What is tonka bean?
Fragrance is full of familiar notes (rose, ginger, salt) and not-so-familiar ingredients (coumarin, osmanthus, orris). And so you ask: What is tonka bean? The bean, defined…
oriental fragrances
Patchouli Sheds Its Hippie Heritage
By Marilisa Racco Long the domain of those dirty hippies* — Nixon’s words, not mine* — patchouli has been saddled with an unsavoury image of…
Chris Pine named new face of Armani Code
By Tara-Kay Palermo Chris Pine, the handsome blue-eyed actor who played James T. Kirk in the 2009 remake of Star Trek and who can now…
REVIEWING DEMETER MAHOGANY COLOGNE
By Deborah Fulsang First impression: This is an earthy and warm fragrance but without any nuance of damp grassiness. Imagine getting up early in a…
Destination: India
From Bollywood actors to cuisine to politics, India has moved increasingly into the pop-culture spotlight over the past few years. No wonder its charms have…
what is ambrette: (noun) am·brette (m-brt)
By Danielle DesRosiers The soft and delicate scent of Le Labo Ambrette 9 can best be described as the smell of a newly born babies…
Frédéric Malle’s new perfume ménages à trois
By Deborah Fulsang Designer collaborations are terribly de rigueur—hello H&M, Gap, Target et al. On that note, scent-obsessives will be happy to know that perfume…
ORIENTAL FOCUS ON LADY GAGA FAME
Make mine black you little monster. Only Lady Gaga could approve of Belladonna Atropa and Black Veil of Incense for her debut scent, a toxic…
BEN GORHAM OF BYREDO PARFUMS
Ben Gorham founded his Stockholm-based Byredo fragrance company in 2006. Working with renowned perfumers Olivia Giacobetti and Jerome Epinette, he has developed one of the…