More on the Upcoming Louis Vuitton Fragrance

We had broken the news on the new, upcoming Louis Vuitton fragrance a while ago, mentioning that the brand had also issued a commemorative perfume for elite clients sometime in the 1980s (and we depicted the bottle too). What you may not know however, is that there were also three Louis Vuitton fragrances in the 20s and 30s, all of which were soon discontinued. Louis Vuitton (or rather LVMH) announced that Jacques Cavallier-Belletrud will be the perfumer behind the new fragrant creation. A Grassois, Jacques Cavallier composed Stella by Stella, Dior Addict and YSL Cinema among many many others.  According to WWD Cavallier started work for them this Tuesday, carefully adding he will journey the world on search of exotic and precious new juices. Mais oui!
So basically they're building up anticipation for a launch that will go down in history: the last bastion, the brand who resisted fragrance for long in our times, has succumbed. 

You can read our speculation on what the upcoming Vuitton perfume might entail on this link.

Caron Poivre & Coup de Fouet: fragrance reviews & comparison

Poivre by Caron plays out like J.S Bach's double concerto for 2 violins in D minor, 1st movement: Two complimenting themes, carnation and clove, in contrapuntal dialogue, one finishing off the phrase of another in a leitmotif which manages to punctuate time with its own special seal. Despite its name, which means pepper in French, and the vicious-looking studded with peppercorns bottle, Poivre features the hot "king of spice" in a supporting role. To bring the musical analogy full circle, let's just say pepper in Poivre is the basso continuo.

Poivre is the kind of fragrance that creates the feeling J.S Bach compositions stir in my soul and has been a longtime companion for as far back as I was aware of Caron; if not as far back as Bach. There is such contextualised coherence that everything in the world seems at its rightful place, everything in perfect, clashing harmony. If the composer once walked 200 miles to hear Dieterich Buxtehude play the organ, I'd walk on hot coals to get an ounce of Poivre parfum in its vintage state.

History of Creation
In 1953, Félicie Wanpouille -savvy of the emergence of a different aesthetic inaugarated with the New Look by Dior- asked perfumer Michel Morsetti for a fragrance that would be out of whack with its times. Morsetti had already created (at least 2) classics in the Caron stable: Farnesiana (1947), Rose (1949), and Muguet du Bonheur (1952).  The fifties were all about good-mannered lactonic florals and sheer floral chypres continuing from the late 1940s. Only Youth Dew was braving the wave, making it possible later for Cinnabar, Opium and all the rest of the Medina-spice caravan-brocard tapestry orientals that followed. Michel Morsetti obliged and in 1954 Poivre emerged; impulsive, rich, sinful, drop dead sexy! "Parfum de la femme moderne" as per the vintage advertisements: the perfume of the modern woman.
The bottle design with the peppercorn studs was no doubt a throwback to classic pomanders which relied on cloves for their antimicrobial prophylactic properties; perfume as medicine...

Scent Description 
The original 1950s advertisements featured a Chinese-style dragon, in tune with the firecracking pyrotechnics of the fragrance's fiery breath.  The daredevil spices open the scene, intense clove, flanked by pepper, and they come back again and again in an endless recycling and expansion of the leitmotif, a structure that is reminiscent of older ways of composing, but maxed out to orgiastic effect. The lush floral chord is built on carnation and ylang ylang, the peppery bite of one falling into the solar embrace of the other. As the scent progresses, there is a hint of vanilla, hazy opoponax and leather on the skin, a soft focus camera lens on a racy subject. The combination of carnation and leather brings to mind another Caron legend, En Avion, dedicated to women in aviation.

Coup de Fouet & comparison with Poivre
Poivre was conceived as the original extrait de parfum creation out of which Coup de Fouet (a most brilliant & fitting name, "crack of the whip") emerged as a diluted Eau de Cologne Poivrée. The theme is similar, the effect somewhat lighter in the weaker concentration, with a boosted effect of rose that is orientalised, spicy and raspy, still mighty impressive. Coup de Fouet is as warm as a fur coat and as commanding attention. It prompted writer Susan Irvine to  state it's "what Cruella de Vil would have worn"; so if you're the soft type crying over those poor 101 Dalmatians and can't manage a streak of bitchiness, don't even bother.
Coup de Fouet nowadays is offered at Caron boutiques as the Eau de Parfum analogue of Poivre extrait, the latter also available there from the fabulous crystal samovars affectionately referred to as "urns".
Both concentrations are totally passable (nay, downright alluring!) on men as well.

Reformulation of Poivre and Coup de Fouet
Contemporary batches of both fragrances seem to insist on a mustier, soapy rose and have less of a spicy oriental character, falling into the limbo state of floriental. Sadly Poivre (and Coup de Fouet as well, since they share those notes) faces IFRA restrictions on spicy materials which no doubt will leave future generations wondering what all the fuss was about anyway. Tragic, in view of Poivre (in the classic peppercorn flacon in Baccarat crystal) ranking as #3 of "top most expensive perfumes in the world" [$2,000 for 2 oz]....
When this happens the dragon loses its fire, the whole world gets out of whack and Bach isn't be there to save the day.

Notes for Caron Poivre: (add rose for Coup de Fouet)

Red pepper, black pepper, clou de girofle (clove), carnation, ylang ylang, jasmine, opoponax, cedar, sandalwood, vetiver, oakmoss, musk.



Painting "The Sense of Hearing" by Jan Brueghel the Elder. Ads via beckerstreet.com and vintageadbrowser.com

Guerlain Myrrh & Delires: new fragrance

Guerlain is issuing an exclusive boutique-circuit fragrance in 2012!

According to Fragrantica, Myrrh & Delires is "a soft oriental composition based on mysterious myrrh with additional floral notes (rose, jasmine), precious woods (with the leading role of patchouli), vanilla and musk". Myrrh & Delires will join the L'Art et la Matière line in the characteristic oblong bottles.

In the history of fragrances, myrrh is one the first sacred essences offered to gods with frankincense and gold. Symbolic and mysterious, tears of the myrrh tree are amber-like, coming for Somalia or Arabia. Solar, aromatic, mossy, myrrh is multifaceted but quite radical to work in a fragrance. In fragrances, myrrh was quite never used. Fortunately, its oriental texture and smell suits perfectly in this ninth creation that Thierry Wasser softly composed by few floral notes with fruity, spicy nuances.

You can find reviews of the previous Guerlain L'Art et la Matiere scents in our archives linked.

pic via lamodadubai.com

Perfume Off the Titanic

"Thousands of authentic artifacts from the exhibition, pulled from the remains of the sunken Titanic, are destined for the auction block. The New York Times reports that 5,500 items, including fine china and old bottles of perfume, will be actioned off at Guernsey's on April 1st. Estimated value of the pieces? $189 million.

Rather poignantly, the results of the auction will be announced on April 15, exactly a century after the famous ship came to its legendary end. The artifacts, although long at sea, are the result of various expeditions over the years, as AP notes, including underwater excursions as far back as 1987.
While we're not as enthused about buying a hunk of plywood or other pieces of the ship, the notion of owning a still-fragrant vial of perfume is strangely intriguing. AP writes that the fragrance belonged to a manufacturer who was planning to sell his perfume samples in New York.
Now his bottles have finally made it."[source]

Please also remember that there is Night Star, perfume of the Titanic by company Scents of Time, produced by David Pybus in collaboration with Chris Sheldrake. 

photo via G Michael Harris

Coal Perfume by Sissel Tolaas: Would you Wear it?

Even if your answer to this question is yes, you have to allow for extremely limited production: only10 pieces are produced for inquisitive "noses" in the industry to smell. Sissel Tollas, the famous Norwegian olfactory researcher and artist, created a charcoal perfume for SHOWstudio.

Coal is nothing new to perfumery actually: several of perfumery's materials have been produced via coal and tar byproducts since the late 19th century. Tolaas, in her credo of "there are no inherently good or bad smells" tried to capture the sooty mineral of the coal mines of the North Pole intact into an olfactory project called "Coal Perfume".

"Scent artist Sissel Tolaas pushes the boundaries of the olfactory sense, inverting our preconceptions of how things should smell, how things can smell, and what a scent can say. With COAL Tolaas created a wearable perfume made from coal extracted from the deepest mine in the North Pole. Tolaas' perfume evokes a strange sense of deceit: the bottled Essence Absolue of fired carbon opposes our expectation of a floral fragrance, drawing allusions to the olfactory alchemy of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, antihero of Patrick Suskind's Perfume".


The 75 ml bottle in black dye with a pump atomiser is looks like a sensuous elixir of seduction....what irony!

Available at SHOWstudio for 200GBP. 

Balenciaga Cialenga: fragrance review & history

Some women float over the floor rather than walk on it. There's a sweeping elegance and drama about them that you almost think all motion stops when they pass under the doorframe. Cialenga by Balenciaga is like that: Classically beautiful, aloofly superior, it's arresting and mysterious, but never going for outright wiles of seduction. This isn't a hearty blonde to laught out loud at your joke, but an icy cool Hitchockian heroine. Possibly with thick arched brows and a grey suit, besides a shady past, to show. Don't let the smile fool you...

History
Cialenga was launched by Balenciaga in 1973, composed by perfumer Jacques Jantzen. The name is rather cryptic; his only other known credential is collaboration on another Balenciaga perfume, Ho Hang for men (1971). But his history spans decades of shrouded work: His is Helena Rubinstein's 1946 Command Performance. 
The green chypres with floral hearts signified a more assertive and sophisticated angularity than the curvier lactonic florals of the 1950s and early 1960s and ushered in the new woman, the one who worked, took the pill and wore the pants. The dry, somewhat acrid quality of this genre is expressed in a dark manner in Cialenga, manifesting itself as among the more noir of the lot with a balance of green, spice and wood, just like a well judged cocktail of Martini wits, kinky sex references and sharply-cut tailleurs.

Comparison with Other Fragrances & Scent Description
The most apt comparison of Cialenga with any well-known perfume would be with vintage No.19 by Chanel. The way No.19 used to be, before being somewhat declawed. In Cialenga the green harmony is more aldehydic (recalling that segment from Paco Rabanne's Calandre) and soapy, while the overall character is decidely mustier than the Chanel and with quite a bit of spice added (clove and coriander prominently to my nose). The jasmine takes on a nuance between creamy and soapy, with no sugar floralcy as in more familiar sketches of floral chypres; the aldehydes do not take center stage.
The angularity of the green notes recalls the top note of Vent Vert in the vintage parfum (so full of galbanum), while the spicy warmth with an added myrrh tonality is all dark corners of a Spanish monastery in the New World and dangerous brunettes turned blondes with a death wish.

The familiar sophisticated refinement of Balenciaga perfumes (I'm referring to the vintages, though the modern Balenciaga Paris and L'Essence aren't half bad) is there all right in Cialenga. Think of Michelle, that ultra aloof tuberose parfum by the same Spanish designer or La Fuite des Heures! Being highly in tune with its times, Cialenga vaguely recalls other fragrances in the genre of a similar retro time-frame: Y by Yves Saint Laurent, Coriandre by Jean Couturier, the first Jean Louis Scherrer. The citrusy and black-currant segment might even recall the refreshing facets of Amazone.

Availability 

A little goes a long way and it's trailing at least down the elevator doors, so a small quantity should last you a long time; good thing, as Cialegna, like all vintage Balenciaga perfumes, is discontinued and nowadays quite rare.  Few specimens crop up on ebay from time to time.

Notes for Balenciaga Cialenga:
Top: citrus, black currant,green notes
Heart: iris, jasmine, ylang-ylang, clove, tincture of rose and lily
Base: vetiver, sandalwood, patchouli, oakmoss and Virginia cedar.

photo still of Kim Novak in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo via the ace black blog 

This review is dedicated to Armani/Michael who introduced me to this fragrance and who had a thing for Kim Novak's brows in Vertigo :-)

Frequent Questions: What are Lace Benzoin Tears?

Lace benzoin tears are a puzzling "fragrance note" in Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Lovers Jingle G fragrance. (An unimpressive introduction; if it were a note in Fath's Iris Gris, I bet you're all be sitting up straight with a new found attention in your eyes. All the same...) Several people online have been furtively throwing sideways glances in understandable puzzlement over this. Let's present an answer today and hope that some official reply comes soon.

Most readers attuned to just how misleading fragrance notes lists can be might be assuming it's all purple prose imaginings of a feverish copywriter. Others might suppose it's a new aromachemical with a poetic name for a change.
"Lace Benzoin Tears"  is in all probability a misspelling of Gum Lacc.Benzoin which appears for the actual well-known benzoin resin in some literature (notably by the Royal Society of London). Because there’s a dot after the c, and it’s in Italic, people mistook it for e and reproduced it. It's now everywhere on the Net, but curiously ONLY in relation to Harajuku Lovers Jingle G (just Google "Lace Benzoin Tears") and NOT from Stefani's official site either.
Lac. comes from the Latin, meaning to lacerate, to tear. Benzoin also typically comes in "tears", i.e. drops of resin which solidify resembling little lumps, like crystallized tears.

Then there’s also “bois dentelle” i.e laget, .lagetto/ lace-bark tree (Lagetta of Jussieu). So there just might be a comma missing in the list [i.e. lace (tree), benzoin tears etc.]. That would also make sense, though I find it highly unlikely because bois dentelle is nearing extinction.

I don’t know if the Harajuku fragrance is using either, though, I've never smelled it. But it's an interesting hypothesis, right? If anyone has smelled it, please let us known if it has a benzoin note.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Resinous & Balsamic in Fragrances (with notes on benzoin)

Photo of Anna Karina in Jean Luc Godard's Vivre sa vie film (1962)

Amouage Gold for women: fragrance review

Someone famous in the music scene, with whom we've been emailing, has mentioned Amouage Gold as the fragrance fit for an Oscars night. Not just wearing it in the audience, trying to steady one's shaky hands by resting them on the posh couture gown, but presenting. There just isn't any stage fright or wavering about Gold; it wears itself like a grande-dame, assured, polished, dramatic. This is a regal fragrance for a cool blonde of another era.

History
Amouage, the Omani firm who cater for the Omani royalty and those with a taste for French fragrance structures in Middle Eastern settings, went out of their way to make Gold, their first fragrance, sumptuous and fit for a queen; not a princess. Top perfumer was ushered in (Guy Robert, who gave us Equipage, among the most perfect men's scents, and the once wonderful Dioressence which my own mother so loved); the best ingredients were specifically harvested; no budget restrictions were made whatsoever; no focus groups. You'd have to envy the lucky perfumer who worked thus unrestrained. The year was 1983. At the time Amouage didn't benefit from the creative direction it has nowadays and the fragrance circulated simple as Amouage for women. Robert considered it the crowning glory of his career and characterises its dramatic progression as "symphony".

Fragrance Description & Classification
You might have witnessed Amouage Gold for women uttered in the same breath as Chanel No.5. As you would expect, given Guy Robert's credentials (he's the creator of Madame Rochas and Hermès Calèche) and the general mad rush Middle East has for Chanel (they're mad about Chanel), this isn't far off the truth. Yes, Gold is an aldehydic floral, in the general ballpark of No.5, a tad heavy-hitting and old-school (in a good way), lush, opulent and very luxurious, which uses traditional Omani ingredients re-adjusted in a classic French blueprint. If I were to be more specific, I'd say that Gold for women more resembles the hypothetical child of Lanvin's My Sin (long discontinued) and Houbigant's Quelques Fleurs (now sadly reformulated).
But if you only know Robert's famous aldehydics I mentioned, you get an idea of how Gold smells: I need to stress that in order to like it, you have to like fragrances in the floral aldehydic family (refer to this article to see what aldehydes are and here for reviews of aldehydic fragrances). And you might be questioning why splurge (50ml/1.7oz will set you back 285$) on a bottle when there are other things smelling like it. Good question! But somehow God is in the details and Gold appears richer, more opulent than any of them. This thing radiates off skin for hours and hours on end, it just won't go away; a bottle will probably last you more than any of us is expected to make it in sane mind.

The Omani materials used enjoy a rich heritage: "Today, as in ancient times, the precious resin from the very ordinary looking frankincense tree is harvested carefully by hand, by a select caste of tribal herders. The frankincense trees that line the Dhofar landscape in Salalah are protected and the mysterious allure of their scent is blended with a host of precious natural oils and essences to form the unmatched perfume that is Amouage. The essence of an incredibly rare variety of rose called the Omani Rock Rose is extracted and also used in 'Gold Amouage.' This special variety of rose grows and flowers for the briefest period each year on the slopes of the remote Jebel Al Akhder mountains of Oman. Myrrh, another core ingredient in Amouage is also from the Jebel Al Akhder region." [source]

The start of Amouage Gold for women is all powdery-soapy floral, much like the archetypal aldehydics of yore; golden honey limbs, falling on a dozen silk cushions. There's a clean vibe with lily-of-the-valley green floralcy, while at the same time you're miles away from the modern "clean" scents of laundry detergent & fabric softener. The fruity aspects are intergrained like brushstrokes in an impressionist painting; from a little distance it all mingles into a composition rather than individual shapes.The floral part is built on the intense chord of jasmine & ylang ylang that we also find in Chanel No.5, boosted by rose and a tiny touch of tuberose; in fact this floral chord most reminds me of Patou's classic Joy, though the whole composition does not. The natural floral, velvety sweetness is complimented by a dab of creaminess, provided -from what I can smell- from a little vanilla and sandalwood. The creamy aspect is what makes Gold so lush, so nectarous, so very sinful.
As the fragrance dries down, you're suddenly face to face with the revelation that the core structure is really that of a graceful woody floral with oriental elements: the scent becomes noticeably woody, with a downy, elegant polish that is clean and smoothed out on notes of lightly astrigent frankincense and myrrh with no smoke whatsoever and the enduring note of (rich and -again- similar to the old parfum edition in No.5) musk.The lasting power and sillage are phenomenal.

Notes for Amouage Gold for women:
Top: lime, apricot, peach, lily-of-the-valley, neroli.
Heart notes: rose, jasmine, silver frankincense, myrrh, rock rose flower, patchouli, orris, cedarwood and sandalwood.
Base notes: ambergris, civet and musk.

Concentrations Available & Shopping
Amouage Gold currently circulates as Eau de Parfum (which is plenty really!) and extrait de parfum. Older versions included an Eau de Toilette. I find the EDP the most pleasing form.
There is also a men's Amouage Gold version, which leans into the woody musk category rather than aldehydic, even though stating almost the same ingredients.

Stockists include the Omani Amouage boutique, the boutique in London and online such as at Luckyscent.
Check the official site at Amouage.com

pic of Anita Ekberg

"Sound Perfume": Glasses Emitting Personal Scent & Sound to Help Human Bonding

How would you like the concept of wearing a pair of glasses that transmits scent and sound and upon contact with another (with similar glasses on), the specs would trigger personal sound and smell to them? Sounds mad or another trick to bring people closer together by making a good first impression? Apparently scientists working on smell are developing just that. It works on wireless mobile communication with attachable modules on the glasses.

New Scientist explains how Sound Perfume works:

Sound Perfume consists of a pair of glasses fitted with speakers and odour emitters located behind the ears, along with an app running on a smartphone that connects to the glasses via Bluetooth. The idea is that you use the app to choose a personal sound and smell for others to experience when you meet them.
Infrared sensors in the glasses detect when you meet someone else using Sound Perfume and your cellphone sends your name, contact number and sound/smell preferences to their handset, which then triggers the appropriate response in their glasses. The current set-up makes use of eight different perfumes in the form of hard blocks that melt and release an aroma when gently heated by a wire to 46°C.

Whatever happens with this particular project, there's no doubt that communicating scent through electronic means is the way of the future.



via The Next Web

"We Expect Sales to be Bigger in Asia": Fragrance Quote on New Luxury

'With the European and American markets teetering on the brink of collapse, global luxury labels such as Jimmy Choo are looking toward the Asian consumer for some salvation.
“We expect sales to be bigger here, since Asians are open to trends. And Filipino women are glamorous,” extolled Interparfums Managing Director Renaud Boisson. “Philippine girls have more character.”

~a propos the launch of Jimmy Choo Eau de Parfum and Eau de Toilette in the Philipinnes (entire article in Business Mirror)

Best & Worst of 2011 in Perfume & Other Matters of Beauty

It's that time of the year again when we revise what went well and what went terribly wrong in the past 12 months in our small "pocket" of the universe. An Herculean task, nonetheless, so a ruthless elimination by the author and some lenience from you, dear reader, is needed. On the whole, 2011 was a good year for perfume; despite the hundreds of releases, there were interesting and well-executed offerings and perfumers seemed to be riding on top of the doom & gloom of the perfume community's Cassandras.

Personally it was a year of immersing myself into the artistic side of evaluating perfume, with collaborations with top curators, photographers, publishers and other media artists who helped me articulate my innermost thoughts on how perfume shapes our ethos. More on which later on...
But without more ado, here are my thoughts on the past year in hindsight. 

Best Mainstream Perfume Not Catering to Lowest Common Denominator
Bottega Veneta Eau de Parfum
It's no wonder I coupled the review with a still from my favourite 2011 film, Drive.  This leathery fragrance is as danger-promising as a pair of gloves by a professional stunt driver, as soft as a genuine smile rising up from a non-tell-tale heart. I love it!

Other notable mainstream fragrances that made the cut are Elie Saab Le Parfum , Tom Ford Violet Blonde and Balenciaga L'Essence (the perfect office scent), plus the scent mentioned just below. 

Best Unadulterated Fragrance Fun
Prada Candy

Best Suave Niche Offering
Tom Ford Private Collection Santal Blush tie with Santal Massoia Hermessence
Both fragrances went for the creaminess of sandalwood, now that Mysore sandalwood is verboten. They both produced something more than what they were aiming for; former via ultra-refined silkiness, latter via coconut-greeness.

Best Hors Categorie
Puredistance M: Is this technically a 2011 release? Its leathery, soft and beguiling, beauty had me confused  (it launched in December 2010). Do you see a pattern here?

Best Masculine
Thierry Mugler A*Men Pure Havane

2011 was also a very good year for small artisanal, indie perfumers & entrepreneurs who proved quality and attention to your audience really pays off. I'm referring to Laurie Erickson, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, Ineke, Neela Vermeire and the perfumers mentioned below.

Best Surprise Attempt
Tableau de Parfums Miriam
A beautiful old-school feminine aldehydic from the Swiss perfumer who excels in woodies and mandarin-rich orientals in collboration with film director Brian Pera. A credible times-fitting specimen, but also curiously totally modern!

Best Ethereal Floral
Annick Goutal Le Mimosa. (I haven't yet tried Mon Parfum Cheri de Camille, a chypre from the same company, but will do so after all the raves). I also enjoyed Guerlain's Aqua Allegoria Jasminora and Cartier Baiser Vole (technically mainstream).

Interesting Project of the Year 
Brave New Scents initiated by Anya McCoy of the Natural Perfumers' Guild (see reviews of JoAnne Bassett Enchant, Anya's Garden Lotus Garden, Lord's Jester Hermes.)

Best All-Naturals Scent
Aftelier Secret Garden

Best Out of Budget Splurge
Armani Prive La Femme Bleue

Best Vintage Discoveries in 2011
Thanks to my collector friends, I experienced the amazingly rare Guerlain Cuir de Russie and the equally introuvable Guerlain Vere Novo. The stuff dreams are made of...

Shock of the Year
The untimely and sudden death of perfumer Mona di Orio due to complications of surgery. We will sorely miss her.

Premonition (or rather certainty) which Became Awful Reality
We had discussed how Amy Winehouse would be an intriguing candidate for a celebrity scent, but she kicked the bucket and died at 27. It's really sad...

Several other people involved in one way or another with fragrance & fashion died this year: Jean-Francois Laporte, Helene Rochas, Elizabeth Taylor, Evelyn Lauder, Loulou de la Falaise...A heavy toll 2011 brought along.

Yawn of the Year re: Fragrance Launches
Madonna issuing her Truth or Dare celebrity scent. Eons too late on the bandwagon, dear Madge.

Atrocities of 2011: There Were Many...
1) The mighty fall of John Galliano: Losing the Dior creative chair and his own label to an (incomprehensible) anti-semetic outburst? You'd think he'd know better than that.
2) In the words of Hermès CEO Patrick Thomas vis a vis the hostile take-over of 20% of his company by LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) president Bernard Arnault: "If you want to seduce a beautiful woman, you don't start by raping her from behind." The thriller took the length of 2011 and thankfully is over (as per Le Figaro). Phewwww...
3) Parfums Dior dropping the Chérie from Miss Dior Chérie, and altering the fragrance formula on top of that, thus utterly confusing the consumer into thinking they're buying something else. Sacrilege ~re: the seminal gardenia chypre classic from 1947, now called Miss Dior Original~ to say the least.

Perfume Ad Gone the Way of Je Bore (or Weird Traffic Generator of the Year)
I watched the new commercial film for Dior J'Adore with Charlize Theron. It didn't wow me, even though directed by one of my favourite film directors, and I explained the objective reasons why it's unoriginal and borderline tomb-raiding. It's garnered a heck of a lot of interest for that kind of post, none the less from PR damage control employees. Which makes me think perfume companies are used to getting a priori positive coverage, clearly a delusional expectation. 

Contradiction of the Year
Serge Lutens gave me pause for the first time (yes, I'm even bypassing the L'Eau horror). While his Jeux de Peau (export) is yummily sensuous with the toasted touch of pyrazines, his angular Vitriol d'Oeillet (export) and his dusty-clean yet funereal De Profundis (Paris exclusive) puzzled me. Maybe I will lose myself again to his upcoming release, L'Eau Froide based on cool, icy frankincense. I continue to wear his previous fragrances with the requisite awe and solemnity.

Scent-Related Laugh of 2011
Petite Mort by Marc Atlan tie with Surplus by Jammie Nicholas
When you need to put the pompous word "art" in there to make people sit up and notice, things are not looking good.

Let-Down of 2011
Chanel No.19 Poudre
Lukewarm, spineless, without much character to speak of.

Perfume Post I Promise to Revisit
The Vocabulary of Scent

Best Perfume Sprinkling in Written Material of Another Purpose
Damage Control by Denise Hamilton

Perfume Book to Savour
F.Malle On Perfume Making 

Biography of 2011
Lisa Chaney's Chanel: An Intimate Life (review coming up)

Beauty Trend I Liked
Deeep, creamy, navy blue for nails. I don't know, they just look totally cool. OPI Road House Blues especially.

Beauty Trend I Disliked
"Crackled" nails in shades of puke or asphalt. WHY??

Beauty Staples I Appreciated Even More This Year
Bioderma Sensibio Solution Micellaire
Chanel Vitalumiere satin foundation

Here's to a wonderful, creative, beautiful 2012 for all of you!!
And please share your own top perfume/beauty finds of 2011 in the comments.

Please visit the other participants to this project:

Another Perfume Blog

DSH Notebook

EauMG

Scent Hive

Smelly Blog

The Non Blonde

"Best of 201"  image by Roxana of Illuminated Perfume"

Nails pic via London Lacquer. J'Adore collage via fashionist.ca , A*Men pic via guiahombres.com

From our heart to yours...

I was touched to find these (decidedly American-accented) Greek folk New Year's Carols on Youtube featuring the TCWSH Bel Canto.

From the heart of Perfume Shrine to yours, we wish you a most merry New Year filled with creative outlets and loving occasions. Happy 2012!