Fragrance

Ooh, Girl! I’ll Take Issey Miyake’s Pleats, Please: Issey Miyake Pleats Please Perfume

December 31st, 2012 by Karen 9 Comments

Issey Miyake’s Pleats, Please! 🙂 I was at Nordstrom last Saturday looking for a birthday gift for my mom (she just turned 64, happy birthday, mommy!), and while I was looking around, I stumbled on to a perfume I’d never seen before called Pleats Please, by Issey Miyake.

First thing that caught my eye was the bottle. Look at it! It’s almost like someone was holding it in their hand and crumpled it like a piece of paper. Anyway, I thought it was just really cool, and so I gave it a sniff.

It’s like a white floral, and it totally reminds me of Michael Kors — mostly plumeria, light and effervescent, but with a musky feeling to it.

When I got home I did a little research on it, and I guess it launched in September. I just hadn’t seen it here in the United States until now.

It’s based on a fashion collection — Issey Miyake is a fashion designer from Japan — from 1993, and apparently, the clothes had lots of pleats and colors, and the pieces had/have a sense if movement to ’em.

And, ya know, I can see those same traits in the bottle. That same flow.
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All Aboard the Chanel No. 5 Trolley! 5 Fun Facts About Chanel No. 5, and a Giant 10.7-Ounce Bar of No. 5 Bath Soap

December 17th, 2012 by Karen 31 Comments

chanel-no-5-trolley-1 — All aboard the Chanel No. 5 Trolley, bound for San Francisco’s Union Square!

Toot, toot! Now boarding the Chanel No. 5 Trolley. 🙂

chanel trolley 2 — Chanel created the Trolley as an art installation of sorts, filled it with stories and lore about the iconic No. 5 fragrance, parked it in front of Macy’s in San Francisco’s Union Square last weekend and opened it to the public for free…

Come on! Let’s check it out. I booked a ticket and saved you a seat.

Our destination today? The world of Chanel No. 5…

What’s that, you ask? Can you take a picture with the male models before we board? Of course! By all means.

[SNAP!]

Um…just so you know, you’re grinning like a Cheshire cat in that picture. 🙂

Unfortunately, Brad Pitt couldn’t make it today, so we’ll be on our own. It would have been neat to bend his ear about No. 5, but apparently he’s on location filming a Chanel commercial with Tabs…

chanel trolley wheel — The trolley from the front

chanel trolley steering-wheel — Picture Mr. Pitt behind the wheel…

Feel free to move about the trolley, and check out the different exhibits and Chanel-esque details…
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This Year’s Benefit Crescent Row Limited Edition Fragrance Set Is Like Having Four Fragrant Friends Over for the Holidays

October 5th, 2012 by Karen 8 Comments

Benefit Crescent Row Limited Edition Set Holiday 2012 — The new Benefit Crescent Row Limited Edition Set for Holiday 2012

Over the holidays this year, love, and your favorite Benefit Eau de Toilettes, will be in the air.

Each of the four tiny 0.34-ounce bottles in the new $36 Benefit Crescent Row fragrance set is small enough to bring in a carry-on bag on your next flight (TSA rules limit liquids to 3.4 ounces or less).

Choose from Laugh With Me Lee Lee (a woody floral), My Place or Yours Gina (a woody oriental), Ring My Bella (a fruity floral) and See & Be Seen Sasha (a captivating floral).

I like my cats big and my perfumes tiny, so every year when Benefit rolls out their little fragrance kits I get really excited! — and then I pop open one of their caps…

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Bonjour, Mon Amour: With Tocca Violette Eau de Parfum, It’s Chic to Be Shy

May 30th, 2012 by Karen 18 Comments

tocca violette

It’s her smile you notice first.

You’re strolling across the Pont des Arts bridge in Paris on a crisp, clear spring day when you see her standing by the railing, a shy smile on her lips, her hair swept in a chic chignon. A scarf is draped effortlessly around her neck, and she’s holding a bouquet of violets by her side.

She pauses to take in the City of Light and the River Seine below, leaning against the railing with her hands tucked beneath her chin and staring off into the distance, her eyes faraway and dreamy.

Ah, you know that look…the look of first love, when the mere thought of your beloved awakens every cell in your body with a tingling that begins at your toes and works its way up through your spine.

A breeze turns toward you, bringing with it an intoxicating aroma of vanilla, rose, musk, black currant berries and violet.

The girl breaks from her reverie, caught by your gaze, and smiles warmly. You return the feeling, knowingly, as you pass her along the bridge, recalling another time, so many years ago, when you, too, stood in almost the same spot, basking all-too-briefly in the same glow with your American writer, so tall and beautiful, with his brown hair and hazel eyes.

Whatever happened to him? you wonder. Does he still think of you, like you think of him?

Almost across the bridge now, you close your eyes once again and breath deeply, drawing in as much of the scent as you can, letting it sweep you up in its loving embrace.

Another happy girl on the Pont des Arts bridge in Paris, 2005
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Mother’s Day Gorgeous Gift Ideas: Roger & Gallet Bois d’Orange Fresh Fragrant Water

April 24th, 2012 by Karen 19 Comments

Mark your calendars! Here in the States, May 13 is Mother’s Day (click here to find out when it falls in your country). Want to get Mom something special this year? Looking for gift ideas? Check back over the next few days for a different Mother’s Day gorgeous gift idea (a new special something with which to spoil Mom). 🙂

My mom is the only person I know who makes a sour face whenever she drinks orange juice. She scrunches up her nose and knits her brow, as if she’s just bitten into the sourest lemon on planet earth.

To this day, whenever I see a carton of orange juice, I think of my mom standing in front of the fridge at home with a glass of juice in her hand. “It has vitamin C,” she’d say, and then slam it down and make that funny face. “Very good for you!”

LOL!

OK, so she may not be crazy about orange juice, but she absolutely adores citrus scents. If your mom does, too, she just might love Bois d’Orange Emperor Fresh Fragrant Water, a limited edition fragrance from Roger & Gallet, a 150-year-old French fragrance line.

Moms who appreciate hard-to-find luxury brands might like that it isn’t carried in every store. It can be hard to find here in the U.S. This particular bottle, one of three new pieces in the limited edition Emperor collection, is currently available online at Shop Londons (you can also find permanent Roger & Gallet fragrance, body and bath items online at Dermstore).
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Exuberantly Sunny Roberto Cavalli Eau de Parfum

March 14th, 2012 by Karen 15 Comments

When the new Roberto Cavalli Eau de Parfum practically knocked the wind out of me with its pink peppercorn, orange blossom absolute and tonka bean charms, I had been on a two-week fragrance bender with happy-go-lucky L’Eau de ChloÃ¨, dousing myself with its light floral fragrance every single day.

Just like that, I went from floating high above the countryside without a care in the world — L’Eau de ChloÃ¨ — to the raw grace of a 450-pound tiger, its striped fur glistening in the sun — Roberto Cavalli.

Equal parts powerful and delicate, ambery floral Cavalli officially sings the following notes…

Official fragrance notes

Top: pink peppercorn

Middle: absolute of orange blossom

Base: tonka bean

I how it conveys femininity in a bad@ss way. Like, if I were strutting down the hallowed halls of Vogue’s corporate headquarters (in stilettos, of course), Cavalli is what I’d want to be armed with. It’s what mama wants to wear when she BRINGS IT! — or, when it’s already been brought-en. 🙂

Note to self: wear this dress with Roberto Cavalli Eau de Parfum
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I’ve Been Carried Away by L’eau de ChloÃ¨

February 23rd, 2012 by Karen 21 Comments

l'eau de chloe

A few weeks ago, I dreamt an odd but beautiful dream that started with me standing in a sun-drenched field filled with tall green grass and wildflowers.

As I stood there in the field, bunches of big, beautiful balloons in a rainbow of colors appeared out of nowhere, and for reasons my dream self understood, I began tying the strings that dangled from the balloons to the belt loops of my jeans.

Up and up, the balloons lifted me, higher and higher above the field, and I drifted like that for a while, peaceful and giddy, hundreds, or maybe thousands, of feet above the countryside. 🙂

l'eau de chloe Then, I looked to my right, and Tabs appeared next to me. He was also being carried by beautiful balloons and had the strings tied around his tum. I was worried that his balloons would take him off in a different direction, but he managed to stay next to me, and we floated side by side above the green hills and country villages below.

L’eau de ChloÃ¨, one of my favorite fragrances lately, reminds me of that dream. I’ve been wearing it a lot this month, and every time I spray its citrusy floral scent on my neck and wrists and close my eyes for a moment, I feel lighter than air, as if I’m floating over my dream field with Tabs, joyous and free.

The scent, which launched earlier this month, is a new take on ChloÃ¨’s original fragrance, and while that version felt very urban and chic to me, this one, with its playful fruity notes, floral influences and amber, feels lighter, fresher and undone.

Official fragrance notes: Grapefruit, Cedrat, Peach, Violet, Rose Petals, Natural Water of Rose, Cedarwood, Patchouli and Amber

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Spring Has Sprung Like a Lilac Blossom Thanks to Pacifica French Lilac Body Butter

February 4th, 2012 by Karen 13 Comments

Apparently, my deal with El Hub not to buy any more Pacifica Body Butters until I finish the tubes in the bathroom is officially null and void.

Poor guy actually asked, “Who needs four bottles of body butter?”

Uh, I do.

Of course, it’s not entirely my fault…

Okay, it is, but I’m still blaming French Lilac ($18). 🙂

Even though it’s technically the middle of winter, my heart has moved on to springy scents, and French Lilac’s moisturizing body butter is hitting all the right notes. I fell for the shower gel a while back and like the body butter just as much.

Light and delicate, French Lilac’s official fragrance notes include lilac, magnolia leaves, heliotrope, ylang-ylang, hyacinth and nectarine, but I detect more of the lovely lilac on my skin than anything else.
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