Fresh, with its neatly focused line of products and simple-but-sophisticated visual style, has offered an upscale alternative to The Body Shop and Bath & Body Works since the early 1990s. Fresh’s flagship boutique in SoHo looks almost clinical at first glance, but its tiled floor and white shelves create a neutral background for Fresh’s meticulous product displays and understatedly decorative packaging. In keeping with the company’s clean, streamlined style, most of Fresh’s Eau de Parfums are composed around fruit and/or foliage notes, and many of them could be worn by either men or women. A handful of the fragrances are also available in smaller sizes, packaged in refillable, one-ounce bottles; and many of them can be layered with matching shower gels and body lotions…
Holiday fragrance gifts 2009, part 6 ~ for the men
From Fresh, a limited edition soap trio in Frankincense (“an earthy scent, full of woodsy notes and a hint of exotic incense”), Myrrh (“an uplifting, fruity scent with wild berry notes inspired by the forest”) and Gold (“a warm, soft fragrance that evokes the shimmer of precious metal in sunlight”). Three 250g bars, $45…
Quick perfume news ~ Coach, Fresh, Hillary Clinton, Diesel
Versace Versense ~ perfume review
Versense is the latest fragrance for women from Versace, and as I posted last month, it promises to highlight notes from the Mediterranean and to “perfectly interpret the contrast between freshness and sexiness”. Donatella Versace elaborated on the theme:
Versense perfectly represents the Versace woman. I created a fragrance to make her feel incredibly lighter. There’s something very optimistic and confident about being free, and it was that feeling that I tried to capture for Versense. (via Women’s Wear Daily, 3/20/2009)
If lighter and fresher is what you’re after, Versense might just fit the bill. Like yesterday’s Essence by Narciso Rodriguez, Versense was developed by perfumer Alberto Morillas, and like Essence, Versense opens whistling-clean. The early stages are crisp, green, lemon-lime-y and fresh, with the emphasis on the fresh…
Bvlgari Omnia Green Jade ~ perfume review
Omnia Green Jade is the third flanker to 2005's Omnia by Bvlgari (it follows Omnia Crystalline and Omnia Amethyste), and it was reportedly “inspired by the idea of an early spring morning”*. I'm a fan of the Omnia franchise — Omnia Amethyste left me cold, but I love the original Omnia and “really like” Omnia Crystalline — so I was looking forward to smelling the latest entry in the series. That it was geared young (“…the fragrance is aimed at a younger, more contemporary target consumer”**) was a little worrisome, since we all know that “young” in perfume-speak can sometimes translate as “candied” or “not for the discerning”.
Turns out Omnia Green Jade is something else entirely: it's the lightest and freshest of them all, although since some people have trouble smelling Omnia and/or Omnia Crystalline at all, your mileage may vary. It's a wearable, safe-for-the-office, casual (and not at all feminine: anyone could wear it) fragrance…