At last, you find a fragrance that you can’t wait to put on in the morning. It’s fresh but interesting, light but present. It smells like you and how you want to feel every day. One morning, you spritz the last from your bottle and hie to the store to buy a replacement, and….it isn’t there. The fragrance is no longer being made.
What now? Here are the steps I’d follow to get my hands on more of my Holy Grail…
This year, French perfume company Fragonard is celebrating verbena with the release of Verveine.* Much of Fragonard’s PR has to do with Verveine’s perfumer:
Céline Ellena envisioned a magical formula…. Verveine is closely tied to the cycle of nature and the daily life of a perfumer who searches for inspiration in her plant garden. The perfumer drew inspiration from the plant’s natural environment to create three worlds of scents to describe it: sun, earth, and water…
Proenza Schouler recently launched its debut fragrance, Arizona, a “radiant” scent that conjures “feelings of liberation to find a greater truth. . . a respect and love of nature, and a sense of unbridled freedom.” Arizona was developed by perfumers Loc Dong and Carlos Benaïm and includes notes of white cactus flower, orange flower, orris, jasmine, solar accord, musk and cashmeran.
Designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, the duo behind Proenza Schouler, have said that Arizona was inspired by a trip to the deserts of the American Southwest and some much-needed time away from Wi-Fi…
I have never done one of the spit-or-scrape genealogical tests, but I have always suspected that my family has secret Nordic or Baltic blood, as both my brothers are enthusiastic enough about outdoor swimming that they’ll do it in early May or October… in Canada. While I hesitate to frolic in 50F waves, I do sport sandals until snow accumulates, drink Arnold Palmers in January and I’m the only non-menopausal female in my XX-dominated workplace who enjoys our arctic air-conditioning. In a similar fashion, I wear citrus colognes all year. When it is my turn to list summer fragrances around here, I remind myself that normal people generally turn to crisp, refreshing eaux only when the temperature rises. Having exhausted my stable of favored classic colognes in previous posts, though, I thought that this time I’d highlight some atypical choices. Please bear with me. I did test these on myself in the heat, but YMMV…
You know how you only need to see a few square inches to know that a painting is a Van Gogh? Or read a paragraph to know a story is by Hemingway? Perfume brands can have a distinctive style, too. It’s wonderful when an artist has a “voice.” On the other hand, can a style become limiting — or even boring? For perfume, how do you avoid the olfactory equivalent of playing the same tune, but in a different register?
Neela Vermeire Créations’ fragrances have a definite voice: spice, a creamy density, a love of incense, wood and rose…