The Fragrance of her Love
Posted by ritaglh on Mar 6, 2008
My Nanna regretted a little that her hands were no longer as smooth, but to me they were like butter, the butter we used to layer on cardamon and cinnamon yeast buns together. There wasn’t too much to say this time although we saw each other every day of my recent short visit except to cuddle and sit close as my 83 year old grandmother chided me for the gifts I brought or for not eating more of her lovingly prepared food. How can I put into words the love and gratitude I feel so deeply for her, the appreciation for the wardrobes full of clothes she has sewn for me over my lifetime.
She sewed her first dress when she was 12 years old to attend a school dance. Even now she shared with me that her hands have held thousands upon thousands of fabrics over her lifetime. Each time she fingers a fabric a little of her scent remains on the material. For every new outfit she made I could smell her. How was it that her body perfume pervaded every piece of material, even now?
In between cooking and sewing and sewing and cooking she nourished and clothed all her five children with raiments of love, made in the most fashionable materials and latest designs. This continued with her over 20 grandchildren and even her great-grandchildren and a great great grandchild. My grandmother had boxes of shiny buttons and baskets full of perfume, mostly avon, but some french perfumes, as well as Diorissimo. You gave me my first perfume, a little avon roll-on shaped like a native American Indian girl. Now, I tried to give you some perfume from Paris, but you said you were too old to wear perfume. But who needs perfume when your own body exudes a scent of sanctity?
She was always giving and never taking and nothing has changed. A lifetime habit of over generosity persists. Try refusing something, anything from her at your peril, she may even start to cry and her heart might break. There were some foods even on this visit which you wanted me to eat, including ice cream and chocolate. I never visited you without discovering your stash of chocolate myself or being offered some, but the chocolate cherries you kept secret. How is it that there is always spice cake in your freezer or fresh on the table, with cardamon, cinnamon, all spice and pepper? How many times did I gorge myself on raw yeasty dough out of impatience for the baked buns? Or overeat the easter rye porridge made with treacle, lemon and orange peel, doused in thick cream, which I still crave.
In the evenings we would sit on the swing by the pond, perhaps after having a sauna and inhaling the aromatic wooden panelling and feeling so clean. You would tell me stories about your childhood or mine. You still remember so much, like the wonderful six months you lived in Finland with us in your father’s cottage perched high on a rock in the countryside. You remembered picking wild strawberries and blueberries in the forest nearby with my brother and I, and him eating all his berries then tipping my basket over too. You made sima or fermented ginger lemonade with bobbing swollen raisins floating within, which we drank in the summer.
You never mentioned your sufferings to me, though I am sure you suffered deeply. You have always been so pleasant even if you have worried for others and with so many descendents, that was a lot of worrying and a lot of loving. Nanna, to me you are even more fragrant than a heavenly perfume, and more generous than a queen. Your food and clothes have become my flesh and bones and I am proud to be a descendent of yours. I know you worried from the moment you saw me last week about the day I would leave and whether you would ever see me again, seeing I live on the other side of the world. But I feel so close to you, even now I can smell you and you are in all of me. All of me is thanks to you. You mentioned hoping to see me in the heavenly realms one day if not before and I wondered how I might ever say goodbye to you. I can only tell you that to me you are still so beautiful and so near to me that I can’t imagine ever being far from you….
If you were a perfume Nanna, there would be zingy notes of ginger, lemon and wild berries. A heart of roses and lily of the valley and and a base of vanilla, cardamon, forest woods, fir and honey and I would wear you every day.
Images: The top was taken when my Nanna, Liisa Soininen was in her 20’s. The one below was taken last week on my visit to Australia, now aged 83.
Chanel Allure Homme Edition Blanche
Posted by ritaglh on Mar 6, 2008
Launching on 10th March in London, I was given a sneak preview and sample of this. The packaging is architectural and luxurious and the accompanying brochure is a work of art on thick card, gloss white printing on white and solar bronze. To quote it is “driven by design” It is a fragrance dedicated to fragrance “connoisseurs and lovers of beautiful things”. The scent is described as a fresh oriental by Jacques Polge, chic and truly different.
I usually steer clear of headache inducing men’s brews, but this smells wonderful on me, of bergamot and woods sprinkled with a blossom, teaspoon tip of sugar and mandarin. 
I will be reluctantly sharing this sample with my hubby to try. I doubt I will be the only woman buying this for a loved one only to furtively spray this macho drop of sicillian orchard grove on themselves too.
Latest London Scent News
Posted by ritaglh on Mar 6, 2008
10% of ALL perfumes, including Guerlain, Dior, Chanel, Annick Goutal and all others at Debenhams Department Store, Oxford St until this Friday. Some other perfumes are reduced between 25 and even 50%. Georgio, 50ml is reduced to £12.47 and 30ml Anais Anais to £13.95 less another 10%. All the latest celebrity perfumes are also on sale and the aisles are congested with perfume sales staff anxious to help you choose. But hurry, the last sale day is tomorrow.
Marjorie Midgarden by Summer Scent
just arrived at Liberties in London on Sat 1st March. The official launch date is the 1st of April. Unfortunately, they don’t have any information about the perfume yet, nor samples, but I was impressed. This is a lush golden floral based around a “mystical bloom” of undisclosed name. I smell yellow and white flowers, like daffodils, freesia and tuberose. There is an unusual story behind this one. The model advertising the fragrance is not a model at all and a mother of three. There is a fairy on the yellow packaging and the perfume bottle is handcrafted in Toronto with a lot of bling, painted gilding and crystal stopper. Here is their website.
Some of the listed ingredients includes, jasmine, orange blossom, cassis, genet and a sparkling mandarin top-note, with a soul of honey and musk. This perfume reminds me of a woman, now deceased who used to have a vintage clothing store called the Banana Room. Her shop was filled with her signature perfume, a Guerlain. Her long lithe and wrinkly fingers were covered in dozens of emerald and diamond rings and her ear lobes were stretched with the weight of her carats. Despite her advanced age at the time, she wore dark kohl under eyes and thick mascara on her lashes. She was ever so elegant, deeply tanned feminine and fascinating. There is something vaguely vintage about this scent too, though the coordinating gems would be more like gold and yellow diamonds. The perfume retails at £120 and is much richer than the eau de parfum at £80.
Evening Edged in Gold by Ineke
This is also exclusive to Liberties and in my opinion the most beautiful of the Ineke range. I smell rum balls and myrrh, sweet incense and candy reminiscent of some of my middle eastern scents, but without the heaviness. This might have some balancing aldehyde to lift and disperse the woods and resins. The poetry on the packaging is lovely. “Midnight candy.. star of the evening garden, Angels trumpet, osmanthus and saffron cast their golden spells.” Officially in addition to the above this has plum, cinnamon, leather and woods. I almost bought this one on the spot, without even trying it on my skin, but reason prevailed..
Cherry Blossom Gel Perfume by Loccitane
Opening the unusual bottle reminded me of a childhood white glue with brush cylinder I used to have.(That smelt way too good as I recall!) But this gel really has the texture of white glue and the lid holds a little brush to wipe on to your wrist. The texture is a little gloopy and surprising. I have tried many variations of perfume from solids, to roll-ons to atomizers and oils, but this is the first brush I have ever used to apply scent. The fragrance is charming enough, fresh and sweet with cherry, freesia and blackcurrant. Cheap too at only £13.oo.
It is wonderful to go travelling and then come back to my own stomping ground and discover lovely new smells that appeared while I was not looking.
Rose and Violet Macaroons
Fortnum and Masons now carry a box of rose and violet scented mini macaroons. I couldn’t resist including these, as well a couple of antique rose and violet cards from my own collection to sandwich them. Of course you can also find rose and violet tea, confit, creams, crystallised petals, marshmallows as well. Don’t forget to admire the gorgeous floral china tea cups for afternoon teas too. If visiting there, don’t miss out on their utterly divine and revamped perfume parlour on the second floor, where you can also smell Caron’s Violette Precieuse.
Parfum de Morny of 201 Regent Street
Posted by ritaglh on Mar 4, 2008
My first antique bottle purchased over 20 years ago was a full bottle of Parfum Violette by Morny. Who could have guessed then that I would be living near the old shop premises of that point zero bottle. On my recent visit to Australia, I retrieved from storage some of my vintage bottles, including the apothecary shaped Jicky by Guerlain with 1/5 of the gold liquid remaining, vintage Chanel 5 almost half full, as well as Mitsouko by Guerlain. I also have several vintage miniatures of other London perfumers including Gardenia by Ryot of London and Potter and Moores Mitcham Lavender, who also still make perfume. As part of the research for the perfume tours I am trying to locate former old perfume houses and the famous perfumer’s streets of olden times.
But in homage to my Morny bottle I will dedicate this brief blog entry to it. 201 Regent Street has an interesting history. From selling pianos in the 19th century to perfume in the early 20th and currently Church’s shoes owned by Prada are housed there. The site is on the corner of Conduit and Regent Street. Here is a lovely image from the Mary Evans Picture Library. Morny were established at these premises in 1910 in London and they were so successful that they even opened a branch in Paris. My bottle label says that they had a store in New York aswell. Some of their perfumes include Chaminade from 1908, June Roses from 1922 and Essence Mysterieuse, whose advertisement is pictured below, also courtesy of Mary Evans picture library.
Morny perfumes can still be purchased in selected chemists, though I believe the label has been taken over by Malibu Sun. Their fragrance range includes Lavender, Rose, Sandalwood and Fern. According to an article in a packaging journal they have just redesigned their packaging and relaunched some of the traditional English scents, including Lily of the Valley, just this January. So, I hope they will be appearing on chemist shelves in London shortly. With regards to my Violette perfume, I am extremely curious about how it smells and have been tempted on numerous occasions to prize the glass stopper from its apothecary shaped bottle, but the lid is stuck! Any suggestions on how I may open it without damaging the bottle would be most welcome.
Image Credits: Courtesy of the Staff at Church’s shoes, who currently reside at 201 Regents Street, the two side images are of the frescos, which belong to the Crown Estate and would have been exactly the same interior marble and frescos at the time of the Morny Shop, due to conservation stipulations.
Koala Cologne
Posted by ritaglh on Mar 4, 2008
I could smell the pungent aroma, of cough drops and to put it politely, droppings from afar. As I approached the Koala enclosure I was amazed at the rank but fascinating odour of the male Koalas, and bombarded the attendant allowing me to briefly pet a Koala with questions about their smell. The attendant told me the female koalas go wild over the smell. I just got back from a two week visit to Australia and spent as much time as I could spare shopping for Australian made fragrance, though this particular cologne was not on my to buy list, it did arouse my curiosity. The photo of a female koala was taken at Cleland Wild Life Reserve in the Adelaide Hills.
This was their breeding season in Australia, when the sternal gland in the males works overtime to secrete a strong, glistening scent with a musky eucalyptus aroma. Curious about its constituents I researched a little. Of the 600 or so eucalyptus tree species growing in Australia, koalas choose aprox 120 of the species to feast on. Each Koala has its own unique aromatic fingerprint and they use scent marking to define territories and attract mates. They do this by rubbing the gland located on their chest, brown coloured and oozing, against the trunks of trees. To see a short clip of this try this link
The secretion is originally yellow, oily and greasy and to some of us, “yucky.” Their moist dark gland is hairless itself but surrounded by their fur. This scent has attracted the attention of researchers and scientists, who have analysed this koala perfume. According to Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectometry (GC-MS), at least 37 chemicals have been identified with several components remaining mysterious.
The components include the goat smelling, hexionic acid and ascetic acid or vinegar. The funk also includes oily fixatives which are not odiferous but rather only dissipate at extremely high temperatures. This would explain why the odour remains on the trunks even a year after they have been “koala beared!” Further constituents found include volatile fatty acids, aldehydes, ketones, mono and sesquiterpenes, as well as various volatile nitriles and oxines, in addition to benzyl cyanide. For a more complete list look here at this list of Sternal Gland Secretions Chart.
While most people associate their pungent rank smell with Koalas at a zoo, and are likely to be repulsed, other Koalas typically stop briefly to smell the calling cards, that are combined with urine, at the base of the eucalypti trunks. The attendant did say that when she carries the male Koalas during mating season, the scent remains on her t-shirt. She politely described the aroma as a musky strong eucalyptus… but I did see her face light up when she talked about it.
Bioperfumes- more of ME and only ME scent
Posted by ritaglh on Feb 15, 2008
I came home last night from the “I Smell Love” event, with a mysterious new pheromone scent on my arm, my husband urged me to buy it. I would, only it isn’t available yet. The Science museum and Dana centre organises some nifty events, especially this one led by the perfumer and aroma scientist George Dodd. Here is a link to a previous scent event.
This was an enjoyable smelling event interspersed with scent science talks. We were invited to contemplate that couples spend approximately 1/3 of their life with their partner and their odours/pheromones. Also, our sense of smell and feelings are processed in similar areas of our brain. Dodd was suggesting that we are reaching a stage where we can alter our own pheromone profile to enhance our relationships, essentially so we don’t get tired of our partner’s B.O.
Some 5% of our DNA has been reserved for our sense of smell, and apparently this enables us to interrogate other’s immune system and hence establish mate compatibility. Our body odour can be likened to our own bar code, which in turn can nowadays be decoded and read. We also each have a personal portfolio of smells we cannot smell. Last night we were able to explore 6 of some 200 human pheromones that have been discovered so far, though at the time we didn’t know they were pheromones.
Dodd was proposing that we could take an individuals pheromone profile to create a “Bioperfume” which could be synthesized and recreated in intensity to boost or amplify our own profile. For example, by using a GCMS machine, identifying your own odours, recreating them synthetically and mixing them up together at higher concentrations than found naturally, perhaps adding some nice flowery essential oils and voila an Ueber You scent. Imagine an ultimate bespoke fragrance where the essence of you has been captured and wearing more of yourself and less of other things. This kind of science and techniques have been pioneered and are already available.
But what about for those of us who are not actually that keen on our own odour? Don’t I wear perfume precisely because I want to smell of something other than myself, something that I like more than me? We are moving from the conscious realm to exploring our unconscious reactions to smell here, and I personally fear there is something vaguely improper in radiating more of me intentionally. Are most of us not actually repulsed by our own natural odors and especially those of others? Perhaps consciously, but probably not unconsciously.
Might not wearing such a Me perfume, actually repel others, or is it possible that it might make us completely irresistable? If we are honest, we have probably been attracted to real body odours for millenia, otherwise would we be here today, had our ancestors who may not have had access to daily showers and perfumed soaps, not been drawn to their loved ones. Anyway, as a specialist in the Psychology of Scent and pheromones, Dodd is an expert in this field. How can I object, when as you will see below, I was besotted by one of the synthesized pheromones myself?
I am reminded of the poor man who attended a class I once did, whose body odour was so repugnant that each attendee was anxious to sit as far away as possible from him. He may have had a kidney disorder where toxins were excreted more from the skin rather than through normal routes, or perhaps just poor diet or hygiene. Nevertheless, the suffering for those around us was unbearable and we were all nauseated by catching a whiff of him. After months of enduring his odour we elected one of us to email him to alert him in the most sensitive way possible, and he simply never came again!
At this point I was thinking of Patrick Suskind’s book, Perfume where the protagonists tries to steal the scent of others to drench himself with. Modern perfumes have according to Dodd become more and more de-eroticised, less animalic and more vanilla. By wearing celebrity scents are we not on some level declaring that I like you more than I like me and by buying some of You (your smell/perfume) I can become you and loved like you?
After the talk it was time for us to receive our very own scent bags with 6 scent strips, colour-coded with mini stickers. One scent strip was so special that it was given to us individually. We were warned that some people might have very strong reactions to it. (All, the more reason to have a good sniff, so I thought) One poor woman took one whiff and had to run to bathroom to vomit! I approached her later and she said it was the worst smell she had ever smelt in her life, worse than gangrene. We were not given any indication what the smells on the strips were and only found out at the end of the evening.
On the first strip I smelt cheese, the second smelt glorious and of honey. I could not inhale this deeply enough. The third smelt of nothing and I asked to smell the same strip of the person sitting next to me, as I could smell rien. (Yes, later I discovered this was the scientific placebo). The other strips smelled mostly musty, of old barrells, earth or like armpit odour. We then had to list favourites and compare our favourites with people around us who chose similar colours and those who chose different ones.
Then came an embarrassing but funny hand raising to confirm our preferences. I say embarrassing because who wants to confess that they liked the goat pheromone, pig tongue scent or tomcat spray before finding out what they were? Regarding my honey scent, this was a synthesized human pheromone that some men smell of naturally, but more than half the room raised their hand to say they hated it.. All of the scent strips had single synthesized pheromones, carefully purified.
Dodd finished our humorous and revelatory evening by inviting us to pay attention to the scent of our loved one, our home and the world around us tomorrow. I was very grateful for the opportunity to speak to his partner Elizabeth Mountford who spoke to me about Allels and biochemistry. I asked her which perfume she was wearing and she confessed she was wearing none. I can imagine that her odour free slate being a welcome relief when your partner is a perfumer. I did manage to ask Dodd if I might acquire a sample of the lovely honey pheromone, which he kindly agreed to.
In September George Dodd is commencing a perfume course at his Perfume Studio in Scotland for those who may be interested. He also runs shorter courses there too. In London you can purchase his floral compositions at French’s Dairy reviewed on this site recently. You can also arrange to have a bespoke perfume made via Scent Systems.
Image Credit: Thankyou to David Drummond of 11 Cecil Court, London for this 18th paper cut image
Last Image from a painting by Marie Laurencin, Jeune Fille a la Guirlande, 1935
Perfume Museums
Posted by ritaglh on Feb 14, 2008
On my to do list is to visit as many perfume museums as I can find. On my recent trip to Paris, I visited the two Fragonard museums, though the Scribe one was closed for renovation. On Tuesday I explored the hidden private museum of Floris in London. In January I had planned to visit the perfume collection at the Harris Museum up North in Preston, but the room is being renovated and so is the website. The perfume collection should be open again in March. This has one of the largest perfume bottle collections in the country. Usually, the Cotswold Perfumery also do tours of their factory in an 18th century building, but due to flooding their shop and tours are closed till the end of March. The Cotswold perfumery also hold regular perfume making workshops.
Here are some pictures from the Fragonard museums. The Rue de Scribe one is housed in a beautiful mansion. The objects are carefully arranged with special lighting, they seem so covetable. Crystal, glass and printed boxes, more like treasure chests, sit side by side with gilt and ormolu finishes. Cherubs, flowers, gilding and gold and brown liquids offer a glimpse of the luxury that perfume is and aspires to. There are also small collections of antique bottles in several antique markets and arcades in London. In Burlington Arcade, several of the antique dealers have perfume bottles, some are even priced over £20,000 pounds.
My dream perfume organ. Row upon glorious row of amber flacons and robust stoppers. An artist palette with a rainbow of colours and textures. Little glass soldiers making formations and saluting and contents just waiting to be set free. A perfumers organ is closer to a dictionary or a thesaurus, where words or notes can be strung together to create the most prosaic poetry or blended compositions. The perfumer, like the organist in a cathedral knows how to read and play the music to create a sense of the sublime.
Equipment for Distillation. Shiny copper vats that can still be used today. On a trip to Mauritius last year I visited a fragrance garden that was distilling fresh vetiver in copper vats. The vetiver was growing on the nearby hills surrounded by sugarcane. Fresh water distilled vetiver is sweeter and smoother than the vetiver I recognize in most men’s fragrances. No matter how much I begged or bargained, I could not purchase a single drop of the freshly distilled oil as it was destined for someone else. But I was able to inhale deeply over the oil gathered at the end of the rubber hose…
An old perfume bottle. This bottle is coloured a lurid lime green.
Below are some pictures from the Floris Museum collection. Firstly, here is a letter written in 1853 by Florence Nightingale thanking for the “nosegays of beautifull sweet smelling roses which have cheered my sick bed.” The collection here is truly charming and I deeply appreciate being given rare access to this hidden chamber. Thankyou Floris.
If you wish to see these in person, you are welcome to join me on the Mayfair Memoire tour. More on the meeting with the bespoke perfumer at Floris next time.
Scent Systems-niche naturals
Posted by ritaglh on Feb 14, 2008
I do miss Hiram Green’s old shop near Carnaby Street. Local artists used to paint custom murals on his walls, that were ever so sparsely and selectively shelved with sumptuous scents. His shop introduced me to a new world of natural perfumes that I have never forgotten, and I still feel vaguely nostalgic about. I enjoyed many a meandering in the cupboard sized store as-well as fragrance discussions with him, so it was with pleasure that I discovered scent system’s own luxurious and entirely natural perfume collection.
These single note florals have their own shelves amidst treasure troves of jewellery in the former home of the first dairy in London, called French’s Dairy, found in the fashionable Bloomsbury quarter off Lambs Conduit Street. Inhaling natural perfumes is an entirely different pleasure from smelling most perfumes. Although I am partial to aldehydes and hedione in most commercial perfumes, I really do enjoy deeply inhaling natural perfume oils, and there really is a difference.
As I had been exploring violet perfumes recently, I first approached the wild violet scent. Coupled with some rose, this has gorgeous natural orris heart. Imagine the beauty of Iris Noble of Acqua di Parma, intensified and more sublime, a scent that compels you to sniff ever more deeply. The soul of the scent is immersed in sandalwood and plant musk. Despite no aldehydes, this fragrance sparkles a little like lemonade with violet syrup. There are musical notes of Indian flowers and champaca absolute, that Ormond Jayne officianados are sure to recognize. This is a powdery feminine fragrance but not saccharine sweet, more of a wooden canoe filled with fresh garlands and poesies floating on a lake.
Next, I approached the tuberose with caution. Many love tuberose, but it is usually a flower I stay away from. This has top teasers of citrus and coriander, middle notes of rose and heliotrope, tiare lily with Karo Karounde absolute, which I had never smelt before. The base notes are sumptuous with vanilla, honey and plant musk. My immediate response to this perfume is bulging black tassels, full bodied lilies and what the perfume Fracas could dream of smelling like if it contained more naturals. I also smell ripened fruit in a dimly lit lacy boudoir with lots of velvet cushions.
The Rose perfume was a revelation. I am very partial to rose fragrances and this one is not the scent of a single rose, but a veritable rose garden in a Moroccan courtyard, shaded by neroli, bitter orange and petitgrain. It is easy to tell that this bouquet contains roses from around the world, including Grasse, Morocco, India, and Turkey. These are spicy roses, deep velvety reds on a floor of vetivert and vanilla. The vetivert balances the sweetness and whispers the grass and stems are as beautiful as the petals. Rose growers will recognize this rose perfume, but tea rose scent admirers may not. Having a collection of rose oils from around the world, I would hazard a guess that there is less Rose de Mai and Turkish rose and more of the Moroccan and Indian notes. There is also the surprising addition of heather absolute, possibly a signature from its creator, George Dodd, who operates from a remote part of the Scottish highlands. By the way, I am going to attend a talk he is giving this evening on Perfume at the Dana centre in London…
One of the most interesting and unusual fragrances in the collection is the Oeillet or Carnation, although I did find some superficial similarities with Mona di Orio’s carnation. This is a spicy floral. Teasing with top notes of bergamot, clary sage and galbanum it is followed by actual Indian carnation absolute, the kind mentioned in the Kama Sutra. This also has basmati flower and cistus. The alto on the base has patchouli, vanilla and heliotrope as well as the plant musk. I smell spicy banana flambe, peppery and creamy cointreau. This has an earthy aroma and the closest to an oriental of the collection. However, this is the one I would be least likely to wear myself.
The final floral is the Jasmine. This contains the precious oil where one million flowers are needed to produce one kilo. My nose leads me to a Jaipur jasmine garden at night, while eating blood red oranges from a silver plate and walking barefoot in the dried grass. This is inviting with an icing of pineapple, vervein, heather (here it is talisman like again), cradled by bountiful blooms of jasmine, orange, broom, lavender and rose. Sweetened by vanilla, vetivert, plant musk and lovage. This scent reminded me of one of Mandy Aftels solid perfumes of Jasmine and orange, with the more fruity sparkle and herbacious depth to tone down the sweet cloyingness of real indolic jasmine. This is charming fragrance and an appetising introduction to naturals.
These perfumes are beautifully presented in cubed bottles and glass stoppers and the fragrances transform and sing on the skin. While intense initially due to the high absolute content, these may not have the staying power of chemical fixatives used in modern perfumery, but the scent does unfold and develop on our bodies. This is the kind of perfume that needs to be daubed with a stopper rather than sprayed on with an atomizer. For the sheer exploratory enjoyment or introduction to naturals I suggest purchasing the sample box available exclusively from the Scent Systems website for only £34. The 17ml bottles retail for £229 each. The floral fragrances are also currently available at W1 at the fabulous John Rocha shop on Dover Street. Green and Dodd also offer a bespoke perfume service, which I hope to write about another time.
Perfume Breath and Bubblegum
Posted by ritaglh on Feb 11, 2008
Encens et Bubblegum by Etat Libre dOrange is a highly unusual combination. Available from Les Senteurs I gravitate to this and wear it for fun. It brings a smile to my face every time I smell my wrist. A reminder of the child within who still loves sweets and the bukhoor or frankincense I burn regularly to purify our home. You can’t help but feel slightly adolescent wearing this and yet it seems to be flying out the shop door. This range of scent is rather risque and not the kind I would give my mother, but if I removed the lable it might just pass censorship…
I like the idea of a sweet scent emanating from my mouth. I also like the sillage of someone else chewing gum and have enjoyed the Kanebo rose gum to perfume my own body. This gum has geraniol amongst other odourants that is supposed to not only perfume la bouche but also the body for a couple of hours.
Like Prince Charles, I also use the Rose mouthwash by Floris, except I hear he buys it in extra large bottles and a box full at a time. This leaves a fresh sweet, rosy taste in the mouth. But take care to dilute it, because it is quite strong. Another favourite is the Jasmine Toothpaste by the Italian company Marvis, a little hard to find in London though.
Thanks to Angela from The Sycamore Boutique & Scent Shop for kindly letting me know about Chowards scented gum and Violet mints. I was finally able to locate some of these violet scented sweets to add to my collection at the Cyber Candy store in Convent Garden. They also sell Candy Perfume in several flavours including strawberry and Sour Apple. These are a scented spray perfume sweet. They are marketed under the Hello Kitty licence and smell delicious. I can’t imagine spraying them on my neck, but they are sure to sweeten the breath.
I can’t talk about perfumed sweets without mentioning the Musk lifesavers which I grew up with as a child in Australia. They can be purchased at the Australia Shop in Covent Garden. I can smell someone eating these a mile off! I gave a packet to my next door neighbour and I can smell her the musk sillage in the lift after she has used it! Most people I know hate them, but they really do taste the closest to perfume I could imagine. Another childhood favourite from living in Finland are the Fazer Violet Pastilles, which are perfumed hard licorice sweets. (See the Nibbling Violets entry below for more violet sweets.)
Bubble gum lipgloss and lipbalms, perfumed and scented are also available by America’s original Dubble Bubble Bubble Gum. Though they smell good enough to eat, they are made of paraffin oil and Petrolatum, so not exactly for eating. But if your mad for that kind of scent, this is yet another way to smell sweet.
As Valentines Day is coming up shortly, here is a Violet card for you courtesy of David Drummond Vintage Performing Arts store on Cecil Court, London.
Luca Turin- How Smell Works
Posted by ritaglh on Feb 8, 2008
It was just as well that his new book, Perfumes The Guide has yet to be published, because afterwards he joked, he “would have to wear a bullet proof vest!” Thus commenced an extraordinary lucid joint lecture by Turin for the British Society of Perfumers and the Society of Cosmetic Scientists held at the Kings Fund in London earlier this evening. Actually, I hope he does give another lecture after Profile Books publish this new guide, perhaps from behind a pope shield?
Although his third lecture for the SCS he introduced this as his goodbye talk as he is due to take a sabbatical from Flexitrol and go back to University at MIT to work on sensors and molecular electronics. During his time between 2002 and 2007 with Flexitral they have patented numerous new odorants, and they seem to have been churning them out at a phenomenal rate, even with 2/3 of the cash available going to patent lawyers.
He apologised for sounding bitter about the filing of similar patents by rival companies, shortly after theirs. However, it is because to paraphrase him, “I actually am!” Jibes aside, this was a detailed slide presentation on the latest research, or state of the art of what we know about the olfactory system. I confess, most of the science, despite clear and illustrated diagrams went over my head.
I did take note though of some of the quirkier explanations. For example, the olfactory bulb was described as the only ”bit of the brain hanging in the breeze” and his revelation that some people don’t even have a bone in front of it, though most of us have “the snot on the way,” did surprise me. Apparently, odour receptors are proteins in the membranes. I also heard that 347 odorant receptors for smell have been sequenced in the human genome. Interestingly, these are not all found in the brain. There are some in the heart, kidney and even sperm.
Our receptors can smell 10’s of thousands of smells and large odor companies like Givaudan have samples of over 200,000 scent molecules. Any odor molecule is processed by the olfactory epithelium, onto the olfactory bulb and onto the Neocortex, where brain imaging can show how certain odors light up different parts of the brain. There are so many more odorants than there are receptors.
The discussions of various academic papers relating to the smell were discussed by Turin, as well as the human capacity to smell the difference between isotopes. The talk lasted approximately one hour and a lucky few had the opportunity to ask some questions.
I would have liked to ask about his forthcoming book, but appreciated the opportunity to have a brief chat with his eloquent wife and co-author Tania Sanchez. I asked her what perfume she was wearing and she volunteered that tonight it was the infamous Nombre Noir. (I am sure there must be an amazing story of how they had a acquired a bottle of it, but I daren’t ask) PS: Thanks to Heather from Memory and Desire for sharing the Nombre Noir Story by Turin
I can only dream of having an opportunity to smell some of the many hundreds, if not thousands of perfume bottles that might be in their possession. Just as I am sure eyes never tire of beauty or loved ones, nor the ears of speach and music, so I doubt that even in smelling thousands of scents, my nose will ever tire of the amazing array of scent compositions all those talented perfumers and scientists, have dedicated their talent and time to create. ”Thank you for the music, the songs your singing, thanks for all the joy their bringing…”