Lulu Guinness has released her latest summer limited edition, Pink Pearls. The "radiant floral" features notes of pink grapefruit, tangerine peel, orange blossom, pink tulip, buttercup, apricot, tonka bean, amber, and sandalwood. The fragrance is a tie-in with Guinness's new book, Put On Your Pearls, Girls! and is available in 100 ml Eau de Parfum. (via rivieraconcepts and gcimagazine)
Bath & Body Works is releasing a new line, Le Couvent des Minimes. According to beautynewsnyc, this is a joint venture with L'Occitane. There are two fragrances, both of which will be exclusive to the BBW stores: Lavender & Acacia and Verbena & Lemon. Each is available in an Eau de Toilette and a range of body care products. There is also a Honey & Shea skincare line. All the formulas are "inspired" by recipes from the Minimes Convent in Provence. Update: see a review of Le Couvent des Minimes Verbena & Lemon.
At the other end of the price spectrum, Amouage is celebrating 21 years in Harrods with a new fragrance, Asana. The notes include mandarin, cardamom, nutmeg, freesia, violet, apricot blossom, cyclamen, jasmine, cedarwood, tonka beans, amber crystals, amyris (a rare form of sandalwood) and frankincense. This will be a limited edition run of 250 bottles, exclusive (of course) to Harrods. I don't know the price, and I doubt I need to know. Thanks to Lucia for passing on the news!
Maître Parfumeur et Gantier (finally) officially launched Bahiana yesterday:
...a Brazilian-themed women’s fragrance to coincide with the French government’s official Year of Brazil this year. The fruity EdT, with top notes of orange, lemon and mandarin, a heart of green leaves and rosewood, and a base containing amber, musk and coco, was created to evoke the tropical and forested landscapes of Brazil.
The fragrance is geared towards a younger market than the brand usually reaches for, and they have not yet decided if it will join the permanent line. (via cosmeticnews) Update: see a review of Maître Parfumeur et Gantier Bahiana.
I'm confused about Le Couvent des Minimes. It looks like a L'Occitane rip-off, but when I posted about it on MUA, someone wrote in and said it's actually an older company. I have the Shea and Honey hand lotion, and it's nice, but sometimes I just don't a hand lotion with that much fragrance. Got free samples of the Honey Body Butter and Verbena Spray too. Both nice, but nothing special.
Karen, If you go to the BBW website, it says “Couvent des Minimes Since 1862 in Provence, France” so I assume they did something to purchase the rights to the name. I did read elsewhere that L'Occitane is producing these products for BBW, but BBW doesn't mention that on their site.
There seems to be a good bit of PR baloney about the Amouage Asana. They say that amaryis is a “rare form of sandalwood.” Amaryis is a cheap, weak-smelling substitute for sandalwood. It has none of the beauty, depth or persistance of sandalwood.Both trees are endangered, and sandalwood's price has soared, so they're substituting the amaryis, the harvest of which furthers the destruction of the few remaining trees in Haiti.
Additionally, the cyclamen, freesia and apricot blossom are cheap synthetic chemicals. Nothing in that blend seems exclusive. Pass. A big pass.
Thanks for the info, I had never heard of amaryis. I am surprised more perfumers are not making a big deal about over-harvesting sandalwood. I know Christophe Laudamiel has said he will only use synthetic sandalwood for that reason.
Well, first off it would help if I spelled it correctly 🙂 Amyris balsamifera. I hope it is OK to post URL links here. If anyone is interested in the endangered and threatened species, here is the wordy, definitive source:
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~nodice/new/magazine/crop7/cwatch7.htm
I'm a natural perfumer who admits I have a stash of endangered oils, just a little bit, for olfactory reference. The mainstream perfume industry has the synthetic sandalwoods to turn to, but we natural perfumers, have, for the most part, decided not to use sandalwood oil.
Some believe that it is the oil production that is endangering the trees, and that the wood harvested for the incense trade uses much less of the resource, with much less waste. I am trying to source some good wood right now, and I will heat infuse it to make a base.
Anyway, back to my original point about the PR on amyris — what a crock to call it a rare form of sandalwood!
It is absolutely fine to include a URL, although as you can see, it just prints the URL and doesn't make it a link. And thanks, I will read that later when I have some time.
Amouage seems to make a big deal out of using “the real thing”, so I guess they tried to think of a way to give it a positive spin! But I do see that they are now reassuring people that they don't in fact use real civet.
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