Tea With the Maharajah – Penhaligon’s Vaara Perfume Review

It seems that Penhaligon’s are in the mood to spoil us with not one, but two new perfumes this year. If you are too impatient to wait for the arabesque of iris that is Iris Prima that is due to launch in September, then worry ye not, as this month the brand have unleashed a brand new Eau de Parfum that most definitely deserves attention.

‘Vaara’ is the name of Penhaligon’s latest offering and it takes inspiration from the Royal House of Marwar-Jodphur in Rajasthan. Created by venerable perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour (also responsible for Amaranthine and Sartorial) Vaara was commissioned by His Highness Maharajah Gaj Singh II to commemorate the birth of his granddaughter, Vaara.

To capture the sights, sounds and scents of Jodphur, Duchaufour took a trip to India (the lucky boy gets to go to all of the best places) and explored the world of the Maharajah. The result is a truly exceptional composition (I’m so smitten I wore it as my graduation scent) that is not only evocative of a geographical location but also captures the spirit of an exotic and lavish way of life.

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Do You Believe in Fate? – Amouage Fate Woman and Fate Man Perfume Reviews

I didn’t envy Amouage the task of topping their masculine & feminine duo from last year. Both Interlude Woman and Man were triumphs of perfumery, taking chaotic notes and throwing them together to create two challenging, yet wearable (and not to forget bloody gorgeous) fragrances.

This year’s duo – Fate Woman and Fate Man – certainly have big shoes to fill and it appears that Creative Director Christopher Chong has pulled out all of the stops to create two fragrances that are bold enough to mark the “end of the first cycle of the Amouage narrative” and leave one excited for exactly what wonders the beginning of the next cycle may entail.

Fate Woman (created by perfumer Dorothée Piot) and Fate Man (created by Karine Vinchon) “explores the uncertainty of the future and the universal principal by which the order of things is inescapably prescribed” and in their own, very distinct ways illicit polarising responses. They, as with many Amouage perfumes, are for those that adore excess and do not shy away from bold statements.

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The Iris Arabesque – Penhaligon’s Iris Prima Perfume Review

Perfumers and brands can take their inspiration from a wide variety of mediums when creating a perfume: music, nature, people, memories, places and food; just to name a small few. As perfume lovers we welcome a wealth of muses – after all it’s always interesting to see perfumes based on new and exciting things rather than the usual set of notes and themes.

Penhaligon’s is a brand that seems to have a far reaching nose, in the sense that they like to seek out unusual inspirations and over the years have created a number of perfumes inspired by weird and wonderful things. Take their wonderful Sartorial for example, a fragrance that accurately captures the scent of a Saville Row tailor’s workroom or the equally-wonderful Juniper Sling, a perfect olfactory tribute to the quintessentially English drink of Gin.

For their latest offering, the brand has teamed up with English National Ballet to create a fragrance that captures the spirit of the ballet – a perfume that they describe as being “a work of olfactory choreography”. Having had exclusive access to dancers Nathan Young and Lauretta Summerscales, in addition to behind the scenes visits, perfumer Alberto Morillas has created a beautiful ode to the most graceful of dances.

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Fatal Attraction – Amouage Opus VII Perfume Review

There should be a club for those that consider themselves as ‘Amouage Addicts’. We could all sit around discussing our adoration for the Omani house, pouring over our favourites and consoling each other over the fact that we’ll never be able to own them all. One matter that definitely would not be up for discussion however, is the idea of giving the house up any time soon. It’s simply not on the table.

We are truly helpless really, what with the annual masculine and feminine pairings. Not to mention special editions such as Beloved and the highly artistic and fascinating Library Collection. The truth is that we are mere lemmings for Amouage and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

This year’s addition to the Library Collection is Opus VII. Created by perfumers Pierre Negrin and Alberto Morillas it “arouses the juxtaposition of harmon with the intensity of reasoning between conflicting ideas and beliefs” [1]. Much like the chaos of the Interlude duo from last year, Opus VII appears to take a slightly more abstract approach with its dark black flacon serving as a small hint for the wild ride that’s unleashed upon the very first spritz.

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Is Gaudiness the Closest Thing to Godliness? – Versace Eros Perfume Review

As a fashion brand I have the greatest respect for Versace (admittedly less-so with Donatella at the helm) – they know how to make gaudy look glamorous and are at their very best when they are being as showy as possible. As a perfume brand Versace is less attractive, again their older stuff is good (I’ll always have a soft spot for Blue Jeans and Versace Woman, and Blonde is pretty awesome) but their newer stuff is very much lacklustre at best.

So it was with mixed expectations that I approached the brand’s latest masculine offering ‘Eros’. On the surface Eros appears to have everything you would want in a Versace fragrance – tacky bottle (it’s positively wonderful in its tackiness), ridiculous, over-the-top advertising (see here) and a Tanorexic muscly adonis fronting the whole thing – but as we all know in the world of fragrance, appearances can be deceiving.

Eros takes its name from Greek mythology, specifically the Greek God of Love. Created by perfumer Aurélien Guichard (Bond No 9 Chinatown and all of the new Robert Piguet fragrances and re-issues) Eros is described by Donatella Versace as being for “a man who is own master and who defends his own ideas and goals. He is a hero.” We know exactly what Donatella’s idea of a hero looks like but what does he smell like?

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Flower Water Chic – Thierry Mugler Angel and Alien Aqua Chic Perfume Review

It’s almost impossible to believe that the first day of Spring has already arrived. Looking out of the window one is greeted by flurries of beautiful but ultimately inconvenient (and more than a little bit annoying) snow. To put it in to context, at this time last year it was a rather more palatable 21 °C and today it’s… – let’s not depress ourselves shall we?

Whilst this blogger may not be ready for spring his favourite perfume brand – Thierry Mugler – certainly is. This month sees the release of their annual ‘Aqua Chic’ editions of pillar fragrances Angel, Alien and Womanity. All three of which are reinterpreted as fresher, livelier and more aqueous perfumes.

For the Aqua Chic editions both Angel and Alien have been redressed in floral waters – rose and orange blossom respectively – to create summer-infused perfumes that are more than welcome to turn our SAD minds to think of warmer, happier and decidedly less blizzardy days.

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In the Mood For Oud? – Maison Francis Kurkdjian OUD Velvet Mood, OUD Cashmere Mood and OUD Silk Mood Perfume Review

If I were to pose most perfume-addicts the question; “are you in the mood for oud?” the response would likely be a resounding ‘no’, with a good few exasperated sighs and possibly one or two slaps to the face for good measure. The simple fact is that oud, the noble rot from the Aquilaria tree, is over exposed in the world of perfume and one cannot step into their local fragrance hall without being bombarded by “THE LATEST OUD FRAGRANCE FROM XXX” or “LOOK, WE’VE MADE A PERFUME AND IT HAS OUD IN IT, ACTUAL OUD (KINDA, NOT REALLY)!”.

But I refuse to be disheartened by the oud trend, because that’s exactly what it is – a trend, and we all know that trends are transient in nature, meaning that it’ll all be over before we know it. In reality this trend is far from being all bad, after all there are some great oud-based scents out there (check out my Guide to Oud), with perhaps the best in most recent years being Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s incandescent OUD.

“The creation of the OUD mood collection is a tribute to the type of perfume that makes you feel as if you are wrapped in a rare, delicate material, one that is in perfect harmony with a warm, gentle, refined state of mind.”

Following on from the success of last year’s incandescent OUD, Francis Kurkdjian has added not one, but three new oud fragrances to his Maison. Named ‘OUD Mood’ this collection takes inspiration from the soft feel of fabric, namely; Silk, Velvet and Cashmere. Each one offering a brand new and interesting texture of oud and serving as a wave of refreshment for tired, bored and frankly cranky perfume lovers.

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Gotta Love That Gorilla – Gorilla Perfume Furze & The Voice of Reason Perfume Reviews

As a die-hard fragrance nerd it’s difficult not to love Gorilla Perfume, the fragrant arm of those smelly bath purveyors Lush. For one, they march to the beat of their own drum, drawing inspiration from subjects as varied as Thai Ladyboys and Italian showers. But perhaps most importantly they are an outfit that champions that old idiom “It’s all about the juice”, caring first and foremost for the perfume above bottles and marketing.

This passion for perfume has allowed Lush to birth a line of beautiful, surprising and sometimes downright-wacky fragrances that challenge one’s notion of what constitutes a scent as much as they serve to inspire and foster a life-long love for all that is perfume. It sounds corny but it is brands like Gorilla Perfume that are the reason why I love perfume, when there is so much to be cranky about they have the ability to restore one’s faith in perfume and make one smile with a single spritz. You gotta love that Gorilla!

Late last year Gorilla Perfume launched 12 new fragrances (that’s right -12) under a new collection entitled ‘Volume 2’. The overall look of this new collection feels like a shift in direction for Gorilla Perfume and I’d say the scents themselves follow suit. There seems to be less focus on the cartoonish hijinks of the past and greater emphasis on a more mature approach – dare I say that our Gorilla may have grown up?!

I was sent a few of these new scents to try and today I’d like to share with you my thoughts on two of the most intriguing; Furze and The Voice of Reason.

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Globetrotting – Ormonde Jayne Tsarina, Nawab of Oudh, Qi and Montabaco Perfume Reviews

From Latin America to China via Russia and India and the Gulf

If I could change one thing about my life it would be to ensure that I was better travelled than I am. In my head I long to be a great explorer scouring every corner of the earth. I want to walk the Great Wall of China, taste the street food in Mexico, eat lobsters in Maine (it all comes back to food with me), play with the cats at the cat cafe in Tokyo and float around the streets of Florence , but the problem is, I’m a bit of a wimp.

So, as much as I wish I’d visited all of these places, and I do truly hope to one day, I haven’t, in fact up until a few years ago I hadn’t made it further than France. It’s appalling, I know. Luckily for us armchair explorers, with Ormonde Jayne’s latest collection ‘The Four Corners of the Earth’ one can visit the most exotic destinations without even removing one’s pyjamas. So over the last couple of weeks I’ve been to the Gulf, Russia, Latin America and China…

For the Four Corners of the Earth collection Linda Pilkington and perfumer Geza Schoen have taken Ormonde Jayne on a trip round the globe, soaking up the sights, smells and colours of four distinct cultures without diluting the brand one bit, and this is what makes the collection so excellent; the fact that despite the strong influences of their respective homelands, each fragrance still very much follows the Ormonde Jayne signature of refined, elegant fragrances. After all, it’s not just where we go that shapes who we are, it’s where we come from too.

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The Candies 2012: The Very Best and Very Worst Perfumes of 2012

I can’t believe it but it’s the end of 2012 already, which means that it’s time for us perfume bloggers to put together our lists of the very best and very worst perfumes of the year, honestly, where did the time go?! This year I’m affectionately entitling my awards ‘The Candies’ as a short, punchy alternative to The Candy Perfume Boy Awards. Neat huh?

Across all genres there have been many interesting, exciting and unique perfumes unleashed on to the market along with the usual amount of celebrity dreck, dud flankers and down-right-bizarre niche offerings. All-in-all it’s been a busy year with over 1,300 launches. Impressive but exhausting!

Below you will find my awards for Best Masculine, Best Feminine and Best Unisex Fragrances for both niche and mainstream houses. In addition to this I’ve also included awards for Best Flanker, Best Celebrity Fragrance and Best Ad Campaign. But we’re not just celebrating the very best of perfumery in 2012 here, no sir, we’re also highlighting the very worst with the Sour Candy Award, reserved solely for the naffest perfume of the year.

So I hope you’re wearing your very best frock (or tux for the boys, or frock if you prefer, it’s up to you really) and sipping on some fine Champagne as The Candies 2012 are underway…

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