Yay!

There are now 1000 sound files here. Enjoy!

Welcome!

I have reinstated the SEARCH function (bottom right): it stopped working for me a long time ago, but it may work for you. If it doesn’t, please use the LABELS or the dropdown menus under PREVIOUS POSTS (both at right) to find the names you’re looking for. You can also use GOOGLE: enter frag name of the day followed by the name of the perfume you’re looking for in the search box and Google will return a link to the sound file. It may not be at the top of the results, but it will be fairly high up on the first page.

Don't hesitate to let me know – in the Comments to this post – if you find broken links, duplicates, etc. 
 
P.S. Don't be alarmed if an ad appears after you've played the clip: it vanishes eventually. Obviously I have no control over it, nor do I get any revenue from it.

The 17 Best Perfume Blogs in StyleList

I don’t get much feedback here so it’s nice to be recognised. I was really chuffed when I stumbled upon this page in the StyleList*, by chance, the other day.

The caption reads, ‘If you’ve ever had trouble pronouncing French perfume names (or want to prove to your friend that they’ve got it all wrong), head over to this site with hundreds of sound files.’

*The relevant page is now gone for some reason.

Bertrand Duchaufour

Just in case you wanted to discuss the guy's lack of ethics viva voce, this is how his name is pronounced. It's DuchAUfour, not Duchafour.

And then there is this...

A word of caution about Forvo. I haven't tried it thoroughly, but even if a few of their pronunciation files are as inaccurate as the one for ‘Chypre’, which the Belgian speaker pronounces as ‘Chypré’, then you shouldn’t really use the site for French.

There are other such sites out there. Because most of them use chopped-up syllables stuck together to recreate the words you want to hear pronounced, they are totally unreliable. In the case of isolated words, the stress is bound to be in the wrong place, and, in the case of strings of words, the liaison will be missing, which will render the pronunciation useless. Sites that actually use speakers to say specific words are to be approached with caution too - unless you want to sound like Céline Dion (they seem to favour French Canadians for some unfathomable reason).

Bois de Jasmin

Bois de Jasmin is not a perfume name (although it wouldn’t be out of place in the SL Bois collection. Are you reading this, Serge?): it’s the name of a wonderful blog belonging to the lovely Victoria. She and I met a long time ago on MakeupAlley, where she wrote exquisite reviews of beautiful fragrances for several years, until she decided to fly solo.

For a while now Victoria has been frustrated by the way people try (and usually fail) to pronounce the name of her blog correctly so, earlier this week, she asked me if I could record it for her. I am posting the sound file here too in case there are still a few people who do not have Bois de Jasmin in their Favorites folder. If you are one of those unfortunate people, I urge you to visit Victoria’s blog as soon as you can. You will thank me for it.

And no.1000 is... Muguet en Fleurs

:-)

L'Heure Vertueuse

Flagrant Délice

Fleur de Figuier