Sonoma Scent Studio has launched Sienna Musk and Winter Woods, two new fragrances for fall and winter:
Sienna Musk ~ “Warm spices and subtle mandarin on a base of woods and musk. This fragrance is softly gourmand, a delicious spicy and woodsy musk scent.” With notes of musk, sandalwood, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, clove, mandarin, cedar, and cypress…
A handful of rose scents, although not all of them are really “about” rose…
Zafferano, by the new-ish men's niche line Odori, opens on an expansive, shimmery-metallic saffron note. It seems to bubble and dance on the skin for a time, slowly taking on raspberry jam undertones as it calms. It's fun — I kept reapplying to do it all over again. The dry down is a more standard-issue rose-saffron combination, very nicely done but nothing terribly unusual, with plenty of cedar. I hardly even notice high prices these days, but at $210 for 100 ml Eau de Toilette, this is a spendy little number. I've yet to top $200 on a single perfume myself, and while I like Zafferano, there's nothing here to tempt me to set a new record. If you like saffron and don't mind the price, do try it (and if you love iris, the Odori version is worth a shot as well). The notes: cedar, saffron, raspberry flowers, wild rose, jasmine, lily of the valley, oriental amber and rosewood.
Miller et Bertaux's new Shanti Shanti is a warmer, drier take on rose…
As I’ve probably already mentioned, rose is my favorite fragrance note. I manage to refrain from reviewing rose-scented products too often, since that would seem repetitious to most readers (fellow rose-lovers exempted!), but June is the month of roses so I’ll indulge myself this time around.
I often wear complex rose-based fragrances like Les Parfums de Rosine’s Poussière de Rose or Bond no. 9’s West Side, and I search out rose-scented body products to match. Sometimes, however, I just crave a pure rose without any citrus, spice, wood, or vanilla notes. Sonoma Scent Studio’s Velvet Rose Shea Body Cream delivers a rose soliflore in lotion form, with artful simplicity and high-quality ingredients. The Velvet Rose scent gives the impression of a bunch of newly picked pink and red roses, still slightly moist with dew or rain…
Last week I was wearing a little dab of Sonoma Scent Studio’s Fireside Intense, and I offered my hand to a friend to smell. “It smells like that little piece of meat that’s fallen through the grill and is burning to a crisp on the coals” was the apologetic response, and I suppose that should join Kevin’s master list of perfume insults, but you know, I wasn’t insulted at all. That little piece of sizzling meat smells awfully good, after all, doesn’t it? When pressed, my friend agreed it smelled good, just not like perfume.
Fireside Intense is, as you can guess from the above (assuming you didn’t already pick it up from the name), intense…
Sonoma Scent Studio has launched Ambre Noir:
Not your sweet, powdery amber, but amber with an edge. Dusky labdanum is at the heart of this rich scent, with cedar and sandal in the base and beautiful deep rose weaving between the woods. Accents of smoky agarwood, earthy patchouli, warm cardamom, and dry vetiver complete the composition…