My review of Sexy Ruby by Michael Kors. On Escentual now. Clicky here to read.
Review
There are so many fragrance launches each year it’s difficult to write about them all. Speed Sniffs is a way to bring you to the point reviews fragrances that are quick and easy to digest. 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…
When I first cast my eyes over ‘Y‘, the brand new fragrance from Yves Saint Laurent, I was super impressed with just how handsome the bottle was. I mean, look at it! That gorgeous shade of sky blue juice and that steely, silver Y that stretches across and around the glass – it’s all aesthetically very pleasing. Even the theme of the scent was appealing – an ode to the white t-shirt for generation y, with a rapper, a sculptor and artificial intelligence researcher fronting the fragrance. Everything is very cool, very current and very casual. It all looks and sounds excellent, but how does it smell?
Ruth Mastenbroek’s line of four fragrances is one the perfume industry’s hidden gems, but hopefully all of that is going to change and these fragrant jewels will be more widely known. Recently Ruth Mastenbroek rebranded, changing her bottles to feature a drop of perfume that depicts a scene specific to each fragrance (each one created through a detailed paper cutting technique). The idea is that every drop tells a story and no tale is exciting or as vivid as the one for Ruth’s brand new fragrance ‘Firedance‘.
Firedance is a fragrance of celebration – of big occasions and small moments. When I spoke to Ruth about her new fragrance she told me that her children had got married and she now has three grandchildren, which “feels like a wonder”. Firedance was born out of the contentment of these moments – it’s “the dance of one’s spirit – the energy of it”, which seems fitting as Ruth also told me that if she wasn’t a perfumer, she would be a dancer. Firedance is a vibrant and explosive take on rose with the smokiness of leather to evoke fire, and like the rest of Ruth’s collection, you need to sniff it.
When it was announced that Christine Nagel would replace Jean-Claude Ellena as the in-house perfumer at Hermès I remember wondering whether the house-style that Ellena had crafted to be so distinct would change. Both are idiosyncratic perfumers with a bold style and Ellena’s mineral watercolours are as far removed from Nagel’s voluptous compositions as they can be. So we’re now four launches into Christine Nagel’s tenure at Hermès and it is safe to say that yes, the house style has changed from minimalism to a subtle maxamilism (i’m making that a thing, by the way), but it still remains completely faithful to the one thing that Hermès always delivers: luxury.
Hermès latest launch is Twilly d’Hermès – a fragrance named for the brand’s Twilly scarves, which are colourful, think silk scarfs that can be worn in a multitude of ways, and the scent really cements the brand’s new style, which feels a little bit more accessible. Twilly the perfume is just as vibrant as the scarves and Hermès use words such as “joyous”, “impish” and “playful” to describe it. The presentation, which sees the fragrance housed within a carriage lantern-style bottle topped by a bowler hat and finished with a Twilly tie, says that this fragrance is young, fun and full of surprises. So let’s not wait any longer and give Twilly d’Hermès a sniff.
There are so many fragrance launches each year it’s difficult to write about them all. Speed Sniffs is a way to bring you to the point reviews fragrances that are quick and easy to digest. 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…
Luxury goods brand Coach have overhauled their fragrance collection and it now consists of two pillars: Coach for Her and Coach for Him. There’s something rather clean and tidy about offering two fragrances and it seems like Coach have worked hard to ensure that their feminine and masculine pillar fragrances represent the spirit of the brand. They’ve worked with top notch perfumers and have even incorporated suede, a material so vital to the brand, in each of their fragrances. So the two scents from Coach are perfectly on brand.
Coach for Men, the masculine of the pair launched this summer and was created by perfumers Anne Flipo (MyQueen by Alexander McQueen and Basil & Neroli by Jo Malone London) and Bruno Jovanovic (Dries van Noten and Monsieur. by Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle). It’s a fragrance “inspired by mavericks, rebels and all-American dreamers” and fronted by Actor/Director/Artist James Franco, which all sounds very interesting so let’s put it to the speed sniff test!
Sorry for the radio silence, I’ve been somewhat under the weather. Normal programming will resume next week. Until then, enjoy my latest Escentual column – a review of the new La Femme Prada Intense & L’Homme Prada Intense. Clicky here to read.
“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! Just look at it! Isn’t it beautiful?
When Angel launched way back in 1992, Thierry Mugler was very keen on the bottles being refillable. The purpose of this was for two reasons; firstly, it’s ecological, but also the bottle was to become a beloved object that one kept forever and refilled whenever it ran out. The creation of Angel’s iconic star bottle was a technical feat that took years to get right, so it’s only fair that it should become such a treasured item. I remember speaking to a MUGLER Sales Assistant years ago who told me that she often refilled a vast variety of battered, bruised and well-loved Angel flacons at the source. So it seems that the wearers of Angel have fulfilled M. Mugler’s vision.
So I’ve been a bit naff with posting regular vlogs…
I had originally intended to post a new vlog every week but I fear that this may have been a tad optimistic (what with this blog, Fume Chat podcast, Escentual columns and full-time job etc.). Instead of every week I’ve decided to commit to posting seasonal round-ups (like my ‘Six Scents for Summer‘) and reviews of big launches – i.e. the launches I think you want to know about.
With big launches in mind, my latest vlog is a review of Gabrielle by CHANEL. I wrote a full review of the scent at the beginning of the week (read that here) so it makes sense to end the week with the vlog. So if you want to hear me talk about Gabrielle a bit more then all you have to do is watch the video below the jump. Please feel free to leave a comment – oh and don’t forget to subscribe.
Smell ya later!
“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.”
Every now and then I like to revisit a perfume that I’ve not smelled in a long time. I find that one’s tastes can change dramatically over time, especially as the nose becomes educated more and more. I often find that fragrances I have dismissed previously leave a completely different impression when sniffed many years later. I’ve even owned bottles of perfumes and swapped them away because they weren’t ‘me’. But as I change, what I enjoy as a fragrances changes also. In certain cases I simply think that my nose wasn’t ready to appreciate what a fragrance has to offer.
So as part of my regular Candy Crush series (where I showcase scented things that are my latest obsession) I’m going to include the occasional fragrance that I’ve recently revisited and I’m crushing over. My tastes change so much over time and something I’d written off as ‘not for me’ years ago can be my latest obsession. My nose just wasn’t ready but now it is. So this week’s Candy Crush is just that: a perfume I’d previously ignored but I have found new love for. Enter Miss Charming by Juliette Has a Gun.
The Candy Perfume Boy 