Say the Mondavi name and one word pops into your head – wine. Another word should come to mind too – grape seeds. That’s right, those beneficial, high in anti-oxidant little seeds, which add tannin and flavor to red wine, are about to go big time. Lydia Mondavi isn’t a winemaker, she’s a skincare and cosmetics expert. She’s bringing all the goodness of the grape seeds from Napa Valley to your skin on a Target shelf near you. This month 29 by Lydia Mondavi rolls out nationwide at Target, part of the retailer’s new luxury beauty beauty department. “They called me out of the blue,” Lydia says, explaining how the collab between her established skincare and makeup line 29 Cosmetics and Target came about. Her brand was selling well at Cos Bar in Aspen, Co., and the Cos Bar owner, who has partnered with Target on other projects recommended 29 Cosmetics.…
Scent “Concert” Takes You On A Trip To Japan Via Your Nose
Perfume is an emotional thing. One spritz and you’re transported back to childhood, a first love or a special place you’ve visited. Scent is evocative and primal, with the power to revive a memory in an instant. Perfume is also an art form, created by olfactory artists who blend sophisticated compositions worthy of display in a museum or contemporary art gallery. Saskia Wilson-Brown understands all this. She’s the founder of the Institute for Art and Olfaction (IAO), a Los Angeles-based non-profit devoted to providing accessible education on perfume in all its aspects. IAO’s mission is to create initiatives where artists and perfumers collaborate and even innovate projects where scent plays a major role. In January 2014 one of these collaborations debuts as a scent concert. Yes, that’s right, a concert as in a performance. How can scent make a concert? After all, there’s no audio in a perfume bottle. A…
Wine and Perfume DO Go Together! Come To Our Master Class at Original Scent
Only one month until our fabulous wine and perfume pairing workshop! Join me and Master Perfumer Sarah Horowitz at Original Scent in Pasadena CA on Saturday, Nov 16 for an intimate master class pairing Sarah’s perfumes with fabulous wines — and learn the secrets of how aromas in perfume help you identify scents in wine. Discover why wine and perfume DO go together! Limited space, sign up now!
Downtown Debuts – Sniffapalooza Extravaganza Day Two
In four weeks, fragrance lovers from around the world will gather in New York City for a perfume extravaganza known as the Sniffapalooza Fall Ball. I’m often asked what happens during these scent filled weekends and why I continue to go. Here’s my account from one of the days from the most recent Spring Fling to tell you why and encourage you to sign up for Fall Ball! The annual Sniffapalooza Spring Fling is a two day weekend extravaganza of the most fabulous fragrances. Day one is the “uptown day,” spent mostly at Bergdorf Goodman, Henri Bendel and The Plaza, at the Krigler perfumery. Day two is the “downtown day,” with visits to independent perfume boutiques in Soho and the West Village. The day starts at Molton Brown in Soho. Two years ago Molton Brown kicked off its line of fine fragrances at Sniffapalooza, and each year we’ve been invited…
Creating The Scent of Chicago
What does Chicago smell like? That’s the challenge that Tru Fragrance, a private label perfume company based in the Windy City set out for itself in 2011. The team behind the label wanted to create something not done before in the fragrance world, specifically a “homegrown” scent, one planted, grown, gardened, harvested and bottled in one season, from a specific place, like Chicago. In 2012 there were about 1,100 new fragrances released in the US market. Some have done very well, others were as fleeting as their scents. But none of those perfumes have a concept like Tru Blooms Chicago, which is a fragrance truly made in Chicago. Made in Chicago means planted, grown and harvested by Chicagoans. It’s a community project, with many benefits beyond making a unique, beautiful scent. Why Chicago? Simply for the reason that it is home to Tru Fragrance and seemed the most natural candidate…
Curious About Wine and Perfume Pairings? Save The Date November 16, 2013!
Find out why it’s no longer taboo to pair wine and perfume at our upcoming workshop, The Essence of Fragrance. Join me and master perfumer Sarah Horowitz as we take you on an olfactory exploration of wine and scent on Saturday, November 16, 2013 from 4 – 6 pm. Sign up soon, this is sure to sell out fast! This workshop will take place in the greater Los Angeles area; stay tuned for location announcement. WHAT: The Essence of Fragrance – A Wine and Perfume Pairing WHEN: Saturday, November16, 2013 TIME: 4-6 pm WHERE: In the Greater Los Angeles Area CONTACT: Mary Orlin, WineFashionista mary@orlinmedia.com Sarah Horowitz sarah@sarahhorowitz.com WORKSHOP FEE: $125 per person. limit 10 people We present The Essence of Fragrance – a two hour exploration of the aromatic experience of wine and perfume, led by Master Perfumer Sarah Horowitz and Sommelier and Journalist Mary Orlin. We will be…
Fragrant Debuts: Eau de Sniffapalooza
With Sherri Sebastian of Perusa Naturals How does a perfume fanatic find out about the latest upcoming niche perfumers? At Sniffapalooza, a twice yearly event that brings fragrance lovers from around the world to New York for a weekend of spritzing, sniffing and shopping. Day one is jam-packed with up to 100 perfumes to try, a dizzying experience but loads of fun. On day two the pace isn’t nearly as frenetic, and there’s more time to enjoy all the new scents coming your way. The most interesting part of the day is lunch, when the “Eau de Sniffapalooza” forum takes place, where emerging indie brands launch and present their concepts and scents for the first time to this group of passionate perfumistas. Startups in the niche perfume industry are invited to debut their lines to the group, each giving about a 10 minute presentation to tell us who they are, what they…
The Master Perfumer – Roja Dove
It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Any perfumista worth his or her Chanel No. 5 certainly knows the name Roja Dove. I knew it from the books I have written by him, as he is known as the world’s foremost authority on perfumery. I had the good fortune of being able to attend the Sniffapalooza Spring Fling in May of this year, where Roja flew in from London to make a personal appearance and launch his new fragrance line at Bergdorf Goodman. I had the even greater fortune of getting to interview him one on one. Now mind you Roja is not what you’d call a celebrity or rock star perfumer. I think he’d shudder at the suggestion of that. No other living perfumer has the prestigious title of “Professeur des Parfums,” which Roja earned six years into his fragrance career at the House of Guerlain, where…
Dress to the Vines!
It’s a weekend of wine country fashion! Join me at Jessup Cellars in the heart of Napa Valley for Dress to the Vines, a four-day celebration of fashion, wine and perfume. I’ll be doing perfume pairings with Jessup wines and Sonoma Scent Studio fragrances. We’ll dish on the latest wine country style and talk about how Napa Valley influences fashion with industry insiders, magazine editors and stylists. If you are a wine fashionista like me, you won’t want to miss this ground-breaking event that puts style on par with wine, food and art in wine country. On Thursday night, August 15, I’ll be part of a panel talking all things fashion and wine country. To kick off the event, I’m pairing three Jessup Cellars wines with perfumes from wine country based Sonoma Scent Studio that will highlight different aromatic notes in the wines. While wine and perfume together are usually…
A Fragrant Tour of NYC With at Sniffapalooza Spring Fling 2013
At 8 am on a Saturday morning in early May, a buzz builds in the beauty basement at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City. Voices are at a fever pitch and the excitement is palpable. It’s as if a rock star or an A-list celeb would appear at any moment. Inside Bergdorf’s small cafe 140 people (including me) are waiting in anticipation for the start of something called Sniffapalooza Spring Fling. “It’s the most incredible, intense experience,” says Tamara, who flew in from Arizona. “You’ve gotten on trains, planes and automobiles,” says Karen Dubin, Sniffapalooza’s founder. “This is our 18th event,” she says in regards to this year’s Spring Fling. Twice a year, in the spring and the fall, fragrance fanatics invade the Big Apple, eager to sniff the newest scents from the biggest names in perfumery. Sniffapalooza is a phenomenon, attracting people from far flung locales such as Australia, Paris,…