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June 21, 2011 | Christian Dior VétiverIt’s downright weird how one fragrance can lead you to another, like a sort of olfactory tennis-elbow-foot game. The Scent Critic would have put money on Dior’s Vétiver – the second in the Collection Privée that I’ll be reviewing – taking me in the direction of, say, Guerlain’s legendary Vétiver, or maybe the bestselling Grey [...]  March 11, 2011 | Jo Malone Sweet Lemon CologneIt’s a while since those of us in Beautyland got to preview Jo Malone’s Tea Collection, and I had forgotten my absolute instinctive reaction to Sweet Lemon – the fourth I’ll be reviewing, out of this quintet. It is my grandmother, in a bottle. Not my warm-and-cosy, capaciously-bosomed, rock-cake-baking granny (it’s the smell of geranium [...] February 7, 2011 | Yardley London April VioletsI don’t know if you’ve noticed, but something scary has happened to the price of fragrance in the last couple of years. It’s not just raw materials increases, although those are set to soar further: The Scent Critic is hereby issuing a warning, actually, that due to the devastation wrought on harvests by the tsunami [...] January 27, 2011 | Strange Invisible Perfumes L'InvisibleLet me start by paying homage: the Strange Invisible Perfumes store on too-cool-to-live Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, Ca., is almost worth a 6,000 mile (carbon-offset) trip in itself. Indeed, The Scent Critic was so keen to visit this botanical perfumery that when a business trip to Los Angeles was on the cards, a hotel [...] December 13, 2010 | The 12 Scents of Christmas No. 8: Carthusia Ligea 'La SirenaFor a fragrance confected by monks – yes, monks – Ligea is pretty darned sexy. Airy and sugary all at once: all baby powder, mandarin orange, bergamot and an iced Limoncello on the side, wrapped up into one crisp-yet-marshmallow-ish confection. And yes, this is another one that Shalimar-lovers could have an affair on the side [...] August 31, 2010 | Fresh Eat (from Eat, Pray, Love fragrances)The Scent Critic is pretty over-excited at the prospect of Eat, Pray, Love bursting onto our screens shortly. (And yes, The Scent Critic would probably have cast Julia Roberts in the starring role, too.) I’ve probably given away a dozen Penguin paperbacks of this, since I first read it, to friends nursing broken hearts – [...] July 30, 2010 | Tom Ford Azure LimeTom Ford, as we all know, is a gay man who just adores women. He’s created sexy clothes, sexy sunglasses – and sexy fragrances, which were his first post-Gucci foray into Tom Ford branding. He’s done it because he’s clearly passionate about perfumery. And because he’s a total polymath, who can turn his hand to [...] 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 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 [...] May 25, 2010 | Liz Earle Botanical Essence Eau de Parfum No. 1Liz Earle inspires an almost cult-like religious devotion among her beauty flock. Products like Cleanse & Polish have been elevated to the Beauty Hall of Fame – and one of the key factors in their phenomenal success has always been the attractive botanical smells, because Liz herself is so ‘scent-aware’. It was probably only a [...] |
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