One of the things I like about Brent Leonesio the creative mind behind Smell Bent is he takes that statement and manages to make serious perfume without taking it too serious. His latest winter collection dubbed The Snowman Cometh is an example of that ethos.
No matter how diligent I am; no matter how careful I am, I just can’t try every single perfume I hear about. Like everything in life I feel that if it is our destiny to meet around a flacon one day it will happen. My latest meeting with delayed gratification is with perfumer Maria McElroy. Which was why when Ms. McElroy offered me the opportunity to review her first new fragrance in five years, Aroma M Geisha Amber Rouge, I jumped at the chance.
In January of last year at the first Elements Showcase, I initially sniffed Nez a Nez Immortelle Marilyn, which was still very much a work in progress. I think it was the way I sniffed that piqued Stéphane’s curiosity, and we became engrossed in conversation.
When a perfumer uses high-quality ingredients there is a better than average chance for something very good to result. For the new Penhaligon’s Juniper Sling the fragrant mixologist called upon to create this new perfume is Olivier Cresp. M Cresp was tasked to pay homage to London Dry Gin and the early going of Juniper Sling is all about serving that up straight out of a cocktail shaker.
For the tenth Hermessence fragrance Jean-Claude Ellena chose to mix two woods one very familiar in sandalwood and one not so familiar in massoia. Santal Massoia explores all of the nuances around a common chemical component in many perfumes, lactones.
Monsillage is the Montreal-based perfumery of perfumer Isabelle Michaud. This house is one of my most pleasant discoveries of 2011. One of our loyal readers sent me samples of the first four fragrances by Mme Michasud and Aviation Club was my favorite of those first four. After that review published Mme Michaud asked me if I would like to try her newest perfume Vol 870 YUL-CDG.
