Serge Lutens is launching a new fragrance in the export collection. Laine de Verre, “Glass Wool,” continues Serge Lutens’s quest for clean that he has explored in L’Eau and L’Eau Froide. The perfume is built on the accord of citrus, aldehydes, musk and Cashmeran, a unique material that oscillates between woods and musk. According to Serge Lutens, Laine de Verre is inspired by “complementary opposites.”

To borrow a phrase from Denyse, Laine de Verre “smells like a sweater hand-washed in Volvic” (please read her review at Grain de Musc).

Laine de Verre debuts at the Palais-Royal Shiseido in February, while the international launch will take place a month later. Via press materials, grey-magazine.com.

I’m very happy to hear the news that L’Artisan Parfumeur is going to reissue Jour de Fête as its spring 2014 limited edition. Jour de Fête  was first released in 1986, and then in 2003 it was reinterpreted by perfumer Olivia Giacobetti.  The fragrance is inspired by almond dragée (Jordan almonds), the sugar-coated almonds that are part of many French celebrations. It includes notes of bay leaf, almond, iris, wheat, white cedarwood, and vanilla.

“Jour de Fête, meaning “Happy Day” or “Festival Day,” is a delicious celebration of this sweet symbol of French celebrations, with its crispy sugary coat melting into a subtle vanilla. Light and airy, the dragée transports us to the wheat fields of the French countryside, reminiscent of the insouciance of childhood. Jour de Fête is a flamboyant yet delicate fragrance, a treat for special days.”

L’Artisan Parfumeur will also relaunch two of its celebrated perfumes in 2014, but for now, they’re leaving us to guess which ones.

Jour de Fête will be released in March 2014. 100ml Eau de Toilette/70€. Via press release

Cool, inky, powdery, nutty, dark… It’s hard to explain what’s so compelling about the smell of moss, but Patricia attempts it here and shares her love for all things mossy and chypre.

It was many years before I learned that my favorite perfumes, for the most part, fell into a group called “chypres.” I had no idea that they had anything in common, except that I loved the combination of cool and elegant with dark and almost feral notes, the sacred and profane all rolled into one. Chypre, I found out later, referred to a distinctive accord based around several different elements, but as Victoria mentions in her article on the history of chypre, the important chypre ingredient is oakmoss.

The oakmoss is exactly why chypres are not without controversy. Due to restrictions by the  IFRA (International Fragance Association) on the use of oakmoss because of its status as an allergen, the formulas of beloved old favorites have been radically altered. Enter synthetic oakmoss and the resultant buzz in the perfume community about dramatic change of beloved chypres like Guerlain Mitsouko, Chanel No 19 and Parfum Grès Cabochard.

But my story begins much earlier when a mother gifted a bottle of Miss Dior to a young teen who wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Was it pretty? It was. Was it sharp and nose-wrinkling? It was that, too. Miss Dior had already been around for a couple of decades when she found a place on my dresser top and had already enchanted many with her love-me-love-me-not quality. The green and peppery opening in Miss Dior progresses from gardenia and jasmine to a creamy drydown of sandalwood and dark leather. In the end, the teen decided that it was true love, and my fascination with all things mossy was born.

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Hermès is presenting Bel Ami Vétiver, a reorchestration of the bold leather chypre from 1986. It’s already available at the Hermès boutiques in Europe and will be launching in the US early next year.

Created by Jean-Louis Sieuzac, the original Bel Ami featured notes of cardamom, elemi, basil, carnation, iris, patchouli, Russian leather, vetiver, amber, civet, styrax and vanilla.

Bel Ami Vétiver, on the other hand, is transparent and radiant, with the emphasis on vetiver and soft leather. It was created by the current Hermès perfumer, Jean-Claude Ellena, who is also set to rework some other classics from Hermès’s archives.

The original Bel Ami will still be a part of the collection.

100 ml Eau de Toilette/€ 88. Via italy.hermes.com and press release.

Today fragrance flankers are more numerous on the perfume counter than ever before. Elisa explores how this trend originated and describes some of her favorite examples. After all, some flankers (like Chanel Coco Mademoiselle) have become famous perfumes in their own right.

What is a flanker?

A flanker is the perfume world’s version of a sequel or spin-off: Like The Empire Strikes Back or Charles in Charge, a flanker builds off the success of an existing hit rather than starting over fresh with an entirely new concept. Flankers are a way for perfume brands to capitalize on the popularity of a successful launch, at a lower cost than starting from the ground up. The hope is that fans of the original perfume (or “pillar” fragrance) will also be interested in the flankers, and that people who found the original appealing but not quite right for them (too heavy, for example) will be persuaded to purchase a re-imagined version.

The first flankers appeared in the 1970’s. Nina Ricci Signoricci 2, created in 1975, was a flanker to Signoricci from 1966. Other flankers from this decade include Royal Copenhagen Musk (1976) and Norell II (1979). Today, nearly 1 in 5 new launches is a flanker – according to Michael Edwards’s Fragrances of the World, in 2012, out of 1,392 total perfumes launches, 252 were flankers (18%).

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