DKNY Be Delicious

I travelled out to Melbourne a few weeks ahead of my husband in september this year. My duty-free shopping experience a few weeks prior was disastrous (crying baby, bleeding heel after he rammed the luggage trolly into the back of it and tearfulness after my lipstick was taken off me due to security and an unnanounced visit to the airport from my mum-in-law!) so when he called me from Heathrow airport to ask what perfume I wanted, I really didn't know.

I had had a few sprays of a few perfumes and in my hasted I said "the DKNY perfume in the apple bottle."

He bought it for me and I really don't like it. It doesn't smell right on me. I think I actually tried on the Be Delicious men's fragrance and liked it and was getting confused!

The fragrance notes are: Grapefruit, Cucumber, Magnolia, Apple, Tuberose, White Muguet, Rose, Violet, White Amber, Woods.

My first mistake was that I really don't like apple or grapefruit (or cucumber for that matter) so why I chose this, I do not know. I think it was the bottle design and the New York affiliation (my most favourite city.)

(I am still learning all about fragrance notes etc. and am in awe and admiration for the wonderful knowledge other perfume bloggers possess!)

So, I will perservere because it's not totally hideous on me but it is certainly not a favourite.

Perfume and Pregnancy

I had my baby eight months ago and for most of my pregnancy, I could not wear my usual perfumes. They do say that the pregnancy hormones can make your scent smell different and I found this with the fragrances I was wearing in rotation during that time - Dior Addict, Boudoir by Vivienne Westwood, Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker and Hiris by Hermes. In fact, wearing them, especially Boudoir, which can be quite sickly, made me want to heave.

The American Pregnancy Association says of wearing perfume during pregnancy:

'...Though it's safe to use perfume during pregnancy, you may be more sensitive to perfumes and find that some scents make you nauseated, light-headed, agitated, or more prone to headaches...'

Has anyone else found this to be true?

A very fragrant Christmas

I got lots of lovely, smelly gifts for Christmas.

My brother and his girlfriend gave me another bottle of Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker. I had never owned a "celebrity" fragrance before (unless you count my Strawberry Shortcake eau de toilette when I was about seven!) and I was reluctant to do so as I thought they were all cheap and nasty and too popular. (I actually joined the masses this year and bought Kylie Minogue's Darling for my mum - it was one of the top-selling fragrances in the UK and Australia this Christmas. My brother also bought it for his girlfriend. I don't mind it.)

However, I tried this scent on in our local Debenham's department store and got my husband to buy it for me last year when we were still living in the London. (I am also a massive fan of Sex and the City so I was pleased that I could get into this scent, although I don't think a Carrie Bradshaw-inspired fragrance would be as "pretty" a smell as Lovely is.)

The sheer fact that I could get into a "pretty" scent was a revelation as well - I had always been a Calvin Klein Obsession, Hermes and Arpege kind of girl and I never thought I could carry off a scent that was a bit "girly".

I was also given a Jurlique voucher for a facial and massage.

Bliss.

Perfume is a sign you have arrived

Gwen Stefani, the singer and creative director of the fashion brand L.A.M.B., said that developing a perfume for her brand meant she had reached the big leagues of the industry. “It’s every designer’s dream to have a fragrance,” Gwen said.

And Kylie Minogue's scent Darling, a top-seller for Christmas in the UK and Australia, has solidified the pop princess's reputation as a style icon.

And it seems that the design of the bottle is just as important as the scent inside.

Modern day perfume bottles are expected to give the feel of the fragrance. The bottle is the first point of contact a person with a perfume, and often determines if the perfume will be purchased.

Conrad Biernacki on www.collecting20thcentury.com says that '...our evolving fascination with small, decorative and affordable vintage items is leading many collectors to perfume bottles. Much appreciated when brand-new, not only for the scents contained within them but for the beauty of their design, these bottles have the added bonus of still being functional today...'

And he gives this advice when looking for bottles to collect:

'...Condition and rarity are everything when it comes to perfume bottles. Check for scratches and chips. If the bottle has a paper label, it must be pristine. Caps, stoppers and applicators must be in perfect condition...'

Fragrance Samples

Gwen Stefani to make her own scent
Gwen Stefani has just signed a licensing deal with perfume maker Coty to develop her L.A.M.B. (Love Angel Music Baby) line of fragrances, starting next year.

Fragrance consumers are a fickle bunch
Fragrances, and their makers, are struggling to captivate an increasingly fickle consumer. While consumers were once loyal to a scent for years, most now own half a dozen different fragrances, dabbing a drop of one or the other to suit a mood, an outfit or a season.

Scent of Marie-Antoinette

Leading fragrance manufacturer Quest International has joined forces with the Palace of Versailles to re-create the original essence of Marie-Antoinette, wife of King Louis XVI, with a perfume true to her signature scent.

The perfume was made using 100 per cent natural ingredients, sticking to 18th century tradition, and included ingredients such as rose, iris, cut jasmine, tuberose and orange blossom.

Vanilla Fields

Vanilla Fields by Coty represents my first great love. I had been given a deodorant body spray of this scent and I was wearing it when I got together with my him when I was 20 (it was at a Christmas party and I had a fair bit to drink and I smoked as well so it shows that the scent lingers, despite the smell of alcohol and cigarettes!). He loved the smell and bought me a bottle of the perfume. I can't smell this and not recall the headiness of first love and the feeling that I had arrived.

I am not usually a fan of vanilla but it is the jasmine in this scent that drew me to it. Of course now, I can't wear the stuff because it make me remember him and even though I am now married with a baby, I still have very loving, fond memories of this man. (Boo hoo...get out the violins! Or is it my postnatal hormones?)

Poor Posh

Poor old Posh Spice.

It's been a long time since she's been at the top of the charts and now it seems Aussie pop princess Kylie Minogue has kept her from being the number one seller - in the perfume stakes.

Victoria Beckham's Intimately Her isn't selling nearly as well in the UK as rival fragrance Darling by Kylie Minogue. Posh's perfume is now second in UK chain Superdrug's Top 10 followed by Jade Goody's Shhh and David Beckham's Intimately Him.

Kylie's man loves Darling

Aussie pop princess Kylie Minogue has revealed that she made sure her hunky boyfriend, French actor Olivier Martinez, liked her new scent Darling.

'I would have a meeting with the perfumier then rush home clutching all these different perfume bottles and get Olivier to smell them,' she told British magazine You.

'Thankfully his favourite was my favourite. It's kind of important he likes it because I am going to be wearing it a lot.'

Kylie describes her new fragrance as 'sexy, generous, playful and quite surprising'.

The Smell of Celebrity

The boom in celebrity-inspired fragrances is booming and there’s no sign of the trend disappearing.

In fact, it seems almost unusual for a big-time celebrity to not have a scent. The fleeting and fickle nature of celebrity nowadays means that cashing in quick requires a finger in many pies - fragrance being a very popular and potentially lucrative one.

Celebrity fragrances are fueling the growth in perfumes launched each year - more than 350 in the US alone in 2005 . Celebrity fragrances are nothing new - decades ago with stars like Elizabeth Taylor and Cher launched their own scents but only recently have they begun to compose a major segment of the $6 billion U.S. industry.

According to industry experts, Jennifer Lopez’s foray into the fragrance market four years ago signalled the ressurection of this fragrance category. Sales had been flat, however celebrities lending their name to fragrances has enticed consumers that ordinarily would not spend in this market.

Now, along with celebrity peers like Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Sara Jessica Parker, people like best-selling author Danielle Steele and even television series Desperate Housewives have entered the arena.

It’s not necessarily a good thing though.

Rochelle Bloom, president of the New York-based Fragrance Foundation says in an article in post-gazette.com that store shelves are crowded with personal fragrances. She predicted that the weakest scents will fade into oblivion, adding that some celebrities need “a reality check.”

Their entries have been “great for the industry” in terms of exposure, she said, “but it’s a little scary when you see people adding their names to fragrances and you wonder who is their audience. Everyone thinks they’re a Jennifer Lopez. Everyone who has their five minutes of fame wants a fragrance. But regardless of your name, in the end the juice has to be good.”

Welcome to Scents of Life

Welcome to Scents of Life - a blog dedicated to perfume news, reviews and lifestyle observations.

I was inspired to start Scents of Life by looking at the perfumes I use (and have used) over the years and the way that a particular scent evokes memories of certain times and events in my life.

So please stop by, comment and make any suggestions.

Emily @ Scents of Life