Tag Archives: dawn spencer hurwitz

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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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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Ormaie’s Fragrance Innovations (in the NY Times): Oh Really?

19 Monday Nov 2018

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ormaie bottles.png

Flipping through the Sunday New York Times, I came across a short profile of Marie-Lise Jonak and Baptiste Bouygues, the mother-and-son team behind the new perfume brand Ormaie. The full article is available online, as “Brand to Know: A Line of All-Natural Perfumes, Made by a Mother and Son.”

For me, the packaging is the most interesting aspect of Ormaie’s story—see the photo above! The bottles and labels are classic French elegance, while the beechwood tops are fun nods to the work of Ettore Sottsass and other postmodern designers.

However, the Times (especially in the print version) focused on topic of all-natural perfumery…

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Perfume Review: Dawn Spencer Hurwitz Eau Cerise, Figue Interdite, Bakul Medjool

27 Monday Aug 2018

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My latest post on Now Smell This is a review of three new fragrances from indie perfumer Dawn Spencer Hurwitz: Eau Cerise, Figue Interdite, and Bakul Medjool. They comprise her new collection, Les Fruits Défendus (Forbidden Fruits), Volume I.

You can read it here.

Image: detail of Édouard Manet’s The Street Singer (circa 1862), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.