Available now is G of the Sea - a limited edition summer scent from Gwen Stefani's Harajuku Lovers range. The cute-mermaid packaged scent features top notes of crisp apple, water lily, sweet crushed berries; heart notes of freesia, pink peony, jasmine petals and a base of sun-drenched woods, musks, amberwood.
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Last September, Harrods hosted the ‘Perfume Diaries’ exhibition. There, perfume junkies like me could ogle exquisite bottles (some of which were a hundred and fifty years old) and sniff decades-old perfumes to their heart’s (and nose’s) content.

It really was a glorious and fascinating exhibition and, to my mind, the most interesting sections by far were those focusing on the 1920s and 1930s - quite simply, because of the huge contrast with modern perfumes, in both the scents themselves and in the style of packaging.

I grew up in a household where if you caught a waft of perfume it would probably belong to the house of Guerlain and would probably be Mitsouko, the classic chypre from 1919.

My mother could never stand overly feminine fragrances and her personal perfume mantra is: ‘Never trust a pink perfume.’ Wise words indeed. Unfortunately for her, and for other grown women, the modern female perfume market seems to be targeted at ‘sugar and spice and all things nice’ - that is, young girls, teenagers, and adults with the tastes of young girls or teenagers. Unless you’re happy to smell like a syrupy fruit salad, or maybe walking candy floss, then you’re going to have to work a bit harder and search more thoroughly to find something that you could seriously consider wearing and which doesn’t actively repel you or induce headaches and nausea. For a lot of perfume lovers, this in effect means hunting for vintage perfume on ebay.
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French designer, Philippe Starck has designed a limited edition bottle for Nina Ricci's L'Air du Temps fragrance. L'Air du Temps was originally launched in 1948 and was created by perfumer Francis Fabron. Notes include carnation, gardenia, rose, jasmine, spicy musk, sandalwood, iris root.
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Diptyque have announced new Saint Louis Crystal bottles to accompany their limited edition concentrated versions of Philosykos and L’Ombre dans L’Eau, the House’s iconic eaux de toilette. The bottles which have been crafted entirely by hand will be presented in a black lacquered wooden box bearing the diptyque signature, along with a long thin ultra-black crystal rod dabber, and a silver metal funnel.
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Over the next month, Harrods is holding the Perfume Diaries Exhibition, which is a showcase of the past, present and future of the perfume industry. Basenotes had the chance to attend a preview last week, hosted by the exhibition's curator, Roja Dove. Unsurprisingly, given Dove's background at Guerlain, the exhibition features many bottles from Guerlain's long history. But there many historical exhibits from other historic houses such Chanel, Lubin, Floris, Grossmith's and Penhaligon's.
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Today sees the launch of the limited edition (Diptyque) RED candle at Liberty in London. The (RED) project (in their own words) was created to raise awareness and money for the Global Fund by teaming up with the world's most iconic brands to produce (PRODUCT) RED branded products. A portion of profits from each (PRODUCT) RED product sold goes directly to the Global Fund to invest in African AIDS programs, with a focus on women and children.
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