The German fashion designer Philipp Plein is releasing his first-ever perfume prepared by Master Perfumer Alberto Morillas. The unisex perfume dubbed “The Skull” comes in a flacon shaped just as the name suggests with a potent elixir inside. As a designer who has been breaking all rules for over two decades now, Plein’s perfume is just that as well. Usually, quite recognizable for his signature, Morillas reinvents himself in “The Skull.” He wanted a perfume that was forceful and makes a presence just like the designer. With that in mind, the scent is ultra-rich, addictive, and dark-wood-infused. Jam-packed with perfumeries most expensive actives, naturally, the fragrance boasts black pepper, cardamom, water notes, as well as dark woods, leather, Bourbon vanilla, and black amber. The meticulous attention to the ingredients and design reflects Plein’s desire to make the ultimate object of luxury that ultimately carries his signature like a tattoo. Just like his black suit staples, “The Skull” is an essential scent for the Plein patrons.
“The Skull,” 350 Euro. Available at select stores and e-commerce in Europe and the United States followed by a worldwide rollout in January 2020.
It has been the year when suits made a comeback, Harry Styles returned to the limelight, and visual fragrances and scented accessories became the newest trend. While not necessarily a novelty — throughout history, women have stored perfume on-chain flacons and sprayed their accessories — this antique tradition is once again making penetrating the mainstream. From a gilded perfume chain to scented tattoos, brushes, and brooches — we’ve got you covered. Consider these as a gift for the special perfume aficionado or even for yourself. You deserve it.
Mugler perfume brushes are the perfect stocking-stuffer and on-the-go travel gift. The brushes come in three colors (blue, purple, and green) featuring the renowned Angel, Alien, and Aura scents from the designer. The makeup brushes offer a seamless gel application of the scent that settles in on the skin for longevity.
Who said that perfume can’t live inside jewelry? Diptyque’s “Ready to Perfume” holiday collection features an array of brooches in the form of a bird as well as bracelets and ceramics. Drop a ceramic in your bag, and vary between bags, to make your handpiece truly yours.
Amkiri is an industry-changing perfumer that features a variety of tattoo stencils and a scented want to apply the signature fragrances. A freehand wand is available to draw on your own design. The scents are hypoallergenic, water & sweat resistant, alcohol-free, vegan, and long-lasting.
The French beauty veteran has started her own namesake brand earlier this summer inspired by the scents of Côte d’Azur. With a lovely collection of fragrances, the cherry atop are the pendant-and-chain accessories where one can store mini-perfume flacons — chic, useful, and truly timeless.
Instead of polluting the air with toxins in air fresheners, Bastide offers a natural scented-crystal alternative. Pervading the air with dreamy scents from Aix-en-Provence, the brand has budded these as their own version of “potpourri.” Drop a crystal or two in your bag or coat pocket to spread the fragrance everywhere you go.
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.
Celine has opened a new perfume store — its first-ever solely dedicated to scents — in Paris on 390 rue Saint-Honoré. In the new intimate setting, customers can immerse themselves in the designer’s extensive range of fragrances. The store is designed as an art-deco showroom that displays the flacons as if they were bottles of Louis 13 and Don Perignon instead.
Positioning the parfums as coveted piece d’objets, each bottle is showcased in its own dedicated space on grand antique marble and an infinite array of mirrors evoking the modern French movement. The store also carries a selection of accessories including cases and kits in leather, canvas, alligator, and silver. Joining the ranks of the French savoir-faire of parfumerie, Hedi Slimane’s new Celine store caters across all categories and offers unique scents worked on by some of the industry’s best.
Acqua di Parma reclaims the dreamy haze of an Italian summer with Signatures of the Sun, its newest range of eight perfume expressions. The collection features Osmanthus, Camelia, Leather, Oud, Quercia, Sandalo, Vaniglia, and Ambra. Each scent is comprised of ingredients that embody the floral, fruity, fresh, and raw essence of the season. A brief recurrence of summer love emanates from each bottle as a sensory revelation at every whiff. Each perfume is an intimate holiday, perfected and distilled to its purest form. The compilation joins the hundred-year history of the artisanal fragrance home.
An all-American brand, Perry Ellis consistently delivers well-made heritage items. With its recent Americana-themed campaign and a ’90s archive capsule collection, the brand has decided to launch its first unisex perfume — and first fragrance in 20 years — Perry Ellis AMERICA.
Inspired by the rebellious spirit of the ’90s and the brand’s own legacy, the scent is a warm and powerful cocktail that opens up with a popular bergamot note. It then expands into white pepper, lavender, and rose scent. The final dry-down finish is woody patchouli, birch, and amber. As a result, the perfume achieves an impressive beginning with a long-lasting musky finish without overly specific flavoring. This mix is a perfect marriage of past and contemporary perfumery that blends men’s and women’s scents in a timely fashion.
PerryEllis AMERICA is available at select retailers and online now.
Thom Browne has built a career and internationally recognized fashion empire reinterpreting the traditional men’s suit with absolute precision and whimsy. Now, for the first time ever, the American designer is expanding into fragrances with a collection of six gender-neutral scents. The assortment, concocted in partnership with Swiss fragrance lab Givaudan, is titled 09.27.65 (Browne’s birthday — he’s a Libra) and each of the scents is numbered 1-6. Centered around a vetyver base, every bottle is infused with a different aroma accent, including cucumber, rose, whiskey, and smoke. The appearance of the bottle is purposely undistinguished — a simple rectangular bottle bears a simple white label and a signature striped ribbon is wrapped around the lid.
The Thom Browne 09.27.65 will launch in select stores and online in early October.
Malin+Goetz has taken the musky scent of leather to a whole new level. Inspired by the memory of a first leather jacket and Andrew Goetz’s own experience of his “from a thrift shop in Greenwich Village when [he] was still in high school in the 1970s,” the new scent aims to emulate that invincible feeling of throwing on your leather jacket on a fall day. With base notes of leather, cedar/sandalwood accompanied by middle and top notes of lotus flower, eucalyptus, clove, muguet, orchid and green violet, the new smell is sure to keep you cozy and potentially stir up a few leather memories of your own.
Later this month, Louis Vuitton is opening a 160-year-old archive exhibition called Louis Vuitton X in Beverly Hills. In addition to over 180 items from the historic label’s archive, the exhibit will also carry a limited-edition range of bags designed by Artycapucines, the designer’s artist collaboration initiative. Some other notable displays include pieces from the brand’s most famous collaborations with industry veterans and icons like Karl Lagerfeld, Rei Kawakubo, Frank Gehry, Yayoi Kusama, and Zaha Hadid.
Two years ago, Louis Vuitton held another exhibition in New York — Volez, Voguez, Voyagez— which chronicled the designer’s history from 1854 to today. In Chicago, the House is currently hosting a month-long residency that coincides with a Virgil Abloh exhibition on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. So there’s clearly a bunch of LV activity to see this summer.
Louis Vuitton X will be on display at 468 North Rodeo Drive, CA, 90210 from June 27 to September 15.
Diptyque‘s newest addition to the Saint-Germain fragrance family is a fresh take on the fougere accord, normally quite soapy, with the addition of mint. The green scent (prepared by perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin) starts off with fresh notes before smoothing out with an earthy finish. Aside from mint, floral notes of geranium and rose oxide add a slightly sweet punch all wrapped up with earthy patchouli. While a bit more dry and reserved, the Eau de Parfum is also the first genderless fougere from the brand. It is inspired by the ancient Greek nymph Minthe who transformed into the fragrant green plant.
$175, Eau de Minthé is available at DiptyqueParis.com and boutique nationwide.
When you’ve completed ten years as the editor-in-chief at French Vogue, launched your own magazine and brands, and circled the globe, it’s certainly time to make a perfume — the ultimate sensory pleasure that welds into memory. Carine Roitfeld did just that, immediately turning to her good friend Tom Ford (naturally) for advice. This month, Carine Roitfeld Parfums launches as a unisex compilation dedicated to her seven favorite cities — her seven lovers, each strong and imposing (as is fashion icon herself.)
For Roitfeld, who had not changed her personal scent (Yves Saint Laurent Opium mixed with Serge Lutens Fleurs d’Oranger) for over 20 years, the hardest part was not to make her own perfume. The journey took at least eight years between noses, hers included, and eventually her son Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld, who finished the final scent which is dedicated to Saint Petersburg.
Saint Petersburg shot by Sebastian Faena for Carine Roitfeld Parfums
“Talking about perfume is the most difficult thing to talk about because to share a bottle seems just an advertisement, but to talk about the actual fragrance, the juice is very difficult. The best is to smell it, of course,” says Roitfeld. “As I started to work on the perfume, I wanted to tell a story as I was doing for my fashion stories.” Her story is a tightknit vagabond symphony to places, the feelings they evoke, and the best way to transport those back — Roitfeld imagines each city as her lover. “And when you leave your lover because of course, I am leaving them (I’m the tough one,) you keep the good memories of the person,” she explains. The ultimate memory is always the scent.
Starting in Paris, Roitfeld worked with Aurélien Guichard to convey the night Paris, slightly floral, but also dipped into leather and musk. She called the scent Aurelien too, after her first nose who forced her outside of her comfort zone asking questions, peeling off layers of mystery, detail, and likes. Difficult for Americans to pronounce, the name is also an homage to Roitfeld’s character. The mother-son duo launched their own perfume without any outside involvement thus placing any name they wanted and also without price consciousness. Both wanted truly the best ingredients, adding up to a hefty $285 SRP per bottle (a tester kit of all seven perfumes is available for $250).
Paris shot by Sebastian Faena for Carine Roitfeld Parfums
She then moved onto her New York fragrance, also floral, and with the idea of an artist in mind. She calls it Orson. From there, London (George) became her most green perfume including cannabis absolute. Dubai is the definition of seduction marrying sexy oud with sweat and leather — surely the sensual one in the pack. Then came Sebastian (Buenos Aires), bottling the nostalgia of the Argentine city, and finally Kar Wai (Hong Kong) which has a tea basis.
New York shot by Sebastian Faena for Carine Roitfeld Parfums
Roitfeld passed Saint Petersburg (Vladimir) to her son to finish. She had dedicated the perfume to him, her dad, and her origins, but thought it proper that Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld finished it himself. He now wears it every day.
Image: Courtesy of the brand
Each flacon encases a powerful, very distinguished sense. “ I wanted a strong perfume — a very French perfume,” says Roitfeld. And, indeed, she took a French metier on a proper international trip.
The “7 Lovers” collection will be available on May 6th on Net-a-Porter.com and CarineRoitfeld.com. The launch is also followed by Carine Roitfeld Parfums Pop Up Experience at 158 Mercer St open Saturday, May 5th through Sunday, May 12th.
Versace‘s latest perfume, the enticing Versace Eros Flame is pure Italian love and passion. With citrus top notes juxtaposed by black pepper and woody elements, the final result is a musky perfume deep with flavor and mystery ready to tempt the body, soul, and mind.
Bottled in a fiery red glass ornate with the iconic Medusa stamp, the fragrance is bold with seductive characteristic accents. The top notes (succulent citrus fruits) offer a sweet take on the perfume that ultimately evolves into smoke. Pepper and wood notes such as Texas cedar, patchouli Coeur, Haitian Vetiver, and sandalwood create the sensation often associated with more masculine scents. The final touch is a tender wrap of tonka and vanilla.
Celebrating some of the world’s most sensual scents and raw materials, the scent bottles a passionate experience of love and inspiration into one flacon. “True love consumes everything in an eternal flame of passion,” Donatella Versace said in a statement. Fittingly, the accompanying video campaign features lovers and the emotions as the fruits of their relationship (in the form of tears) condensed into the new potion from the designer.
Stemming from the culture often associated with an exaggerated expression of emotions, Eros is made for the one deeply in touch with their feelings and willing to wear them on a sleeve. The obvious presence of passion via the scent reflects a deep sense of confidence.
Versace Eros Flame and bath line are now available at Macy’s stores and Macys.com.
