I’d been yearning to try Lanvin Scandal for a while now. It seemed like references to Scandal turned up everywhere: in a list of leather scents, in my research into perfumes made in the 1930s, in other perfume blogs. The problem was that Scandal was discontinued in 1971. At last, in a swap, I got my hands on three precious milliliters of it. Now I just had to hope I wouldn’t fall in love with Scandal…
Agent Provocateur & Agent Provocateur Eau Emotionnelle ~ fragrance reviews
The UK-based lingerie line Agent Provocateur released their first fragrance, called simply Agent Provocateur, in 2000. The “exotic floral chypre” was created by perfumer Christian Provenzano, and includes notes of saffron, coriander, rose, jasmine, magnolia, ylang ylang, gardenia, vetiver, amber and musk.
There are fragrances that are sexy in a non-obtrusive kind of way, and then there are fragrances that are sexy in an in-your-face kind of way. Agent Provocateur is in-your-face sexy. It smells, quite simply, like a fragrance that you would wear to seduce someone, which is, after all, the raison d’être of the Agent Provocateur brand…
Fragrance review: Sikkim from La Collection Lancome
Named for a legendary Himalayan kingdom and originally released by Lancôme in 1971, Sikkim was reissued last year along with Climat, Magie, and Sagamore as part of La Collection, a special edition series of fragrances celebrating “70 years of perfume excellence”. Sikkim’s original composition had notes of aldehydes, ylang ylang, bergamot, galbanum, gardenia, thujone, carnation, jasmine, narcissus, orris, rose, amber, castoreum, leather, moss, patchouli and vetiver.
Sikkim is a surprising chypre of monumental proportions, and I found it stunning right from the start…
Christian Dior Miss Dior perfume review
Miss Dior was released by Christian Dior in 1947, shortly after the success of his groundbreaking “New Look” collection. It was Dior’s first perfume, and was created by either Paul Vacher or Jean Carles (or possibly both), under the direction of Dior’s childhood friend Serge Heftler-Louiche. The fragrance notes include gardenia, galbanum, clary sage, aldehydes, jasmine, rose, neroli, narcissus, iris, carnation, lily of the valley, patchouli, labdanum, oakmoss, ambergris, sandalwood, vetiver, and leather.
Miss Dior was said to have been influenced by both Chypre de Coty and Vent Vert (see Michael Edwards, Perfume Legends). It starts strong and sharp…
O de Lancome ~ fragrance review
It is finally warming up here today, so I am breaking out the summer fragrances. Ô de Lancôme was created by perfumer Robert Gonnon and introduced in 1969, and reformulated in 1994. It is a classic Eau Fraîche, with notes of mandarin, lemon, bergamot, jasmine, rosemary, basil, honeysuckle, sandalwood, vetiver, and oakmoss.
Ô de Lancôme is classified as a fresh citrus chypre. The top notes are very sharp citrus, with a diffusive quality that makes me suspect that there is a touch of aldehydes. It calms to a crisp, leafy-green citrus with herbal notes and quite a bit of oakmoss. It gets a bit darker and woodier as it dries down…