Don't let the seemingly elitist title deter you: Le Snob is a series of books on eclectic lifestyle little luxuries (whiskey, champagne and shoes...) and it so happens that perfume is the latest tome coming from none other than a friendly voice in the Internet, the man known to Net fumeheads as Persolaise, who's being wittily and successfully writing for the homonymous blog and for Basenotes.
‘A well-chosen scent can have a private conversation with its wearer for hours; it can punctuate the day with moments that range from moving to surprising to heart-breaking. The more we are able to understand the language in which perfume has this conversation with us, the better equipped we will be to discover and enjoy the experience of new fragrances.’
Thus was the book introduced to me by Dariush, politely and effortlessly, as befits his whole demeanor, who distilled his experience and his independent opinions in a slim volume out this October from the publishing house of Hardie Grant in the UK. To my understanding it's a guide into the most sought after fragrances, but also rich in advice on practical subjects such as storing fragrances correctly and learning about fragrance families and production techniques. Surely, a handy little tome like that that can serve as both a delightful distraction and as a helpful introduction into savoring perfume never comes out de trop.
You have read about the upcoming (gets released in November 2012) new scent from Puredistance, Opardu on these pages. The kind people at Puredistance were excited about the feedback of readers on these pages and decided to give away 35 luxe extrait de parfum samples to them.
via innerearthsoaps.blogspot.com
Since the scent is both delightful and light, I decided to group these into 10 lucky packages and a mega-package for one lucky reader (who will receive a pack of 5 samples, a sufficient quantity to last them a while!). All you need to enter is leave a comment under this post, saying what appeals to you in retro-like compositions of modern design (and if you have a favorite in this style, do mention that too).
Draw is open internationally till Friday midnight.
...for the newest Lutens fragrance is Memento1981. Congratulations and please e-mail me using Contact with your shipping details so I can have your prize out in the mail for you soon.
Thanks everyone for the enthusiastic participation and stay tuned for the next giveaway very very shortly! (actually in a few hours)
The melancholic timbre of Billie Holiday's voice, the "black voice" behind the inspiration for Serge Lutens's latest Paris-exclusive perfume, is reverberating through the unusual paths of the fumes rising from the bell-jar bottle with its beautiful brownish, maroon almost, shade of juice inside. The waxy, thick petals of gardenia with their irresistible browning that is poised between sweet rot and carnal abandon have a way of capturing hearts like mine...and Billie's too, who wore one tucked beneath her ear as a trademark. But to designate just gardenia to Une Voix Noire would be doing it a disservice.
Guy Bourdin photo via thinmoonsugar.blogspot.com
Gardenia and tuberose are olfactory allies in crime. Both nocturnal creatures with creamy white blossoms which exude a kaleidoscope of weird and wondrous facets, from sharp greenness that recalls camphor, to blue cheese and mould, all the way to meat rotting in the heat to help attract various pollinators, they're fascinating flowers to cultivate in a warm climate that oozes with the dangerous atmosphere of a film noir. Lutens and his trusty perfumer Chris Sheldrake have been no strangers to tuberose's wiles thanks to Tubereuse Criminelle with its jarring contrast of rough edge against smooth silk. But Une voix Noire is to gardenia a new take on the flower, less simplistic and more complex, with an abstract background that brings it closer to a Bois variation than a fleshy, photorealistic photo of the opulent flower with its blue cheese timbre that Tom Ford put in the forefront for his (now discontinued) Velvet Gardeniaor the spring-like styralyl acetate greenness it exhibits in Lauder's life-like, budding Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia. The candied plumminess of the cedar & fruits base is certainly progeny of the Feminite du Bois school of mock dilettantes (posing as less serious than in reality) and the rich, satisfying, warmly honeyed core to be explored on further wearings would be most pleasurably received by those who have enjoyed Mary Greenwell's Plum, Botytris, Jar's Jardenia and -naturally- the rest of the Lutensian series of "woody" cedar & fruits melange fragrances.
The perfumer and the art director play in chiaroscuro with extreme grace in Une voix Noire, bringing on an opening tuberose-gardenia note that is fresh and real but dissipates fast into clean and metallic notes that ring like cold air in the stillness of the night. Smoky and indolic, almost animalic facets slowly reveal themselves, darkening the proceedings through a sweetish, leathery, tobacco and boozy (rum, according to the official notes) phase which creates an effect worthy of a blues singer velvety sighing her pain into hard vinyl.
Like Billie's voice, Une Voix Noire is indelible...lasting a lifetime and then some.
Une Voix Noire is a Paris-exclusive Lutens fragrance available as Eau de Parfum 75ml in the bell jar bottles.
For our readers, a generous decant of the new Une Voix Noire is available. Draw is open internationally till Friday 28th midnight. Just answer in the comments what "a black voice" conjures up for you to be eligible. Draw is now closed, thank you!
The Robert Piguet company is compelled to revise the formulation of one of their beloved classics by perfumer Germaine Cellier, the bracing ‘Bandit’ perfume due to compliance with the latest regulations on allergens/irritants in the fragrance industry.
According to Basenotes: The current formulation was praised by Luca Turin and Tanya Sanchez in their perfume guide, but with changing regulation the company says it needs to address the issue: “The IFRA regulations on oakmoss make things so difficult for that perfume” says [Joe] Garces [CEO of Fashion Fragrances & Cosmetics] “If you keep changing and keep tweaking things you could end up with a different thing. I don’t want to spoil it so I’ve asked [perfumer] Aurelian [Guichard] to look at the whole thing again, to go back to the very original formula and take it from there.”
Given Guichard's delicate impressionist hand as opposed to the brutal fauvism of Cellier, could this pose a risk on effacing the sharp character of Bandit? Remains to be seen. Let's be hopeful and hope that we can sample for ourselves soon.
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