A few words on perfumes - and others

We wear perfume for ourselves, but also for others – to ”smell nice” and to define our personality. Whether we want to or not, our smells and perfumes become part of other peoples’ environment - our partners and friends, but also complete strangers. Therefore I would like to talk a little bit about our perfumes and people around us, to be specific: on how to wear perfume in a respectful way.

There are two main reasons why we need to take other people into consideration when it comes to our perfume habits. One is that we need to acknowledge that what smells amazing to one person, can smell horrible to another. When you find your perfect floral bomb that gives you summer meadow bliss and you take the bus to your work – know that at least one or two persons on that bus will think your fragrance is the worst smelling thing ever. The other reason, which is more important, is that quite a lot of people get allergic reactions from perfumes.

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So this is what I think. If you take the train or bus, and especially if you go during rush hour, don’t wear heavy perfume that diffuses a lot. (And never ever over-apply. Too much perfume is never good. Never.) Actually, I would even suggest you take your perfume with you and apply it at work. Although if you work in a crowded office – be moderate and conscious also there. At work I recommend choosing a fragrance that sticks closer to the body and is applied on pulse points. So no heavy big sillage drama on your cashmeres or in your hair please.

Airports. This is a particularly tricky one because of the tax free shops. But seriously – would you want to sit next to someone in air plane with their perfume all over your olfactory world view? Exactly. So be moderate or even better don’t fly with perfume. There is only one thing worse than sitting next to someone who is wearing a perfume you hate, and that is sitting next to someone who is wearing 2-5 different perfumes after a tax free shop safari. So if you want to buy perfume before boarding – use the paper strips. Try one fragrance if you really have to. If you are completely lost and want to try all the new launches for the seasons and really want to do it on your skin – please don’t do it before getting on a flight. You can do some of the pre-research very effectively before the purchase by looking perfumes up on websites like Fragrantica and Basenotes and making a list of 4-5 perfumes that you might want to buy. That will make your process more stringent in the actual shop.

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The third situation that I would like to put an olfactory spotlight on is restaurants. We all agree that nice food appeals to taste, eyes and nose, correct? Let the scents that the chef has created have the limelight. This will allow you to experience the food with more present senses, and it will also limit the risk of your perfume becoming the main character at the table next to yours. Orientals and exquisite florals are fantastic. But not with oysters. Wear a discrete perfume when you go out for dinner, and choose notes that do not argue with the fragrances you can expect in a restaurant. If you are going to bars or clubs later and want something with more character for that – bring a travel size vial and apply the fragrance after dinner.

Disagree? Please share your thoughts.

What does a G minor chord smell like?

I had a conversation the other evening about scents and music with a friend from Swedish band Diablo Swing Orchestra. Two of my favorite topics in life, so you can imagine my mind went all the way to eleven. (Sorry, musicians’ joke, some of you might catch the reference).

Music and perfume are related in so many ways, after all it is not by coincidence that the language of perfumes with notes and accords is taken directly from the terminology used to describe music composing. I don’t know how you feel about this, but for me the bond is much more profound and omnipresent. As with any language connected to any of our senses, I feel that the language that scents “speak” also has rhythms, paces, vibrations, textures that can be detected in music. Listening to music I associate the instruments, moods, transitions etc with scents and I feel instant affinity between certain fragrances or smells and songs. These associations are of course very personal and subjective, so any other person would be likely to make other connections than I do.  With some persons that I have helped find signature fragrances, or created fragrance wardrobes for, their music preferences have been a very valuable tool in the process after I felt like I grasped their way of "sense-translating".

I don’t know how many of you share this way of thinking. I’m guessing I am not alone in this and I would love to hear your reflections. So let me start this topic by sharing some of my reflections from the conversation I had with singer/composer/musician Daniel. These are not revolutionary thoughts or ground-breaking associations. Some are quite obvious, others less. But I do find the interplay between sound and scent very inspiring and helpful so maybe these reflections will be useful to some of you.

Let’s take for example instruments. Drums, I love drums. I am perhaps slightly obsessed with drums. To me drums are resinoids, some woody notes and animalistic. Drums are never flowers in my mind. Never moving or floating. Other sounds, like for example a cello can have something very mobile, alive and almost painfully transient about it. For an olfactory exercise – here’s a mind blowing reference to play with:

Diablo Swing Orchestra – How To Organize a Lynch Mob

My associations are not always directly from music to scent, sometimes they go via color, texture and pattern. Details in a song will feel like white dots or like a string about to burst or like a sweeping caress. Some ingredients will share one of these characteristics. It is highly subjective, but completely unarbitrary. And just like instruments or accords can be dissonant, a scent accord can be in conflict. To me the smell of dissonance is sour or like bitchy little flowers.

I like to use music as inspiration for fragrance composing in my mind… This spring there is one specific bridge that I have crossed a gazillion times as it takes me from my work to my favorite coffee bar. Many many of these walks I have listened to the song ‘Undisclosed desires’ by Muse while creating a fragrance in my head. I would like to make this fragrance someday so I don’t want to talk it apart beforehand. My point is this, sometimes a specific song brings ideas of colors, characteristics, tonalities, opacity or denseness etc… that can be directly translated to notes and in this process music can serve as inspiration, storyboard and reference.

Strings of Diablo Swing Orchestra bass man Anders Johansson

Can scents be used as an inspiration tool for musicians? Just as music can be used to augment olfactory thinking, I am convinced that scents can benefit the music composing process. Scents work with the brain in a very powerful way. This has to do with the human anatomy, the passage between the scent and the brain is short and direct. I will look into this more so I can provide you with a better more thorough explanation but until then let’s just embrace this fact and the possibilities it creates. We have the obvious aroma therapeutic aspects, such as citrus as uplifting. But how can we go a step further? My idea here is that by surrounding yourself with mood scents you’ll be stimulated to balance the music you create or to add a certain atmosphere in a helpful way. For example when looking for a way to add softness or desire or savageness or depth to a melody. Say if you want to make the music darker, I am sure that incense or animalistic notes would help your mind find the way.

So, what about G minor? This was the question that triggered the conversation the other night, “what does G minor smell like?”. Take a moment to think about it and then I will tell you my thoughts.

G minor. This is where I go with my brain – the sound smells like a plant to me. Not a flower, not a spice, not resinoid, not animalistic. It is something that moves and lives. My first specific scent associations were the way that air smells between the lightnings during a thunder storm – wet, sweet, angry and vibrant. The other more concrete idea was: vetiver.

Thank you Daniel. For the music and for a great question.

Scented scarfs, marketing, collaborations

Speaking of Byredo. What do you think about this idea? A limited edition kit with Seven Veils and a scent scarf designed by M/M.

Encense

This week Byredo held an event in Stockholm where they sold out some products, old design editions etc. Very friendly prices. But not only was it nice to stock up with a gentle wallet-pressure, the best things was the opportunity to find some rarities from the past. I was very happy to find the home fragrance version of Encense, an amazing composition that was sold only for a short limited time before disappearing of the shelves. So now my home smells of benzoin, midnight mass, burnt coffee and... male sweat? (Not for kids!) Yes, this is an unusual one and not everyone would like it. I love it. It evokes a diachronic feeling in me and has a particular balance between austerity and sensuality that I admire. It reminds me of childhood memories of going to mass with my grandfather and grandmother, but blended with the leather of Chesterfield sofas and afternoon drinks. The smoky veil carries a tar scent that anyone who lives in city with boats and docks will recognize. And then benzoin... Oh, benzoin.

I found a really interesting review of Encense this morning on the blog Sorcery of Scent that looks further at the liturgical aspects. Recommended reading here.

And yes, I do like a good fragrance name.

Thoughts on scents

This week I got interviewed by a student at Stockholm School of Journalism. Her class is creating a magazine that will feature articles and interviews with people that dedicate a part of their life to a passion – art, music, or in my case, scents. Thought I would share the questions and my answers with you. Would be great to hear your thoughts!

Q: Tell us a little bit about how you view the role of fragrances in meetings between people?
Whether we realize it or not, we are always influenced by the scents of others. Both applied scents like their perfume or other products (creams, hair products, etc) - and by their body odors (from breath to pheromones). Scent impressions influence whether we feel good in someone's company or not, and play a significant role in physical attraction. This odor impact on others, is something we cannot control. But we can affect our own body odor with hygiene, food, etc, and with our selection of cosmetics and perfume. The choices we make say something about each one of us, about our self-image and how we relate to others' perception of us. Therefore, scents are important in the same way as any other choice of symbol and attribute that we use and expose.

Q: How do you think that scents and smells affect us? Can they make us react in different ways?
Fragrances have been used for ages, to give pleasure and to stimulate thought and emotion. Pleasant scents give us feelings of comfort and enjoyment, but what is perceived as a pleasant scent differs in different cultures, ages, eras. However, there are some fragrances that are known to affect the body in specific ways and this is something that is used in aromatherapy as well as in perfume composition. For example, citrus is invigorating. A very interesting part of the world of scents is that they are so closely tied to memories. Some research shows that this has to do with how scent impressions are connected to/transported to the brain. This has been used, for example, in therapy.

Q: Do you think we use too much fragrance today, that we hide our own personal scent?
I think you should be aware of your own body odor, care for it and be proud of it. Then some enjoy stronger fragrances on themselves, while others prefer to smell like freshly washed clothes at the most. You should use the scents that you fell comfortable with. But it is interesting to get to know yourself through the world of scents, what you are drawn to and why. With the right scent you become a more defined version of yourself, both to yourself and to others. And there are fragrances even for those who do not want “too much" or feel “perfumed”. However, I would also like to say that too much perfume is never good, it's not pleasant in any way, and we should always use scents in a way that respects others. It is also not something that I would recommend, that you try to appear to be something you are not with your applied fragrances.

Photo from pinterest.com/charmainezoe/fashion-parfumerie

Warsaw and no flowers

A couple of weeks ago I went to one of my most beloved cities in the world, Warsaw. A weekend here fills my soul with new force like few other places can. There is an omnipresent particular Central European diachronic melancholy that moves your heart, there is a sizzling dynamic feeling of progress that gives you adrenalin. There is more culture, food, music, flowers, cakes, jazz, art and great conversation than you can consume. There is simply a lot of everything for your mind and soul. I love Warsaw. And I always discover something new when I am there, even when walking in my favorite quartiers. This time my top discovery was two – a concept store and a perfume brand in my favorite neighborhood, or to be precise: Mokotowska/Chopin. 

The store that I discovered was Horn & More, a temple of things for pleasure. The first room is dedicated to fragrances but as you move forward you reach increasingly intimate product ranges including lingerie and… more. But I will leave that discovery for you to make on your own. I spent most of the time in the first fragrance room smelling Histoires de Parfums, Jacques Zolty…and Blood Concept. 

Blood Concept is a very new Italian brand, created by Giovanni Castelli and Antonio Zuddas, that dedicates its creativity to the celebration of blood as “the river of life”. The fragrances represent the different blood types and are very different from eachother. One thing they do have in common though is that none of them includes flowers (yes, you knew I would like that, I know). The scents are charismatic, but clean if you understand what I mean. Interesting but comfortable. And the whole idea...well, it's just so very modern and I love it. The plans for this brand is to explore new creative horizons and I suspect it will be quite interesting to follow the adventure. As a communications person I also appreciate a brand that embraces social media the way that Blood Concept, or as they describe them "The most visceral niche perfumery brand ever!" does. Check this brand out, it's fun and these two Men of Ideas seem like a promise of adventure. For me, I expect to quite attached to their "0", will tell you...

A few more words on Poland/Warsaw... I am slightly disappointed to conclude after some research that there is no Polish luxury nische perfume brand. To me, who is more than slightly familiar with the Polish aesthetic soul, this would be nothing other than an obvious quest to olfactory heaven. (Which also means that if anyone in Poland reading this would be game... to create something - I am in!). To Polish readers and anyone in Poland I also whole-heartedly recommend going to Horn & More for fragrance (and pleasure...) conversations. And then after returning from Warsaw, I discovered that Polish cosmetics store Galilu sell a rather impressive range of Santa Maria Novella in their online store...a brand that can be difficult to find outside of Italy - so that's my other (third now right?) recommendation. Galilu actually generally offer an impressive selection, but Horn & More is a more interesting place to visit perhaps.

Infatuation.

Scents are a constant flow of infatuations for me, but every now and then something comes my way that really takes my breath away. Not that often though. I like many many perfumes, I love several. But then there is another level and when that happens it is magic. Recently I tried several perfumes from Pro Fvmvm. They are all exquisite but one of them was instant love. I have many feelings related to this particular perfume (I have decided not to tell you which one it is, as I wish that you get to know this perfume house and do not want to influence your preferences)... admiration, inspiration, safety. Also addiction. I look forward to putting it on and have slept with it on a few occasions…and keep smelling my own skin when I wear it. Almost have to force myself to use other perfumes as those days at this moment feel slightly “lost”. It is indeed a love affair.

It is with great pleasure that I dedicate a post to expressing my admiration for this Italian luxury perfume house and I do hope that it will lead to some amazing love affairs also for some of you.

Pro Fvmvm fragrances are hand-crafted perfumes that are created with a mix of natural and derivative raw materials. Pro Fvmvm say, “A perfume made up totally by natural essences has a less “gentle” scent, while one based solely on synthetic substances lacks “heart”. The perfumes have a very high percentage of essences; as a consequence, when vaporizing a high concentration of oil remains. 

 Pro Fvmvm recommend applying the perfume in the décolleté and the back of the neck by vaporizing the perfumes, waiting 10 to 15 seconds and then gently massaging the area in order to permit the essence to blend with your skin.

Storage
I really appreciate and like how Pro Fvmvm inform about storage of their fragrances. Storage is so important and yet talked about so little. Every box of perfume from Pro Fvmvm has a leaflet that signals the correct way to store it.

Truly handcrafted fragrances are devoid of chemical conservants and must therefore be stored away from heat and light. Fragrances for sale are therefore stored in protective cases and once bought by the customer, need to be stored away from heat and light. Direct sunlight and exposure to heat sources can damage the perfumes. Storing perfumes in the bathroom should be avoided as thermal excursion can damage the product. The best place is a cabinet where temperature and humidity are constant and the products are protected from light.

Le Labo: Tribute to the rose petal pickers

I love this idea. Le Labo has created a limited edition bag inspired by the bag used by pickers in the rose fields of Grasse. Only 300 bags have been made and each one is numbered. Every bag has been dyed and made by hand in LA (the natural overdye process includes drops of Rose 31, Le Labo’s fragrance that contains the precious Rose Centifolia).

The bag is a tribute to all the pickers who get up before dawn to work in rose fields every morning from mid May to mid June. They gently pick the petals by hand, at that early hour the petals are protected by dew which prevents their perfume from evaporation. After that the petals must be processed through steam distillation within 24 hours to create the best quality and quantity of oil. It takes about 4,000 kilograms of rose petals to produce one kilogram of rose oil which makes Rose Absolute oil amongst the most expensive perfume ingredient in the world.

You can get a Rose Bag here... if you hurry.

(Information and photo from Le Labo)

Perfume is Art.

Never forget, a perfume created with a precise balance between passion and skill, is a work of art in the same way that a painting, a sculpture a piece of music or a film is. It is a composition with a pace and a rhytm. It has textures, and characters in the form of notes that share the limelight sometimes as divas sometimes as ensembles. A perfume changes and evolves according to a dramaturgy invented in someone's mind and orchestrated with tender care. It is constant dialogue with you, with your skin and your self.

Never forget, perfume is not "cosmetics". Perfume is Art.

New discoveries

A few days ago I ordered some samples from First in Fragrance. I have not been in contact with them before so I was curious to both get my hands on some fragrances that I am curious about - and to see how their service works. I also know that some of you are interested in starting to buy samples but a bit unsure on how exactly it works. So let's use this process of mine as an example.

When you enter the website you search for a fragrance or brand. In my case I was looking for Keiko Mecheri. When you find fragrances that you are interested in you just click the sample box. I recommend using Fragrantica and Basenotes as additional sources for information if you are looking at fragrances that you have not tried in a store. After you have your shopping completed you fill in all the info, pay and wait.

After a few days you get a nice envelope that contains this.

Everything is really carefully and neatly packed and the samples isolated so they don't affect the paper strips. I think it is really nice that you get a generous amount of these!! My sample kit consists of two Keiko Mecheri fragrances and two Farmacia SS. Annunziata dal 1561. The Keiko Mecheri I have tried in a store (love Musc) and the Farmacia SS. Annunziata dal 1561 I have only read about.

So this is basically how it can work. My impression of First of Fragrance is that everything went very fast and smoothly so I feel that I can recommend them to you. If you are interested in sample from only one specific brand I suggest however that you contact them or look at their website as there are often very nice sample kits.