Will anyone ever replace the great Perry Como?

A couple of years ago I asked the timeless question, “Will anyone ever replace the great Clara Rockmore?”  The answer still eludes me.  And so this week, I’m asking a similar question about Perry Como.  Was anyone better?  And since, has anyone replaced him?  Of all the great crooners, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin and some of the more modern ones, Engelbert Humperdinck and Tom Jones, NO ONE  has replaced Perry Como.  (Rightfully, I’ll put Elvis in a class of his own.)

On the perfume front, I have been wearing Chanel No. 5 eau de toilette almost exclusively for the past 2 weeks.  Earlier in the month, I wore Madonna’s tuberose offering, Truth or Dare, but recently I guess I wanted to go for simple.  And so I flirted with Eau Sauvage and Par Amour Toujours for a couple of days but really only No. 5 edt calmed me down.  Maybe it’s because I didn’t want to make a statement… or maybe it’s because I wanted to make a different statement.  And when throughout the week, I found myself seeking out Perry Como tunes on my iPod and watching Perry Como clips on youtube… well… it all made sense.  I was looking for simplicity, beauty and serenity.

Look at this live performance of Mr. C. later in his life.. voice, phrasing and smile… it’s all still there.  No Streisand flourishes, no Dion acrobatics, this simple Don McLean song becomes an anthem to peace… life… and love.

A reader once suggested I update my references.  My answer to that person… I will when my references have been surpassed and when the stars in the night sky aren’t worth gazing!

 

 

Have a great week everyone.  I’ll be back next week with my review of Creed’s Royal Oud.

Madonna : Truth or Dare

Created by : Stephen Nilsen

Date : 2012

Genre : White floral (tuberose)

Concentration : eau de parfum

I couldn’t wait to go to work Friday morning because I wanted to wear Truth or Dare by Madonna.  I’m not sure why I had such a reaction to this perfume… I think it’s because I’d been looking for a wearable (and affordable) tuberose for many years now and the current offerings out there are either over-the-top tuberose or over-the-top expensive!  Fracas is too buttery.  Tubéreuse Criminelle and Dior’s Poison have too much menthol.  Carnal Flower is about the best out there (although I haven’t tested it on my skin yet) but as an everyday scent, it’s expensive.  And so when I heard that the material girl had come up with a tuberose-gardenia accord dedicated to her mother, well… I just wanted it.

It intrigued me that Madonna chose a tuberose note for her first fragrance.   I know about her mother wearing tuberose and gardenia scents and all that but let’s face it… young women are not wearing tuberose perfumes.  Celebrities are still doing basic fruity florals which are big sellers because they’re easy to like.  But tuberose?  (Read this great article in The Guardian for an interview with the perfumer.)

In short, Truth or Dare is a well-constructed, synthetic tuberose with a woody/ambery base.  The vanilla notes keep it from getting too dry (such as Jean-Paul Gaultier’s Fragile) and some fruit (red berry?) kept it mouth-watering for me… but there are no berry notes listed anywhere so that’s just me.  In the middle notes, I had the impression of a raspy nutty/tobacco note but as soon as I identified it, it disappeared.  Truth or Dare is lush and it’s fun to wear but because of its synthetic makeup, it didn’t evolve much after the first hour… however, on the bright side, the longevity is impressive!

I’ll wear Truth or Dare again and again and I look forward to wearing it in sweltering, humid Montreal nights.  If you like tuberose scents, give it a try.  Somehow I suspect that the quality of this one could sink over the coming years and I also predict a glut of mediocre-tuberose-celebrity scents so… I would buy this one now if you are the least bit interested.

To resume, Truth or Dare is a beautiful, wearable and affordable tuberose and so thank you, Madonna, for giving us a tuberose option. 

Here is a glimpse of the launch at Macy’s in New York…

 

 

Have a nice week everyone!

Addendum : After publishing my post, I read on another blog that Madonna’s Truth or Dare was more truth than dare… and that disappointed the blogger.  This is true.  This fragrance is not her trashy, crotch-in-your-face, stage persona… it’s her off-stage persona that always takes my breath away… great hair, great make-up, great clothes… classy, ultra-feminine Madonna.  Well… Truth or Dare is just that… classy and feminine.  I wore it again today… very nice.

Top image : Sarah Bernhardt by Georges Clairin (1843-1919)

Estée Lauder : Azurée

Created by : Bernard Chant

Date : 1969

Genre : Citrus leather

Concentration : eau de parfum

Save perhaps Ernest Beaux, is anyone better at making leather scents than Bernard Chant?  There is?  Well I haven’t met him!  Of course, I haven’t met Bernard Chant either but when it comes to leather fragrances, no one comes close… imagine Aramis, Cabochard and Azurée… a citrus leather marvel that waters the mouth and just smells luxurious!  But this leather isn’t the grey leather of Cuir de Russie… it’s the sepia-tinged variety bringing to mind traditional woody notes instead of iris.

Azurée’s opener is leather from the word “go” with veins of bergamot and other citrus notes… perhaps orange.  Jean-Daniel, my favourite SA, kept sniffing the scent strip saying, “there’s something floral in there… what is it???”  Turns out his nose was correct with listed jasmine in the topnotes and rose in the middle notes, according to the Estée Lauder website.  Bottom notes are patchouli, moss and amber.  It didn’t surprise me to see patchouli in there… Bernard Chant also being the creator of Aromatics Elixir, another patchouli-based beauty!

Azurée is rich, distinctive and unapolagetic. When I got to work on Friday and a colleague asked me what I was wearing, I knew that this one would move to my top ten in very short order.  So if you like to be noticed, this one’s got throw!

Falling in love again,
Never wanted to.
What am I to do…
I just can’t help it.

Wearing Azurée, Marlene Dietrich’s closing lyrics from her iconic 70s concert tour came to mind… not only because Marlene Dietrich is EXACTLY the kind of woman that would have worn Azurée but also because I was just absolutely smitten with it.  Not available in Canada (anyone at Estée Lauder reading this???) Azurée was a gift from my sister who purchased it on a recent trip to New York City.  My precious bottle comes from Macy’s.

Gender-bending Azurée can be worn by both men and women… on a man it would smell sensual.  On a woman it would smell sensational.  And so my love affair with all things Lauder continues.

I’m ending this post with Marlene Dietrich singing a Pete Seeger tune that is as relevant today as it was 40 years ago.

Have a nice week everyone!

Top image : 1950 photo of Marlene Dietrich by Milton H. Greene

Guerlain : Aqua Allegoria Pamplelune

Created by : Mathilde Laurent

Date : 1999

Genre : Citrus (grapefruit)

Concentration : eau de toilette

I don’t know who said “Pizza is like sex; when it’s good, it’s terrific and when it’s bad… it’s still pretty good,”  but they could have said the same about Guerlain because certainly when Guerlain is good, it IS terrific and the rest of the statement applies as well.

I started a new job this week and I wanted something new to wear.  My latest acquisition was a bottle of Aqua Allegoria Pamplelune which I purchased for my perfume lecture at the Eleanor London Côte Saint-Luc library.  And so when the very smart participants at the library oohed and aahed as I passed around the Pamplelune scent strip, I knew I had my perfume.

To say that Pamplelune is a simple grapefruit fragrance is accurate AND unfair.  As with all Guerlains, you just know that there are many other subliminal ingredients that help make up the fragrance but are not always readily identifiable.  For instance, it didn’t surprise me one bit that neroli and petit grain notes are listed by Guerlain as ingredients.  So… it’s a lot more than simple but it comes off as uncomplicated, effortless and elegant.   

Pamplelune doesn’t smell like a grapefruit smells… it smells like a grapefruit TASTES!  It’s fresh, clean and wakes up the senses.  It goes on like a pink grapefruit and stays there all day but it doesn’t go sour like so many citrus scents do after awhile. 

For me, this is one of the great current eau de colognes… fresh, glowing and classy… even the bottle is beautiful!

Have a great week!

Maggie Prescott : Perfume for the woman who isn’t interested in perfume.

Do you remember that line from Funny Face?  Actually, that wasn’t the exact line.  The exact line was “Clothes for the woman who isn’t interested in clothes” but if Funny Face was a movie about perfume that is EXACTLY what Maggie Prescott would have said.  And last week, when I wrote about my idea for a perfume shop, this is exactly the kind of person I was thinking about.

Here are 3 real-life examples :

1. A lawyer who held a top position at the university where I once worked said to me bluntly, “If someone could just TELL ME what perfume to wear!”  The search for the perfect perfume which would be an exciting treasure hunt for many of us seemed like an insurmountable chore for her.  And it was this particular type of client I had in mind when I wrote last week’s post about a consulting service/shop that might be able to help.  I say, “Give me just an hour of your time and we’ll find something for you to like and wear!”

2. One of my friends told me that she wears L’Air du Temps by Nina Ricci because she has always worn it and well… it’s “OK”, although she didn’t seem to be very enthusiastic about it.  When I asked why she didn’t go shopping for something different, she shrugged, “Who’s got time!”  Admittedly this woman runs a large library and has two kids at home in addition to sitting on several committees.  She’s right… she doesn’t have the time.

3. And finally, while have supper with a friend and her boyfriend, his biggest complaint was the fragrance overload he experienced every time he walked into a perfume shop.  “How can you smell anything with all that perfume in the air?”  It doesn’t seem to bother me but I guess it does some people.

So when I wrote about a consulting service/shop last week, these are the people I had in mind and I still think it might work.  Maybe if I win the lottery, I can test my theory.

Next week… it’s back to perfume reviews.  Have a nice week everyone!

Top image : Still from Funny Face with Kay Thompson playing Maggie Prescott a character loosely based on Diana Vreeland

If I owned a perfume shop…

Look at the above still from a movie made in 1939.  Barring  wearing hats… can you imagine that we are still buying perfume from a business model that dates back over 70 years???  Dreadful.  Why hasn’t it changed?  I’ll tell you… because it works for the store and the perfume manufacturers but it STINKS for the client.  When I look at my own collection of unworn perfumes, I immediately think of the perfume counter.

If I owned a perfume shop, you wouldn’t see any display cases, factices, boxes or bottles.  NOTHING!  I’m thinking of a neutral space with a couple of simple chairs and a coffee table to hold the scent strips.  Spraying would be done under a ventilation fan in a separate room.  And of course, there would be COMPLETE SILENCE so that clients could think!!!

A large poster would list the brand names that we carried in the store so that clients would know what they would be testing.  There would be no competing SAs pushing their brands and clients would be able to veto brands based on past experience.  No Givenchy?  No problem!

Clients would be asked the following questions…

1. What are you wearing now and are you looking for something similar or different?

2. Would you consider wearing a man’s fragrance if you loved it?

3. What would you be willing to pay for a 50 ml. bottle (before taxes)…

a. $50 – $99

b. $100 – $149

c. $150 and up

d. Any price as long as I love it!

4. Are there perfumes that you know the names of that you like?  What are they?  What do you like about them?

Then we would start.  Clients would then be given 3 scents with a code on each scent strip.  Only the SA would know what perfume the code refers to.  From their comments, clients would be given 3 more scents… it’s a little like the optician experience… “which is better, this or this?  How about between these two?  More like #2?  Or more like #3?   Less floral?  Fresher?  How about this totally different scent?”   When we got to 3 or 4 “keeper scents” then we would spray on skin and wait.  Clients could walk away and come back later or just hang around until they made a choice and then, and only then… would they be told the brand and perfume name of their favourite scent based on the code on the scent strip… no influences by brand or perfume name or fancy bottle… only scent!  Codes at the shop would be changed periodically so return clients couldn’t figure out what they were testing.  Of course, the success would depend exclusively on the SAs and their knowledge of the perfumes.  They would have to know about everything we carry and be encouraged to test on their own skin.

What do you think?  Could it work?

Top image : Still from George Cukor’s The Women (1939) with Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer and Rosalind Russell.

FiveoaksBouquet : We certainly accomplished a lot today!

Anyone walking past FiveoaksBouquet and me on Friday afternoon might have wondered what she meant when she said, “We certainly accomplished a lot today!”  Particularly that we both burst out laughing right after she said it!  I mean, we certainly didn’t look like we had been packing boxes.  In fact, I wouldn’t say we looked like we had been working at all but we certainly were!  We had just finished a serious sniffing expedition and it was one of the best!  We smelled some very beautiful juice from Les Heures de Cartier to Guerlain to L’Artisan Parfumeur to Armani Privé to Frederic Malle!

Speaking just for me, by the end I was both exhausted AND exhilerated… we hit the Éditions de Parfums counter so hard, it sent the sales associate running to her notes on several occasions.  I was attracted to both Musc Ravageur and Portrait of a Lady.  But you could have given me any one of those Éditions de Parfums fragrances… and I would have been a very happy camper.  FiveoaksBouquet was absolutely smitten by Carnal Flower.  We both loved Shalimar Parfum Initial L’Eau but were undecided about Serge Lutens’ Eau Froide.  But the most beautiful scent of the day for me, including a test of Le Parfum by Elie Saab which I love, was emanating from my left hand where FiveoaksBouquet had sprayed me with her bottle of Azurée by Estée Lauder.  Twenty-four hours later and two washings, it still smells gorgeous.  Yep… we accomplished a lot!  I couldn’t have said it better myself.

As an off-topic closer to this post and with Easter coming for Christians, I thought I would post the all-time most dramatic moment in opera… the redemption of Marguerite from Gounod’s Faust… that moment that Marguerite is saved by a host of angels just seconds before behing hauled off to hell by Lucifer.

Enjoy!

Video : From Faust by Gounod with Inva Mula and Roberto Alagna.