Cartier has launched Oud & Menthe, a new fragrance in their luxury Les Heures Voyageuses oud series…
Cartier Declaration Parfum ~ fragrance review
Men: do you have a party shirt — a shirt you throw on to fancy up your jeans and sneakers for a night out? Autumn and winter party shirts often have a sheen; silk, satin and velvet are popular cool-weather party-shirt fabrics. To make a party shirt ‘sexy’ (too many) men unbutton them to the area halfway between the pecs and navel. You can buy party shirts at Target, Macy’s…or Dolce & Gabbana, where party shirts abound. Check out (wear sunglasses) warm-weather party shirts at Robert Graham; the shirts have all the hallmarks of summery party tops: chest-showcasing fabrics (part cotton/part polyester), bold patterns (!flowers!, graffiti) and contrasting fabrics on upturned cuffs and collars.
Cartier’s new Déclaration Parfum is the fragrance equivalent of a party shirt…
Cartier Carat ~ perfume review
The background: The name presumably needs no explanation, insofar as Cartier is best known as a jewelry house. Cartier perfumer Mathilde Laurent says “Cartier brings diamonds to life by showcasing them so stunningly, by introducing light and making it scintillate and shimmer. I wanted to create a fragrance that sparkles, alive with all the fire of a diamond. ”1
The juice: So Mathilde Laurent aimed for a perfume that would transmit light with the brightness of a diamond, yada yada yada. That became something about the seven colors of a rainbow refracted through a diamond, with the seven colors represented by seven floral notes…
They don’t smell like the true flower
What she wants in her perfume instead is the smell of fresh, living flowers – in nature, not ones that have been cut and cooked. She explains: “this is why I work with the molecular, with what we call in perfumery ‘head space technology’. It’s living technology which allows the perfumer to work with the true living smell of nature. I don’t work with oils or absolutes that, at the end – what are they? I don’t see why I should work with said ‘natural ingredients’ because if they don’t smell like the true flower, why should I work with them?"
— Cartier perfumer Mathilde Laurent on preferring synthetic over natural. Read more at Cartier’s perfumer on creating “a ray of fragrance” at Harpers Bazaar.
Something from nature
Many connections. In fact, have you heard of the French writer, Huysmans? He said in a very famous quote that a perfumer and jeweller do exactly the same job. They both take something from nature and cut it. So the jeweller is cutting the stone and the perfumer is cutting the botanics to obtain the oil, and at the end, they size it on a ring or in a bottle. When you feel confident in your perfume it’s exactly as if you were wearing a wonderful diamond necklace.
— Cartier perfumer Mathilde Laurent on the connection between jewelry and perfume. Read more at Cartier Carat at Wonderland.