general perfume articles: 94 posts

The other day as I was helping my friend to find a new perfume, she remarked that the rules of dating have become very complicated, especially with the advent of new communication technologies. How long do you wait before you reply to his email, how fast should he text you back, etc? Thinking about this gives me a headache far faster than any of the latest celebrity fragrances. As I left my friend to select between Stella McCartney and Hermès Kelly Calèche, I went home to browse through the most famous manual on love for some dating guidance.

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Feminine, masculine? Does it really matter when it comes to perfume? I wander over to  Sephora’s masculine section and bravely spray Ralph Lauren Polo on my wrist. After all, I had to wear Drakkar Noir as a perfumery student to learn its nuances and once spent a whole day drenched in Paco Rabanne, which a friend described as burly and virile. Neither of those words has ever been applied to me, but as I get a piney leathery waft of Polo I start to fidget. As much as I want to be open minded about disregarding gendered divisions, some smells seem too masculine to be comfortable for me. The biggest offenders are the fougère style fragrances like Guy Laroche Drakkar Noir, Davidoff Cool Water and Yves Saint Laurent Kouros–the style which combines the aromatic richness of lavender with citrus, geranium, amber, musk and oakmoss.

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Part 1: Florals ~ Rose
Part 2: Florals ~ Jasmine and White Florals
Part 3: Florals ~ Lily of the Valley and Violet
Part 4: Florals ~ Blends
Part 5: Essentials

My Perfume Wardrobe is back from its winter break with a new installment on ambery fragrances. This perfume genre is warm and sensual, with rich notes of vanilla, amber, patchouli, sandalwood and musk. The fragrances like Coty’s  L’Origan (1905), Ambre Antique (1910) and Émeraude (1921) paved the way to the dazzling array of ambery perfumes available today.

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During the course of my love affair with fragrance, I have grown to enjoy many types of perfumes, but I have always had a soft spot for classics. I gravitate to classics in my other interests too—books, films, music, dance, so it is not surprising that the retro aesthetic appeals to me in scents. Even some of my favorite modern fragrances like Serge Lutens Bois de Violette, Chanel 31 Rue Cambon, Bulgari Black and Frédéric Malle Carnal Flower are rooted in the classical tradition which they’ve reinterpreted in novel ways.

The other day as I was sighing with pleasure over Guerlain Après l’Ondée, I wondered what makes me enjoy classics so much. I came up with this list. Reading it through, I realize that I keep juxtaposing classical and modern perfumery, sometimes to the disadvantage of the latter. The perfumery has changed tremendously over the past few decades, and some changes have not benefited the output, while others resulted in more choices and new fragrance styles. When it comes to the perfumes I wear day to day, my selections lean heavily towards the modern blends. That being said, I cannot imagine my perfume shelf without the classics, and here are my ten reasons why.

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The other day my mother shared a story of me as a seven year old trying to make a lilac perfume. I collected lilac flowers, covered them with water and kept the jar by my bedside to observe the transformation. Within days the jar started smelling rank and its contents looked rotten, but I refused to give up. Words cannot describe how disconsolate I felt when I came back from school and found that my jar was thrown away. Fast forward a few decades, and I am still engaged in much the same thing—blending raw materials and occasionally coming up with a mixture that smells more putrid than pretty. That I have been exploring scents consistently for this long comes as much as a surprise to me as to anyone else, but as time goes on, I find more and more reasons to fall deeper into the rabbit hole.

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