It’s Tuesday, and it’s World Porridge Day and World Mental Health Day. What fragrance are you wearing?
I’m in Narciso Rodriguez Narciso Poudrée, by Aurélien Guichard. Tea at the moment is Upton Bond Street English Breakfast with a little cinnamon.
Reminder: on 10/13, wear a fragrance by Aurélien Guichard or Jean Guichard…
Italian niche brand Carthusia will launch Terra Mia, a new unisex gourmand fragrance…
Italian perfumer Lorenzo Villoresi talks about his work.
Our sense of smell is gloriously specific. The mellow aroma of butter and flour rising from warm pie crust, the synthetic bite of fresh paint, the familiar odor of a new car—when we get a whiff of something, we know immediately what it is. But this natural delicacy of perception far exceeds our ability to tell how a given molecule, drawn on a blackboard and considered as an abstraction, will strike our noses.
— Computers can't smell yet, but they're learning. Read more at O.K., Computer, Tell Me What This Smells Like at The New Yorker.
Christy doesn’t know the name of the perfumer who developed her favorite fragrance, and she’s not geeky about notes and structure. She’s heard Chanel No. 5 is nice, but it’s never crossed her path. At the same time, she loves perfume and makeup, and she’s loaded with style. I couldn’t wait to talk with her about her perfume collection.
When I caught up with Christy, it was late Sunday night, and she was ironing school uniforms for her daughters. Christy is a single mom in Georgia with three girls between the ages of two and nine, plus a full-time job. Not surprisingly, she lives on a budget. She’s more likely to buy perfume at the mall than toss down her credit card for the latest $400 niche bottle…