If you will be in New York this month, you might  want to explore the scented walk organized by Elastic City in collaboration with the Brazilian artist Josely Carvalho. Elastic City is an organization that works with various artists around the world to make the audience “active participants in an ongoing poetic exchange with the places we live in and visit.” On July 10th, 12th and 14th, Elastic City will hold walks titled “7 Through the Nose.”

Carvalho’s Diary of Smells is her most recent project, and “the participants will explore their own senses of smell and its powerful relationship to memory and emotion. Starting in Times Square, taking the subway and then sniffing through Flushing, the group will identify synthetic smells (i.e. smells created to entice sales: such as french fries and store-specific fragrances) and existing natural urban smells, (i.e.sweat, herbs, fish, bread and urine). Via memory, metaphor and association, Josely will work with each participant to record smells in individual and collective scent journals; an evanescent geography of odors.”

Each walk holds 12 people. The fee for 2h walk is $20, but Bois de Jasmin readers will  get a discount with the code is TWENTYTWENTY, for 20% off walk admission. For more information and times available, please visit Elastic City website. Also, the organization holds walks in different cities, including San Francisco, Detroit, Berlin and Paris.

Image: Yellow Cabs on Fifth Avenue by Bois de Jasmin.

It is a few weeks before Christmas of 1978 and my grandmother and I are standing in front of an Elizabeth Arden counter in Bonwit Teller as she purchases a face powder.  My grandmother, a tiny woman in a doll-sized mink hat, likes to chat and to take her time making purchases. While she and the sales assistant debate the merits of a rosy powder over a beige one, I wander off to another counter.  I am too young to care about face powder but I am not too young to investigate the contents of the bottles of perfume that each counter has displayed in a prominent place.

There is a good chance I will get lost in this enormous space that smells of flowers, grass, leather, lipstick, vanilla, and powder. I pick up a bottle of Blue Grass, not knowing that this scent is homage to the state of Kentucky, where Elizabeth Arden (nee Florence Nightingale Graham, a Canadian) has a very successful horse-racing stable. Elizabeth Arden is one of three big American cosmetics brands that dominate the department stores. Arden, Helena Rubinstein, and Estée Lauder revolutionize and shape this industry and become American institutions, even if only Lauder was born in America.

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Lauren was one of the greatest American perfumes that made a big splash in the 1980s, but where is it today? Ralph Lauren counters rarely feature the familiar red bottle shaped like an ink well. Moreover, like most classics, Lauren got so many face lifts that it’s barely recognizable. I’m still learning to like it in its pale green and soft version, but my memory of the juicy cantaloupe and jasmine folded around mossy cedarwood is still too poignant. My readers Michelle, MaryAnn and Renée felt the same way, and I’ve decided to review Lauren and turn to you for possible alternatives to this lovely fruity floral fragrance.

Now, ‘fruity floral’ and ‘lovely’ rarely appear in the same phrase on perfume blogs, mostly because the onslaught of identical and boring fruity florals has devalued this charming perfume family. Lauren is a great example of how appealing and delightful the marriage of flowers and fruit can be. Right from the moment you put it on your skin, it feels sparkling and refreshing, like a sip of iced cocktail. It’s green and tangy like Granny Smith apple skin, but also velvety like a ripe melon.  In today’s Lauren, the top notes are mostly green—a tangle of leaves and a squeeze of tart grape juice.

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L’Artisan Parfumeur is discontinuing Navegar and Tea for Two, while Serge Lutens is removing Five O’Clock Au Gingembre from its collection. I’m disappointed, since I just fell in love anew with Navegar.  Those who love these fragrances might want to stock up. Via Luckyscent.

Balenciaga is launching its next major fragrance for fall called Florabotanica. The floral oriental perfume was composed by perfumers Olivier Polge (who also created Balenciaga Paris) and Jean-Christophe Hérault.  The inspiration behind Florabotanica is described by Balenciaga as “not just a pretty flower, but a pretty dangerous flower.” Notes include mint, rose, carnation, vetiver, amber and caladium-leaf accord.

The ad campaign is going to be fronted by the “Twilight” actress Kristen Stewart. Florabotanica is set to be released in September. Via WWD