Dolce & Gabbana No. 11

Oriental, woody, spicy and robust, La Force is fragrance N°11 in Dolce & Gabbana  his and hers collection of scents. Conceived ‘in the image of the famous and mysterious Tarot de Marseilles, each bottle bears the name and number of the figure that inspired it.’ According to the Italian couture house, ‘We all have several different facets to our personality’ and “force” ( “strength” or “fortitude”) is one of them. This fragrance is intended for dynamic men – or women – who want to pursue their destiny with steadfastness, strength and bravery. La Force is the fragrance for winners who answer to no limits but their own.

 

Described as an impetuous and spicy oriental, La Force opens with vibrant notes of cardamom, cinnamon and hot pepper. The heart combines floral and resinous notes of heliotrope and cypress. Other spicy notes – of nutmeg and cumin – are unveiled later. The gentle ambry-woody trail reveals a combination of sandalwood and vanilla. For him… and even for her, too.

Frozen Pond Perfume, inspired by the 2010 Winter Olympics

Demeter has launched Frozen Pond, a new fragrance inspired by the 2010 Winter Olympics:

Remember that winter’s day when you first went down to the local pond, hoping it froze overnight so you could skate? No adults, no supervision, just that specialness of being a kid, in all its glory.
Frozen Pond captures that unique time and elemental character: water, earth and cold.
Dazzling and transparent, Frozen Pond is a lovely year round scent evoking the quiet chill of a Winter morning just before dawn.

Demeter Frozen Pond Perfume is available in 15, 30 or 120 ml Cologne ($6 – $39.50) and in matching bath & body products. (via demeterfragrance)

Bond No. 9 to have a good time

For most, your signature scent will fall into one of four fragrance categories: fresh, woods, floral, or oriental. Naturally, there are the non-conformists who want a completely unique smell (people, please: this does not give you license to not bathe for two weeks). Perhaps that’s what the folks at perfume company Bond No. 9 were going for with their new scent, inspired by Manhattan’s High Line. The mixture is meant to smell of “the Hudson river, urban wildflowers and a hint of industrial grit.” Delightful? Or disgusting? We’d have to give it the sniff test. After the jump, some more of the weirdest perfumes out there.

Raping and Pillaging the Scents

When you splash on your expensive designer fragrance before you hit the town, does it make you feel irresistible? Invincible? A tiny bit better? You probably like to think that one squirt of scent transforms you into a supermodel with perfect feet and tiny pores.

Wrong! It just makes you smell like a Japanese whore! Like the world needs another one of them.

This is why I thank Christ every day for Sissel Tolaas. She’s a Norwegian-born, Berlin-based artist of international repute who’s worked with smells since 1990. She is single-handedly debunking the con job that makes idiots like you buy bottles of burned whale vomit that’s been strained through the cocks of dying cats. (Yes, that’s how most modern fashion-house scents are made.)

Steeled with an inborn hatred of bullshit, Sissel has developed a groundbreaking language for smells, called NASALO, which leading scientists and respected institutions are already using to make scents that can change the world forever. So far, Sissel’s amassed an archive of 10,000 different smells—everything from shit to strawberries.

For a recent project, “Dirty 1,” she synthesized a perfume from the assorted stenches of Deptford High Street, South London, using essences extracted from car wrecks, garbage, dog shit, and chicken bones. Sissel also gets commissioned by massive firms like Daimler Chrysler, which asked her to predict what cars might smell like twenty years from now and how these potential smells could attract buyers. Instead, Sissel proposed to them a perfume that would smell like a car crash. This wouldn’t just consist of the aromas of burning wreckage and bodies (which she already has in her library), but also would include the essence of human emotions such as fear and grief (which she’s still working on).

“You’d have to have the analysis going on when a crash occurs. Daimler Chrysler is maybe sponsoring me, but it’s still in process. One day it will happen. I’ve got too much hate in me to ever give up trying.”

Perfume from a cat's anus.

Does it come as a surprise for you to find that your extremely costly perfume comes from a cat's ass?
One of the first famous and highly valued perfumes, named Civet, comes from the civet cat and is an ancient article of commerce.
In Arabia and Africa, civet is employed for millennia and in Arabia it's still used in treating heavy hormonal dysfunction in women (hair loss).
Civet cats (named from Arab "zabad") are small carnivorous animals, living in the savannas and forests of Africa and South Asia. They are about the size of a large cat (but size varies between species) and look like a mix between a dog and a cat. In fact, they are closely related to mongooses and distantly to real cats.
All civets, of both sexes, have perianal glands (located around their anuses) that produce the fluid named civet perfume. Even if all the species produce the perfume, its quality varies amongst them and the product from the African civet cat is the most appreciated. (the same happens with musk deer, where only certain species produce highly evaluated musks).
Asian civet cats, Viverra civetta and Viverra zibetha, are also exploited. The perfume has a major social and sexual attractive role, acting like a pheromone.
The male cat rubs its bottom on trunks and on stones of its territory to mark it and signals its presence to rival males and to potential female mates. Females will signal their presence if interested and other males, also, if they want a fight for the "ranch" ...
At a first approach, the strong-smelling odor seems fecal, but when it is processed, it reveals a world of deep feminine fragrances. This is made through purification of the animal's perineal secretion in alcohol and then the perfume is diluted and used in minute quantities (in strong amounts can provoke vomiting in humans).
The odoriferous compound in the civet is the molecule named civetone, a cyclic ketone closely related to muscone (the principal odoriferous compound found in musk).
Civetone confers a heavy, musky, smokier, sweaty, pleasant odor that is still considered essential inperfumery where is used as a stabilizing, fixative agent in many top-quality perfumes because it last longer.
The perfume is achieved by scrapping the civet's perianal glands. Although civets were once killed for their perfume, more recently they have been farmed for this purpose.
Collecting the perfume is a painful process for the live animals, but at least it does not kill them even if the animals are kept in tiny cages for years and every few days the keepers scrape the civet out of the anal sacs.
At least one civet cat farmer in Ethiopia raises civets for their musk, although this practice is dying out as perfumers move toward using synthetic fixatives.

PooPourri Toilet Fragrance

Herbs, essential oils and aromatherapies seem to have endless benefits. And just when you think they’ve thought of everything, someone comes out with a product that, well, knocks your pants off.
I’ve discovered, since I’ve worked here, that certain issues or subjects are difficult to discuss while maintaining a preferred level of professional decorum. Among these are the issues of the digestive tract. We’re conditioned to shy away from this subject, to become uncomfortable by it. Even in early childhood, we're encouraged to call them, “Number 1” and “Number 2.”
But, what I have noticed is that the older I get, the more comfortable the people around me feel discussing their … bathroom situations. I’m not sure what I do to encourage this toilet talk, perhaps it’s just the most notable news of the day, but for whatever reason, eventually, someone brings it up.
This is especially true of my parents, so I’m sure you can imagine the delight on my mother’s face when she presented me with her newest find: Poo~Pourri.

“Spritz the bowl before you go, and no one else will ever know!” she read from the label before she handed it to me, darting a glance in my father’s uninterested direction. “It really works, too!”
These kinds of gifts are typical of my mother, and while at first I might seem unenthused or, in this case, slightly embarrassed, ultimately the reward has … a much sweeter smell.
Reading the label, you’ll discover that the formula is a blend of citrusy essential oils that when sprayed on the surface of the water, create a barrier to trap out the odor. And, to anyone concerned with such things, they have blends that are more manly and blends that are more feminine.
Oh, and for the record, it really works.
From the website:
“Poo~Pourri bathroom spray deodorizer fragrance does more than eliminate bathroom odors - it is forever changing the bathroom experience. Just picture this...Last night's buffet was the best you ever had, but today at the office, all that eating is catching up to you. As you walk out from your second visit to the restroom, you nearly collide with the handsome lad from two offices down. You both pause, staring at each other. Just then, the door shuts behind you. A rush of bathroom air fans past. "Mmmm, citrusy," he says and walks away. You pat your purse and smile -- Poo~Pourri bathroom spray deodorizer, it keeps your dirty little secret.”
While we’re on the subject, here’s one of my favorite comedy routines from Ellen DeGeneres and her experiences with airplane lavatories.

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“You go to the bathroom and constantly lit [is] ‘Return to Seat’ or ‘Return to Cabin’. … Why do they think that needs to be lit? Like, if it wasn’t lit we’d relax in there for a little while?  …
‘Miss, bring my peanuts in here please!’ (to herself) This is beauuuutiful.
I don’t even wanna go. I could be the only one to get up out my seat to go to the bathroom—everyone else is sound asleep when I go. I’ve been in there for what I think is 30 seconds. — you have no concept of time when you’re in there; it’s like a casino, there’s no windows, no clocks, you don’t know how long you’ve spent in there.  Now, I open the door, everyone on the plane is lined up, looking at their watches, making me feel like I’ve been in there forever.

Now I’ve got to explain the smell that was in there before I went in there. …
Has that ever happened to you? It’s not your fault, you’ve held your breath, you just want to get out, you just wanna leave, and now you open the door …. Oh! (nervous giggle)
(uncomfortable pause, eyes darting from impatient passenger to impatient passenger)
Listen, there’s an odor in there and I didn’t do it.  It’s bad. … You might want to sprinkle some club soda.”

Bruce Willis launches his own bad ass manly cologne.

Actor Bruce Willis wants to launch his very own cologne so that the world can smell as manly as him.
The fragrance, simply called “Bruce Willis,” is included with a collection of his own hair and body wash, deodorant and aftershave balm and is the result of Bruce teaming up with LR Health and Beauty Systems to help develop the fragrance, which has been dubbed the “manliest” scent in the world. A spokesman for the company said:

“I personally feel that the new Bruce Willis fragrance is the manliest scent in the world.”

The 55-year-old “Die Hard” actor admits that he’s every happy with the finished product and he had “a lot of fun” picking the ingredients, which includes grapefruit, pepper and vetiver. Willis said in a statement to press:

“The development of my new fragrance together with the very committed and passionate LR team was really a lot of fun. The products stand for individuality, uniqueness and sustainability. That’s what convinced me, and what unites me with LR.”