Summer Glam: Bronze Goddess

In May last year I bought a bottle of Estée Lauder's Bronze Goddess having been completely won over by its summery opulence and smouldering appeal. Despite the name, this is one skinscent that deserves to be enjoyed by women and men alike. Much like the swanky advertising graphic suggests, Lauder succeeded in capturing incandescent warmth and solar radience in this bottle... it is the epitome of summer glam, to me. 

Originally released as a summer limited edition as the followup to Tom Ford's collaborative effort with Lauder on their Azzure Oil in 2006 and Azzure Soleil fragrance in 2007; Bronze Goddess now appears to be a mainstay in the Lauder lineup. This finite release saw stocks all but gone by the end of summer '08, but today major retailers appear fully stocked again for summer 2009. And I can certainly understand the reason for resurrecting this amazing eau fraîche skinscent for a second year running. 

Bronze Goddess is shimmering with sun-kissed mandarin and bergamot, and brimming with exotic jasmine, magnolia and orange flower... notes typical of summer in the tropics. But there is a wonderful honeyed, "chewy" gourmand quality to the scent too... its opening burst reminding me of Ford's triumphant Black Orchid. There is a delicious toasted coconut accord and lactic milk vibe that renders this perfume absolutely addictive. One might easily visualise tanned bodies smattered with fragrant oils reaching for chilled pina coladas or jewel-encrusted cellphones offered to them by cabana boys on silver trays. Bronze Goddess is about pool-side glamour and summer evenings of decadence and excess on the French Riviera.

Unfortunately for me, whilst I don my swimming trunks and bare my white flesh to the skies for the first time this season (watching neighbours recoil in horror from their windows like hissing vampires burned by the sun), I am reminded again that I am a million miles away from the Côte d'Azur. The silver lining is that with a spritz of Goddess, I can close my eyes and feel -  at least for a time - like a Hollywood "A"-lister.

Perfume: Transcending the Gender Barrier.

I wear women's perfume. Sometimes, the 'masculines' on the market simply don't come close.

The first female purchase I made was Black Orchid. Who could fault Ford's exceptional scent that brimmed with exotic oils both rich and rare... the perfume itself is a beguiling blend and the bottle and packaging; exquisite. With hands trembling and a brow slicked with sweat, I approached the cash desk with my Tom Ford coffret in hand, feeling completely as though all eyes in the store were ON ME. I was aware of the sound of blood rushing in my ears, and my heart was racing like an out-of-control tea-trolley rambling down an office corridoor.

"A lovely choice, sir", the S.A said as I placed the perfume on the counter. "Who's the lucky lady?", she asked with a casual smile. My blood froze. "Errrr, I am", I replied without thinking - rather wishing I hadn't. The S.A looked at me carefully and shot a sidewards glance at her colleague, who turned on her heel swiftly and busied herself in a drawer. "Indeed", the assistant answered, before processing the sale with clinical movements and utter silence. She handed me the bag without making eye contact. "Enjoy it", she said. As I walked from the store I heard the two women talking in whispers. I felt their eyes looking me up and down, painting me with their judgements, using broad paint strokes.

The point is, I adore this fragrance. Not only did I want to smell it on my wife, I wanted to smell of it... to enjoy this rapturous cloud of aromatic molecules that followed me around all day. 'Just a one-off', I reasoned, because I liked it so much. I spritzed for many weeks, and compared and contrasted how different it smelled on my body versus my partner's. In social circles, when we wore the same scent, I seemed to be collecting more compliments than she. It made us both laugh... we joked about it; and then it became the norm. Black Orchid worked well with me. I was fascinated. I began to stroll into the women's scent department with increased regularity... sniffing from caps and scooping freshly-sprayed molecules from the air with a sweeping hand. Unswayed by the curious stares of fellow customers, I embarked upon a challenging and rewarding expedition into women's perfume, and emerged - many months later - with not only an increased appreciation of the art; but also a stronger sense of self. With broad training and experience in the fragrance field, I was always an advocate of promoting perfume as a non gender-specific commodity. I understood that the division between the sexes in perfumery was a relatively modern ideal, and basically existed as a means to sell more perfume to more people by playing to their insecurities. But I had rarely ever taken the time to truly stop and smell the roses and gather my own insights into wearing fragrances for the love of the scent, and not the gender it was marketed towards.

In the past, my wife and I have reserved our two top dresser drawers for storing perfume; mine in the left drawer and hers in the right. We'd squabble over the classic colognes and "unisex" scents which would ultimately shift between the two, as their ownership was far from 'cut and dry'. "Where's my Eau de Campagne?", I would demand, or "Have you pinched my Eau d'Orange Verte again?", she would say.

Nowadays, however, we've both ventured beyond the limitations of our gender (and our own drawer!) and poured our enthusiasm and passion into the nature of the scent itself. On any given day you might find the Mrs. sporting my S.T Dupont Noir, and I, her Paul & Joe Blanc. I think its high time we combined our collections and shifted our scents to the more spacious second drawer down, and returned our underwear to the top. And gentlemen, if you're reading this... don't be ashamed to step outside yourself and truly explore fragrance from both sides of the fence. No-one is asking you to wear a tarty bra and panties and a crooked lipstick smile. 

After all, only a real man could confidently carry off the wonderful Lauder release: Bronze Goddess. You know that could be you.