Ormonde Jayne 10% off the whole line

Come and see falling snow along London's Old Bond Street, rickshaw sleighs, Father Christmas, carol singers, musicians, bell ringers, roasted chestnuts and entertainers in period costume, all organised by the Bond Street Association.
You're invited at Ormonde Jayne for a glass of champagne and mince pies on:
Thursday 19th November from 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm
(12 The Royal Arcade28 Old Bond StreetLondon W1T. 0207 499 1100)
Bring this invitation along with you to receive a 10% discount on the night or shop online on Thursday the 19th November and receive a 10% discount by entering the promotional code 'NOEL' in the checkout page.
Joyeux Noël.

Info via press release.

Anya's Garden Moondance and Starflower: fragrance reviews (& a draw!)

When the well-trodden becomes anew there is reason for joy. If certain white flowers have always seem unatainable to you, if you found yourself avoiding tuberose for reasons too complicated to unfold, all naturals indie brand Anya's Garden has two aces up her sleeves: Moondance and Starflower, two unconventional new fragrances that ~in typical Anya style~ will surprise you!

In the words of Anya McCoy in Moondance "water mint is underfoot as you dance among the violets and tuberose, as apple herb and roses sing softly".
The ethereal touch of violets opens with a trompe l'oeil touch of the mint: is it there or isn't it? "This is not the direction toothpaste is going", I said to myself, when testing, as the familiar cold-on-a-hot-tongue feeling of industrial-strength fake mint didn't register. Yet, prompted by my desire to locate it, after reading the notes, I paid more attention and it is there if very subtly: But how strange! It only maxes out the dryad feeling of the woody-orris violets into cool green pistas! Herbal scents are difficult to harness, because they seem to project at a frequency that registers them either in the culinary (lamb chops roast) or the marginally aromatherapeutic: think tisanes and hot compresses. Yet, in Moondance the chamomille reminds one of nothing of the sort. Instead it fuses with the Rose de Mai absolute and the natural alpha ionone isolates (i.e.violet) into a synergistic ritual dance in the forest under, you guessed it, a full moon. Tuberose only hints at its presence, if you're not specifically searching for it, you might not realise that it is delicately weaved in here: its bombastic nature is well-behaved for once, like a loud, overactive child who is mesmerised briefly by the shooting stars into silence, as furry animals watch from a distance (Anya used hyrax tincture and hyrax absolute to render this fuzzy animalic comfort blanket). The general ambience is not unlike Isabel Doyen's creation for Les Nez The Unicorn Spell (which is similarly unisex) and lovers of the latter should definitely give a try to Moondance! My only gripe would be its relatively short lasting power, which means that you could use it on a scarf or ~even better~ a leather band on your wrist (How utterly charming! Why should Kurkdjian have all the fun?)

If your tastes do not run into the timid, but you're set for no-limits throttle, full-on speed, then Starflower is more your thing, and by Jove, ain't it mine! Anya McCoy presents floral gourmand Starflower as "candy flower, dreamy and steamy, almond cherry, chocolate and tuberose bring Mexico to you". A Mexican delicasy doesn't even begin to describe it, as luscious chocolate, allied to beautiful, slightly camphoraceous but oh-so-good-it-hurts patchouli (and possibly a maple touch) tempt the taste buds before the nostrils claim all the pleasure. There is nothing of the sanitised patchouli that mainstream brands churn out by the bucketload aiming at the fatigued nose-velcro of urbanites burned out on the Angel-doused armpits of commuters. This is the spirited love affair of rich essences which do not succumb but to the skillful hands of a certain Miami shores artisanal perfumer. The result in Starflower is oddly animalic, deep, incredibly lasting for an all-naturals perfume, and somewhat buttyric: Indeed a CO2 butter essence is hiding under the narcotically-scented tuberose (rendered into her edible vestige, posing for a screen-test with Marcolini and melting into a pool of cream). Anya reveals: "I first became aware of its use in ice cream from an 18th Century book Encarnación's Kitchen: Mexican Recipes from Nineteenth-Century California, and further research showed its use in other sweet desserts. My perfume musings got me to thinking, well, let's see how it would pair with vanilla and chocolate, two other tasty and fragrant offerings from Mexico." I can only say that Starflower should come with a cautionary label attached: "Restrain application or you're seriously risking at having your arms (or other body parts) nibbled on!"

A small precaution if I may would be to sample Moondance before indulging in Starflower, so as not to suffocate the more ethereal into the more full-bodied, much as one would do when tasting wines of different attributes, and cork-off them for a couple of minutes before sniffing (as all-naturals are famous for being too intense to fully grasp at first).
Moondance and Starflower are available from Anya's Garden, in parfum extrait ($75 and $60) and an Eau de Parfum ($125 and $100) or $5 per sample.

Anya had the generosity of sending me two ample samples of the expensive scents for a lucky reader, along with those I sampled for reviewing. Enter a comment if you want to be in the drawing!

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Natural scents and perfumers, Tuberose scents

Painting The Fairy Lovers by Theodore von Holst via touch of vaudeville. Women of Mexico Girclee print via fashionfling.blogspot.com.

Avery Gilbert talks to Katie Puckrik

Very interesting interview: cute, relevant questions, non-technical, accurate replies.

How to rekindle your sex life through perfume

"If your wife smells of ikan keropok, try telling her in the nicest way possible that she stinks. If you want to see your wife wearing some sexy lingerie “once in a while” (remember what happens when familiarity sets in), go out and buy her something alluring. If you think sex is boring with your partner, you might want to ask yourself what you’re doing about it. After all, it usually takes two. Dousing a fish cracker with perfume will only make it smell like a fish cracker with perfume".

The high divorce rate in Terengganu (attributed to "body odour, humdrum sex and boring pyjamas") is prompting the local government into approaching big firms to come up with “exotic and sensuous fragrances that can arouse sexual desire.” Mary Schneider on TheStar.com argues that companies surely have been going that exact same route for ages; and that perfume doesn't really change anything in a relationship that has communication or stagnation problems. Does it? Be vocal with your stories!!


Read the whole article on this link on The Star.com.

Pic of Sean Connery and Daniella Bianchi from From Russia with Love via virginmedia.

Kate Moss Vintage: her love for old things (new fragrance)

In an interview she gives to Brendan O'Connor (a professed lover of scent, judging by his wearing of Chanel Bel Respiro), alongside the watching eye of Steve Mormoris, vice president of Global Marketing for Coty, Kate Moss talks about her newest fragrance after Kate (2007), Velvet Hour (2008) and Kate Summer Time (2009). It's called Vintage to reflect her love for old things "that have stories" and her whole aesthetic.

Hot on the heels of her Some Velvet Morning cover, the Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra song she recorded with Primal Scream, Kate has embraced her love for vintage even in perfumes. For this foray into fragrance collaboration woth Coty she went for the softer side, not her party side, she reveals, reflecting a classier aim. The perfume was developed by Olivier Polge and includes notes of pink pepper, freesia, mandarin, heliotrope, jasmine, almond blossom, tonka bean, vanilla and musk. (notes via NST) One could of course argue that that list reads nothing like Vintage, more like another increment in the vast array of modern compositions.
Still, Kate Moss Vintage is a fruity floriental, which according to the writer is "a little bit cooler and less overwhelmingly flowery than some other personality-driven perfumes. It comes in a very cool bottle and the whole package is very Kate Moss. It's the Rolling Stones in the Sixties meets Ladbroke Grove punk meets Wicklow trustafarian. It's an afghan coat and butterflies and a glass of champagne"...

Read the whole article on the Independent.ie clicking here
And here is the TV commercial directed by leading British artist and photographer Katerina Jebb, featuring her "scanning" technique. Music is taken from Nocturne Op.9 no.1 in B flat Minor by Polish composer Frédéric Chopin. You can call that timeless, for sure!



Photo of Kate Moss via fashionindie.com, bottle pic via shoppingblog.com