I have been giving a lot of thought recently to the rising cost of keeping myself in perfume. Truth be told, I don’t really spend all that much. Much of my collection is made up of decants, and I think very hard before I buy a whole bottle of something new. I spend so much time testing new perfumes that I don’t even wear my “regulars” as frequently as I would like, so why bother with more bottles that will just spoil before I manage to use them…
NST contributor Marlen talks about the monkey on his back over at basenotes, and columnist Maria Browning of Nashville Sceneadmits she is a "closeted serial perfume abuser" (links no longer working, sorry).
A scent of flowers blooming in the garden carried by the wind through the opened veranda door — opulent white lily, delicate whisper of jasmine, soft acacia, overlaid with a bit of foliage. Although the scent is supposed to be predominantly wisteria, this is not what I smell in the air when the L’Artisan Sous La Glycine candle is burned. To my nose, it is more of a floral mélange with a hint of grass, leaves, green twigs to lend it freshness. Very long lasting and beautiful…
I am very pleased to announce that Now Smell This will soon have a new contributor covering scented body products, including soaps, creams, bath gels, you name it. Anjali describes herself as "fanatical about scented bath and body products", and reports that her "supply of LUSH alone could bathe a small country". Look for her first review early next week, on Luctor et Emergo Enriched Body Cream by People of the Labyrinths.
If you have any suggestions for other topics you'd like to see covered here, please comment!
If you’ve ever been tempted to start mixing your own scents, Anya McCoy’s story will be instructive. Anya started collecting essences, then started selling, then started blending, and eventually founded the Natural Perfumery discussion group on Yahoo. Recently, Anya has launched naturalperfumery.com, a clearinghouse for information on this expanding field. She plans to launch her own line of perfumes early next year.
How and when did you first become interested in perfume?
My first scent memories involve the lush perfumes that my mother and her friends wore. They gave me the almost-empty bottles so I could play with the bits left. I was only two or three, yet I could differentiate the varied perfumes by name. I connected them with the real world, like the roses and irises and crisp green succulent leaves of the hedges that grew in our garden. I found that picking and rubbing the flowers or leaves on my skin didn’t produce a fine perfume, so I thought there was something magical about how the scent went from the plant to the bottle — and there is! I knew I would be fascinated with perfumes for the rest of my life, and the natural world of plants and perfumes has always been intertwined in my heart and soul…