I.C.O.N. India Line For Heavenly Hair

I love I.C.O.N. hair products- MESH Styling Cream (also known as the best curl cream ever) and CURE Conditioning Spray are permanent parts of my hair care routine and I can't imagine not having them. Not only do they work perfectly, but they smell like heaven. I.C.O.N. is known for the beautiful scents they use in their hair care line, and it just enhances the incredible effectiveness of each product. I have been asked what perfume I am using when I wear MESH in my hair, of course usually only when someone is *that* close to my hair....

ICON India Oil Shampoo, Conditioner & a touch of serum does this.

I was keen to try their ICON India line after seeing it at my salon. After my stylist used the India shampoo and conditioner on my hair, I floated away on the gorgeous scent of ambery goodness and  silkiness left behind by the active ingredient, Moringa Oil. I knew they had to come home with me. They are the same gorgeous top quality products I have come to expect from ICON, and you can feel it the minute you pour it into your hands. ICON India Shampoo is thick and rich, with a pearly look to it, and even on my massive mop of hair, I only need to use the tiniest amount. The lather is medium, not crazy, and it rinses out beautifully, and my hair feels soft and smooth, not oily or matted. As Goldilocks would say, "just right". And the sultry amber scent wafts in the steam of the shower. It is exotic and wonderful, sort of a woodsy amber, and would work wonderfully on a man as well. Not a "girly" scent, and frankly, it smells expensive.

The ICON India Conditioner is just as wonderful. It has a thick almost paste like consistency, yet melts into my hair beautifully. Again, an unbelievably small amount is all it takes. I apply it from mid point of my hair (around the ears) to the ends, massage it in as much as possible, then use a wide tooth comb to distribute it evenly. I like to do this right after shampooing, and that right after I get in the shower. Tip: this way I am able to leave the conditioner on for as long as possible while I go through the rest of the shower routine. So it's like a mini deep conditioning treatment everytime I use it. It rinses out beautifully and my hair feels soft and bouncy. Tip: I often like to use a nickel sized amount of conditioner as a leave-in product, especially if my hair has been punished by sun, sea or pool water. I apply to the ends of my hair after I take my hair out of the towel, and scrunch it in, then comb through. This is helpful for dry or coarse hair, but would likely be too heavy for finer that hasn't been abused by highlights.

I am seriously in love with the ICON India line! Stay tuned for my review of the India Oil serum (yes- I am using a serum....) and their India Healing Spray (just got it today!) which is a protein rich repairing leave in treatment. How exciting!

No frizz on a hot summer morning. Seriously, this is right out of bed.
 NO COMB.

I.C.O.N. India line and their other products are available online and from authorized salons.

Keiko Mecheri Tuberose & Iles de Lointaines- White Floral Beauty

Keiko Mecheri is a niche perfumer working out of California. She has a large catalogue of scents and is best known for her gourmand beauty Loukhoum, based on the sweet Turkish desert of rose, almond and dates. I am not a gourmand lover so while I appreciate the beauty of this scent, it is never one that appealed to me, but there is a massive cult following for her Loukhoum series. If you love that kind of scent, then you must try them as they probably are among the best of the genre.

She recently launched two white floral scents which are more my speed. I read about them on Ca Fleur Bon and was lucky enough to receive one of each, Tuberose (tuberose and jasmine) and Iles de Lointaines (jasmine, gardenia and amber). As a lover of feminine floral scents I was quite excited to try these. They. Are. Gorgeous. They are quite different from each other, so it is possible you might need both but that said, I can see each one appealing to different noses who want something special out of their white florals.

The tuberose is an unusual and beautiful flower in perfume. I have been scared of tuberose as a perfume after repeated attempts to wear and at least tolerate Fracas, the Grande Dame of Tuberose Perfumes. I cannot wear it, I cannot bear it, and somehow doubt I ever will. It makes my eyes water and I can almost feel an asthma attack come on yet the beauty of tuberose makes me wish I could wear it. I love and adore Estee Lauder Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia and that is my benchmark for a ladylike, feminine and drop dead gorgeous white floral- the kind of perfume a Hitchcock Blonde would wear... but still leave men trembling in her wake like a Bardot bombshell. Humour me.

Enter Keiko Mecheri Tuberose. This is a modern stunning take on tuberose using jasmine to shape shift into a New Flower. It is clean straightforward and unusual as it opens with a mentholated camphor blast that would seem to be the last thing you’d expect or even want in a floral. Think again, because this is incredible. A revelation. It elevates the tuberose scent to something otherworldly, like a space flower from a tropical planet. I call it an Extreme Green Note and it really is the best way to make such a serious flower “bloom” in a perfume. It does veer into soap territory but such a gorgeous unexpected way that soapy seems like the wrong word. Flowing waterfall ice cold clean green bursting flowers in the rainforest is my stream of consciousness description for Tuberose. If you love this flower, you simply must try this scent. I LOVE it and think I would most enjoy wearing this in hot weather. I look forward to leaving a trail of swooning admirers behind me…

Iles de Lointaines gives us jasmine and gardenia tempered with the soft powdery sweetness of amber. Of the two, this one might be the more wearable and easy scent, especially if you are just getting into white florals. The jasmine and gardenia are lowercase here, gentle and soft, like a warm and humid tropical evening. The amber sweetens and softens the flowers and somehow I get wafts of a monoi like scent. There is not coconut per say, but the illusion of a sweet chewy tropical vibe that feels like coconut. Keiko Mecheri knows sweet and she can amp it up to tooth curling levels or keep it a gentle as she has with Iles de Lointaines. It’s almost like the amber is a soft powdered dusting on the jasmine and gardenia to make sure they don’t try to be sharp or indolic. There is still a hint of green here too, but its not nuclear green like Tuberose and is more like you are holding the flowers with the stems and leaves covered in dew still attached. Lovers of (discontinued) Guerlain Plus Que Jamais and Parfums MDCI Promess de l’Aube may enjoy this one – sweet creamy jasmine that makes you want to lean in to get the full effect. In French, Lointaines was a princess used in medieval stories, a “Distant Princess” and the term is often used to describe an unattainable love interest- one that princes would fall in love with, sight unseen, upon just hearing her description. I’m not sure if Ms Mecheri intended to use the word in this manner but I love the romance of that concept…

Sarah Bernhardt as Princesse Lointaine

Keiko Mecheri perfumes are available on her website, from Luckyscent and in Canada, from The Perfume Shoppe. I don’t see Tuberose and Iles de Lointaines on The Perfume Shoppe website yet, but I am sure they will be available there soon.

The Understated Beauty of L'Artisan Parfumeur Vanilia

L’Artisan Parfumeur is the second niche line I fell for, when I sniffed their gorgeous fruity musk scent, Mure et Musc Extreme in 1998 while shopping in New York. There was something so transparent and “different” about the line,  and the scents seemed so odd compared to the standard commercial releases. The added novelty of shopping at Barney’s and just being in New York City no doubt shaped my impression of the line, and for that, I am grateful. I have beautiful associations with a beautiful perfume line.

I was already a full fledged perfume junkie and had an overflowing dresser full of bottles from almost all the mainstream lines. At the time I worked for an agent promoting new releases of many lines of perfumes from our humble Canadian Alfred Sung to all the Italian houses (D&G, Versace, Bulgari, Ungaro, etc) as well as Byblos, La Perla and some other more obscure but still mostly mainstream lines. I had OD’d on the 90s powerhouse scents like Mugler Angel, Chanel Allure & Christian Dior Dolce Vita after working in environments where they were being launched, meaning sprayed everywhere. All. The. Time. Mercilessly. To this day I can spot either one of those a mile away as they do not change on anyone’s skin (sorry to any fans, but they don’t) and maintain a screeching linear tone that makes me want to cut my nose off.

My first niche line was Annick Goutal. I had fallen for Annick Goutal probably in 1994 when my local Holt Renfrew (the smallest in Canada) had the line there for a very brief period. Serendipity I’d say, as they carry only the most popular lines due to limited space. Their popular and fresh Eau d'Hadrien (lemon, grapefruit, ylang ylang) became my daytime scent and the sultry Passion (tuberose, ylang, patchouli, vanilla etc) was my nighttime go-to. What I loved most about Annick Goutal was no one I knew had even heard of it. DING DING this was the clincher and soon having a unique perfume that no one else might be wearing became a Very Important Thing.

Back to L’Artisan Parfumeur. Dismissed by many hardcore perfumistas as too bland and mainstream (although a few of their recent releases have been interesting…) I still love this line. They were the first house to do a fig scent and their Premier Figuier is still one of the best creamy fig scents- it was my eldest daughter Emilie’s signature perfume for years. Which is why, as much as I love its green, creamy, powdery and slightly coconut-y scent I can never wear it as it just smells like her. Don’t you hate it when that happens? Funny how we can associate a scent with that person and it becomes impossible to mold it into anything or anyone else.

Vanilia is an older scent from the house having been released in 1978. Perhaps it smells a bit like the 70s where high quality ingredients were tossed into perfumes pell-mell, like a soup.  The notes given (or that I have compiled online) are simple- ylang ylang, vanilla bean, amber and sandalwood. There is a fruity note that perhaps comes from the ylang ylang with the vanilla making it almost foody- but it is never too sweet or cloying. It dries down with the amber & sandalwood adding an almost smoky resinous scent, that sits and warms on the skin never becoming cloying or saccharine. The smoke is barely hinted at before it goes and for that I am grateful as I am not a fan of smoky notes. Its more of a soft barely sweet incense. Vanilia is a bit of a shape shifter, one minute being a soft vanilla scent then becoming an amber-y floral. Some have complained that Vanilia is too soft and too ethereal and have wished for an Extreme or more intense version. I think that would take away from the whole point of this scent and I love it just the way it is.

Truly one of the oddest vanilla scents I was never quite sure if I liked it. I am not a fan of sugary sweet scents and, if you are looking for straight up vanilla scent, you may be disappointed by Vanilia. If you want to smell like cookie dough or cake, this is not the vanilla for you. This is a grown up vanilla with the smooth relaxed vibe I associate with the 70s. Think soft flowing hair, maybe Indian cotton dresses and long skirts and even YSL Safari jackets. Maybe some George Benson playing in the background while you mix drinks and get the fondue ready. The beautiful yet carefree style of Talitha Getty comes to mind and Vanilia to me smells like effortless bohemian luxury. Luxury is key because there is nothing hippie or head shop about this perfume. Vanilia is for the beautiful people, to wear when you are going skiing in Klosters, or dinner in Biarritz after surfing all day. It isn’t loud and doesn’t try to hard. Like you are wearing just a touch of make up, with your hair down and sporting a carefree attitude, in Vanilia you are enveloped in a soft cashmere wrap that is so fine it’s almost ethereal- you can barely feel it on your skin. 

News on the internet says Vanilia is discontinued but several retailers I know of have plenty of stock.  The manager at the L’Artisan Parfumeur boutique at Ogilvy in Montreal told me it was not discontinued, and, have it on their price list catalogue they so kindly send me from time to time. Yet, I have decided to get a back up bottle…just in case…

L'Artisan Parfumeur is available in Canada at boutiques, and they have a freestanding boutique within Ogilvy Department Store in Montreal.