Today, the first of two luxury posts that will wrap up our eight-part series on fragrance related holiday gifts. As always, we're listing the luxury items in price order, so today is (relatively) affordable luxury, and part 8, to follow on Friday, will be the crazy expensive luxury. Do add any of your own recommendations in the comments!
We are starting off easy, with a refillable purse spray from Annick Goutal: "A precious, elegant and travel-friendly accessory that you can take everywhere!" Comes with the purse spray and two 8 ml refills. Available in Petite Chérie, Eau d'Hadrien and Rose Pompon; $60.
From Lancôme, the "X-Mas edition" of the ever-popular La Vie Est Belle. 50 ml Eau de Parfum for €86 (about $91) at Douglas in Lithuania.
From Esteban, Black Tonka, a collector bottle of 2006's Tonka fragrance: "For Tonka’s 10th anniversary, ESTÉBAN created a 100 ml limited edition celebrating this iconic fragrance. A revisited version of the bottle, the cap and the packaging to glorifie [sic] the perfume, that remains unchanged. Ripened under a tropical sun, marked by its passage in the ships holds, the precious tonka bean conceals a velvet heart..." In Eau de Parfum, €120 (about $128).
From Guerlain, 100 ml of Nahéma Eau de Parfum in the bee bottle: "Nahéma, the perfume creator's favourite fragrance, paints the most beautiful portrait of roses dedicated to a woman. Jean-Paul Guerlain loved roses to the point of adoration. It took this creator four years to develop this rich and sumptuous women's fragrance whose main olfactory note gradually transforms into a haunting presence. Nahéma is an enigmatic elixir whose muse is an oriental rose with spellbinding charm." $142 at Neiman Marcus.
From Hermès, L'Ambre des Merveilles in the 2014 Calligraphie edition by artist Wissam Shawkat. 100 ml for €142 (about $150) at Sephora in France.
From Thierry Mugler, the Angel Jewel Star: "Enter a bold new universe with the Angel Jewel Star. The decadent scent and disruptive edges of this brilliant silver bottle collide to empower her and unveil the seductive temptress within." 75 ml for $185 at Nordstrom.
From Byredo, the 1996 collectors box: "Byredo presents a unique collector's box for the holiday season composed of three vials of 1996 Eau De Parfum and an engraved red leather spray. 1996 Eau De Parfum is inspired by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin's "1996 Kirsten" photograph, which depicts the angelic face of a young girl. The emotional response to this image is captured within this earthy, ethereal, and slightly confectionary fragrance. Includes three travel-friendly vials [12 ml] and engraved red leather spray." $190 at Barneys. (If this is not luxurious enough for you, do consider Byredo's $330 Italian marble hand cream squeezer.)
From Victoria's Secret, the 2016 edition of Bombshell Luxe: "Sexy today, sexy tomorrow, sexy forever: it’s the Bombshell you love, now in a collectible, limited-edition design with colorful Swarovski® crystals." $250 for 50 ml.
From Frédéric Malle, leather travel cases made by the Italian company Valextra. Available to hold your 50 and 100 ml bottles, in six colors. Shown is the 50 ml case in Cobalt Blue, $280.
From Diptyque, the Une Nuit Chez Diptyque edition of the Baies candle: "This limited-edition Baies candle is housed in a glossy black Virebent vessel, embossed with stars. 10 stars are hand-painted in gold." 1500g / 150 hour burn time, $350 at Bloomingdales.
From Giorgio Armani, 100 ml of Rose d'Arabie Eau de Parfum along with a matching candle, "beautifully packed in wooden box which can be used as a decorative object". $380.
I may have to pick up the Guerlain as my Christmas gift to myself this year. The bottle is so beautiful, and I love bees and roses.
That Victoria’s Sexret bottle is truly hideous, in my opinion. But to each their own!
The Nahema is a bargain!
And yes — the VS bottle hurts my eyes.
Has anyone tried the Eua de Nehama juice?
Agreed, the VS one is just gaudy.
The VS bottle looks like a kid’s Mother’s Day art project to me.
Memo purse spray is darn expensive. 196 EUR for just an empty travel case. 3 x 10 ml refills add another 95 EUR…
Yep — we have a spendy Memo set in part 8!
I am on a NO BUY but I would love if that bee bottle fell on my lap..but I doubt I would use it all before it went off.
Yes, too bad they are not doing 50 ml.
I like the Hermes bottle.
Me too — it would be my first pick on this list.
I was all set to be done buying perfume until AT LEAST Mother’s Day, but that Nahema . . . sigh.
FYI it is currently unavailable on the Neiman Marcus website. I am both sad and glad.
Oh dear, you’re kidding??
You can back order it, but the ship date is listed as unavailable, which does not fill me with hope . . .
Well shoot. They just added it to the website recently.
Nicolasix – I am not sure you have seen this, but still, FYI: I have ordered the bee bottle while crossing my fingers, and was surprised to receive a shipment notice today. My bottle is supposed to arrive in 5 days. The website now says: “Expected to ship no later than 12/26/2016 Back Order”
*not ‘I am not sure you have seen this’, but ‘I am not sure you will this’
The price on the Nahema seems fairly reasonable. I was thinking it would be more expensive than that.
And that Ambre des Merveilles bottle is gorgeous.
The VS bottle is hideous. It looks like somebody let their 8-year-old loose with some crystals and glue.
Hee hee, that was my first thought about the VS bottle
If the Ambre bottle was at the US Sephora, I’d be sorely tempted.
On the other hand colette has that great Le Galion travel set
http://en.colette.fr/coffret-collection-edp-x-9-legabecollec-1.html
9 x 7,5 ml + case for 140 EUR doesn’t sound so terrible
Not bad at all!
For Canadian readers: Hermès has finally made the 4×15 ml pocket sets available online. I’d order one for myself but d’Orange Verte is out of stock right now.
Thanks!
Yeah that Byredo tube squeezer thing is ludicrous. Clarissa and I had a good snicker about that when we were sniffing at Barney’s
How expensive does your hand cream have to be in order to justify spending $330 to get the last wee bit out?
Or I could use it on my Colgate – bwahahahaha!
It might be good for rolling pasta too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen something so needless and silly.
Ha! I guess it’s the gift for someone who literally has everything (except a hand-cream sqeezer). I also would have taken out the thesaurus and found a different word for “squeezer” had I been at that meeting.
Hand cream press maybe? Still sounds pretentious and silly.
Seriously, the hand cream squeezer gave me one of my biggest perfume-related laughs of the year. It truly encapsulates what Byredo is all about.
But you get a FREE tube of hand cream!
Ha, ok then I take it all back
If $ were no object, my pick would be the Diptyque Baies SE candle. I do love that candle and am on my 3rd one already and the vessel is pretty nice.
Plus, huge!
I agree – that’s really beautiful.
So funny that Byredo’s hand cream retails for a not too extravagant £23 and they want to you spend £220 on a machine to squeeze out the last drop – I’d rather spend the money to just buy 10 more tubes
Or if you send me $330 I’ll come stomp on your tube for you to get the last bits out
Haha!
Back in the days when toothpaste tubes were made of metal you could buy a little key-shaped device that fit over the end of the tube and as you wound it up towards the cap it expressed every last bit of the contents. In other words, it was a 50 cent doohickey that did exactly what that Byredo thing does.
The 50 cent doohickey is now a $10 doohickey
http://usa.loccitane.com/magic-key-press-tub,82,1,29193,993713.htm
This piqued my curiosity because the thing I recall using could not possibly cost $10. Indeed, a google search for “toothpaste tube key” turns up options for as little as $1.79. Any way you cut it, though, Byredo’s tool is fit only for fools.
A Fool Tool!
I know this only because one year my father put them in our christmas stockings knowing, correctly, that none of us would know what they were and he would have a good time while we tried to guess.
You might be able to use the key from a sardine can.
The VS bottle is cute. I thought it was a jar of chocolates.
The L’Ambre des Merveilles bottle is gorgeous. I wish it came in 50 mLs. The 100 mLs is too big for me to spray comfortably.
I am using the Valextra case as an ultra-luxe travel jewelry case. I don’t need a case for my one and only FB of FM (Iris Poudre).
I did not know Valextra but they make some darned cute travel bags, and turns out the Malle version is a comparative bargain.
FYI, I happened to notice last weekend that The Different Company has a wonderful Set de Voyage:
http://europe.thedifferentcompany.com/set-de-voyage-n,fr,3,79.cfm
I have the 48 heures aluminum spray container and can say it is really cool and functional. They offer 9 of the more recent scents in the 10-ml Voyage sprays that fit into it.
Oh, those are very cute! And purple.
The L’ambre De Meriveilles bottle is lovely! It would be a real temptation if it ‘came in 50mls.
It sure would be nice if you offered it again, in the smaller size, Hermes.
Yes it would.
Frederick Malle must travel very differently than I do. The last t hing I want to do is add an extra package around a perfume I am trying to get through an airport line.
I’m sure he travels differently
A few custom LV steamer trunks would do.
Is the Nahema bee bottle a Limited Edition packaging or will they continue to offer it as a permanent?
I don’t know, sorry!
The US Guerlain site currently only shows Nahema in extrait. The French site also shows the EdP, and lists it as part of the “Heritage Collection”.
It’s okay, thank you!
Here’s to hoping they are going to keep this form around. They already brutally took away the marvelous extrait. Seems like the least they can do!