Spring's Most Wanted, Part 5

Hey girls,
Call off the dogs, darlings...your spring/summer fragrance has showed itself, and it's so outrageously chic that you'll want to whip off your clothes and roll around naked in it. Before I describe the gloriousness that is Saffron James Parfum, indulge me in some backstory! I've known it's founder, Kate Growney, since our days at Elle...I was the assistant beauty editor, she was the associate beauty editor. And oh, I always thought she was the most glamorous thing in Prada slides! Kate grew up fabulously hippified on Waimea, Hawaii, she had impeccable gypsy-chic style, the cutest smattering of freckles across her nose, and she always kept her cool, managing to frequently talk me off the ledge when fashion magazine life got a little too TOO (her only fumble was the time a years-before-Project-Runway Nina Garcia rushed into the beauty closet, requesting hairspray before a super-fancy event she was late to. Kate accidentally grabbed a can of mousse and sprayed it allover Nina's flawless blowout! This moment, my friends, holds a very special place in Elle history...). Anyway, Kate eventually jetted off to L.A. to freelance, and sadly, we lost touch. I never stopped thinking about my fabulous friend--so two weeks ago, when I got an email inviting me to a Bendel's trunk show launching none other than Kate Growney's new perfume collection, I was beside myself.

Okay, so forget the fact that each of the Saffron James Parfums ($85, each) are packaged in the most covetable little boxes with vintage-y scarf linings (I fully plan on using them as jewelry holders), the fragrances themselves are beyond special. They're inspired by the exotic Hawaiian flowers Kate grew up with, which translates into three of the most stunningly fresh, sultry scents I've ever come across. "Le'a" is a clean, citrusy fragrance based on the Plumeria (the fresh one); Punono mixes the heady Puakenikeni flower with notes of incense (the sexy one); and 'Ume, my current obsession, is a soft, spicy fragrance based on the White Ginger flower (the addictively versatile day-to-night one). I swear, every time I spritz on a little 'Ume, I get all kinds of ladies demanding to know what I'm wearing (I'm tempted to get all coy and say it's just moi, but that's not a very supportive friend). The point is, whichever one you pick, it's guaranteed to turn muchas cabezas. With Saffron James, Kate has cornered the market on cool-girl fragrance. Just don't ask her for hairspray.
xoxo,
Tia