Rania J. (short for Rania Jouaneh) is the nose behind – as well as the name of – a beautiful line of natural perfumes from Paris that contained 5 fragrances at the time I sampled (now there are more).
Scent Subscription Services
If you are interested in exploring new scents, I feel there are five main reasons you should subscribe, regardless of the company(ies) you end up choosing. In this post you’ll also find a list of perfume subscription services.
Manifesto by Yves Saint Laurent (YSL)
The creators of this fragrance wanted to create a Manifesto of Femininity whose fragrance would evoke “an attitude, a burst of laughter, a tone of voice, a presence.” Umm, perhaps I’d respect Manifesto a lot more had it been named something less misleading.
Fragrance Concentrations
This post contain an explanation of the 5 main scent concentration formats from strongest to weakest. Note that the percentage breakdown varies from source to source and I would assume also varies from fragrance to fragrance, so the percentage numbers offered are just a guideline.
Samples from Zoologist
The mix of cute and novel animal characters dressed like refined gentlemen with sophisticated, quality packaging make this fragrance house out of Toronto delightfully eclectic. One visit to the website after finding out the brand was Canadian (Go, Canada!) brought me quickly to the check out page to purchase a sample set that was waiting for me on a visit home to Canada from Japan.
Guide to Buying Vintage Perfume
Aside from the desire of many to simply collect (indeed, there appears to be quite the market out there just for the empty bottles than once contained the precious liquids), a strong reason for buying vintage perfume may simply be that it is discontinued, and getting an old bottle may be the only option. An even stronger reason has to do with reformulation. Perfume formulas change for various reasons, including budget constraints, raw material scarcity, changes in business ownership, and, sadly and increasingly, bans on certain ingredients. Read on to find out how to get your nose on some great oldies but goodies.