To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Ormonde Jayne has launched a new collection: La Route de Soie (The Silk Road). The fragrances in the collection are Tanger, Levant, Damask, Indus, Xandria, Xi’an and Byzance. Today I’m reviewing two favorites from the line (I’ve still not tried Indus, Xandria or Xi’an)…
As an intro to my list of Top Ten Summer Fragrances way back in 2014, I grumbled that I’ve never liked the question, “What are your plans for the summer?” I can safely say that no one has asked me that question this year…since so many plans have been canceled and most of us are just quietly staying safe at home.
I seem to be wearing beach-inspired perfumes (one of my favorite sub-genres!) even more than usual this summer, just because I can’t go to the seashore. I recently tried two more scents that evoke the beach in very different ways, and although neither of them will replace my favorites, they both gave me the sense of a brief olfactory vacation…
The violet may be a spring flower, but I seem to enjoy violet-scented products most in the summer. A few years ago I even wrote a round-up of violet-fraganced body products and Robin titled it “A summer of violets.” Now that time has become weirder and more fluid than ever in 2020, why not enjoy any flower whenever we choose — via perfume? Since violet fragrances often make me feel a little more serene and pulled-together than I really am, I’ve been wearing them often these days.
Netherlands-based indie perfumer Hiram Green has just launched a new natural fragrance named Vivacious…
As Kevin has observed in past reviews, Atelier Cologne fragrances don’t push any boundaries; they often lean towards the fruity, the sheer, the casual. For those same reasons, I think Atelier is useful “gateway” brand to mention when I want to offer someone the first figurative step away from the Macy’s perfume counter. Atelier roll-ons are easy to find and reasonably priced, and even if the scents don’t inspire ecstasy in hardcore fragophiles, most of them are easy to like.
My own favorites from the Atelier Cologne line-up are Trèfle Pur and Vanille Insensée; neither of those is a floral, which is funny for a diehard flower-lover like myself. If I were to purchase an Atelier floral, though, it might be Love Osmanthus. This is Atelier Cologne’s latest launch, a fruity floral meant to put us “in the mood for love in a secret garden” with notes of osmanthus, lemon and cedar…
Today my county eases into phase one of opening up. That’s three months of lockdown; a quarter of a year; a whole season, from snowfall to sunburn.
Here is an olfactory summary of how I spent this time:
A day into a conference for mystery writers in San Diego, the pandemic shut it down, and we all scrambled to find flights home. That night, I stood on my hotel room’s tiny balcony and watched sheets of rain before going downstairs to the restaurant, noisy with chatting authors, to catch up on industry gossip. I wore Ciro Danger in Extrait.
A few days later, I was out of a job…