Viktor & Rolf have introduced Flowerbomb Summer Fragrance La Vie En Rose (shown at right), a new lighter, warm-weather version of their popular Flowerbomb perfume, featuring notes of mandarin and bergamot. (via elle.nl) Also for summer, Paul Smith has reintroduced Paul Smith Sunshine Edition — you can find it now at Debenhams in the UK…
Lorenzo Villoresi Alamut ~ perfume review
Every once in a while a perfume feels less like a mélange of scents than like a “thing”. Lorenzo Villoresi Alamut is an example. When Alamut has settled on my skin, I don’t think about flowers or fruit or wood — I think of a slice of warm brioche.
Alamut’s notes include osmanthus, aldehydes, rose, jasmine, powder, rosewood, narcissus, tuberose, ylang ylang, labdanum, amber, sandalwood, musk, patchouli, and leather, but they are so meltingly blended that teasing out any one note is difficult. I do smell a gentle powdery suede and maybe ylang ylang and rose, but this is not the sort of perfume that gives off occasional puffs of sandalwood or jasmine that separate from the total formula before blending in again. I want to call Alamut spicy, animalic, and oriental, but these descriptors give Alamut an edge that it doesn’t have…
Lorenzo Villoresi Garofano ~ fragrance review
Carnations have been woefully ignored around here. I’ve said before that I love rose fragrances but don’t reach for them very often, and carnations fall into the same trap: if a soliflore rose has a something of an old-fashioned air, a soliflore carnation verges on fusty. Roses, at least, speak of love, and perhaps luxury; carnations speak of funeral wreaths and ugly prom corsages. It is simply not a hip flower.
It is a shame, because carnations smell nice. Today’s fragrance, Garofano, is not strictly speaking a carnation soliflore, but carnation is certainly the dominant note. It is part of Lorenzo Villoresi’s Classic Collection, and features lavender, floral notes, green leaves, carnation, jasmin, rose, cinnamon, cyclamen, ylang ylang, geranium, pepper, heliotrope, vanilla, musk and cedarwood.
Garofano starts with peppered florals and citrus over pale, slightly bitter green undertones. I would not have guessed lavender, but a surge of sharp herbal notes in the opening should have made its presence obvious…
Lorenzo Villoresi Donna perfume review
Donna is Lorenzo Villoresi’s signature fragrance for women, and is part of the Classic Collection. It was released in 1994, and has notes of rose, coriander, clove, star anise, blackcurrant, carnation, rosewood, rose, jasmin, iris, ylang ylang, violet leaves, sandalwood, musk and narcissus.
Donna is at the other end of the spectrum from the flight-of-fancy that is Yerbamate…
Lorenzo Villoresi Yerbamate fragrance review
Lorenzo Villoresi recently became the first independent perfumer to win the Prix François Coty. In his honor, today I’m revisiting Yerbamate, a 2001 fragrance from the Fantasy Collection. Yerbamate was named for the South American plant that is brewed to make mate tea. The ad copy describes the scent as…
A boundless greenland touching the sky. The scent of grass, of new-mown hay, of countless herbs and flowers scattered in the fields, stirred by the wind and warmed by the sun. A lonely fire in the meadows, the quiet ritual of tea and mate a gentle veil of smoke, rising and lightly embracing…