Sniffapalooza's First Fragrance, Wine, and Chocolate Pairing Event

Sniffapalooza's First Fragrance, Wine, and Chocolate Pairing Event will take place on February 6, 2010 in New York City.

The event begins at 4pm when the public and the Sniffapalooza hosts will gather together in the warm embrace of the heated garden of Aleo Restaurant, a Zagat and Michelin-rated Chelsea/Flatiron neighborhood favorite known for fantastic Italian specialties and a superb wine list. The host, Peter Raimondi, will offer fine imported and domestic cheese, fruit, antipasti, and homemade pasta in anticipation of the later festivities. Peter has selected three wines, plus his special hand-made Port and a Prosecco and will give an overview of these vintages, the wine-making process, and the flavors and bouquets. For the chocolate portion of the event, Sniffapalooza is working with 2 Chicks With Chocolate, the fabulous award-winning company helmed by Elyissia Wassung and her mom, Barbara. Elyissia is bringing along some delectable chocolate creations geared specifically for this event and the eclectic and adventurous palates of our passionate group! As a special treat, we may also be joined by 2 Chick's Master Chocolatier, Patrick Coston (a judge on the Food Network Challenge, and a creator for Bon Appetit, Gourmet, and Food Arts magazines, as well as scads of books and television shows). Together they will guide the audience through their supreme chocolate repertoire, including their Wine Collection and Spice Tiles.

Sniffapalooza has chosen New London Pharmacy as the fragrance partner for this event, and they will be providing the perfumes to be paired with the wines and chocolates. New London Pharmacy has long been one of Sniffapalooza's favorite emporiums for an amazing selection of niche fragrances. They are globally known for being knowledgeable and having the most inspired collection of hard-to-find, obscure, creative, and avant-garde fragrance, beauty, skincare, and haircare products. New London President Abby Fazio & Marketing Director Wesley Rowell will attend.

The event will end around 7pm. There will be plenty of time for sampling, sniffing, nibbling, sipping, and discussion! And the best part is - if you fall in love with a wine, fragrance, or chocolate confection... you will be able to purchase it and take it home with you. There will be special pricing and promotions and if you stay on for dinner at Aleo, Peter will give you 15% off your bill of $30 or more. It doesn't get any more delicious than this!

Due to the personal and interactive nature of this event, attendance at Sniffapalooza’s Fragrance, Wine & Chocolate Pairing Event is limited. The registration fee is $35, and if you would like to be a part of this unique experience, please visit http://www.sniffapalooza.com/ as soon as possible to reserve your space via Paypal. If you have questions or require other payment options, please contact Karen Adams at kadams@sniffapalooza.com. Reservations will be taken on a first-come basis.

info via press release

Rose Oud by Kilian: new fragrance

In the sub-line 'Arabian Nights', the luxurious niche brand By Kilian (of whom we had occupied ourselves with the arousingly rosy Liaisons Dangereuses and the unusual oud-tinged Cruel Intentions in the past) is launching another instalment, Rose Oud, right after Pure Oud.

Composed by Calice Becker, almost resident nose at By Kilian, it promises some of the luminous treatment which she reserves for most of her creations (J'adore, Liaisons Dangeureuses, Secret Obsession, Beyond Paradise, Cuir by Lancome, Tommy Girl etc) but also "mystery, depth and opulence". The composition will predictably focus on the magical wood and the essence of rose, a combination as classic as the many centuries in which Arabian fragrance use is counting.

The line is set to include another three fragrances centered on Oud, following the first two: an embarassment of riches for the many fans of this complex note. The packaging for Rose Oud is decadently luxuriant in its shiny gold tones...

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Perfumery material: Oud & Synthetic Substitutes, By Kilian news & reviews

pic via extrait.it

Scent Two: Laurel by Monocle x Comme des Garcons: fragrance review

~by Mike Perez

As a lover of spice prominent fragrances, I find it extremely easy to enjoy the newest Monocle x Comme des Garcons collaboration, Scent Two: Laurel. I remember focusing on the laurel (bay leaf) accord in two other fragrances and being slightly disappointed: Aqua Allegoria Laurier Reglisse by Guerlain and Acqua Della Macchia Mediterranea by Borsari – the former being almost all licorice and no spice; and the latter being a wonderful fougere in it’s own right (in the vein of the fantastic [but discontinued] Calvin by Calvin Klein) but a bit too simple.

With Scent Two: Laurel I have found what I always hoped for in a laurel prominent scent. Realism, pungency and complexity.

The laurel note smells sundried, almost roasted in texture - with a bit of that oregano and/or thyme tickle and then starts off immediately blending with a strong and persistent ground peppercorn accord – all swirling underneath a sharp cedar note. It is this definitive sharpness that lasts for the first hour – a trademark of the Monocle x CdG fragrances that that showed up in Scent One: Hinoki, as eucalyptus and fresh cut wood. But this new release is much more aromatic. Fans of Lorenzo Villoresi’s heavy-handed aromatic fragrances (Spezie, Uomo) know exactly what I mean, because many of the LV scents typically smell raw, almost shockingly intense, and it is a style of perfumery that polarizes colognoisseurs. You either enjoy it or you don’t.

Hidden among the intensity of the spices, is a fresh-turned-earth accord: dirt, moss, and branches of trees on the ground. Certain types of vetiver conjure up that feeling for me, and yet STL has no vetiver at all. It’s more a feeling of natural, rugged earth. The spices smell like they have a bit of dirt still left on them – they are not in the kitchen to be used for food…they’re still being harvested in their raw, dry state.

If I smell my skin up close during the final dry down, I can make out a quite wonderful patchouli note and a tiny hint of crisp, salty amber. Pulling my nose away, the scent shifts back to its spices. Later on, I’m able to smell the incense, hovering in the background. I think it’s what Antoine Maisondieu (the perfumer) added that gives it an aura of calmness & tranquility. Supposedly the scent is based upon the scent of a vacation to Lebanon and that regions handmade, laurel scented soaps. I have not smelled these soaps but I do know the feeling a hot, soapy bath give me…especially one that leaves traces of fragrance on skin: refreshment, relaxation and simplicity. The same feelings evoked by this wonderful scent.


Scent Two: Laurel comes in a 50 ml atomizer. It can be purchased online at Luckyscent, The Perfume Shoppe and at the magazine’s online shop ($135).

Scent used to push BMW products

BMW Canada is now using scent to sell financial products. Yup, you heard this right! In a rare and unusual display of originality and invention (not diametrically antithetical to the digitalised notions of scent use we had introduced on these pages the other day) BMW Financial Services under its Canadian agency of record, Candari, has produced an autoshow handout card that looks like magazine scent strips.

"Joy" is the brand's global platform tagged in the ad as "Joy is the scent of a new BMW". The recipient can open the fold-over tab which then releases a leather aroma, produced by New York-based scent marketing company Scentisphere. The concept was introduced in last week's Montreal International Autoshow.
According to Marketingmag.ca: "It was important for the ad to be 'visceral' because financing isn't as interesting a topic to car show visitors as new engines or designs, said Brent Choi, chief creative officer at Cundari. 'They're not as interested in purchase options, but we wanted to continue the BMW allure and excitement', despite the unglamorous nature of the product".

Expect to see it distributed at the Toronto International Autoshow in February, and again at the Vancouver International Autoshow in March.

Related reading on Perfumeshrine: Digital Scents & Teleolfaction

Hermes Eau d'Hermes: fragrance review

The official site introduces Eau d'Hermès as "For me. For you. His and hers" and if an androgynous sensibility is already simpatico to you, the special Eau has the potential to surprise in other ways. Notoriously refered to as "that stinky Hermès" among perfume aficionados, this cologne has had a somewhat dimmed profile for many years, ever since its introduction in 1951 by renowned perfumer Edmond Roudnitska and still to this day enjoys a rather underground cult status.



The ~originally proficient in saddlery and leather goods~ luxury house has some of the most interesting Eaux around anyway, with the latest Eau de Pamplemousse Rose and Eau de Gentiane Blanche having me rave recently for their unassuming spontaneity and unassuming intellectualism, with the ultra-popular Eau de Merveilles with its saline note of ambergris and the mouthwatering Eau d'Orange Verte rounding out the edges. But the original Eau from 1951 is still a small marvel because it manages to recalibrate the Eau formula (a traditional recipe of herbs and hesperidia) into a dazzling kaleidoscope combining frank animal notes, spices, and the illusion of tobacco, a mirage that’s at once textured, elegant and "skanky". In some ways there is a bond with the famous fougère by Guerlain, Jicky: The proper lavender touch, the unabashed sexiness of civet, the contrast of old money and an almost cubist outlook. Only the sequence in Eau d'Hermès is in reverse ~first the objectionable part, then the sumptuous, dignified drydown! There is also kinship with some of the older lovely masculines in the line-up: Équipage and Bel Ami, which I also like very much.

Frankly I don't get much of the "dirty" vibe for which Eau d'Hermès is referenced myself, meaning it doesn't smell either really sweaty (rich though it is in cumin, the usual culprit as per received wisdom) or diaper-like/fecal (copious amounts of civet tend to do that). I get a finely tuned citrus-leather violin and piano duet with some white flowers peeking underneath discreetly. This might have to do with either my skank-eating skin or my seriously wrapped-up perception of what "dirty" really is (Apparently my threshold is rather raised in comparison to the average WASP sensibility, I've been told.) My money is on the second hypothesis, at any rate, and most Roudnitska creations with their improper parts always peeking through the layers seem to perform well. But as usual, try before you buy, because perception is everything when it comes to perfume appreciation and what's fine with me might be unbearable bathroom ambience to you. And cumino-phobiacs*, please beware!

The first bottle of Eau d'Hermès in my life was a gift from an artist friend who has a high brow in art issues and a low brow in matters of everyday commodities; which even now befundles me as to which end of the intellectual and aesthetic spectrum predominated when the choice for this gift was made! Eau d'Hermès is perfectly legible as a composition that doesn't trumpet its credentials in your face (there are luxury ingredients in it, but they never show off the bill, if you know what I mean), it nevertheless has some unusual streak which reminds me of another friend, a writer who hails from an old family tracing roots in the Byzantine Empire, and who likes to wear little hats cocked off-kilter and combine odd socks with her evening outfits. Bottom line, it conjures images of non-prim respectability, like an old, faded aristocrat who has the pissoir jugs displayed alongside the family china.

Notes for Eau d'Hermes: citrus, cumin, birchwood, moss, cedar, sandalwood, vanilla

Please take care not to confuse Eau d'Hermès with the semi-oriental Parfum d'Hermès from 1984 (in the round disk bottle) which is a completely different fragrance. The newest version rerworked by in-house perfumer Jean Claude Ellena is a bit more refined, a little more brainy and airy than the vintage, but still fantastically marvellous and arresting in the most incospicuous way. It is sold in all Hermes boutiques at an Eau de Toilette concentration, just ask for it.

Three different commemorative limited editions of Eau d'Hermès have circulated over the years, highly collectible and beautiful to look at. One is from 1993, depicted above, showing a rider upon a horse. Another is from 1994 with an etched Pegasus on the bottle depicted on the left, the other depicting the sun-carriage of Phaethon also etched on the crystal from 2001 depicted on the right. They're both available on Ebay right now for ridiculous amounts of money (A lesson for us all to stock up on rare limited editions instead of bonds, I guess).




















*Some of the other cumin/sweat-infested fragrances include: Kingdom (McQueen), L'Autre (Diptyque), Santal Blanc , Fleurs d'Oranger, Muscs Kublai Khan (Lutens), Declaration (Cartier), Timbuktu (L'Artisan), Gucci Eau de Parfum, Black Tourmaline (Olivier Dubrano), Rochas Femme (1984 reissue).

Paintings by the Spanish artist Juan Gris with music by Barry Mitchell performed by the Locrian Ensemble