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December 12, 2010 | The 12 Scents of Christmas No. 7: Hermes 24 FaubourgI suspect that if you blindfolded 1,000 people, wafted a 24, Faubourg-drenched spill under their noses and asked them to tell you where this honeyed floral fusion hailed from, they’d chorus: ‘Paris’. This 1995 classic, to me, has always seemed one of the quintessential French perfumes: a sophisticated, heel-clicking, smart-suited grande dame of a fragrance, [...]  December 7, 2010 | The 12 Scents of Christmas No. 5: Chanel No. 5Now, what else could I have chosen for No. 5 in the 12 Scents of Christmas…? But even for an old scent-hack from way back, it’s challenging to put digit to keyboard about the most famous fragrance in the world. Ever. In all of creation. Still a bestseller, getting on for 90 years since Ernest [...] December 6, 2010 | The 12 Scents of Christmas No. 4: Miller Harris Fleur OrientalLight, airy, whispery, uplifting: those are all (flattering) words I associate with Miller Harris, the fragrance house created by talented British ‘nose’ Lyn Harris. But warm…? With the exception of the enchanting fairy-juice that is L’Aire de Rien, and Un Petit Rient (inspired by Jane Birkin and reviewed here by The Scent Critic), that’s not [...] December 3, 2010 | The 12 Scents of Christmas No. 2: Dana TabuIt’s not very often that The Scent Critic is given a bottle of perfume by her husband. (Slight coals-to-Newcastle thing there. Although that doesn’t explain a similar dearth of fresh floral tributes…) So it is a Very Special Occasion when it happens – as it did with Dana’s Tabu, which he’s been rather fond of [...] November 26, 2010 | Houbigant Quelques Fleurs ParfumI don’t know about you, but The Scent Critic generally prefers her fragrances to come gift-wrapped with a large serving of history, rather than confected with the help of a marketing department, a mood-board and some socio-demographic charts. And on that front alone, there are few perfumes to knock spots off Quelques Fleurs. Houbigant, its [...] October 29, 2010 | Peace, Love & Juicy CoutureOh, if only The Scent Critic had been born ten years earlier. How I longed to be a real hippie, tuning in, turning on and dropping out – when in fact all I could manage was wearing a groove in Scott Mackenzie’s Are You Going to San Francisco? on the record player in my still-little-girly [...] October 13, 2010 | Plum by Mary GreenwellTell me: what lengths have you gone to, to get your hands on a fragrance…? Continents scoured…? Begging letters sent…? Pilgrimages made…? Well, so consumed was The Scent Critic with the desire for Plum by Mary Greenwell – the debut fragrance from one of the world’s top make-up pros – that yesterday, she left behind [...] September 17, 2010 | Diorissimo Eau de ToiletteThe Scent Critic, like most women, has always understood that fragrance is memory. From the evening when our mother first leans over our cot and we breathe her Chanel No. 5, we all associate smells with people, places and events we’ve loved. (Or sometimes hated.) I’ll never smell Shocking without being transported back to my [...] September 5, 2010 | Fresh Love (from Eat, Pray, Love fragrance collection)One day, once Steve Jobs figures out how, you’ll almost certainly be able to smell perfume reviews. (It may take till 2050, but hey.) If you could smell this review, you would also smell a background note of paint drying – because by declaring this Eat, Pray, Love fragrance week, The Scent Critic has slightly [...] September 1, 2010 | Fresh Pray (from Eat, Pray, Love collection)Although I have restrained myself from opening each of the bottles for this week’s reviews until the day of putting digit to keyboard, I had a sneaking feeling (being a Yoga bunny and Indiaphile from way back) that I might fall for this element of Fresh’s Eat, Pray, Love edition in a big way – [...] |
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