From Gentleman's Journal and Floris: How best to wear your signature fragrance.
Floris Chypress ~ new fragrance
British niche line Floris has launched Chypress, a new chypre fragrance for women…
Floris The Fragrance Journals ~ new fragrances
British niche line Floris will launch The Fragrance Journals in September. The trio aims to capture “the heart and soul of London throughout the decades of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s”…
Scented Father’s Day Gifts ~ 2016
It’s Father’s Day ALREADY? This year I’ve assembled twelve gift choices (13 counting the non-scented tie above) that can be mixed and matched: a box of soap and a shower gel, or some grooming products and a bottle of booze (there’s always food and drink on my list…they’re “fragranced,” correct?) So, buy a nice box or bag and fill it up! (If the box is a lacquered Chinese antique or the bag is a leather tote — all the better.)…
Long Hot Summer ~ Soaps for the Sultry Days Ahead
Here at Now Smell This we know it doesn’t take long to spend LOTS of money on scented toiletries (I’m not talking perfume, either). I’m a big fan of fragranced bath products, and current pricing for “fine” soaps and bath gels is high. Who’d have ever thought Diptyque and Frédéric Malle would be on the bargain end of ‘exclusive’ bath lines? Diptyque shower gels are $44 and a bar of scented soap is $15 (reasonable!); Frédéric Malle body wash is $55.
Bath gels sell for what perfume used to cost — Hermès cleansing gel: $59; Tom Ford shower gel: $65; Bond no. 9 body wash: $75; Sisley shower gel: $85; Creed body wash: $95. Fancy soaps are less expensive to buy and go from the “low end” (Jo Malone and Atelier Cologne, $20 a bar; Hermès soap, $22; Chanel No. 5 soap, $26 per cake) to high and higher end — Bvlgari soap, $30 a bar; one Guerlain Shalimar soap, $31; Tom Ford soaps: $35 each, and, as with bath gels, Creed is most expensive at $45 per tablet (I’ll pass).
Hey, Roja Dove and Clive Christian! Have you lost your nerve(s)? I was expecting over-priced bars of soap from each of you for at least $100 apiece and bath gels (with pulverized Swarovski crystals and gold leaf) for $400 in 8 oz. over-dreck-o-rated bottles!
Though I’ve enjoyed many of the soaps listed above (Diptyque, Hermès, Atelier Cologne and Guerlain), today I’m writing about less expensive options that deliver great lather and quality aromas.
Kappus Violet Lilac | Germany, $4: This is an old-fashioned-smelling violet and lilac glycerin soap…