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.
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.
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.
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.
Pinch of Paris
Posted by ritaglh on Jan 24, 2008
I popped over to Paris to attend the Perfume Cosmetics and Design Congress on Tuesday at the Cite des Sciences et de L’Industrie. I have always been interested in the packaging and promotion of perfume. My first collection of advertisements started when I was 15. I would tear out perfume ads and stick them on my wall. I recall the Paris perfume ads were a favourite. I also begged for and got an Estee Lauder display book, which I gutted and turned into a display case for a school project. Whatever perfume ads were selling, I was in the market for buying, though I couldn’t afford the perfume I was sold on the images. So, it was pleasure that I perused the glossy box manufacturer stands, the latest in bakelite jars, sample suppliers, gold plated atomizers, engraved lids and lush containers. So much of the pleasure of perfume lies in the packaging and not only in the scent and of course this is reflected in the cost. If only I could afford the manufacturing minimums of 5000 units each of several components, I might be tempted to launch a perfume to sail on the sea with thousands of others, bringing scents and spices on a Cleopatra barge to the beloveds.
The alternative mini pleasure of bringing a perfume home is like unravelling a pass the parcel package and discovering a treasure within a treasure. First there is the bag, usually thick card with ribbon handles, then perhaps some coloured or printed tissue paper, a couple of samples on the side and then the crispy cellophane encasing the precious casket, a sticker or two need to be pried to reveal the cover. Often an embellishment of gold embossing to run the fingertips over the ripples, before opening the box. Coddled and padded inside lies the bottle, glistening and smooth, heavy with the weight of the glass and liquid. The crown on top, often gold, lavish and sculptured can be difficult to pry open but the effort is well rewarded by depressing the atomizer or peering into the hole. Then the moment of truth, an inhalation, followed by a succession of shorter breaths to enjoy a scent followed by excessive dousing of the new dream that has become your own. To be cleaned and disposed of, a trail of paper and evidence of the disrobing on the floor, and the new joy carefully enshrined with the other bottles on the dresser.
I had hoped to find a catalogue of the old Odorama exhibition that had once been held at the Cite des Sciences, but had to content myself with a pocket science book on taste and smell, “Le Gout et L’odorat, des experiences faciles et amusantes,” a cute children’s book on smell science and experiments. There was also a wonderful scratch and sniff book with eight different odors.
The next stop was the Institute du Monde de L’Arabe. Their gift shop used to sell a wonderful incense from Egypt, little oud chips covered in sugar and oils, but they sadly don’t anymore. Their bookshop had some wonderful perfume books including the Plants of 1001 nights, a morrocan scent journey and the gorgeous “Des Epices au Parfum” both published by Aubanel. I bought a pretty illustrated children’s fairy tale set in the orient called “Le Royaume des Parfums” by Albin Michel.
On to the Fragonard museum and the new Divine shop nearby, which I will write about separately. A pit stop at Fauchons included eating a truffle scented madeleine and buying some gifts, then on to Laduree to see their new body creams, journals and gift bags. I stopped on the way at a couple of pharmacies to buy some Papier d’ Armenie in both original and limited edition scents. All I had time for after that was a visit to Printemps, the department store to explore their perfume and children’s section. I discovered three new perfume lines I had not smelt before, as well as the new Bach perfumes to make you peaceful and happy, the reviews are to follow. A friend had placed an order for a violet perfume and I happily obliged by buying Berdoues Violette de Toulouses Eau de Parfums. (I regretted not buying one for myself though). I went upstairs to the children’s section to buy Scentosphere perfume organ making kit, but it had sold out. They did have the perfume lotto though, which has 30 different round scent boxes, including fir, apple, vanilla, coconut, hazelnut, roses, pineapple and violets. www.sentosphere.fr/accueil-parfum.html
Finally, at the Gard du Nord, I had a couple of minutes to explore the discount perfume shop and focused my search on children’ s perfume. In addition to Oiliy perfumes, I quite liked the Kaloo and Clayeux’s Maelle Fleur, but will have to wait for the next visit as the store closed while I was choosing. By this time my shopping bags were getting heavier and heavier. Finally, on the journey home I read the book on Perfume Advertisements I had bought, and fingered over my purchases and re-smelt the scent strips for the short Eurostar journey back to London. I am planning a girls day out in Paris in the near future, let me know if you wish to come.
Anosmia
Posted by ritaglh on Jan 8, 2008
When sweetened lard and chocolate taste the same and scent eludes you! A moving interview with a generous anosmic friend, who shares her experience of a odourfree life after a car accident.
Q: When did you realise you lost your sense of smell?
YR: It happened after a serious accident in which I sustained a head injury. It was after I returned from the hospital and the first thing I noticed was that nothing I ate had any taste. With time I realized that neither my sense of smell nor taste were functioning anymore and that it was possibly permanent if the torn nerves did not repair within 16 years.
Q: Did you start intentionally smelling things to check?
YR Randall: yes, I had a collection of essential oils which I would sniff but I could smell nothing.
Q: What about bad smells?
YR : I couldn’t smell anything at all because the information simply wasn’t getting to my brain. I remember once waiting to cross the road and a large vehicle was passing and giving off a lot of fumes and I felt I could smell them. I think it was nothing more than a flashback to the accident. It only lasted a brief moment.
Q: Did friends come up with smells to test you with, or did doctors give you any diagnostic tests?
YR: my daughter, who was fourteen at the time, once told me to close my eyes. She then held something under my nose and told me to take a big sniff. I nearly fainted! It was a bottle of nail varnish remover and although I couldn’t smell it, nevertheless I felt the effect. No tests were ever done on me, I wasn’t even told about it. I barely remember my stay in the hospital. I had to do my own research online.
Q: I have some smelling salts. Some athletes, including boxers use them, and a whiff is sufficient to have noses and faces wince. Does Ammonia have an effect on you?
YR: I don’t think I’ve tried smelling it but I am sure it would have an effect on me because it’s the fumes rather than the scent that have the effect.
Q: Do you ever worry about eating rotten food or sour milk, or not smelling food burning?
YR: My smoke alarm was doing overtime to begin with because I was always burning toast! If I drank sour milk I would know it was sour. The sense of taste is a combination of the taste buds and the sense of smell. So, for instance, with my taste buds I can perceive sour, salty, sweet, spicy, and bitter but I don’t perceive any flavour because that’s the job of the nose. If I closed my eyes and ate a sweetened block of lard it would be the same as a bar of chocolate.
The imagination seems to play a role as well as I once discovered when I bought a cup of tea in a cafe. It was extremely bitter and undrinkable so I asked for another cup. It was just as bitter, and then I suddenly remembered that I had asked for coffee, not tea. Once I realized I was drinking coffee it became drinkable. Extraordinary!
Q: Do you ever dream of smells now?
YR: No, I don’t dream of smells but a few weeks after the accident I began ’smelling’ the most beautiful scents. I can only assume these were created by my mind, or heaven scent. They were like nothing I had ever smelled before in my life and it was wonderful. This would last for about 10 minutes or so and then fade. It only happens rarely now.
Q: Do you worry about body odour and do you apply perfume?
YR: Yes, it can be easy to forget to wash clothes because your nose is not telling you to. I use a little perfume after checking with friends or my daughters that it suits me. It is amazing how much information comes to us through our noses. Without that information I sometimes have a sense of being disconnected.
Q: There are estimates that the average person can detect over 2.500 odours, do you feel sadness or loss at missing out on this sense?
YR: I’m sorry; the question has made me feel tearful. Yes, it is a great loss but I try not to dwell on it too much. I can even forget that the world has a smell! I think I have to remind myself regularly though so that I realize there is some information I am not getting and act accordingly.
Q: Oh, I am sorry…
YR: no, it is fine.
Q: Helen Keller wrote a lot about her sense of smell as a heightened sense due to her blindness and deafness; do you feel your other senses have become heightened as a result of this loss?
YR: it took me a long time to start cooking intuitively again, without a recipe to hand but now I still love cooking and friends and family love my food, that teaches me the value of intuition and trust. That is something I also thought about a lot. I certainly don’t see any better, too much reading and writing, and my hearing hasn’t changed. Colour has become very important to me though.
Q: and music?
YR: and touch, if I go to the beach I have to go and swish my hands in it and taste the saltiness. I have always loved music but for me it is a very physical thing and I love to respond with my body by dancing.
Q: Any advice for me to make the most of enjoying, appreciating and being grateful for the sense of smell?
YR: Be aware and be thankful for every smell you perceive, good and bad, and also be aware of the information the various scents of the world are giving you, they speak as much as anything else speaks.
Q: Thank you. Please tell me about your favourite perfumes before and what do you wear now?
YR: I used to wear Diorissimo and I think I remember once having a small bottle of Je Rien, I also liked some of the scents from the Body shop such as Tea Rose. I used to make mixes with lavender, geranium, and bergamont - that’s a lovely one. My present perfume is J’Adore. Other favourite scents are the smell of the soil in spring when the sap begins to rise, the smell of the sea, the smell of a babies hair.
Q: Proust wrote about his olfactory memory and how a scent could transport him to the past, do you still carry the memory of for example a rose, coffee or sewage?
YR: It is very difficult for me to remember actual smells very clearly. I think the connection between smell and memory is one of the most difficult things for me. You know how when smell a certain scent and it brings back memories, obviously I don’t have that anymore.
Q: But can memory bring back the smell? I can still remember the smell of boiled cabbage, though it has been years since I smelt it.
YR: That is a fascinating idea. It might be worth trying a kind of memory exercise to see if anything happens. I do sometimes feel that I can almost smell something, when looking at a rose for example, but it eludes me. It’s very faint for me and I’m wondering if the olfactory nerves actually play a direct role in the memory of a smell. As if they were faintly reproducing the smell.
Q: In preparation for our chat I also googled anosmia and came across some interesting sites. Have you ever written about it?
YR: No I haven’t. That has just reminded me of another problem; when I am writing fiction I often forget to describe smells.
Q: When you read fiction that include smell descriptions, is this still enjoyable? I enjoy reading about odours I have never smelt, as well as the scents I am familiar with.
YR: Yes, it is. Definitely. It is interesting to be talking about this because I am beginning to think that I should pay more attention to the sense of smell in other ways, like dreams, or meditations, or written descriptions. Maybe I need to remind my body that it needs to repair itself. Grow those nerves back together.
Q: I was recently thinking about the concept of “a story in a word” and was wondering is there the equivalent of a “story in a smell”? You said above that smells speak as much as anything else speaks, please elaborate.
YR: As I was reading the descriptions on your blog I felt there were so many stories that could be told around the theme of scents. But also that scent, or smell, tells its own story. The smell of fear that arises from the body of a person who is threatened; the smell of aftershave on a young man getting ready to meet his girlfriend. Or the smell of animals on a farm, flowers coming into bloom, they tell us what is happening and we can also take them as signs (in the Sufi sense).
Q: Thank you so much, this was beautiful and I feel really touched and inspired.