Fragrance Review, French Fragrance

Petit Fracas from Robert Piguet – Perfume Review

I love original Fracas, so I was always going to have strong feelings about a flanker. I can really only love or hate it. It must be genius or it shouldn’t exist at all. I’ve been intrigued and repulsed by this perfume since it was released in 2012. Would it make me swoon, or would I hurl it across the room in a fit of rage? I was afraid to find out. Until now.

Discussion, Fragrance News, French Fragrance

Let’s talk about Diptyque’s new Do Son ad campaign

The imagery of pagodas, junk boats, lotuses, and cranes being used to sell Do Son seems like unmistakable Orientalism. This film and ad campaign are presenting a fantasy of Vietnam to sell a French perfume. The Vietnamese people won their freedom from French colonial rule in 1954, at the end of the eight-year French Indochina war. Diptyque was founded a few years later in Paris in 1961. The company started as a “bazaar” where the three owners sold textiles and objets d’art collected during their travels of the world.

Orientalism and Primitivism peaked in the 1960’s. Fashion and trends were based on inspiration from cultures and locations that designers perceived as “exotic.” Often these ideas are presented as the Western “discovery” of non-Western cultural phenomena. Orientalism and Primitivism are inextricably linked to cultural hegemony and European imperialism. Cultural appropriation without considering the context of the appropriated design and Western exploitation of other cultures to sell goods was always wrong. Fifty years later we all should know better, and it’s reasonable and ethical to expect people and companies to do better.

French Fragrance, Limited Release Fragrance

Kyoto from Diptyque – Perfume Review

Kyoto is a limited edition EdT released by Diptyque in 2021 as part of its “Grand Tour” 6oth Birthday celebration collection. The perfumer is Alexandra Carlin.

I love a good rose perfume, but I have a lot of them. Too many, in fact. Last year I bought Eau Capitale anyway, and while it’s charming, I rarely wear it because I just have too many great perfumes to choose from. In the past year, I’ve become quite satisfied with what I have (aside from the excess of it all), and rather disinterested in things that are new. The volume and pace of new perfume releases has me jaded and skeptical. I’ll admit that I was only interested in Kyoto because the notes list mentions beetroot.

Fragrance Review, French Fragrance

Jovoy Private Label

This is the best-performing, most masculine, Beast-Mode fragrance in my arsenal, that works magic in all seasons, and gets me TONS of compliments. It is loved by women, and is an extraordinary, manly fragrance. But, ladies — you can wear it too (IF you’re a boss).