Lots of roses ahead! Today, Elisa reviews two recent rose-centric flankers, Roses de Chloé and Balenciaga Rosabotanica. For more on flankers in general, check out “Flankers 101.”

Chloé Roses de Chloé 

By all rights, Roses de Chloé is what the first Chloé release should smell like. The original Karl Lagerfeld Chloé from the mid-70s was a voluptuous white floral, but Chloé relaunched it as a clean rose in 2008. The problem is, it’s too clean, with so much white musk overwhelming the formula that it smells far more like a laundry room than a rose garden.

Last year’s L’Eau de Chloé, a greener version with more patchouli, was an obvious improvement – and so is this one, with its clearer, more realistic floral accord of tea rose with gestures toward springtime-y linden and lily of the valley. There’s nothing particularly unusual about it (this is a rose soliflore folks, not a moon walk), but it smells fresh, young, and pretty without smelling faux-fruity (though I do pick up a crisp apple note) or cheap. In fact, it reminds me at times of pricier niche scents like Annick Goutal Rose Splendide, Parfum de Rosine’s Rose d’Été and Yosh Sottile. If you’re looking for a simple rose scent at Macy’s or Sephora, you could do far worse and these days, couldn’t do much better.

Continue reading →

Guerlain has launched a new fragrance in its  l’Art & la Matière collection, called Eau de Cashmere. It’s designed to be sprayed on cashmere or wool for a soft, cocooning effect, although it can be worn on skin, like any other perfume. Eau de Cashmere is unisex and is based around powdery notes. It’s also meant to be layered with any other fragrance in the l’Art & la Matière collection, which includes perfumes like Angélique Noire, Cruel Gardénia, Myrrhe et Délires, and Bois d’Arménie.

“Fresh notes of bergamot and mandarin are mixed with soft and powdery notes of iris and lavender . Then comes the elegant sillage of woody notes of cedar , vetiver and musk.”

Available at Guerlain boutiques and counters. 125ml/72 €

On Saturday my husband and I walked around Ypres, a town in West Flanders, which was the center for the intense battles during World War I. In Belgium, the memories of 14-18 are still vivid, and walking along the meadows that once were the war zone but are now pale green and ready to burst into spring blooms was a poignant experience. Later that day I heard the news that the Russian Parliament granted Vladimir Putin broad authority to use military force in Ukraine; it all seemed like a bad dream, or a scene from a film.

Except that we have seen this film before and know that it doesn’t end well. The justification of invading Ukraine to protect its Russian population is absurd. The Ukrainian conflict that started in November 2013 is not between Russians and Ukrainians; it’s a struggle among Ukrainians for an accountable, responsible government.  Turning it into an ethnic conflict is dangerous, callous and irresponsible. Once such rifts are opened, they don’t mend easily. History gives us plenty of warnings from the 20th century, from the Partition of India in 1947 to the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s. For someone who’s half-Ukrainian and half-Russian with family still in Ukraine, the current events are a personal tragedy.

Continue reading →

Are you interested in a fragrance industry career? Lauren shares her insights and tips.

As a fragrance evaluator, the question I am asked most often is: How did you get into that career?  Some people mean this in a non-literal sense and are really asking me, What on earth made you decide to turn your interest in perfume into a full-blown profession?  This is casual conversation, amusement expressed plainly through twinkling eyes and grinning lips.  But there is another set of people who ask me this question literally.  They want to know how they can get a job in the fragrance industry, too.  They want to turn their passion for perfume into an everyday reality, and I recognize what we have in common: they want it is as badly as I wanted it.

When I was in college, I loved writing, so much that I considered pursuing it as my main profession.  My professor said, “Don’t pursue creative writing unless you truly cannot imagine doing anything else.”  Now, I would offer the same advice for those interested in a fragrance career: go after it only if you cannot imagine doing anything else.  If you keep this in mind and stay open to what you learn each day, there’s really no way to fail.  No matter what your job title may be.

Continue reading →

You never know what you’ll get with Guerlain’s Aqua Allegoria fragrances. Some of them are fascinating and quirky like Pamplelune and Herba Fresca and others are unexpectedly bland like Lemon Fresca and Tutti Kiwi.  Limon Verde, with its promise of the Brazilian drink, caipirinha, blended with creamy fig should have been squarely in the first camp, but in the end, it’s neither surprising nor interesting.

The first sign of trouble with Limon Verde is its razor sharp green accent. It is there to shore up the lime, but I can’t shake off the paint thinner association that some intense leafy notes have. A delicious lime, zesty and bittersweet, stands no chance and surrenders.

Continue reading →