Perfuming the Pages of Books

I am a reader. Fiction, history, memoirs, biography, history, art history, poetry, and of course books about perfume and nature. I have been accused of living in a world of books. It is the closest thing I know of to time travel. I wish there were 72 hours in the day and I could spend half of them reading. It occurs to me to start perfuming my books, or perfuming the books I give as presents, or perfuming their bookmarks. I am sure some people would howl at this idea, especially those who hate the scent strips in magazines, but it is unlikely those particular people will be opening my books or any books from me any time soon.

There are three kinds of fragrances that immediately come to my mind for this use. First, anything with aoud or sandalwood, or some other wood note such as cedar; second, wholesome organic/natural mood enhancing types such Ineke's Balmy Days and Sundays, or Red Flower's Guaiac or Roxana's oak leaf tincture, or certain CB Water perfumes such as Just Breathe, or In the Summer Kitchen, or other herbal, leafy green or tea scents; and third, classic home fragrances such as L'Occitane or Jo Malone's, especially the citrusy or pine-y ones. I also like single note essences and absolutes such as black spruce or galbanum, or even vanilla for this purpose. One drop or two on the opened cover near the spine -- on the wrist of the book, so to speak.

On a much lighter side than most perfumes or their close relatives, Le Cherchi Midi's line of home fragrances, based on color and type can be used as room or linen or personal fragrances and would be perfect for books. They can also be used on clothing or the lining of a handbag or leather gloves. They have a clean and sheer nature. None are peculiar or strange in any way so it is highly unlikely they would start to cloy or get on one's nerves over time. Their essential light pleasantness is subtly uplifting, especially during these long indoor-spent cold months. These fragrances are numbered rather than named, and identified with a color corresponding to the type. For example green equals a green fragrance, violet equals an oriental type, black for leather, etc. (The color to fragrance connection is beginning to be examined more frequently in a number of recent releases, I see). White 01 is their ocean/beach signature fragrance with marine air and summer herbal notes. Green o5 is my favorite because of its clear cut-grass air. Violet 09 is a brandy amber which could be useful for certain British mystery and suspense stories. Orange 14 is a light rose and orange flower, very sheer, good for the nineteenth century French chapters that describe the toilette of Madame Bovary or the details of Colette's mother's home in Sido. Black 20 is leather and cedar, perfect for Russian novels and short stories by Turgenev or Chekov, and also Black CT01, vetiver crossed with fir and cedar. 21 Red is a spicey winter holiday scent, cardamon and berries, good for scenting gift wrapped boxes for sweaters and scarves.

There are always the perfumes of coffee and tobacco and chocolate, the classic scents to accompany the experience of reading...

Image above from the On Demand Books site, something new coming which sounds exciting. They will be able to print books to order, single copy, of any book, out of print or never published, current or backlist.

Perfumery and Kindred Arts

Many classics in the public domain have been scanned by Google, and they are now available online. The 1877, 398 page Perfumery and Kindred Arts, a Comprehensive Treatise on Perfume -- A History of Perfumes, with Practical Instructions by R.S. Christiani is a pleasure to browse through. One of the best things about it, or most excellent and fine (in the style of the book) is the incredible number of recipes. They can be followed for their ingredient lists and basic proportions in making, for example, Hungary Water. There are recipes for every other kind of floral water imaginable, too, and also what are called "bouquets" for handkerchiefs, and scented soaps. There are chapters on the culture of flowers for fragrance, and an explanation of the materials used in perfumery. The index reads like a prose poem. It is out of print but you can still get an original copy on Amazon for about $250. Or follow the link above, and read it online for free.

Many of the ingredients can be obtained in NYC, in small storefronts that sell dried herbs, spices and essential oils and other materials used in the book's recipes. Enchantments on East 9th Street and Enfleurage on Bleecker Street are good sources. Stepping into those places is like being transported into another time; one diametrically opposed to multitasking or speeding along in any way.

Here is a quote from page 26 about the use of perfume in the Middle East, that speaks of living in a fragrance induced state of dreamy languor:

"The oriental ladies use great quantities of costly 
perfumes and cosmetics, and the duties of the toilet 
are their most important occupation, no doubt tend- 
ing to preserve their personal charms. Living in an 
atmosphere of fragrance, they are kept in a state of 
dreamy languor, which to them may be the nearest 
approach to happiness. They are noted for their 
skill in retaining their charms by these various means. 


Above Odalisque by Adolphe Weiz

Dry Eyes

Dry eyes may typify the emotionally unmoved, or on the other hand, a calm and settled gaze. In the most literal sense, there is the dryness caused by winter air and the wind whipping away moisture from the eyes as well as all other exposed areas of the skin. Or both meanings can be operating at the same time, on a personal level, as the season changes and time passes. I am on a mission to winterize my life on all levels. In the physical sense, the cold winds outside and the hot air inside is, as every year, very drying. The economic contractions work to withdraw public and private interest from conspicuous consumption. Both of these conditions have served to intensify my interest in the beautiful aouds out there right now, and there are so many. They are warming, soft, quiet and expansively intoxicating at the same time. A balance to the contraction of the season's cold and the economic shrinkage. They make the blood flow faster through to the brain and out into the extremities from within. Amouage Lyric Woman, the Montale Aoud Rose Petals and Montale Blossom, are three samples I have been rotating through the past couple of weeks. The deeper notes of wood and rose together are a physical manifestation of what I aspire to internally as well as externally. An ideal mental and physical space. A modern use of aouds has combined them with a full range of other substances, as done by Pierre Montale, who traveled to Saudi Arabia and there was able to access the quality available only to the royal family. The Amouage line based around aoud has also been instrumental in bringing this material more widely into Western sensibility and vocabulary and making it into something contemporary. Aoud is a traditional material in Arabian perfumery (one of those vast subjects you can get lost in for years) that is created by condensing and refining the essence of a beautifully scented wood and enormous amounts of other fragrant natural materials into a thick liquid substance, used in tiny amounts in perfume. These aoud scents hold very close to the body but every so often I will quickly turn around and suddenly be hit by a sensation of being bathed in celestial light and happiness emanating from the fragrance lifting out from my own body heat. I recently shared some with a colleague at work and she thereafter did not want to move from her room, so as not to dissipate the atmosphere the fragrance was creating around her. Aoud ties into a space of personal rapture, it has a strong effect on mood. Of course, the quality range is wide as well as the price, but what Montale and Amouage have done is within the realm of orbiting the earth (only just). The "real" stuff which is only affordable to Arabian royalty in the Gulf whose wealth comes from oil, is so out of range I don't even want to think about it.

On a simpler note I have also been wearing Wild Hunt from CB I Hate Perfume which has migrated into my primary winter wool coat. I love when fragrance clings to my scarves, picked up from being wound around my neck. It's a lift whenever putting my outer wear on to go out. Wild Hunt translates into warm light on a cold day falling on fallen leaves, damp black earth, mushrooms, within the dappled shadows of an old forest, all combined into an introverted amber-y fluid tone that keeps your own body heat kindled. Joy and sadness combined, and perfect for winter.

This is the time to start heavily moisturizing everything again, changing even eye makeup to cream based formulas. Moisturized skin also holds perfume much longer, as does leather, the same thing after all. I have not tried perfuming my leather gloves yet, but I will soon since that tradition is where European forms of perfume originated centuries ago so I know it must be worth it.

In this climate of economic contraction, one of the most comforting affordable luxuries still left is taking good care of your skin. There are so many effective methods in all the price ranges now. Lately there has been a huge jump in quality in the drugstore and the health food store brands and of course there are still the many exquisite expensive and mysterious French and Japanese products at Bergdorf Goodman and the like. It is all luxury wherever it comes from, whatever it costs, and it is all good.

Above, peacock eyes from a free jigsaw puzzle site online.

The Fragrant Hours

One of the highlights of the big Fall Sniffa extravaganza experience is coming away with a lot of samples of new things, and also many others that may not be so new but are new to me. Some of them teach me the worth of keeping an open mind, because through them I am exposed to a range of things I might not necessarily seek out on my own, but which in the company of others who appreciate their aesthetic, become more attractive. Giving them another try I sometimes start to acquire a taste for certain elements which did not appeal to me before. For example Fracas, because of its strong tuberose, was one I have generally shied away from. This time, because of additional exposure to its appealing back-story and talk with others who are fans, I am open to trying it again. Having on hand a number of different forms like bath gel and body lotion and a scented candle, it has become possible for me to truly appreciate it. It is a classic and it's good to understand why that came to be, at first hand.
With such a wealth of diverse new samples, I have been trying a number of different ones over the course of a day.
Today, I got up early, as usual, and put on Roxana's Illuminated Perfume "Q", which is based on a tincture of oak leaves. It accompanies me like a small furry animal while I make and have breakfast, and read my favorite papers online. I love the idea of capturing the essence of oak leaves, especially the late autumn browned ones. It has a light, smooth and sweet resinous quality which is wholesomely organic. It also has an unobtrusive magic-happy-spell quality to it which works well towards setting me up for having a good day.
In the shower, I use Fracas shower and bath gel. Hot water and steam dilutes and expands the white floral tuberose/jasmine without allowing it to become heady. It turns into an aromatherapy experience which after toweling off leaves only a quiet trace in the atmosphere, like a mysterious blooming sensed through the open door of a conservatory. It is a good way to perfume a small apartment just a bit.
With little time left to get out the door, while rushing to get dressed, in service to my current craving for a cold weather rose I decide to use Paestum Rose. This fragrance holds close to the body, which is a good thing on a workday. It combines with my personal chemistry and mood in such a way as to embody the qualities of an ideal persona, one to which I have been aspiring lately. Qualities of both darkness and light, deep rose and dry mineral, an arms length embrace between the natural and the composed design of the skillfully art-directed. Lots of roses in a vase sitting on a polished stone table in an airy room with plenty of light and shadow, filtered through the windows hung with translucent linen that has been pulled back halfway. I reapplied a tiny bit just at 1pm, to maintain the sensory uplift within my personal space.
That lasted me until I got home. After dinner and a walk with Dante I settled down at the desk, and chose Cuir Ottoman by Parfum d'Empire from my Sniffa stash.
I applied it to both arms and at the throat, since in the privacy of my own home I am free to be self indulgent and so wear as much as I want. Soft leather treated with balsamic resins wafts up around me and with my face close to my wrists I find that my tiredness lifts. This scent awakens my brain while at the same time is relaxing. I am keeping it on to wear to bed and expect that as the top notes burn away the remaining traces will combine and evolve together with the deeper notes into a darker shadow, that will encourage falling asleep.

Above, Sylvia Mangano in Pasolini's Teorema, 1968. She looks to me like she is probably wearing Fracas.

Wearing Perfume to Work

Emanating perfume all around you in public spaces, especially at work, is increasingly controversial. So many very vocal people passionately complain about being subjected to perfume in public places, and some strive to lead an entirely unscented existence. I love perfume that uplifts my mood and energy and connects me to my animal nature, while at the same time it can operate on many different mental, emotional and psychological levels, like a poem. So there is a conflict of interest between me and my fellow human beings who are just trying to get through the day without being involuntarily subjected to substances and sensations or reminders of the physical world they have no wish to be exposed to, particularly at work. If I am not to trigger a workplace ban I have to take into consideration the strong feelings such people have against perfume. Actually I think in most cases these people are more upset about being forced to inhale a perfume they personally do not like; it is mentally and physically invasive. Commercially made perfumes by the big well known companies are exhaustively tested so as to be sure not to cause bad reactions. Obviously they have no wish to be found legally responsible for causing health problems. I seriously doubt there is any physical danger to anyone from exposure to fine perfumes. I think it is most often in the dosage and conflict with personal preferences that the trouble arises. The overuse of the big classic department store scents with big sillage can take a lot of responsibility for this reactionary atmosphere. Their indiscriminate public use has given perfume a bad name, to the point where people are convinced their allergies are triggered by all forms of perfumes, and they don't want to think about or deal with any discernible perfume whatsoever. Oceans of Estee Lauder Pleasures or Lancome Tresor in an enclosed space like an elevator or an office without much fresh air will give even those with healthy sinuses a sick headache or choke the most ardent fan of perfume. But even they can be skillfully used during the workday, drawing the sillage into a tighter circle around yourself by using the tiniest drop possible. Their power can then act as an enhancement of one's personal space without knocking anyone down. It's all about personal space, is it not?

The common practice in department stores and boutiques of lining up six or more sets of diffuser reeds of different home fragrances beside each other on a counter creates an overpowering and confusing atmosphere which has frightened some people into believing that perfume should be avoided at all costs. Especially when at the same time there is a lot of other promotional perfume spraying going on nearby. I have recently read about how the heavy handed use of perfume can be a sign of depression, which causes the sense of smell to be blunted. I realize there are a certain new chemical musk molecules that get a strong negative reaction from highly sensitive people, such as perfumer Christopher Brosius, who has written eloquently about this issue in his I Hate Perfume site.

One solution is to keep a separate less "difficult" or "special" perfume wardrobe for work and crowded public places, as we do with our work clothing and persona, or alternatively, use non-chemically enhanced, natural perfumes that are oil based. In any case it is necessary to be aware of and adjust the amount used so that the throw never reaches beyond one foot or so around you. That is well within your personal space, which I believe we all have the right to do with what we wish, within reason.

Certain perfumes are considered to be more acceptable in a standard work environment. The classics, such as Chanel No. 5, or close to classics such as Annick Goutal Eau de Hadrian, or even Songes, can be fine, and certain types that are classically prettier and appealing are often considered less irritating. I realize more and more that "regular" people are not interested in and often do not initially like the types of perfumes that those who are very involved in perfume often go for. Woods, incense, moss, leather, patchouli, balsamic or even distinctively gourmand types are not very much appreciated at work, generally speaking. A big floral is perceived as way too much, especially tuberose, jasmine or gardenia. Green or citrus fragrances, and certain abstract compositions, in cologne or eau de toilette strength generally will not trigger confrontational objections.

Sometimes I like to have a deep inhalation of a complex and dark or heavier perfume or the equivalent of a large bunch of white flowers, even when I am in a crowded public place. When my time and space is not really my own, such perfumes can be applied to a card and kept in a book, or on a tissue in the handbag. Or I dare the tiniest drop on the wrist, if there is enough personal space around me to let it breathe out with me.

Fractal above from this nice free fractal site.

Compositions

Sometimes you want to compose your own olfactory experience. This often happens at the start of a new season with me. I start thinking about exactly what I would want in a perfume for this particular seasonal moment. Right now, what I want is a hot flame of intense colorful scent arising from a background of coolness. Like this tree. With rose too, rose has become a scent I crave lately, combined with wet earth and leaves, and burning wood.

In aid of this longing for a rose for the coming colder weather, I have been combining a few samples I recently received from Sonoma Scent Studio.

I have put Vintage Rose and Velvet Rose on one arm and Winter Woods on the other. I think I may have to add a very earthy note to get closer to what I seek. I may be able to get hold of some CB I Hate Perfume in the earthy/dirt category and add that, perhaps on the shoulders, and the other scents applied to each wrist. After about a half an hour I find it all symphonically combines together. I never layer things right on top of each other, that seems going a bit too far and on the sacrilegious side, for me. What results is a soft balsamic tar, with an almost tobacco-like rose tone that shades into an incense mist rising up around me.

I saw from his site today that Andy Tauer is pursuing a winter rose theme lately, and bringing it to a medieval art-and-life sort of festivity nearby to try on the attendees. I expect that would probably hit the nail right on the head for me. I can't wait to find out how that transpires over time. If it results in a commercially released winter rose that would be like hitting the jack pot.

This weekend is the Fall Sniffa, and I look forward to the scent marathon it will be. It seems a little odd to consider any more perfume purchases as this time, as the economic situation collapses around me, and also considering I am not exactly wealthy to start with, either. Still, the company and the activity is very welcome right now. I am also thinking the humid green of L'Artisasn Eau de Liane could be just the thing to get me through the dark days of winter and the gloom of economic slowdown to come, and it would make a good counter-balance to my mulch-burning wood/rose fixation.

Above photo from Jackie Weisberg's very nice photostream on flickr. (See here)

Tag!

So I've been tagged by Olfactarama -- here goes:

1. Link to the person who tagged you. (above)
2. Post the rules on your blog. (okay)
3. Write six random things about yourself. (below)
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them. (below)
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog. (makes sense)
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up. (OK)

Six random things about me:

1. I am brushing up on my childhood Lithuanian by listening to lessons on the ipod when I am out and about. I intend to visit someday not too far in the future.

2. I am somewhat easily swayed. For example today, I learned there will be 54 Italian Greyhound participants at a Halloween party tomorrow, so I am dropping all my responsibilities to attend. Hopefully Dante will not explode from joy.

3. I am a compulsive reader. Too many books everywhere, of almost every kind. I sometimes steal time from my projects to read (the sign of a true addict/compulsive -- see "somewhat easily swayed, above").

4. I don't like cars (or automobiles, as I think of them) and never learned to drive. I hope they bring the horse back, that would solve a lot of the dependence on foreign oil. (I get away with this by living in NYC where a car is a liability).

5. I don't like to eat fish of any kind, either (sound like a crank, don't I?)

6. I have become a news junkie, especially lately. What a year! The election, the economy, the explosion of pop culture blogs and podcasts and other sites, I could listen to the news all day...

Ok, now I must pick six other victims, ahem, I mean, tag you're it! All WONDERFUL writers!
You will be drowned in beauty if you follow these links:


Vetivresse -- Wine and Perfume, he leaves no stone unturned in the pursuit of happiness...

Bittergrace -- history and perfume and social background, always something new and surprising

Anya's Garden -- Ms. Natural personified, and generous with her knowledge.

Tea, Sympathy and Perfume -- poetry, emotion and scent

Scentzilla -- a most exquisite sensibility

A Minx by Any Other Name -- a dedicated follower of fashion, in the best sense of the word. New to me, an enthusiast enamoured of fragrance.

Pure Air

An odd juxtaposition of wildly disparate circumstances struck me lately, out of a couple of news stories relating to the sense of smell. We know that the purity of the air supports our ability to experience the sense of smell fully. Anything that interferes with it is fundamentally not good for you. It has been found that air pollution even has a noticeable effect on the inner workings of the body, especially its chemistry, and even our brains' electrical impulses.

An interesting and alarming news story comes from China about certain people who have been training their sense of smell. These people have proved that the more exposure you have to a certain smell, the more you will be able to discern its components and nuances. You become more sensitized to the presence of particular elements the more frequently and deeply you experience them. I think we already knew this intuitively, but these current studies have found experimental proof. Unfortunately, this is a sad story because the rotating band of twelve people who have volunteered for such training are going to be used to hunt for the sources of dangerous pollution in a heavily industrialized part of China. It's alarming that human beings will deliberately be exposing themselves to very toxic substances by breathing them in. There are machines that can do this job, perfectly and fairly inexpensively, instead.

It is inexplicable. Or maybe we are not getting the whole story.

My world of scent is so much luckier, I know.

In my local area, a woman known as "the butterfly lady" started a project to attract more butterflies to my neighborhood, and to support their seasonal migrations, by planting "greenways". Butterflies need pure air to live. They disappear in places that are polluted. Butterflies have a particular preference for certain shrubs and plants. Flowers that produce a lot of nectar are very attractive to them. Instead of planting the usual impatiens and marigolds in window boxes, or the other typical tough city annuals that are cheerful but not particularly attractive to butterflies or birds, the butterfly lady is promoting the heavily nectar producing ornamental plants. She helps with suggestions for window box or front garden plantings or even comes over and put together plantings for people. She has encouraged dozens of neighbors to get involved, and their efforts have begun to show noticeable results. They are attracting many more varieties and numbers of butterflies and birds to our neighborhood.

While the economy may have us feeling a little poor, the world is still rich in experiences...

Mp3 story on the sniffers in China.

Our Butterfly lady of Brooklyn, above photo from Daily News Brooklyn edition.

Le Plaisir

The pleasure principle -- that we are entirely motivated by the attraction to pleasure and the avoidance of pain, has come to the cultural/political/economic news cycle foreground lately, in so many ways. What an ironic coincidence, for one, that the unhappy David Foster Wallace, whose book Infinite Jest centered around a film so entertaining it killed you to watch it, ended his life recently, and just now, coincidentally, Le Plaisir, by Max Ophuls, was reviewed in the NYT as a new release in DVD form, for home viewing. Now you can watch it again and again, and savor every morsel. Ophuls had a different perspective on pleasure than did DFW, that's for sure. It's quite a clash of world views to assimilate -- the New World post-modern self-consciousness of life in a consumer culture and the use of irony to defend the self against being ravaged by greed vs. Old World ease with a developed aesthetic of refined appreciation of all the animal/physical pleasures of daily life and materiality. Classic French culture teaches by example about eating carefully prepared food and drinking fine wines, refining the sense of smell with imaginative perfume and clothing the body in couture, and from there moving on into the development of complicated and classic romantic dances between the sexes and the cultivation of relationships over time -- as a way of life that is unambiguous in its pursuit of expressive sensuality and pleasure in all its forms.

DFW's interviews have been replayed everywhere recently, and the one that struck me the most was on Fresh Air, where he gave a great explanation of how contemporary self-consciousness, cynicism and irony are both necessary defenses of the self and mind and spoilers. They are defenses that undermine effectiveness in the realms of reality and physical experience. He noticed that he and his friends were well educated and incredibly privileged and yet all so deeply unhappy, nevertheless. A one to one relationship to experience had been broken, in part, by the use of irony, which has become an all pervasive primary defense against the exploitation of sincerity and enthusiasm, especially in the experience of pleasure. Nowadays, educated people have become wary of the language of sincerity and unambiguous pleasure and often reject it all as a trap in the service of manipulative sellers of that which is generally unnecessary and too expensive. So much inner conflict can be too difficult to bear, as poor DFW's experience testifies. He had so much clarity and humor and insight into himself and others. I wish he could have found more pleasure in his own gifts.

Back to perfume. In the midst of this change of season into cooler rainy days, while the financial markets melt down around us, as a personal antidote and an unambiguous pleasure for myself, I have reopened my sample set of Annick Goutal Les Orientalistes: Ambre Fetiche, Myrrhe Ardente, and Encens Flamboyant. I never got the one with musk, but I'm a bit musked out from my recent musk voyage, so I refrain without regret at this point. It will be officially Autumn next week on 9/22. Day and night will be of equal length and from then on the nights start getting longer, so it feels good to bring out the ambers and incense, smokes and leathers. Personally, I find that I most prefer the Ambre Fetiche, even though there is a heavy sweetness there. I can live with it and enjoy it because has a honeyed softness completely bonded to the dark amber and leather tone, crossed with a pale pepper and incense transparent airiness. The Myrrhe throws a wood-smokiness into the air, clouded above a lightly balsamic-infused, thin glove leather note. Encense Flamboyant is dry herbal coolness above a incense that has burned away already, and the most trans-seasonal of the three. After ten minutes all three dry down to a super soft blendedness in composition, so that no one note pokes its head above the rest, that makes them highly wearable for daytime use. At home, or at night, of course, no holds barred, all three can be worn at once on various areas of the body to join in a layered but separate symphonic atmosphere.

Above, Jean Galland on the left in a scene from Le Plaisir by Max Ophuls, from the article in the NYT.

Come to your Senses

I've been on kind of a perfume hiatus for a bit, but was re-energized by my package arriving from the Perfumed Court, of a selection of musk samples. It was exciting to try them all one after the other, but in the end, I find this confirms what I suspected. I wanted to be experimental, and try something I normally would not, maybe expand my parameters a bit, maybe be surprised. I have learned that musk, though ubiquitous in all its forms, is not, as a dominant note, for everyone. Certainly not for me so much. After trying them all, though some were more interesting than others, I am still not very drawn to a strong musk note, no matter how it is enveloped -- in chocolate (Musc Maori by Parfumerie Generale) or salt (L'Artisan Mure et Musc Extreme) or fresh bread (Lorenzo Villoresi Musk). I accidentally slipped opening Narcisco Rodriguez For Her and it came pouring out over my forearm, so I sit here emanating clouds of it around me now. It's evening so that's fine; I will end up sleeping in it. It dries down into a very soft, transparent slightly powdery abstract tone, not like anything recognizable or specific. I decided to see what a little layering might do, to turn the corner of it all, so to speak. So I tried a tiny amount of Laura Tonatto Oropuro on top (which alone is extremely skanky, to my taste). I much prefer the combination to either one alone, they affect each other by blending into a softness that resembles very clean skin. If I really wanted to go all out I could try something meant for layering such as Etro Patchouli or Vetiver or Sandalo on the other arm, (though I ended with a drop of Annick Goutal Ambre Fetiche, instead, just to see, because I realized I forgot I left my Etros in a box at work) The combination lifts above my threshold of a necessary beauty quotient, so I am content to wait and see how it all develops further.
I intend to continue to combine the musks in this sampler array, and see how they fly together in various combinations. So far as a stand alone the L'Artisan Mure et Musc Extreme is the most composed, complete and appealing as a fragrance to use on an everyday basis.

Aside from all this mad scientist layering, I wanted to share my interest in a book called "Come to Your Senses - Demystifying the Mind Body Connection" by Stanley and Carolyn Block. Their appealing premise is that you can use the senses to relieve stress and tension. This of course applies to the use of perfume and the sense of smell. The book explains and recommends a simple method of shifting mental focus onto the ambient sensual information all around you as a way to instantly alleviate stress or run-on thoughts or bodily discomforts. For example, stroking the cloth of something you are wearing, and fully experiencing the texture, or listening to the ambient white noise around you, or noticing the temperature of the air, as it moves by your face. This is a form of distraction but at the same time a kind of concentration that works instantly to release tensions. It is related to mindfulness meditation, where if you are as alive as possible to the present moment, calming thoughts and being aware by noticing where you are and what is going on in as much detail and as deeply as possible, you are then most intensely alive and integrated, mentally and physically. This state of immersion is a very restful one and the release of tension frees up energy that can be then be used to recover from whatever is bothering you, naturally.

Above detail from a Portrait of a Princess of the House of Este, by Pisanello, a lady who certainly stands in the midst of many ambient sensual elements...

Harajuku and Visual kei (by a Perfume Otaku)

I have been fascinated lately by the creativity and the extremity of the Japanese subcultures in fashion and make up styles. There is a vocabulary that has been developed to describe some of the concepts. Otaku, to my understanding, describes a person who has allowed their own eccentricity free rein and become extremely involved with some aspect of pop or other form of modern culture; a person with obsessive interests. Along those lines, to some I myself could be considered a Perfume Otaku.

Visual kei is the movement of Japanese musicians to adopt eccentric and extreme looks. The conceptual aspect of their visual presentation is as important, or maybe more important sometimes, than the music. Visual kei is a conceptual performance art that combines fashion and music and cultural references that cross the classic Japanese styles with iconic American and European imagery, such as those from the gothic lolita, vampire, or biker subcultural styles. Fans have spread this look all over the world.

This style includes very emphasized eyes and extreme hair. The aim appears to be to approach the look of manga and anime characters.

There is also the cosplay culture, which has spread to the U.S. People dress up as their favorite anime characters or some exalted version of them, and pose themselves within the environment in such a way as to closely approximate certain significant scenes in an anime. Kind of like the historical re-enactment movement, only about fictional graphic characters. I recall people in full costume and makeup arranging themselves through out the landscape in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden during the Cherry Blossom festival this past Spring, and then realizing I was witnessing cosplay.

There are a number of other harajuku styles, one called Ganguro, where young Japanese girls adopt very tan makeup in an almost tribal warpaint style to present an exaggerated and idealized version of American street style crossed with California surfer babe Barbie doll style.

There are many fascinating videos on You Tube which are basically tutorials on visual kei and other contemporary Japanese makeup and hair styles.

For a good visual kei eye makeup tutorial on YouTube, please see here.

Dir en Grey, a visual kei jrock group depicts the style in action on many videos on You Tube. Note the waving lines on the fins of the swimming gold fish in the background echoing the strands of black hair in movement as they dance here in one of the prettier clips. (Be careful of some of their other videos, some of the images are disturbing).

For a more toned-down but still intense, far more Western and fashion-oriented version of dramatic eye makeup, please see this excellent tutorial by Smashbox, here.
Above promotional photo is of one of the Dir en Grey members.

Musk

I recently became aware, through reading an entry by Christopher Brosius in his I Hate Perfume blog about the chemical musk situation in perfume and how it affects different people so much. (Please see his post here, it's well worth reading if you haven't already seen it. It also goes a long way to explaining the name I Hate Perfume).

There is no way that natural animal musk can ever be used in perfume again, or any way that we would ever want it to be. There are certain plant materials that have a musky tone such as ambrette seed, but the days of a truly commercially viable use of a natural musk scent are no longer with us. Even so, the scent of musk, or an intellectual idea of an enhanced version of the musk effect, is used everywhere. We are surrounded by it, from expensive to cheap fragrances, to fabric detergents and shampoos or paper products or even in so called unscented products (I have read that unscented products have scent molecules in them that block/mask the natural scent of the product). A variety of molecules to mimic various enhanced versions of musk have been developed but seem to be invisible to many people, many (sometimes as many as 40% have selective anosmia to these molecules) can smell one type of musk molecule but not another. So a range of musk molecules are used in products, so that the note will get through to people by one molecule version or another. This explains to me why I don't get some perfumes such as Tresor, because it may well be that the musk molecule in it which comprises about 40% of the perfume is one in a range that disagrees with my brain in a radical way.

I have not really been that much of a fan of musk, so far anyway, or at least my idea of what musk is like, from my exposure to perfumes with the word "musk" in the name. I have had the opportunity to sniff at real civet musk, and it is such a rank and penetrating, strong odor I am amazed that someone long ago realized it was useful a fragrance material if it were to be very diluted. But I realize now that I may not be aware of how much musk there is around me. Apparently it is the most used ingredient across the board in most fragrances, both in perfumes and in scented products of all kinds, from paper products to laundry detergents and every kind of lotion, because of certain qualities it has. From research I find that often musk is used for its property of enhancement and ability to heighten the power of other scents, and even tastes, without it being strong enough to be evident as itself. It is said that if you put a very tiny amount of musk, even the chemical form, in a glass that once held another perfume note, that has been cleaned, the musk will enhance whatever minute trace is left in the glass and amplify and refresh the scent to make it clearly discernible. This almost magical quality is essentially what has made musk so widely used for that quality of enhancing the experience of fragrances in general.
The Perfumed Court has put together three sampler collections of musks, and I have decided to expand my horizons and order one, so that I can really start delving into this note.
I will be getting eight different samples:

• L'Artisan Mure et Musc Extreme
• Laura Tonatto Oropuro
• Lorenzo Villoresi Musk
• Mazzolari Musc
• Montale Ginger Musk
• Narciso Rodriguez for Her
• Parfumerie Generale Musc Maori
• Vinci & Rakos Earth

I am looking forward to receiving them. Long live The Perfumed Court!

Above civet cat from the site Maylasia Scrapbook.

A World of Summer Heat and Perfume

This long heat wave combined with high humidity and intermittent intense electrical storms in NYC makes it seem to me like we are all engaged in playing an extreme form of city/weather sports. I think of enduring the weather and the conditions it causes in the city to be like a skill or even a sport.

It takes a lot of patience and calm, and certainly the wearing of appropriate clothing and footwear to get through the baking streets for any length of time. Even so, many are still super-humanly striding around in extremely high heels and platform shoes and tight clothing, with a cheerful stoicism that is on the level of a performance art. Protection from the broiling sun or the driving monsoon-like downpours is essential, so it's good to carry a parasol/umbrella around at all times.

Wearing perfume on such days becomes one of the small pleasures that get you through it gracefully. Even with all the air conditioning, if you are outside at all it becomes necessary to have a shower more than once a day. But this gives an expanded opportunity to use light body sprays and scented soaps and bath products. The Roget and Gallet bath line are meant for days like this. The Evelyn and Crabtree, or Caswell Massey old fashioned simple scents of lavender, almond or rose can help bring out a sense of Yankee industry and self possession in the morning. In the evening, I like to turn the dial the opposite way, to something heavier, or more complicated. My current rotation of evening perfumes is Poivre de Piquant by L'Artisan, (which develops beautifully, I love the combination of sharpness and softness), Cuir de Oranger by Miller Harris, some of the Etros, such as the Patchouly, and Etro Vetiver (vetiver is so great in the heat, as the Indians know so well), and also my L'Artisan's Dzonga and Timbuktu samples.

Speaking of summer heat, there was a presentation at Symrise on the Russian perfume market put on by Sniffapalooza which surprised me, because I was shocked to hear that though the winters are famously long and cold in Russia, the summers are very hot, often with 100 degree days. So the summer there is kind of like NYC in this past heat wave, along with the very short, if sweet, spring and fall seasons.

Symrise has been doing extensive marketing research in Russia, since it is a big and expanding market for fragrance and cosmetics. Their results were that the Russian market currently prefers a traditional femininity, with lots of makeup, dressiness, and status branding, but with a wild card thrown in of a strong love for the natural environment, which is seen as the antidote to stress and pollution. Russians have historically been most drawn to strongly floral fragrances, but Symrise has also found a preference for an ideal of freshness during the high heat of the summers, and for fruity fragrances, especially the berry scents. "Orientals" or "incense" types are not liked very much, which also surprised me. I imagined those types would be exactly what Russians would be all about. No leathers or woods or spices, and little liking for citrus or gourmand notes like chocolate, either.

This seems similar to the tastes of other parts of the world where femininity is still preferred in its more traditional cast, such as Latin America and Asia. Symrise had a number of men's and women's accords relating to the four extreme seasonal shifts, because Russians like to mark the seasons very definitely and to change their perfumes according to them even more than we do. I found most of the samples much too fruity and sweet for my taste, but there were a couple that stood out by being much softer and tending towards the maybe dangerous woods and balsamic notes, which might not sell so well there right now, at least according to the marketing research.

I wonder if as the world becomes more connected through media, that a global style might not take hold everywhere. Personally I feel that tastes in perfume and fashion around the world actually will begin to converge into an international taste, somewhere around the French and artisan niche brands for perfumes. But that is just my intuition, rather than information supported by marketing research. For me, the problem with creating scents from marketing research can be the too many cooks syndrome, or a corporate taste for averaging that will not result in exciting anybody in particular.

I have been surprised to learn that in Asia perfumes are not really liked (the source of so many perfume raw materials and traditions). People sometimes collect expensive bottles more for the packaging and the psychological idea of the product than for use of the perfume itself, but they also, like the Russians, especially in China and Japan (according to an article I read in the New York Times) like "clean" scents. They also have much stronger aromas associated with food than Americans have had, and so maybe don't look to perfumes for olfactory stimulation or associations.

All the markets outside of America and Europe are expanding for fragrance and cosmetics, even as ours has gone somewhat flat, or even cutting back a bit on the luxuries side. Especially Russia and Asia have some catching up to do in regard to indulging personally with luxury goods, so of course they are being closely watched as many new opportunities arise to catch the interest of these emerging markets.

Above, a Russian maiden, from the University of Virginia Slavic Collection

Bertrand Duchaufour

Last week Bertrand Duchaufour came to the 82nd and Madison branch of L'Artisan to talk about a new perfume, to be released in October of 2008. For the time being, it is not to be specifically described, but suffice it to say it is a continuation of the idea of perfume as the scent essence of an exotic and distinctive place, continuing in the mode of Timbuktu and Dzongha.

If being a self actualized person means you are someone who is able to effectively act to bring your personal creativity, talent and vision into the real world, then Duchaufour makes a good example, especially since he has found in L'Artisan a partner that supports the independent scope of his creativity.

In many ways Duchaufour leads an ideal life, as he revealed through his discussion of the process he employs to gather references and refine his concepts. He works by developing his ideas through travel and immersion in exotic places that are distinctively and beautifully aromatic. Once there he gathers raw materials, researches, makes notes, photographs, sketches, and even writes poetry. In this way he captures and then refines samples of the physical reality that he translates into scent accords he will then use to build a perfume portrait of a place. He showed a sample notebook of such personal references he used as an aid in creating Dzongha. L'Artisan provides the resources and the venue for the results of this sensory narrative.

Interestingly, he spoke of coming to his interest in perfume as a late teenager, via his first girlfriends. They exposed him to and educated him about perfume and inspired his pursuit of a career in the field. He grew to become someone who is doing some of the most evocative and compelling creative work in this medium, combining a conceptual approach with an intense involvement in physical materiality.

Above, Timbuktu itself, the inspiration for the perfume of the same name. This is a culture that places a great emphasis on the power of perfume and not often visited by Westerners-- see this fascinating article for more on its unique place in history and world culture.

Thank you to the two Karens of Sniffapalooza for the invitation to this very special L'Artisan event!

Summer in the City

Because summer is the season we are outdoors the most, even in the city, the scents emanating from everything around us will then have the strongest effect on our daily lives. I am fortunate to live near an enormous old park (Prospect, designed by Olmstead) and sometimes up very very early during the week. I get myself in there at 6:30 am before anyone much is around, with Dante (Italian Greyhound) and the few other dog people I find there. There I find transparent mist rising from the grass and the raking golden light highlighting every blade of grass in the Long Meadow and reaching up to pick out the details of the leaves through the big old Victorian trees. The temperatures in the early morning are always cool, in the low 60s, and the humidity is the highest of the day (over 70 percent, usually).

The stillness and spaciousness magnifies the scents, even the traffic noise is distanced, absorbed by all the green matter and fresh dew in the trees and grass. The lindens are emanating clouds of sweetness and wild honeysuckle vines are wrapped around the interior fences everywhere. It's a mini vacation before the start of a work day.

Another refreshing place to go if you are out early anywhere in the city, especially in midtown, is to stop into an open church (such as St. Bartholomew's on Park and 50th) and go into a smaller side chapel or even the main interior. It is very likely that you will be the only one there at all, and you will be surrounded by a quiet luxuriously decorated spaciousness, with glinting mosaics, gleaming wood, cool stone walls and colorful light pouring through the stained glass while the roar of the rush hour eddies around outside. It's like standing in a private palace, dedicated to spiritual concerns. Well waxed wood and traces of aromatic incense sweeten the cool non air conditioned air.

Air conditioning in the city is ferocious, often making it essential to keep a sweater or a "pashmina" shawl with you to wear indoors. If you have a scent tolerant workplace (and most still are in NYC) you can indulge in whatever you like without regard to seasonal temperature, because it is certainly no particular season indoors except very cold and very bright. Outside it's another story. The heat on the streets and the waits on the train platforms are like that blast of heat you get when you open an oven door, often combined with humidity that is sure
to result in stickiness unless you are cloak yourself in a wet sheet. I like certain colognes that are marketed to men this time of year. I've not much patience for frills over a certain degree of temperature. The high alcohol content of cologne has that clean and bracing effect and is traditionally used in summer for one good reason that it was helpful in the days before much air conditioning. With global warming we may yet go back to those days again before very long, and all those little tricks employed by our ancestors to deal with the heat in the city will no doubt be revived.

L'eau de Hespirides by Diptyque cuts through the thick humidity and airlessness like a knife. Citruses and rosemary crossed with a musk that give it some shade, but I think it is the rosemary that opens the air passages to the brain.

Andy Tauer's L'air du desert Marocain rises up around you in a cloud rendered more intense by heat, but is so appropriate because of its aromatic desert wind inspiration. It spices the air around you and imparts overheated conditions with the dry resinous beauty of cedar crossed with the heady dreaminess of jasmine. More of an end of the day fragrance for me, after you get back into a cool room for the night, exhausted from the heat and humidity and noise of the day.

Goutal's Eau d' Hadrien is as clarifying as a bell, combining acidic lemon and grapefruit with cypress green tones that reminds you places like Capri exist on the other side of the world.

A huge proportion of Roger & Gallet's collection is city-summer-heat appropriate. Their bath and fragrance products on the themes of Green Tea, Ginger, Blue Lotus, Citron, Lavandre, Vetyver and Shiso all have a delicate but stimulating property similar to that first morning coffee.

Above photo by Garry R. Osgood, Prospect Park from Endale Arch, the longest open view in NYC without buildings, designed to resemble an English park from the Age of Enlightenment...

What the Nose Knows

This book by Avery Gilbert, who is a smell scientist/psychologist, describes aspects of the sense of smell through lots of entertaining and instructive anecdotes. They range a wide spectrum across nature and chemistry from the beautiful to the terrible. He depicts everything from perfumers' work practices, to how food is tasted through the way it smells from inside our mouths, to the the way smells signal the stages of decay.

Even though it's not much spoken about or focused on, we all know the sense of smell is in constant use both consciously and unconsciously in humans and all other living beings. It's like a steering mechanism used by us all. I was surprised to find out that the same scent molecules are creating all the different fragrances across nature, in butterfly wings and greenery and flowers and food stuffs. Certain ones are much more dominant but the same ones recur everywhere. It's their combinations and atmospheric concentration that change the characteristic scent of each thing.

I was interested to find out that we each carry a very particular scent within the palms of our hands which is as individual as a fingerprint. Our pets know that our own smell is a unique identifying characteristic that marks everything we come into contact with.

An experiment revealed that people's capacity of appreciation for fragrance is basically equal, and is mostly a matter of development. Actually a matter of consciously noticing and remembering what you are smelling, deliberately cultivating this particular aspect of experience. We all have essentially the same equipment, a nose connected to a brain. A perfumer's nose is educated rather than simply possessing some innate ability that is greater than average. Their creative talent lies in how they put fragrance elements together, similar to how a poet or writer combines ideas and associations.

It was also interesting to find out that experiments have been conducted that show that people who have a highly adverse reaction to perfume do not actually have a more sensitive sense of smell or greater reactivity to the chemicals in them, except that they had a measurably stronger reaction in a certain area of the brain. Hopefully people will not see this as undermining the reality of their suffering, but instead that they can change their minds, so to speak (and perhaps not feel they must pass ordinances against the use of perfume too?)

Also mentioned are the perfumista sites (this one among them, which was nice). The author believes that going forward it would be useful to have more written about fragrances that explain what they are really like to wear, as opposed to lots more of the frothy evocative marketing language created to sell it. At the same time he confirms that reading about scent experiences can evoke a physical reaction and create mental and emotional associations that will invest that particular fragrance with more pleasurable dimension.

The book is $23.95 in hardcover, available online at Amazon and soon in all the bookstores.

Midsummer Night Festivities

Midsummer festivities are June 20, a Friday night, downtown at the water's edge in NYC this year, sponsored by the Swedish consulate and the Parks department. They promise 3-5 thousand people, many of them Swedish or from some other far Northern persuasion, who will be celebrating by singing, dancing, eating, making floral head crowns, playing and listening to music. All generally trancing out while witnessing the longest day end by watching the sun finally sink over the edge of the water for the shortest night.

I like the idea of learning to make floral garlands, especially because personally I would like to see a big comeback of people (both sexes) wearing fresh flowers, the more fragrant the better. Garland crowns, corsages, leis, boutonnieres, carrying bouquets, whatever and wherever, as a daily adornment and a pleasure. It would be great to see women walking around wearing Frieda Kahlo-like floral crowns.

This holiday has an old name, Litha, and was the opposite of Christmas, and maybe a bigger holiday in the northern European regions that remained pagan the longest (maybe Lithuania got that name by holding onto pagan beliefs so long and making big summer solstice celebrations?) The power of the sun is in every way intense in the places where the summer is one long day and the winter is one long night. People really enjoy the summer when it is such a short time of the year and they have such a short growing season.

There are countless floral and herbal perfumes that are perfect for a summer solstice party. (See last year's posting on this by Perfume Smellin' Things, a very sophisticated and thoughtful list). At the moment I am experiencing a tremendous sense of aversion to sweetness, so that cuts out a lot of the candied and fruited versions of a lot of florals, for me. My choices currently are Caron's Muguet de Bonheur, which is like a sharp tanged lily of the valley from a distance of about ten feet, which is to say, that much softened, and it gets softer as time goes on. Miele Rosa by i Profumi de Fierenze, is a soft milky rose. It has a true rose steeped in heavy cream feel to it. It was a limited edition in 2007, and I hope it's still available out there somewhere, I think it worthy of a full size purchase after sampling for a few days. Yosh White Flowers I love for the stemmy green pure floralness of it. Nothing sweet there at all, the pettigrain and Siberian fir combine with all the white florals in the book such as gardenia, jasmine, sweet pea, freesia, tuberose, narcissus, rose, and others to bring out the green tone in the floral scents without sweetness. Another favorite of mine, Creed's Fantasia de Fleurs, from the 1862 formula, is a mixture of floral uplift combined with musk that gives it a sense of relaxation and a sophisticated edge, and could be worn by anyone, man or woman, anywhere, at a wedding or at work.

Above photo, a black rose from the Boutonniere Gallery at the Knot, a wedding planner site. Wedding sites have great ideas for flowers and arrangements that I wish would be used more often than just exclusively at weddings and big parties...eccentric that I am.

YSL and the Seventies and Opium

All the tributes and postings on Yves Saint Laurent this week have brought forth nostalgia in me for the seventies. Personally handsome, he had an aware, melancholic, elegant and slender beauty. He was a fragile yet bold introvert who seemed constantly to be making associative connections, thinking about what next, all the time. In his honor I took out my Opium edp and doused myself yesterday and last night, and very much enjoyed the carnation, myrrh, mandarin and sandalwood with floral tones. The clove-like persistence of the fragrance softens down into the sandalwood, but this perfume reacts intensely to body heat, rising up around you until it seems like all the notes are singing with equal strength in a symphonic way. While many consider Opium to be the quintessential "Oriental" fragrance, it is not so easy to wear out and about, these days. It has that huge sillage and is very much of a certain era, and therefore a little difficult for a woman of a certain age to wear without becoming a bit self-conscious, though mostly I do so with a militant sense of choice (yet another seventies legacy, feminism). Perhaps Opium is overdue for a revival. I hope so. Modern girls have engaged with seventies style in many ways, and it's kind of fun for me personally that there is a growing use of sandalwood, patchouli, myrrh, and other incense perfume tones as related to this aesthetic.

YSL drew much from both the romanticized past and an ideal future, putting together details and richness from his personal mythology of special times and places. I have been reading both sci-fi-fantasy and historical fiction lately, and I find similar pleasures therein, from the detailed depictions of vast spaces and deep nature, and the rich descriptions of symbolic adornments used to depict the personality traits of the most active characters. YSL worked in a similar way, and often used alternating themes of past and future. In his rich peasant phase, the jewel color paisleys and abundant fabric, leather and (sadly) fur textures made for a nineteenth century flavored form of casual wear.

His season of forties themes (it may have been YSL that made nostalgia for the recent past a couture convention) that Cathy Horyn describes in her article in the NYT about the big shouldered chubby fur jackets and elaborate up-swept hair, was also enduringly influential. It was related to that thrift shop look that many wore at the time, which was put together by finding beautifully made vintage pieces for a song, wearing them without all the strict undergarments they were made for and thereby giving them a new look. YSL also moved into a heavy use of "modernist" art references to Modrian, Matisse and Picasso, using their simplified and futuristic style of decorative motifs, a use which continues to be relevant and elaborated upon by other designers.

YSL took a direction with Opium ( I understand Givaudan was the supplier of materials for Opium, and also for Obsession by Calvin Klein, which seems like a paler and more casual variation on the same theme) that reached into the symbols and signals of the past and a embodied a sense of exoticism crossed with modernity. He was probably the last of the couturiers of the grand style, whose influence could set a direction that would actually be followed, while he himself followed and allowed his luxurious ideas to be illuminated by the trends of youthful street fashions.

Above ad, the beauty Sophie Dahl famously wearing Opium and not much else...