Marc Jacobs has launched Lemon Splash, the latest in the brand's limited edition Splash collection:
MARC JACOBS Lemon captures a slice of summer with the fresh, bright scent of sun-drenched citrus. Deliciously vibrant and sophisticated, lemon revitalizes the senses with its crispness and vitality. Fragrant, light and refreshing—a burst of sparkling sunshine comprised of the finest, most elegant ingredients…
Tom Ford launched the Private Blend Collection in 2007. There were 12 of them (now there are more). They were (and still are, of course) expensive; they were in very limited distribution (that has eased somewhat). I smelled four of them on blotters (a friend had small lab samples) before they were launched, didn’t love any of them, and promptly decided, for the sake of my sanity (there were already over 800 fragrance releases that year), to ignore the collection entirely. Kevin apparently decided the same (are we cranky, or what?) but he eventually fell to temptation (see his review of Purple Patchouli), and passed a set of samples on to me, and I’ve been working my way through them slowly. My favorite so far: Oud Wood…
Tom Ford has launched Champaca Absolute, the latest addition to the Tom Ford Private Blend collection of fragrances:
This Floral Oriental composition is Tom Ford’s homage to the eternal, seductive power of Champaca.
The multi-layered fragrance starts with opening notes of Tokajii Wine and Cognac to reveal the sensuous heart of Champaca Absolute and the final warm notes of Vanilla Bean, Amber and Sandalwood…
When the 12 Tom Ford Private Blend fragrances were released simultaneously in 2007, I threw up my hands. I was already drowning in untried samples of new fragrances, and obtaining samples of the Private Blends would have required either begging friends in New York to trudge to the Tom Ford store or ordering the samples online myself (clicking “BUY NOW” 12 times didn’t sound like fun). I ‘forgot’ about the Private Blends until recently when a reader of Now Smell This (a fragrance lover from Brooklyn, NY) decided my ignorance of the Tom Ford Private Blends was inexcusable; he sent me samples of 10 of the fragrances immediately and I obtained the two other fragrance samples from a friend in Los Angeles who got them from Neiman Marcus. (Thank you both!)
I don’t dislike any of the Private Blends; they are made from high-quality ingredients and many of them provide a level of complexity and development that is lacking in most fragrances I sample. After wearing all the Private Blends, my favorites are The Classic (Neroli Portofino) and The Weirdo (Purple Patchouli)…
Summer: it’s the best of times (fresh flowers, fruits and vegetables — songbirds and butterflies in the garden); it’s the worst of times (muggy, bug-infested days of unbearable heat). On the brightest, breeziest summer days (when the temperature is below, let’s say, 78 degrees), I feel happy and fling open the windows in my house to “freshen my life;” I listen to Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne at high volume and imagine myself running, buff and tan, thru poppy-dotted country fields in IMAX — I feel energized and immortal. Then, when the temperature soars, my spirits and outlook plummet: oily faced, limp haired, mean as a snake and with cold booze in hand, I retreat to dark rooms or my basement — and mope (when I’m not lashing out at friends, family, cats).
A summer arsenal of perfumes should make the good days better and the doldrums bearable. For me, summer is a time for sprightly perfumes, and just like I try to grow new things in my summer garden each year — I like to wear new fragrances. Here are a few of my recent discoveries:
A ‘soapy’ cologne is a must for me in summer. Balmain's Ivoire de Balmain smells like a scented summer bouquet sprinkled with pepper and dabbed with labdanum…