Michelle Yeoh for Guerlain: new face

Famous faces haven't been in short supply these days at Guerlain: Natalia Vodianova (face of Shalimar, Parfum Initial and also the classic Shalimar), Nora Arnezeder (for Idylle) and Hilary Swank (for Insolence). This alpha team is joined by ~ageless! can you believe she's 50?~ Malaysian born, Hong-Kong based actress and producer Michelle Yeoh.

Funnily enough, it won't be just for her high cheekbones, balanced features and truly amazing skin that she Michelle Yeoh is promoted as a Guerlain ambassador (although she is used for all that too), but also for her potential to introduce the idea and magic of fragrance to the Asian market. "Beyond our success through our innovations in skincare and make-up, since 1828 the heart of Guerlain beats in perfume, still quite distant in the culture of our friends in Asia. Michelle Yeoh will be our guide to introduce our Asian customers into the magical universe of our perfume creations", according to Laurent Boillot, PDG at Guerlain. He adds: "“Beyond being a beautiful lady, Michelle defends several causes, she is a woman of conviction and we are pleased that she is now going to defend the causes of beauty and elegance in the French way, for a company which for 183 years has been transmitting the values of courage, creativity and refinement”.


It remains to be seen whether there will be separate advertisements for  existing Guerlain fragrances for the Asian market fronted by Michelle or whether there is a new fragrance in the works specifically targeted for that demographic.

Photo of Michelle Yeoh at the flagship Guerlain store in front of the famous chandellier with all the glorious Guerlain fragrances via Paperblog.fr
Photo of Michelle Yeoh with orchids via newzy.net 

Interview with Melissa Ceria, director of Art de Vivre programs at French Institute Alliance Francaise

"Perfume is an ephemeral thing, but it has a lasting effect on people". As I hear those words in the melodious cadenza of Melissa Ceria's voice I find myself nodding my head appreciatively. How many times have we not marveled at the power of fragrance, its mystique, its pull, its ability to inflict guttural responses, but also its ethereal quality of having the potential of an objet d'art.
Melissa Ceria, director of Art de Vivre Programs at The French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) in New York City, graciously granted me an interview in which we talked in detail about their upcoming Series Le Parfum: The Power of Fragrance, we had announced on Perfume Shrine a while ago. (Please refer to our timetable, descriptions on which perfumers to meet and ask questions of, tickets and links on our Art de Vivre announcement).

Melissa is a joy to talk to, a mother and professional who takes the time to answer questions with great care and genuine interest. She's generous and forthcoming with information and someone who really "gets" what makes a perfume lover tick. After all, she used to collect miniatures at the ripe age of 11 and dream of how these scents expressed her budding femininity. She's one of us!

In her words: "There is also a very aspirational angle in wearing perfume. Who do we become when we spray on our favorite perfume? Does it help us project a certain image of ourselves? (We make demands of perfumes.) Women want to get inspired by perfumes, to dream a bit. Advertising images especially cater to that, but also the whole experience of packaging and names and presentation, all these things inspire responses from women."

For the Art de Vivre series of exciting events scheduled as Le Parfum: the Power of Fragrance, kick-starting today, she invited Christophe Laudamiel, who will introduce samples provided exclusively by the perfume museum, L' Osmothèque (where he's co-curator), therefore rare and covetable by all serious perfume lovers, letting audiences discover an array of scents and their stories. Next, she introduces a panel of acclaimed professionals in fields having to do with fragrance and scents, who will discuss the influence of fragrance on identity, memory and desire. Last but not least, Melissa organizes "Speed Smelling", "a really great way for the audience to get to experience the work of great perfumers working today. They will have the chance to see what inspires a fragrance (Anything from grapefruit to graffiti, we say!) and meet with no less than 9 renowned IFF perfumers [...] as they unveil personal creations composed around elements that have inspired them. Each perfumer will sit at a table with guests, talk about their sources of inspiration and then reveal the perfume they created around those ideas. None of these fragrances are available on the market, so there's a surprise element to this that's fun. Attendees will be able to smell, ask questions, interact with the perfumers. Each session with each perfumer lasts for 5 minutes and then attendees will hop to the next table and meet the next perfumer! "

This is a piece of a greater piece. You can read the whole interview on this link on Fragrantica.

Giveaway: Win a Real Grain of Natural Ambergris

The amount of feedback and requests with questions concerning natural ambergis I have received has been amazing. I have explained about natural ambergris as a perfumery material in the past (contrasted with synthetic woody-ambers) and posted about cooking with ambergris and the joys of actually eating it (yes, you read this right), so it was only natural that adventurous readers asked me about sources and details.
I came to realize that for some of them the whole subject sounds totally inaccessible, so in the interests of being a good sport & doing a public service (and at the same time drawing out some of our lurkers; come on, we welcome questions, there is no such thing as a stupid question) I'm offering for grabs ~out of my own personal stash~ one gram of natural ambergris, ethically harvested from the shores of New Zealand for one (ultra) lucky winner. It will be sent raw in a small glass vial by me to anywhere in the world and you can keep it as is, tincture it in perfumer's alcohol for use in your mixes or just for reference, or cook with it and see what all the fuss is about.

In order to participate in the draw you need to answer to these questions in the Comments:
1) Do you find the PerfumeShrine  aroma-materials articles useful as they are or do you have suggestions for them to get better? How?
2) Do you want more materials or terms defined for you? Which ones?

Draw is open to everyone (Anonymous users will be counted by the time-stamp of their post), wherever you are, and will remain open till  Monday 7th Nov. midnight. Good luck to all!

Edit to add: the photo shows genuine ambergris, a HUGE "Yeti" piece provided by natural perfumer AnyaMcCoy 

Eva Mendes Talks on the new Thierry Mugler Angel Eau de Toilette

Sexy Latina actress Eva Mendes is fronting a soaring best-seller in the perfume world, which now comes in an updated concentration, Angel Eau de Toilette, and she reveals to us what she thinks about being the face of Thierry Mugler's Angel fragrance as well as her memories & musings on the actual scent. Enjoy!

How did it feel to be offered to be the muse for Thierry Mugler's Angel?

Eva Mendes: “I was so excited to collaborate with Thierry Mugler, because it’s a scent that I grew up loving. It came out while I was still in school, and both of my sisters and my mother liked to wear the fragrance. It’s really nostalgic for me! Mugler was definitely a big name in our household when I was a kid.”

You know that women who wear Angel don't change perfumes.

EM: "Yes, it's because it's so special! I recall my mother advising that I should choose a perfume that trails, that stays in the room after I have left to make my absence felt. That perfume can only be Angel".

Which do you prefer? The new eau de toilette or the older eau de parfum?

EM: "Both, so I can wear Angel all day long. The lighter concentration in the mornings, the more intense in the evenings".

How do you like to apply fragrance?

EM: "I love to spray it on my wrists, but also on the back of my neck and in my hair, I find it very feminine...".

 Past modeling by Eva Mendes includes fronting the Calvin Klein brand, both in print ads and commercials. The billboards for Calvin Klein were deemed overly sexy at times, while her TV-commercial Secret Obsession was banned in the USA for being too sexually provocative. By contrast, her collaboration with the Clarins Group ~who handle the Thierry Mugler portfolio~ has not had any of the same problems.

And just for the heck of it, here's the original music sung by Noel Harrison from the 1968 classic film The Thomas Crown Affair starring (the ultra cool) Steve McQueen and (the divine) Faye Dunaway.



certain info via Vimadonna & Instyle

Madonna to Launch her "Truth or Dare" Fragrance

Arguably late on the bandwagon of the celebrity scent phenomenon and a dollar short, the former pop queen of the universe is issuing her first fragrance under her brand bearing the name Truth or Dare, after her (demographically older aimed) lifestyle collection. Sales predictions talk about 60$mil by the end of the following year.

According to WWD, the fragrance Truth of Dare by Madonna will be a Macy's exclusive in the U.S., hitting shelves on March 26, 2012. The scent, as it turns out, was inspired by the star's mother:

“She always smelled like gardenias and tuberose, an intoxicating mixture [that was] feminine and mysterious. I wanted to re-create this scent, but with something fresh and new about it as well. Something honest and yet daring -- hence the name Truth or Dare.”

We had always heard that Madonna loved classic Piguet fragrance Fracas (a lush, creamy tuberose perfume) exactly because it was her mother's scent (Actually in the mid-90s when the Piguet line was re-issued almost everyone in the media it seemed fwas coming forth claiming Fracas was their mothers', grandmother's, avourite nanny's etc. scent, but I digress). The Madonna perfume reportedly includes fragrance notes of gardenia, tuberose, lily, neroli, amber, and musk. The scent will be encased in a white bottle embazoned with a gold M with a cross through it, and topped off with a round gold cap.