2010 perfume recap: The Best (& Worst) in Scent

What is the end of the year without summarising lists? And what is the end of a year in the fragrance industry no less without comprising a "best of" (and worst of) of sorts? To that end, a select team of bloggers brought our minds together to bring you opinionated verdicts on what you should not miss and what you might as well be spared when passing the perfume counter or browsing on your laptop.
For clarity's sake, my own list comprises only releases from 2010 (with one exception), not things I might have discovered this year which were issued previously. That doesn't mean I consider the following the "best of" in all perfumery in general (and I'm well known for sticking to favourites no matter when issued), just the best -and worst- in 2010.


Perfume of the Year: Absolue pour le Soir by Maison Francis Kurkdjian.Perfectly balanced between "dirty" and perfume-y, like perfumes of yore with its alliance of ylang ylang, honeyed rose and scads of cumin, it curiously draws upon a retro "skankiness" that's not really vulgar, more lived-in; like the precarious equilibrium a certain Mediterranean lady keeps between the mysticism and languor of the East and the rationality of the West in her own heart of hearts.
Beware skank-o-phobics! It can be intense.

Perfumer of the year: It must have been Bertrand Duchaufour's year.I don't know whether it's through bloggers' promotion or simply overindustriousness (Amaranthine -technically from end of 2009- and Sartorial for Penhaligon's, Nuit de Tubereuse and Traversee du Bosphore for L'artisan), but it seemed like he was everywhere this past while. Not that he doesn't deserve it, mind you.

Best feminine fragrance (department store circuit): Sensuous Noir by Estee Lauder
Best masculine fragrance (department store circuit): Voyage d'Hermès by Hermès
It's difficult to make something worthwhile in the tsunami of thousands of releases that will -fatefully- be discounted in 6 months' time at consignment shops. These two are solidly built (one on patchouli, the other on woody aqueous musk), not wildly differentiating themselves, but very pleasant, lasting and with a whiff of intelligence built in.

Best Shared niche fragrance: Sartorial by Penhaligon's.
I do prefer Duchaufour's work in Amaranthine for the same brand though, only that one is much more feminine. Sartorial with its honyed, waxy lavender and patchouli is as suave as Terence Stamp in his 1960s days, with a reassuring expectancy.

Best fragrance under 50$US: Fleur Chérie by L'Occitane.
A fresh and airy interpretation of neroli & orange blossom on a bed of cedar and blackcurrant to bring forth happy thoughts in the dead of winter. Available online.

Best Limited editon: Arsène Lupin Dandy by Guerlain.It's not poised to be a limited edition, but something tells me it will be short-lived, nonetheless. A very refined soft leather for men, ready to be snatched by women as well.


The fragrance I loved (and wore) most: Boxeuses by Lutens.The icy sensuality of Bas de Soie is also quite fetching, but with Boxeuses Serge and Sheldrake revisit at last their favourite territory of the souk and the polished hides on the walls of a Berber dwelling which I had missed. Spices, candied fruits and the backdrop of nubbuck. A special someone finds this scent terribly sexy on a certain dark-haired historian and who is fool enough to argue with that?

Best new fragrance concept: If Womanity by Mugler had managed to reconcile the savoury with the sweet in a less strange and loud summation, we'd be talking about the surest trend to follow shortly on a perfume counter near you. I still believe we're to see more in this vein, only I hope more polished and assured next time.

In memoriam (discontinued): The disappearence of Bulgari Black from the UK market. It's still available in other European countries nevertheless and there is no official word on its eclipsing from production. Attrape Coeur (formely known as Guet Apens) is definitely missing in action, as we had announced almost a year now. Shame...
Worst News of the Year: Belle d'Opium signaling the death toll on the original Opium, thinned out from reformulations to the point that it's become Whitney Port where it used to be a zaftig Catherine Zeta Jones.

Trend we can do without: Need I spell it out? A-m-b-r-o-x-a-n.Dear perfumers, I get it: It's a shortcut for you, it provides the backbone you are denied by all those IFRA restrictions, it's practical and stable, it can even be nice sometimes, but please: Sufficing a composition with ambrox/ambroxan isn't going to make a proper perfume. Why is everything from Baie Rose 26 and Another 13 both by Le Labo to Juliette has a Gun Not a Perfume have to be based on it now?

Best celebrity scent: I don't really follow celebrity scents sampling-wise (my loss, you might argue). I still wear Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker which is the best celebrity fragrance this side of the eponymous Catherine Deneuve in my books.

Most ridiculous celebrity for a scent: Paris Hilton channeling Marilyn Monroe (she wishes) for the launch of her latest scent. Now I've seen it all.

Best Buzz: Andy Tauer generates the greatest niche buzz every year. Is it any wonder?
This year he repackaged his entire line, issued new fragrances, he launched a new website and immersed himself into a good cause: promoting art in perfumery.
I was also pleased to see the Vero Kern line of Eaux de Parfum reach the States finally. Rubj is particularly stellar and Vero herself does nothing by halves.

Best Ad: 2010 hasn't been particularly memorable on the visual front: The last exciting perfume commercials I recall have been Chanel No.5 with Tautou (2009), Midnight Poison with Eva Green (2007) and Miss Dior Chérie by Sofia Copolla (2008). Bleu de Chanel directed by Scorcese is all right (mainly for its atmospheric use of blue as a reflection on the fragrance's name and flacon), but still not thrilling or imaginative enough (and don't get me started on the completely lukewarm fragrance itself!).

Worst Ad: Bang by Marc Jacobs.An oilied up Jacobs is posing with his legs apart hidden behind a giant bottle "banged" by a fireshot? If this is a pick up line, it's the crudest I have ever set eyes on. Pass me the barf bag, please.

Best Natural Scent: Light by Anya's Garden is exactly what its name implies: In a word, luminous.


Favorite Flacon: I'm not much of a fangirl for elaborate perfume bottles, prefering the architectural sparsity of Lutens, The Different Company, Chanel Les Exclusifs, Hermessences etc, but I kinda dig the latest Agonist Liquid Crystal eau de parfum flacon. It looks like some fungus life form preserved in formaldehyde on Holmes' desk while the rest of the tubes are bubbling merrily and it never misses to make me lean and observe more closely for clues as to what it contains. So weird, it's a classic!

I would have liked to see more of: Green, green, green.
For some reason, in a time when green is the byword in the cosmetics and skincare industry, it's sorely lacking in the perfumery business. Issey Miyake A Scent was a good effort, but its commercial flop was kinda disappointing. The leathery trend (see Boxeuses & L'Heure Fougeuse in "Les Heures de Parfum" for Cartier, by Mathilde Laurent) is having me enraptured.

Best name of a fragrance company: Odin never fails to make me think of Scandinavian mythology. If only they hadn't attached the New York moniker right after it...

Best Flanker: I'm possibly cheating with this one (as "flanker" is industry speak for a fragrance which reprises the name and design of a previous best-seller to introduce a quite different scent with minimal change in name, rather than a different concentration) but Parfums Caron, probably the world's most unprobable creator of flankers, has scored: Parfum Sacré Intense is capitalising on Jean-Pierre Béthouard's 1990 original Parfum Sacré (itself a study on an older Caron scent, Or et Noir) and made a beguiling spicy oriental of clove-strewn rose to lose your heart into. I certainly have.

Rising Star of 2010: "Outlaw" perfumers doing what they darn please irrespective of perfumery restriction, just for the heck of it. It was about time...


Don't forget to visit the other participating blogs in their best & worst 2010 lists:
Ca Fleure Bon, Olfactarama, Mais Que Perfume.