The Baccarat "turtle" bottle has just been re-issued in precious few numbered bottles by Guerlain and Vogue Russia dedicates a chapter to it, hence the info on notes, availability and design below.
The original "turtle" bottle (la tortue) was commissioned to the Baccarat studio in 1914 [ed.note: Vogue puts it as 1913] to celebrate the change of address to 68, Champs-Elysées to hold the appropriately named Parfum de Champs-Elysées. The scent was composed by legendary perfumer Jacques Guerlain. The shape of the turtle was an inside joke on the protracted construction work that it took to complete the new beauty shrine.
Today Guerlain re-unites with Baccarat to issue a contemporary "turtle" bottle, the 4th re-issue* since its original opus, to house the new Petite Tortue perfume. The new tortoise like crystal design follows the craftsmanship of the famed house. The crystal is faceted into more than 80 facets to shed light from all angles and holds 60 ml/ 2 fl.oz.
Guerlain Petite Tortue is an extrait de parfum composed by in house perfumer Thierry Wasser. The scent of Petite Tortue is a spicy floral woody which opens with mandarin and pink pepper into a heart of osmanthus blossoms and fruits accord. The base of Petite Tortue is rounded with incense, vanilla and tonka beans recalling the tradition of Guerlain perfumes.
Les Dames de Table are responsible for the finishing touches of the special presentation: the enamel cap holder can be accessorized with the customer's initials; in a choice of color and with a golden rim.
The special edition of Petite Tortue is presented internationally by Guerlain in only 47 numbered bottles, each retailing at a whooping € 9500.
*The last time Guerlain re-issued the "turtle" (or sometimes referred to as tortoise online) bottle it held Extrait du 68 (an increased concentration of Cologne du 68 fragrance by Guerlain)
EDIT TO ADD: New information from Fragrantica suggests the Petite Tortue scent is indeed Extrait du 68.
Guerlain has been making fragrance exclusives honoring the famous Bolshoi ballet for the Russian market for some time now. With three editions under their belt, this year's exclusive is named Carmen, Le Bolshoi and comes in this fabulously provocative bottle in red.
The first fragrance Le Bolshoï appeared in 2011 and was timed to celebrate the reconstruction of a historic building of the Bolshoi Theater. A year later, there was a bottle La Traviata, Le Bolshoï with scarlet cameo. The smoky juice inside commemorated the opera by Giuseppe Verdi with notes of orange, bergamot and petit-grain. In 2014, the Bolshoï Theater performed the hallmark of Russian ballet , Tchaikovsky's"Swan Lake." Black Swan Le Bolshoïwas the offering Guerlain created with perfumer Thierry Wasser to celebrate it with their loyal Russian customers.
This season for the 240th Bolshoi Theater jubilee, 240th world famous "Carmen"by George Bizet is the opus in question. It was first staged in 1875 in Paris and in 2015 celebrates its 140th anniversary. Thierry Wasser created a limited edition fragrance for the Russian market, Carmen Le Bolshoï.
For Carmen,Le Bolshoï the formula includes fragrance notes of jasmine, cedar, citrus, red berries and musk. Bright and bold according to Guerlain as is Carmen. On October 1st it will appear in TSUM and DLT and on December 1st in select Guerlain corners. The retail price of Carmen Le Bolshoï is set at 22 000 rubles.
EDIT TO ADD: Recent reportage and testing suggests that Carmen Le Bolshoi is a re-edition of the original Vetiver pour Elle by Jean Paul Gaultier from 2004.
One of the loveliest designs on perfume bottles sneaked itself into my inbox. The Christmas edition of one of my most worn in 2014 fragrances, L'Orpheline by Serge Lutens, has a spectacular engraved bottle Édition gravée “Croix de cimetière” (i.e. cemetery cross). I admit that although I'm not exceedingly particular about bottles (compared to the contents, I mean, otherwise design interests me immensely), this one caught my breath.
" Elle se met en quatre pour vous faire plaisir. L’orpheline, c’est du fer en dentelle. " - Serge Lutens She is so eager to please you. The orphan girl, iron dressed in lace.
Feast your eyes on it, because this super rare edition of L'Orpheline comes in only 9 numbered and dated bottles, monogrammed SL, fetching really high prices.
Feast your eyes upon one of the (less than) 30 limited edition engraved bottles of Serge Lutens's Louve perfume bottle. The familiar aesthetic will warm the cockles of every sincere collector's heart. The Iron Cross will create discussion…
"The she-wolf returns to her den, leaving nothing but her footprints in the snow. Shining like a seven-pointed cardinal star. Engraved with the cardinal coat of arms in enamel."
Numbered from 1 to 30, dated and monogrammed edition. An exclusive bottle, hand engraved. A few bottles (3 at the time of writing) are available through the online boutique for 800 € each.
The Christmas limited editions by Serge Lutens are always gorgeous and precious in every sense of the word: hand engraved on glass, beautiful and evocative designs and truly expensive (logical, if you think there are only a handful of bottles produced in the first place).
This year Serge Lutens presents La Fille de Berlin, a composition based on rose, which takes on dark, disturbing tonalities, a rose with thorns that recalls gothic tales. The bottle as you can see is one of a kind. Numbered editions from 1 to 30, dated and monogrammed. A unique bottle, engraved by hand, with platinum enameling. Just beautiful...
An edition to stop all others in their tracks (remember the Shalimar Fourreau du Soir we posted about the other day?). In deep blue and in no less than heavy, posh Baccarat crystal with a blue tassel and quadrilobe cap. Only 30 bottles will be put in circulation of Shalimar parfum in Baccarat, available at la Maison Guerlain.
Feast your eyes on it! (click to enlarge)
The ultra limited edition was presented during the mind-blowing Guerlain event "les journées particulières" (on 15th and 16th October) during which perfumer Thierry Wasser, makeup artistic director Olivier Echaudemaison and Sylvaine Delacourte opened the doors for the general public, to mystify them into the Guerlain cult.
Among the good news is that Liu (presented for the occasion in its chinese lacquer box from the Art Deco period) is and will still be part of Les Parisiennes line-up, staying in production after all.
The Armani Privé collection falls under the scope of "niche fragrances within mainstream houses" trend; exclusive, upscale compositions that are often several notches above the widely available scents by the same company (see Cuir Amethyste and Bois d'Encens). La Femme Bleue, setting you back for £375/400euros for 100ml of Eau de Parfum, is very much on the exclusive side, given that it has been made in only 1000 bottles worldwide (and it's not available in just any country! whoa!). So I was fully prepared to hate it (isn't that stratagem & pricetag obscene?), but, alas, I was hasty.
Giorgio Armani's La Femme Bleue is a lovely iris fragrance; nuanced, darkish, with its woody and incensey background and, despite the passing resemblance with iris extraordinaireIris Silver Mist by Serge Lutens, soft, powdery, ultimately unctuous. Plus, despite having the word Femme in the name, the designer himself is quick to point out that this is a unisex scent, as is the whole Privé collection. What more can one ask for? Perhaps some dare.
The Armani Privé collection can be divided into three genres: fresh and clean-smelling Les Eaux; La Collection ~inspired by precious stones like amethyst or jade; and the decadent Collection Mille et Une Nuits (A Hundred and One Nights Collection). This is the range that includes Oud Royal, an opulent melange of amber, spice and myrrh resin. The line is not without its celebrity endorsement: Charlene Wittsock, Princess of Monaco, who wore an Armani Privé wedding gown, also wore an Armani Privé fragrance on her "happiest day"; reportedly it was the new ultra-limited edition La Femme Bleue.
The deep blue of the bottle is a direct reflection on the Spring/Summer 2011 collection by Armani, inspired by the blue tint of the Alasho of the Twareg people of the desert, nomads of North Africa.
The colour of the nighttime sky has often been an inspiration for perfumers and bottle manufacturers, starting with the iconic L'Heure Bleue for Jacques Guerlain as well as Dawamesk, passing through modern offerings such as Jacomo Deep Blue and Dark Blue by Hugo Boss, all the way to the upcoming Vol de Nuit Powder Spraybottle in gorgeous shades of midnight.
The perfumer Serge Majoullier is a talent to watch. He explains how he put the concept (the deep indigo) into fragrance:
"It’s not easy to translate the idea of deep blue, I found the way by blending oriental and vanilla notes, perfect to evoke a hot starry night; so I added black iris [ed.note: I'm assuming he's referring to iris chyrophrages], which is dark blue in nature, and whose scent at times verges on chocolate, a woody background. This way the fragrance is not just floral".
This Armani fragrance feels like Haute Parfumerie and not just hot air fanned on ad copy, as many niche products do these days: The delicious undercurrent of cocoa dust laces the background of iris (this is an experiment that is also successful at much lower price points in Bulgari's Blv Notte and Iris by L'Erbolario) resulting in a fragrance that cannot be said to evoke funereal connotations like so many iris scents can; notably Iris Silver Mist, to which it bears a kinship of the spirit. After all, iris susiana, a greyish species of Iris, is affectionately called "mourning iris", so the connection is there all right. But no; not in this case. La Femme Bleue is not exactly cheerful or bubbly either, opting for a distinctive and elegant arpeggio of woody notes that surround and temper the slightly gourmand, orientalised aspects of cocoa and vanillic-benzoin caramel hints with some musk. Softness and a delicious powdery feel akin to violets greet you upon spraying, with hints of sensuality evolving as the fragrance dries down, even though it is a delicate, timid drydown that you might want to press your nose on your wrist to fully enjoy. I could picture myself enjoying this ultra exclusive fragrance if it was any easier to get ahold of.
Notes for Armani Prive La Femme Bleue: iris, chocolate, woodsy notes, incense and vanilla.
Below is the clip from the summer 2011 collection by the same name featuring Elisa Seidanoui. Enjoy!
Clive Christian and his diamond encrusted bottles of haute scents might want to do a rethinking regarding their "costliest perfume in the world" ad routine: DKNY Golden Delicious by US-basedd clothes brand Donna Karan gets totally blinged, with a bottle that is so full of diamonds that it fetches the hefty price of a cool 1 million dollars!
The juice remains the same, but the bottle of DKNY Golden Delicious gets the luxe treatment with tiny skyscrapers ~recalling the urban landscape of New York, the city which served as an inspiration for the DKNY brand in the first place~ encrusted with small diamonds. This luxurious edition will only be available at the Facebook page DKNY Fragrance and the profits will go to Action Against Hunger.
Guerlain lately re-issues a special edition of their delicate and spring-likeMugueteach year as a limited edition on the 1st of May (Traditionally the day when muguet ~lily of the valley in French~ is offered as a porte-bonheur, a good luck charm in France). For 2011, Guerlain's Muguet will be embottled in the apothecary style flacons of re-issued Vega and Sous le Vent, but there will be handpainting on the glass as well!
ETA: You can see the new Muguet 2011 below (pic kindly provided by my reader Rappleya)
ETA2: Upon further research, Guerlain has confirmed that they have updated the design of Muguet 2011 with the one depicted second from top, favouring a sewn label versus handpainting. I admit I'm not particularly enthusiastic on it after seeing the previous design....
3/26/11 update: My faithful and wonderfully generous reader Judy informs us of the latest after seeing the Muguet 2011 with her very own eyes and I quote:
"The new release of Muguet is around 5 ounces, twice the size of the past releases [ed.note: this was amended by other witnesses, bringing the volume down]. Also it is in apothecary-style container, first shown on your site as the new-release bottle , but w/minor changes. The bottle still has the pretty muguet design on the outside. Also, the price is scary, sky-high, around $500, although Bergdorfs is having a "Beauty Week" beginning April 6th, and at that price, if the customer does a pre-sale, the sales person will hold the Muguet til May 1st for the $100 discount."
The design that was meant to be
the udated design for Muguet 2011...
Previously Muguet circulated in the standard quadrilobe with (2009) or without the superimposed atomiser "pouf" (2007) and the flacon fleuri design brough back from 1900 for the Eau de Toilette version for 1999, while the accompanying Eau de Toilette tester of the same year was embottled in the classsic Habit de Fete gold-cutouts style flacon with Millesime 1999 embossed on it. You can find pictures of those attached below.
The concentration for 2011's Muguet is Eau de Parfum and the volume is 125ml for 400 euros.
Previous incarnations of Guerlain Muguet include the following:
Guerlain Muguet flacon (Verrerie Royale de Romesnil) with atomiser for 2009
Guerlain Muguet quadrilobe flacon (Verrerie Royale de Romesnil) for 2007
Guerlain Muguet in flacon fleuri (originally 1900 design) for Eau de Toilette in 1999
"Habit de Fete" design for Guerlain Muguet, 50ml Eau de Toilette tester bottle, 1999
thanks to Wim Janssens and Mr.Guerlain (Ulrik) and especially my readers Rappleya and Judy who helped disentangle this mess!
To mark the 20th birthday of Trésor (issued in 1990 and fastly becoming an enduring best-seller), Lancôme is launching an exclusive, limited edition named Trésor Diamant Noir. The most precious stone of them all, the black diamond, was the inspiration for this anniversary bottle which looks like a faceted and polished black diamond which hides the ambery-coloured juice inside. The bottle neck is decorated with a ring of crystal and ebony black hematite. The box is pitch black and engraved. The fragrance inside remains the same.
Lancôme Trésor Diamant Noir will be available from October 2010 in only 20 bottles, exclusively at Lancome Institute with the price per bottle at 2000 euros ($2575).
A special edition of the classic Nina Ricci scent L'Air du Temps code-named Cristal d'Or is issued, 15 ml of pure parfum (ie.extrait de parfum), in a limited edition 2009, numbered.
The press release mentions "the original juice. We know otherwise...
Retail price 400 euros, launches October 2009 in time for Christmas gifts planning.
Pic via auparfum.com who has a wise commentary on the news (in French)
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