Donna Karan will launch Donna Karan Woman in August…
Yves Saint Laurent Manifesto ~ new perfume
Yves Saint Laurent will launch Manifesto in August. The new fragrance for women is described as “spontaneous and free-spirited”, and will be fronted by actress Jessica Chastain…
Lancome La Vie Est Belle ~ new perfume
Lancôme will launch La Vie Est Belle, a new fragrance for women, later this year. La Vie Est Belle aims to capture happiness in a bottle, and will be fronted by actress Julia Roberts…
Lancome Tresor Midnight Rose ~ fragrance review
Lancôme has released a few limited edition flankers to Trésor over the years, but it didn’t really court a new generation of perfume-wearers until 2010, when it offered Trésor In Love as a “fresher” interpretation of the 1990s classic. Trésor In Love has just been joined by a second flanker, Trésor Midnight Rose, which is billed as “Charming. Mischievous. Desirable” and seems to be directed at a similarly young audience.
Lancôme names Trésor Midnight Rose’s notes as raspberry, black currant bud absolute, rose absolute, jasmine, vanilla, and musk. (An earlier list also included pink pepper, peony, and cedar.) The fragrance was developed by perfumer Anne Flipo and it is packaged in a purple ombré version of the Trésor In Love bottle. The actress Emma Watson is the “face” of Midnight Rose, and I found the commercial in which she strides along the streets of Paris and beguiles a young bookshop clerk to be charming, indeed. (Two asides: the bookstore appears to be Shakespeare & Company; and, I once saw Emma Watson stepping into a boutique on New York’s Madison Avenue. She was quite petite and pretty, and still very young-looking!)
Trésor Midnight Rose bears little similarity to the well-groomed peachy rose of the original Trésor…
Giorgio Armani Acqua di Gioia ~ fragrance review
When looking for a perfume, many people say they want something “sexy” or something “fresh.” Perfume houses are hip to that, and tend to market their wares with smoldering starlets or oceans and dew-tipped garden flowers. (That is, unless they can play both sides and put the starlet on the beach.)
The popular sexy fragrance is easy to define. Start with a friendly fruit note, add amber, vanilla, and maybe patchouli, toss in a shot of jasmine and the obligatory rare jungle orchid, and presto: sexy perfume. A clean fragrance can take a few different approaches. It can be citrusy (many colognes), ocean-like (Issey Miyake Eau d’Issey), fizzing with steamy aldehydes (Narciso Rodriguez Essence), or soapy (take your pick of the Clean line). It can finish with cool wood or vetiver, or — more likely these days, it seems — a wave of laundry musk.
Giorgio Armani has raked in good money selling fresh fragrances. Acqua di Giò, both the feminine and masculine versions, have been best sellers since the mid-1990s. Acqua di Gioia is the brand’s latest try for the “fresh” vote, and it plays up both the ocean and laundry musk angles of clean…