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2022 / Browsing by date: May 2022

Monday scent of the day 5/30

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It’s Monday, and if you’re in the US, National Mint Julep Day and Memorial Day. What fragrance are you wearing?

And if you have a friend or family member who died while serving in the armed forces, and you want to tell us about them, please do.

I am off on a long bike ride later this morning (commando because bugs), but I have Comptoir Sud Pacifique L’Eau du Gouverneur queued up for my return.

Reminder: on 6/3, for World Bicycle Day, wear something sporty (or just outdoorsy, or whatever you think fits)…

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Lazy weekend poll ~ open thread, Memorial Day weekend 2022

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It’s Memorial Day weekend — summer at last! — and we’re celebrating with our standard open thread poll.

Talk about anything you like — the fragrance you’re wearing today, the fragrance you’re thinking will be your most-worn this coming summer (or winter), whatever.

Or, ask a question about fragrance, then see if anyone else has asked a question that you can answer…

(And two quick PSAs…the splitmeet will close on Sunday. On Monday, we’ll mark Memorial Day proper…)

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We merged two arts

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For me, perfumery is an art itself. In the '60s, a perfumer called Edmond Roudnitska said that perfumery is an art and it's between sculpture and music. It's like music because as perfumers we speak about notes, accords, and composition, and when we describe a perfume we can give them shapes. It can be a square, round, velvety, sharp, or metallic. Here we merged two arts: painting and perfume. Research has shown that you remember something better if you are smelling at the same time as seeing, so it's a good idea to combine the two.

— Puig perfumer Gregorio Sola on creating the fragrances for Museo Nacional del Prado's scented installation for the painting The Sense of Smell, by Jan Brueghel (see post from April). Read more in Gregorio Sola, Senior Perfumer At Puig, On Crafting Scents For Public Spaces at BeautyMatter.

Friday scent of the day 5/27

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Happy Memorial Day weekend! On Monday, we’ll observe proper Memorial Day, but for today, we’re celebrating the holiday’s other meaning, as the unofficial first weekend of summer. (In olden times, you could only wear white shoes between Memorial Day and Labor Day.) Our community project for today: wear something that fits your plans for Summer 2022! (If it’s winter where you are, adjust accordingly.)

What fragrance did you pick? As always, do chime in with your scent of the day even if you’re not participating in the community project.

Part 5 of my summer plans: gadabout generally, as much as is possible. So appropriately enough, it’s a travel day for me — we’re taking a long weekend trip to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. (Quite possibly, I will fall behind on comments but I’ll catch up on Tuesday.) I’m in a bit of Hermès Un Jardin Sur Le Nil Perfumed Body Lotion. A summer of gadding about in Un Jardin Sur Le Nil would be just fine with me. Update: yes, I’m in the body lotion but our flight just got canceled. So I’ll be spending today trying to reschedule our trip…

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A banana-smelling chemical

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Female mice that are heavily pregnant or have recently given birth produce a banana-smelling chemical in their urine that stresses out males, possibly to stop them from killing their pups.

Jeffrey Mogil at McGill University in Montreal and his colleagues discovered this behaviour by accident. “We were doing experiments with pregnant female mice and noticed that male mice that were being used for other experiments in the same room were acting a bit crazy,” he says.

— Read more in Female mice release banana-scented urine when pregnant to deter males at New Scientist.

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