'I wasn't really a 'fragrance guy' before, but Boss Orange is so easy to wear. It adds another dimension to my personality', Orlando says. 'I wouldn't have done it if it didn't fit my personality; it's so easy going, you can go mountain biking in it if you want!' Thus describes Orlando Bloom ~the popular actor famous for his role of Legolas in Lord of the Rings, the lead in Pirates of the Caribbean and not only~ the scent of Boss Orange (for) Man, to which he will be the face from now on.
Boss Orange for men, the March 17th edition which was signed by Orlando Bloom as seen below is a Selfridges exclusive for now in the UK, while the scent circulates more widely of course, featuring "energizing top notes of crisp apple blended with the casual masculinity of Bubinga wood that creates a relaxed confidence with a genuine warmth". The full list of notes features apple, coriander, frankincense, Szechuan pepper, vanilla bean, Bubingawood. (45 GBP for 100ml)
Even though Orlando Bloom wasn't big on the fragrance experience, he did profess a keen nose for other smells: "The [London] underground has a really 'specific' smell which I remember from travelling to school and college. I also love the smell of fresh cut grass in summer, it reminds me of Kent (where Orlando grew up) and cricket". He also admits a liking for that hallmark of cinematic olfactory exploration, the screen adaptation of the 1980s novel Das Parfum, screened as Perfume, the Story of a murderer. 'I really like the film Perfume, it's really hard but they definitely captured the spirit. It would be great if, like 3D cinemas, they could add smell to films'. Way to go Orlando!
And what does the pretty Orlando prefer on a woman scent-wise? "I always like the smell of a woman, the neck, behind the ear; she can be wearing a fragrance or not. I don't like fragrances that wear a woman though". Ladies, you've been warned.
Victor & Rolf are busy launching a new limited edition for spring and summer of their best-selling Flowerbomb, called La Vie en Rose, encased in ~you guessed it~ rose-tinted glass. They call it a "sparkling Eau de Toilette". Available in 50ml/1.7oz from April 2011 at Saks and Sephora retailing from $80. The press release describes the scent of Flowerbomb La Vie en Rose thus: "A cheerful whirlwind of tangy notes awakens the delectable aromas of the olfactory Millefleurs that is Flowerbomb. Opening on a green flash of citrus fruits with invigorating bergamot and tangerine accords, the fragrances blossoms into the dustry eager and sophisticated heart of a rose and lily of the valley bouquet, enhancing the captivating sensuality of pink peppercorns. It ends with amber and woody notes of cashmere and patchouli, which highlight the incomparable glamour of a resolutely feminine fragrance."
Estée Lauder never ceases to capitalize on tried & tested concepts and Bronze Goddess (the revamp of Tom Ford's formula for Azurée Soleil) was among the very best: a truly beachy scent that imitated skin baked under the sun. Bronze Goddess Soleil for summer 2011 however despite the similar name is a quite different fragrance and although the concept is a good one (refreshing splashing on and sunny cheeriness), I admit I was spoilt by the past into expecting something more than a simple lemon and light musks cologne.
The line is confusing enough since the company is re-issuing last year's Bronze Goddess for the summer at the same time that they're launching the new Bronze Goddess Soleil. [To see a comparison between the original Azurée Soleil and Bronze Goddess formulae read this article]. Last year's Bronze Goddess Eau Fraiche formula has a bright citrus quickly mollified by tropical tiare and milky coconut. It's the definition of a "skin scent", a vision of biscuit-hued flesh sprawled under tropical skies sunning itself at some beach where the sand is as fine as spun sugar and there's not a care in the world. It quickly became a cult favourite and deservedly so.
On the other hand, Bronze Goddess Soleil is more of a simplistic light and tart hesperidic scent, a boost of lemon freshness upfront (rather unlike the sweet cupcake note ofShalimar Light) prolonged via the easy solution of clean white musk and dewy notes. The bitterish accents of lavender and petit-grain are indeed a very distinct throwback to the classic Eau de Cologne "recipe", from 4711 to Jean Marie Farrina's. Even though the idea is not bad, Lauder already had a cute citrus cologne with clean musks and blond woods in their line-up, Pure White Linen Light Breeze (a flanker to a flanker, imagine that!) which served as that "can't bother to think about fragrance" pick-me-up for days when the monsoon-like canopy of humidity seems inescapable. To provide another lemony lean cologne is a bit of a redundancy and the main reason I'm rather underwhelmed from this year's Bronze Goddess Soleil. Contrary to the established Bronze Goddess, it lacks both warmth and sexiness. It also lacks the classic coconut & vanilla sun tan lotion note (i.e.Coppertone in this case), which might make it preferable for those who have an aversion to that note in their summery splashes. Still, not badly made, but my own buck is put elsewhere this summer...
Notes for Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess Soleil: Top: Sicilian lemon, Calabrian bergamot, sweet tangerine, lavender and petit grain. Heart: Mediterranean pittosporum, Tunisian neroli, Indian Sambac jasmine, Moroccan orange blossom, grapefruit blossom and pink lily nectar. Base: blonde woods, iris, ambrette seed and crystalline musk.
The bottle of Bronze Goddess Soleil features a greener degradé on the base and the cap exhibits matte gold rings, to differentiate it from the other versions (well, apart from that soleil in the name of course). The concentration is marked as Eau Fraiche (it lasted about three hours on my skin, after eight hours I was vaguely sniffing a light muskiness) in 100ml/2.4oz. Available at Lauder counters while stocks last.
In Oscar Wilde's tale "The Nightingale and the Rose", drawing upon an ancient Sufi tradition, roses are dark red like blood, bearing the price of sacrifice for the sake of beauty and love. In L'Artisan Parfumeur Voleur de Roses we witness the dark, earthier aspects of a nightime rose garden which blossoms, dense with foliage, only when true love manifests itself and a nightingale sings ever so sweetly as its pierces its heart upon the thorns.
Even though men are not known for typically wearing roses in the Western world, in Arabian countries they embrace those dark, almost gothic roses flanked by pungent woody notes like oud and patchouli. For those men and women with an adventurous heart, L'Artisan Parfumeur created almost two decades ago one of the most characteristic combination of those two polarising essences: the brutal yet tender collision of rose and patchouli.
Voleur de Roses (Roses' Thief) is like the granpa of niche patchoulis on the market, as it came out as early as 1993, composed by perfumer Michel Almairac (well known for his work on Chopard Casmir, Gucci Rush, several Bond no.9 scents such as Fire Island and The Scent of Peace, the new Chloe and the re-orchestration of Zen into a springly fruity floral). Subsequently all brands jumped onto the bandwagon of patchouli revival (it had been a dormant note since its heyday in the 1960s) and now it has not only swept the market as a protagonist in the new "pink chypres" (faux woody florals that substitute the base of moss with patchouli and vetiver) but also the much maligned -but deservedly most of the time- "fruitchoulis". Imagine a current bestseller, Chanel's Coco Mademoiselle, without the accord of the soiled petals gathered off the ground which made it so contemporary and attractive to young women: it would have been impossible without a forebearer providing the skeleton of the idea, such as Voleur de Roses. Patchouli and rose is nothing new, as the dark, deep and sweet earthiness of the former seems to make the essence of the latter smell like petals unfurling into infinity. All perfumers know that. But in the L'Artisan scent this notion was put front and center, united in an accord which projects with both strength and sensuality. The rose is not sour and it feels natural, not like a photorealistic rose on the stem, but rather true to the rich liqueur-like essence; boozy and contrasting warmth with coolness.
Although built upon two distinct and contrasting elements, the structure of Voleur de Roses is a powerful synergy of these antithetical forces, uniting into a stentorian voice which denies rose of all its archetypal attributes: romanticism, femininity, delicate elegance, softness. Instead this fragrance is like the torrent that ripped rose bushes off their petals and leaves (hence Voleur!) and left the premises like a patchouli-wheeled tractor ran through them repeatedly. If you do not like patchouli as a note (and if you're a reader who didn't live under a rock for the past 15 years you'd recognise it from overexposure in many contemporary fragrances) you're advised to back slowly away and never look back or you'll turn to salt like Lot's wife. This is a direct, over patchouli scent which gains in that odd camphoraceousness that patchouli soli-scents exhibit as time passes ~Borneo 1834 or Prada Intense are good examples of that sort of thing. It figures that L'Artisan featured a stand-alone Patchouli (later substituted by Patchouli Patch) on their catalogue previously: it's the stuff that niche fragraces capitalised on; focus on the raw materials themselves, far away references, emphasizing different facets of the essences. Voleur de Roses is a fusion of two essential elements that comprise over 3/4 of total number of fragrances in both feminine and masculine perfumery, from floral chypres and masculine woodies via floral woodies and from Chanel through Guerlain. But the formula in this L'Artisan is also a careful framing (rather than ornamentation) of that skeleton with fruity accents (hints of strawberry, a whiff of plum) and a slightly musky-salty note. The composition is linear and a love-it-or-hate-it opus, one clear message in a perfectly coherent chord reverbarated into eternity into a hollow stone-built church. I personally like it very much indeed...but then I am a devotee of the sweet earthiness of aged patchouli that is reminiscent of burying one's hands in wet black soil...
Those who find they'd like the idea of rose and earthy notes/patchouli combined should also try Agent Provocateur's original scent in the pink "egg", Une Rose by F.Malle, Parfums de Rosine Une Folie de Rose (a lighter and easier interpretation) as well as Rose d'Homme by the same company (a decidedly masculine take on the idea), and also the more chypre-leaning Rose de Nuit by Serge Lutens.
Notes for L'Artisan Voleur de Roses: bergamot, rose, plum, patchouli
Perfectly unisex, although originally marketed as masculine (at least going by what the older bottles read on the top of the cardboard box), Voleur de Roses is available online at L'Artisan and at boutiques specializing in L'Artisan scents.
illustration by Charles Robinson for the Oscar Wilde fairy tale
Just when you thought you'd seen it all in fragoland, a new ~euphemistically called?~ fragrance arrives that promises you what you had been dreaming of all your life I'm sure: smelling of feces and dirt! "Gee, your hair smells like shit!" Is there a line more delightfully received by a female from a male admirer? Careful what you say or you'll risk having your perfumista card revoked...
London-based artist and self-proclaimed perfumer Jammie Nicholas, who proclaims "The Sun is But One Anus" and "Curiosity Castrated the Cat", named this controversial fragrance Surplus, "made from the excesses of the body" perfectly suited to the concept which should have every dog out there sniffing wildy: "I didn’t want to be like all the other schmucks and translate something from English into French just to sound glamourous", says Jammie. "Surplus carries the same meaning in both languages, which negates the romantic connotations of the French language."
A loaded meaning indeed. Well, no one knows about the joys of dirt like the French who doused themselves in vats of perfume in centuries past to cover up the stink of bodies unwashed since their own christening, using pleasant smells to cover up non pleasant ones. So now, the tables have been reversed and unpleasant smells will (?) be put on some of the "edge" back on our super-clean bodies.
I can hear the perfumista cries in my head right now:
~"Have you heard about that new extra-limited exclusive scent called Surplus? It's supposed to have a dirty smell"
~"Dirty as in indolic, you mean?"
~"Hmmm, don't know about that but it's supposed to be fecal, rather beyond indolic. Hard core stuff."
~"Oh my, fecal! Gimme some! I want to embrace my and the artist's innnermost effluvium so badly! It reconnects me with my core center"
~"Fecal does that to you, doesn't it. I bet it will drive all the guys WILD! I hear it's extra limited distribution, only 85 copies in existence and then no more!"
~"Oh dear...LEMMING!!! Who sells it?"
~"Not sure. I have heard of a niche new retailer who call themselves "The Worshipful Society of Toilette Apothecaries", they're supposed to have a very exclusive art salon, located in a seedy banlieu in Paris...or is it London, I don't recall".
~"Goodness, how can anyone take advantage of such an opportunity, though, without a ticket to Paris or London?! Clearly I must befriend the artist on Facebook and ask him to reserve at least three bottles for me and another ten for my innermost circle of friends who can appreciate this art level."
~"It takes quite a bit indeed to appreciate this sort of stuff. It's not just for the hoi polloi, you know. You have to make yourself known for having your nose firmly up your butt, so to speak. Not be repelled by what mommy told you back then when you potty trained..Not being so very anally retentive when wiping after doing your business you know...."
~ (pensively) "Assuredly...yeah...Now lemme look..." (contemplates purchase and contacting Jammie on Facebook)
What inspired Jammie Nicholas for this coprophilially embracing project, apart from any potty training misadventures that is? A book by the late Dominique Laporte called History Of Shit. (while you're at it check out this and that too). In it, the social historian analyses the theoretics of feces, down to its social implications and the role the dirty smells play in the construction of cosmetics.
Thankfully Jammie Nicholas has his head on his shoulders at least some of the time and is charging economic prices for something that is meant to be a cuiro purchase anyway: Surplus is available as a limited edition 60 ml of Eau de Toilette in 85 copies priced $40. The site is at surplusperfume.com. Bon voyage!
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