Daphne Guinness, an extraordinary clothes-horse always immaculately decked in high heels and designer attire is launching her eponymous scent, called Daphne. Another celebrity scent you might say, and after news of the new Amy Winehouse project we revealed a few days ago, one can expect anything, yet this one presents something unusual (and might I say without jinxing it, optimistic):
"She has created a perfume in collaboration with Comme des Garcons, called Daphne, which is launching in store next month. She has been perfecting her own scent for years, and obviously quite successfully too as she claims that taxi drivers regularly ask her what she's wearing. So why has she always been so interested in perfume? ‘It's very difficult to describe in words. It's a mystery....Sometimes when you fall in love with people, you actually fall in love with their smell.' Daphne says that she likes a ‘woodsy and kind of jasmine-y, tuberose-y, sort of thing'. (quote via Graziadaily.co.uk)
I recall how Carolina Herrera, the famous designer, was saying how her personal mix of jasmine and tuberose essences had the New York City taxi drivers enslaved, prompting her to commission her first Herrera feminine fragrance (the one in the white box with gold dots), so I have some hope for the new Daphne, coupled with Guinness's own dramatic and arresting style. At any rate, we will see how it plays out in about a month's time.
Award-winning online fragrance resource Basenotes.net is celebrating its 10th birthday by launching a print version of its fragrance consumer website. The magazine will contain the news, reviews and interviews that have helped Basenotes.net become the long-standing website of choice amongst consumers and industry professionals alike and will also feature completely new and original content. London, England July 30, 2009 -- basenotes.net has been the destination for fragrance enthusiasts and industry professionals for ten years. Now all of the news, consumer reviews, award-winning editorial and interviews with top industry names will be available in a print magazine. There will also be completely original regular features that will be exclusive to the magazine. Basenotes International Fragrance Quarterly The magazine will published on a quarterly basis at a cover price of $6 an issue and will be available via online subscriptions from http://www.basenotesmagazine.com/. Site founder Grant Osborne says: "For a long time now people have been asking why there is not a magazine for fragrance lovers. You can find many magazines for such a wide variety of hobbies these days yet still nothing for the fragrance enthusiast. We have 20,000 visitors every day so we know that there is interest and we thought we could use the experience and relationships that we have cultivated over the past decade to bring a lively and dedicated magazine to the consumers and industry people that have been such loyal users of the site."
Niche offerings from Divine and new launches from Lutens are all very well, but sometimes one wonders what little treasures might be hidden at the aisles of Sephora or Macy's. So for your ease and aided by pics from Vogue.fr, here is a roundup of the upcoming scents you will find come autumn in your local department store. Click the links for more information from our previous articles.
First in the list is the new spin on Paris by Yves Saint Laurent, Parisienne, fronted by Kate Moss. More info here. Launches widely starting 17th August in Europe.
Eau Méga by Viktor & Rolf is the newest creation of the cutting-edge designing duo for which they conceived the megamizer (it's a giga atomiser, don't get overexcited) for a composition green and fresh encompassing notes of violet leaf, green basil, pear, peony, jasmine sambac, Italian citron, cedar and casmeran (a smooth wody-musky aroma-chemical) Prices: 52€ for 30ml, 72€ for 50ml, 90€ for 75ml) Launches in October in Europe.
Lolita Lempicka after the flanker to L de Lolita Fleur de Corail is issuing a new feminine, tagged Si Lolita. A creamy, sensuous spicy floral, it is orchestrated around the lily-of-the-valley note with bergamot, pink pepper, mandarin, clove, heliotrope, elemi and amber notes around it. The bottle is shaped in a 4-leaf clover shape (or is it a butterfly?), perhaps in order to bring luck. Launches in August.
Issey Miyake is coming back with a fresh and casual composition in A Scent. Yes, the fragrance is called A Scent by Issey Miyake, you got it right. (got to give it to him, he insists on non-perfume-y names, probably because rumour has it that he is averse to fragrance himself). Hyacinth, galbanum, vervaine and jasmine should produce an easy formula for casual days. Launches on 24th August, but could be previewed starting 10 August at Galleries Lafayette.
31st August will see the secret of Givenchy, Ange ou Démon Le Secret, a flanker to their original Ange ou Démon. (of which you can read a review here). A watercolour impression is aimed for in this new version which is a luminous floral with notes of jasmine tea, Italian citron, cranberry, jasmine sambac, white peony, water flowers, blond woods and patchouli. The bottle reprises the familiar diamond shape of the original but in in a pink tint.
Ricci Ricci by Nina Ricci has the most adorable bottle I have seen in quite some time. If only the juice lives up to expectations and is as good as past glories...The press releases talks about an audacious woman (personally I find this in dissonance with the packaging, but this is only an opinion), while the formula will encompass rhubarb, bergamot, night queen flower, Indian tuberose, rose centifolia (May rose), patchouli and sandalwood. Official launch in France on 27th August. (Prices 41€ for 30ml, 59€ for 50 ml, 79€ for 80ml)
Giorgio Armani is launching Idole d'Armani at the end of August (official date in 26th August). Notes included are bitter orange, ginger, davana, rose loukoum, jasmine, saffron absolute, styrax, patchouli, vetiver. You can read more info on this article.
Van Cleef & Arpels, the famous jewellers, are launching a collection of 6 scents, Extraordinaire. You can read more on this article. 130€ for 75ml and they will come out in September.
Finally Sensuous by Estée Lauder, a woody marketed to women, is coming to Europe in September after a successful year in the US market.
Those who have been following Andy Tauer's blog have noticed that a new collaboration has been secured with the very new Scent and Sensibility Perfume online store. Founded by Ronny, a devoted fragrance enthusiast for some time and a loyal reader of ours, it is based in the UK and hopes to provide shopping pleasure for all your niche needs. For the time being, you will find Tauer Perfumes, Lost'march, Hilde Soliani (I know several of you had been praying for something like this!) and I Profumi di Firenze. The inventory will augment day by day. We're wishing Ronny all the best!
Smelling the newest Divine creation on my wrists, the unisex Murano-like in its translucence Eau Divine, puts me in the mood for the upcoming vacations which can't come soon enough as far as I am concerned. The niche house of Divine was founded in the elegant Edwardian resort of Dinard, on the north coast of Brittany, France, by perfumer Yvon Mouchel: imagine a brand that issues whatever they want, whenever they want, without following a marketing plan nor frantically paced releases one after the other, all sold in a tiny shop off the beaten track! The essence of niche. Slowly but surely word of mouth made his first creation, Divine by Divine, a mini-cult that had discerning women worldwide searching for it and ordering directly from them. But what made parfums Divine so sought after, aside from the ~well...~divine name? It's hard to put into words: There is an old Hollywood glamour, entrancing and at the same time a little decadent, emanating from them ~ these are potent, old-school perfume-y fragrances with often a characteristic aldehydic thread spun through them which would have both Norma Desmond pleased and Daisy from The Great Gatsby feel at ease. This dichotomy is at the heart of Divine creations: dark yet piquant, airy or deep, sexy and contemporaneously refined, they fuse contrasting elements into a delicate pirouette that no matter how hard to perform, it appears seamless.
Eau Divineis the 9th instalment in this tale but it effortlessly breaks loose into more casual arpeggios, without betraying the tune. "Crystalline, the first notes emerge : from the top, Eau Divine combines the green coolness of Italian citrus with the sparkle of spices: star anise, rose hip, ginger and nutmeg. The heart of the pyramid is more tender. Orange flower and sweet violet prolong the pure energy of the first moments for a while but then delicately induce the subtle opening of deep notes. White amber, hot musk and labdanum only then reveal their lingering and generous sensuality". I always felt that the word of Jean Claude Ellena, "generous" while describing the colognestyleprevalent in the Mediterranean countries, is superbly fitting to evoke the giving, pleasurable nature of this genre: There is a feeling of sentir bien dans sa peau (feeling good in one's skin) which such compositions instantly bring out, making me envision holidays at some seaside resort at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, white terry robes and turban-style towel on hair, diva sunglasses on minus the "bling", while eating a hearty breakfast with freshly squeezed citrus juice and grated ginger served on lots of ice, lounging by the pool where fetching cabana boys are furtively assisting in their tight Speedos. Yet there is a cerebral element about it all too (a little incensy depth and the coolness of violet leaves plus an aldehydic overlay), like London-based detective-fiction writer Samantha Morton (played by the divine Charlotte Rampling in Ozon's Swimming Pool) overcoming her writer's block at her editor's retreat at Southern France; or people-watching gorgeous triad Alain Delon, Romy Schneider and Jane Birkin torn between love and crime in La Piscine (1969). Surprisingly for this kind of fragrance the lasting power of Eau Divine is excellent: put on in the evening after my bath, there were still remnants on my skin by the next morning!
Prices start at 50 euros for 30ml up to 145 euros for 200ml in various styles: splash, spray or refillable spray. There is also a different presentation for men or women despite the unisex character of the juice itself. The Divine line includes 4 fragrances for women: the original Divine by Divine (floral animalic with a peachy heart and vintage feel), L'être Aimé Femme (aldehydic floral with a core of immortelle), L'inspiratrice (dark rose with patchouli), L'infante (green sweet white floral), L'âme soeur (aldehydic floral, powdery); and 3 fragrances for men: L'Homme de Coeur (aromatic woody with iris), L'être AiméHomme (an ode to immortelle, aromatic herbs and exotic woods) and L'Homme Sage (spicy woody with saffron). Eau Divine is their first offering intended for both men and women.
Apart from their Dinard original boutique (and another two in Saint Malo and Caen, France) there is also one in Paris: DIVINE 3 rue Scribe 75009 Paris+33 1 40 06 03 14. Parfums Divine are now sold in London, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Roma, Warsaw, New York, Los Angeles and Vancouver. You can see details at their official site or order directly (they ship worldwide) For our readers I have 5 Eau Divine samples to give away to try it out. Leave a comment stating your interest.
In the interests of full disclosure, I was sent the samples by parfums Divine Charlotte Rampling pic via us.movies1.yumg.com. Clip of La Pascine (1969)originally uploaded by 1985nicole on Youtube.
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"She has created a perfume in collaboration with Comme des Garcons, called Daphne, which is launching in store next month. She has been perfecting her own scent for years, and obviously quite successfully too as she claims that taxi drivers regularly ask her what she's wearing. So why has she always been so interested in perfume? ‘It's very difficult to describe in words. It's a mystery....Sometimes when you fall in love with people, you actually fall in love with their smell.' Daphne says that she likes a ‘woodsy and kind of jasmine-y, tuberose-y, sort of thing'. (quote via Graziadaily.co.uk)
I recall how Carolina Herrera, the famous designer, was saying how her personal mix of jasmine and tuberose essences had the New York City taxi drivers enslaved, prompting her to commission her first Herrera feminine fragrance (the one in the white box with gold dots), so I have some hope for the new Daphne, coupled with Guinness's own dramatic and arresting style. At any rate, we will see how it plays out in about a month's time.
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