October 2008 Archives

1.) ABC Says Ix-Nay on the Ig-Bay Ending-Spay:
"In an internal memo circulated to all ABC shows, the network makes it clear that wardrobe stylistas are expected to tighten their belts (get it?) and find some less expensive ways to tart up their stars . . . no more than $150 can be spent on men's and women's accessories. A pair of women's shoes has to cost less than $250; for men's shoes, less than $200. Men's suits are capped at $1,500, and although the price cap on women's clothing isn't mentioned, you can bet Eva Longoria is sobbing into her last season Marc Jacobs blouse."

Remember when studios used to employ a fully staffed wardrobe department that actually made the wardrobes instead of purchasing them? Yeah, well, neither do I, but that's the way it used to be. Costumes were whipped up to suit the director's mood, the producer's budget and the actor's figure. I wonder if we'll see this start to happen again.

Video clip below from designer fashion extravaganza, Desperate Housewives:

2.)There's Always a Silver Lining:
"Markdowns seem to be starting earlier than ever, as department stores try to clear out merchandise and maintain market share . . . Doneger Group's Goldreyer said the better customer is shopping in all channels and is willing to shop down-market, whereas designer, bridge and contemporary customers aren't likely to move to the better floor, despite the tough economy. The customer who traditionally shopped the better floor is still shopping, Goldreyer said, but is buying three items, rather than six."

Credit Crunch = bad, but Retail Markdowns = fantastic! I'm torn. Really.

But the economic fallout doesn't affect all brands with retail presence equally: "More moderately-priced brands such as Coach and Ralph Lauren have already seen sales flatten out as middle-class customers curb their spending, (a) Bain study says. A little further up the scale, 'aspirational" brands such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci are still growing, though more slowly. But those at the top of the price heap, such as Hermès and Chanel, are barely feeling the pinch at all, with sales estimated to grow 8% this year.'"

3.) Girls (in Red) Just Want to Have Fun:
"There is a reason I don't wear red. Quite a few, actually: it is bright, attention-grabbing, not a little tarty and, together with my blonde hair, makes quite an arresting combination. According to a new psychological study these are exactly the reasons men love a lady in red . . . the results show that wearing the colour makes you appear prettier, more desirable, more likely to be asked out on a date - and that more cash will be flashed for your benefit on said date."

Well, obviously. I mean, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that wearing the brightest, flashiest color in the rainbow is going to make men think you're bold and outgoing, or maybe even a little dangerous:

4.) Tom Ford Gets His Mitts on the Movie Biz:
"Tom Ford is putting fashion design aside to spend some time as a film director, Perezhilton.com reports. The Gucci designer is slated to direct a film called "A Single Man." It stars Colin Firth, Julianne Moore and Matthew Goode. The flick takes place in 1962 and revolves around a British college professor and how he deals with the loss of his (gay) partner of 16 year."

If his movie turns out to be anything like his subtle-as-a-jackhammer advertising campaigns, I'm not certain it'll find much of an audience. The splashy sexual style of his ads are highly effective for pushing retail products and brand image, but I've yet to see Ford have anything more interesting to offer (outside of clothing design) than a brand logo shaved into a model's pubic hair. Pass.

5.) Versace Aims for Uber-Exclusive Luxury with New Perfume:
"Next month, Versace will launch Gianni Versace Couture, a new luxury limited edition perfume for women. It is the first fragrance release from Versace's couture division . . . Versace Gianni Versace Couture will be available in very limited distribution, and will be $2100 for 100 ml, concentration unknown, in a white leather bottle inside a hand-stitched white leather train case. Only 100 bottles will be produced, although the company will produce additional units on request."

Yeah yeah yeah, great bottle, nice box, limited edition, whatever. And guess what? It's a . . . fruity floral! With sandalwood. For $2100.00. Yes, I think that's insane, too.

The perfumer behind the new Versace Couture is Sophie Labbé, who was awarded the 2005 Prix François Coty prize as recognition for her work in the perfume industry. I read through her list of fragrance credits, and there isn't a single one I've any compunction to search out -- her fragrances don't seem to inspire much interest in the perfume blogs as a whole, either. I don't expect the introduction of Versace Couture to change that (beyond raised eyebrows and catty remarks about the packaging and the price).

6. Dior Designer John Galliano Fined for Plagiarism:
"A Paris judge has fined British fashion designer John Galliano and his company and ordered them to pay 200,000 euros in damages to American photographer William Klein for plagiarising his artwork in an advertising campaign . . . William Klein said the copying of his work was "gross plagiary" and exclaimed: "I am insulted and furious" . . . The Paris judge ordered John Galliano to pay 150,000 euros as compensation for the abuse of William Klein's rights as author and 50,000 euros in damages because of the poor quality of the copied work."

Plagiarism isn't funny, but how hilarious is it that the judge tacked on an extra fine because the plagiarism was poorly done . . . ! Video clip below of a BBC interview with the photographer:

7.) World Diamond Conference Postponed Due to Economic Slowdown:
"The annual diamond conference in Antwerp has been postponed due the financial crisis currently gripping the world economy. Due to take place on November 17 and 18, 2008, the short notice postponement shows the extent to which diamond traders are concerned about the impact of world events on their industry . . . 'With the turmoil now taking place in the financial markets, we felt that it was essential that we allow the dust to settle first. We therefore thought it prudent to postpone the conference,' said Antwerp World Diamond Centre Chief executive Freddy J. Hanard."

And can anyone explain to me why we're still digging these rocks out of the ground when we can just make them in a laboratory? As you'll see in the video clip below, synthetic diamonds are now as beautiful as real ones, and without any of those pesky moral quandaries involved (Blood Diamonds, anyone?):

So the BF and I got up early today and drove to the nearest polling station to vote. I love the convenience of being able to cast my vote before the actual day of the election. The BF had already voted, but he went along with me to provide company and sparkling repartee, and to keep me from getting lost in traffic on the way there, which is a far more common occurrence than one would think reasonable.

A long line of people were already waiting by the time we got there, but the staff was large and in charge, with quite a number of voting machines stuffed into a deceptively small room, so we barely cooled our heels for fifteen minutes before we were at the door and I was handing them my voter registration card.

They didn't ask me for any photo ID, which I found strange and actually a little disturbing, because I could have been just anyone waltzing in that door clutching a registration card, and with the stories of voter registration fraud all across the news, you'd think they would bother to make sure I was who my voter card said I was. Right? You'd think?

But nevertheless, I did my civic duty and now it's on to the less complicated (and more enjoyable) world of sniffing at bottles of perfume -- and speaking of bottles of perfume, what should arrive in the mail today but a bottle of Serge Lutens Vetiver Oriental to call my own.

I've had a difficult time on this blog with the House of Serge Lutens, not being particularly charmed by what I've stumbled across so far (save for Ambre Sultan, but you'll notice I've made no mention of actually purchasing Ambre Sultan). But I ran across several descriptions of Vetiver Oriental that made me realize this was one I could easily live with, and I ordered it unsniffed/untested -- not my usual mode of operation, yet my confidence level was pretty high.

So is it holding up to my expectations? Yes, and let me count the ways:

1. Vetiver can be a difficult scent to love if it's not done properly. It has a chill, metallic quality mixed with gravelly dirt and the sharp green of grass that's been freshly yanked from the ground. In the wrong hands, it can be a mess of burning tires and shrapnel, but in the right hands, it's pure art (and here it's been paired with an icy iris root that enhances the Freon effect). I've found only two other fragrances so far that I believe have addressed vetiver with expert aplomb: Lalique Encre Noir and Clive Christian X for Men.

There are other vetivers that are acceptable, but I don't look for merely acceptable when it comes to vetiver, I look for "Wow, you smell like a Henry Moore bronze that's just been unloaded from a refrigerated delivery truck!" -- yes, I know, I'm difficult to please, but difficult doesn't mean impossible, and now I can add Vetiver Oriental to my short list of "Yes!"

2. I like gourmands, but not when they're too directly related to specific food items, such as cotton candy, cupcakes, caramel popcorn, licorice sticks, you get the picture. For example, I'm not against the addition of anise to a fragrance ingredient list, but when it predominates to the point of making me smell like a package of Red Vines, we have a problem.

Subtlety isn't just a word in the dictionary, people.

Vetiver Oriental is a gourmand, but not really a gourmand. It flirts with the gourmand genre rather than committing to it, and that's exactly my idea of what makes for a good gourmand fragrance. When I reviewed the Neil Morris October a few days back, it was pleasant but ended up smelling so strongly of pumpkin pie and spices that there is absolutely no way in h**l it would ever wind up as a purchased bottle on my shelf. Same with L'Artisan Bois Farine: "Who smells like a loaf of peanut butter nut-bread?" is not my idea of a compliment.

There's a sweetness to Vetiver Oriental that isn't brown sugar, it isn't honey -- I mean, yes, it is, but wrap a blanket of metallic sod around the sugar and any visions of hot, syrup-drenched pancakes just pop like balloons in a razor factory (needless to say, I find moments for gratitude in even the smallest achievements).

3. Cocoa. I mean, c'mon -- it's dark and bittersweet and dusty, and it should be so wrong sprinkled over iris flowers in the front lawn, but in Vetiver Oriental, it's just right. This smells like the same dusty, patchouli cocoa that makes Borneo 1834 such a strange delight, and I'm happy to find it nestled at the heart of Vetiver Oriental, as well.

Dirt, grass, gravel, honey, cocoa -- what's not to love? Okay, so it sounds like a plate of cookies someone dropped in a heap of compost at a 4-H Fair, but it's precisely this sense of the unexpected that I like so much about it, like the way Mandy Aftel mixed the fleshy scent of jasmine with chocolate and blood orange for her Aftelier Cacao. There are levels of salt, skin and musk that cut through the sweetness, playing down the sugar and warming up the cool earth in the mix.

Which brings me to number 4.

4. Subtle. The House of Lutens isn't necessarily known for restraint, and there are numerous occasions where his fragrances could have benefited from a less heavy hold on the shaker of odd (i.e. Miel de Bois, Cuir Mauresque), but the volume level to V.O. is just about pitch-perfect as it melts into the skin like a breath of smoke and wood after its initial hour of more assertive, bittersweet radiance.

Excellent piece of work. I'm glad I have a bottle. From what I understand (though I could be wrong), Vetiver Oriental is a limited release export item, and once Lutens distributors in the U.S. have sold out of their stock, you'll only be able to purchase it from the Lutens boutique in Paris. I ordered mine from the Lucky Scent website, though it's also available online from Neiman Marcus.

Photos of the bottle and box below:

UPDATE:

Several hours after posting the original entry, I walked into the BF's office and was stopped dead in my tracks by the most stunning scent of sweet, smoky, woodsy glory.

"What is that smell?!" I cried.

The BF barely looked up from his computer screen. "What smell?" he said.

I clutched at my chest, drama queen to the core. "That . . . that . . . GORE-JUSS sweet, smoky smell! Don't you smell it? C'mere, c'mere!" I motioned to him to come stand where I was standing.

He sighed, got up from his chair, walked over to where I was standing and sniffed at the air, then he sniffed at me. Then he rolled his eyes.

"It's your perfume," he said, and returned to his desk.

He loves me. He really really does.

Like I promised yesterday, I'm testing out two more fragrances from American perfume house Sonoma Scent Studio.

ENCENS TRANQUILLE: ironically, the Sonoma Scent Studio Encens Tranquille plays out like a more straight-forward version of Annick Goutal Encens Flamboyant. Funny, eh? That the Tranquille is more direct and how-do-you-do than the Flamboyant?

Both are built around the scent of Balsam Fir (one of the most popular Christmas tree pines), and while the Goutal is all about subtle and restrained charm, Sonoma Scent Studio announces its intentions and then barrels down its pine tree path, picking up dust, moss and smoke throughout its drydown (the oakmoss kind of takes over at the end, so you'll need to appreciate oakmoss if you're going to like Encense Tranquille).

The Goutal Encens Flamboyant is the more accomplished of the two fragrances, if we're to compare them side by side, but that's no reason to ignore Tranquille as it displays a lively, direct nature that makes it a no-brainer for casual, dressed-down, daily life. And should perfumer Laurie Erickson tweak (i.e improve) this one the way she did her Ambre Noir, Encens Tranquille might just get better with age.

WINTER WOODS: the smell of a sugared pine forest permeated with chimney smoke. There's a definite pine-needle aspect that cuts through the smoke, yet it's underscored and smoothed out by a sweet vanilla base.

Erickson states on her site that Winter Woods is meant to be a kinder, gentler version of her Fireside Intense, and she succeeded absolutely in creating just that. The smoke in Winter Woods is the same smoke that can be found in Fireside Intense (including a touch of the salty peat moss), but the volume is turned down and then balanced with the Balsam Fir of Encens Tranquille along with an edible gourmand note.

Like Ambre Noir, Winter Woods wants to sing in the powdery range, but the lower tones of the drydown hold it back from soaring into soprano territory until it reaches the homestretch -- it then lets loose a wash of powdery-vanilla notes over its fading center of smoke and woods.

A cozy, cashmere-soft blanket of a woodsy fragrance that turns too sweet for my taste, but I'll readily admit that the majority of amber/powder fans will consider this sweetness a feature rather than a bug.

Sonoma Scent Studio is a small perfumery founded in 2004 and located in Sonoma, California. The focus is on drier, earthier scents, with head perfumer Laurie Erickson deciding in February of 2007 to phase out the sweet gourmands on the product list and concentrate on the types of fragrances she felt best displayed her talents as a perfumer.

There are still florals and ambers in the product lineup, and many of the fragrances utilize sweet notes such as vanilla, tonka bean, tolu and spices, but these are added with subtlety and don't overpower what appears to be an intention to evocate the rolling hills and old growth forests for which Northern California is famous.

There's also a regularly updated blog to go along with the website, and it's a good read, offering a peek into the mind of an independent American perfumer and the growth of an artisanal perfumery.

So how are the perfumes themselves? I tested out two of them today: Fireside Intense and Ambre Noir. I have two more to test tomorrow (click to see next day's review).

FIRESIDE INTENSE: this smells exactly like its title, a charred wood and warm smoke fragrance without a hint of flowers or sweetness. There's even a deeply salty quality at its heart -- kind of peaty, as if some of the logs tossed onto the fire were covered in peat moss.

Absolutely linear in its composition -- it starts smoky, burnt and peaty and stays that way throughout its healthy lifespan. Could easily be worn on its own, but can also be used as a layering fragrance for when you want to dial down the pitch on something you presently own.

Fireside Intense should give Christopher Brosius a run for his money. Apply with a light hand, however, as you could easily smoke out a room with one spritz too many.

AMBRE NOIR: the website states that this particular fragrance was recently reformulated so that it "has less cedar, more incense, and is smoother than the original but is still dark and labdanum-rich," which is a pretty spot-on summation.

It starts off a bit unimpressive, but after about twenty minutes, the whole thing perks right up and develops into a surprisingly attractive amber, smoke and oakmoss scent. I kept thinking that Ambre Noir is what Neil Morris' Burnt Amber tries to be, but fails (and yes, Tara, I think you'd like it quite a bit).

There's just the tiniest bit of rose woven into the incense and a smooth patchouli in the base that adds a hint of dust and dry earth, enhancing the musk and encouraging the warmer side of the oakmoss to reveal itself. There is, however, a powdery-sweet tilt at the drydown (goshdarnit!), but overall, the sugar, smoke and resins are nicely balanced and the fragrance avoids straying into syrupy-sticky territory. I would think this could be a fall/winter favorite for a good number of female incense/amber fans.

The prices for Sonoma Scent Studio fragrances are ridiculously reasonable, especially for a small operation such as this one. One ounce of Ambre Noir is presently $50.00 while one once of Fireside Intense goes for $47.00, with each product offered in less expensive half-ounce sizes, as well. There's a sample program, too, with 1ml sample vials ranging from $3.00 to $3.50 a piece.

Note: Sonoma Scent Studio is not an all-natural perfumery. Ms. Erickson states: "Synthetics can extend the lasting power of natural oils and work together with them to enhance the scent; the combination of naturals with a light touch of synthetics often makes the best of both worlds . . . We rely on natural oils for many of our woodsy base notes because they are so beautiful, but we only use sandalwood that is grown in plantations as a renewable resource and we don't use rosewood, which is endangered and can easily be substituted with other accords. We use synthetic musks, castoreum, and civet to avoid the cruelty issues associated with animal versions of these ingredients."

Solange Azagury-Partridge is an independent jeweler with a roster of celebrity clients and a reputation for individual style, cost be damned. This attitude is allegedly reflected in her two perfumes, created by perfumer Lyn Harris of Miller Harris fame -- though the cost be damned attitude appears to be focused more into the cooler than thou bottles rather than the candied, powdery and (frankly) anonymous liquids dumped inside them.

Which is kind of a shame, really, as the Solange jewelry lines are truly stunning -- decorative art pieces that are the obvious result of a passion for visual design. Examples below:

(click to enlarge)

But where Solange Azagury-Partridge designs the jewelry herself, her two perfumes, Stoned and Cosmic, are works for hire. Now, hiring Lyn Harris to create perfumes for your jewelry line indicates that you're serious about producing high-quality fragrances, but even the best of artisans can stumble when trying their hand at something new, Solange Azagury-Partridge included.

I imagine that Lyn Harris was initially excited to work with Ms. Solange, but once the ink was dry on the contract, the excitement must have curdled when she confronted what had to have been obstacle after obstacle placed in the way of a genuinely creative collaboration. The marching orders probably went something like this:

"I want perfumes that are truly unique and different and out-there. Yes, something amazing and inspiring and *sniff sniff* Oh! Not THAT unique and different and out-there! I need to sell a lot of the stuff, you know. Money in the cash register is good for the bottom line, and god knows that high-end jewelry can be a hard sell in even the best of times. So I want my customers to immediately love these perfumes, to spray them on and believe that they are at once special and singular and *sniff sniff* Holy mother of god! Not THAT special and singular. Are you out of your mind? I only want to give them the IDEA that they're unique, and I certainly don't need a crazy-ass, Frenchified, fine and dandy fragrance to do that. Can't you just concoct something that smells like a huge best seller? What do you mean, what best seller? Hell, I don't know, how about White Diamonds? That sells by the boatload! Oh, hey, Lyn, honey, what's the matter? Why are you crying?"

And so Lyn Harris' heart must have sank to what felt like the deep, dark bottom of the Mariana Trench, but she honored her contract and proffered two uber-feminine, candy-coated, powder & patchouli potions that smell like the baby aisle at a Berkeley WalMart and were merely the excuse for Solange Azagury-Partridge to do what she really wanted to do -- design expensive, bejeweled perfume bottles to contain them. Because, really, when you're a jeweler and your name is on the bottle, you want it to be all about you and not the perfumer you hired, right?

Obviously.

And then, of course, Ms. Solange dredges up the brilliant marketing ploy of adding diamond dust to one fragrance (Stoned) and meteor dust to the other fragrance (Cosmic), which doesn't affect the smell of the perfumes even one teensy tiny bit, but makes for terrific PR copy and helps to justify the brain-boggling prices charged per bottle. I mean, she's an exclusive jeweler to the stars, right? It's not like she could get away with slapping a $75.00 price tag on a bottle of boring, powdery fragrance that any average Jane could afford. What could possibly be exclusive about that?

Indeed.

And so goes my imaginary tale of the creation of Stoned and Cosmic. It starts out as a romance and ends up a tragedy, as many romances are inclined to do.

The bottles for both fragrances are pretty fantastic, however, and will look striking on any vanity counter, dresser top, bathroom shelf, etc. Hardly anyone (if anyone) you know would own a bottle, so they would certainly be conversation pieces, and could also double as relatively inexpensive ways to buy into the Solange jewelry lifestyle -- hip, rich and in the know, you know?

Of course you do, and this is why high-end jewelers have perfumes designed for them in the first place. Can't afford the diamond, emerald and star sapphire necklace you just tried on in a fit of whimsy? Buy the perfume, instead! It looks like a positive steal in comparison and you'll feel elated as you exit the store, logo stamped shopping bag swinging on your stylish arm.

Yet while wearing a Solange Azagury-Partridge ring, necklace or bracelet will undoubtedly draw immediate, admiring and envious glances from everyone within your glittering vicinity, it's reasonable to guess that wearing one of the Solange fragrances will leave you wondering, instead, why it was that you felt the need to fork over several hundred dollars for some over-priced, dust-flaked liquid that doesn't differentiate you one whit from the Johnson & Johnson baby-powdered infant snoozing in a stroller next to the table where you're sipping your Starbucks latte.

Reality intrudes, elation deflates, you can just hear the words echoing in your head: "I'm sorry, we don't offer money back on our fragrances, but we will give you store credit." Ka-ching!

It's just hype, my dear. A lot of cleverly worded, flowery-phrased hype. My advice is not to buy into it. You have way better options out there, trust me -- and while the bottles probably won't be as cool, and you won't get the fantasy of diamond dust and meteor flakes, I can safely say that the actual fragrance experiences will be far, far more singular and rewarding in the long run.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have skin that's screaming to be scrubbed clean of all things Solange.

UPDATE:

In the cause of fairness, I have to post that I sent a 5ml decant of Solange Stoned to a powder-loving perfume fiend (hello, Deev!), and she about fell into a rapturous coma of ecstatic proportions when she tried it on.

This is what she said: "The Stoned arrived last night and I am testing that bad boy today. My immediate impression was "HABANITA!" It really is a great deal like Habanita, but ... it's got the cigarette note (which I really hate) turned way down, and there's a berry note of some sort (raspberry?) added. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I'm looking forward to seeing how it morphs through the morning."

She sent another message about an hour later: ".....aaaaaaaaaand now, I'm well into the drydown, and it is beeyootiful. It's reminding me a bit of Le Dix now, but warmer." She then proceeds to curse me for introducing her to a ridiculously expensive perfume that she now loves, which was kind of my point about the Solange fragrances in the first place -- they're perfectly lovely, but it's the bottles you're really paying for, and those bottles are darn expensive.

I am so not a powder lovin' guy, but I'm now going to learn to appreciate the scent rather than automatically dismiss it so that I can justly represent for all the members of the powder-puff gang. It won't be my specialty, but there's no sense in dissing just cuz I don't understand.

That said, Stoned was, in my mind, a much better fragrance than Cosmic. Prettier, sweeter, softer. The patchouli that rises up at the end is indeed a nice one.

UPDATE (06/03/09):

Aaaaaand maybe I should just mark a big red "X" through the entire preceding (and snarky) review, because I'm testing Cosmic again (I don't know why, I just felt like I needed to) and I'm liking it quite a bit.

Perhaps it just took me a while to wrap my brain around the Lyn Harris style? Whatever it was, Cosmic is cool: simultaneously sweet and sour. The tension between the two extremes is a pleasure to experience -- I wouldn't say Cosmic is balanced so much as stretched smooth and tight between earth and sky.

Listed fragrance notes for Cosmic are: bergamot, galbanum, rose, jasmine absolute, iris absolute, patchouli, vetiver, labdanum, opoponax, myrrh and vanilla. It's got practically every single one of my favorite scent notes, so you'd think I would have fallen in love from the first. The powdered florals are body slammed into submission by the incense resins -- the galbanum, opoponax and myrrh, especially. This trio adds a chill to what might otherwise have been a way too sweet and over the top concoction.

Cosmic is not the anonymous potion I once said, and I apologize for that dismissal. After smelling so many more anonymous potions in the meantime, Cosmic now comes off as creative and intriguing by comparison. And I love the bottle . . .

Since we're rapidly barreling into the darker, cooler season, I thought it might be a good idea to dig my Neil Morris samples out of the box and give 'em a go. I'd originally ordered them back in the summer and they seemed a bit too rich and heady for the Dallas heat at the time, but now, I think the time is just about right.

OCTOBER: buttery and spicy, this reminds me of apple orchards on a cold day, hot cider, fallen leaves crackling underfoot, woodsmoke from the chimneys. I almost want to say I smell pumpkin in it, as well -- but maybe I'm smelling the spices that usually go into pumpkin pie, instead: nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, baked sugar. There's clove buried in there, too.

Candied and absolutely edible, you'd have to pry a bottle of this out of the cold dead hands of any true gourmand fan. It's too rich and spicy-sweet thick for me, personally, but I'd have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to notice that it has its charms.

BURNT AMBER: take the charred heart of CB I Hate Perfume Burning Leaves, lace it with a jigger of soft bourbon aged in oakwood casks and you'll get something that might closely resemble Burnt Amber.

Easy, casual and comfortable, it's a likable fragrance but so deeply smoky that I think a lot of wearers might be a bit put off by it; however, if you're not afraid of perfumes with a generous dose of char, Burnt Amber is worth a try. Wool sweaters, cashmere scarves and leather overcoats are suggested accessories, but not required.

DARK SEASON: patchouli, vanilla, a bit of cinnamon, a hint of oakmoss, Dark Season is warm and cool at the same time, the labdanum tussling with the scent of pine resin for a relaxed sense of balance.

While not as pumpkie-pie sugary as October, it manages to register a tad sweeter than the darker Burnt Amber, the cinnamon lending it a twinge of the gourmand. It smells to me as if it wants to play within the more traditional amber genre, yet the myrrhe and pine keep it several degrees cooler than would otherwise be expected.

EARTHTONES #3 -- NORTHWOODS: my least favorite of the four. I understand the concept behind it -- a walk through a northern forest, the smell of leaves, tree bark, moss and cold stone, and while I appreciate the scent of oakmoss, I'm not a fan of fragrances that put it front and center.

As Northwoods sits on the skin, it mellows out to become more earthen and woodsy, but it never shakes its uber-high oakmoss quotient. If you're big on oakmoss, then you should love Northwoods hands down; but if you're iffy on the sharp, bitter scent of oakmoss trailing you around all day, then you should pass this one by.

I found this to be an interesting tidbit:

Scent On Demand: Scientists Genetically Enhance Scent Of Flowers:

"A team of scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has found a way to genetically enhance the scent of flowers and implant a scent in those that don't have one . . . Prof. Vainstein and his research assistant Michal Moyal Ben-Tzvi succeeded, together with other researchers, to find a way of enhancing the scent of a flower by ten-fold and cause it to emit a scent during day and night - irrespective of the natural rhythm of scent production . . . The flower industry will also be interested in this development, explains Prof. Vainstein. 'Many flowers lost their scent over many years of breeding. Recent developments will help to create flowers with increased scent as well as producing new scent components in the flowers.'"

Enhancing the scent of a flower by ten-fold! That's an astounding modification, and could create an explosion of natural perfumery through significantly decreasing the cost of obtaining natural essences.

An article from October 3rd notes that "The mainstreaming of natural and organic personal care products means that the value of the European market is set to exceed €1.4bn ($1.76bn US) this year . . . what is really helping to drive sales is the fact that these type of products are becoming more and more readily available, with some of Europe's biggest retailers, including supermarket chains such as Tesco and Carrefour, now stocking their own private label ranges" -- so the potential enhancement of scent in flowers could make the field of natural perfumery accessible to a much broader consumer audience.

Presently, natural perfumery is limited in scope due to the cost of its materials vs. the cost of producing a scent utilizing mostly synthetic compounds, but fields of flowers yielding a ten-fold increase in essence oils could tempt even the largest corporations into producing their own "all natural" fragrances (lower costs = higher profits!), paving the way for already existing smaller, independent perfumers to follow in their sizable wakes.

I am curious, however, to hear the language the big players will use to differentiate their products for the two markets -- I mean, they're going to want to make money on the naturals, but they're not going to want to do it in a way that makes their mostly synthetic fragrances sound cheap or bad: "Buy our new All-Natural Dior perfume because our synthetic fragrances smell like shrieking pots of toxic chemicals!"

Catchy, no?

The genetic modification article also raises the point about the possibility of creating flowers with new scents -- a Rose/Geranium (Geranirose!), or a Violet/Daisy (Violaisy!) -- but I don't know if that would be any more helpful for a perfumer than simply mixing rose oil with geranium oil. It could certainly make a trip to the local florist a lot more entertaining, however.

But just as there's resistance in some quarters to genetically modified crops, will there be a resistance among natural perfumers to genetically modified flowers? Larger corporations are unlikely to have a problem with it ("What? Ten times more Grasse Rose for the same price? I'm in!"), but I wonder about the reception these flowers will receive among the individual perfumers who are adamantly all-natural.

SERGE LUTENS CUIR MAURESQUE: There are numerous interpretations of what leather might smell like on human skin, and because leather isn't a natural essence or synthetic compound in and of itself, it's up to the perfumer to play Dr. Frankenstein in his/her lab, creating life out of a myriad of separate pieces and parts. The results are not always a success, and sometimes angry townspeople, pitchforks and torches get involved. Serge Lutens Cuir Mauresque (or, Moorish Leather) strikes me as one of those pitchfork and torch moments.

So far, Odori Cuoio has been my favorite interpretation of leather -- stark, unadorned and so dry you can almost hear the sound of cured hides cracking as the liquid is released from the bottle. Cuir Mauresque is not like Cuoio, unfortunately, and in what seems to be a desire to be willfully obtuse, it contains a compound that smells strongly of piss -- which, I suppose, if you're into gay faux-biker bars and fetishistic watersports, you'd quickly associate with the scent of leather, but is this really the Lutens target audience?

To be frank, if Etat Libre D'Orange had put this exact liquid into their Tom of Finland bottles, it would have been a stroke of marketing genius and I'd be sitting here marveling at their brilliant sense of chutzpah, but this is Serge Lutens, and the fragrance is not named after an artist famous for his gay S&M drawings, so my reaction to Cuir Mauresque is, instead, more along the lines of "WTF?!"

In Cuir Mauresque's defense, the sour aroma of piss does fade as time passes, but it doesn't fully go away, and I have to admit to not being particularly certain why anyone would reach into their perfume collection and think, "A-ha! Today I want to smell kind of like the windowless back room of a gay leather bar!" Nevertheless, because it's a Serge Lutens, it receives the predictable accolades from the roster of usual suspects. For instance, I give you Marina at Perfume Smellin' Things:

"Cuir Mauresque makes my mouth dry and my knees week. From the slap of pure unadulterated leather in the beginning to the warm, gentle caress of cinnamon and orange blossom at the middle stage, to the wonderful dark, ambery, leathery embrace of the drydown, Cuir Mauresque charmed, enamoured and enslaved me."

You know, I had a gay friend back in Seattle who was an out-and-loud leather bottom, and he reacted to nights full of golden showers in much the same fashion. I always thought hey, more power to ya, buddy, so I suppose it's only polite that I offer Marina (as well as all the others who go ga-ga for Cuir Mauresque) the same latitude.

PARFUMERIE GENERALE CUIR D'IRIS: Here we are, cuir again, but I figured that as long as I was on the subject, I may as well keep it rolling.

Parfumerie Generale has a reputation for employing a boldly sweet base in many of their fragrances, and while Cuir d'Iris does incorporate this sweetness, it's toned down by magnitudes. In fact, I found Cuir d'Iris to be initially as challenging as Cuir Mauresque, though (and thankfully!) not because of any sour piss aroma.

Because Cuir d'Iris is working with Iris root instead of eastern spices, it at first exhibits a metallic sheen, a cold gray note that plays in contrast to the faintly ambered base. There's a little bit of forest and earth, as well, but once the emotionally detached Iris makes its early exit, what we have left is a much more accessible dry woods and smoke mixture -- balanced and a bit hushed. I found that it melted into my skin more quickly than Cuir Mauresque, and I enjoyed the brief snatches of amber that drifted occasionally past.

There's a muskiness to Cuir d'Iris, too -- blended carefully into the mix so that it doesn't overpower the whole, and I think this is what separates Cuir Mauresque from Cuir d'Iris. The musk of Cuir Mauresque is mostly sour on me until it hits the finish line. It smells like my own skin, but worse, as if I hadn't bathed for two days, whereas Cuir d'Iris smells like my own skin, but better. It adds subtle layers of incense and antique-store dust so that anyone leaning in close to me would think I smelled warm and comfortingly familiar instead of just unwashed.

Cuir d'Iris is also unlike many of the other Parfumerie Generale fragrances I've tested in that it's surprisingly subtle. I sprayed on quite a bit for this test and yet I have to lean in close to my skin to really get the full effect. Actually, both Cuir Mauresque and Cuir d'Iris are quite subtle in what they're attempting to do -- creating that pulled-in to the skin scent that transforms the wearer, yet if I'm to be transformed by a fragrance, I'll opt for the one that helps me put my best foot forward, so to speak.

I mean, I can smell unwashed all on my own, and without the indignity of having to pay for the privilege of it.

OFF-TOPIC:

My sister's birthday is today. She's running up into her later 40's, and I wanted to gift her with some items that would help her feel like she wasn't so easily succumbing to the approach of the ferryman (rage, rage against the dying of the light!). Here's what I sent:

(click to enlarge)

Left to right:
Parfumerie Generale L'Oiseau de Nuit -- because she loves sweet, exotic perfumes and she's never experience a PG fragrance before.
Mephisto Raya boot -- she's on her feet most of the time while at work, and Mephisto is known for creating some of the most comfortable shoes you can buy. She's also not into high heels, so the 2" heel on the Raya is perfect. They're fairly conservative in style, but with just a little bit of flair -- a lot like my sister, in fact. They'll go with practically everything in her wardrobe.
Dior Deluxe Travel Palette: she's traveling to visit our mom in a few weeks, and what better way to comfort oneself while visiting an old and cranky parent than locking yourself in the hotel bathroom and playing with Dior cosmetics! I thought it was brilliant that it was all contained in such a handy travel case, so that she can keep it in her carry-on bag without having to worry about brushes and pots and tubes, etc.

Hey, sis -- happy birthday!

What If You Threw a Party and Everybody Wanted to Come?:
"A select group of international guests will dine at award winning Natalie's in Camden Maine when author and perfume critic for the New York Times Chandler Burr will lead dinner guests on a journey of scent and flavor during a special "Scent Dinner" on Thursday, October 23. In less than 8 hours after publication the scent dinner was sold out . . . Raymond Brunyanszki the co-owner of the Camden Harbour Inn and Natalie's said . . . 'I think this must be a new record; at least it is a record for us. The phone went crazy today and within hours the event was sold out.'"

When Chandler Burr first began writing about the fragrance industry, insiders and execs were mostly resistant to his questions, unwilling to reveal the commercial/industrial side of perfume creation and horrified that he intended to pull back the curtain of romance and glamor they'd shelled out billions of dollars of good PR cash to buy -- but information loves to be free, and the public is eating it up (literally, in the case of Burr's Scent Dinners).

But is this exposure of the science/business behind the glamor helpful or harmful for the industry? Based on some of the latest sales figures, I'm tempted to conclude the former: "Coty Inc, the world's largest fragrance company with high-end perfume brands such as Calvin Klein and Vera Wang, is due to report that its 2008 annual sales rose over 20 percent to $4 billion . . . The company is now targeting annual sales to touch $5 billion in 2010."

Behold the intersection where glamor and YouTube collide:

"The top has like a crown thing on it and it has like upside down hearts."

Economy Goes Down, Chanel Prices Go Up:
"Just a heads-up to all Chanel lovers and soon to be Chanel Classic bag owners, despite the poor economy America is facing the classic bags are scheduled for a 20% price increase on November 1, 2008! That means if you're buying a Classic Caviar Jumbo Flap Bag for $2850 (before price increase) the price will increase to $3420- a $570 increase!!"

If you have to ask the price, you have no business buying it . . . right? Whatever. Thank god I'm a guy and I don't have to deal with what seems to be a soul-screaming ache for exactly the perfect social-status signifier that can be slung across the shoulder to the tune of only $6,000.00 . . . in purple quilted patent leather . . . with white gold hardware. IT Bag, thy name is hell.

Wait! Oh god, not the men, too!

"And it's all shiny and so nice . . . so, uhm . . . yeah."

More Proof That Splashy, Uber-Exotic PR Campaigns Work:
"According to the 51-country Global Luxury Brands survey by market research firm Nielsen, 43 percent of UAE shoppers think luxury brands provide significantly higher quality than other products. Three in five (59 percent) of those surveyed said they wear designer brands to project social status, and if money were no concern, Chanel and Louis Vuitton were the brands most people would buy . . . UAE shoppers ranked second globally as the biggest fans and purchasers of Gucci (31 percent) and Chanel (21 percent), and third globally for Giorgio Armani (19 percent)."

Fall/Winter ad campaign for UAE favorite Gucci below:

"I'm deathly thin and dance like a stoned hippie -- envy me!"

Judge Tells Luxury Brand Counterfeiters to Drop Dead:
"Louis Vuitton ... today announced that the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has awarded the company $3,000,000 in statutory damages and over $500,000 in attorney's fees and expenses in its lawsuit ... for trademark counterfeiting . . . In justifying the size of the award, the Court found the goal of deterring similar conduct by others requires 'a substantial award,' and that the Defendants have shown by their willfulness in obstructing the litigation, engaging in discovery abuses, and violating Louis Vuitton's trademark rights that 'a slight damage award is unlikely to deter them from continuing their illegal business.'"

It's about frickin' time. Fining the luxury brand counterfeiters some negligible amount was obviously not solving the problem. By making it much more expensive to play, there will be fewer profits and greater risks -- not really the ingredients for a counterfeiter's dream job.

Yeah, Sure, But Does It Smell Like a Trashy Mink Coat?:
Chandler Burr savages the new Danielle Steele perfume: "It would be a stunning, amazing perfume! It would be exquisite but avant-garde. It would be timeless but also trendy, classic but also contemporary. (Elizabeth Arden Internal Creative Team nodded its collective head vigorously. Yes, yes! it said.) Young women would wear it, but middle-age women would wear it, too, and everyone would want it and everyone would love it because in the time it had taken to conduct the creative meeting with the Elizabeth Arden Internal Creative Team, Danielle Steel had sold 500 million books."

I was secretly hoping the Danielle Steele perfume would smell something like this:

"My wife with the tongue of a doll that opens and closes its eyes."

Self-Righteous Stella Gets the Smackdown from Lagerfeld:
"(Stella McCartney) sent copies (of a PETA anti-fur video) to a bunch of designers who continue to use fur, but not all of them were willing to watch it. 'Karl Lagerfeld, rather predictably, felt he needed to return the video to me!' Stella writes. 'Dolce & Gabbana were disgracefully rude about it, too' . . . Stella has one hypothesis: 'I frankly don't think most designers have the balls to watch animals writhing and being slaughtered; they don't want to admit they're responsible for such suffering.'"

Or maybe they just found it insulting to get preached at by a designer whose father's fame, fortune and connections had a huge role in getting her to where she is while, for example, Lagerfeld came from nothing and struggled his way to the top through decades of sheer hard work and massive determination. While Lagerfeld might be open to respectful criticism from his peers, McCartney is more like a clueless teenager lecturing the adults in the room. Her willingness to subsequently sling public insults about Lagerfeld, who's been working in the design business since before she was born, is just more evidence of her sense of entitlement ("Thanks for buying me my own design house, dad!") and her unfortunate lack of manners. Just a thought.

J. Crew Makes Its Bid for the Upmarket Crowd:
"Millard S. Drexler, known as Mickey, the chief executive of J. Crew ... chose just about the worst week in financial memory to introduce a J. Crew collection priced in the stratosphere of Gucci and Prada . . . The first thing you see inside the store is a jacket covered in hand-painted French sequins to look like tortoiseshell, with a price of $3,000 . . . In the first three days, the store sold three of the $3,000 jackets and a surprising number of silk flower pins priced from $50 to $200 . . . 'J. Crew is such a big company, I don't think people understand that there is a whole group of people here who love design,' said (Jenna Lyons Mazeau, the creative director of J. Crew). 'We don't just bang it out.'"

Video below of J. Crew ad campaign shot in Paris . . . and I don't mean Paris, Texas:

J. Crew. In Paris. Who'd of thunk?

There are any number of perfume snobs who will turn up their noses at the gourmand genre, complaining that anyone who wants to smell like a spiced cookie is obviously emotionally stunted and shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a real perfume counter (much less out of their padded cell), but just as, say, Marvin Gaye elevated the pop music genre in 1970 with an under four minute toe-tapping, top-40 paean to the strength of the human spirit during a time of cultural crisis, art is where you find it, or rather, where you allow it to find you.

AFTELIER CACAO: "I like to envision perfume as a piece of precious jewelry, created through an artisan process," stated Mandy Aftel, founder and perfumer for Aftelier, and Cacao is exactly that -- a black opal of a fragrance, dark and earthy yet shot through with bolts of color.

The decision to infuse a deep, bitter cocoa with the fleshy odor of jasmine and the sweet bright essence of blood orange was inspired. Not too sugary, not too bitter, with the jasmine adding that necessary pinch of salt that straddles the line between sweet and savory. The resulting blend is a fragrance that skips across its rich, dusky tightrope like a seasoned acrobat without a slip, a fumble or even a drop of nervous sweat.

Other reviewers have compared Cacao to the cheap Terry's chocolate oranges you can pick up in drugstores and grocery shelves, but I beg to differ. Cacao is to a Terry's Chocolate Orange what a bottle of Screaming Eagle is to a gallon of Thunderbird -- and don't blame the artist behind the juice if you can't tell the difference.

***Aftel utilizes only pure essential oils in the creation of her fragrances and happily cops to being a headliner in the world of natural perfumery. My two complaints regarding all-natural perfumes are that 1.) they're exponentially more expensive than a fragrance crafted with synthetics (Cacao runs about $600.00 an ounce), and 2.) they're already fading away just when I'm starting to enjoy them on my skin, but I was surprised at the longevity of Cacao. It's still over too soon, but it lasts a good two hours longer than what I've experienced when testing scents from other natural perfume houses.

PROFUMI DE PANTELLERIA JAILIA: A thick potent blast of a gourmand, stuffed with chocolate, patchouli, a riot of fruits, honey, vanilla and amber. If you think it sounds amazing, it is, and if you're also thinking it could very well suck all the air out of a room, it can.

Jailia is often compared to Thierry Mugler's Angel, but favorably so, as in "Like Angel, this fragrance is a bit loud, but the similarity ends there for me. I cannot wear Angel, it is harsh and ugly on me. Jailia is a much better blended perfume" (that's a direct quote from a customer review at the Lucky Scent website) -- so if you liked the idea of Angel but found it too strident to actually wear, Jailia might just be the sugar in your cup of tea, so to speak.

There was a point about an hour into it that it smelled remarkably similar to Cacao, which I was testing out on my opposite arm at the time, but then the two parted ways, never to meet again. Jailia is more directly sweet than Cacao, the scent notes more caramelized, the fruits a lot jammier and the drydown more about vanilla and patchouli instead of carrying the deep cocoa to its earthy conclusion (though it does boast a longer lifespan). It's a very well-executed gourmand, but it's not a work of olfactory art.

Cacao, however . . . I mean, it doesn't at all match the sofa or the drapes, yet I'm still scouting out wall space.

UPDATE:

I remembered I had a vial of BEAUTIFUL US CHOCOLATE COSMOS in my sample drawer, so I dug it out and gave it a spin, you know, since it's Chocolate Covered Tuesday and all -- and I can report that it's a nice enough chocolate fragrance, if you want to smell like a Terry's chocolate orange . . . *rimshot*

But seriously, its sole reason for existence appears to be to hijack the chocolate, jasmine and orange trinity of Cacao and then smother it in cinnamon for a spicy Halloween candy effect.

No thanks.

When all is said and done, I think I'll stick to my bottle of Il Profumo Chocolat Amere. What? Stop looking at me like that! Of course I was going to tell you I'd purchased a bottle of Chocolat Amere . . . I was just, uh, waiting for the right time?

UPDATE 2:

Another chocolate scent that's worth mentioning is Chocolate Amber from profumo.it -- a blend of dark cocoa, vanilla and tonka bean (tonka is a kind of leafy, caramelized scent).

If you've ever walked into a high-end boutique that specializes in expensive dark chocolates, then you'll immediately understand what perfumer Dominique Dubrana has accomplished: an atmosphere of deep, rich satisfaction.

All profumo.it fragrances are all-natural, which lends Chocolate Amber subtlety, despite its sweetness.

MONA DI ORIO LUX: I was all set to dismiss Lux as a boring citrusy failure when the cistus labdanum kicked in and suddenly it all made sense. What began as a snoozingly ordinary sugared-lemondrop has transmogrified into a warm, lightly smoked incense with a bit of vetiver root and a spoonful of salty musk to anchor it on planet earth.

Surprisingly attractive (considering I was ready to dump the rest of the sample down the drain not ten minutes ago) and something I would recommend for both men and women, though di Orio's Nuit Noire is, in my opinion, a much more full and accomplished piece of work; however, Lux is more user-friendly and socially versatile due to its lighter, sunnier nature.

Hours into it, the drydown shakes off any and all citrus grove associations and hits the salty, smoky road of a proper incense musk. That's when I appreciate it the most.

DAWN SPENCER HURWITZ CELESTIAL SMOKE: When I first grabbed this sample to spray some on, I dropped it and it broke on the tiled floor, spilling most of the liquid. I did manage to rescue enough in the vial to apply a good portion to my wrist, but now I'm beginning to wonder why I bothered.

Celestial Smoke is a sour, vinegary mess (worse than Aesop Mystra) that gets more intensely awful the longer it stays on my skin, and though I don't believe in signs and portents, I'm kicking myself for not interpreting the shattered sample vial as a nudge from the gods: "Warning -- foul brew ahead!"

Purchase at your own risk.

SERGE LUTENS AMBRE SULTAN: Serge Lutens strikes me as the perfumers equivalent of David Lynch -- he works in a singular style that others strive to emulate, and his fragrances are often more satisfying when broken down into separate parts than they are when examined as a whole; another way he's like David Lynch is that on the occasions when he gets it right, the pieces all work together like the gears in a perfect Swiss timing mechanism and you can't help but stand back and marvel a bit when the clock strikes noon and the entire dance unfolds.

Ambre Sultan is one of the times where I believe that Lutens gets it right. It's still a bit of a challenge, mind you; it starts off exceedingly dry and herbacious before moving into its sweetly earthen and woodsy glory several hours later, and for something labeled amber, that takes a bit of getting used to. Is it worth getting used to? Absolutely -- but it requires time, effort and attention in a spray and go world, and I don't always have the focus for a Picasso when I'm zipping through the grocery store, sorting the laundry and/or cleaning the car.

I picked up a sample of Ambre Sultan because I was casting about for a warm, attractive and comforting perfume to purchase as a gift for my sister's upcoming birthday, and as much as I admire the obvious artistry behind Ambre Sultan, I had my doubts that a working mother with three teenage children and a husband who's out of town on business a lot would find it much comfort to deal with such a convoluted plot in a bottle. It would be like settling the kids down for an evening of popcorn and Men In Black only to discover that some pot-smoking Blockbuster employee had misfiled a DVD of Blue Velvet in the package, instead. It can only end in tears.

So my take on Ambre Sultan is this: if you're in the mood for a mind-spinner of an amber, one that's singular, distinctive and flat-out artistic from front to back, then Serge Lutens has got your number; yet if you're scouting for an amber that's rich, sweet and undemanding of your attention, Ambre Sultan's arid, splintery heart is most definitely not going to float your easy-to-love boat, because while the ending is certainly gorgeous (and I offer that as the understatement of the year), the journey to get there is fraught with challenge.

What did I wind up getting for my sister? Parfumerie General L'Oiseau de Nuit -- it's sultry, sweetly feminine and no-holds-barred charming, and THAT is what a frazzled mom needs when she reaches for a bottle of perfume to start her day.

***Note: if I could find a way to bottle Ambre Sultan's smoky, woodsy drydown, while skipping everything that comes before it, I think I'd make a fortune.

AESOP MYSTRA: Yet one more reason to leave Luca Turin's Perfumes: The Guide to gather dust on my bookshelf. He gave Mystra four stars, yet Mystra's sour, myrrhe soaked soul makes Ambre Sultan seem like a bouncy, happy puppy in comparison.

If you've ever read Chandler Burr's The Emperor of Scent, then you'll recall how Turin has worked with, and inhaled, chemical fumes that made his co-workers reel in fear and disgust. Many fellow faculty members lodged formal complaints against him, claiming that he was putting them all in danger by exposing them to toxic substances.

I've come to the unfortunate conclusion that, through the years, his direct and repeated exposure to these fumes must have addled his brain and significantly impaired his judgement -- this is the only rational explanation I can come up with for his enthusiastic thumbs-up review of such an unlikable fragrance.

Octavian at 1000 Fragrances writes that: "(Mystra) explores the Byzantine world and religious historical smells in an astonishing way - far from the easy pleasant side . . . It's not the opulent sexy Byzantine perfume that would make you feel attractive . . . but a whisper of death in a decadent universe."

In other words, it smells like something used to mummify bodies before burial, which I suppose could be nice, if you're Elvira and you want to wear it for Halloween. Average Janes and Joes, however, will want to whistle right on past that particular graveyard.

Mystra gets less sour and unpleasant when you hit the drydown phase of it, but that's a classic example of damning something with faint praise, so what's the point? Mystra is available only from a small company in Australia, and they don't ship to the United States. Thank god for small miracles.

I cracked under Pierre Guillaume's insidious pressure, and here's the photographic evidence below to prove it:

From my review of L'Ombre Fauve: "L'Ombre Fauve is a winner on my grand comfort-scent scale. I mean, with a scent guide that lists amber, musk, woods, incense and patchouli, how could it miss? Deep, richly musky and with a lightly sugared, cocoa-dusted patchouli that's just sharp enough to dig its hooks into my heart, L'Ombre Fauve is like a slightly melancholy French pop song that, when I can close my eyes, I can pretend was written just for me."

Now I can pony up to that jukebox whenever I want -- wait! Does anyone even know what a jukebox is anymore? Maybe I should have used an iPod analogy, though I've been reading recently that the iPod is so last year . . .

I've only tested two fragrances so far from Paris perfume house Parfums de Nicolai (New York and Odalisque), so I figured it was long past time for some further exploring within the brand.

LE TEMPS D'UNE FETE: Le Temps D'une Fête gets a lot of rapturous reviews and spontaneous praise across the Net for its old-school feel. A complex, shadowy floral that's often classified within the chypre genre due to the presence of oakmoss in its base, LTDF unfolds in layers, from sweet florals to light incense resins to green mosses and smooth sandalwood.

The overall effect is that of a slightly candied, green floral -- I think the "candied" bits might result from the inclusion of the galbanum and opoponax resins. The oakmoss in the base adds just the necessary touch of dark earthiness to ground the fragrance, giving it an air of sleek sophistication where otherwise it might have been just another sweet floral.

The sandalwood in the drydown is beautifully done, as well, wrapping up the production so nicely that you'll want to run right back to the front of the line, buy another ticket and start all over again.

MAHARADJAH: Maharadjah is not quite what I was expecting from Parfums de Nicolai, and that's the bad news. The good news is that I can save you grief and a bit of cash by recommending that you buy a bottle of L'Oiseau de Nuit, instead.

Maharadjah is available as a home fragrance and candle, as well as a perfume, and I would say that its function as a home fragrance is far more suitable than its use as a personal fragrance. While it offers a terrific patchouli in its base, the lavender, clove and cinnamon top notes are off-putting on the skin, and smell nearly identical to a spicy solid-gel air freshener a friend of mine once used to mask the foul odors emanating from the kitty litter box stashed in a corner of her bathroom.

I realize there are people out there who love Maharadjah (and I apologize if I've offended you), but there are so many other (and so many other wonderful) perfumes available on the market (including Parfums de Nicolai's own Odalisque and Le Temps D'Une Fête, for example) that I think it would actually be a shame to shell out hard earned cash on a perfume that exhibits more than passing similarities to a drugstore room freshener.

If you're looking for exotic, it would be a dereliction of duty if I didn't steer you toward fragrances from Parfumerie Generale, Annick Goutal or Amouage, instead. Parfums de Nicolai does a great job with traditional florals and classic ambers, but this spicy routine doesn't appear to be their specialty.

BOIS 1920 VETIVER AMBRATO: I was just wondering the other day why someone hadn't yet come up with a scent that combines the sharp grassy character of vetiver with the smooth sweet nature of amber (seriously, I was, like, "Jeepers, do I have to do everything around here?") when I stumbled across Bois 1920's Vetiver Ambrato, and it does exactly that. Exactly.

The two scent notes couldn't be more different, yet this is what makes them perfect as a pairing -- it's like dropping two sworn enemies onto a deserted island where they're forced to work together for their mutual survival, discovering in the process that they make a kick-ass team and why were they ever fighting in the first place?

The resulting product would be more for the vetiver lover than the amber fanatic, however, as the sweetness of the amber is enfolded into vetiver's dark, earthen embrace, but the way the amber warms the vetiver and rounds off its sharper edges is a wonder to behold.

The drydown phase is warm and sweet and due to the grassy vetiver, completely avoids the usual powdery pitfalls that can trip up a more straight-ahead amber. I'd give it a very enthusiastic thumbs-up if it had a little longer of a life span. As it is, I get about two hours out of it, max, before the disappearing act.

MAITRE PARFUMEUR ET GANTIER AMBRE PRECIEUX: Ambre Precieux is what one would consider a more traditional amber fragrance, though it attempts to distinguish itself by weaving in scents of balsam and nutmeg that lend a dusty, woodsy character to the proceedings.

I was initially ready to dismiss it as not my cup of too-sweet brew, but the introduction of lavender and myrtle help tame the vanilla beast, and while it's still an amber at heart, with its powdery drydown to contend with, the herbs manage to cut right through the sugar for a bit of an earthy (and very welcome) kick.

It also has the good manners to last hours longer than Vetiver Ambrato.

1. Designer Edmundo Castillo Says 'Ciao' to Sergio Rossi:
"Sergio Rossi Tuesday named Francesco Russo its new creative director, confirming a Sept. 29 report by Footwear News that Edmundo Castillo is leaving the brand . . . Russo studied and trained at the Marangoni Institute in Milan and has created shoes for several Italian luxury brands, including Miu Miu and Costume National. His designs for Sergio Rossi, part of the Gucci Group, will debut for the fall '09 collections."

Photos below of Selma Hayek (then wife of PPR head François-Henri Pinault) with designer Edmundo Castillo, plus Castillo at a shoe signing at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York:

Castillo and Hayek seem chummy, so much so that Hayek was the guest of honor at a dinner party Castillo threw to celebrate the opening of the Melrose Avenue Sergio Rossi boutique in January of 2008. I can't help but wonder, then, if Hayek's recent divorce from Pinault (who heads PPR which owns Gucci Group which owns the Sergio Rossi brand) had anything to do with the subsequent departure of Castillo. Yes, I'm gossip mongering.

Here's a video that shows Castillo at work:

2. Asia's Luxury-Brand Infatuation is Under Pressure:
"Japan's retail sector has been in the doldrums for a while. Sales at department stores dropped 3.1 percent in August from the same month a year earlier, the sixth consecutive monthly decline, the Japan Department Stores Association said. Staff at one of Singapore's prime shopping districts said sales of luxury goods had slipped in recent days because of fewer tourists. Customers are buying less and some just browse . . . The number of visitors to the city state fell 7.7 percent in August compared to a year earlier."

This will probably be one of the biggest negative effects in a contracting global economy -- the decrease in worldwide tourism, resulting in a decrease of cash flowing throughout the retail system, as nobody spends quite like a tourist on holiday.

Video below of shopping in the Ginza district in Tokyo:

I don't see this dragging the luxury houses down into ruin, but the chatter about continuous brand expansion has become noticeably subdued: "'I'm not sure [emerging markets] are able to offset the weakness in other markets,' Bulgari Chief Executive Francesco Trapani said in an interview. 'Everyone is going to be affected.' He estimated only 10% of new Bulgari store projects now would be approved, compared with about 50% earlier."

In related news: "LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, which sells everything from handbags to jewelry, said Oct. 10 it's reviewing all spending plans." It's a similar story in Russia: "Russian retailers' orders for the collections shown on the Milan catwalk two weeks ago were flat compared with last year -- the first time in five years that they haven't increased, according to Sanford Bernstein luxury goods analyst Luca Solca."

There are, however, a few bright spots: Burberry sales resilient for now -- "Luxury brand Burberry has reported strong sales despite the economic downturn that has hit many retailers. The group saw a 13% rise in revenue for the six months to 30 September . . . Luxury brands have held up surprisingly well despite the economic slowdown. Last week, LVMH, the world's biggest luxury group and owner of the Louis Vuitton and Moet & Chandon brands, reported healthy sales growth."

Burberry Spring/Summer 2009 catwalk show below:

3. Honey, Does This Cologne Make Me Smell Like a Good Employee?:
"According to the Fragrance Foundation based in New York, more than 40 new men's scents are being launched in the US market alone this year. Apparently, on each male forehead, a sensory target resides, and beauty companies are constantly planning how best to hit them . . . Tony Glenville, author of Top to Toe, The Modern Man's Guide to Grooming, says that the need to look good by choosing the right skincare and fragrance products becomes even more important during a recession. 'Just as suit sales go up during a recession, so grooming products can benefit. You want to look and feel your best for a round of job interviews.'"

You know, if it's going to be all about job interviews amid a tightening economy, fragrance houses might want to rethink their advertising campaigns:

"Hire me -- I'm so very sexzee!"

4. Fashion Designers Misinterpreting the Signs of the Times:
"With the economy so bleak and the expectation that it will only become more depressed before there are any substantial improvements, it's hard to look at the brocade pajama party that the designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana put on their runway in Milan and do much more than shake one's head in amazement. It was all quite pretty, but still, what could they possibly have been thinking? . . . Designers seem to be responding to the economic crisis as if it were any other kind of social tumult. They are proceeding under the theory that beauty, artistry and, thus, fashion will be perceived as acts of defiance in the face of assault . . . Might a $10,000 beaded Balmain blazer with linebacker shoulders be applauded as some kind of prêt-à-porter mental bailout?"

Cuz nothing says Financial Meltdown like see-through fabrics, sequins, towering platform heels and short short skirts:

5. Protecting the eBay Fools from Themselves:
"(Brian) Mottram admitted buying fake items from American and Chinese websites before advertising them on eBay as 'new and authentic' . . . a trading standards worker bought (a set of) dog tags for £21 from Mottram, which came complete with a Gucci-marked bag, box and dust cover. But the item was sent off to Gucci who confirmed the necklace, that would have retailed at £140 if genuine, was not solid silver but only 6% silver-plated and mainly copper, zinc and nickel . . . 'His profit margin wasn't that great,' said (defense attorney) Richard Williams. He said bidding began at £1 and added: 'Anybody would realistically see that a Gucci dog tag or Tiffany necklace with a starting price of £1 was never likely to be the genuine article . . . "

What's most amazing (and disturbing) to me is that the fake crap now comes complete with a host of seemingly real-deal packaing: stamped boxes, dust bags, logo wrapping. The fake packaging likely costs more than the cheap knockoff items, but since it contributes to the air of authenticity (remember when knockoffs came in cheap, obviously knockoff looking boxes, or no box at all?), counterfeiters are finding it a justifiable expense.

Watch the video below to see how counterfeit goods are big business, and that most consumers are fully aware of what they're buying:

"I think it's very inconsiderate of the NYPD to pick today to have this raid."

Tom Ford and Pierre Guillaume (of Parfumerie Generale) have got the glamour routine down to a science: Ford with his use of sexual imagery and exotic inferences, and Guillaume with his French heritage and decadent inspirations, and both Japon Noir and L'Oiseau de Nuit carry through on this promise of fantasy over reality.

PARFUMERIE GENERALE L'OISEAU DE NUIT (i.e. Night Bird) utilizes the sweetened base that can be found in a number of PG fragrances, yet butching it up just a bit with a few layers of leather and labdanum that transform over the course of several hours from cuddly warm and syrupy into a dry, resinous crackle spread over a foundation of vanilla-ish benzoin.

Whether I wind up liking his fragrances or not (and here, I very much do), Pierre Guillaume never ceases to intrigue me with what he puts together -- there's always that slight bit of mystery, a vaguely familiar exoticism that removes it form the realm of everyday Western consumer item and places it in a context that is at once completely reassuring and yet also somewhat daring: a little old world Paris decadence, a dash of modern European luxury, a blend of Middle Eastern heat and smoke and voila! You've got L'Oiseau de Nuit.

You've also got a touch of the other side of the world coiled around your day. Are you dreaming? Are you awake? When you smell this good, does it matter?

TOM FORD JAPON NOIR is a glamour bird of a different feather. Japon Noir's prime mission appears to be all about the patchouli, and it's stuffed with a big, potent blast of it, but as it calms down and stretches out, a spicy, salty vetiver peeks out from behind the curtain to add a new and unexpected edge to the production. Leather, jasmine and amber join the fray and make for a dry, earthy homestretch.

While I have yet to run across a Tom Ford Private Blend scent that I would choose over, say, Parfumerie Generale, what he offers with the likes of Japon Noir is a sharp break from the usual mainstream juice paired with his uber designer, luxury brand history, resulting in a scent that's different enough to get everyone to ask you what it is along with a brand name that satisfies their desire for the familiar: "Oh, it's one of the new Tom Ford fragrances? It's so edgy -- I love it!" Slam. Dunk.

The bottles aren't too shabby, either.

But how Ford manages to instill an image of exclusivity upon a line of fragrances that can be purchased in major chain department stores is a feat of marketing that is truly a wonder to behold. Private Blend, indeed . . .

***Note: The Neiman Marcus website presently has the Tom Ford Japon Noir fragrance listed as "Japan Noir" (yes, Japon means Japan, but that's not how it's spelled on the actual fragrance bottle). I've noticed that numerous other sites use the same misspelling when selling or reviewing this perfume. So just an FYI: Japon Noir and Japan Noir are the same thing.

Oh, and thanks for the samples, Tara!

It's difficult to follow a review of fragrances I really like (such as yesterday's Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille and Parfumerie Generale L'Ombre Fauve) with fragrances that are decent but not great, which is not to say that there won't be people out there who think today's two fragrances (Cedre and Caravelle Epicee) totally rock -- but while I like both choices well enough, I can easily live without them in the long run.

PARFUMS 06130 CEDRE has a light touch, and for me, it's a bit too light. Cedar, musc and vetiver are listed as scent notes, which might lead one to believe that you're going to encounter a woodsy, earthy affair, but the piece as a whole comes across as slightly soapy, a little grassy green and disappointingly medium-bodied instead of rich and/or deeply wooded.

06130 Cedre is linear as far as its development is concerned, traveling from point A to point B without much in the way of deviation and, unfortunately, interest. If you're a cedar fanatic, then you should certainly give Cedre a try, but there isn't much in the bottle for everyone else.

I should confess that cedar is not one of my favorite essences, so anything featuring a predominant cedar note was going to have to come out of the gate with something to prove in the first place, and perhaps this is a fault in my own perspective that Cedre was destined to never overcome. Take the review for what it's worth in that regard.

FRAPIN CARAVELLE EPICEE exhibits a very distinct pipe-tobacco character, which worked nicely for Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille and works nicely here, as well, but only once the fragrance settles into its drydown phase.

There are a lot of spices in Caravelle Epicee, and I personally think the perfumer went overboard with them: cumin, thyme, coriander, nutmeg, clove and cardamom gangpile on top of the tobacco, patchouli, amber, sandalwood and gaiac wood for an opening that's a sour mess, but once the spices ease up, especially the cumin, clove and thyme, the dusty, woodsy quality of Caravelle Epicee is revealed, and the fragrance becomes a far more pleasant path through the patchouli forest.

The tobacco is quite nice (again, after the opening burns off), and the dusty nutmeg was an excellent choice for enhancing the dry qualities of the gaiac wood, tobacco and patchouli. The amber is subtle and the whole concoction really shines as it's wrapping everything up, but that over-spiced opening is a sour disaster that keeps me from even contemplating wearing Caravelle Epicee again, much less purchasing a full bottle.

If only every day could be a L'Ombre Fauve day . . .

Maybe it's exhaustion from the recent (and ongoing) 24/7 roller-coaster jitterbug of the economic news cycle, but today I found myself pawing through my box of unsniffed treasures for scents that might travel the path of warm comfort more than engage in a display of mental gymnastics, and that's why I dug out Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille and Parfumerie Generale's L'Ombre Fauve.

Both fragrances exhibit a sweetness at their base that makes them easy to like and easy to wear, while the rest of their listed scent notes could be considered Perfumery 101 material (i.e. Familiar Smells that are Guaranteed to Please).

Take TOM FORD TOBACCO VANILLE, for instance: what's more familiar and soothing than the nostalgia of pipe tobacco and the sugarland express of vanilla? Mix them both together, toss in some cocoa and dried fruits with a little bit of log-fire woods, and you have a resulting blend that could easily pass for a bottle of holiday cheer.

But don't just take my word for it -- Patty at Perfume Posse writes that "It finds a lovely balance between the gorgeous tobacco and the other notes quickly in the drydown and truly smells like a slightly sweet pipe tobacco . . . If you have a favorite memory in your life of a beloved that smelled like rich pipe tobacco (my dad did), you will adore this smell" while Marina at Perfume Smellin' Things states, "Tobacco and vanilla go wonderfully well together, and in this particular fragrance the balance of the two accords is perfect. The scent is neither too smoky, nor too fluffy and sweet . . . The drydown of sugared prunes and soft wood is a cuddly delight."

I ordinarily prefer my tobacco scents a lot drier and dustier, but today, Tobacco Vanille is as soothing as a storybook ending. Both men and women could wear this fragrance, though its spicy-sweet nature would likely suit a female audience better.

PARFUMERIE GENERALE L'OMBRE FAUVE is earthier in its approach, but just as easy on the soul. While I've run afoul of Parfumerie Generale in the past, when they score with me, they score big, and L'Ombre Fauve is a winner on my grand comfort-scent scale. I mean, with a scent guide that lists amber, musk, woods, incense and patchouli, how could it miss?

Deep, richly musky and with a lightly sugared, cocoa-dusted patchouli that's just sharp enough to dig its hooks into my heart, L'Ombre Fauve is like a slightly melancholy French pop song that, when I can close my eyes, I can pretend was written just for me.

Thanks, Pierre Guillaume -- you're my new Idol!

While Tobacco Vanille is a much lighter, fruitier fragrance than L'Ombre Fauve, it's like the difference between a freshly baked apple cobbler and a warm fudge brownie -- do I prefer the warm fudge brownie (L'Ombre Fauve)? Why, yes I do! Would I say no to the freshly baked apple cobbler (Tobacco Vanille)? Why, no I wouldn't!

Just pray you don't get between me and the tray full of fudge brownies, though, okay? I have an appetite for dark chocolate that rivals the hounds of hell . . .

UPDATE:

Since we're already on the subject of tobacco, here are some photos below of the bottle for Social Creatures Rebel Ambush -- an almost all-natural (98%) fragrance crafted by U.K perfumer Russell Newell. It has a light and dusty tobacco-spice character:

What do you mean, Orange Lamborghinis are out? And I was all set to run out and buy myself one!

Avoid Lamborghinis, Loud Logos Amid Financial Blues:

"Ostentatious taste and conspicuous consumption will make way for conservative looks and 'stealth wealth' in the wake of the worldwide financial crisis, said Milton Pedraza, chief executive officer of the Luxury Institute in New York . . . 'I don't think you'll want to show up in your orange Lamborghini,' Pedraza said. `You might want to bring your navy blue BMW instead.'"

Oh, whew. We can all keep our BMW's . . . what a relief.

"The `I'm-rich-but-casual' look is out, and the `I'm- credible-and-conservative' suit and tie are in,' Pedraza said. 'You don't want to be the most casual-looking guy in the room with a custom shirt and chinos.'"

Yeah, you heard the man. Hide that custom wardrobe from the eyes of the hoi polloi, otherwise, you're just the next rich-guy piñata in a room full of taxpayers ready to bludgeon you with a great big stick of class envy. Mr. Pedraza thinks it's best to go with understated brands such as, you know, Hermes, Bottega Veneta, Salvatore Ferragamo, Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin, instead -- cuz nothing says "understated" like an Hermes attache case, apparently.

I don't know about you, but I'm developing a severe case of eye-roll.

Excuse me while I go comfort myself with some Social Creatures Rebel Ambush, a bottle of which arrived yesterday. It's not Bottega Veneta, but it'll have to do. I'll post photos tomorrow.

1. Filmmaker Sofia Coppola to Design Bags for Louis Vuitton:
"The French luxury giant has tapped Sofia Coppola to do a range of handbags and shoes, according to sources. It is understood the products will be sold worldwide and launched in Japan. The filmmaker is often a front-row fixture at Vuitton, and currently stars with her father, Francis Ford Coppola, in its "core values" campaign."

Sofia Coppola? I mean, she makes interesting films, but she's not someone whose artistic chops I would consider global-brand worthy. I mean, if you're going to ask a filmmaker to design bags and shoes for your world-class line, wouldn't Tim Burton be a much more fantastic (literally) choice? I can see it now: The Nightmare Before Paris Fashion Week.

"Daddy, I want a bag made from the skin of Oompah Loompahs, NOW!"

2. Alessandra Facchinetti Is Sacked, Then Stabbed in the Back, By Valentino:
"Less than 24 hours after the Valentino show, the company announced the departure of the label's creative director, Alessandra Facchinetti . . . Facchinetti had been in place for less than two seasons after the label's founder, Valentino Garavani, stepped down . . . Valentino himself then joined the fray, complaining that Facchinetti had not sufficiently respected his legacy: 'There is an existing archive with thousands of dresses where [a designer] can draw and take inspiration from to create a Valentino product that is relevant today. It is a shame that [Facchinetti] didn't feel this need.'"

Facchinetti was designing beautiful, female friendly collections for the Valentino label, but she was obviously taking the brand in a different direction -- out with the Old-Hollywood glamor and in with the global modern. This had the unfortunate result of alienating loyal Valentino customers while not quite yet blazing enough of a singular trail to attract fresh buyers. A video clip of her last collection is below:

"'It's hard not to look at all this as nature's way of saying that, after a designer goes, you should shut the door. After all, nobody took over from Picasso when he died and you don't have David Lynch directing movies in Alfred Hitchcock's name' . . . said fashion writer Tim Blanks." It most likely doesn't help when the replaced designer is running around badmouthing you to the press every chance he gets . . .

3. Is the Japanese Consumer the Canary in the Luxury Goods Coalmine?:
"Long the world's most lucrative market for such products, Japan's star is fading. Having been stagnant for half a decade, sales have fallen dramatically this year for many brands. Hermès, Gucci, Tiffany, Chanel and Cartier have all felt the pinch. LVMH's sales in Japan slid by 6% in the first six months. This year may be the first since the company's arrival in Japan in 1978 in which its sales in the country go down . . . The days of simply slapping on a logo and charging a ridiculous price are gone, says Fiona Wilson, the Asia editor of Monocle, a style magazine. Instead, there is more interest in craftsmanship and value for money. Coach, a maker of more affordable handbags and accessories, reported sales growth of 19% in Japan last year. Its peers' sales were flat at best."

I've always thought Coach made decent bags. They don't have the glamor of a Fendi, Chanel or LV, but the leather is good, the design is practical as well as attractive, and the prices are reasonable. There has been speculation that a contracting economy would hurt Coach financially, but now I'm wondering, after reading the article above, if the affordable, reasonably attractive Coach option might just turn out to be the winner.

4. The Skinny Man is Out:
"Skinny male models have been banned from The Clothes Show after a rise of 67 per cent in the number of men suffering from anorexia, so-called 'manorexia' . . . Azmina Govindji, a dietician with the British Dietetic Association, said: 'Our view is that anything that idolises skinniness in men or women is potentially harmful.'"

In related news, men are tired of skinny jeans and tight pants: "According to Samuel Gassmann and Regis Decour, co-owners of Egle, a three-year-old bespoke menswear shop near the Place Vendome in Paris, the client is always right -- but he is also given much advice . . . Decour and Gassmann say men are asking for slightly wider pantlegs lately. `It has been slim for so long, and now there is a change,' Decour said. `People are fed up. We see the change by what they are asking for.'"

5. Sarah Palin Wears . . . Payless?:
"Earlier, we theorized that the particular flava of red shoes worn by Sarah Palin in last night's vice presidential debate must be none other than designer Sergio Rossi. However . . . Not only does Sergio Rossi deny that Sarah Palin is wearing their shoes--we also received back-channel negatories from Giuseppe Zanotti, Vicini, Te Casan, Manolo Blahnik, Christian Dior, Christian Louboutin, Stuart Weitzman, Ferragamo, Oscar de la Renta, Cole Haan, Giorgio Armani, and Yves Saint Laurent . . . One informed source suggested the "Lance Flex Point Patent Pump" from none other than Payless house brand "Fioni." At $19.99, it's the perfect shoe to kick the tails of those doggone Wall Street greedypants."

One savvy commenter on the article notes that, "I'm pretty sure they're Kate Spade Karolinas. I like the idea of her wearing Payless but if you really look, they aren't much alike at all. Plus, I doubt she would put herself through the torture of standing in one place for an hour and a half in Payless pumps. No offense meant, but in a situation like that, comfort is absolutely essential." The people 'round these parts have eagle eyes, I tell ya!

6. Retail Sales in U.S. Are Grinding to a Halt:
"One executive from a major retailer said privately that ever since the spring shows began in New York in September, sales have been at a near standstill. Another buyer, from a specialty store, said the situation was "tentative, at best." To say that the audience has been spooked by the potential of a deep recession is an understatement when three editors from Vogue were glued to their BlackBerrys at the Yohji Yamamoto show as the Dow plunged 777 points . . . the world's top designers have chosen a very bad moment to emphatically get behind see-through clothes, a terribly sexy trend that stores have acknowledged would be a hard sell even in flush times. Just who is going to be buying a five-figure transparent dress when the inescapable feeling is that the party's over?"

"Where'd you have this party, Daddyo?"

UPDATE:
Retailers reported their sales numbers this morning (October 8th), and it wasn't pretty: "Luxury stores such as Neiman Marcus Group Inc. and Saks Inc., which had seen a sales slowdown, suffered sharp drops as well-heeled shoppers cut back on $600 stilettos and other luxuries . . . Saks reported a 10.9 percent drop in same-store sales, worse than the 6.8 percent decline expected. Nordstrom cut its third-quarter earnings and sales outlook as it reported a 9.6 percent decline in same-store sales, worse than the 7.1 percent decrease expected. Neiman Marcus suffered a 12.9 percent same-store sales drop." Wal-Mart offered up weak profit estimates for the upcoming quarter, and Target is struggling with consumers who cannot pay their credit-card debt.

An analyst on CNBC today said the one bright spot among the mostly dismal retail figures was for sales of perfume. Luxury conglomerates use perfume as a relatively inexpensive way for brand-name conscious consumers to buy into the glamor of a design house, and while sales for shoes, bags and other accessories slow down, perfume sales remain steady.

It seems that a Saturday Night Live comedy sketch about the Government Bailout of an irresponsible Wall Street has become a news item in and of itself after it was yanked from the NBC website amid rumors of threatened lawsuits by the angry targets of its satire.

But while the video has been erased from NBC and HuLu, and gets pulled from YouTube just as quickly as it gets posted, I did manage to find it still hosted on the website linked below:

SNL Bailout

Peter Viles says this about the video on his L.A. Land Blog: "From time to time over the last 30 years or so, "Saturday Night Live" has done some pretty good political analysis wrapped in sketch humor. This weekend was one of those times. If you have seven minutes, watch this weekend's SNL take on the bailout. It starts to get good about halfway through."

While the bailout, the subprime mess, Wall Street corruption and the incompetence of our elected leaders are not funny, it is funny to watch the subject and its cast of fools & sharks get deservedly skewered.

M

AVA LUXE BAKIR: If there's any one vibe that I get from the Ava Luxe line, it's one of genuine appreciation for the artistry of perfume and a charming attempt to emulate the masters, whether successful or not, and Bakir seems to be an attempt to follow in the footsteps of the classic orientals -- floral, resinous, with spices and woods.

A plethora of scent notes are listed for Bakir, each one as big and bold as the last: geranium, nutmeg, frankincense, cedar, black rose, vanilla, jasmine, patchouli, amber and more, so what you experience with Bakir is a nostalgia trip down the silk trade routes that wound across Asia and the Middle East, filtered through a contemporary sensibility -- full and bold but not sluggish, floral and sweet without inducing headaches and/or cavities.

There's a signature freshness to the opening of Ava Luxe fragrances, a green, almost waxy floral note, and Bakir exhibits this just as much as the Opoponax Intense, Chypre Noir and Incense Rose that I've sampled from this line. Perhaps this is what lends the scent its contemporary spin . . . ?

Bakir finishes up on a pronounced cedarwood base.

DAWN SPENCER HURWITZ ASHRAM: less floral and more smoky than the Ava Luxe Bakir. I have to admit that I like it better as it seems more suited for the unisex/masculine temperament.

The body of the fragrance is woodsy, earthy and warm, with the inclusion of the champaca flower as its sole nod toward traditional perfume niceties.

An easily wearable blend of vetiver root, incense resins and smoky woods. Suddenly, I'm like, "Ave Luxe who?"

MILLER HARRIS FEUILLES DE TABAC: it's unfortunate that I chose to test the Miller Harris Feuilles de Tabac against three very bold, spicy scents because it simply cannot hold its own in such company.

Fueilles de Tabac is light, a bit green and slightly dusty, like a dry tobacco leaf. It has a very natural smell and feel to it, nothing heavy or overdone, and if you're a fan of minimalist leaning fragrances, then you'll appreciate Fueilles de Tabac for its close to the skin, barely-there quality.

If you like more complex, layered perfumes, however, then this is one you should probably walk right past.

EX VOTO BROWN (a.k.a. AMBRE PROFOND): an amber fragrance with a nicely-done woodsy character. There's even some leather and musk that work to counteract the sweetness of the amber so that the fragrance, on the whole, stays in balance.

I'm ordinarily not a fan of ambers, but I like what Ex Voto has accomplished with Ambre Profond -- rich, warm and decidedly casual. It's deeper and darker than the Dawn Spencer Hurwitz Ashram, but also much simpler in its ambitions, sort of an "I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay" scent:

"I never wanted to be a barber anyway . . . "

What you smell when it comes out of the bottle is pretty much what you get right through to the finish, though its smokier, muskier notes do make some advances to the forefront as time passes. Definitely my favorite of the four I tested today, even though it is, you know, still an amber!

LORENZO VILLORESI INCENSI: Incensi opens with cinnamon and ginger spices laced with the green apple of olibanum, and at first I'm picking up signals that this is a smoky fragrance pitched toward the gourmands in the crowd, yet once the foodier elements pipe down, the resulting mix leans more towards the Catholic church than the Martha Stewart kitchen.

Not bad, but if it had incorporated a richer frankincense, it might have been a lot better. As it is, the ginger and cinnamon impart a kind of Red Hots Candy aura with the unfortunate result of dumbing the whole thing down.

FRAPIN 1270: honey, raisins, cocoa, vanilla, candied oranges . . . I should never test perfumes on an empty stomach, or perhaps the perfumers for Frapin should never create perfumes on an empty stomach, or just maybe it's a little of both, because 1270 smells like the most delicious dessert and I'm about ready to bite a big, toothy chunk right out of my own arm.

Gourmand heaven.

If you don't wish to smell like the sugared dish on the menu, I'd recommend you give 1270 a wide berth -- all others, however, are free to wear it with abandon, though they'll spend their waking hours beating the salivating hordes back with a stick (yeah, I know, just another day). Finishes on a smooth vanilla and sandalwood note.

PARFUMERIE GENERALE BOIS DE COPAIBA: based upon my previously stated lack of affection for the scent of myrrhe, I should have known better than to think Bois de Copaiba was going to be able to skate right past my radar without a thumbs down from a chorus of loudly booing critics, but here we are, ringside seat at the colosseum and me without my binoculars.

There are some very nice woods, along with a bit of ginger and orange blossom, but the myrrhe takes too prominent a position in the composition for my taste, tilting the mix and throwing it off balance. If you're a big fan of myrrhe, however, Bois de Copaiba should bring tears of joy to your eyes.

Me? I think the stuff deserves a good ravaging by a pack of lions, even though the woods utilized in the base almost incite my inner mob to forgiveness. Notice I said, almost.

KEIKO MECHERI OLIBAN: the lightest of the four scents reviewed today, Oliban is dry, green and a little bitter, underscored with the sour sweetness of cedar and raw honey.

Since olibanum is a resinous scent note utilized in many incense fragrances, this would put Oliban in the category of woodsy-incense perfumes. The cedar radiates quietly from underneath and becomes more pronounced as time passes, resulting in a lightly smoked, dry wood fragrance that manages to avoid the heavy, churchy super-highway.

Fans of Andy Tauer's L'Air du Desert Marocain might find something of value to discover in Oliban -- it has a similar relaxed and wide-open vibe, though with less artistic aspirations.

I received my package of Amouage Homage after ordering it directly through the Amouage website. The package was shipped out of Derby, UK and arrived here in the United States with absolutely no problem, so I still can't figure out why Harrods in London keeps insisting that they cannot ship perfumes to the U.S. due to customs regulations.

But that's a rant for another time -- today, I want to talk about Homage, because the release of Homage has made the rest of Amouage's line of fragrances seem pretty much irrelevant. I mean, it's terrific that they've come out with this bang-up tribute to the Middle Eastern attar, employing a genuinely stunning Taif rose, sweet, smooth spices and exotic woods, but was it really wise to come out with a new perfume that so overshadows the rest of their offerings?

I reviewed Amouage Lyric for Men just the other day, and while Lyric for Men was a fine enough Westernized take on a Middle Eastern theme, Homage knocks it on its ass and kicks sand in its face, to boot.

The quality of ingredients and level of craftsmanship evident in Homage is gratifying, once you consider its rather hefty price tag, and it contains one of the most lovely rose notes I've yet encountered, which is saying something since I'm not at all a fan of roses. I think the only other rose fragrance I've enjoyed was Le Labo Rose 31, and that's because it smells nothing like roses.

***Note: because of its high concentration of natural oils and essences, the lifespan of Amouage Homage is less than you're going to get out of a perfume utilizing a greater percentage of synthetics -- but what it may lack in longevity, it more than makes up for in creativity and outright beauty.

Some photos of the bottle below:

DAMIEN BASH LUCIFER NO. 3: billed as "an exotic combination of rose, jasmine, frankincense, black pepper, sandalwood, myrrh, labdanum, ylang ylang, and elemi" (i.e. a Middle Eastern attar), Lucifer No. 3 strikes me as the kind of fragrance that Montale strives to produce yet has never fully managed to reach.

Lucifer No. 3 is an incense perfume for the rabid incense fan -- warm, smoky and resonant of both high-church rituals and sun-baked spice markets. First and foremost a story of frankincense and sandalwood, the florals do add a noticeable sheen to the mix even though they're not the predominant feature.

Anyone who's been happily cruising through samples of the Montale line should be more than delighted with this particular piece of work. Be forewarned, however -- it's a potent brew and a little goes a long way.

MAISON BERDOUES SANTAL OPOPONAX: Santal Opoponax is a lot like the above Damien Bash, only without the florals, resulting in a woodsy, smoky paradise of a perfume.

The opoponax and sandalwood combine to create a smooth, rich and slightly sweet incense fragrance. Both Lucifer No. 3 and Santal Opoponax would be terrific fall-season scents. The florals in Lucifer No. 3 lend it a bit more of a formal air, which makes it great for dressing up and going out, while the Santal Opoponax is less complex about its goals, existing on a more casual plane as a result.

If you're a nut about incense fragrances (Tara, I'm talking to you!), then you should definitely give both Lucifer No. 3 and Santal Opoponax a try. FWIW: Maison Berdoues Santal Opoponax is an EDT formula, so its lifespan on the skin is a bit limited.

You can purchase Damien Bash Lucifer No. 3 from Algabar in Los Angeles. I've been searching the net for a place to purchase the Maison Berdoues Santal Opoponax but have so far been completely unsuccessful (beyond purchasing a sample or partial bottle from The Perfumed Court). It used to be available on Amazon, but isn't any longer.

If any reader here know where this fragrance can be found, please leave the info in the comments section.

It's Fashion All Right, But Does It Speak To Me?:
"When the headlines scream "bailout," "rescue" and "warnings," the red-carpet whims of the .00001 percentile suddenly seem like such folly. Which is why the collections that really resonated were the ones that took into account a real woman's needs, putting wearability over glitz and stilted magazine-friendly concepts."

It's odd to hear fashion writers criticize collections for being out of touch with reality when fantasy is what the high-fashion catwalks are about, but writer Booth Moore makes a couple of salient points: 1.) there's no reason that fantasy can't be wearable, and 2.) when it's wearable, it should make the wearer feel so giddily good that recessionary pressures can be forgotten.

And as European retail sales continue to fall ("European retailers are firing workers at the fastest pace in almost three years"), an article for Reuters notes that: "The catwalks are beginning to show the signs of the impact of the crisis . . . Last week in Milan, designers focused on simple clothes that could be worn for a range of occasions along with plenty of costume jewellery, bags and scarves for the smaller budget. 'Designers are trying to simplify to bring a sellable product ... a product that will outlast the crisis,' said Paola Pollo, fashion critic at Corriere della Sera newspaper."

The Calvin Klein collection shown in New York received a lot of positive press for its focus on architectural lines and classic colors:

But for sheer shallow fun, the hair on Yohji Yamamoto's runway created some intriguing buzz. The stylist calls the slept-in bun look "Miss Marple-meets-Catherine Deneuve in 'The Hunger.'"

Cathy Horyn, writing for the New York Times fashion blog, stated what was on everyone's mind as Paris Fashion week is unfolding: "It should be obvious to everybody that the Paris shows, and our response to them, will be affected by what's happening in the economy . . . I think we will see more and more clothing and accessory design shaped by global market factors rather than singular sensibilities. This doesn't mean the fashion won't be inventive or desirable. But it had better be clear to consumers that it's worth it."

Not just frivolous decoration, but design with a mission -- take our collective breath away, and pay attention to the stitching while you're at it!

But Marylou Luther, creative director of Fashion Group International, waxed defiant in the face of economic gloom: "'After every upheaval fashion flourishes,' she says, particularly in Paris. 'Fashion is fearless here and will not cower under the pressure of economic doom sayers.' . . . According to Luther, designers like Galliano are aware they must provide something new to consumers. 'You really have to intrigue women to buy something they find irresistible - something she doesn't already own.'"

So if your wardrobe is lacking see-through mini-skirts, towering python wedges and sequin covered disco-era jackets, has Paris got something for you!

Or just the skip the runways entirely and get a designer phone, instead . . .