Yves Saint Laurent will launch L’Homme Yves Saint Laurent in September. The bottle was inspired by Bauhaus, and the target market is young men between 25 and 30. The fragrance was created by Anne Flipo, Pierre Wargnye and Dominique Ropion…
The Christian Dior Poisons, part 3: Pure Poison
Pure Poison was launched by Christian Dior in 2004, 6 years after Hypnotic Poison and nearly 20 years after the original Poison fragrance. It was created by perfumers Carlos Benaïm, Dominique Ropion and Olivier Polge, and has notes of jasmine, sweet orange, bergamot, mandarin, orange blossom, gardenia, sandalwood, musk and white amber.
Pure Poison attempts to appeal to modern sensibilities (and modern tastes in fragrance) while hanging on to the original conceit of Poison as the venom to catch your man:
Pure Poison — though very different from the original Poison, which launched in 1985 — is a modern spin on the same concept. It is designed to appeal to young women of the 21st century who are passionate, down to earth and able to turn their wildest dreams into reality, but lack the selfish front that characterised the 1980s. (via Cosmetics International; 7/9/2004)
It is rather a stretch conceptually: one might ask whether a down to earth, emotionally generous woman needs or wants a fragrance called Poison at all. For that matter, the fragrance itself cannot hope to live up to its name, for pure it might be, but there is nothing even remotely venomous about it…
Perfume review: Armani Code for women by Giorgio Armani
Armani Code is the latest perfume for women from the Giorgio Armani line, and is meant to be the female counterpart to their best selling fragrance Armani Code for men (originally released as Armani Black Code). It was created by perfumers Carlos Benaim, Dominique Ropion, and Olivier Polge of International Flavors & Fragrances, and has notes of of orange, orange blossom, ginger, pear sorbet, jasmine, vanilla, woods and lavender honey.
Armani Code opens with fresh orange and ginger, and the top notes have a nice zing…
Bvlgari Eau Parfumee au The Rouge (Red Tea) fragrance review
Eau Parfumée au Thé Rouge (Red Tea) was released by Bvlgari this month, and is the third in a series of tea-based perfumes following Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert (1992) and Thé Blanc (2002). It was created by perfumer Olivier Polge, and features notes of bergamot, orange, pink pepper, fig pulp, Roiboos red tea, Yunnan red tea, walnut and musk.
It starts with a heavy, rather sweet blast of citrus with a good dose of pepper. That calms into a sweet mix of tea, fig, and walnut. It is very well blended and none of the individual notes stand out; it smells vaguely figgy, vaguely floral, and has a subtle nutty undertone. The Yunnan red tea, which is simply black tea from Yunnan — in China, fermented teas (e.g., all black teas) are referred to as “red” teas” — is more noticeable than the Rooibos tea to my nose…
Cuir Beluga, Rose Barbare & Angelique Noire: Guerlain L’Art et la Matiere
L’Art et la Matière is a trio of fragrances released earlier this year to coincide with the opening of Guerlain’s newly refurbished flagship boutique. The perfumes were “curated” by Sylvaine Delacourte, Guerlain’s director of fragrance development. Three noses were asked to create fragrances, or, to quote the press release, to “freely express passion for an original, precious raw material”.
Olivier Polge has taken on leather, and the result is Cuir Beluga, with notes of mandarin orange, immortelle flower, leather, amber, heliotrope and vanilla…