We have to agree with Oscar de la Renta, fragrance is not much different than fashion, which is why we completely adore his new sextet of women's scents.  Essential Lxuries, a collection of fragrances referenced for his most loved people, places, launches September 2012, this month! 

Photo: George Chinsee, OSCAR de la RENTA

So why six, not just one?

“We don’t change the way we look on a daily basis, but we may want to change the way we smell,” said de la Renta during an exclusive interview at his Manhattan offices this week. “A woman now wants to represent herself in many different ways, at different times. There is a world that is wide open to women, with a lot of choices. I no longer think a woman is married to one fragrance.”

According to WWD, 
Each of the Essential Luxuries fragrances have important meanings to de la Renta.
Santo Domingo, a tabac-based scent named for the designer’s birthplace in the Dominican Republic, opens with citrus notes, which blend into notes of sweet and spicy mandarin, coriander, patchouli and tobacco.

Granada, inspired by the gardens of the Alhambra in Spain, is what the designer calls a romantic citrus floral, with key notes of bigarade and bergamot, supported by jasmine, orange and rose. “It’s a magical place that has great romantic memories for me,” de la Renta said, adding that he proposed marriage to his wife there privately, after the gardens were closed for the day. The neck of the fragrance bottles have a intertwined symbol which is based on a tile at the Alhambra, he added, and it is used throughout the de la Renta design universe.

Oriental Lace, a dark oriental with gourmand elements, references his ready-to-wear collection. It has notes of hoya carnosa, a chocolate-scented vine which de la Renta grows in his Punta Cana home, as well as honey, bitter almond, dark cacao, clove and patchouli notes.

Mi Corazon, inspired by the designer’s daughter Eliza (the company’s creative director of licensing) and their shared love of ylang ylang, is a floral juice with a lush accord of tuberose, hand-picked ylang ylang and peach.

Sargasso, named for the deep blue-green sea surrounding the beach of the designer’s Punta Cana home, has juniper, lemon and cucumber notes, referencing the beachy scent of the abundant marine vegetation which washes up on his beach there. “You can extract a lot of different, really good things out of it,” he said, suggesting it could form the base of a future skin-care line.

Coralina is a ladylike floral named for a coral-colored stone indigenous to the Dominican Republic, which is used in abundance in the designer’s home there and in his boutiques. It is a blend of violet, mimosa and orris, with woody green notes.  

More known for candles and home fragrances, Nest fragrances is evolving and adding to their brand to become a business that is a "luxury fragrance and lifestyle brand".  
“[Nest] is in the early stages of blooming,” said Laura Slatkin, founder and chief executive officer of the brand. “We’ve been gaining a lot of momentum and now is the time to let the brand break out.”  
The Nest Fine Fragrance collection includes three scents: Amazon Lily, a blend of lilies, Brazilian lime, tangerine, bergamot and driftwood; Midnight Fleur, infused with exotic woods, patchouli, black amber, night-blooming jasmine and vanilla orchid, and Passiflora, which features passion flower, hyacinth, lily of the valley and an “overdose of green notes,” said Slatkin of her personal favorite in the range. “It’s an overwhelming sense of different florals. It’s like you are walking into a flower shop.”

For Slatkin, this is just the beginning. “I launched Nest in September 2009 during an extremely tough and volatile economic climate, and we were a big hit right out of the gate,” she said. “We are poised for tremendous growth in the next several years and we’re just getting started.” 

Photo: George Chinsee, Nest Fragrances 

Ever wonder what Nicki Minaj's ad campaign would look like for her new fragrance, Pink Friday? Ponder no longer, we have two versions of the campaign for you right here. Which do you prefer? 

Photo:Twitter  

The fashion designer, Stella McCartney, honors her parents Paul Mccartney and Linda Eastman's near 30-year marriage with a new fragrance launch.
Stella Mccartney lost her mother in 1998 during a long battle with breast cancer, and though she is no longer with us, there is not a day that goes by that she still struggles with the loss of her mother's death.

Stella Mccartney's new fragrance, based on Paul Mccartney's nickname for his wife, L.I.L.Y, (also her favorite flower), was a huge inspiration during the process of creation.

She tells Harper's Bazaar, ""I've been hiding away from giving out information but, yes, that was my dad's nickname for my mum, and I always knew I wanted to create a fragrance called Lily. Lily of the valley was a flower my mum loved, and it's also one that I loved.

"I love that it represents spring, I love the way it looks, I love everything about it. It was my wedding bouquet, and it grows in our garden now... I have huge admiration for my mum. I think that I'm keeping alive some of the things she believed in and elaborating on that."

Photo Courtesy: Stella Mccartney

BCBG is back at it with another fragrance, BCBG Max Azria Bon Chic, after it's first signature fragrance last year with New Wave Fragrances LLC.  With new licensee Elizabeth Arden, BCBG plans to roll out their new fragrance this month. 
“We were very excited about our first fragrance. It was such a successful launch,” said Lubov Azria, chief creative officer of the BCBG Max Azria Group and wife of Max Azria. “We wanted to partner up again with [Givaudan perfumer] Stephen Nilsen, and we wanted to create a fragrance that was obviously different, but still with the feeling of the BCBG lifestyle brand.”
Bon Chic has top notes of black raspberry, Asian pear and mango; middle notes of pink peony, violet and orange blossom, and base notes of soft woods, vanilla and cashmere musk.

Photo Courtesy of BCBG

Light Blue for Women by Dolce & Gabbana
Design House: Dolce & Gabbana
Year Introduced: 2001
Fragrance Notes: rose, apple, musk and jasmine
Recommended Use: casual
Scent Life: 6-10 hours
Among men everywhere, the seemingly ubiquitous fragrance, Light Blue, has taken on a life of its own. No, guys aren’t wearing this exquisitely woody and spicy perfume—it’s explicitly pour femme—rather D & G’s happy or harrowing plume serves as the sensuous reminder to pass triumphs and defeats, with seemingly every lady worth chasing having donned this essence, one time or another. Perhaps, though, Light Blue’s memorability factor and ability to evoke complex emotions is more of a testament to how remarkable the scent is, than how marketable the scent’s been.

Michael by Michael Kors
Design House: Michael Kors
Year Introduced: 2001
Fragrance Notes: spiced patchouli, dry fragrant woods, with tones of leather
Recommended Use: Evening
Scent Life: 6-10 hours

A sensuous curveball for the partner of any man donning a suit or evening attire, Michael is in many ways the opposite of what we’ve come to expect from formal fragrance. Freed from the sort of plodding pungency often associated with upscale EDTs, Kors cunningly countered the industry with a scent anchored in a surprisingly succulent, smoked, spiced patchouli.

Corduroy by Zirh

Design House: Zirh International
Year Introduced: 2005
Fragrance Notes: grapefruit, aqua accord, mandarin, lavender, cardamom, cinnamon, davana, suede, cedarwood, sandalwood, guiac wood, kashmir wood, vanilla and tonka bean  
Recommended Use: casual
Scent Life: 6-10 hours

Perhaps the choice of the cultivated woodsman, Corduroy evinces spartan masculinity through a blend of freshness and nuance. Opting for the austere presentation of a complex concoction of woodsy and citrus notes, rather than an off-putting cocktail of heavy-handed musk and marketing, Zirh International’s 2005 debutee could very well be the cologne of the modern-day Paul Bunyan.

Fragrance friends and fanatics, has what we've all been waiting for a dream come true? If you've ever dreamed of a Fragrance Museum, then, why yes, your dream has finally come true!

The Osmotheque, in Versailles, France, houses some of the oldest known perfumes, such as 1917's Chypre de Coty. 

What's the secret to preserving these vintage scents? It all makes complete sense to Jean Kerleo, the founder of the museum, who preserves the fragrances at 55 degrees and to futher to protect the perfumes, the bottles are filled with argan gas, keeping the air particles in the bottles from being contaminated from particles from the air.

Amazing? It's beyond that! With around 2,500 scents, Osmotheque also concentrates on re-creating the ancient perfumes.  It's been said that the founder, Kerleo, mixed a scent based on a recipe he found in the writings of a Roman schollar.  Crazy, right?

For more info on Osmotheque, check out their site here!

Source: Allure.com & BellaSugar.com

Friendly Fur, a new niche line, has launched a fragrance in which it's packaging features a fox fur tail.  Meet À Rebours’, the first perfume of the Green Glamour Luxury.
According to FriendlyFur.de, À Rebours is the Scent that is as voluptuous and joyful as Light falling into a luscious and peaceful Forest Glade. Bright Greens and dark Woods associate authenticity coming from a German Fairy Tale with Roses, Violets and Oak Trees. Natural sensuality meets urban Distinction; German Red Fox meets Fluor-Green.

Notes include bergamot, freesia, galbanum, orange blossom, green mandarin, cardamom, black rose, magnolia, jasmine, cumin, leather, osmanthus, carnation, civet, castoreum, oakmoss, patchouli, musk, Chinese cedar, rock rose and ambergris.

Photo: FriendlyFur.de