Ed Hardy Women: Critics Unmoved, Buyers Smitten!...

Miley Cyrus wearing Ed Hardy

Everyone loves to wear Ed Hardy. Or so it seems. Everyone loves Ed Hardy Women, the first perfume from Ed Hardy. Everyone but New York Times Perfume Critic Chandler Burr, that is. While all the girls in the world go crazy for Ed Hardy gear and Ed Hardy perfumes (not to mention the long of list celebrities who can’t get enough of his ghetto-luxe style), Chandler Burr is the only one who didn’t join the party.

Chandler Burr doesn’t have much to say about this best-selling fragrance from Ed Hardy by Christian Audigier. In his review, Burr concedes to the undeniable talent and esoteric alternative style of Ed Hardy. He also takes a second or two to describe the surprising mashing of Ed Hardy’s cool gritty body art and Christian Audigier’s ardent branding and marketing schemes. However, when talking about the actual juice, Chandler Burr only writes a sentence to say that it’s a cheap mix of fake strawberry notes. He also goes as far as to venture that the strawberry juice used in the perfume was probably pulled from the baking aisle.

But far from world of judgment and criticism and away from the black-and-white tower of journalists, the world still turns, Ed Hardy perfumes are still made, and everyone around the globe still snatches up Ed Hardy Women by the dozen.

What could it be? What is it about that perfume that has everyone going crazy for it? Is it Ed Hardy’s tattoo designs which are so edgy and funky, and yet so cute? Is it the fruity, floral woody concoction? This Ed Hardy perfume contains a deliciously captivating list of notes: apple soufflé, mango, wild strawberry, ruby red grapefruit, freesia petals, watery muguet, linden blossom, warm amber, musk, tonka bean and vanilla pudding. If I were in a restaurant, I would definitely raise my hand to take the mix of apple souffle, mango, wild strawberry, and vanilla pudding. Sounds undeniably delicious! On the other hand, if I were in a department store, I’d think twice when hearing these lists of notes. But effectively, on the skin, the scent is less of a dessert and more of a wearable fruity floral. It definitely screams pink. It definitely screams youthful. Ed Hardy Women is another successful fruity floral perfume to join the popular ranks of similarly selling top-sellers like Ralph Wild and Miss Dior Cherie. Looks like the critic doesn’t always know best.

Thierry Mugler Angel Spawns Copy Cats...

Bruno and Model Alessandro Ambrosio in Thierry Mugler

While many fashion designers and perfume creators do a lot of navel gazing these days, Thierry Mugler has always been a fan of star gazing. In tough times, many in the fashion industry tighten their sequined belts to simply recycle popular creations, banking of previous moments of fashionable brilliance to ensure their future success. On the other end of the spectrum, Thierry Mugler, the designer with a penchant for daydreaming about solar systems and galaxies, constantly challenges current norms and seeks to make beauty from something out of the ordinary.

Thierry Mugler currently dominates in both perfumes and fashion. As Lady Gaga outwardly displays her love of Thierry Mugler designs, Beyonce recently delcared that her newest fashion line Sasha Fierce will be based on the fiercely feminine style of Thierry Mugler. Though it seems every stylish diva is currently paying hommage to the inventive Thierry Mugler, it wasn’t always so. His fashion forward designs, featuring hip-emphasizing, body-hugging forms, shocked the public back in the 1990s. Because the fashion world couldn’t comprehend the mind-blowing fusion of mod, glamour, futurism, and classic body-conscious forms of a bygone era, Thierry Mugler’s fashion line temporarily faltered. But as his fashion suffered a minor shortfall, his perfumes did not. Thierry Mugler’s Angel perfume, a drippingly sweet and shockingly smoky delight, was instantly scooped up as a hit from day one of sales.

If you’re already a fan of Thierry Mugler Angel, you know exactly what the rage is all about. If you’ve yet to experience this fragrance-forward perfume, you’re in for a treat. As most beauty brands currently model their newest perfumes on previous top-selling fragrances and as they hyper-saturate the fragrance market with one perfume drone after another, the beauty counters start to smell like a blur. Enter a department store to smell the latest 30 fragrances to only realize that you could have just smelled one for the same the effect. Many perfume houses hope to reach top sales dollars with ambiguously spicy florals, peppery bursts of fruits and a suggestion of vague basenotes. And there you have the backstory to most perfumes today. Though we could spend hours deciphering the differences and perks of each perfume drone, my point is that Thierry Mugler Angel clearly stands head and shoulders… or should I say stopper and bottle… above all other perfumes.

For 15 years running, Thierry Mugler Angel has consistently stood in the limelight of popularity. Thierry Mugler Angel is a the delightfully surprising gourmand. It features a mix of patchouli and a few edible traces of a caramelized praline and the bitter brightness of red berries. While other perfumes aim for the ever popular trio of florals, fruits and pink peppercorn. Angel remains dark and departs from florals all together.  The fragrant results are curiously feminine and enchanting. Apparently, as a result, Thierry Mugler Angel has inspired the wave of gourmand, dark perfumes. Ever check out a perfume that smells something like candy, cake, chocolate, or caramel? That’s a piece of Thierry Mugler inspiration right there.

Ever sampled Thierry Mugler’s classic Angel? What are you thoughts on this perfume?

Parisienne, Hot New Fragrance from YSL and Kate Mo...

What’s all this buzz about the latest version of YSL Paris you ask? Yves Saint Laurent is releasing, as perhaps many have heard, their newest fragrance Parisienne this fall. As perfume bloggers continue sniff around the blogosphere for clues, here’s what I can manage to sum up. So without further ado, here are the hottest updates of this buzz-worthy fragrance.

Stylelist reports that the YSL Parisienne TV ad is a drool-worthy sequence of a day in the life of a mysteriously impulsive and, of course, unfathomably gorgeous Parisienne played by ultimate It-girl Kate Moss. The ad follows Kate across an evening of fun and romance, and an early morning slip across a dawn-lit Parisian cityscape. PR people say the concept behind the fragrance is Parisian women who approaches life and love without fear.

Kate Moss, who also has her own fragrance line (the aptly eponymous Kate Moss), seems brave enough to appear own her own fragrance ads and that of YSL Beauté, the perfume and beauty line of Yves Saint Laurent, as they launch fragrances near simultaneously. Most recently, Kate launched Summertime, a sweet soft floral featuring a bouquet of florals, patchouli, white musk and ambrette. At first thought, this scent sounds ridiculously similar to the notes in YSL Parisienne or even the original Yves Saint Laurent Paris. But since Kate’s the spokesmodel for both ads, it only makes sense that YSL Parisienne is everything that Kate Moss Summertime is not, right? So while Summertime is a youthful, light-hearted, easily-overlooked fragrance, that only leaves YSL Parisienne to be a more sophisticated woody floral.

The first reviews on YSL Parisienne come from Europe, where the heavily anticipated fragrance has already pre-launched. YSL, at a presentation in Belgium, explains that the inspiration is drawn from quintessential Paris, including monuments, seasonal flowers and of course les Parisiennes, or the women of Paris. A YSL representative describes the scent as a fresh opening of blackcurrant which fades into a violet and peony mixture. The vibrant floral notes slowly draw out a powdery rose. Then at the base drapes a bold dose of woods. And that is straight from the mouths from those in Europe who smelled it first!

While perfumeur Sophia Grojsman focused on the deeply sensual Damask rose, it seems bottle creater also concentrated on roses.  The softly faceted bottle resembles the gently concave petals of a rose. Both the effect of the bottle and the juice is organic and sensual.

So what can we solidly decipher about this new YSL fragrance? First off, from the notes itself, as everyone else has already reported it’s extremely simiar to the classic YSL Paris. Secondly, it seems the YSL Parisienne is going to be super hot, what with the spokeswoman support of Kate Moss and the fresh take on a rosy classic. What say you? Does your heart hold a little soft spot for rose-violet perfumes? What do you think your reception of YSL Paris will be like?