Carlos J. Powell wasn’t at the front rank of the fragrance machine. Luxury brands didn’t invite him to party at their ateliers in Venice or to go rose picking at dawn with influencers in Isparta, Turkey.
Mr. Powell, who lived in Sheepshead Bay and was known to his fans on YouTube as Brooklyn Fragrance Lover, worked as a children’s shoe salesman at Lester’s Clothing and Shoes for 35 years before he was laid off early in the pandemic. He roomed with two cats, Claude and Jean (named after Jean Claude Ellena, a master perfumer), and his fragrance collection, with bottles numbering in the thousands.
— From a lovely New York Times article about Carlos J. Powell, aka Brooklyn Fragrance Lover, who passed away on February 7. Read more in Chasing the Scent of a Brooklyn Fragrance Lover. (And if you missed it, see also YouTuber Carlos J. Powell, Whose Popular Channel Shared Fragrance Reviews, Dies at 56 at People.) Hat tip to sacre bleu and skalolazka!
It was a sudden and unnecessary loss, he was still really young.
I have to say I LOLed at the Jeremy comparison in NYT article.
Thank you for posting this. Lovely article on Mr. Powell indeed.
Way too young to pass away, but quite a fragrance legacy he left.
Love that his cats were named Claude and Jean after Jean Claude Ellena.. 🙂
Loved this obituary. I will miss his videos on those rare instances when I am hunting for some perfume conversation. Like Lucas, I thought the reference to Jeremy was funny without being mean–we are all a bit weird together, us perfume folks!
He was one of my very first friends in the Facebook perfume community, I still mourn the “Non Blond”, and now Carlos is another sad loss for the community.
Ditto that… such sad losses.
Thanks for posting this Robin, Carlos was a real gem.
My friend in Washington state texted me a link to a NYT article on Thursday morning. I started reading about this marvelous perfumista person, thinking I needed to sign up for his youtube channel and FB page. Then, alas, further reading revealed that the world has lost this sweet, kind, talented force of beautiful nature…