Great Stuff 12-16-07: Fragrance gift ideas
December 14th, 2007, 7:07 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Sam Mittelsteadt
Fragrances can make great holiday gifts. If you need help figuring out which scent would be a good fit, take a peek at what she (or he) already wears: You can recharge the same product or supplement it with an ancillary item like shower gel or body lotion . And a good sales associate should be able to recommend other scents in the same family, as long as you give them something to go on. Here are three of the newest scents on the market.


SUPERMODEL: Even the packaging for Supermodel, the newest fragrance by Victoria’s Secret Beauty, is designed with mass-market glam: The bling-style bottle is inside a gold foil and pink box. The scent itself is less in-your-face glitzy — it’s actually downright sweet, with fruit and florals making up almost all of the elements. It’s sold at all Victoria’s Secret stores. (Eau de parfum $39-$49, shimmering body lotion $19.50, shimmering fragrance mist, $22)
ILLICIT: Men’s grooming line Billy Jealousy calls its Illicit scent “the perfect prescription for today’s sophisticated bad boy.” Instead of heady tobacco-infused colognes that evoke dark wood-paneled rooms and big mahogany desks, this is a younger, lighter green/citrus scent. Think PDAs instead of fountain pens, iPods instead of console stereos. It’s sold at Men’s Ultimate Grooming at Superstition Springs Center in Mesa. (Eau de parfum, $65)

GUCCI BY GUCCI: Designer Frida Giannini is now creative director of Gucci, overseeing everything from womenswear to menswear and accessories. Gucci by Gucci is her first fragrance for the line — a chypre scent, which means it blends warm, woodsy base notes (in this case, patchouli and musk) with fresh, usually citrusy, top notes (here, guava and pear). It starts off with a little powder accord but soon warms to something deeper. Locally it’s sold exclusively at Neiman Marcus, Scottsdale Fashion Square. (Eau de parfum $80-$100, shower gel $40, body lotion $48)
THEY’RE UP FOR GRABS! Need a good stocking stuffer? I’ve got one bottle of Supermodel and one of Illicit to give away to a Tribune reader this week. (I’m saving the Gucci by Gucci for a different upcoming giveaway.) Click on this link to shoot me an e-mail message that includes your name and mailing address, and use the word SUPERMODEL or ILLICIT as the subject line, depending on which fragrance you hope to win. I’ll draw one winner from the entries received by noon Friday, Dec. 21. Good luck!
UPDATE: Congratulations to Kim Pyles and Kiersa Durfee, who won the Illicit and Supermodel fragrances, respectively. Look for a new giveaway — well, look at that Shoe Hot or Not post right nearby!








