Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Tauer Bottle Giveaway & Thoughts on Perfume Writing

Andy Tauer of Tauer Parfums is having his Advent Calendar again this year for the length of December, countring down till Christmas. For the occasion he has prepared an all-naturals, all botanical limited edition fragrance, Le Cologne du Maghreb {sic} and today Perfume Shrine is honoured to host the giveaway of one 50ml (1.7oz) bottle of it to anywhere in the world*!

It is a classical cologne, with a woody baseline chord, "a firework of natural citrus notes, exploding into expensive sparkles, on a background with ambreine and cedarwood from the Moroccan High Atlas".
Like all colognes it is not made to last but it is a fragrant joy, living in the moment, leaving you with the finest veil of woods on your skin.
Ingredients: Citrus essential oils and absolutes (such as lemon, bergamot, clementine, mandarine, grapefruit, orange blossom absolute, neroli oil), rose absolute and oil, cedarwood, ambrein, cistrose and much more.
What you need to do to be eligible? Simple: Answer the question which follows this post in the comments section.


So, on with today's post! Where I bemoan the proliferation of perfume venues lately, because I feel like a fool nowadays. (NB: I'm NOT only referring to blogs, but also and mainly fora, Facebook pages, corporate sites with a blog appearence, Livejournal journals etc).
Mind you, I'm not really complaining: First of all, mine goes from strength to strength judging by numbers; and numbers don't lie. Plus I distinctly recall when five years ago there were only a handful of venues and publications in English to really read about perfume, beyond advertorials (Those who read French nevertheless always had ample material to choose from; even though it often entailed cajoling the ears with pretty stories, it also involved delving into serious & acclaimed books on the subject). Contrast with today where one is spoilt for choice and can pick what they read and where they draw their info from at the flick of a finger on the keyboard. Which is good!!
Want a shopping & new releases site? You've got it. Want a webzine with lots of contributors offering their views? There's more than one around. You want all the press releases amassed & archived? There's a data bank at your call. You want history, chemistry, opinions on the industry? You're catered for. Is there sheer awe in you in front of a "difficult" perfume and secret joy at discovering one that draws compliments? Numerous fans are there to share their own experiences and to identify with. Are you a novice searching for answers to questions? Someone did the dirty work and compiled primers.

Yet -and this is the crux of the matter- sometimes it seems everyone and their hamster is keeping a perfume journal which they share with the world, no offense to hamsters. The initiative is understandable; a new hobby injects a certain enthusiasm. What is perhaps less apparent is that so very often the echo of information that has been perhaps erroneously transferred into pixels or 0 & 1 signs (whichever way you prefer to look at it) is getting transmitted all over the universe and beyond; if Nasa's data is anything to go by. Information flows and this flow sometimes gets in the way of fact. It's one thing to entertain a rumour -as long as it's clear it's such- and another to actually transmit it as the absolute truth. Legend becomes reality and you have well-intended people criticizing an artistic video commercial for No.5 negating the Süskind-inspired idea and missing the point entirely by saying straight-faced and with conviction that No.5 was chosen for a name because it was the 5th pick by Coco from a series of mods. Who knew, right? Not me, I wasn't there. Of course, one might argue that perfume always relied on mythos. In fact its very core is its escapist quality that allows us to dream. Still, how do you differentiate? Where do you draw the line? What do you pick? And who authorised one version of this myth and not another?

Another problem with having innumerable venues for discussing perfume is that inevitably the mind tires and the eye skims. I can only read so much on any given morning, first thing before I sip the kaymak off my Turkish coffee and get down to fine tuning the details for the day's lecture. If someone who is professionally accustomed to reading exceedingly fast can't read more than a handful of sites, how can the average perfume lover who might have a boss breathing down their neck or kids dragging them around? Additionally, how can anyone comment intelligently? Whereas in the beginning discussion was conducted through comments on perfume fora and the comment section of blogs making it easier to follow syllogism & reasoning, it now seems that the discussion is conducted via blogs & venues themselves: Instead of commenting on someone else's blog or someone else's thread on a forum, people begin their own venue (their own blog, Live Journal, Facebook page etc.) and converse via them. It's not the people or the usernames doing the back & forth; it's the web pages doing it. You need a detailed manual to wade through (not to mention people are reluctant to put links & quotes to make you understand what they're talking about) and I often feel plain silly not knowing the whole background of the discussion. This polyphony -and indeed contrapuntal style- is not necessarily a bad thing; on the contrary! But it risks getting bypassed due to a flummox of words each vying for individual attention.

What do you think? What do you seek when reading about perfume?

ETA: I only now (see what I mean?) just read a post by Brian on I Smell therefore I Am (snarky & witty at the same time) which I urge you to read on this link. Thought-provoking!!

*NB: The prize will be shipped by Tauer Perfumes in Switzerland directly to the winner. The company states: "We ship to the address given to us and do not contact the addressee afterwards, nor will we use the contact information for any other purpose than sending the prize, nor will we forward the address to anybody else".

DRAW is open till Sunday 5th Dec. midnight.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Rykiel becomes a blogger!

The Rykiel house has tittilated our fantasies with their erotic shop within their flagship boutique, has smothered our senses with their wonderful perfumes and has established their name as one of the chicest in all of Paris and the fashion runway for decades now. But it seems that technology is not escaping Sonia and Natalie Rykiel who are on the cutting edge:
Yes, they caught the blogging germ (official blogs seem to be big right now) and from 14th September (this coming Monday, that is!) you can read all about their creative process, their interests and their little confidences at http://www.rykielles.com/. Shopping, littérature, photo, music., video exclusivities, archive fashion shoots.. the posh Parisian quartier de Saint Germain des Prés takes its own digital life under the direction of Natalie Rykiel who will be blogging with nom de guerre "Dita du Flore". And once a week the feature "Sonia's Choice" by Sonia Rykiel herself. Blogger Garance Doré has realised a photo exclusive which you can discover in its entirety on http://www.rykielles.com/ this coming 14th September.
I hypothesize it will be in French, but perhaps there will be a translation option available for those of you who don't speak French. Or, you can always begin learning the French language with some online classes.

Source Jennifer Neyt/Vogue.fr. Pic of Natalie Rykiel via theglamtvespagna.es

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Who Wants to Gag the Blogosphere?

Today's post comes with a bitter aftertaste. It was with surprise and alarm that I was informed by Octavian Coifan, the blogger of 1000 fragrances, that his blog was reported to Blogger regarding his recent posts about the relationships and possible "borrowing" between the new Guerlain Idylle and Coty's previous work from 1922 of the same name.
Apparently the legal team at LVMH decided that the postings were too accusatory and decided to bring out the big guns, reporting said postings and demanding they're taken down; otherwise Octavian's account would get deleted by Blogger.
Octavian has posted about the incident and about his decision on his blog, but I wanted to bring some questions to you, hopefully igniting another stimulating discussion:

1.The function of reporting a blog on Blogger exists for the following reasons: pornographic content without prior warning (non applicable in this case), copyright infringement (non applicable in this case) and libel/defamation. It's the last bit that was considered applicable according to LVMH but non applicable according to my humble opinion and here's why. The Merriam Webster definition of libel states: "A written or oral defamatory statement or representation that conveys an unjustly unfavorable impression. A statement or representation published without just cause and tending to expose another to public contempt." Nota bene the "unjustly unfavorable" and "without just cause". But the thing is Octavian posted info and photos of the comparison! Besides Idylle by Coty is mentioned in Art & Fragrance Rapport Annuel 2007 as well as in Perfume Intelligence Encyclopedia. Therefore it's nothing new, it's in the public domain for long and he was the one connecting the dots. Does it transpire an adage of the "let sleeping dogs lie" nature? Is this a case of "all is well if no one points it out for others to see"??

2.Other people in the French blogosphere, such as Jeanne from auparfum.com and Mechant Loup of Olfactorum, had posted the preview of the new Idylle bottle and presentation before the original release (Grain de Musc reports the original source was Les Échos owned by LVMH! Stratégies, a business monthly) and were asked by mail to take them down, which they obligingly did {edit to correct: Mechant Loup just informed me that he had the picture taken down through no action of his own, apparently through direct intervention of Blogger itself!}. Octavian was more drastically met. Why is that? Did he go too far in his pointing out the shorcomings of recent LVMH offerings and general practices? It can be argued that he has also greatly contributed to the grandeur of the perception of Guerlain from the perfume-loving community with both his appraisals of older scents as well as newer ones. And the gravitas of the praise is exactly in place due to the existence of criticism where it's due!
Besides, how far is "too far"? And most importantly WHO decides on that last bit? As a Greek by birth, the place where democracy was originally conceived and founded, this is deeply scathing to my very ethos, to my very core. In times where E-democracy is manifesting itself, when the Internet and the blogosphere are viewed as a platform and delivery medium for tools that help to eliminate some of the distance constraints in direct democracy, this is deeply against the times and denotes lack of grasping of current sensibilities. Which brings me to my next question.

3.Who in their right minds thought that such an action was a sensible move in PR terms? The likeable madame Sylvaine Delacourte, artistic director of Guerlain, has been receiving lots of flack for the recent creations of the house (and I admit although I personally liked some, I didn't like all of them) but she was unaware of the Blogger intimidation and to her credit she has confirmed so publicly on Octavian's blog! Why is there such a lack of communication and handling within the firm? This makes a highly placed person feel like a puppet and all the rest of us like viewers of a train-wreck and I am sure she does not appreciate it, nor do we. This also shatters the wonderful prospects we have tried to establish between the blogosphere and the historic house, starting a dialogue in which for once we could be heard!
After all, brands do read us and since Guerlain recently copyrighted the name Loin du Tout just after our review (I am eagerly expecting Lancôme to follow with Kypre), then it means that we blogggers can provide some sort of direction even inadevertedly. Is it worth losing that?

4.What is most alarming is not that big firms have gone after bloggers. No, this has happened again with Pere de Pierre and some objection regarding the authoriship of Lutens fragrances; this has happened to The Non Blonde when she posted about receiving some intimidation from PR companies regarding a lipstick; and there is also the infamous incident of independent perfumer Liz Zorn and her scent name "Peace" objected to by Bond No.9 and their own copyrighted "Scent of Peace". What is most alarming is that it was Blogger involved, a Google platform that has happily catered to the lion's share of blogging writers who wanted to self-publish due to its ease, good infrastructure and free publishing status. Accepting grosso modo a complaint without some logical delay in fair evaluation of the reported blogger and his specific posts equates accepting the word of the behemoth (or anyone really) against the little guy. And this means that there is a shortcoming of democracy once again...I find that last part most devious, most obscure and ~aside any overdramatisation~ truly alarming!

Let me terminate in a very American parable: As Benjamin Franklin was exiting after writing the U.S. constitution, a woman asked him "Sir, what have you given us?"; he responded "A republic ma'am, if you can keep it".

If we can keep it...

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The official Lancome Blog is out!

Obviously having an official blog for cosmetics and perfumes houses is not an affair to be trifled with, if the efforts by Sylvaine Delacourte at Guelain have been anything to go by. The house of Lancome has just released its very own blog named The Lancome Blog, starting being officially functioning on March 10th 2009. Besides news about the brand's products, the Lancome Blog will also give away various gifts and samples and cement a bond with the brand's customers this way. Run, written and edited by Kerry Diamond, vice-president of Public relations, together with PR team members who will often write columns and news, it seems like blogging is not for hobby-ists any more! As expected, I might add...

This Month's Popular Posts on Perfume Shrine