general perfume articles: 94 posts

I don’t know about you, but I love shopping at Sephora. There was a time when Sephora only existed in big cities and as a veritable vault of perfume comprising both the ordinary and the extra-; the hard-to-find and the very popular; Etro and Caron alongside Dior and Guerlain.

Then things changed.  Perfume was downsized to make room for ever more cosmetic lines or for expansion of existing lines.  The Etros and the Carons disappeared along with Chamade and Miss Dior.  Soon, what was left was a display touting a “Top Ten” of fragrances, which for a while was led by Light Blue.  More shelf space disappeared.  Only top performers were left.  That’s what you find today in most Sephora shops, especially in small towns like mine where a “mistake” can be costly.  This is why precious space has been given over to Dot, Marc Jacobs’ latest, based on the performances of Lola and Daisy.

Nevertheless, it is still possible to build a fantastic perfume  wardrobe based on the available selection, and I browse the perfume section at Sephora on a regular basis, if not for revelation, then for fun. That is where I discovered, much to my delight, the trio of Hermès colognes Eau d’Orange Verte (green orange), Eau de Pamplemousse Rose (pink grapefruit) and the stunningly weird Eau de Gentiane Blanche (white gentian) that smells the way Chartreuse tastes.

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Whenever I mention to a new acquaintance that I work in fragrance and we plunge into a discussion of perfume, most people remark that they never thought that scents could be so fascinating. We take our nose for granted. In various surveys asking people what sense they would most likely give up, most select their sense of smell. But it only takes a moment of reflection to realize how hard this loss would be. As many studies show, without the sense of smell, our food tastes bland, our libido suffers, our world loses color and even our memories becomes so much poorer. The message is simple: take care of your nose and use it to its full capacity.

Enjoying perfume is only one facet of being scent obsessed–cooking, gardening, and even something as simple as taking a walk in the park counts too. But perfume is such a great adventure. It cheers me up when I feel down. It makes me feel elegant. It indulges my fantasies and wanderlust. Exploring scents for their rich history and fascinating craftsmanship gives me as much satisfaction as art and music, and it is just as rewarding.

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My friends who know about my fragrance hobby always ask me which perfumes might be appropriate for office/work situations and which might be overkill.  In today’s cramped spaces, the question is more important than ever.  Joy might be a joy for you, but not for your office mate!

I don’t wear perfume to work, but I don’t feel cheated. I only wear it socially. This break from perfume also means that I am not competing with the strong smells occasioned by my job—I’m an events photographer and I attend a lot of catered functions where the air is often thick with garlic, cheese, coffee, chocolate, and wine. Phew! I do my part not to contribute to the overload.  Believe me, a ripe Brie duking it out with Frédéric Malle Noir Epices is not entirely pleasant.

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“Behind the Scenes at Firmenich For the Creation of AXE Excite”video fits right into my How Many Hands Touch Your Bottle of Perfume series. Harry Fremont, Frank Voelkl, and Pierre Negrin, perfumers who work for a fragrance supplier Firmenich, explain how they created Axe and lead you into the lab. You can see the way the labs are organized and observe the lab technicians at work mixing the perfume oils. In the final scene, you will see that perfumes are tested on skin–the only way to properly understand how a blend develops.

It often comes as a surprise to many people that mass market products like Axe are created by the top perfumers in the field. As does the fact that the development of these scents is a careful, detail oriented process. While Axe body sprays may be cheap and ubiquitous, the process behind creating them is anything but. The Axe projects are among the most coveted for the perfumers, and when Negrin grins proudly mentioning the win, his emotion is genuine.  The big scope and diversity of Axe also mean that a perfumer can experiment with some unexpected accords like Voelkl does with his masculine coconut-caramel twist to make Excite. Not all mass market lines are willing to take risks, but Axe is big enough to push the boundary on occasion.

Thank you, Robin, for a link!

You walk into Sephora, pass the shelves piled with makeup and find yourself in front of a wall covered with perfume bottles. You pick up the one that catches your eye, spray a blotter, put the tester back on the shelf and continue moving past the display of shiny glass vials. Perhaps you fall in love with the perfume and buy it. You bring it home, put it on your dresser and if the choice was right, the scent will now accompany you everywhere, serving as a fragrant soundtrack for your day. Perfume is such an intimate thing and its effects on us are complex, but equally fascinating is the process by which the aroma ends up in the bottle.

The overwhelming increase of new fragrance launches has robbed perfume both of its luxury status and of its mystery. The story of creators spending years crafting their masterpieces is difficult to believe when most big brands come out with a new fragrance every couple of months. The perfume houses have always been reluctant to disclose the process by which they create fragrances. In some cases, it is because the process contains some precious know-how, in others because it is simply too corporate and not mysterious enough to capture the consumer’s imagination. So how many hands touch your bottle of perfume after all?

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