Diptyque Eau des Sens ~ fragrance review

Posted by Robin on 11 March 2016 42 Comments

Diptyque Eau des Sens brand image

Diptyque’s new Eau des Sens is meant to be a spicy orange blossom, and promises “the scent of the orange tree in its entirety, from the white petals of the orange blossom to the dark green leaves to the juicy, bitter Seville orange hanging off the branches” — I presume half of you are ready to sign up, and the other half have already moved on to the next article. That’s as it should be, because Eau des Sens is pretty much what it says it is, no more, no less.

Be warned, first of all, that Eau de Sens is sheer-ish, as is (mostly) the Diptyque style as of late. In the video I posted yesterday, perfumer Olivier Pescheux said that the best way to discover Eau de Sens is to “spray it generously”, and I’ll concur…

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Senteurs d’Orient Orange Blossom Hammam Soap on a Rope ~ scented body product review

Posted by Jessica on 5 November 2015 16 Comments

Senteurs d'Orient Hammam Soap on a Rope

This must be the first time we’ve reviewed a soap-on-a-rope here at Now Smell This. I’ve always thought of soap-on-a-rope (basically just a bar of soap with a nylon hang-cord attached) as the sort of 1970s-era item that was (is?) only purchased as a slightly depressing, last-resort Father’s Day gift or a holiday present for a male grade-school teacher. Affordable and practical, but sort of silly. You know.

Senteurs d’Orients’ Hammam Soap on a Rope is an altogether different sort of object, and you would never confuse it with a last-minute purchase from the drugstore or the Avon catalogue. These soaps are hand-crafted by local artisans in Lebanon. They’re circular and oversized, hand-molded with elegant, filigree-like patterns of leaves and floral motifs. They’re packaged in decorative, hand-folded boxes, and (most importantly) their scents were developed by the “master perfumers of Grasse…”

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Chloe Love Story ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 2 February 2015 55 Comments

Chloé Love Story adverts

Sitting at my laptop to review Chloé Love Story, a dilemma immediately arises: I can write a full-blown pan, including my snarky telling of the “love story” that must have inspired the fragrance.¹ Or, I can try to make something practical of the review. (I realize that a third option exists — just don’t review Love Story — but Chloé is a major brand, and this is a major release, and I feel a responsibility to weigh in.)

I’m choosing the “practical” option. I’ll quickly run through Love Story’s basics, then we can examine how the heck this thing ever made it to market.

Love Story was developed by perfumer Anne Flipo. Its notes include neroli, orange blossom, stephanotis and cedar. In brief, it smells like orange blossom-scented laundry detergent…

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Maria Candida Gentile Hanbury ~ perfume review

Posted by Robin on 3 June 2014 48 Comments

Giardini Botanici Hanbury

When I first started out in perfume, it was possible to aspire to some level of “literacy”, as a consumer. That is, you could, if you spent a reasonable amount of time, energy (and money), acquaint yourself with the major brands — niche, mainstream and indie — and smell at least some portion of their products. It used to be fairly rare that a commenter (or contributor) at Now Smell This would mention a brand I’d never heard of, and I usually had at least a passing familiarity with any fragrance that came up for discussion.

These days, even determining which brands are “important” enough to bother with is a Herculean task. Commenters mention perfumes I’ve never heard of, much less smelled, every day (and I would not be at all surprised if many readers here smelled far more product than I do). When Jessica decided to review Gershwin by the Italian niche line Maria Candida Gentile, the brand was hardly even on my radar. I’ve now smelled two of their fragrances: Hanbury and Sideris…

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Au Pays de la Fleur d’Oranger Neroli Blanc collection ~ fragrance review

Posted by Jessica on 24 January 2014 23 Comments

Au Pays de la Fleur d'Oranger Neroli Blanc

I’ve only recently learned about Au Pays de la Fleur d’Oranger, although the company has been around since 1998. Its founders, Virginie and Antoine Roux, take inspiration from their family’s Grasse background and longtime associations with the region’s perfume industry. As you can guess from their name, Au Pays de la Fleur d’Oranger incorporates the floral note of the orange blossom¹ into many of its products. The three fragrances in its Neroli Blanc collection are all very pleasing, and they showcase this note in three different ways.

Neroli Blanc Eau de Cologne is a “refreshing” take on orange blossom, and it’s the most gender-neutral of the three compositions…

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