Victoria: 2669 posts

One of my favorite guilty pleasures is sitting down in front of the TV in the evening with a cup of cafe blanc and a jar of Santa Maria Novella Pasta di Mandorle. I sip my orange blossom scented drink and slowly rub the speckled brown cream into my hands, knowing that in the morning I will wake up to lily soft hands and shiny nails.

It’s a guilty pleasure, because at $50 for 1.6 oz, Pasta di Mandorle is the most expensive cream I own. When I look at the ingredient list–sweet almond oil, grape seed oil, egg yolk, virgin beeswax, and glycerin, I think that my grandmother’s home made version might just be  as good. For the price of a couple of jars of Pasta di Mandorle, I can pay for a trip to Ukraine from Belgium so I finally decided to make my own cream.

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For those who think that consumers can’t judge differences in quality or that most new launches today indeed smell alike:

“French women also express severe judgements on new launches, 41% considering the offer as excessive, with rather negative comments about the lack of originality of new fragrances. … Although they mobilize a massive share of advertising spending, only few launches succeed in reaching the top 100 sales.”

The Fragrance Foundation France released a new study on consumer preferences in France which shows some interesting results on how women buy perfume and what criteria they follow. To read the summary and see the graphs, please click here.

Photography by Bois de Jasmin, Hôtel de Ville in Paris.

Chanel recently made an official announcement that Jacques Polge is getting ready to hand over the reigns to a successor. The search led to his son, Olivier Polge, who has been working as a perfumer at International Flavors & Fragrances since 1998 and counts many excellent perfumes in his portfolio, including Balenciaga Paris, Viktor & Rolf Spicebomb, and Dior Homme. He will replace his father as Creator of Chanel Fragrances.

Jacques Polge will not be leaving Chanel right away, and the plan is to have him train Olivier and integrate him into the team. Since 1978 Jacques Polge has been not only creating Chanel perfumes, but also ensuring their preservation, and he will continue doing so for the time being.

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“It’s like drinking sunshine,” said my 11 year old cousin when she tried my orange blossom scented lemonade. Although her unexpected and poetic compliment made my day, I can’t take any credit. First of all, the idea comes from my friend Muna (whom you’ve met before). Second, it’s all in the lemon and orange blossom pairing.

Some combinations in perfumery are considered absolutely perfect. There are classical ones like coumarin and lavender, personal innovations like Jacques Guerlain’s bergamot and vanilla in Shalimar, or modern discoveries like cotton candy and patchouli in Thierry Mugler Angel. And then, you have natural marriages like orange blossom and citrus that are so harmonious than after you try it once, you know that these two are meant to be together.

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If you use Google Reader to read Bois de Jasmin through the RSS feed, you’ll have to switch to another tool–Google Reader is going to be phased out by July 1st (and that’s today). There are many other alternatives to read this and other blogs, and based on my research, Feedly seems to be one of the favorite choices. But it’s not perfect, and it doesn’t pick up the correct feed if you enter “boisdejasmin”. To subscribe for Bois de Jasmin, you have to either enter “boisdejasmin.com/feed” in the search box or follow this link. You can also migrate your feeds easily from Google Reader to Feedly.

The other two choices include Newsfire, Blog Lovin’, and Digg Reader.

Of course, you can always follow me by subscribing via email (just enter it in the box at the bottom of each post) or click here. You can unsubscribe anytime, and your personal information remains private. Facebook and Twitter are the other ways for us to keep in touch.

A few weeks ago I promised you to compare the current formulation of Guerlain Après l’Ondée to the older one. I finally had a chance to do so, and I’m happy to report that Après l’Ondée still smells fantastic. It’s different in some ways–the spicy notes are milder, the musky drydown is sweeter, but overall, it’s recognizable. It’s a watercolor of violets and carnations, with a delicious twist of anise. However, some people found that they had difficulty smelling it, and it’s probably due to the type of musk and/or violet notes. So, definitely try it on your skin first.

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