Late last year, Italian niche line Santa Maria Novella launched Alba di Seoul, a new unisex fragrance…
Top 10 Spring Fragrances 2012
Spring in the Pacific Northwest is a transitional season — there are chilly days and warm days, a dry day (or two), and then there’s…RAIN…all types of rain — sprinkles, showers, ‘horizontal’ umbrella-proof rain, deluges, sometimes all in the space of one exciting hour. What separates spring from fall, another season with multiple personalities, are the fragrant flowers that bloom in spring: plum and cherry; narcissus; wintersweet; scented azaleas, camellias and witch hazels; lilacs; daphnes; hyacinths; and my favorite — wallflowers. For my springtime perfume choices, I (mostly) skip spring flowers in a bottle — no perfume matches the aromas of real plants blooming all around me. My spring favorites, most of them new discoveries and, as yet, un-reviewed, are a varied lot.
Ah…the smell of gasoline on a warm afternoon! Histoires de Parfums Pétroleum reminds me of lawn mower fumes mingling with the scents of flowers and cut grass. It makes me drowsy (in a good way). And speaking of grass (and roots) I’ll add LesNez Turtle Vetiver Front to my spring favorites list; it’s a rich and warm vetiver that works in any season (like a “perfume-scarf,” it blunts the chill on cold days and, conversely, it accentuates the heat of a warm day when you want that “baking” feeling).
As one bakes, one sweats, and I’m one of those people who likes a hot-and-bothered-smelling perfume on occasion (we’re talking ‘clean’ sweat — grapefruit, vetiver, cedar — no overwhelming cumin). In this clean-dirty category, I’ll put Kinski (with its marijuana and vetiver notes) and the éminence grise of modern perspiration perfumery: Cartier Déclaration…
Fragrance gifts for Mother’s Day 2012, part 1
Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 13th — it will be here before you know it. Here are a few gift suggestions for the early birds:
From Cartier, a gift set in the Baiser Volé fragrance. 15 and 50 ml bottles of Eau de Parfum, $100 at Macy’s…
Holiday fragrance gifts 2011, part 4
Our series of holiday gift posts continues; today we’re covering home fragrances of all sorts. If you missed them, here are links to part 1 (scented body products), part 2 (travel sizes & coffrets) and part 3 (more travel sizes & coffrets). Coming up next: men’s fragrances.
The 2011 holiday collection from Diptyque: Epinette in green (“Echoing the aromatic freshness of its needles and the resinuous notes of its pine cones, the Spruce Tree candle promises a wintry runaway in the depths of the wood.”; in 3 sizes $32-$275) or Perdigone in red (“Concentrate of warm and fruity notes around a spiced plum that deliciously perfumes the house. Absolutely comforting in the depths of winter.”; in 2 sizes $32-68)…
5 Perfumes for: a Brief Illness
If you are sick of being sick this winter, you are not alone. Flu season started early in the more populous parts of the United States, Canada and the U.K., with several urban centers reporting up to six times the normal number of confirmed influenza cases by late December 2010. Doctors and heath practitioners in North America are also seeing more viral gastroenteritis and strep throat cases this year. Vaccine numbers are down, hospital admissions for children and the elderly in many areas are up, and with all the storms and frigid temperatures some of us have experienced, we’re trapped inside our homes, schools and workplaces with miserable, germy companions. My extended family spent the holidays passing around a virulent Norovirus. The infection casualties totaled 21 people. Since then my household has seen one bout of hacking cough, two solid weeks of influenza (four consecutive cases, with the result that I also came down with cabin fever), an infant ear infection, two cases of eczema and one four-year-old who apparently needs more liquids and fiber in her diet. The heat rash and insect bites of summer can’t come soon enough.
Being a perfumista doubles the despondency of a stuffed nose. Two or three days last month, I was unable to smell anything properly and I was bereft. During a voluntary fragrance break, you still have access to other scented comforts: food, fresh air, scotch whisky. The last few bad colds I’ve had have served to remind me how much I’ve come to rely on my sense of smell to give color and focus to each day. Every time the congestion has passed, even if I’m still suffering from other symptoms, I’ve returned to my life and my perfume cabinet with glee and relief. The world is in HD again.
There are a number of different approaches to perfuming your convalescence…