Scents of Summer

By Tom Well, I'm a week late with talking about the summer scents that I'm looking forward to; chalk it up to lazy summer-ness.. I've talked about some of these before Aqua di Parma, Eau de Sud and Hadrien, and Hermès Eau d'Orange Vert. I've also talked about the one I'm really looking forward to wearing: Frederic Malle's French Lover. French Lover is a green, green, green rooty scent that was created to "attempt to create the ultimate man’s scent." It's all green roots and  smoky woods and a final clean muskiness. It's a very patrician smelling thing- it makes me think that if Cary Grant were somehow alive and 35 years old this is what he'd be wearing. What are reaching for for summer (winter if you're below the equator?) Let us know in the comments. French Lover is called Bois d'Orage in the US because apparently they thought we wouldn't get the joke. So we get the name that sounds translated like a porn star (Thunder Woods). It's available at Barneys in several sizes. Mine is from my bottle. Image: Wikipedia

Going Home Again: Acqua di Parma Colonia

By Tom Okay, I'm lazy. It's unseasonably humid here and I just don't feel like challenging myself with something new. So I've been reaching for this standby, a scent that I've owned for longer than I care to admit. The original one is so wonderful; a bracing citrus with rosemary opening, rosy rosemary heart, and rosemary woody base. Did I mention rosemary? In a review five years ago I wrote that it smelled elegant, in a particularly Italian way, like a Maserati. On a hot, humid day it's also wonderfully bracing. At $138 for the whopping 6oz splash, it's also a bargain. There are also many ancillary products that I might need to own..

Hiding in Plain Sight: Acqua di Parma Profumo

By Donna Does anyone else think of light floral scents and not much else from Acqua di Parma? Violet of course, as well as magnolia and iris soliflores, and the Colonia unisex eau de cologne, but not what some people would call “serious perfume.” For some reason I never knew that there was a chypre in the line, but when a friend sent me a sample of their Profumo I did a double take. This gorgeous thing was from a house known for its sweet little violets and light cologne? Tell me more! Acqua di Parma Profumo has the easy, understated grace so often found in better Italian fragrances. It's one of those rare scents that seems to be perfect for just about any occasion you can think of, the one you reach for when nothing else seems right, yet it has a very distinctive character of its own too; it's no “wallpaper” fragrance. My first encounter with Profumo was the current version; the scent was originally launched in 1930, relaunched in 2000, but was reformulated in 2008 presumably due to the new IFRA restrictions on natural materials. This means no actual oakmoss, but it's a delight anyway. Silky smooth soft woody modern chypre character, and immediately likeable even for someone like me who is suspicious of fragrances with the chypre label that don't have the classic base. At first it reminded me of Balmain's Ambre Gris and other similar types with a clean musk base, but it never went “laundry” or sharp on my skin like so many of these will do. In fact it actually has a rather creamy character once it warms up and the citrus opening of bergamot and a particularly delightful orange subsides. The floral heart of jasmine, rose, ylang ylang and a very generous dose of iris is just gorgeous. Warm and ambery base notes create an enveloping embrace for this elegant composition, and it's one of the rare recent reformulations that I can recommend wholeheartedly. I can say this because I have also tried the previous version; after sampling the 2008 release, I became curious about the older one and I bought a mini of it online. When I tried it out I knew immediately that it was indeed the pre-reformulation one, because it had the real oakmoss and patchouli notes right from the start. What is does share with the new one is a soft and gentle quality that's uncommon in chypres, and its restrained and elegant character is truly outstanding. To me it smells rather like a misty, romantic Miss Dior as if experienced through a gauzy filter. Now I love Miss Dior as much as anyone, but she is a powerful presence, so if you love her too and you are unhappy with what an unfortunate reformulation has done to that great icon, it's worth it to seek out the older formula of Profumo as a possible alternative, especially when you know how much the vintage Miss Dior is commanding at auction sites. The bottles of both iterations look very much the same if not identical, but the boxes are different. The old one is a deep brick red and the new one is a creamy off-white. If you are buying online, be sure to verify which one you are getting if there is a stock photo, or if only the bottle is shown. This one will set you back a significant amount (about $200 USD for 50 ml) per bottle so be sure you are getting the one you want, or try a mini first. The bottles are striking works of modern art themselves, and all the better for what's inside. You can also read Marina’s take on this one from several years ago. Apparently I should have paid more attention back then too! Image credit: Acqua di Parma Profumo bottle from polyvore.com

Water, water everywhere...Acqua di Parma Blu Mediterraneo Mirto di Panarea

By Tom I adore the original Acqua di Parma. The subsequent ones in the line have been for me nice, but not great. But then, that's the problem when you're the second or third in a line sired by a classic. It's not very often that the child eclipses the parent. It's the case of Henry Fonda beget Peter Fonda who beget Bridget Fonda. I like Bridget, she's a fine actress. She's no Henry Fonda, however. Mediterraneo Mirto di Panarea is no Acqua di Parma. Mediterraneo Mirto di Panarea is a light aquatic that smells shockingly like clean water. Not in the usual way, it's not dryer sheets or anything like Cool Water. It's supplanted by jasmine, rose, lilac bergamot and ends with a very nice light woodiness, It's a handsome, well, balanced, perfectly pleasant little thing and I can't quite understand why I don't like it at all. I think that perhaps that it strikes me as a super-refined version of one of those nose-busting aquatics that young men with manscaped eyebrows wear far too much of. There was a period in foodie-land in the late 90's when restauranteurs would have cunning little things on the menu like their version of a Manwich made with Kobe beef and heirloom tomatoes or a version of a Twinkie made with hand milled flour and hand made vanilla. All well and good, but you still were getting a Twinkie. Mediterraneo Mirto di Panarea is the best Twinkie you'll ever have. Mediterraneo Mirto di Panarea is available at Sephora and other department stores, 2oz for $68, 4 for $104. Mine was a gift sample with purchase from Bergdorfs.

Perfume Review: Acqua di Parma Profumo

"Steps were heard at the door, and Princess Betsy, knowing it was Madame Karenina, glanced at Vronsky. He was looking toward the door, and his face wore a strange new expression. Joyfully, intently, and at the same time timidly, he gazed at the approaching figure, and slowly he rose to his feet." Lev Tolstoy, Anna Karenina In the great and waning chypre genre, Acqua di Parma's Profumo is one of the most often overlooked and most easily available gems. It is everything a chypre lover might possibly want in a fragrance, the bright citrusy top, the sensual floral-spicy heart, and the opulent, dark woody-mossy base. It even has a very prominent animalic undertone, the kind of cumin-y, civet-y dirt without which, to me, a chypre is just not a chypre. It is full-bodied and graceful, infinitely feminine. It is perfect. What's more, whenever I smell this Italian creation, it, strangely, makes me think of Russia. It might be that the delightfully waxy smell that roses and jasmine have in this composition and its spicy-incensey undertone remind of me of Orthodox churches. Frankly, I don't know. It is one of those associations which, once inexplicably made, can't be shaken off. Not that I would want to. And if I were to match Profumo to a book or a literary heroine, it without a doubt would be Anna Karenina, she who carried "her rather full figure with extraordinary lightness". I once read that for Tolstoy Anna represented his own sexuality, and because he was afraid of his sexuality, he killed her. Profumo is that inner being in us which simultaneously attracts and repulses us, because we feel that if we let it loose, the results would be, at best, cataclysmic or, most probably, tragic. Profumo can be found at Sephora, $173.00 for 3.3oz. Image source, best-newz.ru