SWEET INSPIRATION
A legendary story, a legendary fragrance, now Guerlain has made Shalimar-light for the next generation.
That’s not quite how the fabled French fragrance house describes its new souffle de parfum, but it’s an apt appraisal of the remake of one of the truly great oriental perfumes.
Shalimar dates from 1925. It was inspired by the love story of Shah Jahan and his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, for whom he built the Taj Mahal The heady fragrance draws its name from her favourite garden and brought the exotic aromas of India to the West.
Now Thierry Wasser has used the original fragrance as inspiration for Guerlain’s Shalimar Souffle de Parfum. It is an airier fragrance, but with the familiar vanilla and amber trail. The sparkling citrus opening is disconcerting, but the jasmine and deeper musky woody notes soon softly unfold. Wasser says it is a “whisper of sheer sensuality”. I see it as a sampler for those not familiar with the evocative heavy breathing of the original.
Shalimar Souffle de Parfum costs $98 for 90ml with smaller sizes also available. From Smith & Caughey's.
ALL GROWN UP
Aramis was the fragrance that introduced American men to the idea of a sophisticated European-style splash. The Mad Men crowd would have been early adopters when it debuted in 1965 with its warm, leathery, chypre aroma.
Aramis, which extends to a grooming range, has rolled on through the decades like a classic car. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, it comes in a limited edition bottle wrapped with leather in tortoiseshell-patterned box. Mannered and manly, Aramis is $132 for the 110ml from selected department stores and pharmacies.
THANK YOU MABEL
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Advertise with NZME.A hundred years ago, young American woman Mabel Williams took to darkening her lashes with a mix of coal dust and Vaseline. Her brother Tom saw potential and created an early version of mascara, sold under the brand Maybelline.
The now-giant cosmetics company, which takes its name from an amalgam of Mabel and Vaseline, still has mascara as its top-selling item, a testament to how many women regard the lash tint as an everyday essential.
It seems Eugene Rimmel, who began his own cosmetics company on the other side of the Atlantic, beat Mabel and her brother to the mix, with stage actors of the late Victorian era also using a similar product, but where Maybelline flourished was with marketing.
Their product initially was sold through mail order, because nice girls didn’t wear obvious makeup back then, but Hollywood stars were later used to advertise the cake mascara as an acceptable option for allure.
Later, Helena Rubinstein sold a liquid formula with a dip-in brush and Max Factor refined this to a wand. But, by the 1970s, Maybelline had reasserted its supremacy with its super-selling Great Lash mascara. The pink and green tube now sells at the rate of one every 1.2 seconds around the world.
• To celebrate its 100th anniversary, Maybelline has a gift of a retro makeup tin containing three makeup brushes. At Farmers until June 11, or while stocks last, when you spend $30 or more on Maybelline products.
• Read our test drive of the world's most recognised mascara here.
