Lifestyle Dufte! (Lifestyle Perfumes)

Today I had a shock to see that the biggest perfume store chain arranged all the countless celebrity perfumes in a big department under the name 'Lifestyle Dufte'. Not talking about the language mess, isn't fantastic? You a lifestyle person? go to the Lifestyle corner. Just forget about the other 80 percent of the perfume in the store, they don't count for lifestyle.


Brilliant!

Marry Me! Lanvin

The big window shop shows a young woman (It's a window dummy, ok?), sitting on a chair in a dress which rather shows a lot of her body, sexy shoes aside, some jewellery on a small table next to her, she is rather laying in the chair than sitting and she looks something between a prostitute and a bride to be.

And in front of all this a huge bottle of Marry Me! of Lanvin.

Well, just a matter of taste. It goes with these albums of also brides to be, they go to a professional photographer before their wedding and let themselves taken shots in sexy underwear. sexy positions. It seems to be very successful, the future brides explain they want to keep something about themselves before they marry. Like once they marry the sexiness will disappear and they will miss it. Might be. Or the ingénue beauty of a unmarried woman has to be immortalized.
Sinister.

I involuntary  kept the image of Marry Me! Lanvin for few weeks now. It popped in front of me in all perfume shops on a big place and somehow I always refused to think at all about it, just avoid it as you avoid an embarrassing relative.

But the grotesque and hilarity was to overwhelm me. No, it's too much. How the hell a perfume of Lanvin could be called Marry Me! and who the hell would want to buy a perfume named Marry Me!? That was the first thought.
Then, thinking it over, I realized that's nothing wrong with it, it just stands for our times. Octavian Coifan at 1000fragrances makes a short remark about how marriage is not important anymore nowadays. Is it not? It was not 20 years ago but we are in a big recession, the conservationist and purist feelings are stronger and stranger. The gothic girls, the alternative and the hippie ones all want to marry. All the famous public figures are married or to be married and have children and be good people. Sexual freedom is an old story, 20 years of fear of AIDS taught us to rather maintain same partner and infidelity makes big titles in newspaper. Yes, the girls want to marry and have a white gown (for so long I keep being fascinated by so many wedding shops, all these terrible white dresses but it seems to exist a big market). And feminism is old fashioned and a bit embarrassing. Yes, with all the information freedom, between twitter and last Ipods, we grew more and more in some comeback of traditionalist moral, there is too little to fight for anymore and we are in a plain era of putting limits to our own freedom. Sadly, end and beginning of centuries are often like that.

What else can I say, I'm sure Lanvin had a good market report when it launched this new smell and they knew what they do. They knew there will be a big public for it. It's just normal in a perfume world where Donna Karan went from Black Cashmere and Chaos to Be Delicious, Love from NY and Pure DKNY, a world where Pink Princess of Vera Wang is so well sold.

Pilled up to all this absurdity is the history of Lanvin house. Somehow Octavian Coifan chooses to forget about it. A perfume Marry Me! stays in a Lanvin tradition of perfumes named
- My Sin (1925)
- L'âme perdue (The lost soul) (1928),
- Le sillon (forrow, groove, line),
- J'en raffole (I'm crazy about it),
- Rumeur (1934),
- Pretexte (1938)
- and Scandal (1934)!!!

I didn't and I shall not smell this fragrance. From the light pink (yes, pink) juice a take it is a flowery fruity fragrance able to offer the air of purity which transcends the time and space in order to give to somebody the feeling of wanting a woman so much for the rest of the life. Horrible! And it is even more awful since this is the story.

I would have worn with pleasure a perfume Marry Me! if it was a harsh leather, or a strong cumin or lily of the valley soacked in incense. Bit of contrast to save such a pathetic name would have been the story of the century. But as it is, I imagine it will make good cash for Lanvin and no history. It is the niche's perfumery burden to make fragrances with names like Vamp a NY, which I would buy anytime with closed eyes, only for the comforting feeling of owning something named properly.

Guerlain will lose a shop. And I love Guet Apens\Attrape Coeur

Guerlain loves me, more exactly Jacques Guerlain. So it was a enormous luck to be able to try quite easy the Guerlain exclusives. In Dusseldorf there is a Guerlain shop (now I know the story of this exclusive Guerlain perfumerie in Dusseldorf, the owner is the sister of former Guerlain manager in Germany)


The big event was last winter, right before Christmas. I was in heaven. They have there all old Jaques Guerlain and there I smelled first time Attrape Coeur. The lady in the shop tried to get me into the new series of Elixirs and Art et Matiere like Angelique Noire, she insisted with it. All I wanted, except the extrait of Jacques Guerlains (Mitsoko, L'Heuere Bleue and Shalimar) was Attrape Coeur (and I am so sad I didn't try Vega, too, so sad). For some reasons I never got into Jean Paul Guerlain fragrances (now that he is in disgrace I can say this little dirty secret of mine). Mathilde Laurent feels for me much closer to Jacques, I love Pampelune and Shalimar Eau Legere. So I had Attrape Coeur on my hand for half a day in a frozen Dusseldorf, it smelled of honey and spices and I felt like a lady. Which it is not easy in Dusseldorf, two thirds of the women there wear fur coats and come out of luxury cars. the day was over soon and didn't purchase my bottle of Attrape Coeur but I knew I shall go back one day soon.

Two days ago I was on my way to buy fruits, didn't have any in the house. On the way I stopped at my friend around the corner, he has this little perfumery shop, carrying niche and special perfumes. I need to renew my L'Heure Bleue stocks, I finished my Eau de Toilette which I use for my daily wear, the Eau de Parfum is for winter and evenings out and the extrait de parfum when I want to go high. I looked a bit around in the shop, you never know what you can discover in this shop (last time I bought all the last bottles of Yohji Yamamoto men). So I always have to look attentively. I tried some Etro, some Caron, some Annick Goutal, the Lalique Pour Femme. I didn't see any L'Heure Bleue anymore (tried Nahema again, which I don't own) so I asked when it will come. He said it won't come anymore, he is done with Guerlain, they ask for a minimum purchase which means a lot of money and includes other stuff then perfumery which are not so well sold. So he doesn't want anymore. Which is so sad, he always offered the special Guerlains, not one of the new ones (Idylle or Insolence etc) and some of Aqua Allegoria line.

We mourned together the new LVHM policy, they don't care about perfumes anymore, it's only market and money etc. That is really sad, Guerlain will lose a really good point of selling. But my very nice old friend looked a bit around may be he finds for me a lost bottle of L'Heure Bleue, he checked behind the counter and he took one of this golden Guerlain bottle and put it back, it was not L'HB. Then in some drawers and it was so nice to find a vintage Vol de Nuit. He just gave it to me. Then again at the counter he took the golden bottle which was hidden behind some add poster. I took it in my hands, too, to check what it is. And there, in my hands I was having a 93 ml full bottle of………………..Guet Apens. I yelled, couldn’t help it. If an asteroid has fallen in my garden I wouldn't have been more astonished. For the last three weeks I was looking for Attrape Coeur around, thinking if I shouldn't call in Dusseldorf and order a bottle. A day before I found a Vol de Nuit Evasion on ebay Austria and thought of buying it (it is supposedly the Eau de Toilette from Attrape Coeur). I knew I could have Attrape Coeur at some point but Guet Apens was something as untouchable as moon for the rest of my life. And now it was there in my hands.

Needless to say, I have it. My friend would have given it to me for nothing. I told him that's gold and has fantastic prices on ebay. He asked me to tell him how much I offer for it and that's it. It was so hard, I blushed first time after long. I knew I had a miracle in my hands and I wanted him to be as happy as I was. I told him I would pay as much as he asks for, he insisted I give him a price. I thought he, as a nice guy, won't sell it for much more he sells Shalimar or Chamade. After an hour of conversation I offered him 150 euro. He said is too much and he made it 100 euro. And it's mine.

I still can't believe my luck. I'm not a lucky person, never won any draw prize, even if it was me and another person. If it was me and me I would lose for some technical reasons. So I don't understand how that comes. At few hundreds away from my house existed for ten years a Guet Apens bottle. And even more, it waited for me. My old friend told me he put it aside for an old rich lady who used to love Guerlain. But the old lady didn't appear for an year. He didn't know what happened to her. I am so grateful to my old friend and that old special lady. I hope she is well, too.

Oh, vintage! Madame Rochas, old and new

I am so very much in a hurry today but I can't stop sharing my delicious discovery.
So it goes: last weekend I got a vintage Madame Rochas, I was looking for one though I was not so taken by the Madame Rochas that you can find in perfume shops. I wanted after experiencing a vintage Femme. So I had my vintage Madame Rochas which is absolutely wonderful. Aldehides, flowers, bit soapy but warm and chic. Wonderful. I just came back from a perfume counter where I tried the new Madame Rochas.
As it said on many blogs, the idea of Madame Rochas was something close to Chanel no 5 or Arpege. If you ask me, I love Madame Rochas much better than both. The vintage is something close to them but doesn't have that heavy spirit that I find in Chanel no 5 and not that oreintal take of Arpege (ylan-ylang?). Anyway, right now I have both of them on my wrists. The new Madame Rochas is great but it's quite far from the adelhidic way and it is close to Chanel but another one: it's no 19. Yes, isn't that strange. It's all that green and rather chypre from the begining and keeps being green until the amber and musk in the base come out.
What was on their mind when they reformulated it? I mean it's really great stuff but it's another world.

'Summer perfumes'

Everything is relative. Don't you hate that? Everything has been relative for so many decades that we can't remember when we last have had some ultimate truths. Still, I can't stop having doubts about everything. So goes with perfumes, too.
I used to love the list of Top x frangrances of seasons. I would check, compare, try. Today it bothers me. Essentially, there is no difference between the offer of these lists of respected bloggers and the offers that you get in any chain perfumery shops or beauty magasines. Since when you have summer perfumes, winter perfumes? It was recently made up by marketing machinery which had this brilliant idea that people might buy more if it is a seasonable stuff. So we have now even 'summer', 'sun',' light' perfumes. You add a bit of citrus or bergamot or verbena or thinker the formula and have a summer fragrances and they will line up to buy it.
Of course, we have the intelligent bloggers who really love perfumes and they know about perfumes and they come up now with 'strange' things for summer, as to make up for mainstream and obvious (by obvious for summer I mean Eau d'Hardrien or Eau Parfumee au the Vert or eaux de colognes).
Last year, the first stop at a gas station once we entered France was on  a really hot day and, while waiting to pay at the counter desk, the old lady in front of me smelled strong of Mitsouko. Oh, that was heaven. I told myself 'that's France!'. It was also In FRance that I sniffed some heavy oriental Serge Lutens in a port city, on a street where otherwise was smelling strong of cooked sea food. Heaven! My stepmother wears always Opium or Magie Noir and she smells wonderful (I always loved the way the perfumes smell on her) Hmmm, are these summer fragrances or not? I don't know and the lady at the gas station apaparently didn't read any Top 10 summer franges list and she couldn't care less. Oh, yes, I'm being moody today and I'm sure all of all these bloggers (because I trust them , they are smart and they know about it) will agree that in fact you can wear whatever you like in any weather and you can reach for same fragrance in any season.
So, why then these lists? May be, as the intelligent marketing people who invented the summer perfumes made the job, the bloggers know that there is a fact that will be hundreds thousands of people google-ing 'summer fragrances' before they start purchasing. This is how they will get on these blogs. Though I doubt that many will imediatelly buy Manoualia or Attar or wear Muscs Koublai Khan. They might though the new Womanity of Mugler.
I am a summer person. I could leave at over 40 C degrees forever and all I require is a bit of shadow. Winter is a period when all I want is that time passes as fast as possible. From what I understand we are fortunate to live in a quite warm period of the earth and a suprisingly long one. Normally it is much colder if not ice age around here. So that's a time for me to live and I take advantage and most of all I enjoy everything at maximum during the summer. And all perfumes smell much better in the summer. All.
One day, based on these lists, I realized that I could live all my life only with the four Jacques Guerlain, Shalimar for winter, Apres L'Ondee for spring, L'Heure Bleue for summer and Mitsouko for fall. But in fact I use them almost all the time, I will spray at lest 2 of them on me (if I wear Shalimar overall, I will have Apres L'Ondee on my wrists etc). What is left from the seasonal preferences then? Not saying: what do we mean by summer? Is it a matter of how hot it is? Only in the small Europe, we have such differences in summer from a place to other. Also I've had some summers when I've hardly noticed the real season. I worked all day long and in the office the temperature is the same all year long.
So, please, define 'summer'.

What other lists we could have: Top 5 fragrances for a cabrio sport; Top 15 fragrances for wearing while participating in Big Brother or other real TV shows; Top 10 fragrances for wearing in Africa, Asia, South America and other exotic places; oposite, what would you wear in frozen north (what Sarah Palin actually wears when in Alaska?). What is nicely avoided is the Top of fragrances to wear at office (that I would love - Muscs Koublai Khan or Fracas?).

Yes, I'm being moody and nasty today. Of course, the title of my post is 'Summer Perfumes' since I hope also to get some readers or my blog. And I'm also going to make some friends.

Parfums DelRae

I have no idea what the work of a perfumer means. From the blog of self-taught perfumer Andy Tauer or from the blog of the perfume historian and perfumer Octavian Coifan at 1000fragrances I could have a glimpse in the life and work of a perfumer. And I try hard to imagine what it really means, how are the work days of these people. I can see the image of my beloved Jacques Guerlain at a desk with a folder in front of him and some bottles around, or Andre Fraysse looking like a pharmacist. And again the one of Jacques Guerlain at his desk and what looks like a huge room full of bottles. Oh, that would be my dream, to be in that room, around him, it's heaven.

Anyway, going back to the labour of a perfume and the work of perfumers. I just suppose it is hard work, takes a lot of reasearch in the infinite world of scents and their combinations, it takes a lot of trying which means delicate work with quantities and concentrations of different oils. It must be ups and downs and happiness and frustrations. A lot of dreaming and rational decisions, too. And, of course, I think it's creation, pure art work. But that's futile to say.
So you have this huge labourious work for a perfume. I just read that Michel Roudnitska worked 2 years and 300 trials for his Bois de Paradis. Which I just have on my right wrist. That's a long time, thousands of perfumes came on the market between the moment he started and the moment he finished. He produced in average a trial every 2 days and half. That is enormous. And still, I stay here, with my sample of Bois de Paradies and I shall give my opinion on his creation though I have no idea what he wanted and how much he put there. Must be awful for the perfumers, all these bloggers who give for free their opinion, no education or whatsoever in the field. In the end, the best way to aproach it, it would be to say if I like it or not. Luca Turin just admits that he  is totally subjetive. It's all about being subjective and no smart ass, because I'm not. Ok, it is just my way to apologize for whatever I'm going to say stupid here (hey, I just read that Marques was warning the cristics of his books that by interpeting them 'they take on the responsibility of decoding the book and risk making terrible fools of themselves'. That's the risk of any critic, isn't it?).

So this week was my DelRae week. Some might have DelRae month, DelRae year or DelRae decades. That's to say that DelRae is good stuff. It would be to easy to say that there is a general reflex in giving unconditional respect to the son of the great Roudnitska. And even if it so, still we love perfumes so we talk about them, taken all the relativity given by our noses and set of mind. So I can't say I can forget Michel Roudnitska, the creator of DelRae perfumes, is the son of the creator of legendary Diorissimo and Femme, plus other Dior.... s. I can't. My only cheap excuse is that Diorissimo or Femme don't love me. I love them but they don't love me back. So I was curious to see if his son creation might suit me better.

Visiting DelRae perfums reminded me of impression of Ian McEwan books. I started with Atonement, soon after it's release (time before it became a bestseller due to Oscar fame of the film). It was a pleasure to read the way Ian McEwan writes, I did it thoroughly, word by word, which is rare for me. On the other hand, R was totaly anoyed with reading it. The long descriptions, of gardens, of moods, of days, of everything made him nervous despite the brilliance of plot. I couldn't agree less but I did undertood what he meant. Some people can't take the prose in this way. It's the same with Michel Roudnitska perfumes. They are prose, long detailed description. See Amoureuse, it's breathtaking, I saw so many Ah and Oh in reviews, people who found their big love. Yes, it is a gorgeous perfume. In the descriptive way. It's a compostion which looks like a composition, you get all the facets and nuances lenghty described. Feminine and sexy and luxurious and it will tell you everything. What I don't undersatand: it tells me roses, too, but I don't see them mentioned. My nose...
Debut is for me the best, I think I already wrote about it. That could be a classic one day and for the right woman, could be an excellent signature scent. And I see the story, it tells me cold light, the sofisticated and daring woman with the white shirt, an elegant office room with a lot of light over restrained fancy design furniture. Bit of a dream, bit of a cold mind.
Emotionelle is hard to take for me, I couldn't wear it dead but I see could be the piece of cake for some. It's a freezing perfume.
And Bois de Paradis. That's for me the most commercial of the line. At the begining it's a story for girls and modern women, who want to move out from mainstream. But the juicy opening is misleading, because later it's not sweety fruity floral anymore. It becomes a real perfume, another lenghty story of Michel Roudnitska. I'm not being ironical when I suggest that may be should have a more appealing name for the ones who finally want a quality perfume.

So what about the prose of DelRae? Just that, though I put them in a pack, each of them is a perfume in itself which should be really discovered with a lot of patience. They are very different, though the style is similar. They have an author with passion for beautiful descriptions.

Tango and wine

The quality is not great but it's worth watching it. Truly beauty.