Category Archives: Perfume Reviews

5 Perfumes for a Moon Landing

17 Wednesday Jul 2019

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Avedon Shrimpton 1965

Jean Shrimpton photographed by Richard Avedon for Harper’s Bazaar, 1965

July 20, 2019 is the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s spaceflight to the Moon and the first human contact there. “One small step for man…” (You know the rest!)

I don’t think Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins were wearing cologne on that historic voyage—they had other things on their mind!—but I couldn’t help wondering, what perfume would I wear for a fantasy visit to the Moon, or simply for an evening of moon-gazing?

Here are a few ideas…

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5 Lilac Fragrances for April

09 Tuesday Apr 2019

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Cassatt MMA 1997.207.jpg

Mary Cassatt, Lilacs in a Window, 1880-1883. Oil on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Partial and Promised Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Dillon, 1997. 1997.207

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

— T. S. Eliot, The Wasteland (I. The Burial of the Dead)

 

If you asked me to name my favorite flower, or my favorite floral note in perfume, lilac wouldn’t be the first one I’d name. It might not even appear in my “top five.” Yet every April there’s a day when I have the opportunity to visit the blooming lilac trees in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and I suddenly want to spray myself with a lilac fragrance.

Here are a few recommendations, including three from independent female perfumers and one from a preeminent female “nose.”

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