Mother’s Day is coming up on Sunday, 12 May! If you missed it, check out part 1.
From Roots Rose Radish, solid perfume compacts in Jasmine & Clary Sage, Rose Frankincense & Patchouli, Vetiver & Lemongrass and Ylang Ylang & Grapefruit. $45-65 at Beautyhabit…
I can’t believe it’s been five years since my last Top Ten Spring Fragrances list, but yes, a look back confirms that fact. My tastes haven’t shifted much since then, yet I can somehow come up with plenty of new favorites. Of course, there are the fragrances that I consider part of my springtime “hall of fame”: Guerlain Apres l’Ondée and Chamade, Frederic Malle En Passant. These come into rotation every March or April, come rain or come shine (and lately, it’s been mostly rain). But, beyond these classics, I’m easily able to compile a list of other fragrances I’ve been wearing or will be wearing over the next month or two.
What to wear when the calendar says Spring, but the weather is still chilly and damp and dreary? I love to don Frederic Malle L’Eau d’Hiver during that indecisive kind of weather, perhaps because it walks a fine line between warm and cool, soft and crisp…
The news from Balenciaga: Nicolas Ghesquière is out, Alexander Wang is in.1 It’s always hard to know how much influence a designer really has on a licensed perfume line, but Ghesquière certainly was a visible presence in the marketing of Balenciaga Paris (2010), Balenciaga Paris L’Essence (2011) and Florabotanica (2012). The new Balenciaga Paris L’Eau Rose appears to be something of an orphan, without a designer spokesperson or a face (the first two fragrances had Charlotte Gainsbourg; Florabotanica had Kristen Stewart).2
No matter, L’Eau Rose is a decent enough flanker, and we all know they’re rare enough. And the description is accurate enough:
A sparkling violet fragrance. A twist of the iconic violet with a sparkling touch of blackberry and musk. The scintillating and youthful fragrance is a feminine scent that captures the sophistication of Balenciaga Paris with an enticing, floral musk.
Plain speak translation: a sort of mash-up between a blackberry musk and a traditional powdery rose-violet…
Balenciaga has launched Balenciaga Paris L’Eau Rose, the latest in the series that includes 2010’s Balenciaga Paris and 2011’s Balenciaga Paris L’Essence…
Florabotanica is the latest from Balenciaga, and I was fully prepared to adore it for any number of reasons, not least being the presentation: I love the offbeat advertising images and that’s easily my favorite bottle of recent memory — and it’s one of those rare bottles that is even more alluring in person than in pictures (the minute I picked it up, I started calculating how much I had just spent on jeans and yoga pants and how much I could still spend that day without threatening the food budget). They brought back perfumer Olivier Polge, who developed 2010’s Balenciaga Paris, a fragrance that seemed an excellent start for the brand’s revival as a perfume house under the auspices of Coty. Florabotanica is a great name for a perfume, and I even love the design of the outer box. Designer Nicolas Ghesquière’s concept of a strange garden with beautiful flowers, but also dangerous flowers, sounded intriguing.1
The potential bad news was that it was geared younger than Balenciaga Paris; sorry, young ‘uns, but that usually — not always! — means some degree of dumbing down or fruiting up. That Florabotanica is fronted by actress Kristen Stewart means nothing to me either way; as usual, I had to google just to remember who she was, and don’t even ask me to comment on her recent “scandal”, I don’t know and I don’t care, and will only say that the increased publicity would seem a boon for Balenciaga. I found the very untraditional manner in which she is used in the advertising to be refreshing…