YSL Tuxedo (Le Vestiaire des Parfums)

Posted on December 16, 2015 by Kafkaesque

Yves St. Laurent. Photo via Pinterest.

A tribute to Yves Saint Laurent‘s most iconic fashion creations and his legendary tuxedo, Le Smoking, should automatically be an exciting thing, but L’Oreal (which now owns YSL Beauté) hasn’t done anything to merit or live up to the great Saint Laurent name in my eyes. It would be quite accurate to say I despise L’Oreal and the way they’ve gutted my favorite house created by a flawed genius whom I admired and loved like no other in the fashion world, and whose creations were a big part of my childhood via my mother. Now, when I try one of their new releases, I have the lowest expectations and tend to brace myself for disaster.

So you can imagine my surprise when I tried the new Tuxedo and found parts of it were mildly decent, comparatively speaking. No, it’s not a truly good fragrance, and I think it’s over-priced for what it is, but at least it’s not a toxic waste dump or a gooey, painfully commercial, unbalanced and hideous travesty — two things which basically encapsulate my recent experiences with the brand. Compared to those fragrances, this is… not revolting? Well, adequate, at least. And the drydown was moderately nice.

Source: modernists.fr

YSL’s Tuxedo and the new “Le Vestiaire” Collection. Photo via NST.

Continue reading →

DSH Perfumes: Monet’s Garden, Cartier’s Jewels & Christmas

Posted on December 13, 2015 by Kafkaesque

Sumptuous florals, Monet’s famous garden at Giverny, Cartier’s jewels, florists, and Christmas — those are just a few of the subjects and inspirations for the roughly ten or so fragrances from DSH Perfumes that we’ll be exploring today. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the name, DSH Perfumes is a largely all-natural, artisanal brand out of Colorado run by the lovely, gracious, and very talented, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz.

Source: 2luxury2.com

She works extensively in collaboration with the Denver Art Museum and their exhibits, and several of the fragrances mentioned here are part of sets created for that purpose. For example, in last year’s Brilliant Collection, each fragrance was inspired by a particular Cartier piece and its owner, like Rubis Rosé for Elizabeth Taylor‘s ruby necklace, or Jacinthe de Sapphir which was inspired by Queen Marie of Romania. By the same token, this year’s Giverny in Bloom Collection is a quartet of fragrances released to go with the museum’s exhibit of Monet. Other fragrances, however, were created separately like Fleuriste which seeks to capture the scent of a florist’s shop or this year’s annual, limited-edition Christmas fragrance.

Continue reading →

Diptyque, Al Haramain, A Lab on Fire & Etat Libre d’Orange

Posted on December 12, 2015 by Kafkaesque

Source: diptyqueparis.com

The end of the year is always a crazy time, particularly in terms of new releases. I’m starting to have visions of a Leaning Tower of Pisa composed of sample vials toppling over and squashing me to death. I simply can’t keep up. It’s almost entirely my own fault because of the detailed, verbose way I approach my reviews, but there are also more and more fragrances being launched every year. According to Michael Edwards, author of Fragrances of the World, there were 1620 releases in 2014 as compared to 38 back in 1984. I’m sure there are even more this year — and it all seems to reach a crescendo during the holidays. I’m exhausted, both mentally and physically, and my stack of notes (some going back months and months) exceeds the number of proper, full reviews I can write before it’s time to do the year-end “Best of” lists.

As a result, for much of this week, I’ll be posting rapid-fire mini reviews, starting today with Diptyque‘s new Oud Palao and Essences Insensées 2015, Al Haramain‘s Najm Gold and Atifa Blanche attars, A Lab on Fire‘s new Mon Musc à Moi by Dominique Ropion, and Etat Libre d’Orange‘s Remarkable People. They are all 2015 releases except for the Al Haramain attars. I’ll provide only the most basic information: note lists, and links to the company, a vendor, and/or Fragrantica for you to pursue later if you’re interested. The “reviews” themselves will be generalised overviews or nutshells. So, let’s get to it.

Continue reading →

Annick Goutal Ambre Sauvage (Les Absolus)

Posted on December 11, 2015 by Kafkaesque

Amber folded into “savage” leather against a backdrop of smoky darkness dotted with iris and aromatic lavender which eventually give way to streaks of frankincense and myrrh — that’s the essence of Ambre Sauvage, a new release from Annick Goutal. It’s a fragrance with echoes of other creations, from Goutal’s own Ambre Fetiche to MPG‘s Ambre Precieux, Andy Tauer‘s new Amber Flash, and even Unum‘s LAVS. Some of those are better fragrances, in my opinion, especially for the price.

Les Absolus. Photo source: NST.

Continue reading →