Hermes Eau de Mandarine Ambree ~ fragrance review

Posted by Robin on 20 June 2013 33 Comments

Hermès Eau de Mandarine Ambrée

Eau de Mandarine Ambrée is one of two new 2013 offerings in the unisex Cologne Collection at Hermès, the other being Eau de Narcisse Bleu. Both were developed by house perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena, who notes that Mandarine Ambrée “is quite immediate, the other [Narcisse Bleu] is more complex.” The same contrast might be drawn between the last two additions to the series, Eau de Pamplemousse Rose and Eau de Gentiane Blanche,¹ and once again, I find that I prefer the immediate: Eau de Mandarine Ambrée is easily my favorite; Eau de Narcisse Bleu, like Gentiane Blanche, is arguably the more interesting of the pair but was just a tad too mild for my tastes.²

Mandarine Ambrée, which features mandarin, passion fruit and amber, has a similar sparkling start as the Pamplemousse Rose, albeit with much less (but surely some) grapefruit. It’s bright and cheerful, with a beautifully juicy and tart mandarin note that gradually gets fruitier, fuller and sweeter, and then slightly woody, with a sheer amber base and a slight dash of vanilla. It isn’t heavy…

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Lush Furze ~ fragrance review, with an aside on Lush Sun

Posted by Robin on 7 February 2013 65 Comments

Gorse bloom

If you’d asked me in, say, 2006, if I needed or wanted a beachy coconut sort of perfume, I probably would have laughed.¹ That was the year that Estee Lauder launched Azuree Soleil Eau Fraiche in collaboration with Tom Ford, and I didn’t bother to smell it until they reintroduced it the next year, at which point I realized that yes, I did need a beachy coconut sort of perfume. Azuree Soleil turned into Bronze Goddess in 2008, and Estee Lauder has been releasing it in one form or another every spring since then (see this year’s entry here). It’s one of my summer go-to perfumes.

Even then, I would have guessed that my beachy coconut perfume needs were small enough that they’d be adequately covered by Bronze Goddess for the rest of my natural life. Nope — here comes Lush Furze to pile on. Furze is part of the latest crop of fragrances from Lush, all of which were inspired by the lore of the English countryside, and Stonehenge, and all sorts of related Englishness. Furze in particular was reportedly triggered by furze (gorse) bushes growing in the yard of Lush perfumer Simon Constantine. I don’t know the smell of gorse, although I think it’s botanically related to broom (which I do know), but anyway, Mr. Constantine thinks it smells a little like coconut and vanilla, and that’s where he went with the Furze fragrance: coconut, vanilla, mimosa, neroli…

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Atelier Cologne Grand Neroli and Orange Sanguine ~ fragrance review

Posted by Jessica on 27 March 2010 29 Comments

Atelier Cologne packaging

Atelier Cologne, a new niche perfume house based in Paris and New York, recently introduced its range of five fragrances. Atelier’s signature concept is the “cologne absolue”: fragrances inspired by the historic recipe of the original “Eau de Cologne” — a mixture of citrus and herbal ingredients — but blended in stronger concentrations for a richer and more lasting effect. Each of the fragrances in Atelier’s debut collection is centered around a citrus motif, and each is intended to embody a “singular moment” of memory and experience.

My current favorite from Atelier is Grand Néroli, created by perfumer Cécile Krakower. Grand Néroli opens with a radiant burst of neroli and orange blossom (those two lovely, but differently-achieved, products of the same flower). This opening accord is soon pierced by more astringent notes of lemon and petitgrain, for a lively blend that mellows after an hour or so. Grand Néroli’s middle phase includes a salty aspect with a very subtle “beachy” feeling, but it never becomes as marine-like as Le Labo Neroli 36. The galbanum seems to extend the citrus notes without turning them too green…

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When life gives you lemons ~ scented body products

Posted by Jessica on 30 August 2009 45 Comments

Body Shop Energy Gel Bigelow Lemon Lime Souffle 4mula

Citrus scents can be such cheerful, uncomplicated fragrances, and they can brighten up a gloomy day with their connotations of sunshine, cleanliness, and good health. I particularly like to layer citrus-fragranced shower gels and lotions under my favorite summer perfumes, to boost their bright-and-crisp qualities.

However, the available range of lemon-, lime-, and orange-scented products is occasionally disappointing — especially at the higher end of the price spectrum, for some reason. One example is Strange Invisible Perfumes Wild Orange Invisible Body Lotion. I’m assuming it’s intended to be layered under Strange Invisible Perfumes’ citrus-accented perfume oils, such as L’Invisible or Fair Verona. It’s a nice enough medium-weight lotion, packaged in a bottle that suggests a fancy hair mousse. It’s all-natural, with aloe vera and olive oil for moisture. It smells like, well, sweet orange oil. But for this price, I was expecting to be amazed, and I just wasn’t. ($40 for 8 fl. oz.; for buying information see the listing for Strange Invisible Perfumes under Perfume Houses.)

NARS is best known as a creator of trend-setting color cosmetics, so I was surprised to learn that the company also sells a line of body products. Its Ginger Grapefruit Body Lotion promises a fragrance that “fuses the vibrant essence of grapefruit and cassis with the romantic floral touches of sweet peony and violet flower.” This sounds like something I’d love…

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