Parfums de Nicolaï is celebrating the spring with the launch of two new fragrances, Violette in Love and Week-End a Deauville. Violette in Love, fresh, light and modern, is a violet set over a base of light musk, with pink pepper and a touch of raspberry. C’est une violette travaillée sur une base légèrement musquée avec des baies roses, et une touche de framboise. The notes include Italian citron, blackcurrant bud absolute, raspberry; Turkish rose, violet-iris accord, coriander, pink pepper, black pepper, musk.

Week-End a Deauville is an elegant, romantic blend of rose and mimosa over the tapestry of moss and spices. It includes notes of Italian bergamot, petitgrain, galbanum resinoid; white floeals, lily of the valley, rose, mimosa, pepper, pink pepper, clove, oakmoss, styrax.

From press release.

Thank you very much to everyone who participated in the raffle. Collectively we raised four thousand dollars for various charities. Finally, the moment we have been waiting for–the winner announcement. The winner of the raffle is ….

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Photographer, artist, visionaire… The name of Serge Lutens evokes both his beautiful photographs that recall the Japanese woodblock prints and his perfumes that reinvented the concept of luxury and art in perfumery. Born in Lille, Serge Lutens found himself moved by Morocco in 1968 and Japan in 1970. His collaboration with Shiseido in 1981 resulted with the launch of enigmatic Nombre Noir. In 1992, Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido were born in order to provide a setting for Serge Lutens’ rich collection of olfactory art.

It is my pleasure to bring you an interview with Serge Lutens, who kindly agreed to answer my questions about his creations, inspirations and views on perfumery and art in general.

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Thinking about 2008, I immediately reflect on the olfactive impressions I collected over the course of the year. Sure, I had a chance to smell many interesting new launches and revisit old favorites, but the dominating memories of 2008 that made it a special year for me are not necessarily found in the bottle. They are the scents I found as I traveled, as I worked on new combinations of notes, as I cooked at home and danced at my ballet studio. I wanted to capture these memories to share them with you, therefore my list below will present my olfactive highlights of 2008, along with the photographs I took.

India: Weddings in India are indelibly linked to the ritual of mehndi, the application of henna paste in order to form designs on the hands and feet. The scent of henna with its soft leather and warm hay notes clings to the skin for days, if not weeks, as the henna stain wears off. Beautiful soothing aroma.

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Basenotes have announced the opening of their annual consumer led awards. The Annual Basenotes Fragrance Awards offer the site’s 300,000 monthly visitors a chance to vote for a range of products across twelve categories including both feminine and masculine fragrances. The Annual Basenotes Fragrance Awards traditionally offers a prize to a randomly selected voter and this year that prize is a $250 gift certificate to spend on a selection of the thousands of products available at FragranceNet.com’s online store. Voting for the awards is open now until 21st January 2009. Votes can be registered at Basenotes. This year the categories are as follows:

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