Perfume Shrine is a perfume, beauty & art blog devoted to fragrance reviews, scent discussion, perfume history & science, comparisons between modern & vintage scents, interviews with perfumers 
& insiders of the fragrance industry as well as travel memoirs, food, cinema & musings about anything scented.
The tender, sometimes playful associations of violet and iris-powdery references account for the popularity of several sweet florals in the market, especially when coupled with the intensely feminine note of roses producing an almost "makeup" vanity-table effect. Here is an experimental list of fragrances that reference cosmetics, especially face powder and retro lipstick, in their scent.
Women in the past especially were mentally tied with a sort of femininity that deviated at times from the sensible, non-glamorous, the image of the caretaker. You imagine a highly strung classy woman that hides her woes behind an immaculate veneer; perfectly coiffed & manicured, wearing delightfully constructed, tailored clothes and maybe a string of pearls. Male filmmakers of the 1940s
The Experimental Scent Summit (ESS) is presented as part of an ongoing collaboration between Los Angeles-based The Institute for Art and Olfaction and Berlin-based Smell Lab. The Experimental Scent Summit (whose speakers and subjects of 2026 were presented in the official page) is an annual gathering designed to build community and learning in creative practices with scent. As a rule,
The huge website/webzine of which I have the honor to be a senior editor and manager of its Greek edition for many years now invited a group of authors to post their favorite photos they personally took of their own bottles (Well, a small selection of them, at least!) The above our my very own, photographed over the years with real love and passion. Details are as follows: A
For many middle-aged women, Cacharel was a cultural phenomenon; their fragrances were offered as assuredly successful gifts to young women en masse. And they used to be really good too! photo borrowed via Fetherstone Vintage blog Cacharel's Eden from 1994 is the precursor to neon-green compositions like Mark Jacobs Decadence and Thierry Mugler's Aura, which were introduced as
There is something to the concept of spring cleaning. It makes for a renewed desire to put order into chaos. It not only pertains to homes but also to academic interests, the books and playlists we enjoy and -you guessed it- our fragrance wardrobes too. This spring I picked a couple of old favourites alongside a couple of newer discoveries. borrowed via pinterestOld Favourites The most
photo borrowed via pinterestIncense scents are a beloved genre that reads well in springtime for me. Santa Maria Novella's Incenso is one such. In Incenso, we have a great fusion of personal introspection and pleasurable outward accountability; the composition reads as both zen for a spiritual mood, but not too ecclesiastical or sombre. Beginning with a dense myrrh and rosy-spice mélange that is
photo via pinterestAnother welcome distinction for PerfumeShrine and my work here. Feedspot alongside its readers chose PerfumeShrine for the top blogs distinction on its populated platform. Hurray! At its core, FeedSpot is a content reader that consolidates everything you want to follow into one organized space. Free of charge and practical for its users, the platform includes
2026 ACADEMY AWARDS were a blast and everyone is talking about them, I suppose, now that the awards, the speeches, the missing speeches and the red carpet gowns have set in in our minds. The looks were very tastefully done this year, I think, and the quiet glamour enhanced the performers' inherent attributes, whether that was sheer talent, sultry warmth, cool elegance or sensuality and come
One of the pleasures of communicating with artisan creators is the warm rapport. Ricardo Ramos, of the Perfumes de Autor brand invited me to Granada in Spain for the upcoming GranadAroma 2026. "Right now I'm in the final stretch of GranadAroma, preparing a series of activities for the perfumers and the guests I'll be hosting this weekend, we will visit La Alhambra, have wine tastings,
Cinnabar by Estée Lauder needs no introduction, really. It's well known at least by name to most perfume collectors. Its magical name accounts for much of its mystique, but the scent, bold, spicy, dense, plush is also cause for its reputation. photo borrowed via pinterest This is a perfume inspired by the natural pigment made from high-purity cinnabar mineral (HgS, Mercuric
Nuts were huge this past year. The perennial almonds, the hip pistacchios and the richly baklava-reminiscent walnuts...How about macadamia nuts, oily and neutral in terms of sweetness, but deliciously, mischievously salted, rendering their slightly bitter nuttiness into a rich aftertaste? For this effect there is the appropriately named The Body Shop Butter me Up which takes nut
Forecasting is always a question of insightful reading of what is going on in any given industry, as well as a good instinct on how the public responds to what is going on. Therefore to predict the top fragrance trends to watch in 2026, I need to point out what we noticed in 2025 first. And then give you my predictions. Let's see at the end of this year whether I was right or wrong.
Sublime Nature Tonka Bean by Oriflame is a fresh interpretation of tonka beans. The fragrance is positioned in the Premium branch of the cosmetics giant, and is composed by Nathalie Lorson, a woman who knows how to produce smooth, elegant compositions in the register of soft. Sublime Nature Tonka Bean is a rather mono-thematic fragrance, focusing on how the wrinkled black beans
It is always a validation counting yet another year piling in one's life; not everyone manages to do so, alas. It is also a pleasure counting successes and work relations with the very best people. It's something earned, not just happening. In light of aromatic escapades and collaborations in the realm of perfumery, 2025 has been satisfactorily full, and I wish for 2026 to be just as
Marzipan, the almond paste soft enough to mold into shapes, on the other hand, has known commercial success long before hazelnut became a household name. viaThere is Hypnotic Poison of course to thank for that. a staggering success across all age brackets, to the point that for many this is the archetypal Poison (especially millennials who did not recall the original Poison from the
Journalist Myriam Kiassou and radio-tv media group Skai.gr proposed an interview which we conducted in two parts. Below the direct links (in Greek) Mου παίρνουν συνέντευξη στο Skai.gr, η δημοσιογράφος Μύριαμ Κιάσσου, σε δύο μέρη (στα ελληνικά), κάτωθι οι απευθείας σύνδεσμοι. Roman alabastra This is the first part, where I talk about the Business side of perfume and perfumery in
Nuit et Confidences is the most typically sensual, sweet, and stereotypically "evening" of the series originally named Oiseaux de Nuit and later renamed Les Parfums de Géraldine, after the moniker Annick Goutal took in her 1970s modelling years. Nevertheless it is not the darkest one -that is rightfully Tenue de Soirée which I reviewed here.via pinterestDrunk (as in intoxicating, for lovers)
Étoile d'Une Nuit is the delicate "boudoir fragrance" that the viewer of period TV series fantasizes about - fragile, nostalgic, sometimes stuffy. However, Goutal does not plan to join the banality and convenience of ready-made "cosmetic powder" perfume bases, which are precisely the ones that risk anesthetizing the noses of the unfortunate males who will come into contact with them.
Goutal Paris has been through a few changes in the last few years, which we have been following with the rapt attention of someone journaling a favorite artist's track. From changing hands to redirecting their aesthetics, the Goutal brand has surprised fans with its rebranding, but also disappointed some of the acolytes of its distinct style. A quartet of their fragrances, of which Tenue de
Perhaps philosophically speaking, clean sheets and laundry scents bring on a sense of control, and maybe this is what lured me into CLEAN Soft Laundry. We yearn for control in so many areas of our lives that it seems tidying up the house and doing laundry is an occasion where that control can be exerted without much resistance. Visiting a spa is another association: fresh warm towels,
Vetiver Parfum by the historical house of Guerlain is another success by perfumer Delphine Jelk, after Habit Rouge Parfum. She managed to bring something new in a classic by the venerable French house. Their older classic version of Guerlain Vetiver has been the reliable fall-back-upon fragrance in summer of many generations of men and discerning women. Women? Yes, besides
Even after thirty years since the launch of Lancome's Poême ads in glossy magazines, those images with poetic lines and the expressive face of actress Juliette Binoche (well known from The Lovers on the Bridge, Three Colors: Blue, The English Patient and the adaptation of Wuthering Heights), as shot by Richard Avedon, are etched into memory and continue to produce sighs of elation from
Making a successful flanker — or rather, a more concentrated form of Guerlain's classic for men — is a Herculean feat. Still Delphine Jelk made it possible in Habit Rouge Parfum. I might be excused for including it here in the summer, since it launched in late 2024, but it arrived on our shores after New Year's day, so it had to be mentioned sometime afterwards. Despite it being in the
The now discontinued Yves Rocher Pur Desir de Gardenia (i.e. pure desire for gardenia) is perhaps the most lamented true gardenia discontinuation in perfumery, barring the one by Estee Lauder (Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia). via pinterest Tom Ford's Velvet Gardenia