Perfume | The Scented Hound

May 19, 2012
by The Scented Hound 5 Comments

A Scented Hound Tip – Perfumed Magazine Ads & Inserts

You open up a magazine and flip through the pages. You run into a fragrance ad with the perfume strip, one that you have seen a million times before; but what’s the first thing that you do? You open the strip and smell the fragrance! OK, that used to be me.

Magazines with perfume ads and inserts that fall out with perfume strips are a staple in publications these days, especially around the holidays. Typically, the fragrances that are marketed aren’t the ones that I plan on purchasing, but I’m always going to be attracted to pleasant smelling things. As a good environmentalist and recycler I try not to waste. About 10 years ago, I spilled something in my car. I thought I cleaned it pretty well, but it started to stink. I needed something to freshen my car and I hated all of the deodorizer and rearview mirror fresheners that were out there in the marketplace. I decided to take one of those ads with the perfume strip and place it in my car. Amazingly in such a small area, it really freshened up the interior! Ever since then, I have avoided ripping open the strip and wasting a perfectly good scent. Every week or two, I’ll replace the one that’s sitting in my car’s side door pocket with a fresh ad. It’s free, smells great and is my car’s answer to aromatherapy (very much-needed in Washington DC traffic).

So what else can you do with these ads? They also make great sachets for your dresser drawers. My sock and underwear drawers smell wonderful. I also found this great “how to” article on how you can use the ads to create scented present bows…ingenious. To learn how to make a scented bow click here.

Do you have any great ideas on uses for perfume strip ads?

February 28, 2012
by The Scented Hound 6 Comments

Educating the Scented Hound

The other day, one of the readers of this blog posed the following:

What do you know about perfume? Most people know what perfume is and many people use it themselves. When men use perfume, it is typically called cologne and the term “perfume” refers to a female’s brand. There are also perfumes for the home and car, etc. but the most common associated with the word is the kind you use on your body.

I have to admit that I have struggled with the same issue. Cologne vs. perfume, male vs. female. I know that colognes and parfums are made up different perfume concentrations, but how does that translate to terminology?

I took this question as an opportunity to further educate myself and decided to reach out to Elena Knezevic, Editor of Fragrantica.com. She graciously provided the following explanation:

There is no strict definition. Here in the US we usually say men’s colognes (without referring to their concentration), but some houses (French for example) offer eau de parfum, or even perfume (parfum or parfum extrait) for Men. We now see a strong trend to avoid the gender definition in fragrances, especially in luxury sector. It doesn’t mean they are unisex, we are free to decide. In this case they are all eau de parfum. For example, Tom Ford Fragrances, they have no gender, but Tuscan Leather is mainly chosen by men, and Champaca Absolute – by women. Terre d’Hermes was launched as pure perfume extrait, and this s a perfume for men. Armani Prive collection, Serge Lutens
fragrances, it even has come to Arabian houses (they usually divide fragrances by gender), but the Omani house Amouage has its luxury Opus collection (6 fragrances so far) without reference to gender.

There was a time when men used colognes and bought them in drug stores and pharmacies together with cosmetic products, so it was more about hygiene, than luxury accessory. Perfumes were exclusively for women (in general of course, not totally).

What are your thoughts on this matter?

Thanks to Elena K. for her valued input.

January 21, 2012
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Sweet Redemption by By Kilian

One of the great things about buying cologne is that usually receive samples along with your purchase. In December I was in NY and stopped at MiN New York in Soho (love the store, but that’s another story). I received a few samples, a couple of them were from Kilian. Today I thought I would try out one of the samples, Sweet Redemption. This apparently is part of the Kilian L’Oeurvre Noire collection. One word: Ugggggh! This is labeled as a unisex perfume, but it definitely leans toward the feminine side. So how do I describe this perfume??? I keep coming back to the thought that this reminds me of what a Pier One store used to smell like in the 1970s! It smells of sweet incense and oils. It is what I would consider to be a “hippy chick” kind of perfume. Bottom line, it’s not for me.

I looked at the Kilian website and I couldn’t find an official overview, but I did find the following at the Lucky Scent website (another great store and website):

Sweet Redemption Notes
Orange blossom, vanilla, myrrh, opopanax, benzoin, incense