end of the price spectrum, for some reason. One example is Strange Invisible Perfumes Wild Orange Invisible Body Lotion. I’m assuming it’s intended to be layered under Strange Invisible Perfumes’ citrus-accented perfume oils, such as L’Invisible or Fair Verona. It’s a nice enough medium-weight lotion, packaged in a bottle that suggests a fancy hair mousse. It’s all-natural, with aloe vera and olive oil for moisture. It smells like, well, sweet orange oil. But for this price, I was expecting to be amazed, and I just wasn’t. ($40 for 8 fl. oz.; for buying information see the listing for Strange Invisible Perfumes under Perfume Houses.)
NARS is best known as a creator of trend-setting color cosmetics, so I was surprised to learn that the company also sells a line of body products. Its Ginger Grapefruit Body Lotion promises a fragrance that “fuses the vibrant essence of grapefruit and cassis with the romantic floral touches of sweet peony and violet flower.” This sounds like something I’d love…