Will your favorite perfume still be sold on eBay?

A French Court has fined eBay relative to sales of fakes sold under the LVMH brand names. Additionally, the "court has also ruled that, in allowing the sale of perfumes carrying the brands Christian Dior, Guerlain, Givenchy and Kenzo, products which can only be sold through the network of distributors, agreed by the companies which own these brands, eBay was guilty of practicing unlawful sales.", according to the Yahoo news story.

This ruling is a travesty for consumers! Certainly, I recognize that LVMH wants to protect its brand, but holy hell, what if I decide some Dior sunglasses I bought at Nordstrom Rack aren't for me? I am not a licensed distributor. I am also totally in favor of ensuring eBay takes steps to penalize those jerks who are selling fakes, capitalizing on the LVMH brand names, but that is really only a minor point here. LVMH wants us all to pay top dollar for their brands, and now thanks to this court ruling, we may have to do so.

So does the French Court have jurisdiction over eBay anyway? I believe that this just means that French eBayers are affected. (If anyone knows differently, please comment.)

There's an upcoming US case involving Tiffany & Co. and eBay. Read some more about it here. I know I will be watching for that outcome!

Flowerbomb Purchase

I was torn between buying Flowerbomb or Delices de Cartier for myself as a birthday gift. I ended up going with Flowerbomb. I got the smallest bottle, along with with the Nordstrom-exclusive Flowerbomb hair mist. I ended up getting a GWP of a blinged-out purse-sized perfume bottle.

Let me just say upfront that I really think that I made the right choice. Victor & Rolf have really made a lush, beautiful fragrance. I did not realize that the bottle was shaped like a grenade (duh! how the heck could I NOT notice?!?), until I read this review. That review compares Flowerbomb to Angel, but Angel has a fruity note that smells rather rotten to me. In fact, a few years ago, I went to a fragrance event where the speaker was from Thierry Mugler, and she broke down the notes in Angel one-by-one. It is most definitely the fruity note that I find so offputting.

At any rate, Flowerbomb does not evoke florals to me. Instead, it is a smoldering, somewhat sweet, warm vanilla/patchouli. Looove it!

Here's a link to a page containing the base notes, perfumer, and bottle designer, if you are interested.