June 2009: 4 posts

As much as I love trying various unusual flavor combinations, from making forays into unfamiliar cooking traditions to sampling durian, a scent of warm butter invariably seduces me more than any other exotic spice or fruit. It is really a perfume in itself–sweet, floral, grassy, with a hint of milky almond and green apple.  Harold McGee in his treatise On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, quotes the Irish poet Seamus Heaney on butter, “coagulated sunlight… heaped up like gilded gravel in the bowl.” …

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Star rating: 5 stars–outstanding/potential classic, 4 stars–very good, 3 stars–adequate, 2 stars–disappointing, 1 star–poor.

Naked Honey:

Africanimal:

Recently MAC has launched two new limited edition fragrances in the Creations Hue range: Africanimal and Naked Honey. Prepared as I was to find them perfectly pleasant and well-done as most MAC scents, I was taken aback by the beauty of Naked Honey. It took me from rainy New York to the sun dappled garden of my childhood, to the linden lined alleys of Paris, to the warmth and languor of long summer days… How did Harry Fremont of Firmenich who created Naked Honey know exactly what my idea of a perfect summer smells like? I could wax poetic, but please smell Naked Honey and tell me if this opulent linden blossom and honey fragrance does not evoke the smell of sun on warm skin, the heady lushness of green foliage and the profusion of summer blossoms.

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Star rating: 5 stars–outstanding/potential classic, 4 stars–very good, 3 stars–adequate, 2 stars–disappointing, 1 star–poor.

A few years ago I had a revelation about Coco Chanel. Sure, I had read several books about her and her fashion contributions, but it was only at the Chanel exhibit at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art that I began to understand her ability to reinterpret shapes and structures, to appreciate her novel construction techniques and spectacular use of seemingly muted colors like white, black, ivory, grey… And of course, beige! …

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Perfume Expo America will now be held on June 30th –July 2nd at the Hilton Hotel located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas, New York. The day open for perfume aficionados and blogs is July 2nd from 9 AM to 3 PM. The entrance while free is by invitation only. I have more tickets to give away, so please send me an email at editor at boisdejasmin dot com.   

This year, Perfumery Event Perfume Expo America is taking place in New York City on June 9-12th at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. Blog readers can register for a free entry on their website at Perfume Expo America. The event is open to perfume aficionados, blogs and press only on June 11. The exposition is designed to showcase both classic and emerging niche perfume brands, in addition to select skin care and cosmetics lines. The exhibitors include Caron, Carthusia, Clive Christian, Kenzo, Lubin, Miller Harris, Molinard, among many others.