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Denyse Beaulieu of Grain de Musc is on a North American tour promoting her book The Perfume Lover. If you’re in New York, you can meet her on March 22^nd from 4 to 8pm at Aedes de Venustas, a perfume boutique located at 9 Christopher St. With each book purchased, she will give away a 2ml spray sample of L’Artisan Séville à l’Aube, the star of her book.

Canadians can meet her in Toronto and Montreal.  For more details, please see Denyse’s post about her tour activities.

Tom Ford is launching a new perfume in the Signature Collection, which includes fragrances like Black Orchid, Tom Ford Noir, Violet Blonde, and White Patchouli. Sahara Noir is inspired by the Middle Eastern perfume tradition and the incense notes. As Ford says, “Middle Eastern culture has an extraordinary appreciation for the luxurious, emotional and memorable qualities of fragrance; perfume is worn there in a way that feels very familiar to me. Sahara Noir is my interpretation of this heritage. It is a deep and substantial perfume that caresses the senses.”

Sahara Noir is a woody oriental perfume based on frankincense. Bitter orange, cypress, calamus, cinnamon, papyrus extract, Egyptian jasmine templar and rose absolute from Morocco are used to accent the heart of the composition.

“A beeswax extraction from Burma lends body and a supple, honeyed-animalic richness. The dry down is amber-laced and warm. It is formed by a special blend of two facets of labdanum—labdanum absolute and a uniquely rich natural fraction of labdanum known as ambreinol—with rich benzoin from Laos and vanilla bean from Madagascar. Lebanese cedar, frankincense resin, agarwood and Peru balsam add luxurious substance and lasting presence.”

Available at Tom Ford Beauty counters starting May 2013. 50ml bottle of Eau de Parfum retails for £100. Via press release

Burberry is launching a new fragrance, Burberry Body Tender, which is a variation on the original Burberry Body. “Burberry Body Tender combines the relaxed, playful attitude of the Burberry girl with the energy of the brand’s London hometown.”  It includes notes of lemon, apple, absinthe, rose, jasmine, sandalwood, amber, Cashmeran (musk with strong woody-ambery nuances), and musk.

Scent opens with a fresh surge of lemon, crisp apple and green absinthe as top notes. Delicate blend of dewy English rose, white jasmine and sandalwood at the heart of the scent. Soft base of cashmeran, amber and musk gives understated warmth and femininity.

The advertising campaign features British actress and Burberry model Cara Delevingne. The Eau de Toilette is available in 85, 60, and 35ml bottles. Available at select department stores and at burberry.com. Via press release

This year two formidable classics celebrate their sixtieth anniversaries. Robert Piguet Fracas (1948) will turn 65, while Estée Lauder Youth Dew (1953) will mark its 60th year. These remarkable fragrances elicit strong emotions and inspire us even today. Youth Dew set the trend for rich orientals, while no tuberose perfume can be spared a comparison with Fracas.

These perfumes are also notable because they were created by two of the first female perfumers: Germaine Cellier and Josephine Catapano, respectively.  The perfume industry of the 1940s and 50s was a boy’s club. In 1947, Donald William Dresden wrote in his article, The Twenty “Noses” of France, “Only a few people have the supersense of smell necessary to become a Nose—for reasons known only to Noses themselves, no woman has ever had it…” Dresden, reporting for the New York Times, simply reiterated what he heard around Grasse, France, the main perfumery hub of those days.

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From May 5th until June 5th, 2013 the Palais de Tokyo in Paris will host an exhibit dedicated to Chanel No 5. The No 5 Culture Chanel exhibit will trace the links between the iconic fragrance and  the avant-garde movements it inspired.  There will be works of art, photographs, archives and other objects connected with the perfume.

The exhibit sheds “light on this unique and timeless perfume; whether through her favorite destinations like Venice, Russia or her villa, La Pausa or through the creations of her artist, poet and musician friends Cocteau, Picasso, Apollinaire, Stravinsky, Picabia.” Via www.5-culturechanel.com

The No 5 Culture Chanel Exhibition
May 5th until June 5th 2013
Palais de Tokyo, Paris
13 Avenue du Président Wilson 75116 Paris, France
+33 1 49 52 02 04