Divona: Making a Difference Hopefully

Mylene Paquin, the co-founder of the new Divona fragrance line, with the motto Your Story. Your Scent. Your Impact., is doing something we could all contribute to. When you purchase your perfume, she specifies, you get to vote on what goes into care packages we give to survivors of abuse, trafficking, and more. She's holding a Kickstarter campaign, linked HERE, with 133 backers already, aiming for the $20,000 goal with 30 days to go still.

With names like Siren, Sierra, Lux, Coral, Briar, Calima, Ember, Spark, Brook, Zephyr, and Auria, the line looks interesting enough to explore and it's got the endorsement of the former head of the Tijon Fragrance Lab & Boutique.

And this is Divona's Facebook page.

The step by step below explains how it all works.

How the Platform Works

STEP 1 - QUIZ

• Take one of our quizzes to discover which of our 12 perfumes is your best fit. 

STEP 2  - PURCHASE

• Purchase the 30ml bottle or sample pack of your choice and you'll be given a vote at checkout. 

STEP 3 - VOTE

• Vote on items for a care package that we'll give to survivors of abuse, trafficking, and poverty identified by our nonprofit partners.

STEP 4 - IMPACT

• A portion of your purchase pays for the care package items - these items come from suppliers that also support women. This is how you support thousands of women with a single purchase. 

Take a look and see if you can contribute to the cause.

Elie Saab Le Parfum: fragrance review

Is it rather predictable that when consulted I invariably recommend that a bride smells Le Parfum by Elie Saab when considering fragrances for her wedding day, since beautiful wedding gowns have been designed by Lebanese designer Elie Saab throughout the years? We have also come to associate white florals with weddings, if only because the traditional orange blossoms to adorn the bride's hair are a tried & tested tradition; plus they look and smell magnificent.

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Elie Saab Le Parfum is a glorious orange blossom and jasmine composition (it contains both the south of France grandiflora and the denser Indian sambac variety), which embraces its wearer into a vision of beauty and splendour. It's regal, yet not too mature. It's sweet, thanks to the honeyed nectarous quality of the floral essences, but not vulgar sweet. It's ladylike, sure, but it hints at a velvety sensuality of silky limbs and thick hair brushing the shoulders.

Most importantly its brightness is conductive to the optimism that a wedding, surely the start of what is more essential, a common path in life, a marriage, heralds. And this is what is priceless. The only problem I can see with this fragrant choice is that bridesmaids would be elbowing each other, taking the perfume's name and designer name down for their own future nuptials.

Tom Ford Santal Blush: fragrance review

Sandalwood comes with all the trappings of voluptuous legends told off the cargo ships coming from the Indian peninsula. The myth of the imperishable sandalwood (so sacred even termites abstain from it) informs many an old tale in the East, where sandalwood is the oriental wood scent par excellence.
 

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Among the many scents inspired by this mystical material Tom Ford's Santal Blush is a gorgeous, clean, dry and creamy sandalwood fragrance with an immediate message of sensuousness and no boozy aftertaste. Both beautiful and wearable, it was composed by talented perfumer Yann Vasnier.

The bet wasn't an easy one: Composing a sandalwood fragrance evocative of the Indian splendors of the Mysore variety, revered for centuries, but without actually using the raw material due to its regional restrictions on use as an endangered species, was a Herculean feat. The result however more than compensates, entering into sandalwood fragrances' Hall of Fame, a genre always popular with perfume lovers. If you like Tam Dao, but prefer a luxe rather than bohemian presentation, this is a refined take on that scented cult memory.

Dependent on skin Ph acidity, the opening spices (I pick fenugreek and cumin especially) might be acrid or nicely piquant and maple-y on the skin. You probably need a small skin test before you get out that credit card.

Twin Peaks: Hermessence and Marc Jacobs

Hermessence Poivre Samarcande isn't discontinued like some of the other scents featured in the Twin Peaks articles; it enjoys pride of place in the Hermes canon and good commercial success in Southern European countries, from what I'm told. But the price asked is rather steep.

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In the search for something similar I came upon Bang by Marc Jacobs, surely a less deep search into the pit of one's pockets, but just as good a fresh peppery goodness. Tip for the frugal: stockpile another bottle while the running is good.