The new Shalimar by Guerlain commercial with Natalia Vodianova

A few days ago we introduced the new face of Shalimar by parfums Guerlain, Natalia Vodianova, shot by Italian photographer Paolo Roversi. The ad prints that will appear in major fashion and beauty magazines only give a hint of the upcoming advertising campaign, apparently.
Perfume Shrine is proud to be the first to feature the newest commercial of Shalimar, with Natalia Vodianova, today, kindly supplied by one of our readers who wishes to remain anonymous.
Our newest info suggests that Natalia Vodianova will also be fronting Guerlain's makeup and skincare starting January 2009.
The TV and cinema commercial of Shalimar is full of sensual images of a naked Vodianova, wriggling on an unmade bed, the voiceover recalling the famous Marilyn quip about wearing a few drops of Chanel No.5 in bed, but also visually echoing the controversial campaign of Calvin Klein's newest feminine scent Secret Obsession in which an object(the fragrance) becomes a psychological relation to emotional response. It is almost as if the emotion is transfered onto the object befitting Freudian analysis.



The concept seems to be focused on a conversion between lovers following a passionate tryst, with the man asking the mystery ingredient that accounts for what sounds like an unforgetable memory.
"Qu'est-ce que tu portais sur ta peau?" (what were you wearing on your skin?)
"Quelques gouttes de Shalimar!" (A few drops of Shalimar)

Then again, the immortal dialogue* from Godart's Le Mépris with Brigitte Bardot, reprised in Chanel's latest lipstick commercial* for Rouge Allure, is rather unsurpasable...


*{Click the links to watch!}

Stay tuned for upcoming reviews and little known info on Shalimar as well as its flankers, Shalimar Light (Eau Légère) and Eau de Shalimar.

Ad print courtesy of French Madame Figaro 30th August 08.

Laura Mercier exclusive Nuits Enchantees in the US: fragrance news

Laura Mercier has a UK-only limited edition fragrance for women coming to the US, available at Nordstorm for 4 days only. It's Nuit Enchantées (=Enchanted Nights), inspired by the One Thousand and One Nights tale and tagged as "the perfect sensual scent for evening". Designed by James Krivda it belongs to the oriental olfactive family.

Most Nordstrom stores are only getting ten bottles or so. That's because it was produced in only 3000 bottles, so you might want to be quick!
Availability September 17-20 in the 75$ price range for 50ml of Eau de Parfum concentration.

Notes include tuberose, mocha, mace, cardamom, mandarin, ginger, rose, cedar leaf amber, patchouli, sandalwood.
Initial impressions talk about an addictive, warm, spicy fragrance with an autumnal air about it.

Shopping tip: Robyn, the Laura Mercier representative at Nordstrom can be reached at 314.255.2000 extension 1064. According to her she had 7 bottles and she has just gotten the tester in.

The fragrance can also be purchased in the UK of course, at Harrods, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols.

Thanks to chimpyblue05 on MUA for bringing the news to my attention.
Some info and pic via Vogue.co.uk and Fragrantica.

Credit to Sniffapalooza

Congrats to Raphaella Brescia Barkley, Editor in Chief of the Sniffapalooza Magazine, for scoring: the online magazine that emerged out of the Snifapalooza NYC event has been going from strength to strength lately and has found its audience, among them people from the industry. According to the latest newsletter:

"Just one of the most famous perfumers of our time, MICHEL ROUDNITSKA has signed the Sniffapalooza Magazine Guest Book.
Mandy Aftel also signed last week-a double honor from two completely different artists".

To view, click on the Sniffapalooza link and scroll to bottom of main page. Click on “view entries”.

Special congratulations also to Michelyn Camen for the series of Fragrance & the Arts, a fun approach to fragrance reviewing.

Logo pic courtesy of Sniffapalooza

Reduced Prices at Neil Morris

We're pleased to bring you good news for Neil Morris fans: contrary to most firms, there is a decrease in prices, which is great if you have been contemplating getting one of those famous Vault scents (I highly recommend Dark Season, Dark Earth and Parfum d'Ida).

Here are the news from Neil's blog via his business partner David:

"Over the past several months our sales of the Vault fragrances has
steadily increased. With this increase in sales we are able to buy our raw
materials and supplies in larger quantities and discounted prices. We are also
able to make them in larger batches increasing our productivity and
efficiency. As our way of saying thanks for supporting us we are passing on some
of the savings to your our customers. We are reducing the price of our Vault
fragrances from $150.00 to $125.00 for each two ounce bottle of Parfum".

(thanks to Kristy for pointing this out to me)

Sycomore by Chanel: fragrance review

"Do you come from Heaven or rise from the abyss, Beauty?
Your gaze, divine and infernal,
Pours out confusedly benevolence and crime,
And one may for that, compare you to wine ...
From God or Satan, who cares? Angel or Siren,
Who cares, if you make— fay with the velvet eyes,

Rhythm, perfume, glimmer; my one and only queen!
The world less hideous, the minutes less leaden?"
~Hymn to Beauty, Charles Baudelaire

In 1930, Coco Chanel had a dream: she envisioned the perfect, most beautiful woody perfume that was baroque in feeling, yet bore no frills. The result, Sycomore, a 'woody scent with balsamic notes' composed by her Russian perfumer Ernest Beaux, was not appreciated in its time and soon disappeared. Just shy of 80 years in the making, Jacques Polge and Christopher Sheldrake, resident noses at Chanel, recomposed the woody vision of mademoiselle Coco and the finished fragrance forms part of Les Exclusifs ~Chanel's prestige line. The two however do not bear any similarity: The vintage Sycomore had "a distinct tobacco-violet note and all the other elements (few) built to enhance this idea" according to Octavian Coifan while in comparison the new version is very much centered around true vetiver; and a smokey one at that.
In many ways it is a departure from the other iris-ladden Les Exclusifs which affirm their Chanel pedigree by use of costly raw materials evoking segments of previous successes of the brand. Sycomore does not.

Sycomore instead emphasizes its aristocratic dryness of humble origin with a tangy grapefruit opening and subtly cooling, clean muguet notes that complement the Haitian vetiver variety, also used in Guerlain Vétiver, so well. Almost simultaneously it allows soft impressions of a warm incense cloud slowly setting upon evergreen needles and rooty dirt (a la Route de Vétiver by Maître Parfumeur et Gantier) to uplift you into a wistful and introspective contemplation of life and mortality. And if you lower your head and pay attention to its murmur, a resinous, only marginally sweet touch of the licorice note that naturally arises in several distillations of the material itself, slightly reminiscent of Dior's Eau Noire drydown, vibrates at a low frequency, along with woodfire smoke.

Officially marketed as feminine for women who do not like flowery compositions, yet cunningly poised between the two sexes, it has an hermaphrodite side that whispers of something mysteriously chic, chastetly beautiful and utterly unattainable; like Björn Andrésen, the youth Tadzio in Luchino Visconti's 1971 "Death in Venice" (the film adaptation of Thomas Mann's masterful novel).
His remarkable androgynous beauty prompted feminist Germaine Greer to use a photograph of Andrésen on the cover of her book "The Beautiful Boy" (2003). She would have approved of a scent strip of Sycomore tucked in there too.



The musical score is Gustav Mahler's "Adagietto" from his 5th Symphony.

Notes for Sycomore (2008) by Chanel: Vetiver, cypress, juniper, pink pepper, smoke, burning woods.

Sycomore is available at $190 for 200ml Eau de Toilette exclusively at Chanel boutiques. Considering it uncharacteristically lasts quite well, it is an investement.

Andrésen pic via moviemail-online.co.uk Bottle pic via Vogue.com.tw
Clip originally uploaded by AssimQuePuderes on Youtube.