Shalini Parfum introduces Paradis Provence created by Perfumer Maurice Roucel

Shalini Kumar – New York-based fashion designer, and owner/creative director of Shalini Parfum – is about to launch her fourth fragrance, Paradis Provence. After Shalini (2004), Jardin Nocturne (2017), and Amorem Rose (2018), the new opus features the Provence region in France, and the focus of the composition is around aromatics like lavender and thyme.

Where the solar energy lights your soul. The golden sunshine warms your skin, and soft breezes caress your senses… A feeling of deep relaxation prevails. Paradis Provence is the fragrance of the eternal summer – of our youth, our imagination and our passion. A happy summer of blue salt and crystal

Shalini.

Created by Master Perfumer Maurice Roucel, who who is also responsible for all of the other perfumes of Shaline, Paradis Provence is a solar composition of lavande absolut, thyme and orange blossoms. It carries you to the days of blue and gold and warms your soul with it’s sunlight. Lavande absolut is the purest essence of this blue flower that is the heart of Provence. The sight of rows of endless blue in the summer is magnificent. The parfum captures the essence of lavender that insights courage and encourages you to share your True self with others. Thyme with it’s golden beam of light, cleanses and heals. It opens your heart to receive love. Orchards of orange blossoms laden by the bees, swaying in breeze, scent the air. The orange absolut carries the glorious energy of joy and abundance.

Fields of blue lavender, thyme, orange blossoms, and sunflowers following the golden sun, ancient olive trees, the sky that turns pink as it touches the azure of the Mediterranean and amorous nights drenched in jasmine.

Overall, the evolution of Shalini Paradis Provence takes a rather therapeutic character: its intense, highly energizing opening awakens body and mind, moving then on slowly towards cleansing, relaxing and soothing the wearer.

Like the three previous fragrances, Paradis Provence, comes in the limited edition Lalique crystal flacon. This time in an iconic design of René Lalique: ‘Deux Fleurs’. René Lalique used the symbol of ‘vesica piscis’ in this exquisite flacon representing the creative life force from which everything begins.

Shalini Paradis Provence will be launching this autumn at select luxury retailers worldwide. Beauty doesn’t come cheap. The parfum is available in a limited edition Lalique crystal flacon for $2700. It is also available in the Cubique glass bottle with a black bulb atomizer for $500.

Come into the beaiutiful world of Shalini.

 

 

 

 

 

Lalique de Lalique 2017 Bacchantes Crystal Edition

Lalique, a renowned name during the Art Deco movement, Lalique has continued to create exquisite crystal pieces for modern times. In 1926, Rene Lalique began manufacturing satin-finished vases, bowls, statuettes, and perfume bottles. Today, his fine tradition endures with themes ranging from classical forms to ultramodern designs.

Another luxurious creation by Lalique honors their first own fragrance Lalique de Lalique from 1992, for which the designers of the house launch a new, elegant flacon every year.

Created by Sophia Grojsman, Lalique de Lalique is a beautiful floral, feminine and radiant fragrance that opens with an exhilarating fruit-tinged rose and the sensual headiness of jasmine. Iris blows a delicately powdered breeze on this timelessly elegant floral harmony, touched with spicy night-scented stock.

Top: Rose Essence, Jasmine, Clove Flower, Orris
Heart: Blackcurrant Leaves, Blackberry, Pear
Bottom: Sandalwood Mysore, Vanilla, White Musks

In the heart notes, this shimmering bouquet is livened up with fruity hues: the tart purple of blackberries, the radiant verdancy of blackcurrant leaves and the suaver green of pears … A silky breath of vanilla and musk, softened with creamy Mysore sandalwood, weds the fragrance to skin for a long-lasting, voluptuous sillage.

 

 

Like every year, Lalique comes with a beautiful limited edition of this exclusive fragrance. This year Lalique introduces Lalique de Lalique 2017 Bacchantes Crystal Edition, available. The bottle design will leave you breathless. It is inspired by the Bacchantes vase by Rene Lalique. The fragrance arrives as a 100ml in perfume concentration, a limited edition in only 1500 pices. For the true collector, an amazing gift!

Peace and freedom: Nina Ricci L’Air du Temps Parfum by Lalique

L’air du Temps  was created in 1949, when Nina Ricci’s son Robert sought to expand the house’s business into perfumery after their first succesful fragrance, Coeur Joie . Sinds then a true golden classic, L’air du Temps is a rare creation that transends the changes of time. Yes this is an old fragrance, but it is one that is truely ageless!! In its original production, the perfume was contained in a bottle designed by Rene Lalique.

Laliques famous crystal bottle, two doves, a symbol of love and peace

This fine fragrance has delicate topnote blends of jasmine and gardenias nestled in basenotes of sandalwood and iris. I find this romantic scent that is well blended and wears long. May not be for everyone, but do not pass up a chance to at least try it out

In the famous Lalique bottle it’s availble in several sizes: 7,5ml 15m and 29ml as perfume, and 1250ml as Eau de Toilette. Over the years, many (precious) limited editions appeared, designed by Lalique, and are now true collectors items.

Lalique Crystal Architecture by Mario Botta

Mario Botta, the celebrated Swiss architect, was born in Mendrisio, Ticino in 1943. After serving an apprenticeship in Lugano, he attended art school in Milan, followed by studies at the University School of Architecture in Venice, obtaining his diploma in 1969 under the guidance of Carlo Scarpa and Giuseppe Mazzariol. During this period, he had the opportunity to meet and work with Le Corbusier and Louis I. Kahn.

Portrait of Mario Botta by © Beat Pfändler

At the very start of his career in 1970, the first buildings he constructed were already characterized by the intense research that his many later creations across the world would epitomize. Parallel to his architectural career, he pursued his educational interests, teaching and contributing to conferences, seminars and critical reviews at various schools of architecture in Europe, Asia, the USA and Latin America.

His work has earned him widespread international recognition and there have been numerous exhibitions devoted to his creative designs. He has received more than 50 awards and accolades.
His most notable works to date include: the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Evry Cathedral, the MART Museum in Rovereto, Italy, the Tinguely Museum in Basel, the Church of Santo Volto in Turin and the Tschuggen Bergoase Hotel in Arosa.

Géo, a masterful design characterized by its variable geometry and transparency

A perfect square, patterned with three-dimensional, pyramid-like shapes. A circle in the centre with a halo of pure crystal, drawing and pleasing the eye. The diffraction of the sun’s rays…

Sketch of the Geo vase by Mario Botta

A masterful design characterized by its variable geometry and transparency, Géo epitomizes what unites the crystalmaker Lalique and the Swiss architect Mario Botta, an artist working with volume.”This vase can be interpreted as the miniature of a large palace”, notes Mario Botta, many of whose architectural projects show a similar appreciation for crisp lines and sharp angles.

Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light

Mario Botta, quoting Le Corbusier

Visually, Géo refers to the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, a source of inspiration for the architect, who has never stopped experimenting with form in forty-five years of practice.

Lalique GEO vase, 32,5 x 32,5 x 15 cm, clear crystal, limited and numbered edition of 250 pieces

Fired by Lalique’s master glassmakers, Botta’s sketch ‘crystallized’ into a remarkable Limited Edition: 250 vases made of clear crystal, each one signed and numbered, with its own certificate of authenticity. Emerging from steel moulds at the crystal works, these receptacles of light reflect the excellence of Lalique craftsmanship in every facet, matte or shiny.

This vase can be interpreted as the miniature of a large palace

Mario Botta

Lalique GEO vase, art edition, 40 x 40 x 17 cm, limited and numbered edition of 8 pieces + 2 HC in midnight-blue crystal, lost wax technique

René Lalique refreshed the art of crystal-making by introducing new styles, first Art Nouveau then Art Deco. He knew that his real material, the one he actually had to ‘sculpt’, was light. This ambition has been perpetuated in the Géo art edition by eight master craftsmen (Meilleurs Ouvriers de France), in line with house tradition.

They chose the venerable ‘lost wax’ technique, which the master himself had revived and updated. The process, which originated in China 3,000 years ago, is used to cast bronze sculpture. Refractory plaster is moulded around a wax model that melts during firing in the kiln. The hollow left in the mould is three-dimensional, ready to receive the crystal. In the case of Géo, the crystal remains in the kiln for 20 days.

Before firing Géo, the artisans carefully craft the circle in the centre, conceived by the architect as the ‘core’ of the work. Here, Lalique’s expertise meshes perfectly with that of Botta. To describe his encounter with crystal, Botta quotes Le Corbusier: architecture is ‘the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light’. The Lalique Géo vase confirms this, brilliantly

 

 

 

Lalique’s Colorfull Sea

People who know me a bit, they know I’m a huge, I mean Huge Lalique lover. Especially the Art Deco inspired item. In the years I have a nice collection of perfume bottles by Lalique, vases, lamps and many more. Not only in the traditional clear with satin finish, but also in black crystal. Normally I’m not a great lover of colors, but some years ago I started to collect their famous frog collection. Now I rediscoverd the fishes… And putting them together the Lalique magic begins….

The original Fish in glass was designed in 1913 by René Lalique and since become an important and iconic piece in the Lalique collection. They are issued in a wide range of colors…

…..including this opaque black crystal

…..this smokey gray crystal

…..in the traditional clear crystal with satin finish

…..this rich amber crystal

…..this unusual complex pink crystal

…..this rosy pink crystal

…..this complex opalescent crystal

…..this sparkling yellow sun crystal

….this rich blue with a hint of lightness on the fins, Cap-Ferrat blue luster

…..this rosy fuchsia crystal

………and many, many more.

That make them beautiful pieces to collect, not only for Christmass but all year long. Each month one in the color of the month’s birthstone color?

by Jean Amr

 

 

 

L’Hommage à L’Homme

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.

 

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.

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.

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

 

Living Lalique, soar skyward with their irresistible new femine fragrance

Lalique have truly reached for the skies with the latest offering in their fragrance line – taking the lead from the flight of swallows that is the noble symbol of the house, ‘Living Lalique’ manages to harmonise the romance and heritage their very name has become a byword for and the modern dreams of contemporary women, that lust for life that can take hold as you stare out the window at the cityscape beneath you and long for the freedom to explore every inch of it…

Living Lalique 100ml Eau de Parfum (Click photo to enlarge).

Living Lalique Body Cream, 200ml precious treatment for dry and sensitive skin with pure parfume extrait. Use a very little on a damped skin just after shower…! Make your skin feel comfortable again! For many people enough fragrance in the daytime (Click photo to enlarge).

The imagery of the ad campaigns is, unsurprisingly, sumptuously gorgeous, we see a woman standing in front of three René Lalique-inspired windows, in New York, London and Paris (and we’ll happily move in to each luxurious apartment, with Lalique lamps and vases, just give us the word and our bags will be packed), that open onto these iconic cities and invite the anticipation of adventures to begin.

We’ll get on to the bottles, how could we not, Lalique are renowned for creating some of the most stunning flacons in the world, but first let’s revel in the joy that is the fragrance itself. Using one of the most expensive and rare ingredients in the perfumer’s palette, Iris is allowed to fully reveal its sparkling, powdery splendour in the heart of Living Lalique.

Taking an incredible six years to fully process from planting the flower to extracting the precious orris butter, the woody accents are further enhanced by the rich smokiness of vetiver, softened by a silky layer of sandalwood and warmed to a skin-like blanket-softness with Cashmere wood. Living Lalique’s nose, Richard Ibanez, had us at the effusive opening of sparkling bergamot tempered with aromatic black pepper and sweet nutmeg, but it’s the heart that descends oh so gradually into the long-lasting sillage of a creamy vanilla and almond-scented tonka bean base that would have us following its trail around any city in the world…

Living Lalique perfume extrait in famous Lalique crystal (Click photo to enlarge).

Pausing for one moment to unlock our noses from our wrists, we can turn our gaze to the heavy glass bottle, the shape of which sort of puts us in mind of Cinderella’s horse-drawn coach but was actually inspired by the ribbed “Carnette fleur” Art Nouveau-style bottle first created by René Lalique in 1911, though this version is rounder than the original design. The stopper is decorated with the golden swallow pattern, echoing the flight of gold swallows silhouetted against the pure white of the box, and the neck is encircled by a gold ring which bears the name of the fragrance.

Most precious: Living Lalique perfume extrait crystal gold leaf in it’s unique box (Click photo to enlarge).

There’s no doubting this is one to proudly display on your dressing table, but if you’re feeling ultra-luxe, you can also plump for one of two heart-stoppingly beautiful crystal bottles. We thought the first we were shown was gorgeous enough, four master glassmakers having to work together to create each and every bottle, and – amazingly – five glassmakers just to work on the ‘pressed’ technique to make the stopper. Once the glass is cold, it’s cut and polished like a jewel – indeed the diamond-shaped design for these boxes are inspired by the René Lalique jewel boxes, and feature a concealed tray beneath in which to store your most precious gems…

Most precious: Living Lalique perfume extrait crystal gold leaf (Click photo to enlarge).

Lalique, as femine as always. A real must have!! Even if you don’t use it…(can’t imagine!) then It would be a piece of art on you’re dressing table…

Rating fragrace: 8/10

Rating bottle: 10/10

by Jean Amr

Lalique Satine Extrait de Parfum crystal edition

A few months ago we talked about it before: the latest fragrance of Lalique. French Maison Lalique launched a new perfume for women named Satine, sensual, graceful, seductive and amazing feminine perfume with a delicate aroma.

Satine is an intensely modern seductive perfume, like the woman that it portrays: a blend of indulgence and addiction, it irresistibly leads those who approach it in its trail.

The inspiration for the newest Lalique women’s perfume Satine was: dance, movement, grace, seduction, sensuousness, whirlwind, powdery colors, transparency, fluidity.

Top Note: Jasmine, Heliotrope, Gardenia
Heart Note: Tonka Bean, Pink Peppercorn, Vanilla
Base Note: Cedarwood, Patchouli, Sandalwood

For the French Maison Nathalie Lorson created Lalique Satine, a sweet sensuality due to Tonka bean note mixed with white flowers. It opens with a delightful aroma made of light flowers along with vanilla and spiced notes of pink peppercorn. The base impresses with lasting aroma of sandalwood, cedar, patchouli and suede. The base will give a warm and sensual impression to all women wearing it.

 

Lalique has created two radiant bottles for Satine: glass for the Eau de Parfum and a crystal masterpiece for the Extrait de Parfum. The crystal bottle containing the Extrait de Parfum results from the rediscovery of a particularly complex technique, whose expertise the Lalique master glassmakers possess: pinching. This technique consists of pinching the crystal in the center of the bottle so that the Extrait de Parfum is held solely around the bottle’s circumference. Decorated with a motif of four women in long dresses, the heart of the bottle symbolises the endless circle of time and is inspired by the ‘Rosaces figurines’ pocket watch created by René Lalique in 1905.

The iconic stopper inspired by the Langeais collection completes the adornment of Satine’s Crystal Edition, a skilful blend of history and modernity, art and craftsmanship. To create this bottle, the crystal is taken up and hot-worked with precision to create the pinched motif. Before it is introduced into the cast iron blow mold heated to 400°C, the crystal is flattened and preformed. The central decoration is pressed, while the master glassmaker very quickly blows the bottle to give it its shape. The bottle is then placed in the tunnel oven and annealed for seven hours. The handcrafted stopper is the fruit of the work of two glassmakers.

The bottle’s finishes are cold-worked: polishing, sandblasting, adjusting the stopper’s fit and grinding it in to pair each bottle with its own stopper. A pink satin ribbon, Satine’s adornment of choice, graces the neck of the bottle. Finally, there is the crucial step of selection, then numbering and the Lalique signature. This precious bottle holds the Extrait de Parfum, whose accord heightens gardenia and heliotrope’s floral sphere with black pepper. The textured sphere cloaks tonka bean in a deeply sensual ambergris note. The woody sphere, worked in an ‘overdose’, amplifies the composition’s gourmand trail and power. Voluptuously feminine, charming and enveloping, Satine dresses the Lalique woman in the most beautiful of fabrics.

 

 

Designed by Lalique’s Creative Studio, the Eau de Parfum bottle takes its inspiration from ‘La Perle Noire’, a bottle created by René Lalique in 1924 for Forvil. Rays of sun fan out from around a black pearl placed at the heart of the bottle. Satine’s bottle, evoking the swirling movement of a dancing woman’s pleated skirt, forms an asymmetrical and sunray rosette with alternating shiny and satiny rays. The luxuriously weighted silver-toned cap is decorated with the swallow logo that Lalique has chosen for its emblem. The Eau de Parfum bottle nestles in an incredibly graceful and feminine pack created by the Aesthete-Thierry de Baschmakoff agency. Matte white and shiny black enhance the pearly pink shade adopted on the ribbon effect that surrounds the Satine pack in an ultimate touch of refinement.

Perfume Satine is available in 30, 50 and 100 ml Eau de Parfum flacons and in a luxurious 40 ml crystal flacon as Extrait de Parfum, followed by perfumed body care products Crème Riche et Parfumé Pour le Corps (200 ml) in a beautiful jar, and Lait Parfumé Pour le Corps (150 ml) and Gel Douche Parfumé (150 ml), both in a tube.

 

 

 

 

 

When I see red, it better could be Lalique’s Le Parfum Red Crystal Edition

In 2005, perfumer Dominique Ropion Lalique created Le Parfum. It is a voluptuous oriental with an interesting and unusual aromatic facet. Le Parfum by Lalique combines bergamot and red pepper with jasmine and heliotrope to create an enchanting and exotically feminine scent. This soft and sensual oriental fragrance for women has a beautiful, soft-spicy top notes, with a candied floral heart and a velvety vanilla drydown.

The top notes of bergamot, bay leaf and pink pepper give way to a sensual heart of jasmine and heliotrope with almond accents. At the base is an unforgettable sillage composed of passionate patchouli tenderly softened by vanilla. Lalique Le Parfum has an unforgettable and enveloping sillage for the accomplished, assertive and sophisticated woman.

Elegant, rich and sensual, Lalique Le Parfum is a timeless and luxurious classic, interpreting themes from René Lalique’s designs. The Eau de Parfum bottle has the shape of a luxurious glass cube covered with a stopper that combines black and clear glass with the famous ‘Masque de Femme’ motif originally created in 1935 by René Lalique.

Now the French Maison has created a limited edition of Lalique Le Parfum in a beautiful red crystal flacon decorated with the iconic ‘Masque de Femme’ (Women’s Mask) motif.

This sensational Crystal Limited Edition is a modern interpretation of the Lalique spirit – timelessly elegant with exquisite attention to detail. A refined bottle highlights the ‘Masque de Femme’. A refined crystal bottle is capped by a square cabochon. Sculpted into the facade is the famous ‘Masque de Femme’.

The motif is also reproduced in a necklace of black braid with a crystal jewel enlacing the neck of the bottle. The black rope with Masque de Femme would make a beautiful matching pendant. The flacon is presented as a jewel, in a black square lacquerware box, as sophisticated as a jewel coffret.

Lalique Le Parfum Red Crystal Edition comes in an edition of 1500 pieces. The hand-crafted bottle is signed, numbered and complete with certificate. This collector’s edition is available at Lalique boutiques and select stores worldwide.

Come into the beautiful world of Lalique.