The winner of the draw...

...for the Lutens purse sprayer is Katrina. Congratulations and please send me your shipping data in an email using the Contact so I can have this in the mail for you shortly.

Thanks everyone for the enthusiastic participation and till the next one!

By Kilian Good Girl Gone Bad, Forbidden Games, In the City of Sin: new fragrances

After the Eastern-inspired Asian Tales fragrances released very recently by Kilian, a new triad with naughty-evocative names is the next project of the Hennessy heir, stepping into the Garden of Good and Evil.
As you can read below there is a bit of seducer/sinner hyperbole in the ad copy, which might -just might- create expectations beyond the realistic or adversely open up the gates of ridicule among the snarkier perfume aficionados...but that remains to be seen. (They also have a Prohibited in Colors clutch bags collection right now exclusively at Harvey Nichols Pacific Place Level 1 Kilian counter)

What do you think of the following descriptors? Tickling or Ticking? The notes sound very tempting at any rate!

 "Good Girl Gone Bad is a composition of fruits and flowers, a perfume as bewitching as bursts of laughter, a barrier moved beyond, a forgotten prohibition. The fragrance opens on the fresh sweetness of a floral nectar. The ephemeral innocence of the petals of Jasmine Sambac connects with the tender, apricot-kissed tonalities of Osmanthus. The resulting voluptuousness is barely suggested but insidiously addictive, completed by the honeyed facets of the Rose of May. The heart gives way to the troubling and fascinating character of Indian Tuberose. Its round milky notes give off a floral opulence, saturated by toxic Narcissus. This combination brings an unexpected green tension, a unique narcotic depth. A sillage of Amber Vegetal passionately envelops all this floral beauty in a warm and sensual veil, irresistibly feminine. Over it all, the White Cedar confers a dense and powerful woodsiness, like a final vibration.

 Forbidden Games embraces the temptation that leads to wild abandon. The dark addictive nectar of fruits mesmerizes, teasing and seducing the senses. Forbidden Games opens on a potpourri of fruits—Apple, Peach, Plum— spiced by Cinnamon bark of Laos. Then the perfume advances into a lush, exuberant floral heart—Bulgarian Rose Orpur, Geranium Bourbon, and Midnight Jasmine— before disappearing slowly into a sweet confection of Madagascar Vanilla, Laotian Honey, and the spellbinding resinous oil of Opopanax.

  In the City of Sin is a place of extreme temptation where every street corner offers the possibility of impromptu encounters and seductions. In the City of Sin embodies the temptation that leads to carnal desire. This fragrance is a rich composition of Fruits and Spices, Flowers and Woods, in which the essence of fruits liquefies and melts onto the heady woods. As an opening, we meet an explosion of Bergamot of Calabria, Pink Peppercorns and Cardamom from Guatemala. The perfume then evolves into a heart of Apricots and caramelized Plums held in check by the Turkish Rose Absolute. A light haze of Indonesian Incense entrances and then lends a profound depth, further sustained by Atlas and Virginia Cedar woods and rich Indonesian Patchouli."


Let me hereby reveal other names for By Kilian fragrances soon to be implementing the line: Dangerously in Love, Light my Fire, and Kisses don't Lie [ed.n: oh yes, they do!]

descriptions via press release

Tom Ford Le Jardin Noir collection~Cafe Rose, Jonquille de Nuit, Lys Fume and Ombre de Hyacinth: new fragrances

The new fragrances introduced in the populous Tom Ford Private Line are united under the concept of 'dark' flowers in the new collection Jardin Noir with purple-tinged labels on uniform black bottles. The Jardin Noir collection by Tom Ford includes Café Rose (Coffee Rose, a floral based on rose), Jonquille de Nuit (Night Jonquil, a "yellow floral" based on narcissus), Lys Fumé (Smoky Lily, a spicy animalic with lily) and Ombre de Hyacinth [sic] (Hyacinth's Shadow, an earthy floral featuring green hyacinth), according to WWD.

The new fragrances in the Tom Ford Le Jardin Noir Private Line will be available in 50ml Eau de Parfum concentration, aimed at both sexes, wherever the private line is stocked.

Please consult this link to see which of the Tom Ford Private Blend fragrances are kept in production and which are discontinued to make room for the new ones.

Serge Lutens Santal Majuscule: fragrance review & draw

The majestic scent of sandalwood stands as the benevolent Hitopadeśa tales of the Far East, a fan of fantasy woven in didactic morals for princes, much like the precious real fans carved out of the prized wood for cooling off in the intense heat of the Indian peninsula; rich, milky-smelling, with a hint of incense and fresh greenery at times, still retaining their scented glamour as decades go by. The intimate, elegant aura of woody fragrances finds its apogee in sandalwood; perfumes plush and collapsingly soft but with the promise of intelligence. Santal Majuscule by Serge Lutens just comes to reinforce this notion as introduced on these pages a while ago, being the perfect sandalwood starter fragrance for those seeking such a thing, but also a welcome Lutensian offering to make me fall again headfirst into his Alice in Wonderland private cosmos I found myself tangled in ever since he issued the sumptuous La Myrrhe. Lutens however remains Lutens: the orient is ever present, but it is the occident which defines his torturing demons. His new Santal Majuscule is an assured step in his Camino de Perfección, modeled after St.Teresa of Ávila whose Latin motto seals the fate of the fragrance: is it the throes of passion or the throes of divine ecstasy that mark the lines of her face? Where does one end and the other begin? Her devotion of silence is symbolic of the enigmatic nature of the Lutensian opus itself.

 "Pride must be celebrated. Thus the boy, clad in armor and perched on his horse, along with a terrible princess in full mourning dress, pictured himself arriving at the Coronation Mass to the sound of thundering hooves, just at the moment of the transubstantiation, that very moment when the priest holds the host up to the cross, to the one agonizing on it."

"As you know, there are a wide variety of sandalwoods. Mysore is one that has been subjected for some time to a hidden trafficking. I had used it in the mid 90s, during the creation of Santal de Mysore. Santal Blanc is another thing. Regarding Santal Majuscule, this is an Australian sandalwood, high quality, but with this release, I 'sensationalized' it so much that in the end, it is impossible to tell if it comes from India, Australia or elsewhere. What interests me is what I can do with it. Moreover, using sandalwood for itself alone would be a little 'Sandalwood of misery'...."               Serge Lutens quote from  interview bestowed to Elena Vosnaki

It's not hard to see why sandalwood ~despite having another two in the line already (Santal Blanc recently being moved into the Paris exclusives line to couple with the resident Santal de Mysore)~ was picked yet again as the foundation on which Lutens built his church, to paraphrase another religious reference. Sandalwood is the natural product par excellence, nature's agony and ecstasy: a scent so fine, so rich and yet with a fresh top note, so creamy sweet and so enduring, that it has inspired generations of men and women to harvest its precious, sacred trunk in order to imbue products for personal, religious and public use with its fine aroma. Although as explained in my Raw Material Sandalwood article the Mysore variety is rationed for fear of depletion (hence the wealth of synthetic sandalwood substitutes enumerated), the polished silkiness of the Indian variant could be mimicked creatively only by the choicest wizards of perfumery. And who more excellent than the mercurial figure of Serge Lutens to offer us a vista into the orientalia of a "nouveau sandalwood"?

The maestro revealed to me in an interview (replete with his childhood reminiscences of classroom ennui) that Santal Majuscule is technically based on the Australian sandalwood variety (which smells different), but I can attest the perfume ends up smelling like an radiant attar procured somewhere close to King Víkrama's lion-throne, creamy and luminous in its rose-distillate facets, sprinkled with promise of cocoa and soft spices (cinnamon), silky sheen with a hint of orange blossom honey and sweet incense in the background. After all, Lutens managed to inject a delicious effect of sandalwood in his savory gourmand fragrance Jeux de Peau, where the impression is again built on fantasy.
 For Santal Majuscule, perfumer Chris Sheldrake and Lutens weaved the familiar web of woody tonalities which they have composed a thesis and a meta-thesis on, ever since Feminite du Bois (the latter alongside Pierre Bourdon). But whereas their other woody compositions can veer dark and rather brooding (see the patchouli & cocoa fantasy of Borneo) and we know from Iris Silver Mist and Tubereuse Criminelle the master has a taste for the morose and the morbid, here the treatment is smiling; petal-soft, sweetish (but never much) and with an elegance and refined allure that defies preconceived notions. The rose is perceptible, but not "dated", The apricoty tinge gives just the right fruity, almost edible tenderness, an ally to the liqueur-like essence of Damask rose and the creaminess of the woods. But the fragrance is far from his Rahat Loukhoum gourmand quality you can give yourself cavities with, making it pliable enough for people who don't like double helpings of anything.

The composition of Santal Majuscule also defies ~especially upon drying down on the skin~ the familiar, been-there-done-that rose attar model of the Middle East: that traditional "A Thousand and One Nights" melange of rose and sandalwood, as recognizable as Aladdin's cave in the desert. The longer the fragrance stays on skin (and it stays on very long) the more it gains a skin-scent aura of musk and honey, animalic yet elegant, with an addictive character, unisex and inviting; like living, breathing, caressed human skin this close to the throes of (divine?) ecstasy.  As Serge says: "Obey what you smell, feel, love. Do not obey what you're told, and do not believe it too much!"[from same interview to the author]
Given all this, I just can't wait for Une Voix Noire, his next installment in the canon.

Compared to the other two sandalwood fragrances in the Serge Lutens line of perfumes, Santal Majuscule is less sweet than Santal Blanc, less daring and austere than Santal de Mysore. Contrasted with that other golden standard of sandalwood perfumes, Tam Dao by Diptyque, I find myself ensnared by the Lutens, mainly because where Tam Dao used to be true and rich, it now boasts a pronounced pencil-shavings cedarwood note which limits its prior rich versatility.

Santal Majuscule is available in Eau de Parfum "haute concentration" (i.e. the slightly pricer than normal black label line of high concentration) at Les Salons du Palais Royal in Paris and online. Starting September 1st 2012 the new "export" fragrance will be sold worldwide.

A generous decant sprayer of the latest Lutens perfume is available for one lucky reader! Please let me know in the comments what you like or not about Lutens and sandalwood perfumes in general. Draw is open till Friday 27th midnight internationally. Draw is now closed, thanks everyone for participating.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Serge Lutens perfume reviews & news, Sandalwood in Perfumery, Woody Fragrances


pic of statue via thecoincidentaldandy.blogspot.com

Interview with Trudi Loren and Tarek Atrissi for Aramis Calligraphy

"I think there are very few fragrances that are still on the market after 50 years that are classics. The Aramis brand itself is still in the top 20 in many countries around the world and in fact is number one in several. A classic fragrance is one which has sophistication, a signature and is identifiable with quality raw materials." Thus proclaims (quite rightly) Trudi Loren, vice-president of corporate fragrance development worldwide for Aramis, who says Calligraphy by Aramis contains rose and jasmine absolutes alongside a lot of natural notes; petrulli, cardamom and myrrh.

Estée Lauder launches Calligraphy with a special proviso: created specifically for the Arab region and designed for women and men, its aim is to commemorate the founding of its iconic fragrance house Aramis almost 50 years ago.

 The graphically heavy bottle is the artwork of graphic designer Tarek Atrissi, who says "Calligraphy in Latin is one word but in Arabic it's two, and that became the whole concept to play with; mixing the two words and mixing the contrasts of the project. For example, because as it's a genderless scent the design had to appeal to men and women so the two words are very contrasting in style. One is more geometric script and the other is more organic, traditional, artistic script. Also mixed in there is the idea of tradition meeting the contemporary."

 Quotes and whole interview on The National.