Virginia-based niche boutique Arielle Shoshana will launch their debut fragrance, Arielle Shoshana, next month. Arielle Shoshana was developed by perfumer Cécile Hua…
Charenton Macerations Eye, Hatshepsut ~ fragrance review
I’ve always loved ancient Egyptian art and history, the complex religious practices of Egyptians and the depictions of their gods (including such “gods” as the female pharaoh Hatshepsut). Call me macabre, but I enjoy reading about ancient Egyptian mummification practices and the fragrant oils used to preserve and scent important corpses big (rulers) and small (cats); I’ve written here at Now Smell This (10 years ago!) about kyphi incense. Like everyone else, I’m sometimes susceptible to advertising, so any time a perfume house releases a scent that references Egypt, I sample it in hopes it will be glorious. (Why didn’t Serge Lutens ever “go there”…with a rich, “profound” Egypt-inspired fragrance?)
Charenton Macerations Eye, Hatshepsut (which was, according to ad copy, researched at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo) goes on smelling medicinal, or “medicinal” as interpreted by a contemporary perfumer…
Charenton Macerations Eye, Hatshepsut ~ new fragrance
Indie line Charenton Macerations has launched Eye, Hatshepsut, a new fragrance inspired by Hatshepsut, the first female pharoah…
Charenton Macerations Asphalt Rainbow ~ fragrance review
Just when I thought this season’s wave of rose-inspired perfumes had tapered off, one more has come my way, and it’s a very unusual example: Asphalt Rainbow, the second release from Brooklyn-based independent perfume brand Charenton Macerations. This fragrance was developed by perfumer Cecile Hua, and its notes include rose, spray paint (aerosols), galbanum, lily of the valley, lychee, ylang ylang, saffron, magnolia, leather, cistus, asphalt, “detritus,” patchouli, wood and amber.
Asphalt Rainbow is described as “an olfactive love letter to the street: a roughed up rose that’s been hyper-colored, torn apart and twisted on its head, then nailed to the wall for your sniffing pleasure.” It’s actually discussed at much greater length on the Charenton Macerations website, in various posts that occasionally read like an M.F.A. thesis; once you sift through the verbiage, you can take away the idea that Asphalt Rainbow is designed as a homage to graffiti and street art of all kinds, an olfactory tribute to an art form that’s vibrant and temporary and rebellious…
Four celebrity perfumes: Taylor Swift Wonderstruck, Beyonce Pulse, Jessica Simpson I Fancy You & Sean John Empress
Angie’s post yesterday on celebrity fragrances she’d like to see reminded me that I have fallen woefully behind this year on reviewing celebrity fragrances — the real ones that she’d rather not see. So, in the interest of catching up before it’s too late, here are four celebrity fragrance reviews, listed in order from not so very bad to not so very wonderful. In other words, we’re going to start out lukewarm and things are going to go downhill from there; consider yourself warned.
Taylor Swift Wonderstruck
I was wonderstruck reading the recent New Yorker profile on country pop star Taylor Swift. I had heard her name, but had no idea — number 7 on Forbes’ list of Most Powerful Celebrities? More albums sold in the last five years than any other musician? Who knew? Anyway, her debut perfume came out this fall under a licensing deal with Elizabeth Arden, and it’s about what you’d expect: a “charming and sparkling surprise of vibrant fruits, kissed by a bouquet of soft petals and a touch of sweet indulgence.” In other words, it’s a sweet-ish fruity floral with plenty of vanilla in the base, along the lines of Britney Spears Fantasy, and while there’s not much to distinguish it from the two bazillion other variations on Britney Spears Fantasy, it’s perfectly wearable and it’s reasonably age-appropriate for the target market…