BOP News - Blog on Perfume News

I just love this scent. Something many people don’t know about Annick Goutal fragrances is that many of them are unisex - this and Eau d’Sud being the two most obvious examples.  So I (being a man) don’t feel ashamed at all when I wear d’Hadrien.

Thing is, this fragrance has many things that most don’t. Originality, style, sensibility, charm, rather than just an avalanche of concocted chemicals to distort ones nostrils. (Although, one thing I really don’t understand is why on earth it is called “Eau d’Hadrien”. I mean, what’s it got to do with the “emotions evoked by the Emperor Hadrien”, as Annick Goutal put it so wonderfully themselves…)

This is a perfume made all about citrus. Annick Goutal claim that the main scent of the fragrance is “Sicilian Lemon”. What on earth the difference between “Sicilian Lemons” and “Lemons” is, I have absolutely no idea. But the fact remains, that lemons are delicious.

Ever tried a drink called “Limoncello”? It’s a liqueur from southern Italy, whose smell you would no doubt recognize. Well, the alcohol and the lemons in Eau d’Hadrien mirrors the ingredients of Limoncello.  Add a bit of bergamot, orange juice, and a teabag, and you have Eau d’Hadrien. Ok, sounds simple….well it is! (But you can’t just do it yourself though, obviously….)

Eau d’Hadrien is a happy fragrance. It will show people you are not a miserable moaner, but a happy individual who loves life. It’s an upbeat, colourful, and effective fragrance, well worth it’s price tag. And the only difference between the “pour homme” and “pour femme” versions, is the bottle! However, Goutal only make this in a Eau de Parfum concentration in the “pour femme” bottles. So Beware!

Overall, an excellent perfume, well worth trying. It is Annick Goutal’s trademark, and since 1981 has been a favourite of perfume lovers across the world.

Being no expert on the French language myself, I can’t stress enough just how much I dislike the way French perfumers who sell their products internationally always give their perfumes ridiculously complicated French names.

So imagine my joy when I first laid eyes on a 30ml bottle of Yves Saint Laurent “L’Homme”. That’s easy! It means “the man”. Looking back now, I realise that I already liked this perfume, even though I hadn’t smelled it, simply because I understood it’s title, which still retained French charm.

I bought some, and tried it on. And boy was I shocked. Smells nothing like a man at all.

“In fact,” I thought to myself, “that smells like flowers”!

So, what do perfume testers do next? I went and hugged my girlfriend. And she clung on far tighter than she usually does, sniffing it in. Then comments on how she likes my scent. Success.

So  how can a floral perfume be masculine and attractive to ladies? God only knows, but “L’Homme” is a delicious and seductive fragrance, guaranteed to get you some looks from the girls. My chief criticism is, however, that it doesn’t really seem to last very long. The main body of the scent seems to wear off sooner than it should, leaving a very weak and diluted smell on the skin. Still though, a great perfume.

A Columbia based Neurobiology laboratory have come up with a more hi-tech method of the rather prehistoric “Scratch ‘n’ Sniff” cards you get in glossy magazines world wide. The iSmell - which has nothing to do with Apple - works by combining 50 base scents together to mimic common smells and perfume brands, similar to how an inkjet printer works by combining 5 base colours to make 36,000.

Of course, the prime candidate is for advertising perfume brands and improved web experiences, but already Avery Gilbert - the R&D Chief - has suggested a novel use for it:

“We’re doing the smell of decay and trash and everything and naturally, 15-year-old boys will want burning rubber and farts.”

We Say: It’s interesting how well it compares itself to an inkjet printer. When I print with my inkjet, and a colour is beginning to run out, I get wierd looking colours. I wonder what sort of smells you’d get if one of the 50 base smells expires before another.

Source: BNET

File this one under wierd. Perfumebay.com have lost a court case with a giant website after they succesfully argued that “people would click on Perfumebay.com instead of their site, thus causing a loss of revenue.”

The website who beat perfumebay.com in court? eBay.

From TG Daily:

[The owner, Jacquelyn] Tran, admitted that she sometimes would capitalize the b in perfumeBay much in the same way the b in eBay is capitalized.  Tran told the court she did this because, “it was a common thing she saw online where companies would capitalize the first letter of the first word if they had separate words.”

We Say: We find this story preposterous. There’s now a law against capitalising letters and having company names sneakily hidden within other company names. I’m sure nobody in their right mind would get confused. Now I’m off to visit tesconamy.com!

Aromascope led me to a website called DNA Fragrance, which - for $114.98 - will take a swab of your DNA from inside your mouth, then will base a new fragrance around your DNA. They promise it won’t smell bad, and it’s not a pheramone. A few of the commenters on the Aromascope comments remain skeptical, including SniffQ:

If you read the privacy policy, you’ll notice that they SEEM to protect you, but can, according to their own policy, submit your DNA to the the master health insurance bureau or the CIA, or, for that matter, the police. And while they tell you they will protect it, the Homeland Security rules now in place say that any DNA sample have to be turned over when asked for. Naaahhh, I’ll find my own perfumes. This just creeps me out.

I’m not sure if I’d ever use it, and I’m pretty sure my perfume would reek, despite what they say!

With all this talk recently about global warming, I’m surprised to find that perfume retailers haven’t done more to win the hearts of green people (who may probably wear perfume).

So step up Bond No. 9, who will take your old perfume bottles off your hand and recycle them. In return, you will recieve a free refillable pocket spray, but only if you make a purchase from them.

Talking to wral.com, company founder Laurice Rahme said the following:

“As I become more aware of the issues facing our environment, I feel compelled on a personal and business level to participate in the green movement - and assume a leadership role”

We Say: Forgive my cynicism, but I quesion Bond No. 9’s reasons for doing this, as it’s probably more of a business, rather than etichal, reasons. Nevertheless, if it encourages more people to recycle, so be it.

Elizabeth Arden has surprisingly made a first quarter profit for this fiscal year. The perfume manufacturer, who owns the Mariah Carey and Hummer for Men range, reported a $350,000 profit, when they were expected a $1.3million loss.

Reuters Reports:

Sales rose 6.7 percent to $271.8 million, helped by the Carey perfume launch as well as an 18 percent rise in international sales of its Elizabeth Arden brand products, and demand for its higher-end perfumes in the United States.

It’s good news and hopefully it will continue!

Smell nice but your doberman pongs? Never fear, you can now buy perfume for your canine companion!

Juicy Crittoure, a division of Juicy Coiture, I presume, has launched a range of ways to pamper your pet for as much as £30 for the “Eau du Pawfum”

The Hum writes:

But the one product that really draws our attention is the Pawfume. For a measly $60, you can score the ultimate upscale Fido fragrance. And we know that if the marketing department has done their homework, they’ve packaged the scent discerning dogs dig most: dog booty.

I wonder whos pooch will be the first to launch their own puppy perfume?

A small group of students at California State University are taking the unusual step into looking to ban perfume and bodyspray to be worn around campus areas.

It’s not just for fun though, a number of students suffer from illnesses associated with synthetic fragrances found in a lot of common perfumes. The Daily Titan - from where this story comes from - leads with this:

“Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) is a condition in which various symptoms reportedly appear after a person has been exposed to any of a wide range of chemicals. Symptoms include headaches, fatigue, dizziness, nausea, difficulty concentrating, and breathing problems.”

We Say: A lot of popular perfumes have synthetic chemicals in them, a lot of the less popular ones don’t, but alas, they don’t come cheap.

In further proof that some people have more money than sense, R&B Diva Mariah Carey reportedly bought 12 bottles of Lalique perfume worth $13,200.

From Top News:

A spokesperson for the singer said “Mariah is crazy about butterflies, so she just had to have them. She thinks the scent will make her smell like a butterfly,”

We Say: Is it a good thing to smell like a butterfly?