The scent of a 'Man'
A white woody oriental fragrance, that’s the new Bulgari Man; and that makes it an innovative olfactory experience a new interpretation of masculinity. While most other male fragrances stick to musky, woody or fruity citrus, Man dares to be different. The woody accord is the traditional element, but the white wood accord is complemented with oriental elements that bring the scent into a unique category. When launched September of last year in Milan, it was movie celebrity Clive Owen who fronted the new fragrance an ideal choice given that Owen has come to exemplify being a Man’s Man in the world of cinema. He’s not a pretty face, he’s not androgynous or metrosexual. In fact, he harks back to the rough, masculine leading man that we saw back in the 1940s and 1950s, as personified by the likes of Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum. Try telling either of those two that they were pretty faces, and following their film personas, you’d probably be having a knuckle sandwich for dinner. They were the chisel-faced leading men that took no prisoners or had to be taught the meaning of tough and Clive Owen is seen as coming from the same stock.
As for the fragrance, the opening accents are Calabrian bergamot, violet leaves and lotus blossom the fruity top notes that give us the scent’s freshness. The heart notes are a seductive blend of woods vetiver and cypriol, blending with white woods, sandalwood and cashmere wood. And with the bottom notes, we enter uncharted territory for a man’s fragrance vegetal amber (created exclusively for Bulgari by Alberto Morillas), benzoin, white honey and musk. It’s these oriental elements that provide Man with something different and exciting in the world of perfumes and fragrances.
The Man bath line includes a bath and shower gel, an after-shave balm, an after-shave lotion and deodorant. As for the flacon, designed by the renowned design studio, Atelier Oi, it’s like a monolith rising up towards the light, with an interplay of straight lines and dynamic curves. The sunburst motif on the cap recalls the dial of one of the more emblematic Bulgari watch collections. Elegant, sophisticated, refined and yet masculine without a doubt!
Subterfuge, action and humor
The three novels today fill the order if one is looking for summer reads that provide action (American Assassin), offbeat humor (Baked) or suspense that’s served in an introspective manner (The Informers).
American Assassin by Vince Flynn (available at National Bookstore): A prequel, this is the book that Vince Flynn always dreamed of writing, the lowdown on how trained assassin and champion of the Free World Mitch Rapp became to be. How it all started, the recruiting, the training, his first kill and how even back then, he would break the rules and still manage to come up on top, fill the pages of this brisk read despite the number of pages! There’s also some intricate plotting; the double crossing between Islamic extremists and Russian mobsters, and how unethical German and Swiss bankers get caught in the crossfire, how you stoke a “hornet’s nest” with high stakes risks and results they’re all here for our vicarious reading enjoyment.
Baked by Mark Haskell Smith (available at National Bookstore): If ever you wanted an offbeat, counter-culture novel steeped in comedy and turning ridiculous into an art form, Mark Haskell Smith is your man and Baked is his latest novel! This has a character named Miro as its protagonist. He thinks himself a gentleman farmer, and what he actually grows at his home’s backyard is cannabis. He plans to fly to Amsterdam for the Olympics of Marijuana, and all hell breaks loose as he’s shot outside his home, and his plants are stolen. Villain for the piece is one Vincent who manages compassion centers that are fronts for legalized consumption of the hemp. There’s a laugh on practically every page, and this is one great read to take to the beach!
The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vasquez (available at National Bookstore): A cerebral, complex story, this is a novel about trust and confidences, about reputation and atonement for things done in the distant past and how the stain of that action can carry on through generations. Set in Colombia, South America, it starts off with a father and son both named Gabriel Santoro, one a renowned patriot/statesman and the younger one, his son and aspiring writer. When the young Santoro decides to write about family friend Sara Guteman and her life as an emigre during World War II, it opens a can of worms about society during that period, being sympathetic to the Reich, and how certain individuals made “hay” by informing on their “friends” a deep, resonant work!
