Remember that syrup-like smell of unknown origin that puzzled New Yorkers back in 2005 and then again later the same year? It's back:
The city’s 311 information line was flooded with callers reporting the smell of maple syrup, or something like it, wafting across several neighborhoods, a spokesman for the Office of Emergency Management said.
Read more in Mysterious Sweet Smell From 2005 Returns to Manhattan at The New York Times. Thanks to Joe for the link!
Sometimes it seems as though high-end beauty-product companies have been competing in the “green” arena for ages. In fact, Patyka is one of the more venerable natural and organic boutique lines, having recently reached the ripe age of four years. Its only freestanding store in the United States is located in New York’s West Village, where it presents an unassuming façade amidst other neighborhood shops.
Patyka’s small, sun-washed space is neatly organized and welcoming in an understated way. Artfully distressed shelving displays Patyka’s three Ecocert-approved product collections: the classic Patyka range, including four all-natural fragrances; Biokaliftin specialized skincare; and the new Family line of organic body and face products in brightly colored plastic bottles. The products themselves are set off against the room’s subtle textures and details: a brick-wall painted creamy white, mirrors of different vintages, hand-written price tags dangling from tester bottles, a frosted-glass doorknob…
Without the aroma of car exhaust, hot dogs or coffee, the city was a blank slate. Nothing was unbearable and nothing was especially beguiling. Penn Station’s public restroom smelled the same as Jacques Torres’s chocolate shop on Hudson Street. I knew that New York possessed a further level of meaning, but I had no access to it, and I worked hard to ignore what I could not detect.
— From Finally, the Scent of the City, in which columnist Molly Birnbaum moves to New York City during a time when her sense of smell was impaired. Many thanks to Existentialist for the link!
Visitors of a certain taste and temperament will want to move into Anna Sui’s SoHo boutique as soon as they experience its urban-bohemian decor. The designer’s style is evident in every aspect of the shop. Her playful, gothic-romantic frocks are displayed in black-painted, antique wardrobes. Costume jewelry glitters in the light from Tiffany-style lamps, the purple walls are hung with vintage rock posters and Aubrey Beardsley prints, and early Cure albums play over the stereo.
Anna Sui’s line of perfumes is arrayed on a low table near the front of the store, where shoppers can easily spritz and test the winsomely packaged scents. The shop’s young, enthusiastic sales associates (all Sui-clad from head to toe) are ready to demonstrate the fragrances and their matching body products…
Chandler Burr, author of The Perfect Scent, will be giving a talk in New York City on December 8 as part of the Times Talks series:
Perfumes are classic holiday gifts. But perfume is also one the world's great art forms. Discover both aspects of scent in this fascinating interactive guided tour of some of the world's fragrance masterpieces, led by Chandler Burr, fragrance critic for The New York Times Style Magazine and author of “The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris & New York.” You will smell jasmine from Grasse, pink peppercorn absolutes…