Guerlain French Kiss: new fragrance

Guerlain is busy recalibrating their fragrance line, chopping and adding things (see Mademoiselle Guerlain), while at the same time celebrating 20 years of successful presence on makeup counters with their "Kiss Kiss" lipsticks, the outer packaging of which is being updated upping the glam for autumn/winter 2014, as you can see in my collage below!

If you have followed the launch of Guerlain Terracotta Le Parfum (celebrating 30 years of the fabulous Terracotta range of makeup and sun products), you know what's coming: a brand new fragrance, commemorating this milestone of the French house of perfume and cosmetics.

The novel fragrance in question is called French Kiss and is part of the Carnal Elixir (Elixirs Charnels) boutique line [source Mr.Guerlain] that previously included Chypre Fatal, Oriental Brûlant, Gourmand Coquin, Boisé Torride and Floral Romantique. 

My take.
The theme of "lipstick scents" is a popular one, usually utilizing the allied forces of rose & violet which bring to mind the retro feel of glamorous silver screen sirens putting on lipstick in front of gilded vanity tables or ~maybe a bit more prosaically but all the more powerfully~ of our own mothers indulging in the exact same ritual. Guerlain, despite having an excellent scent criterion for their makeup line, (famously inspiring the Meteorites fragrance that copied the ethereal scent of their makeup powder beads by the same name) choose to step into a rather more fruity-berry path. Carnal Elixir French Kiss is comprised by the time-honored chord of rose & violet, but with a dominant inclusion of litchi and raspberry (yes, the perfume is pink in color). The raspberry note is further enhanced by the fruity nuances of the chosen white musk, while vanilla, orris and heliotrope, all three characteristic Guerlain perfume trademarks, contribute a comforting feel.
The name, apart from being so very English, despite it being a "French" kiss, is reminiscent of the witty rom com by the same name (French Kiss) starring Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline, parodying the penchant of Anglosaxons for French romance. Tongue-in-cheek? Cute move, Guerlain!

French Kiss by Guerlain, a "sprakling floral fragrance" in the Elixirs Charnels line, is to be launched in autumn 2014 (October)

Serge Lutens Laine de Verre: fragrance review

One of my preferred short stories in the canon by American author Edgar Allan Poe is William Wilson. Less popular than many of his more exploitable, creepy or evocative stories, such as The Fall of the House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum or The Tell-Tale Heart, it manages to speak to the soul in a way that reminds me of a later favorite author, Herman Hesse, and his profoundly soul-searching novels with characters struggling to find their fate and to get to know themselves. This preface comes as  a necessary explanation on why I found Laine de Verre, the latest fragrance launch by Serge Lutens, as chillingly puzzling as the double face of Janus, the two antiscians in the above mentioned short story.

via tumblr

Maybe this was all an idea that was suggested by seeing Uncle Serge pacing up and down as if somnabulating against himself in a clip worthy of utter puzzlement… [watch the clip here]

The cryptic text is -as always- a springboard for discussion or a chance for ridicule; it all depends on your worldview:
"It is only after he had been penetrated by the winter that,
laying down his arms, the Lord of Glass came to place
at the feet of the Lady of Wool flowers and ferns which had frosted on him."

Laine de Verre means fiberglass (yes, the one used as insulation) and as odd as a perfume inspiration this sounds (the actual material being a potent sensitizer creating an instant itch on the skin it touches) there comes a point in perfumery that one has to drop the "noble essences from the Comores islands" and the "ethically sustained eco-certified ingredients" schtick and just reinvent the wheel. This moment in perfumery has arrived. Fiberglass, then, why not!! After Serge Lutens fragrances with names such as Tubereuse Criminelle (criminal tuberose), Fille en aiguilles (you'll have to read the review to find out on that, it's more complex than it sounds), Nuit de cellophane (cellophane night), Vitriol d'Oeillet (carnation's vitriol) and La Vierge de Fer (iron maiden), Laine de Verre shouldn't come as a shock, at least in what has to do with semantics.

The "eau" line, with its initial L'Eau de Serge Lutens providing the first chasm with the hardcore Lutens clientele and with L'Eau Froide as the second installment to curdle the blood (in a good way), Laine de Verre continues in this collection that is differentiated both in packaging as well as in concept from the regular Marrakech-inflected line: these are "anti-perfumes", scents which aim to be perceived as an aura emanating from the wearer, legible the way supersonic whistles are legible to higher frequency listeners.

The metallic berries and citrus from Mars and the sharp aldehydes from Pluto opening predisposes for the character of the scent which is alien for the modern consumer of apple-scented shower gels and giant fake peaches standing in for latheriness. Lutens marries the abstract idea of "clean" from the middle years of the 20th century (aldehydic florals, such as Chanel No.22 and White Linen) and injects it with modern signs for niche: frankincense, sharp lily of the valley, a mineral and cedar-musk like haze which one can't put their finger on (actually Cashmeran or blonde woods).

Although I still prefer the more incense-y L'Eau Froide (and cannot wear the super sharp and starchy L'Eau), Laine de Verre has to be the second best in the Eau fragrances by Lutens, subdued but there, average lasting power and throughout ironic the way Comme de Garcons fragrances with no-names such as Odeur 53 made their (well) name. It might sound like sacrilege to the average Lutensian fan, but what Lauder did with their Pure White Linen in relation to White Linen is what the French maestro is doing here as well with a tiny helping of that weird, bleach note that made Secretions Magnifiques so horrifically memorable. Anyone who is mentally striking this off their list, now that I mentioned THE HORRIBLE ONE, might be appeased: uncle Serge hasn't totally went out of his way to make us notice, no. Laine de Verre isn't shocking.

In the end it all boils down to intent. With the Eau series, Lutens is authoring a new grammar of "clean": decidedly cool, with prominent use of aldehydes but also incense, mineral and metallic, maybe with a hint of chalkiness like a crushed aspirin, no sign of dewiness or soft muskiness, they perfectly encapsulate a spick & span minimalist loft or a white padded insane asylum, again depending on your worldview. This hygienic approach is in violent clash against the very idea of an added on fine fragrance, much like William Wilson came crushing down violently against his own self and consolidates my belief that Serge Lutens is pulling our collective leg in a deliciously playful way.

pic: Man Ray, Andre Breton before L'enigme d'une journee by Giorgio de Chirico, 1922.

In the interests of disclosure I was sent a sample in the context of the brand's regular promos.  

Tom Ford Private Blend Tuscan Leather: fragrance review

Created in 2007 by perfumers Harry Frémont and Jacques Cavallier for the Tom Ford Private Blend line, Tuscan Leather is an atypical leather fragrance not quite for everyone; leather enthusiasts might find enough quirks and crannies to elaborate on, but still be puzzled by its antithetical, polarising nature.

via stickssn.org

On one hand, the introductory blast of petrol fumes plus red fruits (mainly the tart scent of raspberries) is not exactly conductive to what people have come to expect from luxury leather blends. The expected pipe tobacco-leather upholstery richness with its fruity, bittersweet and whiskey nuances contrasts intellectually with the effect witnessed here. We have also been familiarised with the fuzzy apricot and amaretto-apricot-pits ambience of Lutens's Daim Blond, for a suede-like scent, but the tartness of berries offsets the leathery pungency here rather than mollify it. The leather perfume note in the Tom Ford is rubbery, smoky, like shoe polish and cool tires. If your elegant leather ideal has always been Chanel's Cuir de Russie, Tom Ford proposes a modern take on leather, but with much less vanilla and musks than in Bvlgari's rubbery Black.

On the other hand, pungent but restrained and under specific circumstances even velvety, with a true leathery note like a nubuck handbag fresh off the mending shop, Tuscan Leather is a cross between luxury items, new bucket seats in your new Bentley and furniture polish smeared generously on wooden planks. The leathery nuance by saffron, bittersweet,  fits perfectly. There is even a hemp like note, and I was under the impression I was delusional until I saw The Non Blonde claim the same. The terpenic, pine-like facets, revealing themselves through resinous citrusy elements (frankincense being one), are jarring, instead of airy or citric like in Etro's Gomma. Perhaps even more jarring by the addition of an oud base, a direction in which Montale followed with his Aoud Leather two years later. Perversely, the more the fragrance stays on, the more the raspberry comes through. Trippy!

Essentially linear, Tuscan Leather projects well and lasts average. In a pinch, if you sprayed Givenchy's Hot Couture over a gritty leather armchair, preferably in a newly polished library, you might start getting what this is all about. Butcher on women's skin than on men's but also sweeter in the final whisper, it's a unisex fragrance like all the Tom Ford Private Blends, which demands trying on first. It's not for shy, girly-girl women or men lacking self confidence.

Notes for Tom Ford Private Blend Tuscan Leather:
Raspberry, thyme, saffron, jasmine, olibanum, leather, oud/aoudh/agarwood.

Tom Ford Tuscan Leather is available in 50ml and 100ml bottles (from what I have seen, other Private Blends come in 250ml) of Eau de Parfum in select doors where the Tom Ford Private Blend is sold.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Leather Fragrances reviews series, Tom Ford news & reviews

The Galaxy Tastes of Raspberries and Smells of Rum

Apparently the unifying logic of the Universe has a sweet n' sour tooth! Ethyl formate, which gives raspberries their flavour and smells of rum, has now been found in deep space, the center of our galaxy. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, were searching for evidence of amino acids ~and consequently evidence of the building blocks of life~ in a giant dust cloud at the heart of our Milky Way when they came up with the surprising discovery.

Amino acids found in interstellar space can be said to be astrobiologists' Holy Grail because amino acids are the building blocks of proteins (critical for complex life to exist anywhere in the universe); a fact which would therefore indicate the possibility of emerging life on other planets after being seeded with the molecules.
In 2008, astronomers Arnaud Belloche and Robin Garrod almost managed to come across amino acids in space when they discovered amino acetonitrile, a molecule that can be the building block of aminoacids and consequently proteins. Previously, astronomers had detected a variety of large molecules, including alcohols, acids and chemicals called aldehydes. Those chemicals form when pre-existing chemicals on dust grains, such as ethanol, link together to make more complex chains. But recent discoveries suggest the molecules are as large as the simplest amino acid, glycine, which is heartnening.

The astronomers used the IRAM telescope in Spain to shift through signals and electromagnetic radiation emitted by Sagittarius B2, a dust cloud around a newborn star at the centre of our galaxy. Failing to locate any aminoacids, they nevertheless came across ethyl formate, a chemical responsible for the flavour of raspberries. But ethyl formate has another distinguishing quality that ties it with scent ~it smells of rum! Talk about boozy -inspired creation! Yet evidence for the deadly chemical propyl cyanide was also present in the same cloud, making them the largest yet discovered molecules in deep space and food for philosophical thought around the duality of life and death; but perhaps that's fodder for another discussion.

In a witty quip Belloche replied as to whether the galaxy tastes of raspberries that: "[Ethyl formate] does happen to give raspberries their flavour, but there are many other molecules that are needed to make space raspberries!" Dr Belloche and his colleague Robin Garrod at Cornell University in New York have amassed nearly 4,000 distinct signals from Sagitarius B2, analysing about half of them so far. "We have identified around 50 molecules in our survey, and two of those had not been seen before" said Belloche. The results are being presented at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science at the University of Hertfordshire.


News via Guardian.co.uk, pic Raspberries, Rubus ideaus L, after passive self-pollination (left and middle) and open insect pollination (right). (Photo by Jim Cane, Bee Research Institute, Longan, USA) via what-is-this.com