In a way, Labor Day is like New Year’s Eve. Both days straddle the old and the new, and both days offer the opportunity to start fresh. Even though many people use New Year’s Day to get busy with a list of resolutions that are meant to change their lives (quit smoking, lose ten pounds) in reality the new year often means little more than vacuuming up dried fir needles and writing the wrong date on checks for a few weeks.

By contrast, Labor Day is when we really get to start over. Kids go back to school in carefully selected school clothes and spanking new notebooks. They see old friends and tackle new cliques, and their report cards are blank slates. Adults forgo sneaking out early on Friday afternoons and give up their shares in beach houses. Everyone is back from vacation, and that big project you shoved to the back of your desk can’t wait any longer.

Labor Day also signals the transition from easy to more difficult. Summer is all about sundresses slipped over the head, dinners of sliced tomatoes and basil, and sunscreen and a swipe of lipstick. Life is simple. Perfume is likely to be something fresh and easy: an Eau de Cologne during the day and a narcotic floral at night…

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New at neimanmarcus: Halson Woman Amber & Man Amber.

New at nordstom: L’Extrait Classique X.

New at ulta: Nautica Pure Nautica, Donna Karan Pure DKNY, Paris Hilton Tease, Marc Jacobs Bang, Dolce & Gabbana The One Gentleman.

Téo Cabanel will launch Early Roses, a new floral perfume that evokes a morning walk in a rose garden…

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Perfume coverage in the September issues of Allure, Details, Elle, GQ and Harper’s Bazaar; please comment on any fragrance-related coverage you’ve seen in other fashion & beauty magazines:

Allure

Cover: Kim Kardashian

Scent strips: Giorgio Armani Acqua di Gioia, Donna Karan Pure DKNY, Couture Couture by Juicy Couture…

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I think it's important for a brand to have a fragrance that shakes things up. You know, the men's market is very particular. I know we went far with Egoïste, but I like it. It was good for Chanel. Brands today maybe don't have the courage that they used to.

— Perfumer Jacques Polge talks about Chanel's fragrances for men in Q&A with Legendary Chanel Perfumer Jacques Polge at Hint magazine. Many thanks to Pedro for the link!

The usual: talk about anything you like — the perfume you’re wearing today, the last perfume that surprised you, what you're doing to celebrate Labor Day, whatever.

Or, ask a question about fragrance, then see if anyone else has asked a question that you can answer…

Note: image is falling water by ericskiff at flickr; some rights reserved.

Floris has launched Floris 280, a new limited edition floriental fragrance for women celebrating the house’s 280th anniversary:

Only 280 bottles have been produced…

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If you’ve been following perfume news over the past month or so, you’ve probably noticed that Gucci Guilty is one of this fall’s major launches, complete with full-page ads and scent strips in fashion magazines, a movie-star “face,” a television commercial with a theme song, a somewhat hyperbolic press release, a tie-in to the MTV Video Music Awards, and the now-requisite Facebook page. It’s being promoted as a fragrance for a “21st Century beauty” who is “young, audacious, discerning…an iconoclast who lives life at full throttle…sexy and slightly dangerous.”

Guilty’s bottle is certainly eye-catching: it looks like an oversized, gilded (gilty?) Gucci purse clasp or belt buckle, with its unmistakable interlocking “G”s creating a window onto the juice inside. Gucci devotees will want to own Guilty for the container alone. The fragrance is classified as a floriental, with notes of mandarin, pink pepper, peach, lilac, geranium, amber, and patchouli.

Guilty seems to be more of a sheer, fruity oriental than a floral oriental…

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I recently heard an interview with Bonnie Blodgett (shown above right), who wrote a memoir about the experience of losing and rediscovering the sense of smell. I am intrigued, and have placed this book at the top of my reading list.

If you, too, have read or are planning to read Remembering Smell, let’s chat about it. How about an October book club…

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Deal at beautyhabit: get a small cosmetic bag from A Touch Of Ivy with any purchase of $85 or more using coupon code MINIME, good through 9/15.

New at dillards: Kate Spade Twirl.

New at senteursdailleurs (Brussels): the Grossmith line.

Victoria’s Secret has launched Bombshell, a new fragrance for women:

Sexy today. Sexy tomorrow. Sexy forever…

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