Perfumistas will want to take note of two special events hosted by the Smithsonian Resident Associate Program in Washington, DC this coming February:
The Art of Fragrance (In Collaboration with the Embassy of France With Sparkling Wine Toast) with Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez, Friday, 5 February at 6:45 pm:
Tonight, we cut through the usual perfume-babble to illuminate the art of fragrance…
Italian niche line Acqua di Biella has launched Kid Mohair, the second fragrance in their La Vie della Lana range:
The latest fragrance in Acqua di Biella’s La Vie della Lana Collection is Kid Mohair, an Eau de Parfum for women inspired by the unforgettable Audrey Hepburn…
France’s luxury goods industry won a new victory in its battle with eBay yesterday when the online auctioneer was fined €1.7 million (£1.55 million) for breaching an injunction banning the sale of perfumes and beauty products made by LVMH.
— Read more at LVMH enjoys sweet smell of victory against eBay at the UK Times Online. The other side, according to eBay…
When I think of La Prairie, I don’t think of expensive face creams. Instead, I think of Georgette Mosbacher, the powerhouse bombshell who bought the languishing La Prairie in the 1980s, ratcheted up its profits and visibility, then sold it in 1991. Although Georgette runs Borghese Cosmetics these days, a few lessons from her book, Feminine Force: Release the Power Within to Create the Life You Deserve, apply to La Prairie’s new line of fragrances, Life Threads.
Perfumer Constance Georges-Picot developed all three of the Life Threads Eaux de Parfum: Life Threads Silver, Gold, and Platinum. According to the La Prairie website, each of the fragrances represents a different time in a woman’s life.
Silver is the romantic scent of the trio, capturing “dreams and aspirations”. Its notes are green leaves, bergamot, tuberose, jasmine, ylang ylang, pimento, orange blossom, sandalwood, vetiver, solar musk, and moss. To me it’s a buoyant tuberose scent…
My guess is that most obsessive perfume samplers have the equivalent of Robin’s purgatory basket. As someone who suffers from chronic indecision, I have a large collection of scents I just can’t decide whether I like or not, separated into a series of elegant “snack-sized” plastic freezer bags. Every couple of months I retrieve all of these baggies and place them on my bed, along with two larger plastic tubs, which house, respectively, fragrances in the current rotation (scents in good standing) and samples that I see every couple of months when I perform this ritual (the tub of no return). I spread the contents of the purgatory bags over my duvet and begin picking through the vials and atomizers, sorting them into piles: judgement rendered, cult favorites that need one more try, scents that have somehow eluded skin-testing. Like Robin, I always end up with a pile of scents that stubbornly resist categorization and tubbing. As my spouse looks on with bafflement and mild disapproval, I return these fragrances to the twilight, limbo land of the snack bag.
The firmer, sterner souls among you probably agree with my husband. With multiple new fragrances being launched every single day, why does anyone bother trying to puzzle out their complicated relationship with one? Well, my problem is that I often prefer the interesting to the simply likable…