Irving Penn is dead...

"Photographing a cake can be art" ~thus said Irving Penn, who is no longer with us.




Photos I am on my Vacation 1944 and Rythm 1950s by Irving Penn.

Disclosure of free stuff for bloggers compulsory

According to an article appearing in the New York Times, which you can read here, bloggers will be soon obliged to divulge the free stuff they get from companies in order to provide them with material to review.

"The new regulations are aimed at the rapidly shifting new-media world and how
advertisers are using bloggers and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter
to pitch their wares.The F.T.C. said that beginning on Dec. 1, bloggers who
review products must disclose any connection with advertisers, including, in
most cases, the receipt of free products and whether or not they were paid in
any way by advertisers, as occurs frequently. The new rules also take aim at
celebrities, who will now need to disclose any ties to companies, should they
promote products on a talk show or on Twitter".

Actual fines are going to be implemented too: "Violating the rules, which take effect Dec. 1, could bring fines up to $11,000 per violation. Bloggers or advertisers also could face injunctions and be ordered to reimburse consumers for financial losses stemming from inappropriate product reviews."

Finally, might we add! Full disclosure has been a constant policy on this blog from the very start for the simple reason I believe that readers have a right to know whether we might be influenced by free stuff or not (Not that we have actually received anything much because offering to share costs seems to deter some offers, but we're not trivialising even mere samples because like George Bernand Shaw knew it's not in the amount but in the spirit of the thing). Please find the disclosure in the end of each relevant post.

Byredo candles & Byredo Blanche: new fragrance

ByRedo Parfums is a Stockholm-based newcomer onto the perfume scene as a brand founded by Ben Gorham, a graduate of the Stockholm Art School and an ex-student of interior design. Acting as creative director for the new line, he has assembled the talents of perfumers Olivia Giacobetti, Jérôme Epinette, and Michel Almairac to compose a collection of eight fine fragrances so far: Gypsy Water, Fantastic Man, Bal d'Afrique, Green, Rose Noir, Chembur and Pulp.

Their new candle collection is comprised of 9 scents which seem just like the stuff to get home to, this autumn.


The 9 ByRedo candles are:
Ambre Japonais (Coriander, sandalwood, vanilla)
Baker's Guild (Bitter orange, star anise, ginger)
Bibliotèque (Peach, prunbe, violet, patchouli, leather, peony)
Candy Darling (Coriander, rosewood, patchouli, benzoin)
Carrousel (Orange, rhubarb, cardamom, vetiver, amber)
Cassis (Cassis, berries, strawberry, cedarwood, cinnamon)
Cotton Poplin (Linen notes, white cedar, blue chamomille, musk)
Loose Lips (Violet, black cherry, rose, rice powder)
Peyote Poem (Tonka bean, hyacinth, fir, vanilla)

Each candle is 225g for 50 Euros.

I am itching to try the Bibliotèque candle: How more perfect ~and Lutensian I might add~ can it get?

Ben Gorham, the creator of parfums By Redo, is also launching a new Eau de Parfum, called Blanche this autumn.

"The idea of Blanche is ~as its name suggests~ constructed around my
perception of the colour white. For the first time I have conceived a perfume
for and with the collaboration of one particular person. I wanted to capture
that innocent and immaculate side, a perfume that is of almost transparent
nature. Blanche also represents a homage to classical beauty. The
fragrance is pure and simple in its formula, but its character is extreme".

~Ben Gorham

Blanche ByRedo opens on notes of white rose, pink pepper and aldehydes, segues to a heart of violet, neroli, and peony and reveals a base of white woods, sandalwood and musk.
Available in Eau de Parfum spray, 100ml

notes & pics via press release

Brioni: new fragrance

On the 14th of October, Brioni, a independent tailoring house dedicated to fine garments for men since 1945, is launching their new fragrance, Brioni, the first one to hit the market since 1958. It was in that decade that the luxury house had issued a limited seris of fragrances for men, including the Eau de Cologne "Good Luck". It seems that the renaissance of fragrance is waking up traditional firms out of hibernation and the new masculine Brioni is further proof to this. Their motto "be one of a kind" (their suits graced James Bond no less) is the goal they are going for with their fragrance as well.

The official launch on October 14th will be fronted by Andrea Perrone and Brian Ferry of Roxy Music, while the masculine «Brioni» will be available for purchase exclusively by boutiques Brioni and luxury distributors in the last week of October.

pic via luxury-gadegets.com

Parfum d'Empire Wazamba: fragrance review

In the words of Canadian psychologist Albert Bandura "most human behaviour is learned observationally through modeling". And nowhere is this more cognitively apparent than in the beauty and sensual business in which perfumery holds an esteemed place. Wazamba by Parfum d'Empire is a prime example of the developmental incline which the niche house established by Corsican Marc-Antoine Corticchiato~assisted to by Elisabeth de Feydeau~ has been for a while now, influenced and influencing through modeling.

The resounding success of Ambre Russe, Cuir Ottoman and Osmanthus Interdite are a small testament to the power of quality materials, conceptual storylines (the recreation of the atmosphere of great empires of the past, influencing the Romea d'Ameor line as well) and an aesthetic focus which diverts from the torpid patcho-syrupy jingles of so many new releases to produce baroque, complex and refined sonatas.

In Wazamba, the name doesn't evoke a peruqued era with fake beauty marks travelling the rosy cheeks of decadent and unwahsed aristocrats, nor Tsardoms of fierce despotism drenched in samovars' inky liquid and potato grain liquor. Instead it is inspired by “a sistrum used in the rituals of West Africa” possessing a “heavy sound, full and deep” which one could imagine played by the regal silhouettes of Modigliani-like figures in the savanna evening bonfires. Perhaps a little imaginatively conceived, as the mysterious instrument is nowhere to be found (there is wazimbo though!), yet the merit of the composition more than surpasses the want of accuracy in the press release. A Lutensian web is weaved around almost every niche release, his pioneer work being the instigator in large part (excluding L'Artisan, Goutal and Diptyque who always travelled their own path). Parfum d'Empire is no exception, yet the familiarity is not contrite nor bellicose, but proud in itself.

Parfum d'Empire Wazamba travels the new route of conifers, surely pre-empting along with Fille en Aiguilles, a revisited appreciation for balsamic notes which I predict we will be seeing more of in the future: fir balsam, pine needles, cypress sap...Lubin's Idole and Black Cashmere by Donna Karan were incorporating some warmth and fir notes with their incense a few years ago and Zagorsk from the Incense series by Comme des Garcons was the first to marry pine with incense. But in Wazamba the synergy is more complicated, very interesting and sweeter. The burning, pyrocaustic frankincense of Serge Noire and Essence de John Galliano appears softly pettering out to ashy-powdery, slightly sweet notes (opoponax and the sensuality of labdanum). Yet the initial impression and one of the predominent notes on my skin is ~surprisingly enough but pleasurably so~ apple; a red, juicy and ripe variety that is miles away from the sanitary, upbeat, acid green and detergent-like apple in shampoos and fine fragrance alike in later years! The combination of this apple note along with long-lasting, delectable myrrh is joined at the hip via the cinnamon nuance that both materials evoke; one through allusion, the other through illusion. Yet Wazamba isn't spicy, nor is it gourmand despite its sweetness. Neither is it fancy, sophisticated, elegant or conventionally sexy and that's perfectly all right. The feeling it evokes is one of unadulterated, raw beauty: It relies on a forest of aromatic pine needles, laid out in an African sunset, when climbing the nearby knoll your hands are almost touching the copper clouds.



Notes for Parfum d'Empire Wazamba: Somalian incense, Kenyan myrrh, Ethiopian opoponax, Indian sandalwood, Moroccan cypress, labdanum, apple, fir balsam

Parfum d'Empire Wazamba is available in Eau de Parfum in 50ml/1.7 and 100ml/3.4oz spray bottles at Luckyscent and Aus Liebe zum Duft, as well as in the men's department of Le Printemps and the Old England store (corner of the rue Scribe and boulevard des Capucines) in Paris.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Incense Series, Pine scents

Pics from the postcard book African Ceremonies by Beckwith and Fisher via cas1.elis.ugent.be and salon.com.
Photo of Parfum d'Empire Wazamba bottle © by Elena Vosnaki.