French niche line Maître Parfumeur et Gantier has introduced new packaging, and has launched a new fragrance, Ambre Mythique.
Top 10 Summer Fragrances 2015
Instead of returning to my weary perfume cabinet for a rundown of summer favorites (I already hear longtime readers thinking, Is she going to bring up that blasted bottle of Jean Naté in her refrigerator again? Yawn), this year I got smart. I asked André Gooren from Portland’s fabled The Perfume House to share ten of his summer favorites.
André was up to the challenge. During a Saturday morning, between helping a bearded Australian opera singer (Caron Nocturnes, two bottles), a charming older woman (4711), a Romanian couple (Robert Piguet Jeunesse), and a booming-voiced regular (Pino Sylvestre and Comme des Garçons Avignon), he laid out ten sophisticated and sometimes quirky choices…
Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier Ambre Precieux Ultime ~ new fragrance
French niche line Maître Parfumeur et Gantier will launch Ambre Précieux Ultime, a new limited edition variation on the brand’s 1988 fragrance, Ambre Précieux…
Best Men’s Fragrances of 2011-2012-2013 (Better Late Than Never)
Did I really skip 2011 and 2012 when it came to writing my annual best-of-men’s-perfumes post? (Wow…and the world kept turning — imagine that!) I’m two years behind so today I’ll catch up by picking my favorite men’s fragrances from 2011, 2012 and 2013 (you can see my picks for 2009 and 2010 here). Some of these perfumes are unisex, but with a masculine edge (to my nose anyway). Though I missed my fair share of fragrance releases, I’ve still smelled tons of perfume product in the last three years. I don’t feel that a masterpiece escaped my attention.
Every year, I tend to write about men’s fragrances that I either “love” or “hate” (using those verbs with feather-weight intent since I don’t cry over favorite perfumes gone missing or reformulated, and I don’t gnaw on my fingers when I encounter awful perfumes). I’m still, I believe, a Perfumista, but I’ve put perfume in its proper place…
Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier Ambre Dore ~ fragrance review
Is Maître Parfumeur et Gantier depressed? Lazy? Complacent? Thinking about “retirement?” If not, why hasn’t the (badly designed) brand’s website been updated in years; Cuir Fétiche (2011) isn’t on the site, nor is Bois de Turquie, released in 2008! And what about the ugly bottles people have been making fun of for ages? Keep the bottles if you must, Maître Parfumeur et Gantier, but at least nix the cheap plastic “jewels” (that often fall off) from the caps. Still…I always try new Maître Parfumeur et Gantier fragrances.
Maître Parfumeur et Gantier’s latest perfume, Ambre Doré, opens with the aromas of vibrant oud, saffron-scented leather and “green” (geranium?) styrax. Ambre Doré’s “character” is tougher than most amber perfumes, which is fine by me (I like my ambers rough and ‘scratchy’…if they’re too smooth and sleek I’m bored). As Ambre Doré’s opening burns off there’s a musky barnyard moment or two (we’re talking a dry-manure-in-the-distance aroma) followed by the scent of bananas steeped in turpentine…