Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille: fragrance review

As the cooler months draw to an end I have a faint pang of nostalgia on fragrances which will be rather difficult to bring out in the heat of summer due to either their density that feels like a warm blanket that obscures light when playing on the bed as a kid, or due to their characteristic warm bouquet that feels at home only beside curduroy jackets and black & tan riding boots. Tom Ford's Private Blend Tobacco Vanille checks both boxes in question and, if the female reception of this rather unisex vanilla fragrance is any indication, some more figurative boxes as well. With my anticipation for Lavender Palm building, I returned to this deep and sweet scent for a re-introduction now that woolens are slowly coming off.

Part of the luxurious Private Blend by Tom Ford line which comprises 12 fragrances (like Champaca Absolute, Noir de Noir, Tuscan Leather, Japon Noir, Arabian Wood, Bois Marocain, Italian Cypress, Azure Lime, Neroli Portofino, Oud Wood, and the now discontinued Velvet Gardenia etc), Tobacco Vanille as its name suggests is an oriental; suave, smoldering and quite smooth. Its salient characteristic is the unguous fall of a rich tobacco bouquet into the creamy, cocoa butter-like vanilla with unexpected accents of dried fruits. The sweetness is not accountable to the vanilla though, but to the honey note that good pipe tobacco often displays.

Indeed for a while one loses the tobacco pouch for the honeyed-drenched cream pudding being served. But the two do co-exist and the dried fruits accents is reminiscent of the Lutensian school of thought, easily. Or of Coco by Chanel, the original spicy one, with its inclusion of a cocoa note amidst it all; perhaps of the mood of Dior's Hypnotic Poison (the poison scaled down considerably in Tom's version, like in the Hypnotic Poison Eau Sensuelle), or, if one is being mean, of rootbeer float. I seem to detect an almond note too, which is a classic but delicious pairing with vanillas. Indeed Tobacco Vanille takes on gourmand aspects that go beyond a simple cookie vanilla, built on complex notes that end up smelling like two voices singing in musical thirds; harmony... Up close, sniffing on the wrist, Tobacco Vanille can take an ash-tray note, while a little space between it and one's nose reveals a more sultry sillage that is rich and tempting. This is one reason why this is a perfume that I do not recommend spraying on one's clothes; I suspect the result by the end of the day might get a little stale.

Nevertheless, I can't seem to personally enthuse on Tobacco Vanille too much, for what is worth, due to its rather excessive sweetness. I prefer my vanillas drier, somewhat more powdery, and my tobacco given a palm-on-sweaty-thigh-rolling-it vibe reminiscent of Havana and Habanita. But that's just me, don't let it stop you. Tobacco Vanille is one of Tom Ford's most popular fragrances and a must-try for vanilla or tobacco lovers everywhere. Plus, it's marketed as a unisex (you have to enjoy sweet scents on men, though, to appreciate it) and it lasts very long.

Notes for Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille:
Spicy note, aromatic note, tobacco, tonka bean, tobacco flower, tobacco leaf, dried fruit, vanilla, cocoa, tree sap.

Private Blend Tobacco Vanille by Tom Ford comes as Eau de Parfum (1.7oz, 3.4oz and 8.3oz sizes), available at select points of sale such as Harrods, Neiman Marcus, Nordstorm.

Picture of Demi Moore smoking a cigar, originally printed on Cigar Aficionado Magazine.

50 Cent Drops 50 Scent: Perfume Parody

You always wanted some ghetto-blasting perfume to just break through all the noses held up high and the pretencious blurb on "serious" publications? Well, here we are providing some laughs as well courtesy of 50 Cent and his humorous take on Scent...
50 Scent emits "the dangerous aroma of a freshly fired 9 milimeter semiautomatic handgun", the bling-tastic bouquet of a burlap sack stuffed with $100 bills" plus the sine qua non "audaciously naughty whiff of skanky ghetto gold-digger". To be slathered on "those unsightly drive-by scars to make old wounds sizzle with brutish sensuality". Hilarious!
A project fit for Dish-au-Four (the hip new French recipe!) no doubt.


Click the pic to enlarge.

Credit: Humor Gazette

Laboratorio Olfattivo Esvedra: new fragrance by Pierre Guillaume

News fresh from Esxence, Italy, where the artistic exhibition for niche perfumery is taking place as we speak: Talented perfumer Pierre Gauillaume, well known for his "numerical" personal line Parfumerie Générale (established in 2002), and author of the Huitième Art project, created a new opus, called Esvedra, under the Laboratorio Olfattivo aegis.(An Italian niche line, promisingly established in 2009 with the motto “emotional experiences that come to life through our sense of smell").

The name Esvedra derives from within the geographical confines of the Mediterranean sea: Es Vedrà is a Balearic island a mere 2 km off the western coast of the cosmopolitan isle of Ibiza, in the area of Cala d'Hort. The island is a nature reserve, comprised almost solely of limestone, yet considered of a significant magnetic energy in folk lore. Let's not forget that for centuries the western edge of the Mediterranean was considered the end of the world and that sea tales concerning its many maritime wonders captured the imaginations of poets (producing the Odyssey, the Aeneid) and common folk alike.

The olfactory focus is vetiver, but Pierre proposes a new take, as he says: "It's an irregular vetiver, fractalized which expresses a magnetic green facet, sensual and luminous with accents of lemon petit-grain and coriander leaves". He envisioned it as a perfume that proposes a different structure than the classical top-middle-base notes pyramid, as all of the ingredients are truly contained within the centre of the composition. You could call it linear I guess or core-focused.

Notes for Laborattorio Olfattivo Esvedra: Nevenolide, vetiver, petit-grain from lemon trees, coriander leaves, musk.

Esvedra will be available in Eau de Parfum concentration (12%) in 100ml bottles soon. To buy when available watch this space.

Es Vedra picture at sunset via wikimedia commons

thanks to extrait.it for the in situ reportage

Tauer Perfumes Zeta: fragrance review & draw

Andy Tauer, enfant gaté of the niche universe, and deservingly so, excells in three things in his fragrant sonatas: hesperidia, rose and resinous, hazy vapors smelling of earth and dust. Getting two out of three in his upcoming fragrance Zeta isn't half bad. After all, how could a letter named after the Greek alphabet be bad in my world? In fact Zeta hints at the beloved honeyed Tauerade (the base that permeates most of Andy's perfumes) and will therefore appeal even to those who are not on a first-name basis with either hesperidia or roses. But even non-fans should give at least a cursory sniff to Zeta because it's truly very appealing, an ode to summer, an elegy of sensuous pleasures.

Tauer wrote a haiku to preface the fragrance:
"Linden shade in June
Sweet rose petals and the light
of Syracusa"

Because of this Italian reference and of the Greek letter in the name, I like to evoke Grecani music in my mind: that is songs of the Griko minority (Italians of Greek extraction, going back to the 8th century BC when the island of Sicily and Southern Italy were colonised), a mix of the two Mediterranean languages, κατωϊταλιώτικα, rolling on the tongue with their richness of vowels. So does the perfume, bathed in the warm light reflected on ochre and sienna stucco walls...

Zeta may come as a surprise to those reading that it's built on citrus notes (bergamot, lemon and mandarin), as it is above all s-o-f-t. Not a sharp, pinching, screechy note in sight, no sourness either, a concern sometimes with fragrance including roses. After all, Andy explored the more high-pitched notes in Un Carillon pour in Ange, where he mollified lily of the valley into submission, exhaling its best with a touch of melancholy. Zeta on the contrary is a muted, soft, melding fragrance, tender like cats paws and happy like producing a smile on a newborn's face.

The linden blossom extract is a CO2 product, ensuring a high quality essence. The fragrance is almost flavoured by the linden, reminiscing me of edible linden or rose honey I used to buy when galivanting on the slopes of Zakinthos island in the Ionian Sea, rather than merely the delightful blossoms on the tree. The balance between sweet and citric is beautifully played: Zeta keeps it steady and nice without veering into sugary. It also doesn't produce any pee notes in my skin, as some honeyed fragrances are accused to, sometimes.

The plushness of the rose essence here exhibits both aspects of the natural flower: the citrusy fruitiness nuance of a mandarin compote, but also a greener nuance, closer to neroli or geranium. Rose by its nature comprises hundreds of molecules in its essence, presenting such diverging facets as leomngrass, artichoke or lychee. Flanked by orange blossom absolute, the lushness is self-evident: The honeyed note of the latter invests the former in a bath of light; like opening the French windows on a bright summer afternoon and letting the sunshine come make love to you like a Mediterranean lover.
The fragrance also includes notes of ylang-ylang (subtle, not all-out-tropical) and the all inviting base of orris, sandalwood and vanilla: Almost a blatant come hither! But still, the mood is happy and tender, never poseur. If you have sampled his Une Rose Chyprée or Cologne du Maghreb, you know what I'm talking about. The embrace is billowy-silky, lightly musky, somewhat dusty and sweetly milky, full of expensive raw materials: Zeta not only feels natural, it feels luxurious and it surely must be in formula to compound terms. This is something that cannot always be said for fragrances in current production and for that reason you should definitely sample it while current batches last; next year might bring changes to the raw materials that might slightly shift it.
Colour me impressed.

I have 3 deluxe sample sprayers to send to lucky winners. State in the comments what impresses you about Tauer's perfumes or what does not and what you'd like to see in his next fragrance.

Notes for Tauer Perfumes Zeta: lemon, bergamot, sweet orange, ylang, orange blossom absolute, neroli, linden blossom, rose, orris, sandalwood and vanilla.



Zeta will be available in mid-April 2011. Zeta forms part of the "Collectibles": low volume perfumery, limited by the availability of raw materials that may change from year to year, but not limited edition.
This concept allows Andy to create and present perfumes that he otherwise could not. The Collectibles will be housed in the classic pentagonal 50ml bottle but in green glass with a silver label. More info soon on Tauer Perfumes.

Picture of Sicilian paysage via Ezu/flickr (some rights reserved)
Disclosure: I was sent the sample vials by the manufacturer.

Guerlain Rouge Automatique lipstick: a Nostalgic Dip into Perfume Names Archives

It's fascinating to see what a historic perfume house like Guerlain can do with archived names. In this case, they're creating a covetable triumvirate: the brand, the perfume names, the new lipstick: with Guerlain Rouge Automatique the house revives many of its fragrance names into lipstick formulae encased into a small jewel for the purse; a lipstick into a retro retractable case that will officially launch in April. The necessity of using old names is of course inescapable: On the one hand, the desire (and the need) to maintain a link with heritage and tradition. In the case of some old perfumes, a necessity in order to keep competitors from using names in the long history of the house. On the other hand the ease of using already copyrighted names, thus bypassing a time and energy consuming task. It's interesting to see that some of the names concern recently discontinued fragrances, so the desire to keep the name running is -hopefully- optimistic.


The story of Rouge Automatique reads like an historian's wet dream:

While searching through the immense Guerlain archives, Olivier Échaudemaison (Guerlain Artistic Director for cosmetics) found a small Art Deco wonder created in 1936 that captured his attention: the original “Rouge Automatique.” Though the legendary lipstick’s craftsmanship and hand finishes were commonplace at the time, the lipstick packaging was a revolution in itself with its single hand push to reveal luxurious color. Olivier now reinterprets Rouge Automatique for the 21st century – re-innovating the piece as the first lipstick without a cap and with an application technique requiring only a single hand.
With “Ne m’oubliez pas” (Forget me not) in 1870, Aimé Guerlain was the first to create the wax lipstick in a gold plated tube – inspired by a cylinder used to mold candles. The new Rouge Automatique builds on this heritage with a lipstick encased in a sleek, structural, gold chamber. Simple, clever and coveted. An elegant accessory steeped in history. And featuring an innovative new formula with a fine, sensual texture that glides over lips to melt on the mouth like second skin…



The collection comprises shades (and names of classical and more modern fragrances) for everyone. [Wherever there is a highlighted link below, I have linked a review of the accompanying perfume]:

Unforgettable Beiges

• 100 Après l’Ondée
• 101 Voilette de Madame
• 102 Ne M’Oubliez Pas
• 103 Chant d’Arômes
• 104 Jicky
• 105 Vol de Nuit

Passionate Reds

• 120 Coque d’Or
• 121 Rouge d’Enfer
• 122 Liù
• 123 Habit Rouge
• 124 Samsara
• 125 Vega

Flamboyant Oranges

• 140 Mitsouko
• 141 Quand Vient l’Eté
• 142 Fleur de Feu
• 143 Nahéma

Loving Pinks

• 160 Bal de Mai
• 161 Cherry Blossom
• 162 Bloom of Rose
• 163 Rose Bengale
• 164 Chamade
• 165 Champs-Elysées
• 166 Shalimar
• 167 Guet-Apens
• 168 L’Heure Bleue

Guerlain Rouge Automatique will be available in April 2011 at $35 at select locations of Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and at Bergdorf Goodman.

Thanks to Donna/POL for bringing this to my attention. List of numbers & names via temptalia. Inside the Rouge Automatique box pic taken by Evachen212 on twitter. Pic of original 1936 ad via maddyloves