Regrets.....I have a few....

  My trip to Salzburg was a glimpse on what differentiates a trully touristic, cosmopolitan resort from merely a central town. Besides the abundance of luxury boutiques with the most exquisite items (Tod's bags and shoes in the loveliest suede, covetable Panerai watches of limited editions, gorgeous La Perla undies and le dernier cri  in anything having to do with fashion) there were the most wonderful, rare and costly brands in the simplest Apotheke (that's Apothecary or Cosmetic and Perfume department store to you and me). The same Apotheke in provencial Germany or even the duty-free in Frankfurt -which is no small place in itself as you have probably learned if you read my last few entries- had only a fifth of the treasures I found in the one in ... (more)

Third installement of Joys of the duty-free

In my foray into the futy-free new launches beckoned me. I usually am pretty weak and have to try, even if I am certain that I will not like the goods. I guess we always hope that we will be pleasantly surprised.
In this case I have had not one, but several pleasant suprises (and one miss) from things that would usually take a bashing, simply because they are flankers of established perfumes.

I am referring to Estee Lauders Pure White Linen, Guerlain Insolence, Bulgari femme Voile de jasmin and Ralph Lauren's Pure Turquoise.

Pure White Linen was something I was very reluctant about, because I do not have good associations with the original White Linen. ... (more)

Second installement of Joys of the duty-free

Continuing on my recounting of my duty-free adventures I have to say that the mainstream side of things is in good health and offers an abundance of new releases which seems overwhelming at times. It's hard to keep up! Therefore I will need a couple of posts to report all the things I found, so bear with me.

Among row after row of designer and cosmetic houses' fragrances one finds new releases, variations on existing perfumes and that elusive, tantalising thing called a "limited edition", the downfall of many an otherwise intelligent perfumeholic. I pleady guilty, my Honour.
Regarding the former category, I noticed no less than 4 products under the name Miracle on the Lancôme shelf. Miracle original in EDP ( a spicy floral of suprising pleasantness, much like Pleasures original ... (more)

Joys of the duty-free (a tale in instalments)

One of the perks of air travel has always been perusing the duty-free aisles.
The invention of duty-free goes back a long way, to 1947 actually. Shops thrived on the policy, which is now attacked by the recent terror-hysteria that has hit the US and UK like a ton of bricks. Duty free shops report loss of sales over the new restrictions applicable to passengers to the aforementioned countries. A sad development really.
The authenticity of the sources responsible for the hysteria epidemic might not be so easily or conclusively ... (more)

Back from a fragrant trip......

I was absent for awhile, hence no posts. Those few days saw me travelling and trying out several different perfumes along the way.
Since air travel has changed so dramatically for US and UK citizens these past few days (aided by a little manipulated hysteria creeping up via forces who shall not be named) it was refreshing to see that travel within Continental Europe is still the laid back, easy, glamorous affair it had always been in my experience.
In light of that, I made use of my god-given, airport-security non-taken ability to sniff to my heart's content and intent on reporting back with lots of exciting news, starting tomorrow.

Byblos by Byblos

A proud in its weirdness creation by nose Ilias Ermenides in 1990, this fragrance is now discontinued.
Why bother trace it, you might ask: I like to talk about bygones; I’m really old beyond my biological years it seems, that embellishing, idealistic reminiscence being characteristic of older people, as stated very early indeed in the work of Aristotle’s “Nicomachean Ethics”. ... (more)

Arabian attars: a journey to the mundane?

A while ago, I got a very kind invitation by Janet (Spadefoot) to review some Arabian attars which she had brought with her back from Yemen.
She told me that she would be pleased if I reviewed them. So, as promised, here it is.

The little package came with a postcard created by Janet herself: a great sketch of a tourist photographing two muslim women wearing the chador and humouring the photographer with playful gestures to one another. She had written on it: “Enjoy the journey” with a wide, sweeping handwriting that denotes artistic tendencies and expressive personality. ... (more)

"For the apple dies in sweetness, but I do not."

  The line above comes from John Keats and I got directed to it via the most lovely lady who is a valued friend and an eloquent writer. In her universe, there is a place of love and devotion that got expressed in a most touching way. A blog entry poetically titled  devoted to yours, trully. In it she not only expresses her affection for me, ... (more)

Art in perfumery part deux: post-modernism?

 In my previous post I elaborated on what constitutes art in perfumery and what criteria must apply for it to be defined as such. Some perfume lines were scrutinised in order to decide whether they deserve the term or not. Considering that some perfumes are in some degree artistically conceived and not merely as a means of generating income for the conglomerates that so often produce the majority of perfume today, the next question would be what style and period of art do they belong to and if post-modernism features in there.

According to certain theorists all art can roughly be divided into two extremes: classicism and ... (more)

An essay on art in perfumery

The issue of what constitutes art and what does not has been on my mind for years. Being an historian and having a degree in History of Art as well is no help though, because one would be amazed at the diversity of opinion in such circles as to what exactly would be the deciding factor. As perfumery might be considered an art form by us perfume fanatics, I wanted to discuss what exactly would define it as such and pose some questions.
I was reading an interview of painter and sculptor Fernando Botero -probably South America's greatest living artist today- given to Thanasis Lalas on Vima magazine the other day, which inspired this post. ... (more)

Vacation time is here at last...

More reviews and fragrant musings when I get back!

Amor pour homme: new fragrance from Cacharel

     Parfums Cacharel have come up with a new men's scent as a follow up to their women's perfume Amor Amor. It is called Amor pour Homme and luckily doesn't feature the tooth-aching sweetness of the female counterpart. It is built as an aromatic/spicy fougere.From Kouros ... (more)

Updates, updates...

Two new perfumes from Celine and Stella Mc Cartney and one personal update.                        

I am proud to say I finished updating my Guerlain exclusives page on my personal site  ... (more)

And now for something completely different

A smashing new idea on the horizon: a site dedicated to bringing you the best of perfume blogging in one easy page that directs you to the best links. Marina and Katie have come up with Scentbloggers (click it)

"Scentbloggers are a group of like-minded people dedicated to exploring smell culture. Here you will find the smelly highlights from various sites and perfume blogs from around the world, as well as occasional special features on our bloggers and topic-specific themes."

A fairy named Nina

I have often wondered if appearances correspond to the reality or essence of a personality and vice versa, as I am sure you have too. The duality of a person is always fascinating to unravel. And an inconsistency often contributes to a greater fascination. Whether one will tolerate one in favor of another is entirely a personal matter.

Nina, the new perfume by Nina Ricci is such a case.

Created as a perfume to evoke in ladies' minds ... (more)

The perfect beach smell

The inner intellectual abhors the manipulated image of beach babes that are flooding today’s media. Fake breasts, dyed highlighted hair, gleaming teeth, self-tanned skin, smiles up to the ears for no apparent reason, gams that go on for miles. Not all of that is bad, really, and I insist on that point vehemently (I could do with the gams fine myself) but perhaps when the total equals Jessica Simpson (it's her birthday today, by the way) as Daisy in the remake of that formative kitsch TV series of the same ... (more)

Rememberance...

Credits:
Photo by David Gilbert

In loving fragrant memory

Desert lions

Is a terrible drought something you have dreamed of? Is its aridness something you have seen with your mental eye? “Perfumes are pictures, painted with scents” the creator of today’s scent says.  “We work on the brightness, the tonality of the colours, the contrasts; we draw lines and figures and thus, create impressions that are unique and remain natural” . Part of the Andy Tauer perfume line, which also includes Le Maroc pour Elle and the newest addition Lonestar Memories, L’air du desert marocain draws inspiration from vast, spare spaces of ... (more)

The joys of boredom : philosophizing about it

Essence of a dream, that is Extrait de songe, was the very poetic name of a limited edition “clean”perfume for summer 2005 by L’artisan Parfumeur. The latter lost a legal battle over the coveted name with Annick Goutal who had the name Songes (=dreams) copyrighted for her own, completely different, composition. Hence the lovely Extrait de Songe became extinct.
However many people say it smells quite close to another older L’artisan offering, one of the Moodswings coffret, Lazy Mood.
This got me thinking.

Laziness, boredom, dullness….all of these words bring to mind the languorous days of a really hot summer, when one isn’t energized enough to actively do anything except sleep. We had a long bout of this recently and am afraid we will get it again soon enough. ... (more)

Tuberose for the innocent and timid

Tuberose(Polianthes tuberose): the flower of spiritual ruin, the carnal blossom, the heady mistress of the night (rat ki rani in India), a lily plant originally native to the Americas.
Do Son: a coastal resort in Vietnam that inspired Yves Coueslant, one the founders of Diptyque, to name their fragrance that launched in autumn 2005 in a time frame not especially receptive to such compositions, at least in the Northern hemisphere.
The two combine in an unexpected composition in Do Son the perfume and the ... (more)

Life Circle

There seems to be a trend among companies for single scents focusing on a specific idea that could be combined with one another or worn individually: Marc Jacobs has done it with his three scents in the big bottles, Donna Karan has done it with her Essences available at Neiman Marcus; often with erratic results. It’s only natural that preferences would go to one or two over the others. ... (more)

A gift for lovers...

What gift for passionate lovers shall we find?

Not flowers nor books of verse suffice for me,

but splinters of the odorous cedar-tree, and tufts of pine-buds, oozy in the wind;

Give me young shoots of aromatic rind, or sapphire, redolent of sand and sea;

for all such fragrances I deem to be fit with my sharp desires to be combined.

My heart is like a poet, whose one room, scented with latakia* faint and fine,

dried rose leaves, and spilt attar, and old wine, from curtained windows gathers its warm gloom

round all but one sweet picture, where incline his thoughts and fancies mingled with perfume.

... (more)

L de Lolita Lempicka

It’s really hard to imagine a summer scent, bottled in a turquoise blue bottle  smelling of vanillic warmth and musky hugs. But here is proof to persuade us otherwise.
Enter the new L eau de parfum de Lolita Lempicka, the fashion designer’s latest scent.
Lolita Lempicka owes her name to two different references. Lolita comes of course from the literary masterpiece by Vladimir Nobokov, the manifesto of wit, a recount ... (more)

Cleanliness next to godliness?

It is a matter of cleanliness next to godliness or selfish indulgence that we so often pay a lot for shower gels and foam baths that smell good?

The mind boggles when contemplating the vast selection offered and the nuances and price range variation.

What is clean anyway? The notion seems to differ among nations and scientists. And clean fresh water supplies for every citizen on the earth on a steady decline -as witnessed in various studies such as this

Queen of the Night

Whenever I smell jasmine my heart aches a little. The piercingly sweet little blossom that is full of the concentrated indolic smell of humans has a way of catching my breath.
Jasmine was really only possible to “get” when enfleurage was introduced: the apparently “disgusting” method of extracting a flower’s essence by immersing it in fat and then extracting from the mixture the pure essence using solvents. Very costly as tons of flowers are needed for just a little oil. ... (more)

Pondering on a Garden

Adam Cast Forth

Was there a Garden or was it a dream? Amid the fleeting light, I have stalled myself and queried, as for consolation almost, if the bygone period over which this Adam, wretched now, once reigned supreme, it might not have been just a magical illusion of that God I dreamed.

Already it's not precise in my memory the clear Paradise, but I know it exists, in flower and profusion, although not for me.

My punishment for life is the hard earth with the incestuous strife of Cains and Abels and their brood; I await for no pardon.

Yet, it's much to have loved, to have known true joy, to have had -even for just one day only- the experience of touching the living Garden.

by ... (more)