In a new holiday campaign, Jo Malone‘s scented spectacular features a magician that reveals a concoction of Christmas delights, including a decorative scented ornament. The release also includes a 24-piece advent calendar ($450) and a new Rose & Magnolia cologne with a sensual floral touch. Characterized by navy and green colors, the holiday collection envisions a proper Engish Christmas with a psychedelic update. There are cards flying around and magicians making scents appear and disappear. Perhaps scent is the actual magic, a complicated and endlessly changing potion able to transform any occasion or moment by bringing back memories. Jo Malone is also considering its Orange Bitters cologne as the fragrance of the season.
The Jo Malone Holiday collection is available in stores and online now.
Epitome of cinematic sensuality, Jamie Dornan was chosen as the ambassador of BOSS THE SCENT, which focuses on heightened senses of seduction in a highly disconnected world. In a short film by Drake Doremus, Dornan and co-star model Brigit Kos, grace the lines of seduction in a virtual world where the couple gets hot and steamy in a VR environment only to transcend that connection into the real world through the power of fragrance.
The sensual existence embraces each of the senses to heighten the experience on another level. In the film, Dornan and Kos learn that by pulling out of reality and letting go of their sight they increase the sensuality of other senses, forcing them to be enamored with each other even more.
Photo: Courtesy of BOSS
“How do you depict sensuality now in such a technological world? Something that can’t really be faked is scent and smell, and all the senses are sort of needed to create seduction,” Dornan says, as we sat at the Gansevoort Hotel watching the rain pour buckets over New York’s Fashion Week. Dornan would later attend the BOSS show himself before flying out to Toronto Film Festival. Between now and December, he has three movies and a TV show coming out.
The filming of the advertisement took place in Baku at the new arena built exclusively for Eurovision several years back. “We were in Baku in Azerbaijan three days before Christmas. I’ve been working in Jordan doing A Private War and suddenly I had to get to Azerbaijan three days before Christmas and shoot this out. It was kind of amazing,” says Dornan. Baku Crystal Hall is in of itself a contemporary, sleek building with soft lines and tender edges furthering Doremus’ original idea.
Dornan has had a longstanding relationship with BOSS since 2003, making the new collaboration an honor of the history between the two and also a chance to work on a newly ambitious project. Dornan himself is quite a minimalist when it comes to details like scent (which he now has a lifetime supply of.) He doesn’t wear various scents and instead focuses on one option that covers every occasion. “It feels very everyday. It’s not too overpowering. You don’t need a huge amount of it,” says Dornan about BOSS THE SCENT. The Private Accord for Him is built with an aphrodisiac twist on the 2015 original with the cocoa base. Scent notes are further intensified with mocha, ginger and maninka fruit.
Photo: Courtesy of BOSS
The resulting eau de parfum is a light amber colored cocktail, elegantly smooth and unimposing. “It’s a very important sense, smell. It’s needed for the attraction and seduction, so you have custom control over that,” says Dornan and BOSS offers exactly that — choice over how you feel, smell, and present yourself.
BOSS THE SCENT Private Accord for Him is available at Macys.com.
26 years after launching its first fragrance, French fashion designer Mugler is re-releasing the innovative scent. Updated for the 2018 market, the Mugler Cologne fragrances will be genderless. A set of 5 key scents (each is packaged in a different bottle that corresponds to the colors of a rainbow), the collection invites wearers to mix and match and layer scents upon each other to create a bouquet of smells that will no doubt make you the most popular person in any elevator. Additionally, the designer released a lively animated clip to accompany the announcement — the comic-book-superhero-He-Man theme is very on brand, reminding us why Mugler remains one of the most innovative and daring fashion influences in recent memory.
Mugler Cologne will be available at Nordstrom stores and online starting in September and out worldwide in early 2019, ahead of Mugler’s upcoming retrospective exhibition in Montreal.
Befitting a fragrance line born of a voyager’s heart, Acqua di Parma‘s Ingredient collection releases new travel-savvy bottles perfect for on-the-go workaholics and high-flying adventurers alike. Featuring all six of the original scents—Colonia’s Oud, Leather, Ambra, Quercia, Ebano, and Mirra—the set dances around the Mediterranean for an all-encompassing olfactive trip. Marrying design with product, the fragrances are housed in an embossed, leather case with hinged top, protecting the traditional spray nozzle of the refillable bottles that click into place for quick spritzes as needed. Wrapped in a soft, matte leather that mimics a certain archeologist-turned-explorer aesthetic, the release is a stylish travel campion based on the original scents’ fan-favorite, masculine mixtures. Hefty, dramatic, and with notes as ranging as amber, sandalwood, and lemon, the fragrances are locationally defined, stoppering locales for powerfully transportive experiences.
Acqua di Parma’s Ingredient collection travel sprays are available online now.
The Art of Shaving provides a complete grooming experience in its new Oud collection of fragrances and shaving products. Featuring a cologne, pre-shave oil, shave cream, and an after-shave balm, the products infuse woodsy notes with an undercurrent of Middle Eastern tradition, crafting a line of powerful grit. With overtones of rosemary, oud wood, and patchouli, the scent is pulled straight from nature, a hearty concoction infused in each product to ensure a complete scent application. The biggest grooming faux pas is unknowingly overpowering your fragrance with differently scented creams, lotions, and pastes—the Art of Shaving dispels this worry in an all-encompassing range that shares its signature tonality. You won’t have to worry about olfactive cross-contamination at each step, from shaving prep all the way to moisturizing. The collection also includes the shaving savant’s replenishment service, allowing customers the freedom to apply copiously without fear of ever running low. A complete 4-step process, the Oud Collection is a tailored experience that grants peace of mind through its aromatic unity.
The Art of Shaving Oud Collection is available online now.
Simple, nostalgic, conscious – this is the mantra on which CLEAN For Men, the fragrance brand whose finger rests firmly on the pulse of healthy living and sustainability, prides each of its olfactive creations. The newest release, a dual offering of starkly contrasting scents, is a customizable creation to suit whichever man one chooses to be that day. White Vetiver, the first, is for the clean cut gentleman, an ethereal experience that wraps the body’s natural scent in a warm, smoked aroma that is sophisticatedly fresh. When applied, the scent provides a polished finish, at first one of biting vetiver root and sensual earthy tones, which quickly gives way to a subtle sweetness that releases with each pulse. Hearty base notes of sandalwood and tonka beans prove the scent to be a classic, the perfectly appealing companion for days at the country club or jet setting across the globe.
Image: ClEAN For Men.
White Vetiver’s darker twin, Black Leather, is a devious counterpart for the more dangerous man with jagged edges. Spicy and smoky, the signature heart of juniper is the preferred tonal quality for a man of fierce authority, the spearmint and violet afterthought a brooding undercurrent that pulls. With mid-tones of black orchid and this season’s hottest scent, black peppercorn, rounding out the tonal top, Black Leather is not for the faint of heart – a pulsating adventure ideal for out-of-reach VIP areas or a post-motorcycle ride refresher.
Essentially creative, both scents are stoppered in contrasting white and black bottles with matte finishes, a testament to the CLEAN simple branding and a bold new addition to the brand’s developing mens lineup.
CLEAN For Men White Vetiver and Black Leather are available online now.
John Varvatos’ newest scent is an olfactory interpretation of the brand’s rock ‘n’ roll attitude. Dark Rebel Rider is inspired by a black leather jacket, a muse which manifests in both the scent itself and the packaging. The fragrance is built on a base of luxurious Russian leather, accented with notes of citrus, saffron, black violet, and vanilla to create a deep, woodsy experience with the perfect touches of sweetness for balance. The cologne is held in a flask-shaped bottle which wears a jacket of its own, with two zippers and a mock-leather casing covering the exterior of the black bottle. Topped with the brand’s signature fleur-de-lis emblem, Dark Rebel Rider is John Varvatos through and through.
The 4.2 fl. oz. eau de toilette is now available exclusively at Bloomingdales and will expand to other fine retailers in August 2016.
In honor of Nordstrom’s Anniversary Sale,Valentino is releasing a new edition of its classic Uomo fragrance, Uomo Intense. Both the cologne and bottle receive a makeover for the occasion, keeping the base of the case, but turning the gold metallic details of the former to a bold gun metal. As for the scent, the original rich leather notes of the original Uomo are strengthened, along with new odes of mandarin, vanilla bean, and sage oil to create a statement, show-stopping fragrance.
A follow-up to one of its trademark scents, Man in Black, BVLGARI’s Man Black Cologne offers a fresh update to the rum and tuberose base of the original. Intended to be both hyper-masculine and light, the cologne is full of intriguing contradictions. Perfumer Alberto Morillas added a combination of warm and cool spices, citrus, and white wood to create a spicy, yet refreshing scent. Man Black, which comes in a sleek matte black and metallic bottle, is neither subtle nor heavy with these complexities, and the result is supremely compelling, or as Morillas puts it, “everything except traditional.”
Australian-based fragrance expert Solid State reinvents the way men approach cologne with a line of wax based scents that revolutionize the fragrance market. Created using a blend of natural ingredients – shea butter, jojoba oil, beeswax – the three new scents pack a soothingly powerful punch for a redefined, 21st century man. Unlike the usual spritz with a liquid cologne of old, these solid fragrances are a higher concentrated, easy to disperse product that is applied like a lotion – a gentle rub against pulse points will have you smelling great all day long. Available in Wayfarer – a sticky-sweet vanilla and tobacco mixture, Journeyman – an invitingly fresh cedar wrapped in thick Vetiver, and Voyager – a leather and rose blend for the dark and gentle, the three fragrances create an olfactory dream team that sends shockwaves through the conventional and traditional style of application. Packaged in a sleek, flash drive-sized tin with sliding top, the Solid State colognes are perfect for carry-ons and gym bags alike, offering a hassle free application that lasts from early board meetings through late-night drinks.
Scentbird breaks new aromatic ground with the launch of a subscription service to upgrade your designer scent collection. This modern man’s alternative to in-store fragrance shopping delivers a selection of designer mini-colognes straight to your door, bottled up in portable, unobtrusive vessels that lasts an average of 120 sprays. With hundreds of colognes at its disposal—including famous scents by Giorgio Armani, Burberry, Tom Ford, and more—Scentbird is poised to revolutionize the way men shop and smell.
Burberry Brit presents you with a refreshing aquatic fragrance for men amidst the blazing heat. Inspired by none other than London’s enlivening summer energy, Burberry Brit Splash offers a scent that is simultaneously cooling and sizzling. The subtle merge between distinct sensualities is truly a chef-d’oeuvre, and was collaboratively born from Burberry’s Christopher Bailey and esteemed perfumer Francis Kurkdjian. The masterminds behind the scent incorporated honeydew melon, rosemary, and galbanum as top notes to initially suggest crisp lightness that soon matures with cyclamen, violet, and watery accord at its heart, and is finished with the masculine sensuality harvested by moss, musk, and vetiver. The bottle boasts light blue hues that successfully reflect the aquatic nature of the cologne and augment a sense of airiness, featuring, of course, the iconic Burberry check overlaid in transparent tones. Incorporating new style while staying close to traditions, the British label once again reminds us its long-lasting sovereignty in the realm of aromas. This scent marks the latest addition to the Brit fragrances collection that previously introduced Brit Rhythm for Men Eau de Toilette Intense, and is available now online.
