Apparently, like gunpowder! “It is really a strong smell,” radioed Apollo 16 pilot Charlie Duke. “It has that taste — to me, [of] gunpowder — and the smell of gunpowder, too.” On the next mission, Apollo 17, Gene Cernan remarked, “smells like someone just fired a carbine in here,” reports Science@NASA. Read the rest of the article here. Thanks to Tania.
Welcome to Bois de Jasmin! I'm a writer, journalist and professionally trained perfumer. On these pages I explore the world of senses through art, literature, and history. - Victoria
Location: Zoom
Class duration: 1.5 hours
August 18, Sunday, 1:30pm-3:00pm CET
August 24, Saturday, 6pm-7:30pm CET (12pm-1:30pm EST)
55€
Location: Brussels
Class duration: 2.5 hours
200€/per person (50€ reservation deposit)
Contact me for available dates
Students of all levels of interest in perfumery will find much to learn in this series of lectures. The lecture is designed to sharpen your sense smell and improve your enjoyment and appreciation of scents. You will learn professional smelling techniques and receive personalized tips. You will learn how to smell complex aromas and about the main criteria of a well-made fragrance–and how to look for them.
Online and in-person classes are available.
My Russian friend just picked a bunch to help me feel better, as I have a cold. They do taste awful. We usually have a frost in late October, so… October 6, 2024 at 7:07pm
I poses one in unused condition that I am willing to sell. Original price in 2006 was 699€ if I recall correctly. October 6, 2024 at 10:12am
Been using Sartorial since 2009. Minimal use is the key. October 3, 2024 at 6:18am
Dreams are sometimes so good at telling us things that we are not aware of or find hard to acknowledge. I love your poem, the story, and the nostalgic photo.… October 3, 2024 at 3:18am
7 Comments
Mikhail: Well, Bandit was designed to suggest, among other things, the smell of a just fired, well oiled gun. And in its older incarnation indeed does.
Not the current Sephora version with ‘authenticity certificate’ but the bigger bottles one can still easily get in perfume outlets in shopping malls. With golden lids, not black. They smell quite different (much better, richer!) although also, I guess, represent a later, changed version from the original Cellier formula which I have not tried.
The sharp note in Iris Silver Mist? It’s the smell of stinkbugs on red currant bushes. If you eat berries from the bush, sometimes by accident you put one of these in your mouth. The smell of cilantro is somewhere in the vicinity of that note.
But in the total composition of ISM this gives some glassy, fragile connotations, so it may indeed be a candidate for a moon perfume. February 3, 2006 at 9:16am
Anya: So a perfumer could borrow that flinty, sulphurous note from SL’s Iris Silver Mist er, arsenal of materials. I just sampled this for the first time the other day, and picked up on the “just fired” sniff, and wrote about it, adding my comments on an old review on NST. It is the first time I ever picked up that note in a perfume, and I liked it a lot. Reminded me of firing cap guns as a kid, or smashing the dots of “cap” one by one with a rock. Ah, the power of perfume 😉 February 3, 2006 at 8:10am
BoisdeJasmin: Anya, interesting! I get nothing distinctly sulphurous from ISM, although it has a metallic touch that iris tends to have especially in certain combinations. February 4, 2006 at 4:48pm
BoisdeJasmin: Mikhail, I do know that stinkbug note really well. As a child, I had such an intense fear of these insects, and I would avoid raspberry shrubs for this reason. I no longer have this fear, and in fact, I love the taste of cilantro. That scent is very unusual–metallic and oily, very persistent.
The older versions of Bandit are closer to the original than the current version (certificate notwithstanding). Still, Bandit was so aggressive that even the reformulations could not take away the edge completely. February 4, 2006 at 4:51pm
BoisdeJasmin: Risa, isn’t it absolutely fascinating! The particles of shattered glasses are rather strange to ponder though. February 4, 2006 at 4:52pm
risa: i also saw that on Boing Boing and instantly thought “okay, that’s one of the coolest things i’ve ever heard.” that would not be a note i’d ever recognize, since i have always stayed away from guns if i could help it, but the fact that the moon not only smells but also *tastes* of it just tickles my astro-love like nothing i can imagine.
i do get a bit weirded out at the idea of tiny floating particles of shattered glass, though. 😉 February 4, 2006 at 12:43pm
Anya: The metallic, fleeting, introducted the sulphur — it was definitely there, and then slid right by. I could almost taste it. February 4, 2006 at 8:15pm