Scentzilla!

Sacré Nobi has posted a cool link (on his personal blog) to a short film featuring Jean-Michel Duriez, which you will find by clicking through to sacrenobi.com.

Several of us bloggers have randomly swapped mystery samples with one another. Today at Perfume-Smellin’ Things you can read March and I’s takes on the fragrances Marina sent our way. We both dissed a classic, y’all. I don’t know if we should be ashamed of ourselves or not. My own victims were Ayala (SmellyBlog) and Marlen (Perfume Critic), so look here for their impressions of the samples I gave to them real soon!

The full list of all participants who will eventually be making their own blind sample exchange posts includes the following:

• Aromascope
• Perfume Critic
• Perfume Posse (Patty and March seperately)
• Perfume-Smellin’ Things
• Scentzilla!
• SmellyBlog
• Victoria’s Own

Please visit this month’s sponsor DRH Fine Gifts. DRH Fine Gifts carries a wide selection of great brands, including Creed, Prada, Givenchy, Versace, Comptoir Sud Pacifique, Chanel, and Annick Goutal. You will also find a selection of Demeter fragrances, most available in the larger 4 ounce bottles.

Please visit this month’s sponsor DRH Fine Gifts. DRH Fine Gifts carries a wide selection of great brands, including Creed, Prada, Givenchy, Versace, Comptoir Sud Pacifique, Chanel, Annick Goutal, and lots more. There’s an especially good bargain right now on 1 oz. bottles of Versace’s The Dreamer, which is one of my summer picks for genius fragrances. To sweeten the deals, DRH Fine Gifts is offering a discount for 5% off any order of $40 for Scenzilla readers, using coupon code “scentzilla.” The coupon expires on 7/31/06, so don’t tarry!

1 year ago, Andy Tauer began to write his charming blog, detailing both his poetic observations of life and the interesting way his mind works when developing perfumes. It was not too long after he started that I began reading it, and I bookmarked it instantly. Since he first began, it’s only gotten better. In celebration of this 1 year mark, he has moved his blog to a new location on his own server, at http://www.tauerperfumes.com/blog/. To kick the party off in style, he is sharing a small number of samples of his new orris scent with readers. There is a very limited number left, and you can find much more information about it by reading the celebratory post and clicking here to read the post at his new blogging digs.

Congrats on all your success Andy, and may there be even more of it in the future.

Please visit this month’s sponsor DRH Fine Gifts. DRH Fine Gifts carries a wide selection of great brands, including Creed, Prada, Givenchy, Versace, Comptoir Sud Pacifique, Chanel, Annick Goutal, and lots more. There’s an especially good bargain right now on 1 oz. bottles of Lancome’s Tresor, which normally retail for $45 at the department store. To sweeten the deals, DRH Fine Gifts is offering a discount for 5% off any order of $40 for Scenzilla readers,: use coupon code “scentzilla.” The coupon expires on 7/31/06, so don’t tarry!

I’d also like to remind everyone that they are donating 2% of sales to help a man with MS get a much needed van (you can read about it directly here), so your purchase will also benefit someone who really needs help right now. Just click on the above hyperlink, or the ad to your right in the sidebar to visit DRH Fine Gifts.

Marina and I have fired up a new site, Scentbloggers. Scentbloggers aims to bring you links to the best writing on perfume, as well as open up the seemingly arcane world of smell culture to those who may feel like “newbies” in a web of perfume-nuts. Ideally the site will evolve into a mutant hybrid of an old school weblog (a web log of links) and an online ‘zine.

Regular round-ups of the best in perfume blogging will be a staple of the site. Special features will include an advice column, perfume vocabulary explanations (You Just Want Me For My Big Dic… tionary), posts about specific perfumers (Know the Nose), reader polls, and overviews of individual perfumery notes and molecules (Notable Notes.)

We want to extend an open invitation to fellow perfume bloggers to join as member sites. Why? Scentbloggers will focus feature links to reviews and essays on member sites. Additionally, we would like to compile a compendium of member-only review links for new readers to discover. How do you become a member? Easy! Email us at scentbloggers at yahoo dot com to let us know you’d like to join. Once we’ve verified that you link back to Scentbloggers (text for now, but buttons will be forthcoming shortly) you’re in! We do ask that you apply only if you regularly write about fragrance, meaning at least once per week or if at least half your content covers perfumery. Please note that if you’re a splogger, or do not post any original content you will not be approved.

However, participation from readers is encouraged as well. Submissions for cool or noteworthy links will be happily accepted with credit given (by alias, name or link) to the reader who first emails us with them. Maybe you’ve got the writing bug but don’t want to deal with the hassle of blogging yourself? Original essays and reviews (no longer than one page) related to perfume, smell, or fragrance shopping are definitely welcome for submission to the editors, with of course credit given to the author.

We sincerely hope Scentbloggers will be a place for new readers to discover the large scent-blogging community, and to become a resource for those who have yet to discover the art and science of perfumery.

Last week I received an email from someone seeking some citrus fragrance choices. I’m afraid citrus isn’t particularly my favorite genre, and could come up with only weak suggestions for the writer who otherwise gravitates towards slightly darker scents. I picked vintage Lanvin Vetyver, Helmut Lang’s eponymous scent, and Creed’s Cuir de Russie for it’s lime zestiness. I KNOW there’s better suggestions to be made!

So please take a moment if you will, and list some of your own personal favorite citrus scents. The emailer will most certainly be glad to learn them.

I’m looking for something new to wear. When I looked at your favs,
the first listed was Indecence. Which I often wear myself, so I
thought I’d drop a line. I wear Commes des Garcons incense as well
as, in the past, L’artisan Dzing!. Otherwise my collection is
pretty limited. I wanted to strike out in some different direction.
I’m not particularly fond of florals and thought I may try to go
citrus for a minute. Any thoughts? Thanks!

-Orange You Glad I Didn’t Say Banana?

On another topic, I found this fun little trip through time to the 1960s on perfume from A/V Geeks. There’s some great footage of flower harvesting in Grasse, advice on choosing a perfume that seems almost quaint but rather sensible nowadays in our “rush, rush, buy, buy” culture, and nifty insight into the societal midset of the times. The film runs roughly 13 minutes in length.

Due to the holiday, I will not be publishing reviews on Monday or Tuesday. But I wanted to wish you all a safe and fun Fourth of July, and share a little combined perfume/Independance Day humor.

I present to you Ma Griffe by John Hancock:

If you want to see the original Carven Ma Griffe ad, I’ve also posted that to my Flickr account here, as well as a large cleaned up version without the age lines for desktop backgrounds located here

I’d like to welcome Scentzilla’s newest sponsor DRH Fine Gifts. DRH Fine Gifts carries a wide selection of great brands, including Creed, Prada, Givenchy, Comptoir Sud Pacifique, Chanel, Annick Goutal, and Calvin Klein. Special for Scenzilla readers, DRH Fine Gifts is offering a discount for 5% off any order of $40 or more: use coupon code “scentzilla.” The coupon expires on 7/31/06, so don’t tarry! I’d also like to point out that they are donating 2% of sales to help a man with MS get a much needed van (you can read about it directly here), so your purchase will also benefit someone who really needs help right now.

Just click on the above hyperlink, or the ad to your right in the sidebar to visit DRH Fine Gifts.