Best Beauty Always

POO-POURRI. Really!

I have been hearing about a product called Poo-pourri for some time now, and I finally got a tester sample at the ISPA show in Austin last week. In case you've never heard of it, it is a fragranced product marketed with the simple instruction: "Spritz the bowl before you go and no one else will ever know." It is a blend of natural essential oils intended to "create a barrier to embarrassing bathroom odors." Basically, you spray it liberally over the water in the toilet before you do your business, and the citrus-y oils in the product help contain the olfactory evidence. The original scent of bergamot, lemongrass and grapefruit is available in a travel kit that includes scented wipes, too.

The brand has expanded from its original offering to include a variety of scents: No. 2 has the fragrance of mandarin, bergamot and orange enhanced by peach and berries; Royal Flush for men is scented with eucalyptus and spearmint; HeavenSCENT features white jasmine florals and natural essential oils; and, most recently, Nature's Call Organic features organic essential oils.

I'm sold. You can order online or locate a retail outlet near you.

Chloé Eau de Parfum Intense

The original Chloé eau de parfum is described as a bouquet of roses with a velvety heart, interlaced with floral notes of magnolia and lily of the valley, and all enhanced with honeyed accents of amber and cedar wood. The new Chloé Eau de Parfum Intense takes things up a notch. The imperial rose is joined by sparkling pink pepper head notes with sandalwood and tonka bean for a little oriental intrigue. Chloé Eau de Parfum Intense was crafted by perfumers Michel Almairac and Amandine Marie. It comes in an elegant bottle accented with silver and a ribbon in natural petal beige, ivory or deep grey and is available this month exclusively at Saks Fifth Avenue and Chloé boutiques.

I just love getting news about new fragrances. So much craft and artistry goes into every aspect of a fragrance -- not just the juice but the bottle, the box and the wonderfully worded marketing materials, too. The world of perfume is an exciting one and I urge you to explore what's new, discover what's "you," and maybe even rediscover an old favorite or two.

Daisy Marc Jacobs

Marc Jacobs isn't gilding the lily here. He's dressing up Daisy Marc Jacobs with limited-edition forms and packages. Available now at fine department stores throughout the U.S. and online is Daisy Silver Edition, a reinterpretation of the Daisy bottle with a silver metallic finish. Also in stores now is Daisy Marc Jacobs Eau de Toilette Rollerball, a tiny clear glass bottle holding .20 oz of Daisy, decorated with white daisies, to toss into your bag. It sells for around $20.

In stores in October for a limited time is the Daisy Marc Jacobs Solid Perfume Pendant Necklace, .02 oz of solid perfume in a daisy-shaped pin that can be worn on a chain. It will come with a gold pouchette and will retail for about $40.

Lush Vanillary

Happy September! For years, when September approached and the temperature started to drop a little, my thoughts were always about the happy return to school. But as my school days receded into history and my interest in cooking and baking grew, the approach of autumn signaled a return to the kitchen. The scent that goes along with the shift from outdoors to inside for me is vanilla.

This month marks the debut of a new fragrance from Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics. Called Vanillary, the fragrance builds from a velvety vanilla base to include tonka bean and jasmine. The folks at Lush say its note of burnt caramel is reminiscent of toffee. Sounds good enough to eat!

Vanillary comes in atomizer and solid forms. The solid perfume is made with a blend of 30% fragrance, pure vegetable waxes and jojoba oil, and is packaged in 98% recycled aluminum tins. Lush Vanillary is available at Lush stores and online at lushusa.com.

LOLA MARC JACOBS

I love packaging sometimes as much as what’s inside. It’s fun to read about the inspiration and thinking behind a package design. In the case of Lola Marc Jacobs, in stores in August, the acclaimed fashion designer wanted a bouquet of flowers to explode from the bottle. The result, envisioned as layers of fabric twisted into flower shapes, is joyful. The curvy glass bottle is a rich violet color. I think it’s fun.

What’s inside the bottle is described as blooming with a signature note of the fuschia peony. It includes topnotes of pink peppercorn, seductive pear d’Anjou and ruby red grapefruit. In the middle, fuschia peony with soft touches of rose and geranium. The base leaves smooth vanilla, tonka bean and creamy musk.

The collection includes Eau de Parfum, Sensual Body Lotion, Silky Shower Gel and Luxurious Body Cream. Enjoy.

Annick Goutal's Un Matin d'Orage

I awoke this morning to the sounds of a heavy rain making its way through town. I like a good, rollicking storm, and the smell of wet earth and ozone in the air is one I love. What I don’t like is a gray and gloomy sky that lingers too long after the thunder and lightning are gone.  I needed a little beauty pick-me-up to dispel the clouds and I found just the thing.

Un Matin d’Orage is a fragrance launched early this year by Annick Goutal. The name means A Stormy Morning, so I had to check it out. While a fresh floral is not the kind of fragrance I normally choose for myself, I will say that the perfumer succeeded in evoking the scent of a garden after a rain. I wouldn’t mind living somewhere that smelled like this after a storm. The fragrance is described as “The sublime and luscious fragrance of jasmine, magnolia, and gardenia after a storm,” and “A unique interpretation of the gardenia perfume.”

The great joy of discovering new fragrances is in the memories they bring of people, places and objects well known to us or even just briefly encountered but with us forever.

Eau de Pamplemousse Rose by Hermès

French luxury goods house Hermès has launched a unisex summer cologne collection comprising two new scents and a third that is celebrating its thirtieth year.  Included are the classic Eau d’Orange Verte, newly created Eau de Gentiane Blanche featuring gentian, white musk, iris and incense, and my favorite, Eau de Pamplemousse Rose, created by Hermès perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena.

I tried Eau de Pamplemousse Rose at the fragrance counter at Neiman Marcus last weekend. It is sophisticated, like so many of my favorite Hermès fragrances, striking me as sparkly and tart, with grapefruit and a little bit of rose. I’m no fragrance expert – I just know what I like – so here is an interesting review of the complete set at Now Smell This, and an article about the perfumer.

Company founder Thierry Hermès was a harness maker in 1837, and leather, silver and equestrian themes still figure heavily in the firm’s success, as evidenced by its handbags, watches and jewelry, as well as its fragrances. Perfumer Ellena was inspired by the scent of fine leather in the creation of my current Hermès favorite, Kelly Calèche, a scent named for the famous Kelly bag and the 1961 Calèche fragrance.

On the men’s fragrance side, I love Terre d'Hermès (and have worn it myself) and my husband currently has a bottle of Bel Ami, a mix of cardamom, amber, patchouli and leather that is really rich. Give Hermès a try yourself.

CH Carolina Herrera

I'm just back from a lovely city weekend with my husband. We walked, dined al fresco, and, of course, stopped by several of my favorite fragrance counters to see what's new. The experts at Nordstrom are always so knowledgable, it is a pleasure to stop and chat. This weekend, they were excited about the U.S. launch of CH Carolina Herrera, a scent from the chic and beautifully dressed designer and entrepreneur that first launched in 2007 in Spain and will be exclusive at Nordstrom for two months beginning in July.

CH Carolina Herrera is going to become a favorite of mine. It is interesting and, at least for me, defies easy categorization. It has aqueous and citric top notes with exotic fruits; mid notes of floral and spice with a little praline; and bottom notes that include wood, musk and a touch of leather. The scent that lingers is, to me, rich and complex.

A launch set that includes an eau de toilette and a body lotion can be pre-ordered online from Nordstrom. It comes in a red hatbox, said to have been the inspiration for the bottle, and sells for $90.

And the FiFi Award Goes To...

I had promised a few posts back to report on the winners of The Fragrance Foundation’s annual FiFi Awards, so here are the winners in the women’s fragrance categories:

Fragrance of the Year – Women’s Luxe:
• Harajuku Lovers Fragrance – Love, Lil’Angel, Music, Baby, “G” – Coty Prestige

Fragrance of the Year – Women’s Popular Appeal
• American Beauty Beloved - BeautyBank

Fragrance of the Year – Women’s Nouveau Niche:
• Chloé Eau de Parfum – Coty Prestige

You’ll recall that Chloé was also a winner in France earlier this year. Harajuku Lovers Fragrance is recording artist Gwen Stefani’s line with Coty Prestige that signifies a style and attitude popularized in Tokyo. American Beauty’s Beloved fragrance is available exclusively at Kohl’s and Kohls.com. Let me know if you try any of the winners and tell me what you think!

Pick a Fragrance Winner

The Fragrance Foundation is an international resource dedicated to the importance and pleasures of fragrance. The U.S. organization and its affiliates around the world annually recognize winning fragrances in many categories at glamorous, star-studded events. The parties have begun for fragrances launched in 2008, so I thought it would be fun to compare your favorites with the winners, or perhaps get you thinking about new ones you might like to try.  To better understand the fragrance categories, check out the Fragrance Knowledge page at The Fragrance Foundation site.

In France, the winner for selective distribution fragrance for women was Chloe by Parfums Chloe and for limited distribution, Collection Onde by Giorgio Armani. The collection includes Onde Mystere, a musky oriental, Onde Vertige, a floral oriental and Onde Extase, a woody oriental. Chloe is characterized as a floral oriental.

In the U.K., the winner in the category best new prestige fragrance for women was Sensuous, Estée Lauder, and for limited distribution, White Patchouli from Tom Ford Beauty.  Sensuous is characterized as a woody amber fragrance. White Patchouli is a woody floral.

At Germany’s Duftstar Awards, the winner for women’s prestige was Bulgari Jasmin Noir, a woody floral with amber accents, and women’s exclusive was Tom Ford White Patchouli.

The U.S. awards will be presented one week from today in New York. I can tell you that Chloe, Collection Onde and Sensuous are all among the nominees.