Two weeks ago, I mused about chestnut perfumes. The topic must still be on my mind, because I just unearthed a vial of Aroma M Geisha Marron in a bag of samples on my desk and decided to give it another spin. Geisha Marron was originally released as an oil (in a roll-on bottle) in 2006, but Aroma M’s founder and perfumer, Maria McElroy, launched a new Eau de Parfum concentration in 2017.
Like its “sisters” in the Geisha collection, Marron is an interpretation of a color —in this case, brown…
Are you a fan of chestnuts? If so, was this an acquired taste for you? I’ve been a chestnut-lover for most of my life, only because roasted chestnuts figured prominently in two family traditions that took place during the holiday season. One: my grandmother and my mother and I would go together to see the Christmas windows of Manhattan’s department stores, and my grandmother would buy me a small paper bag of roasted chestnuts from a street vendor, to eat as we walked along. Two: my grandparents prepared roasted chestnuts as part of the dessert course on Thanksgiving and Christmas, roasting them in the oven after my grandfather had made a small X or cross on each one with the point of a knife (to prevent them from bursting).
These happy memories surrounding the chestnuts, not to mention the chewy, buttery enjoyment of the nuts themselves, would make me want to try any fragrance with a chestnut note. But why do so few perfumes try to capture this sensation…
I have to confess that I’m not really sure how to categorize this review. Once again, Lush — creator of powdered toothpaste and solid bath gel — has gotten very creative with its product formulations. Right now I’m mystified and charmed by its new “wash cards.” I happened across these clever little inventions when I was browsing the Lush website and noting the addition of several new perfumes. I was pondering my next opportunity to get to a Lush store to try them, and wondering whether my local Lush would even carry the full line, and then I noticed the wash cards and ordered a few.
So what are they? Each wash card is a flat rectangle, measuring about one inch by three inches, made from a mix of apple pulp and cellulose fibers…
French perfume house Molinard recently launched Les Amoureux de Peynet, a fragrance inspired by French illustrator Raymond Peynet. That name didn’t mean anything to me at first, but once I did a quick search, I realized I’d seen those “lovers” before. Peynet first sketched the duo of the wispy-haired, bowler-hatted violinist-poet and his perky lady-love in 1942, but they appeared in his artwork and on countless trinkets throughout the 1950s and 1960s. (Just check eBay, and you’ll see what I mean.) The lovers often appeared together on a park bench — that is, when they weren’t canoodling in a gazebo, a rowboat, or some similarly whimsical venue…
Sometimes the way to my nose is actually through my eyes: I was initially tempted to try Vaporocindro when I saw January Scent Project’s retro-styled illustrations by the line’s perfumer, John Biebel (who’s also a visual artist). They remind me a bit of Guerlain’s classic 1935 “Is She Your Type?” advertisements by Elise Darcy, with a surreal twist. I like the overall dreamy mood of the Vaporocindro image (shown above right), plus the sinuous lines of scent encircling the androgynous central face and the mysterious profile to the left.
January Scent Project’s visual materials also allude to the fragrances’ notes, and with this image we’re given a preview of this scent’s “wood, spice and flower” profile…