L’Artisan Parfumeur Mandarine is available again as a summer limited edition. It was previously launched as Mandarine Tout Simplement. The Eau de Toilette was created by perfumer Olivia Giacobetti, and it includes notes of green mandarin, ginger, yellow mandarin, frangipani, red mandarin, and cedarwood.

“Travel to Calabria or Sicily… green, yellow and red mandarins, 3 beautiful essences treated at different stages of maturity.” £55 (100 ml), available from L’Artisan as well as its Neiman Marcus, Barneys New York, and Henri Bendels counters. Via l’artisan.com

Star rating: 5 stars–outstanding/potential classic, 4 stars–very good, 3 stars–adequate, 2 stars–disappointing, 1 star–poor.

The idea of wearing one type of perfume in the summer and another in the winter doesn’t sit well with me, because I may want a rich vanilla perfume on a chilly June evening and an uplifting citrus blend to arouse me from the slumber of winter. While I do rotate my selection every season, I choose my perfumes based on the moods that they convey. Ormonde Jayne Frangipani Absolute smells like summer to me—peaches eaten on the beach, white stars of night-blooming jasmine tangled in my hair, a breeze leafing through the pages of a book forgotten on the patio.

Continue reading →

The Museum of Art and Design in New York and its Curator of Olfactory Art Chandler Burr are going to present their first exhibit The Art of Scent starting November 13, 2012. The exhibit will run till January 13 2013. The components of the exhibit are currently being developed.

As was announced previously in the MAD press release, “the first exhibition planned, The Art of Scent, 1889-2011, will allow visitors to experience ten seminal works by some of the greatest scent artists of the late-19th, 20th and early-21st centuries.”

The Fragrance Foundation has announced that Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel will be inducted into The 2012 FiFi Hall of Fame during the FiFi Awards on Monday May 21^st.  As the Fragrance Foundation explains, “The FiFi® Hall of Fame award is voted on by the Foundation’s Board of Directors and is presented to an individual who has brought extraordinary ingenuity, creativity, dedication and inner resources to bear, not only to their company’s success but to the fragrance industry as a whole.”

” ‘It is quite astonishing that in the year 2012, a fragrance introduced in 1921 and simply named Chanel No 5, prevails as one of the most enduring and iconic symbols of style, elegance and modern scent creativity the world has ever known,’ says Jill Belasco, Chair of The Fragrance Foundation.’Chanel fragrances have reached near mythical status thanks to the vision of Coco Chanel, her enduring commitment to in-house master perfumery and an uncompromising commitment to luxury and quality. To this day, men and women everywhere delight in wearing fragrances marked by the entwined double C’s of Chanel.’ ”

This year marks the 40^th Anniversary of The FiFi Awards.

Via press release

“Keep all of your samples!” This was one of the best tips I received when I first started out as a perfumista. If I didn’t like a fragrance, I would be tempted to pass my sample onto someone else. But the more I sampled, the more my tastes kept changing, and I can’t count how many times I’ve revisited a perfume and ended up liking it. What initially seemed liked a harsh note in Chanel Cuir de Russie ended up fascinating me with its dark richness. The effervescent Estee Lauder Pleasures is not something I wear often, but I use it on regular basis to compare against new green florals. As much as I like to keep things simple, having a well-organized library of samples makes exploring perfumes much easier.

So, I need your help. I know that all of you have your own tips on making the most of the perfume hobby.  I thought that it would be fun and helpful to compile a list of our favorite perfume tips and tricks, or the A to Z of perfume advice, if you will!  It can be as lighthearted or as serious as you want.

How does it work: simply select a letter and post your tip in the comments following the format of my examples below, and I will then transfer your tip into the body of the post, along with your name (and a link to your blog, if you have one). You are welcome to duplicate letters. I am very curious to see who will come up with a tip for Z and X!

I will add a link to this post in my Highlights bars on the right, so that you can add your tips even after the thread moves off the main page. You can also email your suggestions to me at boisdejasmin at yahoo dot com.

Continue reading →