Le Secret d'Arielle by Mauboussin: new fragrance & collaboration

News of a collaboration between French jewelers & fragrance brand Mauboussin and French-American actress & singer Arielle Dombasle left me with an instant feeling of heightened, impatient expectation. The reason is twofold: on the one hand the great reputation of Mauboussin perfumes (not to mention the diamond jewels!), on the other the notoriety of Dombasle as a true lover of perfume. In fact, her signature scent has long held something of a fascination to me, back when I was compiling my perfumes worn by celebrities list almost 15 years ago, being highly responsive to her personal choices.

Pierre Olivier Deschamps photography

"Whatever her raison d’être française — like playing catch-up for having been born in the United States and raised in Mexico — she has mastered that oh-so-French savoring of every delicious whiff of life that Americans, as the prejudice goes, like to turn up their noses at.
That is evident by the cloud of perfume in which she arrives for lunch; let others travel by car. “I can live without lipstick, without a hairbrush, but I cannot live without perfume,” she said. “What did the kings bring to the baby Jesus? The ingredients of perfume. It’s the basis of ... ” She trailed off, gesturing as if to indicate the whole world. [...]
Dombasle is not content just to dab on a bit of store-bought stuff, a 20th-century practice she derides as lacking in imagination. Rather, she concocts her own mixture from Cuir de Russie by Chanel, Aromatic Elixir by Clinique and a cheap off-brand white musk she stockpiles from a shop on the Lower East Side. (NYC) "
[source]

Her new fragrance, in collaboration with Mauboussin and the perfumers in charge of creating the formula, is called Secret d'Arielle and comes in a 30ml extrait de parfum. If you want to read a review of it, there's one on Fragrantica.

For those of you wondering: the star of David on the bottle probably alludes to her Jewish husband, French philosopher and writer Bernard-Henri Lévy, affectionately referred to as BHL by the French. Apparently my eyes are not as they were. It's a pentacle.

Fragrance Choices of the Famous...Again

When back in 2000 we first started putting out the fragrances chosen by the rich and famous (and several historical personages in the mix as well, including royalty) we had been compiling for years in what culminated into the Fragrances that Famous People Wear list, we had no idea this feature would be so popular. Now it seems magazines online pick up on our crumbles and the rest of the celebrity frag listers by mentioning these date for easy-lazy reportage. The latest article on the Daily Gossip is just that, picking alphabetically a handful of names to kickstart an article about fans who want to fashion themselves about their favourite stars. If your favourite star is between Adriana Lima and Dita von Teese, you might find some suggestions to at least inspire your next sampling spree.