Hermes Perfume Reviews

The iconic Hermes brand is known for far more than just designer niche perfumes, but it is the fragrances that made me an Hermes follower. Jean Claude Ellena is now the in-house perfumer for Hermes and has developed a long line of popular unisex and feminine fragrances for the house, including the infamous Jardin line. I consider the Hermes line to be one of the most innovative and luxurious perfume brands on the market today, and it was this brand which really hooked me into the hobby.Hermes Perfume Reviews:Hermes - Eau d'Hermes (brief mention)Hermes - Eau de Pamplemousse RoseHermes - Iris UkiyoeHermes - Kelly Caleche EdP vs EdTHermes - Rose...

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Perfume Commercials and Ads: Christian Dior - J'Adore

Oh, the infamous marketer and his manipulation of our pocketbooks. The critique of perfume ads and commercials deserves a much longer post, but I wanted to share a thought about how ads have affected me and my perfume purchases.I admit these days that I spend a great deal of time reading blogs and the reviews of fellow perfume lovers--- but I hardly ever actually watch any of the perfume commercials or look through ads. After all: I don't watch cable, I don't subscribe to Lucky or Vogue or any of the glossy mags with full page perfume ads. I'm mostly protected from that sort of advertising. But every once in a while, I'll watch one of the ads on one of the perfume blogs or check out which celebrity is lending her face to which company. For the most part, I avoid the blogs that focus on...

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Skanky Perfumes: Scents for the Sexy, Dirty Man

It's often said that Americans like their perfumes "clean and fruity" and that the French like to smell dirty. While I am completely American in my love of twice-daily showers, deodorant and antiperspirant, I have discovered that a fragrance that is well designed and which has a tough of skank, if worn on clean skin, is a wonderful beckoning thing-- like a big white sign with red lettering that says "Come Hither". While I sometimes like it on others, I myself prefer to smell clean. Parfums de Nicolai's fragrance Eau d'Ete is one of my favorite clean, skin scents.But, on the right occassion, something else is called for. In those moments, I look to the famous French perfumers for help; after all, they have decades of inspiration to pull from. It is said that Napoleon wrote to Josephine saying,...

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Image: A Better Way to Review a Perfume

There are times when showing someone an image can be a more effective way of communicating to them someone else experience of a perfume, than using words. There have been images posted on other blogs and tied to perfumes by the reviewer, and the image is so compelling that I have to rush out and try the fragrance. In fact, one of the reasons I chose a multi-media approach to perfume reviews (this perfume blog) was because I wanted to be able to post images and explain which perfumes they call to mind, and use multi-media to show someone what a perfume is like. After all, you can't scratch and sniff the computer screen. Earlier today, I was looking at images online and saw one (a still from the movie "Mostly Martha"). This particular image is truly fitting of what it is like to experience...

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How I fell in love with Niche Perfumes

Patricia Nicolai and Jean Claude Ellena are my two favorite perfumers, and I am obsessed by the perfumes they have created. I got into niche perfumes when I read Chandler Burr's groundbreaking nonfiction book titled "Th Perfect Scent" which follows the creation of two niche frags (one for Coty and one for Hermes). The first, Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker, had been one of my favorite perfumes for several years. At that point, I was solidly grounded in mass market frags, and I considered Lovely to the best one out there. Burr described how she developed it, and explained the deep and dark and rare perfumes that inspired it. My interest was peaked as he described niche fragrances. He then followed JCE as he developed a far more upscale, niche unisex fragrance called "Un Jardin Sur Le Nil".Burr...

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New Blog on Perfumes

Today, after many months of research, I am starting a new blog that will focus on niche perfumes and my obsession with th...

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