Fragrances Boutique

If you’ve been following perfume news over the past month or so, you’ve probably noticed that Gucci Guilty is one of this fall’s major launches, complete with full-page ads and scent strips in fashion magazines, a movie-star “face,” a television commercial with a theme song, a somewhat hyperbolic press release, a tie-in to the MTV Video Music Awards, and the now-requisite Facebook page. It’s being promoted as a fragrance for a “21st Century beauty” who is “young, audacious, discerning…an iconoclast who lives life at full throttle…sexy and slightly dangerous.”

Guilty’s bottle is certainly eye-catching: it looks like an oversized, gilded (gilty?) Gucci purse clasp or belt buckle, with its unmistakable interlocking “G”s creating a window onto the juice inside. Gucci devotees will want to own Guilty for the container alone. The fragrance is classified as a floriental, with notes of mandarin, pink pepper, peach, lilac, geranium, amber, and patchouli.

Guilty seems to be more of a sheer, fruity oriental than a floral oriental…

I recently heard an interview with Bonnie Blodgett (shown above right), who wrote a memoir about the experience of losing and rediscovering the sense of smell. I am intrigued, and have placed this book at the top of my reading list.

If you, too, have read or are planning to read Remembering Smell, let’s chat about it. How about an October book club…

Actress Diane Kruger for the new Calvin Klein Beauty.

Deal at artisanparfumeur.us: get free shipping, no coupon code needed, offer good through 9/15.

Deal at beautyhabit: get a small cosmetic bag from A Touch Of Ivy with any purchase of $85 or more using coupon code MINIME, good through 9/15.

New at dil…

Victoria’s Secret has launched Bombshell, a new fragrance for women:

Sexy today. Sexy tomorrow. Sexy forever…

Todo lo relacionado con los intereses del hombre, el cuidado del cuerpo y el cabello, la moda y las últimas tendencias>

Penhaligon’s has added two more fragrances to their Anthology collection (”breathing new life into fragrances from our archive”), Jubilee Bouquet and Zizonia…

We’ve got ten Scent Genie 4 ml atomizers (”Refills in seconds with the GenieS pump n go patented filling feature” — you can watch a video to see how it works here) up for grabs. US residents only, sorry!

Want one? For a chance to win, leave a comment…

New at escentual (UK): Lolita Lempicka Minuit Noir, Guerlain Idylle Eau de Toilette.

New at first-in-fragrance (Germany): Annick Goutal Rose Splendide.

New at macys: Beyonce Heat Ultimate Elixir, Gucci Guilty.

New at selfridges (UK): Juicy Couture P…

In case you thought it was only women who were regularly subjected to overenthusiastic photoshopping, just take a look at poor Matthew McConaughey, the front man for Dolce & Gabbana’s new The One Gentleman. Read more here and here. The title, by the way, comes from McConaughey’s statement to People magazine about the inspirations for [...]

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Laura Mercier will launch Creme de Pistache, a new fragrance in the Eau Gourmande collection, in October…

Acqua di Parma has “re-styled” original Colonia* (introduced in 1916) to produce the brand new Colonia Essenza. I’ve recently seen Colonia Essenza in two big department stores: Holt Renfrew in Vancouver, B.C., and Nordstrom in downtown Seattle. Holt Renfrew sells the fragrance only in the men’s department; but so far, Nordstrom displays Colonia Essenza with women’s fragrances — even though there’s an Acqua di Parma section in the men’s perfume boutique. Colonia Essenza is, in stores and online, sometimes referred to as a men’s fragrance and other times as a women’s perfume, but I think Colonia Essenza is a classic cologne-for-all…even children can wear it.

Colonia Essenza includes notes of bergamot, tangerine, lemon, orange, grapefruit, petitgrain, neroli, clove, rosemary, lily of the valley, rose, jasmine, patchouli, vetiver, white musk and amber. Colonia Essenza starts off smelling like a crisp orange blossom Eau de Cologne. As orange blossom fades, warm, but still pert, citrus peel aromas appear and lead directly to Colonia Essenza’s floral heart notes…

Ed Hardy will launch Born Wild, a new duo of fragrances for men and women, in November.

Ed Hardy Born Wild For Women (shown above) ~ “Let this daring fragrance take you on an adventure…

The long version of the new Bleu de Chanel commercial, featuring French actor Gaspard Ulliel directed by Martin Scorsese. You can find several “behind the scenes” videos at the Chanel channel at YouTube.

The music is She Said Yeah, originally by Larry Williams, covered here by the Rolling Stones.

Below the jump, Gaspard Ulliel (briefly) interviews Chanel house perfumer Jacques Polge (in French with English subtitles).

Tauer Perfumes will launch two new fragrances at the end of September, Eau d’Épices and Une Rose Vermeille…

Deal at crabtree-evelyn: get free shipping on purchases that include any item from the new Iris collection; expiration date unknown.

New at dillards: Juicy Couture Peace, Love & Juicy Couture, Givenchy Play for Her.

New at macys: Guess Seductive,…

Christina Aguilera will launch Royal Desire, her latest perfume for women, in September. The new fragrance is “dedicated to women who feel like queens”…

The [water] guns were tied by the dozens to park fences and hung from trees. They could even be found tied to the brakes of bicycles. Each gun had attached to it a short note to which had been applied a sample of the perfume. The perfume, of course, had dried, but the card claimed [...]

Sensuous Noir is one of two flankers from Estée Lauder this summer, the other being the Pleasures Bloom that Angie reviewed yesterday. I have always had a soft spot for Pleasures: whenever I smell it I am brought up short again by how great it smells, and it’s so much better done than the many other squeaky-clean florals of its ilk. Still, I have absolutely no desire to own or wear it. Sensuous is another matter. I would not argue with anybody who said Pleasures was the better fragrance of the two, but Sensuous was the one I bought. The pale honeyed amber works perfectly as a casual, not-quite-oriental (and not particularly sensuous) fragrance and wears well in almost any weather; it is one of my (many!) “what to wear when you don’t want to think about what to wear” scents.

Sensuous Noir, I take it, is supposed to be the sexy, evening-wear version of Sensuous. Estée Lauder is calling it a woody chypre…

Amouage will launch Memoir Man and Memoir Woman at the end of September:

Inspired by the decadent mien and genius of the 19th Century French poet, Charles Baudelaire…

New at beautyhabit: Juliet by Juliet Stewart. New at harrods (UK): Givenchy Play for Her. Deal at thefragranceshop.co.uk (UK): spend £10 or more, get a free ‘golden ticket’ scratch-off card (prizes include vacations and a chance to meet Ryan Reynolds). New at theperfumeshoppe: Serge Lutens Bas de Soie, L’Artisan Coeur de Vetiver Sacre. New at [...]

Armand Basi has launched L’Eau Pour Homme, a new fragrance for men inspired by the sea and developed by perfumer Francis Kurkdjian…

Smelling good is a potent sign that we have made an effort, we are intending to please, that erotic adventure (her fingers dropping with myrrh) may be on our mind but being civilised is even more so. As an eccentric Cambridge academic once observed to a friend-of-a-friend: “After a certain age, dear, a little lipstick [...]

Le Labo will introduce Another 13, a new limited edition fragrance made in collaboration with AnOther magazine:

AnOther Mag and Le Labo met and fell in love…