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November 3, 2011 | Clinique Aromatics Elixir Perfumer's ReserveThe Scent Critic always wanted to be older than she was. (Until recently, anyway: that ambition’s definitely lost its allure.) So, looking back, my fragrance choices were ludicrously sophisticated for a teenager. While my friends were swathing themselves in Avon Honeysuckle, my tastes were distinctly more mature – and that’s where Clinique Aromatics Elixir, currently [...]  October 13, 2011 | Estée Lauder Sensuous NudeThis latest in a trio of aptly-named Sensuous fragrances from Estée Lauder has rather tickled The Scent Critic’s fancy. And her nostrils. Really and truly tickled her nostrils. Because at first spritz, this is like putting your nose inside a bag of sherbet-y sweets. Flying saucers, maybe. Or the head-rush of poking your face [...] September 11, 2011 | Chanel No. 19 PoudréThe Scent Critic has experienced one of life’s little detours, and hereby apologises profoundly for a prolonged absence. The pulse-point on my right wrist, you see – not to mention the rest of the wrist itself – has for some weeks been encased in plaster, my ‘scent-trigger’ finger rendered weak and useless, too, all because [...] 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 [...] June 20, 2011 | Christian Dior Milly-la-ForetHave you ever lost your scent mojo? Then if this has happened to you, lately, I would like to suggest – if you live within striking distance of Oxford Street – that you might like to head towards the Dior Maison de Parfums, in Selfridges. (It’s catty-corner from the Chanel fragrance boutique, which may mean [...] March 17, 2011 | Jo Malone Sweet Milk CologneAnd now for something completely and utterly different. At first cosy sniff, Sweet Milk – the last in the Jo Malone Tea Collection – is exactly as it sounds. Sweet. And Milky. Think: condensed milk. Think: that smell you get when milk has almost boiled over on the stove: a tiny bit burned (in a [...] 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 [...] March 9, 2011 | Jo Malone Earl Grey & Cucumber CologneAlthough Earl Grey is The Scent Critic’s least favourite kind of brewed tea (and just about the only one I’ve ever been known to decline), this third in the series of Jo Malone’s limited edition Tea Collection is absolutely my favourite yet. In truth, I don’t really get Earl grey or cucumber, when I initially [...] March 7, 2011 | Jo Malone Fresh Mint CologneIn theory, fresh mint could be tricky, in a cologne. The danger is it could go all ‘toothpaste-y’. But I don’t find anything Colgate-ring-of-confidence about this second in the sequence of the Jo Malone Tea Collection that The Scent Critic is refreshing herself with over the next few postings: it’s genuinely ‘mint tea’ – that [...] December 16, 2010 | The 12 Scents of Christmas No. 9: Guerlain Bois d'ArménieThe Scent Critic honestly believes that fragrance is a magic wand. The trigger for a gazillion Cinderella moments, over the years. One minute, you’re fighting party-dread – and then a drop or a zoosh or a splash later, suddenly, you actually feel like putting on a pair of high heels, some dangly earrings, and heading [...] |
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