21 is the latest fragrance from Costume National. It is said to have 21 notes — bergamot, milk, orange blossoms, saffron, cumin, pepper, cashmere wood, royal jelly, moss, clary sage, patchouli, olibanum, amber, sandalwood, oudh wood, cedar, vetiver, labdanum, tonka bean, vanilla and musk — and is meant to honor the brand’s 21st anniversary…
If you have too much activity with simultaneous launches, the customer is overwhelmed and very few products will actually break through to become successful.
That’s Robert Brady of Givenchy, speaking in 1996 about his company’s decision to delay the US launch of Givenchy Organza so as “to avoid a packed playing field” (via Women’s Wear Daily, 10/25/1996). Strictly speaking, it has nothing to do with today’s fragrance, Organza Indecence, which launched in 1999 as Organza’s “vampy little sister” (Ibid, 5/28/99), I just couldn’t help cracking up when I read it. There were around 200 fragrance launches in 1996; this year, we’re expecting some 800. Enough said…
We’ve featured an unusual number of mainstream designer fragrances here over the last month, so today we’re going all the way to the other end of the spectrum. Sonoma Scent Studio is the California-based indie perfume house of self-taught perfumer Laurie Erickson, and she is one of several small etailers who have gained a following on the fragrance forum at MakeupAlley. My favorite from the line is Bois Épicés, described as “soft, warm spices over a musk/wood base”, with notes of musk, sandalwood, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, mandarin, cedar, cypress and coffee.
I suppose everyone has their own idea about what constitutes a comfort scent. There are fragrances that so extraordinarily soothing that they function almost like spray-on Valium (Diptyque Tam Dao, Comme des Garçons Kyoto) but that don’t quite qualify as comfort scents in my book. A comfort scent must be more than just soothing: it must be the perfume equivalent of putting on your favorite pair of beat-up jeans and a sweatshirt…
Kenzo Amour, aka kenzoamour, is this year’s fragrance release from the house of Kenzo. Amour was created by perfumers Daphne Bugey and Olivier Cresp and features notes of cherry blossom, rice steam, white tea, frangipani, heliotrope, thanaka wood, incense, vanilla and musk. It was…
…inspired by a couple’s voyage through India, Japan and Vietnam.
“The basic idea was a voyage of love, of emotion, and a bird as a symbol of love,” explained Patrick Guedj, Parfums Kenzo’s creative director and head of marketing, referring to a multicolored turtledove featured on the fragrance’s packaging and in advertising. (via Women’s Wear Daily, 5/15/2006)
Amour starts with a sweet, highly stylised floral accord. After that, the floral notes rapidly fade into the backdrop, and the whole thing settles into a fluffy, cloud-like concoction of vanilla and musky woods…