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Portia
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Hey there APJ Crew,
Another jam packed week. Except NO JAM because that’s off my list of eatable foods. This week was fun. Loads of fragrance, friends, food and fun. I have a lovely life and I’m grateful for it.
Donna Karan
Perfume Discontinuations: Grab them before they are gone
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Anne-Marie
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Hi all,
It’s a common thing in perfumista land that you only really start paying attention to a perfume when you hear rumours of discontinuation. You ignore it happily until suddenly you realise it could be too late. Then FOMO sets in – Fear of Missing Out. Oh no!
I got thinking about this recently when, after YEARS of dithering, I finally bought a bottle of Sarah Jessica Parker Covet. This one may have been discontinued some time ago and I’d decided not to bother until a chain of discount chemists in Australia suddenly started stocking it. Cheap – $20. I bought one, and no regrets. Lavender and chocolate; it should not work but it does.
Perfume Discontinuations
Grab them before they are gone
What else have I made a wild grab for, and what have I let go?
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Mint, geranium leaves, Sicilian lemon, lavender, chocolate notes
Heart: Honeysuckle, magnolia, lily of the valley
Base: Cashmere wood, musk, vetiver, teak wood, amber
Perfume Discontinuations: The Ones I Grabbed
Sarah Jessica Parker Covet, as mentioned.
Bvlgari Black. Vanilla and fresh tyre rubber! I bought a back-up for my son to own and me to borrow.
Lancome Cuir de Lancome. . A cult leather. I bought mine while it still going for about $50.
Rochas Tocade. A laughing vanilla fragrance, this one is not discontinued as far as I know, just re-packaged. Re-packaging always makes the perfume enthusiast nervous, and I grabbed a bottle.
Yves Saint Laurent Y. Same as for Tocade. It’s always worth grabbing a chypre if you think it’s under threat. It probably is.
Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Casablanca lily, Black locust, White carnation
Heart: Golden pollen, Gold dust, Violet leaf
Base: Amber, Indian patchouli, Resins
Perfume Discontinuations: The Ones I Let Go
If there’s a bottle out there with my name on it, someone else can have it.
Donna Karan Gold. This has been cheap at the discounters for years and you can still get it. I have tested it thoroughly and decided it’s not for me, but it is wonderful stuff. I’d rather leave a bottle available for someone who loves monster lily perfumes. I don’t, it seems.
Parfums de Nicolai Le Temps d’une Fete. I should love this green wonder but somehow it has never moved me. Anyway, I have YSL Y, as noted, so I’m happy.
Fendi Theorema. I have a decant but I just can’t get on board with Theorema. It’s too much of a gourmand for me. It can still be had I think, not sure of the prices.
Yves Saint Laurent Yvresse. Again, a re-packaging. I could have bought a 75 ml bottle this classic fruity chypre for $60 in the old packaging but I just don’t love it. My only regret is that prices on Yvresse are now so high I could easily have got my money back three times over if I had bought that bottle.
Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Gardenia, Neroli, Tuberose
Heart: Benzoin, Jasmine, Lily
Base: Amber, Musk, Vanilla
Perfume Discontinuations: The One I Missed
Oh darn!
Madonna Truth or Dare. I tried TD Naked but didn’t like it much. The original was apparently not widely distributed in Australia and I decided not to bother. It was a wonderful white floral, I gather. I should have bought it when it was going cheap on Fragrancex.com but I didn’t. Now it’s gone. I’m stupid.
What about you? What are the ones that got away from you? Any regrets?
Keep spritzing everyone!
DKNY Sweet Delicious – Tart Key Lime by Donna Karan 2012
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Post by Tina G
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The Be Delicious line by Donna Karan New York (DKNY) sometimes just doesn’t get its day in the sun. But honestly… to keep on top of this range would take a fair amount of dedication as it is large, with many special editions which are possibly not easy to come by. Recently I was given a sample bottle of Delicious Night (orchid and frankincense being the stand out notes) and a full bottle of Fresh Blossom Eau so Intense (an extremely sweet rose), so the range has been on my radar.
DKNY Sweet Delicious – Tart Key Lime by Donna Karan 2012
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Orange, bergamot, sweet notes, mandarin
Heart: Neroli, ginger, basil
Base: Violet leaf
I spotted the funky pastel packaging of the Sweet Delicious line recently, which includes three fragrances: Creamy Meringue, Pink Macaroon, and Tart Key Lime. Adorable! Although the designer of the bottle obviously has bigger hands than me – I find the standard “apple” design difficult to use and need two hands to hold the bottle and depress the spray mechanism. Awkward.
There are a few different types of limes, some you may be familiar with are kaffir lime, Persian or Tahitian lime, and Key lime. In Australia we usually are sold Tahitian lime, which are a bright green, have a certain sweetness in the juice, and are preferentially marketed because they have a thick skin (ie: easily transported). The Key lime is named after the groves in the Florida Keys, as this thin-skinned lime variation grows better in warmer climates. It is also used as an ingredient in Key Lime Pie, a zesty sweet treat, and I’m assuming is the reason it has been included in the Sweet Delicious line beside meringues and macaroons.
Photo Stolen WikiCommons
Citrus notes are an absolute favourite of mine, particularly mandarin and tangerine, but lime is up there as a “wow, must try” factor. Tart Key Lime doesn’t fail to deliver. It opens with a mouth-watering burst of lime, fresh and juicy and not overly bitter as to bring tears to your eyes. Quickly the pure lime top note gives way to orange and mandarin, and at 15 minutes there is a fragrant green herbal vibe wafting in the background.
A spicy ginger and basil combo comes through as the base, but this is the limit to its development. I’m reading the notes as I’m testing and I don’t get any sense of the listed violet leaf, bergamot or neroli which is a pity as it would be nice to have a bit of depth to the base notes. There is a thread of something honeyed in the background but it is a far cry from the sweet tooth sugar-bomb that you may expect from the advertising.
Photo Stolen Flickr
Sweet Delicious Tart Key Lime is fresh, vibrant, and uplifting, and really is perfectly wearable as a go-to every day fragrance. I’m not sure that it is the one for me, I think there are other citruses out there that are a bit more intriguing, but I like to aim for the “never say never” category when it comes to exploring, and to have a bit of fun trying new things!
Tina G xx
Black Cashmere by Rodrigo Flores-Roux for Donna Karan 2002
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Post by FeralJasmine
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Here in the southwestern USA it’s hot as hell and my winter scents are taking a break at the back of the cabinet, but it’s the perfect season to inflict my highly personal opinions about cool-weather scents upon the unsuspecting Aussies. So here is my first opinion: mass-market fragrances used to be a lot better than they are now. Part of it is that this is a tough decade for someone who despises most fruit notes, but also it used to be that, when companies went to the trouble and expense of launching a new perfume, they actually wanted you to be able to tell it from other perfumes. Now, I would swear that they’re all jostling for the rail in the Just-Like-Everybody-Else Sweepstakes. The wise and lovely Portia once reminded me in a comment that it’s all cyclical, and that in a few decades today’s mass-market consumers will be 2044’s aging perfumistas, grumpily complaining that you just can’t find good fruity florals anymore. Probably true. But Black Cashmere, with its hefty dose of wenge, has always smelled unlike anything else on the market.
Black Cashmere by Rodrigo Flores-Roux for Donna Karan 2002
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Saffron, nutmeg
Heart: Red pepper, white pepper, carnation, rose
Base: Woody notes, patchouli, African woods, vanilla, amber
Here’s my second strongly help opinion: reformulation is not a bad thing if it keeps a distinctive perfume on the post-IFRA market in a recognizable form. Case in point: my winter favorite, Donna Karan Black Cashmere. The first really distinctive perfume that I fell for, the one that tripped me so badly that I fell right down the rabbit hole, was the original DK Black Cashmere. I bought a dab sample and was lost in the wonder of something unlike anything else that I had ever smelled. Rich, plush, highly distinctive, and beautiful. What an evening that was.
Then I went on EBay to look for a vintage bottle, and it occurred to me that I had acquired a very expensive obsession indeed. Finally I did find a bottle of the vintage that I could afford, more or less, but I also swallowed hard and bought a decant of the reissue.
Photo Stolen Wikipedia
Was it a shocking disappointment? Not really. Certainly the vintage has more depth and more oomph. But unlike the current Opium, which is a sick travesty, the current Black Cashmere makes a real effort to transmit the scent and spirit of the original. It’s a little lighter and extends itself a little further into warm weather. Overall, I dare you to find something more distinctive at that price point, which is a little over a dollar a milliliter if bought off the DK website. I have since bought a full bottle of the reissue, and often I wear the current one on one arm and the vintage on the other, to make my precious vintage last.
So why don’t more firms make an actual effort with their reissues? Beats me. But I also have both vintage and reissued Chaos from DK, and the reissue is a bit lacking compared to the vintage but is a genuine attempt to reproduce the very distinctive vintage recognizably in an IFRA-friendly form. DK Inc. seems to make real efforts to meet their fans halfway.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Now Smell This
Donna Karan has $120/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/ml
I hate to rub salt into my readers’ wounds, but what’s your most distressing reissue story?
FeralJasmine xx
Donna Karan Spring Summer 2014 Ad Campaign
Fashionistas!!!
This years advertising is already hotting up. Donna Karan has done a super set of shots and I’ve grabbed them from my fave Fashion Forward blog: art8amby where I also lifted the below script. Do go check their stuff, right on point every day.
Donna Karan Spring Summer 2014 Ad Campaign
Brazilian bombshell Adriana Lima is returning to be the face of Donna Karan New York. The super sexy and fierce Adriana was once their campaign model for Spring Summer 2012 season. She is accompanied by top male model Andres Velencoso Segura for the images that were snapped by Russell James. (source)
Australian Perfume Junkies 