Zadig & Voltaire This Is Us! L’Eau For All

A wind of freedom is blowing on This Is Us! Let’s share waves of freedom! The new Eau de Toilette for Men and Women by France fashion house Zadig & Voltaire.

Zadig & Voltaire This Is Us! L’Eau For All tells the story of the Zadig tribe. Free together. Young forever. This Is Us! L’Eau For All A tribe of friends. A big family. Feel the spirit of freedom. Take a deep breath & live in the moment. Rejuvenated. Free as air.

The Zadig tribe. A group of friends, women, men, teenagers, children. A carefree spirit, the affirmation of a relaxed lifestyle: the desire to be happy, to be happy together. They share the fragrance and make it a totem. No matter the gender, the age, there are no borders.

Created by Mathilde Bijaoui, the woodsy, citrusy, and fresh fragrance Zadig & Voltaire This Is Us! L’Eau For All starts zesty and refreshing, offering a bright touch of bergamot. The heart includes floral and salty neroli flowers, combined with calming lavender, laid on a creamy, warm, and smooth base of cashmeran, sandalwood, and musk.

Zadig & Voltaire This Is Us! L’Eau For All is available as a 50ml Eau de Toilette at selected stores worldwide. Come into the beautiful world of Zadig & Voltaire.

Exclusive pre-launch of new Maison Lancôme perfumes collection

 

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French Maison Lancome and Dubai Duty Free have partnered in an exclusive two-month pre-launch for the French beauty house’s new luxury private perfumes collection, Maison Lancôme, from 1 March to 30 April.

Ever wonder what your favorite garden would smell like if you could bottle it up? Would it be crisp or warm? Floral or woodsy?

Lancôme celebrates the ‘French art of living’ that has defined the rose-emblemed brand since it was created by perfumer Armand Petitjean in 1935. The collection features a range of fragrances composed, designed and produced in France. For 2019, Maison Lancôme draws inspiration from French gardens for its four new creations: Figues & Agrumes, Magnolia Rosae, Patchouli Aromatique and Pivoines Printemps.

Lancôme founder Armand Petitjean had a special love of French gardens, as evidenced by those he laid out at the Lancôme plantation in Chevilly, known at the time as the ‘Versailles of Perfumery’. His passion found its ultimate expression though in the garden of his country home, Les Vallières, described by Lancôme as ‘a bucolic and romantic haven of peace’. There, the perfumer and his wife grew rare flowers and hosted receptions for friends and family every Sunday.

The new collection merges the quintessentially French tradition of weekends in the countryside with the historical heritage of the brand. Maison Lancôme represents an ‘olfactory interpretation of the French country garden’.

Shoppers can discover that interpretation via an immersive and multi-sensory virtual reality in-store experience.

Maison Lancôme Figues & Agrumes Created by Alex Lee and Patricia Choux

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We worked together on the fig, combining our two visions to create a unique interpretation of the fruit. Patricia was inspired by the fresh, green fig you can smell when you walk by the fig trees in southern France. Alex played on the mouth-watering and addictive facet of the fig.

Alex Lee and Patricia Choux

A bright Assemblage evoking the fragrances of a Mediterranean orchard.
The exhilarating freshness of sun-kissed green figs is bejewelled with sparkling citrus notes and sunny jasmine accents.

 

Maison Lancôme Magnolia Rosae Created by Mathilde Bijaoui

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When I was a child, I would go to my maternal grandparents’ garden and sit on a bench beneath an enormous magnolia tree, which was spectacular when in bloom. I imagined a fragrance around the plump, velvety petals of the magnolia, a fragrance of skin and flowers.

Mathilde Bijaoui

A pastel floral blend where notes of magnolia petal heart, tinged with delicate roses, yields to a sensual, velvety cloud of white musks.

 

Maison Lancôme Patchouli Aromatique Created by Juliette Karageuzoglou

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Patchouli is my favourite ingredient. I wanted to work this sublime plant into a comfortable creation. My objective was to tame it by blending it with a French garden.

Juliette Karageuzoglou

A woodland Assemblage where the opulence of patchouli is magnified, accompanied by the earthy accents of vetiver, in a striking contrast with the green notes of sage.

 

Maison Lancôme Pivoines Printemps Created by Nicolas Beaulieu

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The dense whorl of peony petals makes me think of the smooth, creaminess of whipped cream.

Nicolas Beaulieu

The springtime sweetness of an Assemblage based on the fresh, rosy notes of a bouquet of peonies, enhanced by a spicy touch of pink peppercorns and enveloped in a delicious rose chantilly.

Precious flacons made of glass and gold, adorned with a golden plate on the back to discover the imprint of the ingredients, and on the side, revealing the secret of the Assemblage and its Signature.

Come into the beautiful world of Lancôme.

 

 

 

 

Jo Malone Myrrh & Tonka

 

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Jo Malone Myrrh & Tonka is a new unisex fragrance described as oriental and exquisitely simple in its composition. This refined scent will make the wearer be mysterious due to a touch of the unexpected.

Top notes: Lavender
Heart notes: Myrrh
Base notes: Vanilla, Almond, Tonka bean

Created by Mathilde Bijaoui, Myrrh & Tonka will feature the following notes: the nice lavender smell opens to impress and seduce along with myrrh and sweet vanilla calmed down on Tonka bean and almond notes.

Jo Malone Myrrh & Tonka will be available as 100ml Cologne Intense.

 

 

 

L’Hommage à L’Homme

Lalique

Hommage à L’Homme is a beautiful masculine fragrance by Lalique. The scent was launched in 2011 and the fragrance was created by perfumers Christine Nagel and Mathilde Bijaoui. A beautiful, virile, woody, spicy fragrance. A praise to masculinity and travel.

 

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Lalique Hommage à L’Homme Eau de Toilette (Click photo to enlarge).

Lalique celebrated to be 20 years in the fragrant business… and many more in the business of providing precious crystals for perfumes. In order to mark this important anniversary, they launched a new masculine fragrance aboard the luxurious Orient Express. The chosen spot couldn’t be more laden with historical memory: Not only had René Lalique decorated several of the legendary train’s wagons with his ornate creations, but his grand-daughter Marie-Claude launched the first feminine scent by the house of Lalique, ‘Lalique de Lalique’, on the Orient Express herself in 1992. Nowadays Lalique counts 9 fragrances in their catalogs, 5 for women and 4 for men, distributed in a very selective circuit of doors.

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Homage à L’Homme (Homage to Men), is a light spicy woody fragrance for men which reads as a ‘niche’ scent, developed by acclaimed perfumers Christine Nagel and Mathilde Bijaoui.

L’Hommage exists in a hazy netherworld where it’s basically a mainstream scent that’s much better than its brothers at the discount store, but it’s nowhere near as good as the artful scents it’s clearly inspired by.

  • Top Note: Violet Leaf, Bergamot, Saffron
  • Middle Note: Chili Leaf, Violet, Black Pepper
  • Dry-down Note: Cistus, Oud, Musks

It goes on with that incredibly common ‘grape drink’ violet smell that masculine scents use to lure in inexperienced noses, but instead of mixing it with the bleachy aquatic smells it’s usually paired with, L’Hommage pairs it with a very nice pine forest smell. The grape keeps it sweet and inoffensive enough to not scare away consumers who would never wear a real top-notch smoky wood perfume, while a pinch of leathery oud simmers in the background. There’s a moment a few hours in where the grape has largely faded and the whole thing smells like a smoky pine forest with a pinch of oud, but L’Hommage maintains an artificial ‘fakeness’ that’s probably intended to keep it safe for the wear-it-to-work crowd, but that unfortunately also smothers any hope of real perfume transcendence. The drydown is just more sweet fake woods, now paired with pie spices, again, really not bad, but it could have been so much better (for the pampered people among us). But despite that: it’s one of the best mass-market scents I’ve smelled the last years. Hommage à l’homme smells ‘dressy’ and suited to all seasons, it has good sillage and excellent lasting power.

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Limited edition: Lalique Hommage à L’Homme Extrait de Parfum in Crystal (Click photo to enlarge).

It is available in two declinations: Lalique Hommage à L’Homme Extrait de Parfum, 100ml, in crystal for collectors (cost 1200 euros) which is inspired by Art Deco style with the sculpted Pan-pipe man (on both sides of the bottle) , referencing the original sculpture made by René Lalique for the Orient Express in 1929. The Eau de Toilette bottle in glass, designed by Thierry de Baschmakoff (Aesthete), which is also inspired by Art Deco style, was inspired by another René Lalique project, the ‘Duncan’ bathroom accessories collection of 1931.

Lalique was also reissuing the flacon ‘chèvrefeuille’, decorated in gold, in a limited edition of 50 numbered pieces for collectors, in celebration of its 20th anniversary

What a gem from Lalique! It’s an absolute pleasure to smell and could not possibly offend anybody. I can recommended it as a blind buy for anyone in search of subtle sophistication and class. Considering the price, you can’t go wrong with Hommage a L’Homme, as Lalique continues to wow me with the care they put into their product and packages

by Jean Amr