Cologne She'll Wear…

She'll come, she'll go. She'll lay belief on you.
Skin sweet with musky oil. The lady from another grinning soul.

Cologne she'll wear. Silver and Americard.
She will drive a Beetle car and beat you down on cool Canasta.

The Great She Wolf

Feast your eyes upon one of the (less than) 30 limited edition engraved bottles of Serge Lutens's Louve perfume bottle. The familiar aesthetic will warm the cockles of every sincere collector's heart. The Iron Cross will create discussion…

"The she-wolf returns to her den, leaving nothing but her footprints in the snow.
Shining like a seven-pointed cardinal star.
Engraved with the cardinal coat of arms in enamel."

Numbered from 1 to 30, dated and monogrammed edition.
An exclusive bottle, hand engraved.
A few bottles (3 at the time of writing) are available through the online boutique for 800 € each.

Perfumes of the Rich & Famous: the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge and the Beckhams -what do they really wear?

"More than a third of Britons believe they know whether a date is "the one" within seconds of meeting them after catching a whiff of their fragrance", as quoted in an article in the Daily Mail.

via tumblr

Beyond the obvious (catching a whiff of a childhood scent like your mother's can be relaxing or that smelling something unpleasant might get you off your food for a while) the article goes into mentioning a few mega famous people's choices. If you have been following the Perfume Shrine you know that the Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge is a no brainer, and you even had info on the scent of Kate Middleton's wedding day promptly reported, but the rest is interesting.

"With input from expert master perfumer, Penny Williams, they found two high-profile celebrity relationships had strong scent compatibility ratings.

Indeed, both the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and David and Victoria Beckham had scent compatibility ratings of nine out of ten.

With Prince William wearing Ralph Lauren Polo and Kate wearing Dior Dune, Penny Williams said their choices 'complement without clashing'."

Something tells me they have both moved on (Kate was reported to wear Dune as a student), scent-wise, but let's not spoil it for the Daily Mail. They carry on:

"Meanwhile, David Beckham wears his own cologne Instinct and Victoria opts for Anna Sui's Sui Dreams, Chanel No.5 and her own Intimately Beckham.

Mrs Williams, who has worked in the industry for 24 years, added: 'Her collection of scents range from everyday to spritz [sic: did she mean "glitz"?]. This suggests a multi-tasking lifestyle and fragrance used for benefits beyond the scents themselves. If he wears Instinct and she wears Sui Dreams, it's very harmonious.'"

I bet Victoria has hundreds of bottles back home, if only as gifts from all the designers she is in contact with. 

But the crucial point is: do you match your fragrance with your partner's? Please share in the comments. I find it a great idea myself, more on which on a subsequent article. 

Vintage Advertising Champions: Replique

via pinterest

Raphael's famous Replique perfume (long discontinued*) didn't shy away from bringing forth the animal in him.

*Replique perfume remains available in the States, sold since 1999 as part of longlostperfume.com. A glorious rich chypre. Original formula recipe dates back to 1965. 

Two Sides of Dear: Demystifying Patou's Joy Perfume Promotion

Common perfume lore wants it that Jean Patou's iconic perfume Joy has been presented to the American public with the tagline "the costliest perfume in the world". This was supposed to be a slogan coined by Elsa Maxwell, the famous columnist and gossip, who thought it a great boost in 1930 when Joy was introduced to the American market at the era of the Great Depression, as the American clientele of Jean Patou shrank. It was supposed to be an undaunted affirmation of its luxury status, instantly making it more desirable over others to those who could afford to buy it. (Perfume positioning and the tactics to market it haven't radically changed over the decades, have they?)

vintage Joy perfume ad found via ebay

But "I am very moved by one detail", as the poet Cavafy would say. The perfume was composed and launched in the chic Parisian atelier of Patou in 1926, for his loyal customers. The French advertisements beautifully promote it at a later date with a French tagline "Le parfum le plus cher (du monde)". On first glance this isn't incongruous with the American tagline, it looks like an exact "translation". [Incidentally it was also promoted with the taglines "le parfum roi" -aka freely translated as the king of perfumes- and "le joyau des parfums", i.e. a parfum bijou, a jewel of a perfume.]

The wonderful thing about it is that in French the word cher has a double entendre. It would best be translated not by "costly" to denote this, but by "dear". Dear as in costly, yes, but also as in beloved, as precious. Therefore the French tagline for Joy better reflects both its exalted status in the ballpark of top quality raw materials used, but also its popularity and preciousness as an objet d'art in the hearts of those who love it and wear it regularly. It also reflects better its real price in modern market terms, as it has been surpassed as "the costliest perfume of the world", even within the Patou canon (their "1000" extrait is officially admitted as costing more to produce than the respective Joy)

A linguistic detail in the chaos of perfume writing, but an important one, I feel.