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June 30, 2010 | Thierry Mugler WomanityI don’t know what fragrance Suzi Quatro (the leather-clad 80s song-belter-outer) would have worn, but if Womanity had been around then, I suspect it would have had pride of place on her Winnebago tourmobile dressing table. It is, as you might expect from the creator of Angel, an unusual creation – sweet-savoury – a fragrance [...]  June 28, 2010 | Quintessentially PerfumeActually, Quintessentially Perfume is not a perfume: it’s a new book about fragrance, and definitely one for the scentophile’s bookshelf. Edited by Nathalie Grainger, with an intro by professeur de parfums Roja Dove and published – price £25 – by Quintessentially (those lifestyle concierge folk, who can bag you a table at Nobu or a [...] June 26, 2010 | Shocking by SchiaparelliHaving been a human pinball for the last 10 days – if-it’s-Wednesday-it-must-be-Bangor – The Scent Critic was super-keen to come home, in more ways than one: home to my bed, home to my beloved, and home to a familiar fragrance. Shocking has had a very special place in my heart for 20 years. So let [...] June 15, 2010 | Paul & Joe BleuPossibly the highest compliment that I can pay to a perfume is that it is ‘Guerlain-esque’. Which is certainly true of this, one of two fragrances from the delectably boudoir chic make-up brand Paul & Joe, created in 2003 by Peirre Bourdon. (The other is Paul & Joe Blanc.) So: if you love Shalimar but [...] June 14, 2010 | Acqua di GioiaThe Scent Critic is never quite sure at what point to review the multitude of new fragrances that I get to sniff and spritz and spray my way through months before they hit the counters. (Feedback always gratefully received: maybe you’d like to hear about them the minute they’ve been launched at me; maybe it’s [...] June 11, 2010 | Givenchy EaudemoiselleI’d categorise this under a ‘first day at work’ fragrance. You’re nervous. You want to make a good impression, and not to stick your head above the parapet lest you make a fool of yourself. Your crisp white shirt is ironed, your heels not too tall, your iPhone carefully switched to silent. And if you [...] June 9, 2010 | Francis Kurkdjian Lumière NoirOnce upon a time, ‘noses’ were invisible. Perfumers mostly worked behind the scenes, rarely enjoying a moment of glory except in an occasional one-on-one interview with a journalist. Now, they are becoming ‘stars’ – and if Francis Kurkdjian’s name doesn’t exactly trip off your tongue then it probably should. Just yesterday I happened in Paris, [...] June 7, 2010 | 4711 Eau de CologneDrenching myself in this, I wonder: how many fragrances, created in 2010, will women (and some men) still be splashing all over in 200 years’ time? The answer: none, probably. How remarkable, then, that 4711 is pretty much as loved today as it ever was. But there’s a reason for that. Because this quintessential eau [...] June 6, 2010 | YSL Rive GaucheRive Gauche is one of two ‘default’ fragrances that I switch between for summer when I am not working my way through all the most recently-launched scents – the good, the bad and the indifferent, but probably 250 in an average year, which gobbles up a lot of scent-wearing days. The black, blue and silver [...] June 4, 2010 | Chanel No. 22Odd that it’s taken me this long to get around to reviewing a Chanel fragrance, because my past is cluttered with them. The late-teen obsession with Cristalle. That so-sophisticated No. 19 phase in my twenties (well I thought so, at the time), when I ate at La Brasserie in South Ken every night for about [...] |
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