10. Jar Parfums Bolt of Lightning
JAR Perfumes can only be found at specific JAR boutiques (one is in the Bergdorf Goodman store in NYC, while the other is in Paris), and they have so far refused to offer them for sale online — which seems a rather charmingly boneheaded move for a 21st century business.
9. Jean Patou’s Joy
Henri Alméras created Joy in 1930, just after the stock market crash that launched the Great Depression. The story goes that in response to the dark mood that settled over the western world, especially the United States, Jean Patou directed Alméras to create an extravagant perfume. Alméras complied, and Joy’s hallmark is the 28 dozen roses and 10,600 jasmine flowers that go into every ounce of extrait. Architect Louis Süe designed Joy’s emerald-cut bottle. Joy’s top notes are aldehydes, peach, and leafy green. Its heart is rose, jasmine, ylang ylang, and tuberose; and its base is sandalwood, musk, and civet. In the Eau de Toilette and the Parfum, the notes unroll differently. The Eau de Toilette starts with a fizzy, stemmy neroli, then a few minutes later bursts into roses tangled with full-bodied but fresh jasmine. The Eau de Toilette stays close to the skin once it dries down and fades into dull roses and a vague warmth after a few hours. But overall, Joy Eau de Toilette feels bright and, well, joyous.
8. Shalini Parfums Shalini
Shalini was created for the designer Shalini Kumar by Maurice Roucel, the perfumer who brought us such scents as Musc Ravageur, Iris Silver Mist, 24 Faubourg and Tocade. Shalini Kumar wanted the perfume to evoke her childhood memories of tuberose and butterflies in her garden. The limited edition Lalique crystal bottle of Shalini is meant to represent a butterfly wing. Such 2.2oz bottle costs $900.00, thus making Shalini one of the most expensive scents on the market. I must admit that I was prepared to dislike Shalini, despite the fact that it was created by Maurice Roucel, one of my favorite perfumers. I am not a big fan of tuberose and I find the price of the scent quite irritating. I still maintain that Shalini is not worth that kind of price tag, that no perfume is worth that kind of price tag, but…but the fragile, airy exquisiteness of this fragrance came as a shock to me. Shalini to me is the most beautiful tuberose or even the most beautiful floral scent in general to be released in the last couple of years, perhaps one of the loveliest florals ever. If there wasn’t already a scent with that name, this perfume should have been called La Chasse Aux Papillons. Shalini manages to evoke the image of carefree life spent chasing butterflies much more successfully than L’Artisan’s creation.
7. Herm’s 24 Faubourg Perfume
24 Faubourg is a perfume of light, composed by Maurice Roucel in 1995, is a Hermès signature right down to its bottle – the square glass is gently curved with a sense of movement, like a breeze blowing through silk. 24 Faubourg is an invitation on a journey where the sun is the destination.Top notes of brilliant white flowers, matched by a floral heart, are enveloped in iris,wood and mystery. Vanilla and ambergris lend the tone to its afternote.
6. Annick Goutal’s Eau d’Hadrien
A sparkling composition. Eau d’Hadrien is a fresh, citrus fragrance in which a zesty touch of lemons from Sicily and grapefruits ripened under the Italian sun blend with the subtle notes of citron and cypress. An elegantly reserved Eau de Toilette with a wide appeal for those who love timeless scents.
5. Baccarats Les Larmes Sacress de Thebe
Although only one out of the triad issued by Baccarat is known among perfume aficionados, Les Larmes Sacrées de Thèbes, the collection by the venerable verrerie (crystal makers) included two other worthy specimens: Un Certain été à Livadia and Une Nuit Etoilée au Bengale. All three formed Les Contes d’Ailleurs trilogy (Tales from Faraway lands) which reprised oriental themes, seducing and enrapturing, allowing the perfumer unrestrained choice in materials and composition. The occasion was to commemorate the new millenium and thus Baccarat commissioned three precious limited edition perfumes that would honour their patrimony in flacons of heavy crystal. Christine Nagel undertook the task of formula creation, at the time just entering Quest France and given carte blanche as to the commerciability of the fragrances: These were going to be Limited Editions for collectors and not focus-group marketing productions! Colombian-born Fédérico Restrepo was the flacon designer for the parfum bottles and each parfum bottle bore its own certificate of authenticity and lot number. There were only 1500 specimens issued for each of the Baccarat perfumes. Original prices were 880 euros for 30ml/1oz of pure parfum/extrait de parfum. All three fragrances however also had an Eau de Parfum version in a plainer bottle, as depicted on the bottom of this article, retailing for 400$ for 75ml/2.5oz, at the time available at Bergdorf’s and Harrods (they are now discontinued and out of stock). Please note that the design of the EDP bottle has been accused of aiding evaporation.
4. Chanel No. 5 Perfume
Chanel No.5 is Traditional fragrance worn by women had adhered to two basic categories. “Respectable” women favored the pure essence of a single garden flower. Sexually provocative perfumes heavy with animal musk or jasmine were associated with women of the demi-monde, prostitutes or courtesans. Chanel felt the time was right for the debut of a scent that would epitomize the boyish, modern flapper that would speak to the liberated spirit of the 1920s. The austere, disciplined convent life Chanel had lived since the age of twelve at the abbey of Aubazine and the sexual molestation she had suffered in that environment had instilled in her an affinity for the virtues of austerity and purity. Her childhood memories were replete with scents of “linens boiled in copper pots scented with dried iris root, linen cupboards lined with pungent rosewood and verbena, and floors, walls and bodies scoured with raw tallow soap. The flourishing, Aubazine gardens, nurtured since the 12th century also spoke to her imagination. There the abundant smells of jasmine, lavender and roses permeated her daily life. This past resonated within her as she contemplated the composition of the new fragrance. Somehow she would reconcile the clean and the scrubbed with the sensuality of the garden, distill these powerful, personal, childhood associations into one evocative perfume that would truly be her signature.
3. Caron’s Poivre
Caron’s poivre can be used by both men and women. This is created by Caron in 1954, which cost $ 2,000 since this is being sold in a limited number and can only be afforded but by a few people.
2. Clive Christian No. 1
Clive Christian No. 1 is a fragrance that was introduced in 2001 by Clive Christian. It is the most expensive perfume in the world, costing $2,150 an ounce. It is available in London Piccadilly’s premier department store Fortnum & Mason for £415 for a 50ml bottle.
1. Clive Christian’s Imperial Majesty
Only ten people in the entire world include among their toiletries a flacon of Clive Christian’s Imperial Majesty, a perfume produced in only a very limited edition. Not surprisingly it has earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive perfume in the world. Do diamonds glitter only against the skin? Not so. Clive Christian’s Imperial Majesty handcrafted crystal perfume bottle shows off a five-carat diamond and a collar of 18-carat gold. Inside the bottle is an all-natural perfume available either for women (in a composition of bergamot, white peach, sandalwood and Indian jasmine) or men (with mandarin oranges, cardamom, cedar wood and tonka beans). The perfume is available for 200.000 Euro exclusively in Harrods, London and Bergdorf Goodman, New York.
No comments:
Post a Comment