brands

Happy Birthday Olivia Giacobetti!

Posted on by elemonated

Ms. Giacobetti is 49 years old today. She is my newest woman crush that I should have high-lighted a long, long time ago.

Olivia Giacobetti is an amazing French perfumer who has created fragrances such as Frederic Malle’s En Passant (my favorite Frederic Malle), Diptyque’s Philosykos and Ofresia, a whole host of L’Artisan fragrances including the infamously difficult to get Tea for Two (my favorite L’Artisan!), and fragrances for Hermès, Guerlain, and Penhaligon’s. I love her for her delicate simplicity and the subtle way she crafts her fragrances. I have loved everything she has touched that I have smelled so far, and can’t wait to smell more.

The L’Artisan website claim that she was inspired by the depictions of perfumery in the film le Sauvage which means I need to seek this film out with English subtitles in a hurry (or learn French. I feel I have more of an incentive to learn it than even mandarin.) She trained from the age of 17 at Robertet, a huge French distillery known for developing new ways of obtaining natural raw material from its distillation sources before opening her own firm Iskia, which I unfortunately couldn’t find any information about. And she does all this while staying oh so effervescently lovely.

She is currently working as creative director at one of the oldest perfume houses, Parfum Lubin.

Breyers Announces Switch to Hormone-Free Milk and Cream

Posted on by elemonated

http://www.thedailymeal.com/news/eat/breyers-announces-switch-hormone-free-milk-and-cream-other-unilever-ice-cream-brands-follow/20415

I’m feeling pretty good about this change. Breyers was my number one back when I was younger, and I was so disappointed when a lot of their ice cream became “frozen dairy dessert” after Unilever changed the recipes in 2006. The news doesn’t say anything about changing some of the frozen dairy dessert back to ice cream, but it’s good that the company is paying attention to consumers and aiding them on the quest to a less problematic diet, I guess. And who knows? Maybe one day Breyers will change everything back and my inner fat kid will rejoice in the nostalgia of it all. I still eat that natural vanilla when my throat is sore though (before you think this is odd, I know it’s counter-intuitive and likely completely counterproductive, but the main character in The Dark Side of Nowhere by Neal Shusterman does it and I’ve always been heavily affected by books.)

Until then though, I think I’ll stick with some local product, like ice cream from the Denville Dairy and Milk Sugar Love. And if I need a quick pint, there’s always the ever faithful Haagen Dazs, which has a more complicated ownership: while the brand is owned by General Mills, they acquired it when they acquired Pillsbury who bought Haagen Dazs in 1983, and it’s licensed to Dreyer’s/Nestle, so technically they make the product. Crazy corporate stuff!