Scent a Celebrity Series: Gentleman, Spritz Your Perfumes – Scenting the Queens of RuPaul’s Drag Race

Gentleman, spritz your perfumes and may the best woman, smell…

I’m back, finally! After a month of painful wrestling with my dissertation and other nasty bits of uni work I can finally turn my attention back to my first love – perfume. The last month has been both stressful and refreshing – stressful for obvious reasons and refreshing because it felt like a good time to take a blogging break so that now, when all the work has been handed in, I can come back with a fresh mind and renewed enthusiasm.

Despite the absence of blogging during my uni-fest I have managed to stay (relatively) sane. This can be attributed to three things; the constant support of Nigel (my partner), a metric ton of Maltesers and a constant supply of episodes of my new all-time favourite TV programme – RuPaul’s Drag Race. That’s right squirrel friends, all one needs to get oneself through a tough time is a parade of drag queens…

If you haven’t had the pleasure of watching RuPaul’s Drag Race then; a) watch it now (go on) and; b) simply picture the model-filled runway of America’s Next Top Model crossed with the home-made fashions of Project Runway with a generous dollop of drag queen fabulous-ness on top. Now can you see why it is perhaps the absolute greatest thing on earth?

I love RuPaul’s Drag Race so much that I thought I would pay my own scented tribute to the queens that make it so darn sickening (that’s sickening in the good sense of the word FYI) to watch. So without further ado I present to you the latest instalment in the Scent a Celebrity Series, an episode containing perfumes and queens who display the ultimate levels of Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent – gentleman, start your engines, and may the best woman, smell!

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Scent a Celebrity Series: Scent Up Your Life! Scenting The Spice Girls

The Scent a Celebrity Series is my vain attempt at picking perfumes for those who don’t know any better, yes I mean celebrities. Let’s face it, most celebrities are incapable of choosing decent clothing/boyfriends/girlfriends/movies/insert-celebrity-mistake-here let alone having the ability to make decisions about something as important as their scent – that’s where I come in. Never fear my dear schlebs, I will ensure that you are appropriately scented, all you need to do is listen.

I am a child of the ’90s and I am not ashamed. Yes fashion-wise it was probably one of the worst decades but musically it was pretty ace, for it was the ’90s that bought us Brit Pop, Rave music and most importantly – The Spice Girls. Ginger, Baby, Sporty, Scary and Posh may have long gone their separate ways but I (and many other ’90s kids I’m sure) still hold a soft spot for these persistant purveyors of ‘Girl Power’.

To celebrate the world’s very best girl band I offer up a scented tribute of perfume selections that showcase the ‘zig-a-zag-ah’ that gave the Spice Girls their power. Mad, bad, ridiculous and brilliantly feminine these perfumes invite you to ‘Scent up your life’ and live just like the coolest thing to come out of the ’90s since MC Hammer and his Harem Pants.

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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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The Joy of Mood Boosting Perfumes and Five Whole Years

The Joy of Mood Enhancing Perfumes and Five Whole Years

I often find myself staring at my perfume shelf of a morning, glancing over the cluttered bottles and pensively deciding what to wear. The question that regularly pops in to my mind during my ritual browsing is “Hmmm, what am I in the mood for today?” and it’s funny how our moods, along with other external factors such as season, fashion and weather influence our choices in regards to perfume.

But how about fragrances that do more than compliment our mood? Those fragrances that go one step further to enhance the emotions we feel and boost our moods. Perfume is after all, an incredibly emotional art, capturing nature and bottling memories. The power of scent to affect how we feel is undeniable.

In conjunction with some of my favourite bloggers I would like to share with you two fragrances that enhance my mood. As the world of perfume brings me nothing but happiness I thought it appropriate that both of my fragrant suggestions be ones that spark feelings of joy and serenity, with one in particular having priceless sentimental value.

[Don’t forget to head over to Persolaise, Olfactoria’s Travels, Eyeliner on a Cat and Fragrant Moments to read about their mood-enhancing perfumes!]

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The Candy Perfume Boy’s Guide to Chocolate

Perfume can be used to evoke a variety of emotions; joy, lust, sadness and love but perhaps the strongest emotion perfume can instil is a sense of comfort. At times when the weather or life is cruel a warm, enveloping perfume can shroud the wearer in layers of liquid armour that fights off the world’s negative elements.

When thinking of comforting perfumes one’s mind drifts easily in to the world of the gourmand, whose inhabitants are olfactory dinners, puddings and treats for those that wish to take comfort in food without the calories. They are comfort on a plate or in a bottle.

Perhaps the most comforting gourmand notes of all is chocolate and it is very much an accord that can go either way with a tendency to be cloying and sickly if used incorrectly. If you are a chocoholic like I am then this guide to the fragrant delights of the genre should serve as a delicious tour of pure delight.

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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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Mugler’s Fetish Material – Thierry Mugler Angel, Alien & Womanity Les Parfums de Cuir and A*Men Pure Cuir Perfume Reviews

To celebrate 20 years of haute perfumery, Thierry Mugler parfums is launching a collection of limited edition fragrances with a leather twist in October. Harking back to the origins of traditional perfumery and the link between perfumers and glove makers, Mugler sets to unleash four luxurious limited editions of its four famous fragrances.

Angel, A*Men, Alien and Womanity have all been given the leather treatment, having been infused with tailor made leather pieces in metal caskets for a period of four weeks. These brand new leather interpretations aim to enhance the original compositions with “intense, innovative carnal notes” and showcase Mugler’s four iconic fragrances through “the prisms of leather.”

“(Les Parfums de Cuir) The Fragrances of Leather is a journey to the heart of Mugler fragrances, with a noble material, for a collection of 4 exceptional creations”

As with all things Mugler, Les Parfums de Cuir promises to be an innovative collection of olfactory twists on four fragrances that have each created the mould for their respective genres. So throw on your leather corsets, suits and boots we’re off on a tour of Planet Mugler, and this time we’re doing it in style.

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Smelly News: Thierry Mugler Les Parfums de Cuir + The Making of Teaser Video

I am very pleased to be able to share with you a teaser video for Thierry Mugler’s latest collection; “Les Parfums de Cuir” (The Fragrances of Leather). Launching in October, the collection has been created to celebrate Thierry Mugler Parfums’ 20th birthday and contains four brand new leathery interpretations of Mugler’s classic fragrances; Angel, A*Men, Alien and Womanity.

“This innovative idea marries two know-hows of today and yesterday: Haute Perfumery and the traditional craft of glove makers and perfumers.”

To create Les Parfums de Cuir Thierry Mugler parfums a “tailor made […] natural leather” was added to four custom made vats containing each perfume allowing them to infuse & mature for four weeks and eventually, after the “leather-imbued extracts” were added to a solution, they became Les Parfums de cuir.

More details on the collection below the jump…

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Postcards From My Collection Part 2: Planet Mugler

Group Shot — The Other Half of the Collection

The Postcards From My Collection Series takes you on a voyage through the big pile of clutter that is my perfume collection. The aim is to familiarise you with the fragrances that are special and/or weird enough to take pride of place on my perfume shelf. Some have great sentimental value, others simply just smell awesome and whatever the reason for their residency in my collection, rest assured that they will satiate your need for some shameless perfume porn.

In the first instalment we took a look at those fragrances, both big and small, that were most precious to me. They were a varied bunch including über expensive extraits, paris exclusives and vintage finds that take ultimate pride of place in my collection, which is really an extensive rogues gallery of perfume.

This week we are taking a trip to Planet Mugler and before we take off I have a few safety announcements to get out of the way; 1) please ensure that your hands, feet and noses remain safely in the spacecraft at all times; 2) when we have safely landed on Planet Mugler please do not remove your helmets, the smell of the planet is so strong your head will explode with in seconds without the proper protection; and 3) if you are of a sensitive disposition you will either have to disembark the spaceship immediately or grow a pair because we’re about to take off…

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Saturday Poll: Are You a Perfume Snob?

Last week’s Saturday Poll asked you to vote for your favourite Thierry Mugler fragrance. I wanted to know who was most popular; Angel, Alien, A*Men, Womanity or Cologne? The results didn’t go the way I expected having, in my head, predicted Angel to reign supreme, despite the feelings of love and hate she inspires in people.

But no, I was wrong, it appears that you people prefer the “intergalactic jasmine” of Alien, which received a pretty decent 34% of the vote. What did really surprise me though was the lack of love for Womanity, which only received a measly 6% of the vote. As much as Womanity is polarising (aren’t all of the Mugler’s) I did think that the fact that it is so unique and unusual would have given it a higher percentage.

On to this week’s poll…

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