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Chanel No. 22 (Parfum)
Odd that it’s taken me this long to get around to reviewing a Chanel fragrance, because my past is cluttered with them. The late-teen obsession with Cristalle. That so-sophisticated No. 19 phase in...
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Guerlain Idylle (Eau de Toilette)
Proper, gorgeous, glamorous, grown-up, full-bodied fragrances are what Guerlain is celebrated for – and mostly, that’s what they deliver. Creations which are born, not of marketing-speak or focus...
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Diorissimo Eau de Toilette
The Scent Critic, like most women, has always understood that fragrance is memory. From the evening when our mother first leans over our cot and we breathe her Chanel No. 5, we all associate smells...
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Houbigant Quelques Fleurs Parfum
I don’t know about you, but The Scent Critic generally prefers her fragrances to come gift-wrapped with a large serving of history, rather than confected with the help of a marketing department, a...
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The 12 Scents of Christmas No. 2: Dana Tabu
It’s not very often that The Scent Critic is given a bottle of perfume by her husband. (Slight coals-to-Newcastle thing there. Although that doesn’t explain a similar dearth of fresh floral...
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The 12 Scents of Christmas No. 7: Hermès 24 Faubourg
I suspect that if you blindfolded 1,000 people, wafted a 24, Faubourg-drenched spill under their noses and asked them to tell you where this honeyed floral fusion hailed from, they’d chorus: ‘Paris’....
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The 12 Scents of Christmas No. 10: Estée Lauder Youth Dew
So: yesterday’s Scent Critic posting talked about how fragrance can turn you from a would-be couch potato into a party animal, with a waft of its magic wand. But today, I’m going to marvel at its...
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Strange Invisible Perfumes L’Invisible
Let me start by paying homage: the Strange Invisible Perfumes store on too-cool-to-live Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, Ca., is almost worth a 6,000 mile (carbon-offset) trip in itself. Indeed, The...
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Yardley London April Violets
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but something scary has happened to the price of fragrance in the last couple of years. It’s not just raw materials increases, although those are set to soar further:...
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Roja Dove Danger
Roja Dove Danger photographed by Jo Fairley against a vintage silk sari The Scent Critic doesn’t quite know how Roja Dove has secured some of the raciest fragrance names ever for his signature...
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