cartier: 16 posts

Today have a great giveaway made possible by Bois de Jasmin’s reader Toni. She would like to give away a full bottle of Cartier Must de Cartier extrait de parfum, 15ml (comes with a box, almost full.) She can send her package anywhere in the US or Canada (sanitized and well-wrapped, of course).

We are not responsible for leaks or damage during transit or for lost packages.

To participate, please answer these questions by commenting on Bois de Jasmin (email messages aren’t included.) I will randomly draw one winner.

1. Toni would like to find out your most effective strategies for prolonging scents.
2. What perfume are you wearing today?
3. May I contact you via email to notify you of your win and share your email with Toni?

The contest is now closed. The winner is Abby. Congratulations!

I would like to thank our entire Bois de Jasmin community for your generosity and kindness, whether it means giveaways like this, advice or comments. 

Over dinner recently at Le Soufflé, a Paris restaurant specializing in the famed French dish, my friend asked me if there are any fragrances that suggest the same lightness and sensuality as this airy confection. The question took me by surprise, but I liked the idea of finding a floral scent that felt weightless without being fleeting. This was no simple task because the floral family is vast, ranging from fresh blends based on orange blossom and lily of the valley to smoldering potions of tuberose and jasmine.

In my recent FT column, The Olfactory Equivalent of a Soufflé, I take up the challenge and select three perfumes that capture the airy and decadent qualities of a soufflé.

The first fragrance I selected was Cartier’s Baiser Volé, a composition of white blossoms glazed with vanilla. Its green, sparkling opening includes rose, gardenia and white Casablanca lilies, while the sweetness is tempered by the cool touch of woods, subsiding in the drydown to musk and cedar. Despite its caressing, velvety impression, Baiser Volé retains its effervescent personality from the first to the last accord. To continue reading, please click here.

Image via FT

If you’ve been asking yourself why so many fragrances are sweet these days, then you are not alone. Even non-gourmand blends are getting sweeter, be they floral or woods. In my latest column in the FT magazine, Six Sugar-Free Perfumes, I explore various options that veer away from sweetness.

“Why does every perfume turn so sweet on me?” complained a friend, sparking a mission to find her a fragrance that didn’t have caramel, chocolate or other patisserie notes. With the success of Thierry Mugler’s Angel and other popular gourmands, perfumes have been growing sweeter and more edible over the years. While only recently a cotton candy accord of Lancôme’s La Vie est Belle would have been considered more suitable for pudding than perfume, today it’s a new benchmark. Our appetite for sugar seems to have found a parallel in the olfactory realm, and every season there are more perfumes promising to replicate famous desserts from crème brûlée to apple pie. To continue reading, please click here.

What other non-sweet perfumes can you recommend, for men and women?

Photography via FT HTSI

Despite dire prognoses that perfumery is dying and that “there is nothing good anymore”, this year brought a number of fragrances I was happy to discover, namely, Azzedine Alaia, Galop d’Hermès and L‘Envol de Cartier. I point out these three perfumes in particular, because I not only liked them, I wore them so much that they now can be called staples. That all three are easily available from the department store is a bonus point. I’ve reviewed Alaia and Galop here, while my discussion of L’Envol de Cartier appears in my FT column, Fragrance Inspired by Flight.

“The idea of a fragrance inspired by flight has two iconic precedents, both from the 1930s. Caron’s marvellous orange chypre En Avion was dedicated to the first women pilots such as Hélène Boucher and Amelia Earhart, while Guerlain’s Vol de Nuit paid homage to the writer and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. These are fitting associations because flight is key to understanding fragrance – perfume takes off in the air the moment the liquid touches the skin. Perfumers control the effects of their compositions by using materials of different volatilities – citrus and green notes soar in an instant; musks and woods are slower to become airborne.

Continue reading →

Cartier is introducing a new flanker to its Baiser Volé perfume called Baiser Volé Lys Rose. Created by perfumer Mathilde Laurent, it’s a fruity interpretation of the original Eau de Parfum released in 2011. It plays up the lily notes with rose and red berries.

“A perfume that leaves a lingering trail. Every aspect of the lily, a flower of pure femininity, is explored for the first time. A flower of passion for highly charged emotions.”

Baiser Volé is also available as Eau de Toilette, Essence de Parfum, and Extrait de Parfum. All variations build on the lily theme, but they have different accents and characters.

If you’ve tried it already, please comment. I’m very curious to hear what it’s like.

Baiser Volé Lys Rose is available in 50ml ($88) and 100ml ($128) ml Eau de Parfum. Via press release