Katie Puckrik Smells

Perfume Pen Pals: Helmut Lang Eau de Cologne Revisited

2012-05-29T23:00:00.001-07:00

Katie, I'm wearing Helmut Lang Eau de Cologne every single day and I'm close to declaring it my favorite eau de cologne. The problem is I'm mindful of the appeal of the rare (TAOTR), that because this stuff is no longer made and sells for increasingly high prices on eBay, I get excited before I even spray it on. How much does this excitement influence my opinion of Helmut Lang Eau de Cologne? I

Diptyque Tam Dao

2012-05-25T12:12:00.002-07:00

Tam Dao by Diptyque is a crowd-pleasing woodsy number. There's nothing tricksy going on, just a long, strong Oprah-yell of wood. Tam Daoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Tam Dao is this armoire... ...filled with the Twin Peaks Log Lady's spare logs: Log-lovers: where do you turn for wood satisfaction? Let's fill the comments chipper with your fave woody fragrances. Tam Dao is

Perfume Pen Pals: Stella Found a Man

2012-05-24T03:36:00.002-07:00

Katie, This, my perfume friend, is my discovery in playing around with Stella McCartney Stella, a perfume that at first pleased me but after my second or third wearing left me feeling somehow empty. Stella is like a good Hugh Grant movie: it's amiable, well-constructed, light on its feet, but it lacks an essential core, an emotional nucleus that would make it truly memorable. And while I'm

Cartier Baiser Vole

2012-05-16T10:07:00.001-07:00

Perfumer Mathilde Laurent is the talent behind some of my especial favorites in the sumptuous sniff department: Guerlain Attrape Coeur and Cartier's Les Heures du Parfum line. Minty men's frag Roadster (2008) marked Laurent's release from Cartier's velvet-lined V.I.P. playpen, where she'd been toiling behind the scenes on bespoke fragrances for clients of the luxury house. In Baiser Volé,

Fumes in the News: Brad Pitt No. 5

2012-05-10T07:15:00.002-07:00

Shove off, Catherine Deneuve, Ines de la Fressange and Nicole Kidman, there's a new Chanel No. 5 cover girl in town...well, he's almost as pretty as a girl, anyway. Thespian and throb Brad Pitt has been named the latest face of No. 5, and he's due to shoot the ad this week in London, a convenient commute from the Brangelina clan's new digs in Richmond. This is the first time in the history of

Chanel Coco

2012-05-02T16:39:00.003-07:00

More and more, I'm hearing from young women in their 20s pledging their allegiance to Chanel Coco. I smell Coco as a bridge between the heady Opium/Cinnabar days of the Studio 54 crowd and the "I've-outgrown-my-fruitchuli" kids of today. Enjoy along with me these fabbaloo-loo Coco commercials -- the first starring Inès de la Fressange, the second Vanessa Paradis. Coco is available

Interview with Madonna's Truth or Dare Perfumer Stephen Nilsen

2012-04-26T15:42:00.005-07:00

Imperceptibly, the killer gardenia crept up on Stephen Nilsen and Katie Puckrik. Madonna’s talents as a superstar-singer-songwriter-dancer-actor-director-producer-designer-activist-philanthropist range from phenomenal to meager, depending which side of the hyphen she’s on. Nevertheless, the entertainer has always possessed an iron-clad confidence in her abilities across all areas, marked by an

The Guest Nose: Thierry Mugler Angel Eau de Toilette

2012-04-24T08:47:00.002-07:00

by jtd As a rule, flankers suck, and it’s tiring to see them follow such predictable patterns: X X Cool Eau d’X X Sport X Light Voile d’X X Fleur d’Iris (de Jasmin, de Rose…) X Ice X Summer Edition X Chérie X Extreme Nuit d’X X Noir (Rouge, Vert, Blanc…)That list took me 30 seconds and not one of the flanker names is intentionally ironic. Which is more disconcerting: a bad perfume followed by

Edible Perfume: Turkish Delight

2012-04-22T04:57:00.007-07:00

I've been gripped by the concept of Turkish Delight since I first encountered it as a child in C. S. Lewis' Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In the story, a little boy is offered enchanted Turkish Delight by the terrifying White Witch of Narnia. The treat acts as a combination truth serum/kid heroin. I had no reference for Turkish Delight in American culture, but as a devoted candy-snarfer

Bulgari Omnia

2012-04-18T12:44:00.004-07:00

Bulgari Omnia is the perfume equivalent of that charming-but-mysterious trans-clique chameleon from high school -- the one who moved effortlessly between theatre geeks and jocks, accepted by all, alienating none. Omnia, along with stablemate Bulgari Black as well as the likes of Hermès Eau de Merveilles and Thierry Mugler Womanity, manages to maintain the integrity of the attractive loner

Perfume Pen Pals: Roger & Gallet Bois d'Orange

2012-04-17T17:12:00.004-07:00

Fumies, In response to a recent Perfume Pen Pals post, "Help Dan Find a Citrus Cologne", you all weighed in with a orange grove's worth of glorious suggestions. Your hesperidic proposals have inadvertently created a marvelous "to sniff" list for any curious cologne seeker, for which I thank you. And -- cue the choir of angels -- they have also led Dan to his cologne nirvana. (Is that mixing

Perfume Pen Pals: The Smell of a Man's Taint

2012-04-11T15:43:00.004-07:00

Dan, I got this message on my YouTube channel: "I currently wear Hermes' Un Jardin en Méditerranée, which I adore for the indolics. I describe it as diabetic urine. I'm looking for another heavy indolic. I want something that smells like a man's taint after a long day on the construction site. Suggestions?"Katie Katie, First, I don't quite understand getting diabetic urine or indolics from

Floris Royal Arms, Chloe L'Eau de Chloe and Carolina Herrera 212 VIP

2012-04-05T08:58:00.000-07:00

Always approach unknown perfumes with a healthy fear. This video is number two in a series of three shot with Krista Madden at the HQ of cheeky style website Beauty and the Dirt (see Part One here). I like doing these quicky reviews at Krista's sample-filled office because it's the perfume version of a pot luck dinner (one where I arrive empty-handed and leave smelling like McCormick & Schmick's

Fumes in the News: Perfume is a Ballerina's Perfect Partner

2012-04-01T18:39:00.009-07:00

Ballerina Lauren Cuthbertson (above), one of the Royal Ballet's leading dancers, says in today's London Sunday Times Magazine (Apr 1, 2012) that she uses perfume to get into character for her demanding roles: "There are other things I do, like giving each heroine I play their own perfume. When I played Manon, I wore Lanvin and Guerlain." Cutherbertson's Manon: the courtesan who loves the high

Thierry Mugler Alien Taste of Fragrance

2012-03-28T16:49:00.003-07:00

When 12” “remixes” of New Wave hits were introduced in the 80's, they usually amounted to nothing more than an extended intro with a Syndrum breakdown jammed in the middle of the otherwise untampered-with Simple Minds or Human League track. This Taste of Fragrance flanker of Thierry Mugler Alien is the perfume version of an 80's-style remix. It pretty much smells the same as regular Alien,

Katie Puckrik Smells BBC Radio London

2012-03-26T03:54:00.002-07:00

Yesterday morning, encouraged by bright sunshine and the merrily swaying daffodils in gardens and window boxes from Bloomsbury to Oxford Circus, I strolled with a cup of "flat white" (the dry cappuccino that is currently Londoners' preferred form of caffeine) to BBC Broadcasting House. The occasion was an appearance on a Sunday a.m. radio show hosted by Penny Smith. Turns out Penny is

Maison Francis Kurkdjian Oud

2012-03-21T17:54:00.002-07:00

At the first squirt of Maison Francis Kurkdjian Oud, I'm reminded of how Ormonde Jayne's Linda Pilkington described to me the smell of oud encountered during her trips to the Arab market in Bangkok: “like locomotive oil dripping on smelly cheese.” MFK Oud starts with hints of that train oil-dunked cheese, along with a nostril-flaring twang of bleach. It's a little uncomfortably weird, and I'm

Vera Wang Princess Night, Coach Poppy and Stella McCartney L.I.L.Y

2012-03-16T16:14:00.005-07:00

Katie and Krista nose-meld with unknown perfumes. I can't believe I've been in London for an entire month now! The new car smell hasn't even begun to fade from the experience, probably because it's so different to the London I experienced when I lived here in the last century. A big change is the demographic: there are now oodles of young Europeans swarming the streets and I hear Italian, French

Perfume Pen Pals: Help Dan Find a Citrus Cologne

2012-03-11T15:51:00.001-07:00

Katie, Lubin L'Eau Neuve just arrived in the mail, and it's a nifty little citrus. It's minty and medicinal at first, and very much more about the rind than the fruit. It's fun and sassy and if it were your friend, your mother would disapprove. She'd say, "That L'Eau Neuve, she has a very smart mouth." (Though, let's face it, L'Eau Neuve's mom would say the same thing about you.) And yet I

Burberry Body

2012-03-09T06:07:00.000-08:00

Burberry Body is a contemporary take on an 80s style (read "loud") abstract floral. Floral, that is, until a hot wooden musk storms in and stomps all the flowers to death. Hot Wooden Musk's thug friend is Aggressive Soap, so you end up smelling loudly clean. The body in Body is nowhere to be found. Somebody call the cops. Body is available from FragranceX.com and Perfume.com, starting at $47

Perfume Pen Pals: Nasomatto Pardon and Parfums de Nicolai L'Eau Chic

2012-03-08T02:06:00.001-08:00

Katie, Just read a description of Nasomatto Pardon. Notes include oud...and magnolia! Ick. That seems like an awful combination. When we were kids, we used to play a game in which we'd take turns mixing three secret ingredients onto a spoon and making each other eat it blindfolded. Kool-Aid powder, pickle juice and mustard, that sort of thing. Nasomatto Pardon sounds like the perfume

The Guest Nose: The Heir to Aromatics Elixir

2012-03-02T17:23:00.004-08:00

by jtd Perfumer Bernard Chant's brilliance can be seen in the two families of perfume that stem from his Cabochard for Gres and Aromatics Elixir (AE) for Clinique. Disregard the current reformulated version of Cabochard, you can extrapolate Cabochard's genius from the current Aramis by Aramis and Estée Lauder Azurée. Both are based the original Cabochard and are hard leather chypres. The AE

Annick Goutal Nuit Etoilee and Perfumer Isabelle Doyen

2012-02-29T18:30:00.005-08:00

Katie and Isabelle: smelling like an imaginary movie. Nuit Etoilée was inspired by a movie, perfumer Isabelle Doyen is telling me. We're at the Annick Goutal shop in London's swank Belgravia hood, talking about her latest creation for the line. But don't be in a hurry to nuke the popcorn, people, because this particular movie plays only in her head, as well as in the head of her colleague

Tom Ford Santal Blush

2012-02-25T16:48:00.000-08:00

Sandalwood lends a fragrance the sweet/sour savoriness of lived-in skin. The traditional but over-harvested Mysore variety is appealingly soft and tangy, but it's the spicier and less rare Australian kind that is cropping up these days when “sandalwood” is cited in perfume ingredient lists. Not to mention sandalwood aromachemicals, of course, which aren't necessarily a budget option, owing to

Promosexual: Ormonde Jayne Isfarkand at Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park

2012-02-20T17:47:00.000-08:00

The Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park: it's fancy and it smells Isfarkand-y. One of the traditional perks of fashion editors is the promotional event: a lavish party celebrating milestones (or even just milepebbles) in the journey of a style or beauty brand. Of course, the more seasoned the editor, the less perky these perks come to seem, which leads to the kind of P.T. Barnum approach we saw with