Pride, Prejudice and Perfume: Nouveau Parfum

Few things make me happier than making lists of perfumes I want to buy. Pfeffernuesse comes close. Hotel slippers and Maxibon ice cream bars are worthy competitors.  Entertaining my whimsical fantasies of living in a small German village might just come in at a tie. Entertaining further, perhaps more whimsical notions of sailing a yacht around the Mediterranean, might just eclipse it. I say perhaps more whimsical because I cannot sail, nor have I ever tried. If, however, I were to sail a yacht, you all know what fragrance I would choose to wear whilst doing it … Pure White Linen (I can hear you all shouting).

When I used to work in fragrance retail, compiling these lists was an everyday thing, it was soothing, invigorating. It made me feel more whole. Of course these lists didn’t necessarily comprise brand new perfumes, they were just as likely to have Guerlain Vetiver as they were J Del Pozo’s new one. I have hundreds of these lists lying around, in fact, look at this, I’ve just unearthed one from under a pile of scrap paper … that I penned rather recently … let’s see …

• Marc Jacobs (oh yes, must replenish empty bottle – delightful, gardenia-full scent)
• Red Door Revealed (a posy of pink flowers, so much more understated and girlish than its bigger, bolder, heliotrope-thick sister)
• Yvresse (mmmm champagne)
• Juicy Couture (mmmm watermelon and pretending am chic Parisian)
• Jo Malone (any and all)

So, as you see, whenever I am forced to compile a list of fragrances I want (as, say, my birthday looms … actually, scrap that, no one buys me fragrance for my birthday because they all fall foul of the belief I have too many. For those planning on sending me gifts for my impending birthday, please know this isn’t the case. And I know many of you are planning on sending gifts, you sweet things you) I get a little fizz of excitement in my belly.

However, for the purposes of it being a new year, and this week’s beauty column being all about new releases, and all of us just dying to start afresh, I shall focus entirely on new releases to keep your peepers peeled for. Having trawled my favourite perfume blogs – Scented Salamander and Now Smell This - as well has checking out what the online stores are spruiking, here are the top three fragrances out now (or due out very soon) making my belly fizz.

Aveda Ancient Attar Pure-fume Spirit Aroma Spray

This rich perfume marks thirty years of creating fragrances for beauty power house, Aveda. Inspired by, and named for, the art of Indian Attar perfumes, this scent commands and demands in equal measures. It is not something you spritz on as an afterthought; this fragrance, with its heady blend of rose, sandalwood and neroli, is something you wear knowing it will make waves. One doesn’t wear neroli thinking they’ll do anything else.

Created by in-house Chief Perfumer Ko-Ichi Shiozawa, Ancient Attar is entirely natural – and it smells that way. Rich, aromatic, unapologetically and loudly feminine, with a full, swollen sweetness sitting on top of the woody sandalwood base.

This fragrance lasts for hours and hours on end, a testament to the quality products that went into formulating it. $99.95 for 30ml, and 30ml will last you nicely.

Jennifer Lopez Sunkissed Glow

Oh my God yes. I may have shrieked when I read about this looming release. Oh what the hell, I did. She’s back. The woman who paved the way for the avalanche of celebrity fragrances, nearly twenty years after Elizabeth Taylor’s White Diamonds ascended the throne, is adding a fifth child to her Glow family, after the success of Glow, Miami Glow, Love at First Glow and Glow After Dark. There isn’t too much circulating about this little baby yet – I can tell you where the ad campaign was shot (Islamorada in Florida) but not what the notes are, with any certainty. I will go out on a limb and hazard a guess it will be a floral fruity number (mmm I know, how did I deduce that?) and will sell like hotcakes.

Narciso Rodriguez Essence Eau de Parfum

Having already created one of the most beautiful fragrances for women in recent memory, Rodriguez will return in March 2009 with Essence, a lighter, crisper potion than Narciso Rodriguez, with notes of iris, rose, amber, and of course, his signature musk. If you’re after an elegant, multifaceted fragrance this year, this is the one to invest in. And you can be rest assured of the quality – Narciso Rodriguez is known for taking his time with his creations (or at least, encouraging his perfumers to) with the result being absolute quality.

Also, keep an eye out for …

- Kylie Minogue’s new one, Kylie Couture – I cannot lie, I am unenthusiastic at most about Kylie’s preceding four fragrances, but this one might be different. One can only hope.

- The next editions of Calvin Klein’s CKIN2U for him and her – CKIN2U Heat

- Yves Saint Laurent will launch the night time edition of their stunning male scent L’Homme – La Nuit de L’Homme. L’Homme is one of my all time favourite male scents, I am giddy with delight at the prospect of this edition.