Les Nuits d'Izu Eau de Parfum

Have you ever had a perfume mystery? Sampled or bought a new scent, one that is glorious to your nose, but also familiar? I'm having that mystery with Les Nuits d'Izu Eau de Parfum ($115) by Keiko Mecheri.

It smells very familiar, but I can't put my finger on the reason. I haven't had time to compare it to every fragrance in my house - that would take more time than I have. So, I've been wearing it on my wrist to bed! Usually my bedtime fragrance is delivered courtesy of a fabulous body oil or lotion - not eau de parfum.

After the first night, I decided it smelled like Diorissimo. Then I read the notes again. Les Nuits d'Izu Yuzu is composed with rose japonica, jasmine, littoral moss, hinoki, and musk. The only note in common is the jasmine. The second night, I drifted off deciding that some mysteries were not meant to be solved. Instead, I reveled in the beauty of the fragrance and surrendered to sleep.

Keiko Mecheri has carefully crafted an exquisite and distinctive fragrance line that reflects her artistic background and her obsession with the power of scent to evoke emotion. Strikingly original (but familiar?), these are beautifully subtle, sensual scents for people with a strong sense of individual style. Believing that a fragrance's nobility and glamour are based on the quality of the materials used to make it, Keiko uses the best and purest natural ingredients in her work.

Launched in June with three other fragrances, Les Nuits d'Izu Eau de Parfum is inspired by indigo nights on the Izu peninsula, the Riviera of Japan, taking the classic cologne structure and giving it an Asian twist. It opens with a piquant, shimmering yuzu note – similar to that of grapefruit with overtones of Mandarin orange. The vibrant yuzu (a citrus grown in Japan and other Asian countries) leads us like a colorful butterfly to an ethereal garden of rose japonica and dreamy jasmine. A base of ocean moss and hinoki, the Japanese cypress used for building shrines, palaces, and the finest soaking baths, adds intrigue and depth. A fresh blend of tart citrus, delicate flowers, and precious woods delight the senses. It's perfect for cologne lovers who are looking for something unusual and new.

The fragrance is long-lasting for a cologne. I can still smell it on my wrist when I awaken about seven hours after I applied it. Nice! The bottle is beautiful too.

I think this fragrance is divine. Mine came from LuckyScent. You can order a sample for $5.

Photos courtesy of LuckyScent and Wikipedia

Fig Tea Eau Fraiche by Parfums de Nicolai

This has been quite a fragrance year for me! I have discovered more intoxicating, must-have scents than in any other year of my life. I have to alternate days wearing them. The latest? Fig Tea Eau Fraiche by Parfums de Nicolai ($40 or $65). New to me, but not a new fragrance, Fig Tea is divine.

With notes of fig, osmanthus, davana, and tea, Fig Tea has a tempered fruity aura - one I find irresistible. This summer, every time I've jumped out of the shower feeling dry, I've slathered my legs and arms with Korres Fig Body Butter. I like figs!

Figs have a heavenly smell - and taste - and their color draws in my eyes as my taste buds anticipate their unique flavor. Fig season is upon us, and I must go to the Farmer's Market Saturday to buy some fresh figs. I love them.

Fig in fragrance is just as enticing. Here is what LuckyScent, the source of my Fig Tea Eau Fraiche has to say about the fragrance.

Finally, here comes a fragrance to delight the fans of non-green, fruity figs. The leaves and the twigs of a fig tree were abandoned in favor of the divine, nectarous, darkly-sweet fruits. The figs in Patricia de Nicolai’s rendition are ripe and marvelously soft, oozing ambrosial juice. The osmanthus, with its slight apricot-like undertone, and the wonderfully boozy davana make the smell of figs not just mouthwatering, but actually intoxicating. To keep the lush sweetness in check, the creator balanced the figs and the flowers with a tea note. Dry and slightly smoky, black tea turns the decadently luscious composition into a blend of utter elegance. A treat for the fig-scent connoisseurs and the lovers of refined and unusual fruity perfumes.

I don't think I can improve that description (although I'm still waiting to whiff "boozy," even if I did call the scent intoxicating)! The top notes of Fig Tea are dried fig enhanced by the rare China osmanthus and India davana oils. The heart notes are tea around maté absolute, coriander oil, and jasmine. At its dry-down, you will detect Gaïac wood with an amber note if your nose is more sophisticated than mine. I get the soft wood, but not the amber. This is a subtle, elegant fragrance; it pleases without screaming "fruit factory" to those in proximity.

The creator of this desirable perfume is Patricia Nicolai, a woman with fragrance in her blood. The grand-daughter of Pierre Guerlain, she was trained by Jean-Paul Guerlain and worked extensively in the corporate fragrance world before realizing her dream: a small, family-owned company where she could express her artistry in her scents, without having to deal with a committee.

Her fragrances, made only with the finest materials, are full of subtlety, nuance, and seamless transitions as they develop on the skin. Delicate and complex, they have earned her unanimous respect in the small world of French perfumery. She was the first woman to be awarded the prize of Best International Perfumer from the French Society of Perfumers. I'm discovering why!

You can find Fig Tea Eau de Fraiche at LuckyScent and Beautyhabit. Intrigued? Order a sample and find out why I'm fragrance-fickle lately.

Photos courtesy of LuckyScent and en.wikivisual.com

Carillon pour un Ange Eau de Parfum Riche

Carillon pour un Ange Eau de Parfum Rich ($75), a new fragrance available at LuckyScent, caught my eye the moment I saw "lily of the valley." I couldn't resist. My own Carillon pour un Ange (Carillon for an Angel, or Bells for an Angel) arrived last week. I have been wearing it every day. Before I give you my own impressions, let me share the description from its creator, Andy Tauer.

Smelling lily of the valley is always a joy for me. I love the idea that you cannot buy a natural concentrate of lily of the valley, that the flowers resist to any large-scale concentration of their fragrant soul. Perfumers may try to come close to the natural fragrance, but you can never quite get there. Thus, you have to wait through long winter months until you can finally smell their green, silvery, opulent, and elegant exquisite natural perfume. Building a fragrance with lily of the valley singing in spring was a wish since I started making perfumes. Carillon pour un ange is my tribute to this wonderful forest treasure. It is a green choir of flowers. Enjoy!”

With notes of rose, ylang ylang, lilac, lily of the valley, jasmine, leather, ambergris, moss, and woods, Carillon pour un Ange is unlike any other lily of the valley fragrance I own. It is rated on LuckyScent's scale as being a hybrid between feminine and unisex. It's definitely not cloying or sweet. Instead, it strikes me as a modern lily of the valley that expresses its wooded surroundings through its fleeting floral fragrance.

To my nose, the fragrance is a green floral with an edge - the edge being the leather, moss, and wood notes. While they are subtle, they prevent the fragrance from being a clone of other lily of the valley scents. The initial floral burst is followed by a rich, but soft blend that should please lovers of floral and green fragrances, while offering something for others as it dries down.

This is not Diorissimo! It's a more modern and totally unique interpretation of lily of the valley. I like it, even though lily of the valley doesn't dominate. Something about it reminds me of sitting in a leather easy chair, relaxing with a bouquet of flowers, stems, and branches nearby.

Carillon pour un Ange is handmade in Switzerland. The packaging is unique. The box holding the precious cargo is wrapped like a gift in white paper with all the eau de parfum's information. Once the ribbon and wrapping are removed, the plain white box holds the rather small spray bottle (15 ml). I found the presentation rather classy.

You can purchase Carillon pour un Ange at LuckyScent, where you can also purchase a sample for $4 to see what you think of this unique fragrance.

Update: Here are some links to additional sites, provided by BTiB reader Clarisse in France: Tauer Perfumes and a store locator that includes European sources.

Photo courtesy of LuckyScent

Violette in Love Eau de Toilette - French Violets at their Best

Violette in Love ($45 or $120) by Patricia Nicolai is a fruity-floral lovers delight! The delicate fragrance of violets is enhanced by pepper, musk, and just the slightest touch of fruit. It's very feminine, but not cloying or old fashioned. To me, it's soft, sophisticated, and endearing. The bottle design appeals to me too. It combines a modern simplicity - spareness, really - with a vintage logo.

The notes are Italian lemon, blackcurrant bud absolute, raspberry, essence of Turkish rose, a violet-iris accord, coriander essence, pink pepper, black pepper, and musk. The peppers don't add sharpness; they just make Violette in Love more modern than it might be without them.

Patricia Nicolai has fragrance in her blood. The grand-daughter of Pierre Guerlain, she was trained by Jean-Paul Guerlain and worked extensively in the corporate fragrance world before realizing her dream: a small, family-owned company where she could express her artistry in her scents, without having to deal with a committee. Working gals, does that ring a bell? Doesn't consensus building get old at times? Wouldn't you love to be Queen for a Day?

Her line is the equivalent of fashion’s haute couture, where the designer’s vision is allowed to express itself freely, without the restrictions of mass marketing. Her exquisite sense of composition is her hallmark. Her fragrances, made only with the finest materials, are full of subtlety, nuance, and seamless transitions as they develop on the skin. Delicate and complex, they have earned her unanimous respect in the small world of French perfumery. She was the first woman to be awarded the prize of Best International Perfumer from the French Society of Perfumers.

You can see more of her fragrances at LuckyScent, where I found this keeper. I would love to sample Fig Tea, Odalisque, and Le Temps D'Une Fete...maybe more. Thankfully, LuckyScent has a sampling program. For $3 per sample, I can!

Check out all of Patricia Nicolai's unique fragrances at LuckyScent! No matter what your fragrance preferences are, I'll bet she has created one for you.

Photo courtesy of LuckyScent

L'Artisan Nuit de Tubéreuse

I was so excited when this e-mail came from LuckyScent. L'Artisan, tuberose, "narcotic perfume." What white flower lover wouldn't have been?

As you can see above, LuckyScent is accepting pre-orders for L'Artisan's new Nuit de Tubéreuse. It will ship on June 21, a few short weeks away. See if this intrigues you.

The Scoop

Bertrand Duchaufour is on a roll. With Penhaligon’s Amaranthine, he proved that his masterful style could extend to sensual florals. Now, he’s gone and tackled the most unmanageable diva of the perfumer’s palette and come up with a totally novel, utterly seductive take on tuberose.
The eagerly expected Nuit de Tubéreuse turns down the classic, creamy-coconutty facets of the flower to focus on its more unusual facets. The top notes draw out the odd, rooty, snapped asparagus stalk aspects of tuberose absolute and set them off with vibrant green cardamom; mango drenched in pink pepper creates an almost incense-like effect – Duchaufour’s signature. The scent goes through a strangely compelling, freshly upturned earth phase before easing into a suave floral heart, where the tuberose is bolstered by orange blossom, ylang ylang, and rose, wrapped in the honeyed-tobacco facets of broom on a warm, musky, woody. and balsamic base.

If you’re addicted to tuberose, you’ll be riveted by Bertrand Duchaufour’s totally original interpretation. If you’re tuberose-averse, you might very well be converted. And if you’re a man, you may have finally found a version of the note that can be worn unselfconsciously. But women needn’t worry: Nuit de Tubéreuse is still very much a heart-breaker.

Here are the notes: cardamom, clove, pink pepper, black pepper, citrus, green mango, angelica, tuberose, orange blossom, ylang-ylang, rose, broom, musks, vanilla, sandalwood, palisander, benzoin, and styrax.

If you pre-order now, as I did, you will get some goodies with your fragrance when it ships. They are a nice incentive. I hope we love it!

Photos courtesy of LuckyScent

L'Artisan 2007 Limited Edition Fleur d'Oranger

A few weeks ago, I said I would review L'Artisan's Fleur d'Oranger ($295), a limited edition Eau de Parfum. I had bought the original 2005 Fleur d'Oranger, which sold out. I am still wearing it because the bottle is generous in size (I suspect I am actually hoarding it). As soon as the 2007 edition was introduced, I purchased it. Now, I need to buy another 2007 before it becomes "extinct."

I thought about how I would describe this wonderful fragrance and decided that I couldn't match Lusciouscargo, so here's an edited quote.

"Fleur d'Oranger was the first fragrance in L'Artisan's brilliant new series of outstanding perfumes that share one simple trait: each is dependent on the vagaries of climate, cultivation, and harvesting - in essence these scents celebrate an exceptional vintage year of a particular natural raw material. The stellar crop was reserved exclusively for L’Artisan Parfumeur - quite an innovative and clever concept - and judging by the overwhelmingly enthusiastic reception this perfume has enjoyed, it's safe to say L'Artisan's novel and ambitious new series will most certainly endure.

By definition, each entry will be a (very) limited edition; since the shrewd folks at L'Artisan have purchased the entire crop, once it's exhausted it cannot be recreated or duplicated. Each perfume is presented in the stunning L'Artisan fashion we've all come to adore, and each bottle is numbered.

And the first exclusive raw material in the series? Tunisian orange blossom - the '04 harvest - which was a very good year indeed. Harvested and processed in the Tunisian fields, each and every one of these orange blossoms was reserved for L'Artisan. How incredibly cool!

Now, to our infinite delight, they have brought it to us again - new crop, same sublime artistry. Doubtless, the fact that the original Fleur d'Oranger sold out nationally in about 45 minutes had something to do with their decision to brighten our lives once again with an orange blossom fragrance that is, to put it mildly, without peer.

For the first creation of this new collection of “Grand Cru,” L’Artisan Parfumeur’s hallmark 100 ml bottle is adorned with a slew of elegant details: the facets are engraved with orange blossoms, the bottle is numbered and signed (2990 copies). It is topped with a copper cap reminiscent of one you might find in a still, and nestled in custom-printed silk paper. The presentation: a coolly elegant wooden box fastened with a sliver of grosgrain ribbon and L'Artisan signature brass coin. And finally, the bottle is engraved on all four sides - a la the Grandes Reserves."

The single-note fragrance is all about orange blossom, and it's blended with petit grain and beeswax. People at work stop me and ask what I'm wearing. I can't smell it, but obviously, it lasts. I feel transported to a grove of orange trees in bloom when I spray it - sublime!

There is a difference between the 2005 and 2007 editions, but I won't tempt you with something you can't get. Other limited editions have been Iris Padilla and Fleur de Narcisse. I purchased the Fleur de Narcisse, but gifted it to a very good friend because there was a hint of tobacco in it. My nose couldn't get past the masculinity of that note, despite the very floral nature of the rest of the blend.

Fleur d'Oranger is available at Lusciouscargo, LuckyScent, and L'Artisan. Art with Flowers at Tysons Galleria also has it, but shhh, don't tell anyone before I get my next bottle. I'm saving up.

Photo courtesy of Lusciouscargo.

A Few of My Favorite Online Beauty Stores

We all have favorite online sites we visit for fragrances, cosmetics, skin and hair care, and other beauty products. Sephora and the manufacturer sites, such as Bobbi Brown, Estee Lauder, and Clinique, may top everyone's list for the free samples and efficient service. Today, I would like to share with you some of my other favorites - sites worth visiting for the variety of product offerings, fair prices, and goodies with purchase.

I should own stock in Beautyhabit. A "Modern Lux Apothecary," Beautyhabit offers fragrances, bath and body, candles and other home fragrances, skin care, hair products, and more. They always have monthly specials and often gifts with purchase, and their service is tops. They introduced me to Clementine, a fragrance with notes of flowering orange blossoms, honeysuckle, and night-blooming jasmine. Clementine seems to be a celebrity favorite. Beautyhabit's brand list is long, literally offering something for everyone.

LuckyScent is another site for fragrance lovers. They specialize in hard-to-find fragrances. They have always been my go-to site for Kai, a lovely "boutique" fragrance of gardenia and other white flowers.

Hello Gorgeous! is a great site for hair care products, but they have other offerings as well. I usually get my Philip B fixes there. Try the botanical White Truffle Nourishing Hair Conditioning Cream for incredible results. They offer samples, too, but sometimes you have to search on samples to find them before finishing your purchase. Make sure to look. They don't offer free shipping ($4.95 fixed), but their discounts make up for the shipping costs. Deliveries are fast.

SkinWest offers a wide variety of skin care discounts, and I'm a frequent visitor. They have great promotional gifts, such as the current travel skin care set from SkinMedica. They are a great site for Kinerase discounts, and shipping is free.

Last but not least, Amazon has some incredible prices on beauty products. I have been purchasing my Prevage MD there at less than half the retail price! Some of their affiliates offer free shipping, so my Prevage MD comes without shipping or tax. A steal!

If any of these are new to you, check them out and have fun!

Photo of Clementine, a roll-on fragrance, courtesy of Beautyhabit.