Way back in March, I discovered 100% Love by S-Perfume, and was immediately captivated by the unusual combination of rose, chocolate, incense and fruit. At the time, I said I would love to see an Eau de Parfum version with a bit more depth and staying power. Lo and behold, the new, more concentrated strength will be released in time for Valentine's Day, complete with a spiffy hot pink leather case.
Then earlier this week, I had my little rant about the difficulty of obtaining samples, and discovered via a comment that Sephora is giving up those nasty foam samples and returning to glass vials — spray vials, no less. What more could one ask for?
Well, of course, I can think of a few things. Just in case the perfume gods are feeling benevolent again today, here are a few fragrant wishes for the coming year:
More coffret sets, please. My most fervent wish for 2006 is lots of coffret sets with small (5-15 ml) bottles so that consumers can easily try an entire line. Fresh and La Maison de la Vanille have great sets, and everyone loves the Discovery sets of the Hermessences. Chanel did two wonderful sets last year, one of the Rue Cambon parfums and one with Coco and four others. I can think of numerous sets that I would have purchased if they existed, even though I wasn't moved to buy the full sized bottles: the Armani Privé line, the new L'Art et la Matière line from Guerlain, the list goes on and on. I would buy the Comme des Garçons incense series in a flash if it came in a set of 10 ml bottles.
And a special plea to L'Artisan: a coffret set with all the lovely, now discontinued summer limited edition fragrances. My Fleur de Carotte is almost gone. And while we're talking, an Extreme version of Passage d'Enfer, pretty please?
And some random perfume wishes:
An incense fragrance from Ormonde Jayne would be lovely. And how about a deep woodsy scent from Parfums Delrae?
Coty, it is time to reissue Chypre. In the original bottle would be even better.
Diptyque, please, the John Galliano room fragrance in an Eau de Toilette would be most welcome.
In case Serge Lutens is considering which fragrance should join the export line next, my vote is Iris Silver Mist.
It is a crying shame that Guerlain does not have a flagship boutique in New York City. It is just not fitting that the line has only the tiny little space in Bergdorfs to call their own.
And I do wish Caron would take a hint from Guerlain and raid their own back catalog for a few limited edition reissues.
Any wishes of your own?
A seconding of the Iris Silver Mist export wish. And please, perfume gods, make it easier and/or cheaper to get both samples and full bottles in Canada. Thank you…
I'm forming a line now for the new 100% Love.
:O)
Happy New Year Robin!!
Here's the ultimate….a website that would allow us to just make our own coffret from any of the perfume designers in larger than sample sizes and smaller than the average. There are so many beautiful and fun fragrances out there that we just need enough to entice our senses maybe 8 – 10 times….THEN we purchase the big one!!!
Uh oh, maybe I'm clueless – is there a site out there like this?
And if so, please tell me where!!! I would be in heaven!
Toodles R and have a safe New Year's Eve!
Glad someone is joining me in voting for ISM, I doubt it is their most popular scent! Good luck on the fragrance imports, it is hard enough here and must be worse in Canada.
It has much better lasting power, V. I haven't decided yet if it is sweeter, or just seems that way because it is stronger. Need to try them together again. And the juice is pink this time
I know of no such site — that sounds too good to be true! For a time I was buying a lot of minis, but that adds up and so I stopped.
You have a lovely New Year's too!
Thanks R, and a happy New Year to you. Hope some of your perfume Christmas wishes came true. I am getting my New York, it just hasn't arrived yet. This 100% love sounds very interesting….
R, I second everything. If need me to sign a petition for any of these, I will.
I have just gotten s-perfume samples today…oh my, where have I been? 100% Love is out of this world lovely. Lust is out of this world period.
Happy New Year!!
Just got the 100% love, though in the weaker version, I would guess. It is remarkable. I haven't gotten around to fully test driving it, but so far it is wonderful.
Wider distribution of the Caron urn fragrances, even if it was just one or two per site, these are all so wonderful and deserve more attention.
Amen on the smaller bottle/coffret sets. They could get as much money out of me — but I'd have small bottles of 5 things instead of one big bottle. Where'd all the 10-15 ml bottles go? They're great for travel. They're nice individual gifts. I had a ton of the cute little Annick Goutal ones, and they don't seem to be available, either.
Final wish (I posted on Luca Turin's website, which is as close to a perfume god as I can get): please, someone, make an iris perfume focusing on the iris *flower* rather than natural/synth orris (the root/rhizome). A scented iris is a wonderful smell that I still don't feel has been adequately captured in a perfume, ISM and Hiris notwithstanding…
P, I actually think it might be better to try the regular version of 100% Love first. Many people found it too sweet (I don't at all, mind you) and I think they would find the EdP even sweeter.
Agree wholeheartedly on the urn scents!
M, have a feeling we may have already discussed this, so excuse my very poor memory, but have you tried the i Profumi di Firenze iris? I've actually never tried it, and it has some really bad reviews at MUA, but wondering if it is closer to what you're after. Iris di Firenze is the name.
What great ideas and suggestions you have! I hope they are all actualized. I'm excited about the 100% Love thing—I didn't realize you were a big fan, too! You were probably the first fan, but I was asleep at the wheel.
Happy happy 2006 to you!
M, So glad you got 100% Love! It needs more fans. Lust & Sloth are very interesting. Need to wear them more to decide what I think. “Out of this world period” might be as good a description as any
L, I have no big expectations, so I'll be happy if even 1 of my wishes is actualized
And a very happy 2006 to you! See you in Paris, LOL!
Me too, me too! I'm having the worst trouble getting some of the Caron urn fragrances; what is the deal?
Ay ay ay, a concentrated version of 100% Love sounds simply not up my alley at all. But I suppose a stronger concentration ought to put a big smile on the faces of those who already are fans.
I second your wish for the CdG incense coffret of minis. Good lord, that would be wonderful. Perfect for the perfume lover who might wish to compare and contrast, and excellent for the “normal” person who might like to try a bunch at once to see what they like.
My wishes, off the top of my head:
1.) Dior Jules to available and easily found. Seriously, why not? They could even reissue it as an LE over here in the States and I'd be pleased.
2.) Fath de Fath in its original formulation reissued – I can't imagine it not finding an audience.
Oh there's likely more, but that's what comes to mind at the moment.
Coty Aqua Manda! Evocative of New Years parties in the mid to late 70's. Cheesecloth smocks, kissing the wrong boys…..Has anybody ever found a fragrance to match it?
R, I have got to try this. I read the disclaimers, need to find a site (lusciouscargo? or eBay) that will let me sample first. It sounds like a love-it-or-hate-it. I am sorry to admit I was not very methodical in my sampling of iPdF — sort of like a nectar-drunk bee.
K, is Dior Jules at Harrods? I know they've got Diorama & Diorling, which ought to be in the States too
And no, you will *not* like the new 100% Love!
I'll vote for Fath de Fath too, even though I've never smelled it.
I was just getting old enough to kiss the wrong boys in the late 70s, but don't know the Aqua Manda. Ebay has an Aqua Manda Talc but it is by Goya, not Coty….any chance that is it?
Damn – you're right. It was Goya and not Coty! I've got that wrong before: blame it on age! Thanks for tip about ebay. I'll take a look. Happy New Year!
Hi R! I am with you on the Guerlain Boutique in New York City! Amen. Their Bergdorfs Boutique only holds 2 people at a time! There is a gorgeous Guerlain boutique in EPCOT center, not enormous, but you can move around in it, why not NYC?
And I agree with you on the coffret set for Armani Prive!
My biggest anticipation for 2006 I guess right now is probably the new Santal from Creed. I'm such a Creed fan.
Well let me call you Jean Dixonetta!
Oh Jeannie (sorry, could not resist!), please bring a Guerlain flagship store to the USA. LA is preferable, but okay, I'll settle for NYC.
Oh, and Jeannie, please, pretty please, release a new woodsy, fabulous Parfums del Rae. Can you do that for me?
And, while you're at it, how about re-releasing some discontinued fragrances that all of my perfume friends are going mad about like, Deneuve, Chaos, LT Safram, Rose d'Argent, Venezia, and well, you catch my drift.
Thank you very, very much, and have a wonderful New Year.
Hugs!
Lusciouscargo & lacremebeauty both have iPF, other than Barneys. Worth a try!
M, I was so disappointed with the Guerlain boutique in Epcot though…you are right, it is enormous, and nicely done — but when I was there, not a *single* thing I couldn't get at any Guerlain counter in the US. They didn't even have all the parfum testers like they have at Bergdorfs. Asked them if they had Vetiver Elle and they had never heard of it. Argh. Had to drop all my money at the fabulous gift shop in “Japan” instead.
R, We must put the flagship in NY — then I can meet you there! Tried the LT Safram this week, very pretty but not going to weep over it. The others I'll weep as I've never even tried them and will probably never get the chance.
I'm sure you & I will find *something* to buy in 2006!
I always found Aqua Manda too sweet (and I'm not fond of orange-smelling perfumes). I liked the other Goya scent, Meadowsong, which smelled of new-mown grass and fresh flowers. It was very green and reminiscent of Vent Vert. I'd been trying to remember that name for years and no one could help. Then I asked the question of Luca Turin's blog recently and someone – bless them – posted it. Meadowsong was a flop in the UK. It was on sale less than two years. I wish I could smell it again, but it seems to have vanished off the face of the earth.
Ah, yes, an incensy OJ would be fabulous. As would an incense-based Hermessence, don't you think?
And a way of obtaining Delrae in the UK.
And a hope that the new TDC isn't floral.
And a Guerlain 'flagship' in London.
And…well, that Robin keeps NowSmellThis going. I'm not sure I could get through a day without you – my favourite place on the web!
N, thank you for the wonderful endorsement!! Completely agree, an incense based Hermessence would be perfect too. Surprised you cannot get Delrae in London anywhere, I would think Les Senteurs would carry it. Or Scent Systems.
Ok, fair enough – but they were the only place to get Philtre d'Amour in the US!! That has to count, right?
OMG I bought a whole set of sushi plates complete WITH chopstick rests at that Japan pavillion and quite frankly R, I have never even had sushi. Thats the power of Japan – it makes you spend money on shit you don't need.
My God, seems like NO ONE has a Guerlain Flagship, haha.
Happy New Year everybody.
Ah, if they had Philtre d'Amour when I was there, I completely missed it!
it was around Christmas of 2000
Adding these wishes to yours:
Retailers selling samples in SPRAY vials (at least 2 ml). Spraying is the only way to properly sample some scents.
Diorissimo parfum available at online discount retailers.
Guerlain and Caron stand-alone boutiques in Beverly Hills.
(I will re-sample 100% Love since you love this so. It didn't captivate me the first time.)
I must be the minority, but 100% Love is the only perfume that ever made me gag! It smells oddly like throw-up to me. I was completely repulsed by it. I even gave it another try thinking maybe I was hormonal the first time…still made me shutter. Oh, well can't love them all.
I don't think you're in the minority…I know lots of people who really didn't like it at all!
Iris, so completely agree on the Diorissimo parfum!
And see the comment below, you are not alone in disliking 100% Love. I guess it is a love-it-or-hate-it, despite the name.
Ha — too bad we can't all live in Paris! And a happy new year to you
Raincheck…you're not the only one! 100% Love, on me, smells like recently 'returned' strawberry liqueur. I know others describe it as light and ethereal, but to my nose it's quite powerful. I guess it contains something that doesn't register on some nasal receptors, the way that Omnia doesn't register as having any scent at all with me!
I think this has been written elsewhere, someone was saying that you can get perfume samples made at Nordstrom? Heh, I've never been able to persuade anyone there to make a sample for me, it usually ends with a regretful “No, we don't have any sample,” and that's that. Every time I go there with an experimental nose, I can use at most 6 different spots on me as tester: left, right inner wrists, back of left, right hand, left, right upper arms; two hours after this I morph into the scented-beast-that-knows-no-name. I would be willing to pay a small price for samples that I can take home and use, then decide to buy. Do the ladies behind the counter expect to ring me up immediately after I get a whiff of something on paper? That's the attitude I encounter most frequently, before the atomized mist has a chance to settle, there she is with a box in her hand walking purposefully toward the register.
I am so surprised to hear that! You are near DC, right? The women's fragrance counter at the Nordstrom in Bethesda used to have a big glass bowl full of vials right on the counter…you didn't even have to ask for assistance. But haven't been there in several months so can't swear that it is still there.