Bergdorf Goodman collaborates with Swarovski for their 2015 holiday window theme, Brilliant Holiday.
Enfleurage Sanctuary, Roses & Amber ~ fragrance reviews
Was it really six years ago that I wrote a shopping report about Enfleurage, New York’s most specialized purveyor of natural aromatics? Yes, apparently. The boutique has since moved to a new address (237 West 13 Street, in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood) but its staggering selection of essential oils and natural incenses remains unchanged. I still sniff individual oils during each of my visits, but I’m also very fond of Enfleurage’s “house blends.” They’re available as concentrated oils and as “roll-ons to go,” diluted in a base of organic jojoba oil for ready-to-wear use.
My favorite house blend is Sanctuary, a blend of ylang ylang, chamomile, patchouli, clary sage and black pepper…
Fragrant, fresh-roasted coffee
One particularly effective display shows how perception shifts . Press the top button, and you get a whiff of old, cold coffee, stale grounds in a soggy filter at the end of the day. Press the bottom button, and you get a noseful of real skunkiness, furfuryl mercaptan. But press both buttons at once, and the two unpleasant compounds blend together to evoke fragrant, fresh-roasted coffee.
— The new Museum of Food and Drink in Brooklyn features a number of smelly items in their inaugural exhibit, Flavor: Making It and Faking It. Read more at This Smell Synthesizer Lets You Sniff And Play Flavors Like Music at Popular Science.
10 Iconic Perfume Bottles: Culture and Design
Our own Dr. Jessica will be giving a talk next month for the Brooklyn Brainery — 10 Iconic Perfume Bottles: Culture and Design…
A custom scent
It turned out to be a custom scent. Mr. Guerrivil began with a base of Jean Naté After Bath Splash, then mixed in various scented oils bought on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. He pulled several vials out of a bag and started naming them: amber, bergamot …
— Reporter Kate Taylor, sommelier Pascaline Lepeltier and perfumer Céline Barel find out what summer smells like in New York City, and encounter everything from cabbage to the custom fragrance Jean Guerrivil uses to scent his cab. Read more at The Smells of Summer at The New York Times. Hat tip to Tara!