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I’m always crushing on something scented or other. My nose knows no limits. Candy Crush is where I showcase the beautifully scented things I’m crushing on right now so you can hopefully develop a crush too.
Look! At! This!
Is it not a thing of beauty? A resplendent rock! A glorious rainbow of loveliness! A majestic talisman befitting of the iconic juice it hides inside. This is ALIEN by MUGLER housed within the new We Are All Alien Collector Bottle and it is simply a thing of beauty. Now, I could go to great lengths to explain exactly why this has made it to the Candy Crush list this week, but it’s kind of obvious, don’t you think? So instead, I’ll simply say this: look at it!
I love Britney Spears. I have done since ‘…Baby One More Time’ hit the airwaves in 1998. That’s twenty years of being a Britney fan. I grew up with her music so it would be pretty TOXIC for me to turn on her now. I mean, I LOVE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL but Britney is my favourite, her music makes me STRONGER and whilst SOMETIMES there have been FREAKSHOW moments and things have often been a CIRCUS, I have always ensured that I WILL BE THERE for Britney. I support Ms. Spears because she will always GIMME MORE and I’m LUCKY to have someone who will provide me with the daily motivation I need to DO SOMETHIN’ – to tell me to WORK BITCH when I most need it. Basically, Britney, what Im trying to say is that I’M A SLAVE 4 U and you can have a PIECE OF ME whenever you damn well please.
OK. I’ll stop now. I promise.
Music career aside, Britney has had huge success with her perfume empire. Fantasy is one of the best selling celebrity fragrances on the market and has outlasted so many others from a whole host of her contemporaries. It’s also the best example of a fruity, cupcake floral there is and you can come at me if you think otherwise. This summer, Britney is treating us to a brand new fragrance – the provocative Prerogative, which takes its name from her hit single (a Bobby Brown cover) and Greatest Hits album. Prerogative is designed as a “break the rules” kind of a fragrance, created for all Britney fans, regardless of gender. It comes with the battle cry that we can all do whatever the hell we want. Well what I wanna do right now is review the heck out of this fragrance, and if Britney endorses that with this “do whatever you want” scent, I’m a do it.
If there is one fragrance I’m asked for my opinion of more than any other it’s Aventus by CREED. Seriously, I regularly get emails from readers or DMs on social media from followers asking me what I think about this super popular masculine fragrance. Aventus has achieved cult status amongst fragrance obsessives and casual observers alike. It’s a perfume I find myself talking about a lot – I so often have conversations with men about Aventus, whether they are into perfume or not, because it’s often the first fragrance they mention. But why? What makes Aventus special? Why has it resonated so well? I’m genuinely curious.
Aventus launched in 2010 – the year that the house of CREED celebrated its 250th anniversary. According to the brand, CREED perfumer Olivier Creed was inspired by Napoleon Bonaparte, choosing to use a host of ingredients that had a link to the French military leader. Structurally it is not an unusual fragrance – the top notes are fresh and citrussy (bergamot, blackcurrant, apple and pineapple), whilst the rest is floral, aromatic and warm (jasmine, rose, patchouli, amber etc.)
So, what is all the fuss about?
I think it’s been a long time since I’ve fallen for a new Serge Lutens fragrance. Perhaps it was La Religieuse in 2015 or La Fille de Berlin in 2013, I can’t remember, but I know it has been a while! I adore many of his back catalogue greats (especially L’Eau Froide, Tubereuse Criminelle, Sarrasins, Iris Silver Mist, Feminite du Bois, and Fleurs d’Oranger) but many of the new ones have failed to resonate. There have been interesting elements to his fragrances of late, but it seems that he has moved away from the dense orientalism and fleur fatale inspirations of his past, opting for yet more abstraction in fragrances that don’t really make as much of a mark.
Well, I am pleased to say that Lutens’ ‘meh’ streak has come to an end with the latest addition to Collection Noire (the most widely available Lutens collection): Le Participe Passè (The Past Participle). In the usual Lutens way, the perfume is presented with little information other than a riddle that is difficult to decode, with Lutens only telling us this: “past moments that surge into the present have many scents. I have interpreted that which most evokes the past.” Thanks for that, Serge – real helpful! Anyway, this new scent is more than a riddle or a description, it’s something much more than that – Le Participe Passè is quite the spectacle.
No matter if or how you celebrate, I wish you all a very, merry Christmas and a happy holidays. I look forward to bringing you all more exciting fragrant content in 2018. Here’s to a very happy (and of course, incredibly smelly) new year.
Looking for some inspiration to scent your home this Christmas? Check out my latest Escentual for some beautiful home fragrance (featuring Acqua di Parma, Comme des Garçons & Annick Goutal) to enhance your Christmas decorations. Click here to read.
The Candy Perfume Boy 