perfume shopping: 9 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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clockwise from top left: patriotic flag over Carnaby Street, Bond Street shops, bike docking station in Soho Square, Vanessa’s friend and guide Alberto

Today’s guest post is brought to you by Vanessa Musson, the charmingly eccentric author of Bonkers about Perfume. Vanessa is a freelance market researcher, specialising in industrial products.  She was struck down by “sudden onset perfume mania” relatively late in life, while googling a couple of scents worn by her friend.  As she puts it, “then before you could say ‘Michael Edwards Fragrance Wheel’ my inner researcher was totally hooked, and what began as an intellectual pastime quickly exploded into full-blown ‘fumehedonism’.  Eighteen months later I started my blog, Bonkers about Perfume.  Blending trivia-filled travelogues with a sideways look at the world of fragrance, it subjects everything in its path – from behemoths to Britney – to the same bonkers spin.” Vanessa is taking us on a tour of London’s perfumeries in her guest contribution to Bois de Jasmin.

This long weekend marks The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee: London is bedecked with bunting and a packed programme of events is in full swing, including exhibitions, processions, a grand flotilla on the Thames and countless street parties. I was down in London two weeks ago as the preparations were underway, and as my friend Alberto Umbridge and I wandered around the city and admired the exuberant decorations, we decided that it might be fun to cycle between some of my favourite London perfumeries using the free bicycle hire scheme championed by London’s mayor, Boris Johnson.  It turned out to be a great day full of adventures and discoveries, and I would love to share my route with you. I will also include Tube station information for anyone who would prefer a more sedate method of getting around, together with some suggestions of good places to stop along the way for a drink or a bite to eat.

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By Suzanna

I live in a city that is high on football and low on perfume shopping.  Gator fans would likely not want things the other way around.  You cannot live in Gainesville, Florida and not participate, one way or another, in the football ubiquity.  As I discovered, however, with a bit of creativity you can live in Gainesville or other small towns and participate in the enjoyment of hard-to-find perfume.

I’m a small town perfumista.  This means that there are no boutiques or high-end stores at which to sample fragrance.  There’s no Barney’s or Luckyscent or even a top-shelf Sephora.  We didn’t have a Sephora until 2009, and when it arrived it proved to be one of the closely edited Sephora stores. We have small versions of big department stores.

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Niche perfume brand Odin New York will open their first pop-up shop in collaboration with Snarkitecture. The pop up shop will include all six of Odin’s unisex fragrances: 01 Sunda, 02 Owari, 03 Century, 04 Petrana, 06 Amanu, and 07 Tanoke, as well as their four home fragrances in the following scents: 01 Sunda, 02 Owari, 03 Century, and 04 Petrana.

Odin New York Fragrances and Home Fragrances is made up of a complete library of six unisex scents and four candles that evoke the exoticism of travel and a modern approach to time-honored fragrance traditions. The pop-up shop aims to showcase the well-considered design of these products by inverting the darkness of the packaging resulting in a bright, clean space.

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