Weekend in Grasse IV: Gaglewski

Hey, sorry… I had temporary writer’s block due to some over-powering heart drama. But I am back now, and I want to share with you the story of my last evening in Grasse. (How I miss this place and how I felt being in that experience…)

There is a narrow winding long cobbled street in Grasse, Rue de L’Oratoire. Somehow wherever I would go I would find myself in Rue de L’Oratoire. In this labyrinth of Grassesque marvels there is a place I knew I would visit sooner or later. 

Before going to Grasse Institute of Perfumery I had read about Clayton’s adventures there and about his visit to perfumer Didier Gaglewski (in Rue de L’Oratoire 12). It seems many visitors to Grasse feel the need to buy perfume as a souvenir and the local shops cater to that idea in different ways. For me the real treat of being in Grasse was the access to the backstage area of the perfume industry. The fields, the insider information, the lab, the raw materials – but above all – the conversations with people who work with perfume in various ways. If I had an experience like that – and could buy something that would preserve the moment for me – then great, but perfume per se was not the main thing. But then of course a place like Grasse provides gems like Beauty Success where you can find Coriandre and Caron’s Pour un Homme! But back to Gaglewski. This encounter was really a quintessential part of this adventure.

First time I met Didier Gaglewski was when going to dinner with my Spanish friend (and I am sure future perfumer) Inma, Daniela from Fragonard and the lady that they were staying with in Grasse. The lady knew Didier so we introduced ourselves briefly when passing by his shop and said we would come back. After a few days, you see, Inma and I had embarked on an inspiring inner journey analyzing various ways to pursue olfactory paths in our future careers. And monsieur Gaglewski seemed like a very good person to turn to for some advise since he himself started to work with perfumes after pursuing a different career for some time. So a few days later we returned. 

The shop. Photo from Gaglewski.com

Didier generously shared his story with us and we spent a long time discovering his creations, from the ultra-masculine conceptual Cambouis, a humoristic flirt with the idea of a man working on his car and the smells of this, to the soft romantic Aria, a seductive classic über-feminine dream of tuberose and vanilla. I had a different instant crush though… first for the name and then for the smell, the woody Journaliste. No surprise that it includes some of my favorite notes – petit grain, mandarin, ginger, cardamom and tonka bean. The Journaliste is now here in Stockholm with me. It reminds me of the alliance between brain and heart, plans and dreams and of this very special place in Grasse. 

So, on my last day I went back to Rue de L’Oratoire, 12 to say goodbye to Didier and to show him my three own creations from school for some professional feedback. A very rewarding visit since I also had the luck to talk to the customers that came to the shop. I was struck by the great conversations that happened. So far from some of the empty quick exchanges of clichés in department stores. People ask Didier a lot about his background and profession and creations and he answers every person’s questions very genuinely and generously. A young man entered out of curiosity, not really ready for a purchase, but full of questions. It was such a nice conversation to listen to and a moment that captured some of that special thing about Grasse so well – it is a place that loves perfumes and that loves to take the time to talk about perfume with anyone who has a desire to know more. There is so much knowledge in those hills… and so little of the excluding elitism that you find between perfume shelves around the world. 

Scent strips made of ribbons at Gaglewski.

Thank you Didier for sharing your story, time and thoughts. Dziękuję.

"Vous êtes brune, de peau mate.Vous êtes gaie et un peu capricieuse. 

Vous croquez la vie.
Votre rire cristallin ne connaît pas de frontière. 

Vous êtes si près de l'enfance que l'on se demande parfois si vous n'en sortez 

que pour paraître sérieuse, mais l'on sait bien que cela ne durera 

que le temps d'un clin d'oeil."

(From description of Aria on Gaglewski.com)

The art of stepping out of the comfort zone

My first impression when I discovered Olfactif (via a post on Twitter) was that I felt intrigued. It felt new, somewhat mysterious but I instantly saw signs of promise of some great perfume coversation.
After reading through a well-written website I understood what it was all about. Olfactif is a new subscription service that offers monthly carefully curated collections of niche perfume samples. The perfumes are selected to show the olfactory width and depth of how a theme can be explored by a skilled dedicated perfumer. A theme can be for example ”spring” or an ingredient or something more conceptual. The fragrances are delivered to your home with accompanying ambitious information about noses, brands etc.

This idea appeals to me in so many ways. It will help more people discover the adventures that scents offer us. There is definetely a conflict between the ambitions, artistry and dedication that perfumers have for their craft - and how little of that is offered to consumers in terms of communication. What we get as a result of that is people spending loads of money rather arbitrarily, making error purchases, missing out on the sensations that perfumes can give us. Niche perfume brands are definetely making a difference because many of them tend to be more open, more prone to close dialogue with consumers and build brands in completely different ways than the massmarket does.

I sent the brain behind Olfactif, Tara Swords, some questions thinking I would select a few good quotes and some useful facts about Olfactif because I wanted to share this treasure with you. But I basically cannot bring myself to editing the interview because I like every single sentence of it too much. I hope someday Tara and I will have a coffee and a long conversation about scents and the olfactory aspects of life (and travelling!). Here is our first long wonderful multi-faceted inspiring conversation. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Tara, Olfactif is focused on niche perfumery. So let’s start with this - how would you define niche perfumery?
This tends to be a divisive question, because there are so many criteria you could use to assess it. For our purposes, niche is harder to find. It doesn’t hew to trends. It tends to come from people who care deeply about quality and originality. It appreciates complexity and weirdness and doesn’t worry about appealing to the greatest number of people. It explores what lives at the margins of beauty, which is one reason niche perfume is so interesting to experience. It’s not afraid of making people a little uncomfortable—or of entertaining them.

My favorite difference, though, is that niche perfume is marketed totally differently than mainstream perfume. Mainstream perfume is treated like a beauty product that will make you more attractive to potential mates. That’s the low-hanging fruit for marketers, and if they can go there, they will every time, because it works. But perfume isn’t a beauty product like mascara. If you see a woman wearing the same mascara your mother wore when you were five, what will that make you feel? Probably nothing, because you wouldn’t even realize it. But if you could smell, right now, the perfume that your mother wore when you were five and your little face was buried into her neck, you would probably have an emotional reaction. I think all perfumers recognize that powerful connection between scent and memory and emotion, but niche perfumers allow themselves to do more meaningful things with it.

One final point: there’s a lot of room at the niche table. I’ve noticed that people who are really into perfume can sometimes get a little cynical about it, bemoaning that there are too many brands, that everybody’s calling themselves niche these days, that it’s impossible to keep up, and that there’s too much low-quality stuff flooding the market. I can understand those feelings. But I also think that a lot of these things are cause for celebration. The fact that more people are making perfume means that more people have the freedom in their lives to do something that brings them happiness. It means that more people are taking the chance to be happy, which is an incredibly brave and risky act. It means we live in a time of human history when many people have the luxury of creating. And it means that the Internet has revolutionized the perfume industry in a way that makes you in metropolitan Stockholm aware of Laurie Erickson in hilly little Healdsburg, California. I feel a surge of gratitude and admiration when I see people trying to make a career doing creative work. I see only good things here.

Why is your focus on niche perfumery?
The focus is on niche perfume for a few reasons. First, for people who get big, conscious joy out of the sense of smell, niche perfume is a fascinating space because it really engages your brain and makes you aware of the act of smelling. When you walk into most of the stores where people buy perfume, you don’t find many perfumes that take risks. You find things that are safe or trendy. A lot of people find comfort in safety and in things that have gained mass acceptance, but a lot of people feel bored by those things. The first group can easily find what it wants, but the second group has to look pretty hard.

That leads to the second point, which is that niche perfume is just much harder to find. A lot of this stuff can’t be experienced in person unless you go to cities like New York or Paris. A lot of it can’t be experienced unless you order it online. And in either case, you won’t go look for it if you don’t know that it exists—and most don’t.

So there are consumers out there who would love to explore niche perfume if they knew that it exists. And there are perfumers who would love to have bigger reach but don’t have an easy way to introduce themselves to consumers. The goal is to help make that connection.

One other reason: niche perfume comes with stories. Stories about the individuals who make it, stories about the way it’s made, stories about the reasons it’s made. That’s why a big part of what we’re trying to do is to tie the stories and the artists to the scents. With perfume as with any kind of art, understanding who made it, and why, rounds out our understanding of the art itself.

How do you choose which brands to work with? Who curates? 

I curate. This is an important point: I don’t claim to be an expert in perfume. The people who are experts in this field are the perfumers who can call to mind some 6,000 perfume ingredients and who have so much experience that they can tell you, on command, what each smells like and how it interacts with the others. That is expertise. I am someone who has loved perfume her entire life, and who has smelled—and spent a ridiculous amount of time thinking about—many hundreds of perfumes. And I believe there are a lot of people who could describe themselves the same way.

But while curation is a somewhat subjective process, it’s not just me choosing three scents that I like every month and putting them in a box. In fact, I would argue that curation is actually mostly objective. What are the facts of the scent? Is there something unique and different about the way it is made or the way it stands alongside other things on the market? How do others experience it? What does it seem to evoke in them? What might it evoke in our particular subscriber base, who may be unaccustomed to the type of thing that’s in this bottle? That objective process of research and observation is a much, much bigger part of curation than the subjective.

The selection of perfumes is a long and fairly agonizing process that involves both creative things and less exciting things, like availability. When I put together all of the perfumers who have agreed to work with us, and then pick out all of the possible scents and combinations of scents, it’s a bit like putting together giant puzzles in the dark.

Can you give me an example of a theme?
The April theme is Vignettes of Spring. By the time spring rolls around, I think people are longing for smells that echo the natural changes in their environments, and these first three scents are so full of life and nature that it all came together quite easily. Future themes might be straightforward, like “Tobacco,” or more conceptual and fun, like “Dirty and Delightful.”

Did you have a certain type of person or target group in mind when creating the service?
I have two types of people in mind. The first group—and the much bigger one—is people who love perfume but aren’t aware of the niche world. The second is people who may be aware of the niche world but haven’t really fallen down the rabbit hole and invested the extraordinary time and energy involved in discovering, researching, and exploring new brands. In either case, I think about people who want to experience smelling actively, not passively.

When will Olfactif be available overseas? (For now it is limited to the US).
Overseas shipping of perfume is a pretty costly endeavor. Shipping—on top of the monthly subscription—is probably cost-prohibitive for most international consumers. But if we hear that a lot of people would be interesting in paying the cost of international shipping to join a service like this, we’d certainly consider it. And there may be some other creative ways that we can expand to serve other markets down the road.

A last inevitable question, what perfume are you wearing today?
Today I’m wearing Week-end à Deauville by Parfums de Nicolaï. I can’t get enough of it. The way it transforms over time is captivating.

Thank you Tara for your time. And here are my absolute favorite Olfactif words:

"Practicing the act of stepping out of your 

comfort zone will turn you into a person who can 

find comfort nearly everywhere."

Anticipation: Malle & Dries van Noten

So much has been written about the collaboration between designer Dries van Noten and Frederic Malle (for a moment of aesthetic heaven please look at this story on his home) that it feels a bit superfluous to add one more blog post... But I can't stay away from mentioning it because any new perfume from Malle is an event of significance.

What Frederic Malle does and his vision is admirable and embodies values that add an absolutely necessary element to today's perfume market. His ambition when creating the brand and company was to "liberate perfumers from the kinds of restraints often imposed by marketers and focus groups". Malle functions as an editor, working with the noses that are invited to create scents in the same way that an editor works with writers. Every perfume creator is free to create and explore an idea of his own. The result, of course, is that Malle perfumes are the fragrance explorer's dream. I love to try a new perfume from this collection, and I love how often it surprises me and makes me redefine my own preferences. One of my true favourites, Anqelique sous la pluie, was a perfume that I just did not notice until I had a conversation with one of Malle's advisors about my preferences and she showed it to me. I love it. (Not to mention it has probably the most beautiful perfume name in the universe). Nice read: the Q&A on Malle's web.

There are many parallels to draw between the perfume editor role and that of an editor for writers. It is indeed something of an anthology of scents that Frederic Malle has created. The stringent curiosity of Ellena's Bigarade to the dark carnal Noir Epices from Roudnitska. The tender teardrops in Anqeliques sous la pluie by Ellena (yes, I know, I mention Ellena a lot). The blushed cheeks of Maurice Roucel's Dans tes bras. All these stories...

And now this new launch that surprised many since there has been no designer collaboration framed by Malle so far. Turns out though that this is the result of a long friendship and creative bond between the editor and the designer. They have taken their time, I am sure the process has been beautiful and filled with very interesting conversations.

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I have been an admirer of Dries van Noten's eclectic style for a long time. So interesting, and interested, to me it feels like travellers' clothes. Like the garments carry journeys from Buenos Aires to Samarcand and back. So I was instantly curious to hear what notes would be chosen to tell an olfactory story of his.   I guessed it would be something oriental, spicy, woody. It's not too spicy but features sandalwood, guaiac wood, tonka bean, saffron, musk and vanilla. The top note is citron. The sandalwood is particularly interesting as it is the return of Indian sandalwood which has been absent from perfumery for a long time due to sustainability concerns. From what I have heard from friends fortunate to have tried it, it is a very undemanding and wearable perfume. The nose is Bruno Jovanovic, who has also created Notre Dame, Chez Monsieur and Marius et Jeannette for Malle among other perfumes.

This new lovely addition to the perfume world will be available in stores in the next two weeks, exact dates vary slightly from one city to another. I will be sniffing in Stockholm, at COW on February 25.

How not to sell perfume

I work with PR and communication so it is natural that the different aspects of sales techniques interest me, from the rhetorics to hands-on practical details. I am particularly fascinated by this, when it comes to perfumes as I think retail generally does have some work to do regarding consumer communication. The gap between the art, knowledge and stories within the perfume world – and the consumer – is gigantic. This leads to people spending too much money on products that are not right for them, which leads only to confusion and disappointment. People buy to much crap produced without neither heart nor art – because the perfume world allows itself be a slave to sales logistics. And the exceptions to these descriptions - they are much less well-known than they should be. Seriously, je déclare la guerre.

I don’t expect every person who sells perfume to be an expert. Although, that would be amazing... But I do hope that you feel, if not passion, then at least respect for the exceptional product that you sell, and that you have the will to create genuine dialogue.

I would love to spend some time with people who sell perfumes and talk about how we best invite and guide others into this world. Selling perfume is not like selling ”anything”, its like being there for someone who is discovering their inner self, its like being an expert of Michelangelo’s art. For crying out loud, all you sales machines – get your act together!

So. Here is a real-life example on how it should not be done. Today after work I went to a store in Stockholm to try Coco Noir. Inevitable. I have avoided reading reviews, just noticed them, because I wanted to discover it with a clear mindset. However, from my post yesterday (and if you read this blog you know), you can picture my stand on the noir side of things.

And here we go… I get to the Chanel counter, look for paper strips, none are to be found... After a while a sales woman approaches me and asks if she can help me. I answer politely ”No, thank you, I am happy botanizing by myself”. This is sign No 1 that she should back off. She doesn’t. Instead she says with the persuasion special effects of a real estate sales machine, ”Oh, this one is SO GREAT, I wear it myself. I have worn it everyday since I got it”. Ok… let’s pick this army of information apart. 1) I am smelling the perfume to see what I think about it. Not what she thinks about it. I could of course be interested in that and some other day maybe I would be, but today I already signaled that I wanted to be left alone. 2) It is completely irrelevant if she wears the perfume to me. For all sorts of very logical reasons like for example the fact that my skin does not smell like her skin. It is just completely irrelevant. The only two reasons why this information would be valuable are 1) if the two of us were identical or at least similar in a couple of relevant ways – and we were just not, and 2) if I really wanted to be (=try to smell) like her, and I don’t, and its just megalomania on her part if she assumed I do. The natural conclusion when someone is testing perfumes is that they want to find a fragrance that smells like them, like the self that they want to be. Needless to say - she has no idea what about me it is that I am looking for in an olfactory reflection of me - as she is only talking and thinking about herself. So all this information about this total stranger leaves me bored and silent. If she really wanted to talk to me about herself, well, weirder things happen in the metropolitan landscape – fine. But she wanted to tell me what to do (=buy) by telling me what she does, taking for granted that I want to be like her. Don’t ever do this when you sell perfume. You are insulting art when you do. If you don't get this or if it sounds to pretentious for you, please sell something else.

You would think that it would stop here. After all, I was totally silent and not exactly encouraging the conversation. But she had more in store. ”You should know (I just love strangers who tell me what I "should") that this is the last bottle we have, they all went flying of the shelves”. Ok. Should I buy it because everyone else that I don’t know did? Because...? By now I am thinking, ”Please, just stop talking, you seem like a nice girl but this is not working out, can’t you feel that?”. But I feel rude ignoring her so I say, ”Yes, it is exceptional, but not as noir as I expected”. This triggers no conversation. I sigh and walk away to the other Chanel bottles to play around for a while. I pick up Coco Mademoiselle. A familiar voice goes: ”This one really reminds you of the other one, they are very similar. They both contain patchouli.” Please, perfume girl… I just said the noir was less noir than I hoped, what are you saying? It’s like you're comparing a man’s mistress to his daughter.

And then she starts talking about a body lotion that is perfect with the perfumes. I leave.

Perfume deserves more than this. If you agree and if you are in a position where you can do something about it, I will gladly support you in any way I can.

What's so French about perfume?

My first article for My French Life is alive. Reflections on the links between the olfactory world and francophilia. You find it here.

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.

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.

Perfume matters & Where to get samples

This has been an interesting week. Las weekend Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter had an article in the Sunday paper about perfume. I am really honored that I was chosen as one of the persons that they interviewed. The appearance has led to e-mails from people in different countries with various great and interesting questions. Some of the topics that I have had the pleasure of discussing via e-mail in these last days are vintage perfumes, samples, where to buy perfume online, should you wear perfume everyday, is it ok to wear perfume in a restaurant, how to support a child’s interest in scents… Well, you get the picture. Amazing topics and I feel privileged to be the person asked for advice. I have kept all these thoughts in an Inspiration File for future articles, posts etc. But I thought I would adress one of the topics here as it might help you accelerate your perfume curiosity.

As followers of this blog know I am a strong opponent to hasty stressful perfume shopping and to shops that sell perfume in such a way. A new perfume is an intimate acquaintance and deserves a more sublime process. It takes a few hours to discover the character of a perfume – even if it indeed IS a perfect match. So, I am pro samples and pro perfume shops that understand when a client comes the third time in a week and wants to try the same perfume. And so on. I think samples are great. Yes, it is not always optimal for every perfume (more about this in a later post!) but generally they are a great tool. A sample allows you to try a perfume for a few days, and it is less of a decision and expense than a full bottle so it becomes easy and fun to try more new fragrances. Perhaps you have identified a note that you love – say vanilla or vetiver. These two come in so many different varieties and are used in completely different ways. Samples allow you to discover the spectra of your favorite note which will teach you more about it – and help you find The Right One For You.

A lot of samples also circulate around me as I sometimes help people find a new perfume. This is one of my favorite things to do, it is so much fun and leads to SUCH great conversations. When I have an idea of what would work and what this specific person is looking for in terms of notes or character and the needs (for example if it is a signature scent or a perfume wardrobe) I will usually give them a couple of samples to try out for a while before making a decision. (Remember - perfumes need skin. Just the perfume is only half the story).

The obvious question then is: where to get samples? One way is to ask at the perfume shop. Sometimes they will have the sample you want and sometimes not. Not all perfume houses provide samples. Some shops are reluctant to hand them out it seems and this is a bit of a sad attitude problem – if that is the case find another shop. However, and this is important: the perfume in a sample that is given for free has been produced with as much care and investment as the perfume in the bottle. So treat your perfume samples with respect. The other way to get samples of fragrances that is becoming increasingly common, is to buy them from the perfume houses through their web shops. Sometimes they offer miniatures of separate scents and sometimes a kit with a selection of scents. This is a great and affordable way to try a new fragrance, or to get to know a perfume house better. The third alternative is to go through one of the companies/websites that are specialized in samples. Examples of these are The Perfumed Court, First in Fragrance and The Posh Peasant. These three are the ones that I have heard most about but if you know of other similar websites please share! It seems to be that there are more options in the US than in Europe so it would be fun to see this develop globally as shipping makes even limited shopping slightly more expensive. I love these websites and I think it is great that small amounts of perfume are becoming accessible as a commodity. The range of brands and products is very impressive which allows you to choose your own little collections of samples around a theme, for example a nose, a note, a brand. It is also a super-smart risk-free way to introduce someone else to a fragrance that you think they might like. Last night I browsed First in Fragrance to find a musc scent that I think a friend of mine would like, and created a little kit of Keiko Mecheri fragrances for myself as I am curious about this brand but have not yet identified my match in their range. This is a great way to end a Friday night for a perfume nerd like me!

Long post this one... But hoping its helpful! :) Happy hunting! 

How to find a new perfume

For natural reasons I have the fortune to find myself indulging in conversations about perfume and perfume searching quite often. But in the last weeks it has really happened more often than usual. Which is great... I could easily spend my entire life talking about perfumes and helping others find their olfactory matches. My impression from these conversations is that there is quite a lot of insecurity around how to navigate between the shelves and brands and that this causes a feeling of being somewhat overwhelmed and confused. Some of my earlier posts offer guidance that could be of use to some of you. Hope this helps you in your perfume discoveries, and you are always welcome to contact me for questions or exchange of thoughts around this. Some of you do and I really enjoy reading your thoughts.

On perfume families and composition. This one.

On classification Eau de Parfum, Eau de Toilette...etc. This one.

One of my favorite topics... pour homme et pour femme.

Here, a post on wearing perfume.

A post about giving perfume to someone else, here.

In Swedish:
How to go about the shopping situation 
And this one.

Druid necklace from Chanel with Perfume bottle :)

Manic perfume hunting because it's Valentine's Day, are you?

I have seen a number of magazines going on about the best perfumes to get your man or lady for Valentine's day. The recommendations are mainly based on ridiculous reasons like brand, cute packaging, trendy ingredient or "must-have". The only Valentines-perfume-story I have read that made sense was one about Shalimar which is an iconic perfume not only as an oriental but as a perfume created for romantic reasons. Giving someone this makes sense. Crazy arbitrary perfume shopping does not make sense. Just like crazy arbitrary Valentine's shopping doesn't. So relax. And just show your beloved or your crush that you think they are special. In your way. And yes, I believe that Valentine's Day should be celebrated. I believe that every special day should be celebrated in its own particular way, the more special days the better.

If scent is your way, then I think you might find this post, which I wrote as guidelines for Christmas-perfume-shopping, useful.

Have a lovely Valentine's Day & don't forget to treat your own heart with special care.

5 ways to give perfume as Christmas gift

I get this question these days:

”I would like to buy my man/woman/wife/husband/someone perfume for Christmas, do you have any recommendation? Which perfume should I get?”

I love the idea. In theory. But my answer is: no, I don’t have a recommendation for a specific perfume for your partner simply because I have no idea how your man’s/woman’s/wife’s/husband’s/someone’s skin smells like, feels like, what temperature it is, if they sweat salty or sweet, where they put on perfume, when… what makes them laugh or blush or swear... and a million other things. So my general recommendation is: buy something else.

There are however 5 exceptions:

1. You are a perfumer and have created the perfume yourself.
2. You are not a perfumer but have created the perfume yourself.
3. The gift is a bespoke perfume. You give the chosen beloved person a session with a perfumer who will create a bespoke fragrance with them for them. Miller Harris and Mandy Aftel for example offer this service.
   
   

   

   Photo: Miller Harris

   A much simpler more popularized lot less expensive version is offered by the Perfume Studio. Mandy Aftel also offers bespoke perfumes, you can read more about how it works at Aftelier here. If you go to Paris you will find this helpful. 
4. The person who the perfume is intended for has already tried fragrance x and wants it/has had fragrance x before and misses it/for some other reason really wants fragrance x. For example, if you went to Paris and she spent an hour at Guerlain falling in love with Spiritueuse Double Vanille but didn’t get it because you were in a hurry or maybe it was too expensive. Well, then of course it is very romantic if you call them and have it shipped right to her skin for Christmas. 
5. The fragrance your buying is an icon or comes with a story that makes it an evidently interesting part of a perfume collection regardless of whether the recipient will wear it or not. It is just interesting to have. Examples of perfumes like this for women are Joy, Chanel No 5 and Shalimar. 

But generally, apart from in situations like the ones mentioned above, I do not really believe in giving perfume as a gift. The reason, is that wearing and selecting the ingredients that blend with your skin, its chemical composition and your soul – is a precious and intimate thing. Perfumes, like personalities, are not random, not generic and they are not about what is new or trendy or whose last name is on the bottle. If you think it is, that's not very strange as this in fact is how the media talks about perfume. There are top ten lists, there are what’s new lists, there are perfume bottles that match the latest Marc Jacobs bag or Dior shoes. But perfume is not just something you put on yourself the way a garment is. A garment comes in a ready size that fits your body and the material is the same regardless who wears it. It wrinkles on you, it wrinkles on her.

Perfume is different – not just seems different – IS different on every person. It exists with you, blends with your temperature and skin.

EdP, EdT, etc.

To some of you this is just too basic. Well, then good for you, have a nice cup of tea and join me tomorrow for new in-depth adventures. For most people though, I think these abbreviations seem obvious but are not. Or perhaps you just don’t think about why one of your fragrances is so much stronger than another, you just notice that it is. It was like that for me for a long time, so I think - let’s just go through it.

You might feel that one of your fragrances is stronger than another. That is probably true. Perhaps you have not noticed that one of them is an Eau de Parfum and the other Eau de Toilette. But that does not have to be the reason.

Wood, floral or oriental and does it matter?

Does it matter if you can classify what fragrance you’re wearing? If you know whether it is a floral, fougère or oriental? In theory, if you ask someone like me who is against superficial pointless namedropping – the answer is no. There is absolutely no point in keeping that sort of stuff in your head just for the sake of it or because you “should” know. In practice however, there are two reasons for you to think about perfume classification – the main one being that it’s a great tool for new discoveries as it will provide you with concrete links between what you like or dislike, and this will lead you to new fragrance pleasures. And pleasure is a great reason to care about things. The other reason is just simply curiosity. Some people just like maps. I do.

19th century perfumer Charles Piesse was one of the first to start classifying perfumes. He quickly turned to the world of music for symbols and so the language of perfumers became similar to that of musicians (which it still is today). The terms used in perfume language have the purpose to describe the different aroma layers in a fragrance, like chords. We also talk about top notes and different tones when distinguishing between ingredients and specific scents. We talk about the tonality of a fragrance just like we when analyzing a music piece.

There is also a more architectonical way of visualizing perfumes. William Poucher was one of the first to use the ‘fragrance pyramid’ to explain the top, middle and foundation as layers. He created the structure based on measurement of evaporation rate of perfume ingredients (fastest evaporation = top).

Image borrowed from davidreport.com/201103/scent-tokyo/

Here are some terms (from different eras, let’s not be so dogmatic) that are good to know when going on your perfume quest. The terms continuously develop and some perfumes contain traits of different families.

Fiumincino Roma, januari 2011.

Han säger att han letar efter någon parfym. Ja, det är en present säger han till den hårt sminkade expediten. Till flickvännen, lägger han till. Expediten visste det redan när hon såg honom på håll och tog snabbt bestämda provisionshungriga steg rakt genom butiken. Han är en vanlig välklädd ung man, och han har ingen aning om hur han ska navigera bland alla flaskor, presentkit och pappersremsor. När expediten fångat honom är han lättad och lättmanipulerad.

”Något kvinnligt?”, frågar hon. ”Ja!”, svarar han med ett lättat leende som om hon hade läst hans tankar. ”Något friskt?”. ”Ja…precis.”

Och så går de från presentbox till presentbox, via säsongens nya dofter från kända modehus och kändisar.. Inga mer följdfrågor ställs. Hon tar säkra kort och han är tacksam. Han betalar sina två presentboxar med "kvinnlig frisk" parfym.

Det är inte det här parfym handlar om. Det finns så mycket mer.



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He says he's looking for a perfume. Yes, it's a gift he says, to the saleswoman. For his girlfriend, he adds. The sales woman knew it the moment she saw him and strode towards him. She sees them every day, they're great customers for someone who gets a bonus per sold product. He is your standard well-dressed nice young man, and he has absolutely no idea how to navigate between all the bottles, gift sets and paper strips. When this nice woman who seems to know her stuff caught him, he was relieved and easily manipulated.

"Something feminine?" she asks. "Yes," he says with a relieved smile as if she had read his thoughts. "Something fresh?". "Yeah ... exactly."

And so they go from gift box to gift box, passing the season's new scents from fashion houses and celebrities. No more questions. She picks boxes and bottles, and he is just grateful. He pays for his two gift boxes with "feminine fresh" perfume.

This is not what perfume is about.