Deal at beautyhabit: get free shipping on orders of $50 or more with coupon code SUMMERBH, good through 5/18.
New at escentual (UK): Acqua di Parma Blu Mediterraneo Bergamotto di Calabria, Diesel Iron Man edition.
New at luckyscent: Heeley Oranges and Lemons Say the Bells of St. Clement's.
New at urbanoutfitters: Demeter Sanrio collection, Paul & Joe fragrances.
There certainly seem to be a lot of orange fragrances lately! Not that that is a bad thing, especially if we can finally get away from all the sickly sweet strawberry/cherry/blackberry/fill-in-the-blankberry/fruit salad/jelly bean “fragrances”. Most of them are so cloying that I cannot bear to have them on my skin for more than a few minutes, and they seem to be perversely hard to wash off. If I am going to have fruit in my perfume, I vastly prefer citrus to berries. The main complaint I have against citrus scents is that they do not last long at all on my skin, even though I would like them to. Still, I hope we are seeing a move back toward more classic types of fragrances. I just about gave up paying any attention to the new releases about 10 or 15 years ago because it seemed like everything was aimed at the under-25 crowd.
My complaint about the Heely fragrance that in particular is that the price seems quite high–$148 for 100 mL–for a fragrance that is mostly citrus notes, citrus being among the least expensive natural materials. I have not smelled this particular frag, so it may indeed smell very good, and there may be ingredients I am not aware of that would drive up the price. Nevertheless, there seems to be a tendency among niche perfumers to charge “status” prices unrelated to the actual cost of the ingredients. I realize they do not have some of the economic advantages that the big perfume houses do, but I would think that would be partially offset by not having to finance multi-bazillion dollar advertising campaigns.
I am wondering, though–the EU is supposedly planning to restrict citrus oils in perfumery (along with just about everything else that smells good), so are British perfumers not bound by EU regulations? Or does it just mean that the fragrances cannot be sold in continental Europe, but are OK for the rest of the world? It would be strange to be introducing all these new citrus-heavy scents if they would just have to be reformulated or discontinued after a short while.
It’s true, Heeley is spendy.
I assume they are abiding by IFRA regulations, which do restrict (but not ban) some citrus oils.