Victoria: 2669 posts

When I first smelled the Atelier Cologne fragrances Rose Anonyme and Vetiver Fatal, I immediately fell for the sheer, smoky roses and left the vetiver to languish on my desk. Perhaps that day I craved more flamboyance and more glamour which Rose Anonyme amply delivered. But a week or so later, I absentmindedly dabbed Vetiver Fatal on my wrist–there was no other perfume around–and curled up with War and Peace. Well before Natasha Rostova appeared on the scene, I abandoned the book and sat with my wrist glued to my nose. The scent on my skin was bright but moody, rustic but sophisticated. It smelled of sliced oranges, damp earth and fallen leaves–a little vignette of late summer.

At first, Vetiver Fatal makes me think of green tangerines, complete with their leathery leaves–verdant, zesty and tart enough to make my mouth water. The vetiver takes form stealthily, until you distinctly smell its characteristic scent of earth covered roots and milky hazelnuts. Perfumer Jerome Epinette makes a seemingly simple choice by pairing vetiver with citrus (vetiver oil naturally has a  grapefruit-like accent in its top notes), but the harmony and the addition of other elements makes Vetiver Fatal stand out.

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This year marks the 80th anniversary of Dana Tabu,  a legendary fragrance created in 1932 by perfumer Jean Carles. Tabu was complex and innovative, and it gave us a whole generation of oriental fragrances that were unabashedly sultry and rich. The original included notes of bergamot, lemon, basil, tarragon, jasmine, lily of the valley, rose, ylang-ylang, heliotrope, patchouli, oakmoss, musk, benzoin, and vanilla.

This September Dana will introduce a new limited edition relaunch of Tabu called 1932 By Tabu. It was reochestrated by perfumer Brett Schlitter as a softer, spicier version. It will include notes of bergamot, lemon, basil, jasmine, mimosa, rose, ylang-ylang, cinnamon, nutmeg, heliotrope, sandalwood, moss, amber, musk, and vanilla. With Jean Patou, Balmain, Molinard and Jacomo busy relaunching their classical collections, it’s also good to see Dana trying to resuscitate Tabu. Even if the new version will be less animalic and smoldering, Tabu deserves more attention.

What perfumes will remind you of the summer 2012? What was the highlight of your summer?  

“Dorothy awakens to find the house being carried away by the tornado. After it falls back to earth, she opens the door and finds herself alone in a strange village.”  This characterizes my summer pretty well, and since I already moved three times, each time I found myself in a new part of Belgium, I related to Dorothy from The_Wizard_of_Oz on many levels.  Among the highlights of my summer was the Brussels Flower Carpet, when the city revealed its playful side to me.

This summer smelled mostly of sandalwood to me. I wore a lot of Serge Lutens Santal Majuscule and Olfactive Studio Lumière Blanche, although in the past couple of weeks, Frédéric Malle Carnal Flower and some other big white florals hit the spot.

Whether you are celebrating Labor Day on Monday or not, I wish you a great weekend and a wonderful start for your autumn! Suzanna and I will see you back on Tuesday.

Photography by Bois de Jasmin: enjoying the last days of summer, Antwerp, Belgium.

This October, the makeup artist Terry de Gunzburg will launch her first fragrance collection. Collection de Haute Parfumerie de Terry de Gunzburg will include Parti Pris (tuberose, jasmine, ylang-ylang), Rêve Opulent (hyacinth, rose, floral notes), Lumière d’Épices (spicy woods), Ombre Mercure (iris, violet, patchouli, woods), and Flagrant Délice (fig, green notes, gourmand accord). You might know de Gunzburg’s work through Touche Éclat, an innovative concealer and brightener she created while heading up make-up design for Yves Saint Laurent.

The fragrances were created by perfumers Karine Vinchon-Spehner, Jacques Fleury, Arthur Le Tourneur d’Ison, and Sidonie Lancesseur, and according to the press release, the fragrances include iris butter, tuberose absolute, rose essence, ylang ylang, and other precious materials. As de Gunzburg said, “I had to ignore the ‘dos and don’ts’ imposed by trends or by a commercial brief. Free from any restrictions, I have followed my instinct to create pure, original and extravagantly high-quality fragrances.”

Besides her own fragrances, she likes to wear a smoky orange blossom perfume created for her by Francis Kurkdjian. Sometimes she wears different perfumes on different parts of her body: Aromatics Elixir on the wrists, Opium parfum in the hollow of the neck, rose absolute on her clothes.

Each fragrance will be available as a 100ml EDP spray/£105 and a 50ml EDP spray/£68.

Via press release, nouvelobs.com and fashionmonitor.com.

Even before I saw the leaves turning golden in the park, I smelled autumn in the air. The sun may have been generous and warm, and the summer visitors still packed the squares in Brussels, but the autumnal perfume was unmistakable–a nutty-musty melange of decaying leaves and wilting flowers. The anticipation of long dark evenings and bitter cold is enough to make anyone dread fall in the northern countries, but as the Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin wrote, “Autumn attracts me like a neglected girl among her sisters.” Of course, then in the course of his poem he goes on to compare the beauty of fall to that of a girl dying from consumption, but that’s the complex Slavic soul for you. For my part, I love fall for its golden light and serenity as well as for its seasonal tastes.

A big pile of feathery green leaves and tawny shells at the Friday market last week caught my attention. “Noisettes Fraîches,” said the chalk drawn sign, and it took me a moment to realize that I was looking at green hazelnuts. Pushkin taps into my nostalgia for my childhood days and green hazelnuts are another reminder. I pillaged many a hazelnut shrub in my grandmother’s garden in search of tasty, not quite ripe nuts and have fallen many a time trying to get to the higher branches.

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