The manifesto was entitled “I Hate Perfume” and it was a simple list dividing everything I hated about perfume as I generally encountered it from what I thought it could be. I’ve made a few slight changes in it over the years but I’m still surprised at how well it’s held up. Everything I’d written then still applies now 15 years later-Christopher Brosius
Mandy Aftel is an indisputable icon in the world of perfumery, and quite arguably, the Mother of Natural Perfumery…
As Rossy de Palma before her, the choice of Ms. Swinton is a good fit with Etat Libre D’Orange. Owner Etienne de Swardt brought in perfumer Mathilde Bijaoui in to help shape Ms. Swinton’s vision into a fragrance. Her inspiration for the fragrance comes from the love sonnet “Like This”, by Sufi poet Rumi…If anyone wants to know what “spirit” is,
Or what “God’s fragrance” means,
Lean your head toward him or her.
Keep your face there close.
Like This.
An olfactive laboratory is where you imagine the mad scientists of perfumery performing alchemy; mixing potent concoctions of raw materials in beakers, dressed in white lab coats. Perhaps there is an explosion or two. In my mind’s eye I see frenetic perfumers, with gleaming eyes, adding a pinch of ambergris, a dollop of rose absolue, a soupcon of …
There is a saying that every sibling has a different 'mother'. Some are biological, some are not. Some are with us, some have departed this earth. Yet, most often the memories of our mothers can be evoked in a moment, by our most primeval sense…our sense of smell. Author Daphne Du Maurier wrote,"If only there could be an …
There are 'friends-in-fragrance' and there are friends. Seldom does one have the opportunity to interview a perfumer that is both. Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, the founder and owner of Parfums des Beaux Arts (affectionately known as DSH), is the exception. Can one separate the two? That is the more professional and journalistic approach, but not mine, not today. Dawn is …
