Perfume Review: Love the way you Taste By Kilian

I have had so many bad mojitos in my life – you know the ones, they cost a bomb and have a despairingly unfavourable ice to alcohol ratio with far too many mint leaves for something that is not a herb garden. I do not have time for these naff mojitos – I just want to get tipsy without having to drink 40 of them, dropping £300 in the process. Honestly, if I had £1 for every bad mojito I’ve ever drunk, well, I could probably put my funds towards a bottle of something from By Kilian, which is quite handy because their mojito inspired fragrance, the cheekily named ‘Love the way you Taste‘ is a damn good interpretation of one of the world’s most iconic cocktails.

Love the way you Taste is part of the brand’s new limited edition ‘Miami Vice Collection’ (the other one in the collection being ‘Love the way you Feel’ – Kilian really does like a naughty name) which celebrates Kilian Hennessy’s love of Venice Beach, it’s colourful nightlife and deco architecture. They call it a “sophisticated mojito cocktail in a refreshing fragrance” and it seems that they have created exactly that – a refreshing sip of Venice Beach ready to liven up your summer!

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Perfume Review: Straight to Heaven Extreme By Kilian

More! More! More! That’s what we want! Give us more!

Us greedy perfume lovers are very lucky because the perfume industry serves us up an all you can smell buffet with every kind of fragrance imaginable. There are fresh aperitifs, rich main courses evocative of exotic cuisines, and not to mention the desserts – oh the deserts! The perfumery dessert cart is filled with chocolate parfaits, rose macrons and candy floss knickerbockerglory sundaes. What’s more, this entire buffet is endless and brands are constantly us up more – more in the form of new treats, all for our insatiable appetite for scent.

This need for more doesn’t just apply to the volume of scent though, no, it also extends to the intensity of the fragrances we wear and one can guarantee that, when a brand launches a popular scent there will be an ‘intense’ or ‘extreme’ version that follows. Often, these flankers can be a little bit superfluous but sometimes they can do something really wonderful by giving more of the scented goodness that made the original so good. A perfect example of an ‘extreme’ done well is the new Straight to Heaven Extreme from By Kilian, which takes the booze and woods of the original, and intensifies them, resulting in something utterly excessive.

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Perfume Review: Gold Knight By Kilian

2017-10-18 00.19.33 (1)

Doesn’t time fly? French niche brand By Kilian is celebrating their 10th anniversary already! It only feels like yesterday when they launched L’Oeuvre Noire, their debut collection of fragrances that contained such beauties as Love (Don’t be Shy) and Beyond Love (Prohibited), and many more. By Kilian has been on a massive journey since then, launching a veritable feast of fragrances, candles and even jewellery, not to mention the fact that the brand was acquired by Estée Lauder in 2016. It’s been an incredibly fragrant odyssey and to celebrate, Kilian has just launched two golden perfumes for their tenth anniversary in a new collection entitled ‘From Dusk Till dawn’.

Those two perfumes are Gold Knight and Woman in Gold, and they take inspiration from Gustav Klimt, coming housed within a (rather substantial) golden clutch that reinterprets the artist’s famous work ‘The Kiss’. The focus of this review is Gold Knight, the masculine scent in the pair and easily the stand out of the two. Gold Knight is inspired “the dashing, golden-armored chevalier in Klimt’s 1902 Beethoven Frieze” and is described by Kilian as being a woody oriental. It’s a perfume that lives up to its golden name, presenting something dazzling, bold, muscular, and undeniably ‘by Kilian’ in every way, shape and form.

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Speed Sniff: Noir Aphrodisiaque By Killian

There are so many fragrance launches each year it’s difficult to write about them all. Speed Sniffs is a way to bring you quick and easy to digest reviews o fragrances in a paragraph or two. After all, sometimes all one needs is a few lines to capture the essence of a scent. Speed Sniffs are perfume reviews without all of the faff and tell you whether the subject is something you want to sniff or not. So hurry up and read, because we don’t have much time…

By Kilian like to do things to excess, whether that be creating decadent, cheeky fragrances or posing suggestively with pythons. Whatever the brand does they ensure that they never do it by halves and this is evidence within their vast collection of opulent perfumes. By Kilian creates traditionally French perfumes but in an entirely modern manner. Their latest Boutique Exclusive, the dark and seductive Noir Aphrodisiaque feels completely in tune with their distinct style – it’s excessive, sexy and lots of fun.

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Perfume Review: Black Phantom ‘Memento Mori’ by Killian

There are many things I appreciate about the By Killian brand but above all I very much enjoy their sense of humour. In a world where fragrance is taken so seriously, to the point of it being almost painful, Killian Hennessy comes along with his cheeky smile to save the day. Kilian’s opulent fragrances are housed within dramatic packaging that verges on over the top (NEVER a bad thing in my book), often boast cheeky names such as Voulez-vous coucher avec Moi, and have also been known to smell like forbidden/addictive substances such as marijuana. Kilian’s world is one of fun where decadence and debauchery are embraced wholeheartedly. So yes, I’m here for By Kilian and their domain is my kind of place to be.

The latest scent to be added to the By Kilian lineup is Black Phantom (created by Perfumer Sidonie Lancesseur) and as far as cheekiness goes, well, Mr Hennessy has gone all out. Where to start? Well, the slogan for the scent is ‘a little party never killed nobody’ and the box, well, the box is quite something! Atop Kilian’s signature black lacquered box sits a skull, rising out of the the lid with a somewhat sarcastic smile. Not to mention the fact that Mr Hennessy has forgone the standard Perfumer/Creative Director mugshot of posing pensively with a series of smelling strips and has instead donned some rather impressive shirt sleeves and has posed rather foppishly with a jet black skull as if it were a crystal ball. It’s a bit Mystic Meg and it’s wonderful.

But what about the fragrance? Well Black Phantom the fragrance has some rather intriguing inspirations, taking its name from “the dusky shade of a pirate galleon” whilst speaking of scent-soaked sails, ghostly spectres, rum-spiked Irish coffee, cyanide and “the eerie clash of spectral cutlasses”. It’s all so ridiculous, entirely fun and really effing cool. As Kilian says “if it’s dirty, kinky, naughty, messy, or just plain wrong, I want it” and we want it too, so bring it on Mr Hennessy!

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By Kilian, Burlington Arcade

2016-09-30-18-17-39 — By Kilian, Burlington Arcade

Burlington Arcade is London’s unofficial perfume destination. Its 196 yards host the likes of Penhaligon’s, Lalique, Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle, CHANEL, Doja Rove and By Kilian, making it an essential stop for any London tourist that is partial to a bit of perfume. The dainty Georgian promenade is a perfume-lovers paradise and quite organically offers a unpretentious, calm and accessible atmosphere that is seldom found in the city’s many department stores, which are so often crowded centres of anxiety, pushy sales people and too much perfume (if such a thing exists).

I was invited to Burlington Arcade to visit By Kilian’s only standalone boutique in the UK (they also have a boutique in Harrods’ Salon de Parfums) for a tour of the brand’s many scented options. Now, By Kilian is a brand that I feel that I’ve had limited exposure to. I remember being intrigued by some of the fragrances within the initial collection, which at the time of launch, seemed so different to anything else that was out there in niche. Since my initial exploration of By Kilian, the brand has exploded, offering a whopping 38 fragrances, home fragrance options and scented jewellery. Obviously I had some catching up to do so with my super-knowledgeable By Kilian rep as my guide, I got stuck right in.

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Looking Good and Smelling Fine – Black Tie Perfumes

Dapper — Looking Good and Smelling Fine [Image of Me at My Father’s Wedding via Peter Buncombe]

Awards Season is set to end this Sunday with the 86th Academy Awards (a.k.a. ‘The Oscars’) and the stars will be out in full force, donning their finest garb having spent hours preening their faces and coiffing their hair. Of course, us mere mortals will simply be watching the ceremony at home in our pyjamas, possibly scoffing on some popcorn in a nod to the wonders of the silver screen. Still, we can live vicariously through the glamour of the winners and losers, can’t we?

Thinking about the Oscars and the upcoming Jasmine Awards (for which I need to pick myself an outfit) led me to ponder over which perfumes are best suited to formal occasions. Most of the time I’m of the belief that one should wear whatever they heck they want when they want, but in situations where dress codes are enforced and one has to be smart, it can be beneficial to pick out a scent that is suitably dapper to match.

For this post I’ve put together some of my favourite ‘smart’ perfumes for black tie or formal occasions. They range from the smart casual to the well-tailored and the dramatic, and between them they serve as a mini-guide to picking that perfect scent for a special occasion. Most are unisex so are suitable regardless of whether you’re a guy or a girl and can be paired with a suit, tux or fancy dress to ensure that you’re looking good and smelling fine.

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Missing the Magic Touch – By Kilian Playing with the Devil & Musk Oud Perfume Reviews

By Kilian – the brainchild of cognac heir Kilian Hennessy – launched as a brand in 2007. Hennessy’s first collection, wonderfully entitled ‘L’Oeuvre Noire’, was an impressive outfit, consisting of rich, decadent and expertly created fragrances. Since then, By Kilian has been relatively prolific with its output, releasing a number of fragrances under its ‘Arabian Nights’, ‘Asian Tales and ‘In the Garden of Good and Evil’ collections.

Comparing the fragrance within these latter collection to those found in L’Oeuvre Noire leads one to question what happened to the brand. The more recent offerings have failed to capture the hedonistic magic of those initial fragrances, with none of the newer offerings being even remotely comparable to the photorealistic tuberose of Beyond Love, the film noir honey of Back to Black or rich, pink delicacy of Love.

This year By Kilian has added two new fragrances to its collection; Musk Oud and Playing with the Devil. Both are polar opposites in style, proving that as far as creative direction goes, Hennessy definitely understands and enjoys variety. On the downside however, they also show a continuing ‘watering down’ of ideas within the brand and when looking back at what By Kilian has brought to the table before, this feels very sad indeed.

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A Scented Summer Collage

As we head into September with the knowledge that the remainder of the summer season is short lived, I have found myself looking back over the last few months and thinking what a generally lovely time it has been. So much has happened already this year and I find myself feeling a strong urge to simply stop and take it all in.

Perfume has obviously played a big part over the summer and the fact that I’ll soon be retiring some of my summer scents in favour for my winter wardrobe has made me feel more than slightly melancholic about those scents which have carried significant favour through the hotter months.

In this post I’m taking a look back on the events of summer 2013 and the scents that have made it so fabulous. When I say scents, I don’t just mean the fragrances I have worn but also the odours that have accompanied many a wonderful occasion and have helped cement each day as a wonderful, joy-filled memory.

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More ‘Amber’ Than ‘Oud’ – By Kilian Amber Oud Perfume Review

Perfume fate seemed to happen last week. As I was planning The Candy Perfume Boy’s Guide to Oud, the postman bought me two oud-ie goodies – the first being my new bottle of Tom Ford’s Oud Wood and the second being a sample of By Kilian’s latest perfume ‘Amber Oud’. So it seems like last week was fated to be the week of the oud, and in keeping with that theme it only seems fitting to give Amber Oud a whirl.

Firstly, By Kilian has to be commended for their PR practices. Last year they offered members of The Kilian Club on their Facebook Page a complete set of samples from the L’Oeuvre Noire collection and now they have been kind enough to send everyone a sample of their latest fragrance ‘Amber Oud’, with the sole intent of introducing it to Kilian fans. Now, that’s good PR!

Amber Oud is inspired by greek mythology and is the latest addition to By Kilian’s Arabian Nights collection. It was created by Calice Becker and joins Incense Oud, Pure Oud and Rose Oud to become the fourth pillar within Kilian’s oud-quartet. Kilian says that Amber Oud “is borned in Heliades tears” [1] and with this new fragrance his objective “was to deconstruct/reconstruct the traditional “Amber” by taking the animalistic qualities of a dark “Oud” and adding richness through an overdose of “Vanilla” from Madagascar and “Benzoin” from Laos.” [2]

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