Like a phoenix they rise: Frederic Malle perfume and Nak Armstrong’s earrings

It’s funny how memory sometimes plays games with our senses. A tone of voice, a smell, the perception of colors come together and build a multifaceted image in our heads. Sometimes we don’t even understand the reasons behind this, or remember why.

I was nudged to smell the Frederic Malle Lipstick Rose perfume by my seven-year old daughter, who was genuinely in love with it. To be honest, I was reluctant even to try it: the name, the notes, the very concept did not speak to me. But once I gave it a go, in a flash I knew: That’s my A.! This smell is all about her!  

Lipstick Rose—a love-it-or-leave-it aromatic concoction of grapefruit and violet, sweet rose, iris and raspberry, sensuous and fluffy vanilla and white musk—was developed by one of Frederic Malle’s legendary perfumers, Ralf Schwieger, famous for his ability to create intellectual and intuitive perfumes with surprising personalities.

It’s a perfume that makes everyone sense something different. A time travel machine, for some, taking you back to your childhood home, secretly poking around the taboo contents of your mother’s dressing table, trying on her crimson red lipstick, playing at being a grown-up woman for the first time. The dressing room of a 50’s pin-up girl, with, luxuriant, shiny, dark hair, ruby-red lips, smouldering gaze and a killer smile. A go-to office perfume: indulgently sweet, dressy and sexy, but with a demure hint of ‘stay away’ attitude. The delicious allure of the divine Marilyn Monroe. The smell of semi-dark theatres. The ‘big girl’ perfume of real Divas, with a sense of humor and touch of modern irony. The gourmand, bottled essence of the X chromosome.

To balance its sweet, seductive force, I picked up a geometric, sophisticated creation by the extremely talented award-winning designer Nak Armstrong – his Nakard Phoenix sterling silver and opal earrings. At the core of their modern mobile-like silhouette are the mosaic, repetitive, smooth pale pink cells, cascading down your earlobes and gently swaying with your every step—the pure manifestation of beauty and intellect, stripped of pomposity and cliché.

The modern retro Lipstick Rose smell makes its glorious return and complements with elegance the Phoenix earrings and the femininity of the present-day, ultimate woman.