Just like Tom Ford Noir, Sahara Noir is a perfect cross-over perfume and a good case for disregarding arbitrary gender marketing. In the case of Sahara Noir, you only need to love incense and amber. And love them a lot, because this perfume is incense and amber to the power of 10. A part of Tom Ford’s Signature Collection, along with Violet Blonde, White Patchouli, Black Orchid and Grey Vetiver, this is a dramatic and dark blend that delivers on its noir promise.

With Sahara Noir Tom Ford is courting Middle Eastern perfume consumers, whose tastes gravitate towards opulent. “A perfume can’t be rich enough,” says a friend who works for a fragrance company in Dubai. Incense is used to perfume homes and public spaces, and a splash of rosewater and a cloud of oud smoke begins and ends any auspicious function.  Sahara Noir would fit right into this scented environment and even hold its own. Depending on your tastes for heavy perfumes, consider yourself warned.

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Le Labo is introducing two new fragrances as part of their Classic Collection, Lys 41 and Ylang 49, and a new San Francisco city exclusive, Limette 37. Lys 41 was created by Daphné Bugey, the same perfumer who worked on Neroli 36, Bergamote 22, and Rose 31 for Le Labo.  Lys 41 features notes of lily, jasmine, tuberose absolute, woods, vanilla, tiare, “sunny notes”, and musk.

Ylang 49 is classified as a floral chypre. Its author is Frank Voekl, who worked previously on Baie Rose 26, Santal 33, Iris 39, and Musc 25. It lists notes of ylang-ylang, gardenia, patchouli, oakmoss, vetiver, benzoin, and sandalwood.

Both fragrances will be available at Le Labo stores, counters and directly at their website starting of June 2013. 50ml/$145; 100ml/$220, other sizes and body products are also offered.

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This week is devoted to our “Recommend Me a Perfume” (with a contest this time).  We will be back with our regular posts on Monday, May 13th. My internet access is intermittent at best this week, but I will join in to give my suggestions when I can.

How does it work:

1. Please post your requests or questions as comments here. You can also use this space to ask any fragrance related questions. To receive recommendations that are better tailored to your tastes, you can include details on what you like and don’t like, your signature perfumes, and your budget.

2. Then please check the thread to see if there are other requests you can answer. Your responses are really valuable for navigating the big and sometimes confusing world of perfume, so let’s help each other!

Contest: Those who respond to the recommendations will be entered into a contest for 3 samples of their choice (via Luckyscent). I will randomly select two winners.

To make this thread easier to read, when you reply to someone, please click on the blue “reply” link under their comment.

Photography by Bois de Jasmin, lily of the valley

May’s issue of Marie Claire includes my article about fragrances that satisfy our wanderlust. It’s called Scents of Place (p.79).  I also meant it as an introduction to niche, or however you want to call the artisanal, indie, etc. perfumery that aims to offer something different from the department store perfume counter. Not all niche brands guarantee an interesting experience, but the ones that do are worth exploring. I loved writing about this topic and highlighting my personal favorites in the article.

“Serge Lutens’s perfume Arabie conjures the heady exuberance of a Moroccan souk with cardamom, tobacco, and honeyed dates; Neela Vermeire’s Mohur takes you to India with its lush sweetness of roses and milky sandalwood; and Amoureuse, a perfume created by California-based Parfums DelRae, evokes San Francisco’s jasmine festooned streets. If those names don’t sound familiar, it’s because these fragrances don’t appear in television commercials or on the scent strips in magazines…”

May’s Marie Claire is a global beauty issue, and it has many interesting articles on makeup, health and fashion. Scarlett Johansson is the sultry cover girl. There are articles on beauty trends in Hong Kong, reports from Berlin Fashion Week and more. I especially loved the spread featuring the gorgeous Chinese model Ping Hue wearing summer colors. The magazine is now available at newsstands. I will post the link to my article once it becomes available.

Do you satisfy your wanderlust with perfume? Are there fragrances that conjure up specific places for you?

Who says that tulips have no scent? After spending several hours sticking my nose inside more than three dozen varieties, I discovered that not only are tulips perfumed, their fragrances vary dramatically. Some smell of potato peels and pear brandy, others of cloves soaked in honey and crushed green buds. Lemon, moss, wet earth, rose, carrots, and apricots are some other scents I wrote down in my notebook. A dusky purple hybrid called Cuban Night reminded me of waxed wooden floors. Some varieties may smell lighter than others, but all of them have a distinctive perfume.

Every spring the flower fields in the Netherlands burst into bloom, transforming the surrounding countryside into a surreal painting of vivid red, yellow, and blue.  At the height of tulip mania in the 17th century, a single bulb could cost as much as a house, but even after the economic bubble burst, the flower remained a distinctive national symbol. Today, the flowering fields draw lots of visitors, and one of the most popular destinations is the Keukenhof, considered to be the world’s largest flower garden.

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