Smelly News: Madonna Truth or Dare Perfume Commercial

Put the bondage mask down Madge – it’s for your own good!

After a brief hiatus due to a big wooly mammoth-sized dose of university work I am very pleased to be returning to the blogosphere once again and apologise for the huge lack of posts over the last few weeks. Before my full comeback tomorrow, which will kick of with a write-up of last week’s Perfume Lovers London Leather Event, I thought I would share the commercial for Madonna’s highly anticipated debut fragrance ‘Truth or Dare’.

Now, I am a Madonna fan, I have been for years and despite the fact that my interest in the Queen of Pop may have wained since her last album (I refuse to acknowledge Hard Candy as a legitimate Madonna album – it’s just better that way) I must confess that I am back in full M-obsession mode since the release of her latest album MDNA. This, plus the impending release of her first fragrance has me breaking into spontaneous fits of gay hysteria, so please do humour me slightly with this post.

Truth or Dare is reported to be a big white floral and seeing as it is coming from a woman who’s favourite fragrance is Fracas, I rest assured that it will be a relatively-decent perfume. That aside, I think we can all agree that the commercial for said fragrance is absolutely diabolical. Sometimes Madonna just tries to hard and whilst the whole look (and name) seems to be straight out of the Blond Ambition era (when she was at the height of her fame), I can’t help but feel that it seems dated and pointlessly ‘erotic’. I mean, was there really a need for the bondage mask?! Oh, and don’t get me started on the fact that she has used her worst ever single as the soundtrack! C’mon Madge – you’re better than that!

Shoddy TV commercial aside I am still VERY excited about Truth or Dare and cannot wait to get my greedy little hands on a bottle. More info on Truth or Dare below the jump…

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Pretty Simple and Simply Pretty – Stella McCartney L.I.L.Y Perfume Review

“The smell of the English countryside in spring time”

L.I.L.Y is the latest fragrance from British fashion designer Stella McCartney. It very much marks a break from tradition for McCartney, whose other fragrances have all be a variation on a theme, namely that of her eponymous debut fragrance ‘Stella’. I love Stella, as far as designer fragrances go it is pretty well done and my sister wears it religiously so I have a strong connection to it, but I am very glad that McCartney is branching out into new fragrant territory with L.I.L.Y.

Where Stella was an ode to rose, L.I.L.Y is, as the name suggests, an ode to the lily of the valley. Lily of the valley is a flower which yields no scented oil yet so evocatively represents the smell of the English countryside in spring time. It’s both beautiful to look at, and to smell, and it represents all that is innocent and virtuous about the world. Lily of the valley is simply one of the world’s most precious of joys.

L.I.L.Y is described as an “evocative scent made up of Stella’s most treasured moments” [1]. Its name stems from her father’s nickname for her mother; ‘Linda I Love You’, and the Lily of the Valley used in the fragrance is reminiscent of her wedding bouquet. For L.I.L.Y, McCartney has aimed to create a perfume that is personal to her, rather than Stella McCartney ‘the brand’. In this world of hyper-focus-grouped perfumes, I can’t help but find the personal touch applied to L.I.L.Y utterly refreshing.

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Naked in Rome – Juliette Has a Gun Romantina Perfume Review

Juliette Has a Gun is the spunky niche brand from Romano Ricci – great grandson of Nina Ricci. The name is taken from Shakespeare’s most famous heroin and the gun that she brandishes is a metaphor for her perfume, which she uses as her weapon of seduction. Juliette Has a Gun has a kick-ass attitude, she’s a gal with tons of moxie and takes no prisoners.

There are currently 8 perfumes in the line, well 7 if you you decide not to count ‘Not a Perfume’, which I’m not, because it isn’t a perfume and it gets on my nerves. Anyways, Romantina was released last year and is Juliette Has a Gun’s latest perfume. With Romantina, Ricci adds something new to the line – its very first white floral, that at first seems quite out of place amongst the mixed bag of misfit characters that hang around with Juliette and her Gun.

Romantina (I love that name) is described as “an ode to insouciance” [1] and is based on a modern love story. Like the other perfumes in the line, Romantina has a strong character, but rather than being a bad-ass bitch, it exudes a confident innocence that if fallen for, can prove much more deadly. When I received my sample set I immediately reached for Romantina, I am a white floral lover after all, and whilst it may be an ode to insouciance, my feelings for it certainly aren’t indifferent.

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Clash of the Titans – Serge Lutens Muscs Koublaï Khän vs Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle Musc Ravageur Perfume Reviews

As Autumn and Winter draw in, it becomes time for us Perfumistas to have a wardrobe reshuffle. We put away our lighter, airier perfumes and drag out our rich orientals, warm woody florals, mouthwatering gourmands and our musks. In autumn and winter we look for those fragrances that bring us comfort when it’s cold and those that match the colours and festivities of the cooler seasons.

Muscs Koublaï Khän (Serge Lutens) and Musc Ravageur (Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle) are two of the most popular musk fragrances on the market, in fact they have reached cult status amongst Perfumistas and love them or hate them, nobody can deny that they are both formidable characters.

Despite the fact that they are both so popular and are both musk fragrances, Muscs Koublaï Khän and Musc Ravageur are two very different fragrances, in fact the similarity stops with the ‘Musc’ in both of their names. In this review I’m going to put pitch these two ‘Titans’ head to head to see which will be the victor and earn the accolade of ‘King of Musks’.

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I Want Candy – Prada Candy Perfume Review

I want Candy, I really do, out of all of the fragrance launches in the last few months Prada Candy is one of the only ones (other than Amouage Honour Woman of course) to push me to start screaming ‘I MUST HAVE THIS!’

Candy is the latest release from Italian fashion house Prada, and it follows such excellent fragrances as; Infusion d’Iris, Infusion d’Homme and L’Eau Ambrée and therefore it has quite a lot to live up to. The fragrance is described as “a different facet of Prada’s femininity, where excess is everything.” [1]

Well, I don’t now about ‘excess’, but this is most definitely a very gorgeous and chic fragrance.

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