Nina Ricci Nina L'Elixir: new fragrance

Nina Ricci augments the Nina line in the apple-shaped bottle with Nina L'Elixir, to be launched in middle of August 2010. The perfumer behind the new flanker to the gourmand Nina issued in 2006 is Olivier Cresp again backed up by Firmenich.
The concept rests again on a philtre d'amour (love philtre) which will include notes of red fruits, green Caipirinha citron, jasmine, and "cotton musk"*. The bottle will reprise the familiar shape of apple, with all its fairy-tale and sin connotations.

*"Cotton musk" refers to a synthetic musks mix which exudes a billowy soft ambience, less strident than the usual white musk inclusion.

The advertising campaign will be fronted by Florrie Arnold, the 21-year-old British sensation, who will be featured in a musical clip vested with Nina Ricci fashions and the music of Blondie hit Sunday Girl.
The new fragrance comes as a follow-up to the take-over of the company by the Puig Group, thus breathing a desire of new beginnings. Let's see...

Natural Perfumers Featured in the NYTimes

"The desire to smell good — without the aura of chemicals — did not seem to wane in the flop sweat of the recent economic panic. Ms. McCoy sells her creations at $60 to $125 for a half-ounce — not cheap. Yet “since 2007, I’d say my sales have increased 25 percent every year,” she said. The great majority of these perfumers buy all their ingredients from natural scent companies, in stores or on the Web, and then blend them at home. But Ms. McCoy also uses a heady variety of homegrown scents from her lush garden in Miami Shores, Fla., a village just north of Miami. Mandy Aftel, who helped spur the modern natural perfumery movement with her 2001 book “Essence and Alchemy,” said she has “observed an absolute explosion of interest.”

In a very interesting article chronicling the rise of all-naturals perfumery that relies on small batches of harvests and growing one's own plants for tincturing, appearing in the New York Times online by Micheal Tortorello, we come across names which have occupied these pages before, namely Anya McCoy and Mandy Aftel, gurus of natural perfumery. The article named "Making Flowers into Perfume" can be accessed here and contains such priceless imagery as comparing overflowing, lush jasmine vines at McCoy's "like chest hair on a ’70s sex symbol that cannot be kept under the collar".
Congrats to the natural perfumers mentioned and a shout-out for Mandy and Anya, well-done ladies!

Father's Day Gift Suggestions

If you're stumped while deciding what to get to your father figure for this upcoming Father's Day, we have selected a few aromatically-laced suggestions for you here, with a personal editor's choice element woven in, of course.

• For those looking for something rustically French

Grasse-based perfume factory Molinard is offering a 15% discount on all their wares from 1st till 21st of June to celebrate Father's Day. Their products are fun and good quality, encased in beautiful, sleek packaging. You can find the link here. And if you order 50 euros or more, you will received a complimentary Campus for Him cosmetic product. I'm tempted personally by their discovery set: it would make a cute gift.

• For aesthete types

And if you're really monied (495$ for 1.7oz/50ml! my eyes!), you can look out for The Infidels by Agonist. An art object more than just a perfume, featured at both Luckyscent [code june10 would get you free shipping in the continental US] and Aedes, its intricate crystal presentation respendid with what looks like an antenna is designed by Åsa Jungnelius for Kosta Boda. The Nordic sensibility of the exterior is counterbalanced by the Grasseois content of the interior; we'd like to think, at least...

• For eco-green hunter-gatherers

Roxana Villa of Roxana Illuminated Perfume was the first perfumer to tap into the native Californian woodland known as Chaparral®. This is an organically-made unisex fragrance of all natural essences. Its main fragrance notes are: Bay, Sage, Frankincense and Woods. The evolution on the skin is particularly interesting as it moves from citrus and spice to herb and dry vegetatal wood. Chaparral was conceived as a celebration of the aromatic landscape of the State of California, with an almost incensey scent devoted to the California Native American Indians. The pure parfum extract can be bought on this link. She also offers cute perfume solids in plastic (great when you're on the go) or in metal tins (very handsome looking)

For those of you with a tight schedule (or an olfactory-adventurous father), all-naturals indie perfumer Ayala Moriel suggests their MR. MORIEL COFFRET of 8 bold and distinctive fragrances that are the most popular among the gentlemen who frequent her boutique. If you're looking for a traditional masculine touch, she recommends l’Herbe Rouge or ArbitRary, or the soapy-clean Sabotage, which adds the final touch of after-shower crispness.

• If you want to go mainstream

You can always rely on a dependable classic too, the following choices are quality, trusted to bring a smile on and smell very good indeed: Eau Sauvage or Dior Homme by Dior, and Green Irish Tweed by Creed, for the more traditional guys. For a little more adventurous types John Varvatos or the half-forgotten but still good Jazz by YSL (and while I'm at it, I'm sorely temped by that book!). And if you want to savour the smell whenever you hug your dad as well, get him the now discontinued but still available here Gucci pour Homme in the squat bottle with the square cap. Yummy!
Also a good idea that is a treat for the eyes as well as the nose is the Classico Gift Box by Claus Porto luxury soaps: it contains 5 handsomely wrapped European 7-times milled soaps in Vetyver, Verbena, Pear Sandalwood, Vanilla Orchid and Lime Basil. If he curls up his nose at the Vanilla, grab it for yourself and leave him the rest...

• Finally, for those of you too lazy or very, very busy

To make picking the right thing 100% foolproof, Amazon has Gift Cards for the gift of his choice for 50$ or alternatively for 100$.

The winner of the draw...

...for the Guerlain cologne sample is La Bonne Vivante. Congratulations! Please email me with a shipping address, using the contact email on the Profile or About page, so I can have this out to you in the mail soon.
Thanks to everyone for your enthusiastic participation and till the next one!

Francoise Caron: A Woman for All Seasons

"Françoise Caron's long line of perfume creations reads like a diverse and stylish list of artistic accomplishment, with nary a misstep, yet always with the harmonious feel one gets upon wandering amidst a Greco-Roman glyptotheque: From one of the most enduring classics of modern perfumery, beloved by anyone who comes into contact with it, L’Eau d’Orange Verte for Hermès, to niche offerings such as three Eaux de Cologne and four candles for Astier de Villate, all through the formula for the signature scent of the Angel body line (Thus befittingly augmenting her brother’s, Olivier Cresp’s, oeuvre, since it was he who composed the original Angel scent).

L’Eau d’Orange Verte began its career on the bathroom shelves of dandies and chic bourgeois girls as well as traditional men who just wanted to smell good, with another name: It was issued as Eau de Cologne d’ Hermès in 1979 (the name was changed in 1997) after a brief was issued to perfume-producing companies in which Jean Claude Ellena, current in-house perfumer at Hermès, had also submitted an entry. Triumph ensued very soon: This was seriously good cologne; tangy, bright, and happy-smelling, projecting at a cool radius to everything it touched, remaining timeless and effortless to this day. Its panoply of classical arms is its success: the traditional Eau de Cologne weapon, the sour tang of bitter orange, cutting through heat like a scimitar; the herbal-green accord rustic and Arcadia-evoking...

“An eau de cologne needs to be simple, with top notes that aren’t heavy, that don’t purport to stay on long; yet simplicity doesn’t mean absence of personality either” she notes, upon the 30th anniversary of the fragrance’s launch. “It also needs to be cooling”, its alcohol content a major constituent of the refreshing feeling it produces upon evaporation.
The effect is reinforced through the secret inclusion of a little mint and that ace in the sleeve, blackcurrant buds, offering a fruity touch with a catty whiff. Françoise is still profoundly touched whenever she encounters her creation amidst the hotel toiletries offered at some of the world’s choicest hotels..."

This is only part of a longer perfumer's portrait article on Françoise Caron which appeared on Fragrantica. Click this direct link to access it.