Apologies for the lack of posts yesterday. I am feeling tired for no good reason, and am simply not in the mood for perfume. Giving my nose & mind a rest, and hope to be back tomorrow with the news and a perfume review.

In the meanwhile, check out this piece in the UK Times Online about the Guerlain Institut de Beaute, where...

Fur-clad French women walk about squirting bits of this and that on to black fans, waving them about, and sniffing in a chic manner.

Image of Guerlain Jicky via Images de Parfums.

Two new contributors will be joining Now Smell This:

Angela Sanders writes about Pacific Northwest culture and history, and now about her secret love, perfume. She will be writing about women's perfume; look for her first article, on finding your holy grail (in fragrance, that is) tomorrow.

Kevin S. is a senior editor at an international newswire service and also gives gallery talks on Buddhist and Hindu art at the Seattle Art Museum/Seattle Asian Art Museum. Kevin will be covering home fragrance, including incense, scented candles and room sprays. His review of Pacifica's Nile Lily candle will appear later in the week.

Am off on a very quick out of town trip, and as always hope to work in a little perfume shopping. On Sunday I'll be back with some fragrance gift ideas for Mother's Day. Next week, look for reviews of the new Mandarine Tout Simplement from L'Artisan, Diptyque's Eau de Lierre, and more.

Note: the image shows the recent limited edition Flower by Kenzo, and is via images de parfums.

I am still working on programming issues on Now Smell This. Most of what I am doing is time consuming but invisible, however, I have made a few changes to the appearance of the comments section (please tell me if it is an improvement?) and I have split the Noses page in two and added lots of new perfumes to the lists.

I hope to be back with a fragrance review tomorrow, but I wouldn't swear to it. As it happens, tomorrow is also this site's first birthday. Have a nice slice of chocolate cake for me — or better yet, spritz on your favorite dessert perfume.

Coming soon: reviews of Annick Goutal Songes, Jo Malone Nectarine Blossom and Honey & Fico di Amalfi by Blu Mediterraneo.

Note: the ad for Deneuve is from couleurparfum.

I am very pleased to announce that Marcello A. will be joining us as a contributor on perfume books. Marcello wrote his graduation thesis on the rise of unisex perfumes in the 1990s, and is currently working on a research project entitled Perfume and Gender Identity, in which he explores the social origins of the gender distinction in perfumery. He recently discussed his research in an interview on Bois de Jasmin. His own site, ScentedPages, is a virtual library catalogue dedicated to the culture of perfume. Look for Marcello's first article later in the week.